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110-510: The city's modern Arabic name comes from Coptic p-Timinhor ( Coptic : ⲡϯⲙⲓⲛ̀ϩⲱⲣ , Coptic pronunciation: [ptəmənhoːr] ), which in turn is derived from Ancient Egyptian : pꜣ-dmỉ-n-Ḥr.w , lit.   'the settlement of Horus ', also attested in Aramaic ( Imperial Aramaic : תמנחור , romanized:  Temenkhūr ). The Greeks called the city Hermopolis Mikra ( Ancient Greek : Ἑρμοῦ πόλις μικρά ). The name of

220-540: A Christian to a largely Muslim country by the end of the 12th century. Another scholar writes that a combination of "repression of Coptic revolts", Arab-Muslim immigration, and Coptic conversion to Islam resulted in the demographic decline of the Copts. Egypt's Umayyad rulers taxed Christians at a higher rate than Muslims, driving merchants towards Islam and undermining the economic base of the Coptic Church. Although

330-447: A Coptic Monastery far away from Cairo in 1981. This exile was short lived, ending when Sadat was assassinated by Muslim extremists a few months later. Under president Hosni Mubarak, Shenouda continued his political stance and often protested persecution of Copts by leaving Cairo and staying in seclusion, which often caused the regime to quickly address issues. Shenouda's political involvement drew criticism from some church members, including

440-587: A conjoined nature for Christ, both human and divine, united indivisibly in the Incarnate Logos. The Muslim invasion of Egypt took place in AD ;639. Relying on eyewitness testimony, Bishop John of Nikiu in his Chronicle provides a graphic account of the invasion from a Coptic perspective. Although the Chronicle has only been preserved in an Ethiopic (Ge'ez) text, some scholars believe that it

550-554: A conspiracy tailored by the Roman delegates. Before the current positive era of Eastern and Oriental Orthodox dialogues, Chalcedonians sometimes used to call the non-Chalcedonians " Monophysites ", though the Coptic Orthodox Church in reality regards Monophysitism as a heresy. The Chalcedonian doctrine in turn came to be known as " Dyophysite ". A term that comes closer to Coptic Orthodoxy is Miaphysite, which refers to

660-729: A formulation is no different from what the Nestorians teach. From that point onward, Alexandria would have two patriarchs: the non-Chalcedonian native Egyptian one, now known as the Coptic pope of Alexandria and patriarch of All Africa on the Holy Apostolic See of St. Mark , and the Melkite or Imperial patriarch, now known as the Greek Orthodox patriarch of Alexandria . Almost the entire Egyptian population rejected

770-687: A government focused on defending Sunni Islam. Christians were again discriminated against, and meant to show modesty in their religious ceremonies and buildings. During the Ottoman period, Copts were classified alongside other Oriental Orthodox and Nestorian peoples under the Armenian millet . In 1798, the French invaded Egypt unsuccessfully and the British helped the Turks to regain power over Egypt under

880-509: A hundred Egyptian copts were killed in sectarian clashes from 2011 to 2017, and many homes and businesses destroyed. In Minya , 77 cases of sectarian attacks on Copts between 2011 and 2016 were documented by the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights . Coptic Christian women and girls are often abducted and disappear. In 2015, 21 men traveled to Libya to support their families. There, they would be kidnapped and beheaded by

990-769: A market for cotton and rice. On the 10th of February 2023 six people, including three boys, were killed and at least 20 injured when an apartment building collapsed. Being located close to the Nile Delta and the northern coast of Egypt , that give Damanhur a hot desert climate ( Köppen : BWh), moderated by blowing winds coming from the Mediterranean Sea , typical to the coast. The city gets average precipitation during winter , and rare rain during other seasons . Hail and frost are not unknown specifically during winter. Coptic language Coptic (Bohairic Coptic: ϯⲙⲉⲧⲣⲉⲙⲛ̀ⲭⲏⲙⲓ , Timetremənkhēmi )

1100-530: A model for community development, dramatically increasing the scope of community services provided by the church, including: hospitals, adult literacy schools, orphanages, libraries, and community centres. Much of this work was fuelled by donations from wealthy Coptic industrialists and Copts from abroad. Shenouda also held talks with the Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches, in an effort to promote ecumenism . On 10 May 1973, Pope Shenouda visited

1210-504: A protective cordon around their Muslim neighbors during salat (prayers) in the midst of the 2011 Egyptian Revolution . While Copts have cited instances of persecution throughout their history, Human Rights Watch has noted growing religious intolerance and sectarian violence against Coptic Christians in recent years, and a failure by the Egyptian government to effectively investigate properly and prosecute those responsible. More than

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1320-402: A sentence, as the object of a verb, or with a preposition. Dependent pronouns are a series of prefixes and suffixes that can attach to verbs and other nouns. Coptic verbs can therefore be said to inflect for the person, number and gender of the subject and the object: a pronominal prefix marks the subject, and a pronominal suffix marks the object, e.g. "I I'have'it the ball." When (as in this case)

1430-408: A supralinear stroke ⟨◌̄⟩, or the stroke may have tied letters together in one word, since Coptic texts did not otherwise indicate word divisions. Some scribal traditions use a diaeresis over the letters ⲓ and ⲩ at the beginning of a word or to mark a diphthong. Bohairic uses a superposed point or small stroke known as ϫⲓⲛⲕⲓⲙ ( jinkim , "movement"). When jinkim is placed over a vowel it

1540-593: A tenuis-aspirate distinction to voiced-tenuis is only attested from the alveolars, the only place that Arabic has such a contrast. Earlier phases of Egyptian may have contrasted voiceless and voiced bilabial plosives, but the distinction seems to have been lost. Late Egyptian, Demotic and Coptic all interchangeably use their respective graphemes to indicate either sound; for example, Coptic for 'iron' appears alternately as ⲡⲉⲛⲓⲡⲉ , ⲃⲉⲛⲓⲡⲉ and ⲃⲓⲛⲓⲃⲉ . That probably reflects dialect variation. Both letters were interchanged with ⲫ and ϥ to indicate / f / , and ⲃ

1650-505: A testament to the increasing cultural contact between Egyptians and Greeks even before Alexander the Great 's conquest of Egypt. Coptic itself, or Old Coptic , takes root in the first century. The transition from the older Egyptian scripts to the newly adapted Coptic alphabet was in part due to the decline of the traditional role played by the priestly class of ancient Egyptian religion , who, unlike most ordinary Egyptians, were literate in

1760-534: A vowel's grapheme but mostly unwritten. A few early manuscripts have a letter ⳋ or ⳃ ç where Sahidic and Bohairic have ϣ š . and Akhmimic has ⳉ x . This sound seems to have been lost early on. Coptic is agglutinative with subject–verb–object word order but can be verb–subject–object with the correct preposition in front of the subject. Number, gender, tense, and mood are indicated by prefixes that come from Late Egyptian. The earlier phases of Egyptian did this through suffixation. Some vestiges of

1870-537: A year for Coptic Orthodox Christians numbers between 210 and 240. This means that Copts abstain from all animal products for up to two-thirds of each year. The fasts for Advent and Lent are 43 days and 55 days, respectively. In August, before the celebration of the Dormition of the Mother of God , Coptic Christians fast 15 days; fasting is also done before the feast of Feast of Saints Peter and Paul , starting from

1980-647: Is "One Nature for God the Word Incarnate" ( Mia Physis tou Theou Logou Sesarkōmenē ). The introduction to the creed is formulated as follows: We magnify you O Mother of the True Light and we glorify you O saint and Mother of God (Theotokos) for you have borne unto us the Saviour of the world. Glory to you O our Master and King: Christ, the pride of the Apostles, the crown of the martyrs, the rejoicing of

2090-495: Is also better known than that of the Classical phase of the language because of a greater number of sources indicating Egyptian sounds, including cuneiform letters containing transcriptions of Egyptian words and phrases, and Egyptian renderings of Northwest Semitic names. Coptic sounds, in addition, are known from a variety of Coptic-Arabic papyri in which Arabic letters were used to transcribe Coptic and vice versa. They date to

2200-621: Is an Afroasiatic extinct language . It is a group of closely related Egyptian dialects , representing the most recent developments of the Egyptian language , and historically spoken by the Copts , starting from the third century AD in Roman Egypt . Coptic was supplanted by Arabic as the primary spoken language of Egypt following the Arab conquest of Egypt and was slowly replaced over

2310-409: Is defined as going without meat or dairy. With respect to Eucharistic discipline , Coptic Orthodox Christians fast from midnight onwards (or at least nine hours) prior to receiving the sacrament of Holy Communion . They fast every Wednesday and Friday of the year (Wednesdays in remembrance of the betrayal of Christ, and on Fridays in remembrance of His crucifixion and death). In total, fast days in

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2420-516: Is difficult to explain ⟨ ⲏ ⟩ . However, it generally became / æ / in stressed monosyllables, / ɪ / in unstressed monosyllables, and in polysyllables, / æ / when followed by / i / , and / ɪ / when not. There were no doubled orthographic vowels in Mesokemic. Some representative correspondences with Sahidic are: It is not clear if these correspondences reflect distinct pronunciations in Mesokemic, or if they are an imitation of

2530-470: Is discouraged from being eaten, the Coptic Church does not forbid its members from consuming any particular type of food, unlike in Islam or Judaism . All churches of the Coptic Orthodox Church are designed to face the eastward direction of prayer and efforts are made to remodel churches obtained from other Christian denominations that are not built in this fashion. In Coptic Orthodox Christianity, fasting

2640-413: Is expressed with a series of possessive articles which are prefixed to the noun. These articles agree with the person , number , and gender of the possessor and the number and gender of the possessed noun. The forms of the possessive article vary according to dialect. Coptic pronouns are of two kinds, dependent and independent. Independent pronouns are used when the pronoun is acting as the subject of

2750-722: Is likely because the majority of Coptic religious texts are direct translations of Greek works. What invariably attracts the attention of the reader of a Coptic text, especially if it is written in the Sa'idic dialect, is the very liberal use which is made of Greek loan words, of which so few, indeed, are to be found in the Ancient Egyptian language. There Greek loan words occur everywhere in Coptic literature, be it Biblical, liturgical, theological, or non-literary, i.e. legal documents and personal letters. Though nouns and verbs predominate,

2860-425: Is not sufficient to demonstrate that these are distinct vowels, and if they are, the difference has a very low functional load . For dialects that use orthographic ⟨ ⲉⲓ ⟩ for a single vowel, there appears to be no phonetic difference from ⟨ ⲓ ⟩ . Double orthographic vowels are presumed here to be long, as that makes the morphology more straightforward. (Another common interpretation

2970-645: Is offering prayer before a holy God. During each of the seven fixed prayer times, Coptic Orthodox Christians pray "prostrating three times in the name of the Trinity ; at the end of each Psalm … while saying the 'Alleluia';" and 41 times for each of the Kyrie eleisons present in a canonical hour. In the Coptic Orthodox Church, it is customary for women to wear a Christian headcovering when praying. The Coptic Orthodox Church observes days of ritual purification . However, while meat that still contains blood after cooking

3080-838: Is possible that in addition there was a glottal stop , ʔ , that was not consistently written. Coptic does not seem to have had a glottal stop at the beginning of orthographically vowel-initial words. It is possible that vowels written double were an attempt to indicate glottal stop, rather than a long vowel, in the middle of a word. However, there is little evidence for this (e.g., Arabic words with short vowels and glottal stop are not written with double vowels in Coptic, and Coptic words with double orthographic vowels are transcribed with long vowels rather than hamza in Arabic.) In Late Coptic (ca. 14th century), Bohairic sounds that did not occur in Egyptian Arabic were lost. A possible shift from

3190-445: Is pronounced independently, and when it is placed over a consonant a short ⲉ precedes it. The oldest Coptic writings date to the pre-Christian era (Old Coptic), though Coptic literature consists mostly of texts written by prominent saints of the Coptic Church such as Anthony the Great, Pachomius the Great and Shenoute. Shenoute helped fully standardise the Coptic language through his many sermons, treatises and homilies, which formed

3300-439: Is safe to assume that the everyday speech of the native population retained, to a greater extent, its indigenous Egyptian character, which is sometimes reflected in Coptic nonecclesiastical documents such as letters and contracts. Coptic provides the clearest indication of Later Egyptian phonology from its writing system, which fully indicates vowel sounds and occasionally stress patterns. The phonological system of Later Egyptian

3410-516: Is that Coptic articles are prefixes. Masculine nouns are marked with the article /pə, peː/ and feminine nouns with the article /tə, teː/ in the Sahidic dialect and /pi, əp/ and /ti, ət/ in the Bohairic dialect. The definite and indefinite articles also indicate number ; however, only definite articles mark gender. Coptic has a number of broken plurals , a vestige of Older Egyptian, but in

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3520-405: Is that these represented glottal stop.) There is no length distinction in final stressed position, but only those vowels that occur long appear there: ⟨ (ⲉ)ⲓ, ⲉ, ⲁ, ⲟ~ⲱ, ⲟⲩ ⟩ . In Sahidic, the letter ⲉ was used for short / e / before back fricatives, and also for unstressed schwa / ə / . It's possible there was also a distinction between short / ɛ / and / a / , but if so

3630-629: Is the Greek oasis ( ὄασις ), which comes directly from Egyptian wḥꜣt or Demotic wḥj . However, Coptic reborrowed some words of Ancient Egyptian origin into its lexicon, via Greek. For example, both Sahidic and Bohairic use the word ebenos , which was taken directly from Greek ἔβενος ("ebony"), originally from Egyptian hbnj . Many place names in modern Egypt are Arabic adaptations of their former Coptic names : The Coptic name ⲡⲁⲡⲛⲟⲩⲧⲉ , papnoute (from Egyptian pꜣy-pꜣ-nṯr ), means "belonging to God" or "he of God". It

3740-429: Is the dialect used by the Coptic Church. In Coptic the language is called ϯⲙⲉⲧⲣⲉⲙⲛ̀ⲭⲏⲙⲓ ( timetremǹkhēmi ) "Egyptian" or ϯⲁⲥⲡⲓ ⲛ̀ⲣⲉⲙⲛ̀ⲭⲏⲙⲓ ( tiaspi ǹremǹkhēmi ) "the Egyptian language". Coptic also possessed the term ⲅⲩⲡⲧⲓⲟⲥ ( gyptios ) "Egyptian", derived from Greek Αἰγύπτιος ( Aigúptios ). This was borrowed into Arabic as ‏ قبْط ‎ ( qibṭ/qubṭ ), and from there into

3850-467: Is usually the result of consonant voicing in proximity to / n / . Though there is no clear evidence that Coptic had a glottal stop , different orthographic means have been posited for indicating one by those who believe that it did: with ⲁ word-initially, with ⲓ word-finally in monosyllabic words in northern dialects and ⲉ in monosyllabic words in Akhmimic and Assiutic, by reduplication of

3960-707: The Agpeya to pray the canonical hours at seven fixed prayer times while facing in the eastward direction , in anticipation of the Second Coming of Jesus ; this Christian practice has its roots in Psalm 119:164, in which the prophet David prays to God seven times a day. Church bells enjoin Christians to pray at these hours. Before praying, they wash their hands and face to be clean before and present their best to God; shoes are removed to acknowledge that one

4070-613: The Coptic Rite for its liturgy, prayer and devotional patrimony. Adherents of the Coptic Orthodox Church make up Egypt's largest and most significant minority population, and the largest population of Christians in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) . They make up the largest share of the approximately 20 million Christians in Egypt. The Coptic Orthodox Church was established by Mark, an apostle and evangelist , during

4180-632: The Coptic alphabet , a script descended from the Greek alphabet with added characters derived from the Demotic script . Today, the Bohairic dialect of Coptic is used primarily for liturgical purposes. Many of the hymns in the liturgy are in Coptic and have been passed down for many centuries. The language is used to preserve Egypt's original language, which was banned by the Arab invaders, who ordered Arabic to be used instead. However, most Copts speak Arabic ,

4290-472: The Demotic Egyptian script . The major Coptic dialects are Sahidic, Bohairic, Akhmimic, Fayyumic, Lycopolitan, and Oxyrhynchite. Sahidic Coptic was spoken between the cities of Asyut and Oxyrhynchus and flourished as a literary language across Egypt in the period c.  325  – c.  800 AD. Bohairic, the language of the Nile Delta , gained prominence in the 9th century and

4400-685: The Middle Ages it prospered as a caravan town on the post road from Cairo to Alexandria. It was severely damaged in 1302 by an earthquake, but in the late 14th century the Mamluk caliph Barquq restored its fortifications to protect the city from Bedouins. In 1799, the city revolted against the French, who cruelly crushed the rebels, killing 1,500. In 1986, the population of Damanhur was 188,939. The richly cultivated Beheira province gives rise to mainly agricultural industries which include cotton ginning, potato processing, and date picking. It also has

4510-537: The Middle Ages . Coptic belongs to the Later Egyptian phase, which started to be written in the New Kingdom of Egypt . Later Egyptian represented colloquial speech of the later periods. It had analytic features like definite and indefinite articles and periphrastic verb conjugation. Coptic, therefore, is a reference to both the most recent stage of Egyptian after Demotic and the new writing system that

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4620-538: The Old Testament . The first Christians in Egypt were common people who spoke Egyptian Coptic . There were also Alexandrian Jewish people such as Theophilus , the same name addressed in the introductory chapter of the Gospel of Luke , though it is unclear who the author refers to. The Coptic language is a universal language used in Coptic churches in every country. It descends from Ancient Egyptian and uses

4730-462: The spread of Islam in the seventh century. At the turn of the eighth century, Caliph Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan decreed that Arabic replace Koine Greek as the sole administrative language . Literary Coptic gradually declined, and within a few hundred years, Egyptian bishop Severus ibn al-Muqaffa found it necessary to write his History of the Patriarchs in Arabic. However, ecclesiastically

4840-491: The 13th century, though it seems to have survived as a spoken language until the 17th century and in some localities even longer. From the medieval period, there is one known example of tarsh -printed Coptic. The fragmentary amulet A.Ch. 12.145, now in the Austrian National Library , contains a frame of Coptic text around an Arabic main text. In the early 20th century, some Copts tried to revive

4950-629: The Christian world and is now known as Arianism . The Council of Nicea in AD 325 was convened by Emperor Constantine I after Pope Alexander I of Alexandria requested to hold a council to respond to heresies, under the presidency of Hosius of Cordova to resolve the dispute. This eventually led to the formulation of the Symbol of Faith, also known as the Nicene Creed . In the year AD 381, Pope Timothy I of Alexandria presided over

5060-717: The Christology of "One Incarnate Nature of God the Word" ( Greek : μία φύσις Θεοῦ Λόγου σεσαρκωμένη ( mia physis Theou Logou sesarkōmenē )). In terms of Christology, the Oriental Orthodox (Non-Chalcedonians) understanding is that Christ is "One Nature—the Logos Incarnate," of the full humanity and full divinity. The Chalcedonians' understanding is that Christ is recognized in two natures, full humanity and full divinity. Oriental Orthodoxy contends that such

5170-627: The Coptic Church did not disappear, the Umayyad tax policies made it difficult for the church to retain the Egyptian elites. In 969, Egypt entered the Fatimid dynasty (in Egypt from 969 to 1171), who adopted a largely favorable attitude toward the Christians. The major exception to this was the persecution led by Caliph al-Hakim between 1004 and 1013, which included clothing regulations, prohibition of publicly celebrating Christian festivals, and dismissal of Christian and Jewish functionaries. However, at

5280-476: The Coptic Church underwent phases of new development. In 1853, Pope Cyril IV established the first modern Coptic schools, including the first Egyptian school for girls. He also founded a printing press, which was only the second national press in the country. The pope established very friendly relations with other denominations, to the extent that when the Greek Patriarch in Egypt had to absent himself from

5390-478: The Coptic alphabet, flourished in the second and third centuries. However, it was not until Shenoute that Coptic became a fully standardised literary language based on the Sahidic dialect. Shenouda's native Egyptian tongue and knowledge of Greek and rhetoric gave him the necessary tools to elevate Coptic, in content and style, to a literary height nearly equal to the position of the Egyptian language in ancient Egypt. The Muslim conquest of Egypt by Arabs came with

5500-492: The Coptic language, but they were unsuccessful. In the second half of the 20th century, Pope Cyril VI of Alexandria started a national Church-sponsored movement to revive Coptic. Several works of grammar were published, including a more comprehensive dictionary than had been formerly available. The scholarly findings of the field of Egyptology and the inauguration of the Institute of Coptic Studies further contributed to

5610-759: The Coptic language. In 1959, the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church was granted its first own Patriarch Abuna Basilios by Pope Cyril VI . Furthermore, the Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church similarly became independent of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church in 1994, when four bishops were consecrated by Pope Shenouda III of Alexandria to form the basis of a local Holy Synod of the Eritrean Church. In 1998,

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5720-706: The Coptic world as the Seven Major Feasts. Major feasts are always preceded by fasts. Additionally, the Coptic Orthodox Church also has Seven Minor Feasts: the Circumcision of the Lord, Entrance into the Temple, Entrance into Egypt, Transfiguration, Maundy Thursday , Thomas Sunday, and Great Lent . Furthermore, there are several indigenous feasts of the Theotokos . There are also other feasts commemorating

5830-491: The Copts become a religious minority. During the 14th and 15th centuries, Nubian Christianity was supplanted by Islam. In the 19th and 20th centuries, the larger body of ethnic Egyptian Christians began to call themselves Coptic Orthodox, to distinguish themselves from the Catholic Copts and from the Eastern Orthodox, who are mostly Greek. In 1959, the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church was granted autocephaly . This

5940-494: The Egyptian deserts. In time, the growth of these communities generated the need to write Christian Greek instructions in the Egyptian language. The early Fathers of the Coptic Church , such as Anthony the Great , Pachomius the Great , Macarius of Egypt and Athanasius of Alexandria , who otherwise usually wrote in Greek, addressed some of their works to the Egyptian monks in Egyptian. The Egyptian language, now written in

6050-607: The Egyptian regime, often resorting to advocacy instead. In 2020, a woman in Florida accused a former priest of sexual assault when she was a minor. She claimed that he was defrocked in 2014, but continued presenting himself as a priest. In response, the synod issued a public statement disavowing him and instituted anti-abuse measures. Several diocese in North America and Europe, issued statements in support of sexual assault survivors. On 10 May 2023, Pope Tawadros visited

6160-547: The Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church gained its autocephaly from the Coptic Orthodox Church when its first Patriarch was enthroned by Pope Shenouda III. Since the 1980s theologians from the Oriental (non-Chalcedonian) Orthodox and Eastern (Chalcedonian) Orthodox churches have been meeting in a bid to resolve theological differences, and have concluded that many of the differences are caused by

6270-468: The Fayyumic dialect, a feature of earlier Egyptian) and [ k ] and [ ɡ ] , with the voiceless stop consonants being more common in Coptic words and the voiced ones in Greek borrowings. Apart from the liquid consonants , this pattern may indicate a sound change in Later Egyptian, leading to a neutralisation of voiced alveolar and velar plosives. When the voiced plosives are realised, it

6380-476: The Greek loan words may come from any other part of speech except pronouns' Words or concepts for which no adequate Egyptian translation existed were taken directly from Greek to avoid altering the meaning of the religious message. In addition, other Egyptian words that would have adequately translated the Greek equivalents were not used as they were perceived as having overt pagan associations. Old Coptic texts use many such words, phrases and epithets ; for example,

6490-528: The Islamic State in Libya. Under Pope Shenouda , from 1971 to 2012, the church underwent a large transformation. Writing in 2013, the theologian Samuel Tadros stated "Today's Coptic Church as an institution is built solely on his vision". For the first time in its history, the synod codiefied its internal laws. It also established numerous coptic institutions within and outside of Egypt. Shenouda raised

6600-537: The Muhammad Ali dynasty. The position of Copts began to improve early in the 19th century under the stability and tolerance of the Muhammad Ali Dynasty . The Coptic community ceased to be regarded by the state as an administrative unit. In 1855 the jizya tax was abolished by Sa'id Pasha. Shortly thereafter, the Copts started to serve in the Egyptian army. Towards the end of the 19th century,

6710-523: The Prophets and in One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic church. We confess one Baptism for the remission of sins and we look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the coming age, Amen Another theological dispute in the 5th century occurred over the teachings of Nestorius , the patriarch of Constantinople who taught that God the Word was not hypostatically joined with human nature, but rather dwelt in

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6820-416: The Vatican to celebrate Coptic Catholic Friendship day and the 50 year anniversary of the meeting between Pope Paul VI and Pope Shenouda. Pope Francis announced that the 21 Coptic Martyrs killed by ISIS in Libya in 2015 would be added to the Catholic Roman Martyrology. Pope Tawadros gifted relics from each of the 21 martyrs to the Vatican. Communicants of the Coptic Orthodox Church use a breviary known as

6930-405: The Vatican, where a joint Christological declaration was issued jointly by the Coptic Orthodox and Catholic churches. Pope Shenouda III also increased the Church's involvement in politics, seeing it as a way to advocate for the interest of Copts, during the rise of Islamism in Egypt and increase in terrorist attacks. The president of Egypt, Anwar Sadat ordered that Shenouda be put into exile in

7040-462: The banks of a canal which connected the lake Mareotis with the Canopic or most westerly arm of the Nile . The city attracted the notice of numerous ancient geographers, including Stephanus of Byzantium s. v. , Strabo (xvii. p. 802), Ptolemy (iv. 5. § 46), and the author of the Antonine Itinerary (p. 154). It is a Roman Catholic titular see . It was first made a provincial capital under Fatimid rule in 11th century , and in

7150-473: The basis of early Coptic literature. The core lexicon of Coptic is Egyptian , most closely related to the preceding Demotic phase of the language. Up to 40% of the vocabulary of literary Coptic is drawn from Greek , but borrowings are not always fully adapted to the Coptic phonological system and may have semantic differences as well. There are instances of Coptic texts having passages that are almost entirely composed from Greek lexical roots. However, that

7260-431: The biggest Christian community in the Arab world. Estimates of their numbers vary, but generally range between 4.7 and 7.1 million. The majority of them live in Egypt under the jurisdiction of the Coptic Orthodox Church. Since 2006, Egyptian censuses have not reported on religion and church leaders have alleged that Christians were under-counted in government surveys. In 2017, a government owned newspaper Al Ahram estimated

7370-455: The centuries. Coptic has no native speakers today, although it remains in daily use as the liturgical language of the Coptic Orthodox Church and of the Coptic Catholic Church . Innovations in grammar and phonology and the influx of Greek loanwords distinguish Coptic from earlier periods of the Egyptian language. It is written with the Coptic alphabet , a modified form of the Greek alphabet with seven additional letters borrowed from

7480-401: The church and the See of Alexandria is the pope of Alexandria on the Holy Apostolic See of Saint Mark , who also carries the title of Father of fathers, Shepherd of shepherds, Ecumenical Judge and the 13th among the Apostles. The See of Alexandria is titular . The Coptic pope presides from Saint Mark's Coptic Orthodox Cathedral in the Abbassia District in Cairo . The church follows

7590-444: The city suggests that Horus, whom Greeks equated with Apollo , was worshipped as the chief deity. However, the Greek name for the town, Hermopolis Mikra, suggests that Hermes / Thoth was the local god. This discrepancy is possibly due to a misinterpretation that persisted even after the Greeks had gained a better understanding of Egypt. In ancient Egypt , the city was the capital of Lower Egypt 's 7th Nome of A-ment . It stood on

7700-602: The country for a long period of time, he left his church under the guidance of the Coptic patriarch. The Theological College of the School of Alexandria was reestablished in 1893. It began its new history with five students, one of whom was later to become its dean. Today it has campuses in Alexandria and Cairo, and in various dioceses throughout Egypt, as well as outside Egypt. It has campuses in New Jersey, Los Angeles, Sydney, Melbourne, and London, where potential clergymen and other qualified men and women study many subjects, including theology, church history, missionary studies, and

7810-401: The current patriarch. Pope Tawadros II of Alexandria maintains relations with the Egyptian government and other churches. However, while Shenouda was critical of the expanded influence of Protestant teaching and books in Coptic churches, Tawadros has increased ecumenical dialogue with several Protestant churches. Tawadros is also not as involved political protests and does not publicly criticize

7920-436: The day of Pentecost . Married couples refrain from sexual relations during Lent "to give themselves time for fasting and prayer". Christmas has been a national holiday in Egypt since 2003. It is the only Christian holiday in Egypt. Coptic Christmas, which usually falls on January 6 or 7 is a major feast. Other major feasts are Epiphany , Palm Sunday , Easter , Pentecost, Ascension , and Annunciation . These are known in

8030-430: The end of his reign al-Hakim rescinded these measures, allowing the Copts to regain privileged positions within the administration. The Coptic patriarchal residence moved from Alexandria to Cairo during the patriarchate of Cyril II (1078–92) . This move was at the demand of the grand vizier Badr al-Jamali , who insisted that the pope establish himself in the capital. When Saladin entered Egypt in 1163, this ushered in

8140-488: The functional load was extremely low. Bohairic did not have long vowels. / i / was only written ⟨ ⲓ ⟩ . As above, it's possible that / u / and / o / were distinct vowels rather than just allophones. In Late Coptic (that is, Late Bohairic), the vowels were reduced to those found in Egyptian Arabic, /a, i, u/ . ⟨ ⲱ, ⲟ ⟩ became / u / , ⟨ ⲉ ⟩ became / æ / , and ⟨ ⲏ ⟩ became either / ɪ / or / æ / . It

8250-417: The language retained an important position, and many hagiographic texts were also composed during this period. Until the 10th century, Coptic remained the spoken language of the native population outside the capital. The Coptic language massively declined under the hands of Fatimid Caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah , as part of his campaigns of religious persecution. He issued strict orders completely prohibiting

8360-542: The languages of Europe, giving rise to words like French copte and English Copt . Coptic is today spoken liturgically in the Coptic Orthodox and Coptic Catholic Church (along with Modern Standard Arabic ). The language is spoken only in Egypt and historically has had little influence outside of the territory, except for monasteries located in Nubia . Coptic's most noticeable linguistic influence has been on

8470-440: The long Greek vowels ⟨η, ω⟩ . As with the vowels, there are differences of opinion over the correct interpretation of the Coptic consonant letters, particularly with regard to the letters ϫ and ϭ . ϫ is transcribed as ⟨j⟩ in many older Coptic sources and ϭ as ⟨ɡ⟩ or ⟨č⟩ . Lambdin (1983) notes that the current conventional pronunciations are different from

8580-422: The majority of cases, the article marks number. Generally, nouns inflected for plurality end in /wə/ , but there are some irregularities. The dual was another feature of earlier Egyptian that survives in Coptic in only few words, such as ⲥⲛⲁⲩ ( snau ) 'two'. Words of Greek origin keep their original grammatical gender, except for neuter nouns, which become masculine in Coptic. Possession of definite nouns

8690-465: The man Jesus. As a consequence of this, he denied the title "Mother of God" ( Theotokos ) to the Virgin Mary , declaring her instead to be "Mother of Christ" Christotokos . The council confirmed the teachings of Athanasius and confirmed the title of Mary as " Mother of God ". It also clearly stated that anyone who separated Christ into two hypostases was anathema, as Cyril had said that there

8800-498: The martyrdom of important saints from Coptic history. Available Egyptian census figures and other third-party survey reports have not reported more than 4 million Coptic Orthodox Christians in Egypt. However media and other agencies, sometimes taking into account the claims of the church itself, generally approximate the Coptic Orthodox population at 10% of the Egyptian population or 10 million people. Egyptian Copts are

8910-467: The medieval Islamic period, when Coptic was still spoken. There are some differences of opinion among Coptic language scholars on the correct phonetic interpretation of the writing system of Coptic. Differences centre on how to interpret the pairs of letters ⲉ/ⲏ and ⲟ/ⲱ . In the Attic dialect of Ancient Greek in the 5th century BC, the first member of each pair is a short closed vowel /e, o/ , and

9020-809: The middle of the 1st century ( c.  AD 42 ). Due to disputes concerning the nature of Christ , the Oriental Orthodox Churches and the Eastern Orthodox Church were in schism after the Council of Chalcedon in AD 451, resulting in a conflict with the Greek Orthodox Church of Alexandria . After AD 639, Egypt was ruled by its Islamic conquerors from Arabia . In the 12th century, the church relocated its seat from Alexandria to Cairo. The same century also saw

9130-474: The number of bishops from 26 to 117 and ordained hundreds of priests, which greatly reduced the influence of any one bishop. Shenouda also instituted a yearly meeting of the synod, which greatly expanded the number of laws governing the church. This included instituting church curriculums for the education of new priests, new deacons, and newly weds. For the first time in the Coptic Church's modern history, women could become ordained as deacons. The synod also adopted

9240-473: The official language of Egypt. Hence, Arabic is also used in church services nowadays. The service books, though written in Coptic, have the Arabic text in parallel columns. The Catechetical School of Alexandria is the oldest catechetical school in the world. Jerome records that the Christian School of Alexandria was founded by Mark himself. The theological college of the catechetical school

9350-548: The probable ancient pronunciations: Sahidic ϫ was probably pronounced [ tʲ ] and ϭ was probably pronounced [ kʲ ] . Reintges (2004 , p. 22) suggests that ϫ was pronounced [ tʃ ] . Beside being found in Greek loanwords, the letters ⟨φ, θ, χ⟩ were used in native words for a sequence of /p, t, k/ plus / h / , as in ⲑⲉ = ⲧ-ϩⲉ "the-way" (f.sg.) and ⲫⲟϥ = ⲡ-ϩⲟϥ "the-snake" (m.sg). The letters did not have this use in Bohairic, which used them for single sounds. It

9460-604: The prominent monk Father Matta El Meskeen . On 17 March 2012, the Coptic Orthodox Pope , Pope Shenouda III died, leaving many Copts mourning and worrying as tensions rose with Muslims . Pope Shenouda III constantly met with Muslim leaders in order to create peace. Many were worried about Muslims controlling Egypt as the Muslim Brotherhood won 70% of the parliamentary elections. Shenouda's approach to church leadership has, in part, been adopted by

9570-477: The renaissance. Efforts at language revitalisation continue to be undertaken, and have attracted the interest of Copts and linguists in and outside of Egypt. Coptic uses a writing system almost wholly derived from the Greek alphabet , with the addition of a number of letters that have their origins in Demotic Egyptian . This is comparable to the Latin-based Icelandic alphabet , which includes

9680-628: The righteous, firmness of the churches and the forgiveness of sins. We proclaim the Holy Trinity in One Godhead: we worship Him, we glorify Him, Lord have mercy, Lord have mercy, Lord bless us, Amen. The church of Alexandria was part in communion with the rest of Christendom until the Council of Chalcedon . When, in AD 451, Emperor Marcian attempted to heal divisions in the church, the response of Pope Dioscorus –the Pope of Alexandria who

9790-401: The runic letter thorn . There is some variation in the number and forms of these signs depending on the dialect. Some of the letters in the Coptic alphabet that are of Greek origin were normally reserved for Greek words. Old Coptic texts used several graphemes that were not retained in the literary Coptic orthography of later centuries. In Sahidic, syllable boundaries may have been marked by

9900-800: The second ecumenical council known as the First Council of Constantinople , to judge Macedonius, who denied the Divinity of the Holy Spirit. This council completed the Nicene Creed with this confirmation of the divinity of the Holy Spirit : We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Giver of Life, who proceeds from the Father, who with the Father and the Son is worshiped and glorified who spoke by

10010-516: The second member is a long open vowel /ɛː, ɔː/ . In some interpretations of Coptic phonology, it is assumed that the length difference is primary, with ⲉ/ⲏ /e, eː/ and ⲟ/ⲱ is /o, oː/ . Other scholars argue for a different analysis in which ⲉ/ⲏ and ⲟ/ⲱ are interpreted as /e, ɛ/ and /o, ɔ/ . These two charts show the two theories of Coptic vowel phonology: Dialects vary in their realisation. The difference between [ o ] and [ u ] seems to be allophonic. Evidence

10120-686: The subject is a pronoun, it normally is not also expressed independently, unless for emphasis. Coptic Orthodox Church The Coptic Orthodox Church ( Coptic : Ϯⲉⲕ̀ⲕⲗⲏⲥⲓⲁ ⲛ̀ⲣⲉⲙⲛ̀ⲭⲏⲙⲓ ⲛ̀ⲟⲣⲑⲟⲇⲟⲝⲟⲥ , romanized:  Ti-eklisia en-remenkimi en-orthodhoxos , lit.   'the Egyptian Orthodox Church';), also known as the Coptic Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria , is an Oriental Orthodox Christian church based in Egypt . The head of

10230-532: The suffix inflection survive in Coptic, mainly to indicate inalienable possession and in some verbs. Compare the Middle Egyptian form *satāpafa 'he chooses' (written stp.f in hieroglyphs) to Coptic (Sahidic) f.sotp ϥⲥⲱⲧⲡ̅ 'he chooses'. All Coptic nouns carry grammatical gender , either masculine or feminine, usually marked through a definite article as in the Romance languages , the difference

10340-510: The sword thousands of its inhabitants and of the soldiers, and they gained an enormous booty, and took the women and children captive and divided them amongst themselves, and they made that city a desolation. Though critical of the Muslim commander ( Amr ibn al-As ), who, during the campaign, he says "had no mercy on the Egyptians, and did not observe the covenant they had made with him, for he

10450-429: The temple scriptoria. Old Coptic is represented mostly by non-Christian texts such as Egyptian pagan prayers and magical and astrological papyri. Many of them served as glosses to original hieratic and demotic equivalents. The glosses may have been aimed at non-Egyptian speakers. Under late Roman rule , Diocletian persecuted many Egyptian converts to the new Christian religion , which forced new converts to flee to

10560-582: The terms of the Council of Chalcedon and remained faithful to the native Egyptian Church (now known as the Coptic Orthodox Church). By anathematizing Pope Leo because of the tone and content of his tome, as per Alexandrine Theology perception, Pope Dioscorus was found guilty of doing so without due process; in other words, the Tome of Leo was not a subject of heresy in the first place, but it

10670-442: The two groups using different terminology to describe the same thing. In the summer of 2001, the Coptic Orthodox and Greek Orthodox patriarchates of Alexandria agreed to mutually recognize baptisms performed in each other's churches, making re-baptisms unnecessary, and to recognize the sacrament of marriage as celebrated by the other. In Tahrir Square , Cairo, on Wednesday 2 February 2011, Coptic Christians joined hands to provide

10780-467: The two sounds appear to be in free variation in Coptic, as they were since the Middle Egyptian period. However, they are contrasted only in Greek loans; for example, native Coptic ⲁⲛⲍⲏⲃ ( anzēb ) and ⲁⲛⲥⲏⲃⲉ ( ansēbə ) 'school' are homophonous. Other consonants that sometimes appear to be either in free variation or to have different distributions across dialects are [ t ] and [ d ] , [ ɾ ] and [ l ] (especially in

10890-401: The use of Coptic anywhere, whether in schools, public streets, and even homes, including mothers speaking to their children. Those who did not comply had their tongues cut off. He personally walked the streets of Cairo and eavesdropped on Coptic-speaking homes to find out if any family was speaking Coptic. As a written language, Coptic is thought to have completely given way to Arabic around

11000-698: The various dialects of Egyptian Arabic , which is characterised by a Coptic substratum in lexical , morphological , syntactical , and phonological features. In addition to influencing the grammar, vocabulary and syntax of Egyptian Arabic, Coptic has lent to both Arabic and Modern Hebrew such words as: A few words of Coptic origin are found in the Greek language ; some of the words were later lent to various European languages — such as barge , from Coptic baare ( ⲃⲁⲁⲣⲉ , "small boat"). However, most words of Egyptian origin that entered into Greek and subsequently into other European languages came directly from Ancient Egyptian, often Demotic . An example

11110-469: The word ⲧⲃⲁⲓⲧⲱⲩ '(Who is) in (His) Mountain', is an epithet of Anubis . There are also traces of some archaic grammatical features, such as residues of the Demotic relative clause , lack of an indefinite article and possessive use of suffixes. Thus, the transition from the old traditions to the new Christian religion also contributed to the adoption of Greek words into the Coptic religious lexicon. It

11220-463: Was a question of questioning the reasons behind not having it either acknowledged or read at the Second Council of Ephesus in AD 449. Pope Dioscorus of Alexandria was never labeled as a heretic by the council's canons. Copts also believe that the pope of Alexandria was forcibly prevented from attending the third congregation of the council from which he was ousted, apparently the result of

11330-526: Was adapted from the Greek alphabet . The earliest attempts to write the Egyptian language using the Greek alphabet are Greek transcriptions of Egyptian proper names, most of which date to the Ptolemaic Kingdom . Scholars frequently refer to this phase as Pre-Coptic. However, it is clear that by the Late Period of ancient Egypt , demotic scribes regularly employed a more phonetic orthography,

11440-563: Was adapted into Arabic as Babnouda , which remains a common name among Egyptian Copts to this day. It was also borrowed into Greek as the name Παφνούτιος ( Paphnutius ). That, in turn, is the source of the Russian name Пафнутий ( Pafnuty ), perhaps best known in the name of the mathematician Pafnuty Chebyshev . The Egyptian language may have the longest documented history of any language, from Old Egyptian , which appeared just before 3200 BC, to its final phases as Coptic in

11550-412: Was also used in many texts to indicate the bilabial approximant / w / . Coptologists believe that Coptic ⲃ was articulated as a voiced bilabial fricative [ β ] . In the present-day Coptic Church services, this letter is realised as / v / , but it is almost certainly a result of the pronunciation reforms instituted in the 19th century. Whereas Old Egyptian contrasts / s / and / z / ,

11660-476: Was extended to the Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church in 1998 following the successful Eritrean War of Independence from Ethiopia . Since the 2011 Egyptian revolution , Coptic Christians have suffered increased religious discrimination and violence. According to tradition, the Coptic Church was founded by Mark the Evangelist c.  AD 42 , and regards itself as the subject of many prophecies in

11770-480: Was later exiled–was that the emperor should not intervene in the affairs of the church. It was at Chalcedon that the emperor, through the imperial delegates, enforced harsh disciplinary measures against Pope Dioscorus in response to his boldness. In AD 449, Pope Dioscorus headed the 2nd Council of Ephesus, called the " Robber Council " by Chalcedonian historians. It held to the Miaphysite formula which upheld

11880-455: Was of a barbaric race", he does note that following the completion of the conquest, Amr "took none of the property of the Churches, and he committed no act of spoilation or plunder, and he preserved them throughout all his days." Despite the political upheaval, the Egyptian population remained mainly Christian. However, gradual conversions to Islam over the centuries had changed Egypt from

11990-465: Was originally written in Coptic. John's account is critical of the invaders who he says "despoiled the Egyptians of their possessions and dealt cruelly with them", and he details the atrocities committed by the Muslims against the native population during the conquest: And when with great toil and exertion they had cast down the walls of the city, they forthwith made themselves masters of it, and put to

12100-437: Was re-established in 1893. The school became a leading center of the allegorical method of biblical interpretation, espoused a rapprochement between Greek culture and Christian faith, and attempted to assert orthodox Christian teachings against heterodox views in an era of doctrinal flux. In the 4th century, an Alexandrian presbyter named Arius began a theological dispute about the nature of Christ that spread throughout

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