ment); it even makes some converts from the Copts.[1] But the Copts were not worse treated than other rayahs. For about three centuries there is nothing special to chronicle. Then comes the series of events which form the history of modern Egypt.
In 1798 Napoleon won the battle of the Pyramids and made the country a French province for three years. In 1801 the English drove out the French and restored the authority of the Turks. In 1805 Mohammed 'Ali drove out the Turkish Pasha, massacred the chief Mamluks, and founded a dynasty of Khedives,[2] who still rule Egypt, with a merely nominal dependence on the Turkish Sultan. Since 1882 Great Britain exercises a protectorate over Egypt, which differs from governing the country only in theory.
This period has at last brought peace to the Copts. The interference of Europe means, at any rate, the end of persecution and decent conditions for people of all religions. Now the Copts have nothing of which they can complain, except that they say that we favour the Moslems at their expense and have not yet given Copts complete equality in everything.[3]
Summary
The fourteen centuries of Coptic history are one long story of persecution. From the time the Egyptian Monophysites organized their Church after the Council of Chalcedon (452) till the English took over Egypt in 1882 they have been cruelly persecuted. For the first century they were persecuted by the Roman Empire, which tried to make them Orthodox. The interludes of this persecution are the moments when they got the upper hand and retaliated by murdering their oppressors. In 639 the Moslem Arabs conquered Egypt and persecuted both the rival Churches of Copts and Orthodox. For three hundred years Egyptian
- ↑ The great affair of Cyril Lukaris, Patriarch first of Alexandria (1603-1620), then of Constantinople (at five intervals between 1620 and 1638), does not concern the Copts (Orth. Eastern Church, pp. 264-268).
- ↑ Ḫudaiwī, "Lord" (from ḫadā, "to march"), one of the many possible names for a dependent prince.
- ↑ This is the complaint of Kyriakhos Mikhail: Copts and Moslems under British Control in Egypt (London: Simpkin, Marshall, 1911).
