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CHAPTER IV

THE TURKISH PERIOD AND MODERN EGYPT

 

(a) Abu Salih, Churches of Egypt (13th century); Makrizi, History of the Copts (14th century); Shamse-en-din, Historie d'Égypte (16th century); Mémoires de M. de Maillet (17th century); Renaudot, Historia Patriarcharum Alexandrinorum (18th century).

(b) Lane, Modern Egyptians, 5th edit., 1871; De la Jonguière, Hist. de l'Empire Ottoman, 2nd edit., 1877; Butler, Coptic Churches of Egypt, 1884; Sir W. Muir, The Mameluke or Slave Dynasty of Egypt, 1896; Butcher, History of the Church in Egypt, 1897; Kyriakos, Geschichte, vol. iii., Ger. trans., 1898; Neale, Patriarchate of Alexandria; Lane Poole, Hist. of Egypt in the Middle Ages, 1901; Fortesque, The Orthodox Eastern Church, 1907.

 

The rise of the Turkish power brought trouble to the Copts in common with Eastern Christians of other races. At first the Turks appeared as mercenaries of the Arabs, serving under Arabian caliphs. But gradually their genius for war carried them to the front, till at length Turkish sultans usurped the authority of the caliphate. As early as the eleventh century a band of rebel Turks robbed the monasteries of the Thebaid and murdered many of the monks. The power of the Fatimite dynasty was now nearly extinct, and the Egyptian governors were appointed by the soldiers without any reference to the caliph. When the Seleucid Turks were supreme over the East, the ill-treatment of the pilgrims at Jerusalem led to the interference of Western Europe, and so provoked the Crusades. The result, while in many respects disappointing, brought some relief to the Greek and Syrian Christians. The

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