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How many Copts are there in Egypt

Egyptian Copts are the biggest Christian community in the Arab world. Estimates of their numbers vary, but generally range between 4.7 and 7.1 million. They are proportionately most numerous in Upper Egypt.

Copts, the main ethnic group in Egypt, mostly believe in Coptic Orthodox Christianity. The word “Copt” is translated from Arabic from ancient Greek, which means “Egypt”. Arabs mistakenly think that the initial “E” of “Egypt” is an article, which can be omitted. For the convenience of pronunciation, “gypt” is pronounced as “Qipt”, and English spells it as “Copt”.

According to official Egyptian statistics, the Coptic population accounted for 15% to 20% of Egypt’s 92 million population in 2017, most of whom believe in Christianity. The extremist organization “Islamic State” has repeatedly attacked Egyptian Coptic Christians.

Origin of name

The etymology of the word Copt is complex. According to historical records, the Assyrians called ancient Egypt Ki-Ku-Phon, which means “land of the gods” or “land of the soul”. The ancient Egyptians used this as an alias for their capital city Mengfu. After the Greeks occupied Egypt, they wrote Ki-Ku-Phon as Aegyptus according to their own grammar, which derived the word Egypt in Latin and other European languages.

After the Arabs invaded Egypt in 639, they mistakenly thought that the initial “E” of “Egypt” was an article, which can be omitted. For the convenience of pronunciation, “gypt” was read as “Qipt”. The word comes from this.

Most Copts speak Arabic, which belongs to the Semitic language family of the Semitic language family, but Coptic language is still used in religious ceremonies, and belongs to the ancient Egyptian-Coptic language family of the Semitic language family. They maintain the inherent cultural characteristics of the ancient Egyptians.

History

“Coptic” and “Coptics” refer broadly to Egypt and all Egyptians. At that time, most of the Copts believed in the Coptic branch of the Jacobite Christianity, and a few people believed in the Meleka Christianity or Judaism. Although ancient Greek is designated as the official language, people’s daily language is still Coptic, which represents the last stage of ancient Egyptian and is mostly spelled with Greek letters.

Coptic is the Arab name for Egypt, and Copts are the collective name for the native Egyptians in the early days of Islam, who are the direct descendants of the ancient Egyptians. At that time, most of the Egyptian Copts believed in the Coptic branch of the Jacobite Christianity (that is, the “Monosexuality”), and a few believed in the Christian Meleka faction (that is, the “Christianity of the Two Sexes”) or Judaism.

Although ancient Greek is designated as the official dialect, people’s daily language is still Coptic, which represents the last stage of ancient Egyptian. Although the meaning of Coptic has changed in the modern Muslim context, the meaning referred to in this article is from the beginning of Islamic rule.

History and Culture

The Copts are inseparable from their national consciousness and Copticism. They admire the history and culture of ancient Egypt, and believe that the reason why Egypt can continue to this day is that the Pharaoh civilization played a decisive role. Not only that, but they especially cherished the history of the six centuries after the Era – because during this period Copticism was formed and its followers were persecuted by foreigners, especially under the reign of the Roman king Diocletian.

In order to survive, the Copts united around the church and waged an epic struggle. In order to commemorate the countless heroic and fearless martyrs, they set the date of Diocletian’s enthronement (August 29, 284) as the era of the Coptic calendar, and respected the history of these six centuries as “Coptic history”.

Official textbooks refer to this period of history as the history of Egypt under Roman rule. The Copts, because of their history, fate, rise and fall, are closely connected with the land of Egypt, so it is only natural that they identify with the Egyptian attribute of Egypt with strong emotion.