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<span class="vector-toc-numb">2</span> <span>Coptic Greeks</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-Coptic_Greeks-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-Egyptian_Liberal_Age" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-1 vector-toc-list-item-expanded"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#Egyptian_Liberal_Age"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">3</span> <span>Egyptian Liberal Age</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-Egyptian_Liberal_Age-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-Rise_of_Arab_nationalism" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-1 vector-toc-list-item-expanded"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#Rise_of_Arab_nationalism"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">4</span> <span>Rise of Arab nationalism</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-Rise_of_Arab_nationalism-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-Copts_and_Arab_identity" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-1 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href="/wiki/Coptic_placenames" class="mw-redirect" title="Coptic placenames">Toponymy</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Coptic_language" title="Coptic language">Language</a></li> <li>Literature <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Coptic_literature" title="Coptic literature">Coptic</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Copto-Arabic_literature" title="Copto-Arabic literature">Arabic</a></li></ul></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Coptic_music" title="Coptic music">Music</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Coptic_monasticism" title="Coptic monasticism">Monasticism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Coptic_name" class="mw-redirect" title="Coptic name">Names</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Coptic_nationalism" title="Coptic nationalism">Nationalism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Persecution_of_Copts" title="Persecution of Copts">Persecution</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Coptic_philosophy" title="Coptic philosophy">Philosophy</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Coptic_alphabet" class="mw-redirect" title="Coptic alphabet">Writing system</a></li></ul></td> </tr><tr><th class="sidebar-heading" style="background-color:#870409; color:white;"> Regions</th></tr><tr><td class="sidebar-content"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Copts_in_Egypt" title="Copts in Egypt">Egypt</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Copts_in_Sudan" title="Copts in Sudan">Sudan</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Copts_in_Libya" title="Copts in Libya">Libya</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Coptic_Americans" title="Coptic Americans">United States</a> (<a href="/wiki/Coptic_Orthodox_Church_in_the_United_States" title="Coptic Orthodox Church in the United States">churches</a>)</li> <li><a href="/wiki/Coptic_Canadians" title="Coptic Canadians">Canada</a> (<a href="/wiki/Coptic_Orthodox_Church_in_Canada" title="Coptic Orthodox Church in Canada">churches</a>)</li> <li><a href="/wiki/Coptic_Australians" title="Coptic Australians">Australia</a> (<a href="/wiki/Coptic_Orthodox_Church_in_Australia" title="Coptic Orthodox Church in Australia">churches</a>)</li> <li><a href="/wiki/Coptic_Orthodox_Church_in_Africa" title="Coptic Orthodox Church in Africa">Africa</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Coptic_Orthodox_Church_in_Asia" title="Coptic Orthodox Church in Asia">Asia</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Coptic_Orthodox_Church_in_Europe" title="Coptic Orthodox Church in Europe">Europe</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Coptic_Orthodox_Church_in_North_America" title="Coptic Orthodox Church in North America">North America</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Coptic_Orthodox_Church_in_South_America" title="Coptic Orthodox Church in South America">South America</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Coptic_diaspora" title="Coptic diaspora">Diaspora</a></li></ul></td> </tr><tr><th class="sidebar-heading" style="background-color:#870409; color:white;"> Denominations</th></tr><tr><td class="sidebar-content"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Coptic_Orthodox_Church" title="Coptic Orthodox Church">Coptic Orthodox Church</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Coptic_Catholic_Church" title="Coptic Catholic Church">Coptic Catholic Church</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Protestantism_in_Egypt" title="Protestantism in Egypt">Protestantism</a> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Evangelical_Church_of_Egypt_(Synod_of_the_Nile)" title="Evangelical Church of Egypt (Synod of the Nile)">Evangelical Church</a></li></ul></li></ul></td> </tr><tr><td class="sidebar-below" style="padding-top:0; padding-bottom:0;"> <span class="nowrap"><span class="noviewer" typeof="mw:File"><a href="/wiki/File:P_christianity.svg" class="mw-file-description"><img alt="icon" src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/79/P_christianity.svg/16px-P_christianity.svg.png" decoding="async" width="16" height="14" class="mw-file-element" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/79/P_christianity.svg/24px-P_christianity.svg.png 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/79/P_christianity.svg/32px-P_christianity.svg.png 2x" data-file-width="400" data-file-height="360" /></a></span> </span><a href="/wiki/Portal:Christianity" title="Portal:Christianity">Christianity portal</a></td></tr><tr><td class="sidebar-navbar"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1129693374"><style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1239400231">.mw-parser-output .navbar{display:inline;font-size:88%;font-weight:normal}.mw-parser-output .navbar-collapse{float:left;text-align:left}.mw-parser-output .navbar-boxtext{word-spacing:0}.mw-parser-output .navbar ul{display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;line-height:inherit}.mw-parser-output .navbar-brackets::before{margin-right:-0.125em;content:"[ "}.mw-parser-output .navbar-brackets::after{margin-left:-0.125em;content:" ]"}.mw-parser-output .navbar li{word-spacing:-0.125em}.mw-parser-output .navbar a>span,.mw-parser-output .navbar a>abbr{text-decoration:inherit}.mw-parser-output .navbar-mini abbr{font-variant:small-caps;border-bottom:none;text-decoration:none;cursor:inherit}.mw-parser-output .navbar-ct-full{font-size:114%;margin:0 7em}.mw-parser-output .navbar-ct-mini{font-size:114%;margin:0 4em}html.skin-theme-clientpref-night .mw-parser-output .navbar li a abbr{color:var(--color-base)!important}@media(prefers-color-scheme:dark){html.skin-theme-clientpref-os .mw-parser-output .navbar li a abbr{color:var(--color-base)!important}}@media print{.mw-parser-output .navbar{display:none!important}}</style><div class="navbar plainlinks hlist navbar-mini"><ul><li class="nv-view"><a href="/wiki/Template:Copts_sidebar" title="Template:Copts sidebar"><abbr title="View this template">v</abbr></a></li><li class="nv-talk"><a href="/wiki/Template_talk:Copts_sidebar" title="Template talk:Copts sidebar"><abbr title="Discuss this template">t</abbr></a></li><li class="nv-edit"><a href="/wiki/Special:EditPage/Template:Copts_sidebar" title="Special:EditPage/Template:Copts sidebar"><abbr title="Edit this template">e</abbr></a></li></ul></div></td></tr></tbody></table> <p><b>Copts</b> (<a href="/wiki/Coptic_language" title="Coptic language">Coptic</a>: <span style="font-size:large;"><span lang="cop-Copt" style="font-size:100%;font-family:'Arial Coptic', 'New Athena Unicode', 'MPH 2B Damase', 'Quivira', 'Analecta';">ⲚⲓⲢⲉⲙ̀ⲛⲭⲏⲙⲓ</span></span> <i>ni.Remenkīmi</i>, literally: <i>Egyptians</i>) are the native inhabitants of <a href="/wiki/Egypt" title="Egypt">Egypt</a>, and the direct descendants of the <a href="/wiki/Ancient_Egypt" title="Ancient Egypt">Ancient Egyptians</a> whose ancestors embraced <a href="/wiki/Christianity" title="Christianity">Christianity</a> in the first centuries<sup id="cite_ref-U.S._Bill_Has_Egypt's_Copts_Squirming_1-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-U.S._Bill_Has_Egypt's_Copts_Squirming-1"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>1<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-2" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-2"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>2<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-3" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-3"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>3<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>. After the <a href="/wiki/Arab_conquest_of_Egypt" title="Arab conquest of Egypt">Arab conquest of Egypt</a>, Egyptians who converted to <a href="/wiki/Islam" title="Islam">Islam</a> ceased to call themselves by the demonym <i>Copt</i>, and the term became the distinctive name of the <a href="/wiki/Christianity" title="Christianity">Christian</a> minority in Egypt. Coptic Christians lost their majority status in Egypt after the 14th century and the spread of Islam in the entirety of North Africa. Today, Copts form a major <a href="/wiki/Ethno-religious" class="mw-redirect" title="Ethno-religious">ethno-religious</a> group whose origins date back to the <a href="/wiki/Ancient_Egyptians" class="mw-redirect" title="Ancient Egyptians">Ancient Egyptians</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-4" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-4"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>4<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p><p>Today, the Coptic Christian population in <a href="/wiki/Egypt" title="Egypt">Egypt</a> is the largest Christian community in the <a href="/wiki/Middle_East" title="Middle East">Middle East</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-Christian-Muslim_Gap_5-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Christian-Muslim_Gap-5"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>5<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Christians represent around 15% to 20% of a population of over 80 million Egyptians,<sup id="cite_ref-6" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-6"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>6<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-7" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-7"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>7<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-The_world_factbook/Egypt/_8-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-The_world_factbook/Egypt/-8"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>8<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-Washington_Institute_9-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Washington_Institute-9"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>9<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-IPS_News_10-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-IPS_News-10"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>10<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-11" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-11"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>11<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-12" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-12"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>12<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-christianpost.com_13-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-christianpost.com-13"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>13<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-14" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-14"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>14<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-U.S.Dept_of_State/Egypt_15-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-U.S.Dept_of_State/Egypt-15"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>15<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-FCO/Egypt/_16-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FCO/Egypt/-16"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>16<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-LOOKLEX_Encyclopedia/Egypt/Religions&Peoples_17-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-LOOKLEX_Encyclopedia/Egypt/Religions&Peoples-17"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>17<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-msn_encarta/Egypt_18-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-msn_encarta/Egypt-18"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>18<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> though estimates vary (see <a href="/wiki/Religion_in_Egypt" title="Religion in Egypt">Religion in Egypt</a>). Around 95% of them belong to the native <a href="/wiki/Coptic_Orthodox_Church_of_Alexandria" class="mw-redirect" title="Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria">Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-U.S.Dept_of_State/Egypt_15-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-U.S.Dept_of_State/Egypt-15"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>15<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-FCO/Egypt/_16-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-FCO/Egypt/-16"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>16<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-19" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-19"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>19<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> The remaining (around 800,000<sup id="cite_ref-LOOKLEX_Encyclopedia/Egypt/Religions&Peoples_17-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-LOOKLEX_Encyclopedia/Egypt/Religions&Peoples-17"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>17<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>) are divided between the <a href="/wiki/Coptic_Catholic_Church" title="Coptic Catholic Church">Coptic Catholic</a> and the Coptic <a href="/wiki/Protestantism" title="Protestantism">Protestant</a> churches. </p><p>The question of Coptic identity was never raised before the rise of pan-Arabism under <a href="/wiki/Nasser" class="mw-redirect" title="Nasser">Nasser</a> in the early 1950s. Up to that point, both Egyptian Muslims and Egyptian Christians viewed themselves as only Egyptians without any Arab sentiment.<sup id="cite_ref-Deighton,_H._S_1946_p._519_20-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Deighton,_H._S_1946_p._519-20"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>20<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> The struggle to maintain this Egyptian identity began as Nasser and his regime tried to impose an Arab identity on the country, and attempted to erase all references to Egypt as a separate and unique entity.<sup id="cite_ref-nationalcopticassembly.com_21-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-nationalcopticassembly.com-21"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>21<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>Today, Copts and many Egyptian Muslims reject Arab nationalism, emphasizing indigenous Egyptian heritage and culture as well as their own unique ethnicity and genetic makeup, which are completely different from those of the Arabs.<sup id="cite_ref-nationalcopticassembly.com_21-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-nationalcopticassembly.com-21"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>21<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> <a href="/wiki/Persecution_of_Copts" title="Persecution of Copts">Persecution</a> has become pivotal to the Copts' sense of identity.<sup id="cite_ref-Deighton,_S_1946_p._519_22-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Deighton,_S_1946_p._519-22"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>22<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p><p>Studies have showed the ancient Egyptians to be genetically intermediary between the populations of <a href="/wiki/South_Europe" class="mw-redirect" title="South Europe">Southern Europe</a> and <a href="/wiki/Nubia" title="Nubia">Nubia</a> (two frequently-used reference points).<sup id="cite_ref-23" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-23"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>23<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> A study of the genetics of Copts has confirmed them to be <i>the most ancient population of Egypt</i>, sharing ancestry with North African and Middle Eastern populations, while being different from the current Egyptian population which is closer to the Arabic population of Qatar.<sup id="cite_ref-Scientific_Reports_24-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Scientific_Reports-24"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>24<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Thus, Copts have a genetic composition that resembles the ancestral Egyptian population, without the present strong Arab influence.<sup id="cite_ref-Scientific_Reports_24-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Scientific_Reports-24"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>24<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p> <meta property="mw:PageProp/toc" /> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Copts_as_Egyptians">Copts as Egyptians</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Coptic_identity&action=edit&section=1" title="Edit section: Copts as Egyptians"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <p>In <a href="/wiki/Greco-Roman_Egypt" class="mw-redirect" title="Greco-Roman Egypt">Greco-Roman Egypt</a>, the term Copt designated the local population of <a href="/wiki/Egypt" title="Egypt">Egypt</a>, as opposed to the <a href="/wiki/Elite" title="Elite">elite group</a> of foreign rulers and settlers (Greeks, Romans, etc.) who came to Egypt from other regions and established <a href="/wiki/Empire" title="Empire">prominent empires</a>. </p><p>The word <i>Copt</i> was then adopted in English in the 17th century, from <a href="/wiki/Neo-Latin" title="Neo-Latin">Neo-Latin</a> <i>Coptus, Cophtus</i>, which is derived from <a href="/wiki/Arabic_language" class="mw-redirect" title="Arabic language">Arabic</a> collective <i><span title="Arabic-language romanization"><i lang="ar-Latn">qubṭ, qibṭ</i></span></i> <span title="Arabic-language text"><span lang="ar" dir="rtl">قبط</span></span> "the Copts" with <i><a href="/wiki/Arabic_grammar#Nisba" title="Arabic grammar">nisba</a></i> adjective <span title="Arabic-language romanization"><i lang="ar-Latn"><i>qubṭī, qibṭī</i></i></span> <span title="Arabic-language text"><span lang="ar" dir="rtl">قبطي</span></span>, plural <span title="Arabic-language romanization"><i lang="ar-Latn"><i>aqbāṭ</i></i></span> <span title="Arabic-language text"><span lang="ar" dir="rtl">أقباط</span></span>; Also <i>quftī, qiftī</i>, Arabic /f/ representing historical Coptic /p/. an Arabisation of the <a href="/wiki/Coptic_language" title="Coptic language">Coptic</a> word <i>kubti</i> (<a href="/wiki/Coptic_language#Bohairic" title="Coptic language">Bohairic</a>) and/or <i>kuptaion</i> (<a href="/wiki/Coptic_language#Sahidic" title="Coptic language">Sahidic</a>). The Coptic word is in turn an adaptation of the Greek <span title="Ancient Greek (to 1453)-language text"><span lang="grc">Αἰγύπτιος</span></span> "Egyptian". </p><p>After the <a href="/wiki/Arab_conquest_of_Egypt" title="Arab conquest of Egypt">Arab conquest of Egypt</a>, the term <i>Copt</i> became restricted to those Egyptians who remained adhering to the Christian religion.<sup id="cite_ref-25" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-25"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>25<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p><p>In their own <a href="/wiki/Coptic_language" title="Coptic language">Coptic language</a>, which represents the final stage of the <a href="/wiki/Egyptian_language" title="Egyptian language">Egyptian language</a>, the Copts referred to themselves as <i>rem en kēme</i> (Sahidic) <span style="font-size:140%;"><span lang="cop-Copt" style="font-size:100%;font-family:'Arial Coptic', 'New Athena Unicode', 'MPH 2B Damase', 'Quivira', 'Analecta';">ⲣⲙⲛⲕⲏⲙⲉ</span></span>, <i>lem en kēmi</i> (<a href="/wiki/Coptic_language#Fayyumic" title="Coptic language">Fayyumic</a>), <i>rem en khēmi</i> (Bohairic) <span style="font-size:140%;"><span lang="cop-Copt" style="font-size:100%;font-family:'Arial Coptic', 'New Athena Unicode', 'MPH 2B Damase', 'Quivira', 'Analecta';">ⲣⲉⲙ̀ⲛⲭⲏⲙⲓ</span></span>, which literally means "people of Egypt" or "Egyptians"; cf. <a href="/wiki/Egyptian_language" title="Egyptian language">Egyptian</a> <i><span title="Ancient Egyptian-language text"><i lang="egy-Latn">rmṯ n <a href="/wiki/Km_(hieroglyph)" class="mw-redirect" title="Km (hieroglyph)">kmt</a></i></span></i>, <a href="/wiki/Demotic_Egyptian" class="mw-redirect" title="Demotic Egyptian">Demotic</a> <i><span title="Ancient Egyptian-language text"><i lang="egy-Latn">rmt n kmỉ</i></span></i>. </p><p>Copts take particular pride in their Egyptian identity. Over the centuries, they have always rejected and fought against other identities that foreign rulers attempted to force upon them, stressing their own Egyptian identity.<sup id="cite_ref-Werthmuller,_Kurt_J_1250_26-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Werthmuller,_Kurt_J_1250-26"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>26<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> While an integral part of their society, Copts remained culturally and religiously distinct from their surroundings. </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Coptic_Greeks">Coptic Greeks</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Coptic_identity&action=edit&section=2" title="Edit section: Coptic Greeks"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1236090951">.mw-parser-output .hatnote{font-style:italic}.mw-parser-output div.hatnote{padding-left:1.6em;margin-bottom:0.5em}.mw-parser-output .hatnote i{font-style:normal}.mw-parser-output .hatnote+link+.hatnote{margin-top:-0.5em}@media print{body.ns-0 .mw-parser-output .hatnote{display:none!important}}</style><div role="note" class="hatnote navigation-not-searchable">Further information: <a href="/wiki/Coptic_Greeks" class="mw-redirect" title="Coptic Greeks">Coptic Greeks</a></div> <figure class="mw-default-size mw-halign-right" typeof="mw:File/Thumb"><a href="/wiki/File:GreekEgyptianIlluminatedSaqaraShroud.jpg" class="mw-file-description"><img src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7f/GreekEgyptianIlluminatedSaqaraShroud.jpg/220px-GreekEgyptianIlluminatedSaqaraShroud.jpg" decoding="async" width="220" height="326" class="mw-file-element" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7f/GreekEgyptianIlluminatedSaqaraShroud.jpg/330px-GreekEgyptianIlluminatedSaqaraShroud.jpg 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7f/GreekEgyptianIlluminatedSaqaraShroud.jpg/440px-GreekEgyptianIlluminatedSaqaraShroud.jpg 2x" data-file-width="555" data-file-height="822" /></a><figcaption>An <a href="/wiki/Coptic_Greeks" class="mw-redirect" title="Coptic Greeks">Εgyptian Greek</a> man with <a href="/wiki/Anubis" title="Anubis">Anubis</a></figcaption></figure> <p>It is estimated that as much as 30 percent of the population of Faiyum was Greek during the <a href="/wiki/Ptolemaic_Egypt" class="mw-redirect" title="Ptolemaic Egypt">Ptolemaic</a> period, with the rest being native Egyptians;<sup id="cite_ref-Bagnall,_op_cit._27-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Bagnall,_op_cit.-27"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>27<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> the <a href="/wiki/Faiyum_mummy_portraits" class="mw-redirect" title="Faiyum mummy portraits">Faiyum mummy portraits</a> reflect the complex synthesis of the predominant Egyptian culture and that of the elite Egyptian Greek minority in Faiyum.<sup id="cite_ref-Bagnall,_op_cit._27-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Bagnall,_op_cit.-27"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>27<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p><p>By the Roman period, much of the "Greek" population of Faiyum was made up of either <a href="/wiki/Hellenization" title="Hellenization">Hellenized</a> Egyptians or people of mixed Egyptian-Greek origins,<sup id="cite_ref-28" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-28"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>28<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> and by the time of Roman emperor <a href="/wiki/Caracalla" title="Caracalla">Caracalla</a> in the 2nd century AD, ethnic Egyptians could be distinguished from Egyptian Greeks only by their speech.<sup id="cite_ref-29" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-29"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>29<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p><p>Egyptian Greek is the variety of Greek spoken in Egypt from antiquity until the <a href="/wiki/Arab_conquest_of_Egypt" title="Arab conquest of Egypt">Islamic conquest of Egypt</a> in the 7th century. Egyptian Greek adopted many loanwords from <a href="/wiki/Coptic_language" title="Coptic language">Egyptian language</a>; there was a great deal of intracommunity <a href="/wiki/Bilingualism" class="mw-redirect" title="Bilingualism">bilingualism</a> in Egypt.<sup id="cite_ref-papyrology_30-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-papyrology-30"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>30<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-postclassicalbyzantinegreek_31-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-postclassicalbyzantinegreek-31"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>31<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p><p>The following is an example of Egyptian Greek language, used in the <a href="/wiki/Coptic_Church" class="mw-redirect" title="Coptic Church">Coptic Church</a>: </p> <style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1244412712">.mw-parser-output .templatequote{overflow:hidden;margin:1em 0;padding:0 32px}.mw-parser-output .templatequotecite{line-height:1.5em;text-align:left;margin-top:0}@media(min-width:500px){.mw-parser-output .templatequotecite{padding-left:1.6em}}</style><blockquote class="templatequote"><p><b>ⲇⲟⲝⲁ ⲡⲁⲧⲣⲓ ⲕⲉ ⲩⲓⲱ: ⲕⲉ ⲁ̀ⲅⲓⲱ ⲡⲛⲉⲩⲙⲁⲧⲓ: ⲕⲉ ⲛⲩⲛ ⲕⲉ ⲁ̀ⲓ̀ ⲕⲉ ⲓⲥ ⲧⲟⲩⲥ ⲉⲱⲛⲁⲥ ⲧⲱⲛ ⲉ̀ⲱ̀ⲛⲱⲛ ⲁ̀ⲙⲏⲛ</b></p></blockquote> <link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1244412712"><blockquote class="templatequote"><p>Δόξα Πατρὶ κὲ Υἱῷ κὲ Ἁγίῳ Πνεύματι, κὲ νῦν κὲ ἀῒ κὲ ἰς τοὺς ἐῶνας τῶν ἐώνων. Ἀμήν.</p></blockquote> <link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1244412712"><blockquote class="templatequote"><p>Glory to the Father, to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, both now and always, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.</p></blockquote> <p>According to Walker, early Ptolemaic Greek colonists married local women and adopted Egyptian religious beliefs, and by Roman times, their descendants were viewed as Egyptians by the Roman rulers, despite their own self-perception of being Greek.<sup id="cite_ref-32" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-32"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>32<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> The dental morphology of the Roman-period Faiyum mummies was also compared with that of earlier Egyptian populations, and was found to be "much more closely akin" to that of ancient Egyptians than to Greeks or other European populations.<sup id="cite_ref-33" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-33"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>33<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-34" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-34"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>34<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Victor J. Katz notes that "research in papyri dating from the early centuries of the common era demonstrates that a significant amount of intermarriage took place between the Greek and Egyptian communities".<sup id="cite_ref-Katz_184_35-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Katz_184-35"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>35<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Egyptian_Liberal_Age">Egyptian Liberal Age</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Coptic_identity&action=edit&section=3" title="Edit section: Egyptian Liberal Age"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1236090951"><div role="note" class="hatnote navigation-not-searchable">Main article: <a href="/wiki/Liberalism_in_Egypt" title="Liberalism in Egypt">Liberalism in Egypt</a></div> <p>Egypt's struggle for independence from both the <a href="/wiki/Ottoman_Empire" title="Ottoman Empire">Ottoman Empire</a> and <a href="/wiki/United_Kingdom" title="United Kingdom">Britain</a> was marked by secular <a href="/wiki/Egyptian_nationalism" title="Egyptian nationalism">Egyptian nationalism</a>, also referred to as <a href="/wiki/Pharaonism" title="Pharaonism">Pharaonism</a>. When the Egyptian nationalist leader <a href="/wiki/Saad_Zaghlul" class="mw-redirect" title="Saad Zaghlul">Saad Zaghlul</a> met the Arab delegates at Versailles in 1918, he insisted that their struggles for statehood were not connected, stressing that the problem of Egypt was an Egyptian problem and not an Arab one.<sup id="cite_ref-36" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-36"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>36<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Egyptian nationalism rose to prominence in the 1920s and 1930s. It looked to Egypt's pre-<a href="/wiki/Islamic" class="mw-redirect" title="Islamic">Islamic</a> past and argued that Egypt was part of a larger <a href="/wiki/Mediterranean" class="mw-redirect" title="Mediterranean">Mediterranean</a> civilization. This ideology stressed the role of the <a href="/wiki/Nile_River" class="mw-redirect" title="Nile River">Nile River</a> and the <a href="/wiki/Mediterranean_Sea" title="Mediterranean Sea">Mediterranean Sea</a>. It became the dominant mode of expression of Egyptian anti-colonial activists of the pre- and inter-war periods. There was no place for an Arab component in the Egyptian personality at that time, and Egyptians had no Arab orientation as they saw themselves as Egyptians regardless of religion.<sup id="cite_ref-37" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-37"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>37<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Foreigners visiting Egypt noted that Egyptians did not possess any Arab sentiment in the first half of the 20th century. As one Arab nationalist of the time put it "Egyptians did not accept that Egypt was a part of the Arab lands, and would not acknowledge that the Egyptian people were part of the Arab nation."<sup id="cite_ref-38" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-38"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>38<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Rise_of_Arab_nationalism">Rise of Arab nationalism</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Coptic_identity&action=edit&section=4" title="Edit section: Rise of Arab nationalism"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <p>Arab nationalism began to gain grounds in Egypt in the 1940s following efforts by Syrian, Palestinian and Lebanese intellectuals.<sup id="cite_ref-39" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-39"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>39<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Nevertheless, by the end of the 1940s and even after the establishment of the <a href="/wiki/Arab_League" title="Arab League">Arab League</a>, historian H. S. Deighton was still writing that "Egyptians are not Arabs, and both they and the Arabs are aware of this fact".<sup id="cite_ref-Deighton,_H._S_1946_p._519_20-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Deighton,_H._S_1946_p._519-20"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>20<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p><p>It was not until the <a href="/wiki/Gamal_Abdel_Nasser" title="Gamal Abdel Nasser">Nasser</a> era starting in the 1950s – more than a decade later – that Arab nationalism, and by extension <a href="/wiki/Arab_socialism" title="Arab socialism">Arab socialism</a>, became a state policy imposed on the Egyptians by the new dictatorship. Under Nasser, Egypt united with <a href="/wiki/Syria" title="Syria">Syria</a> to form the <a href="/wiki/United_Arab_Republic" title="United Arab Republic">United Arab Republic</a> in 1958, then became known as the <i>Arab</i> Republic of Egypt in 1961. The Egyptians' attachment to Arabism, however, was particularly questioned after the 1967 <a href="/wiki/Six-Day_War" title="Six-Day War">Six-Day War</a>. Nasser's successor <a href="/wiki/Anwar_Al_Sadat" class="mw-redirect" title="Anwar Al Sadat">Sadat</a>, both through public policy and his peace initiative with <a href="/wiki/Israel" title="Israel">Israel</a>, revived an uncontested Egyptian orientation, unequivocally asserting that only Egypt and Egyptians were his responsibility. The terms "Arab", "Arabism" and "Arab unity", save for the new official name, became conspicuously absent.<sup id="cite_ref-40" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-40"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>40<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> (See also <a href="/wiki/Egyptians#Liberal_age" title="Egyptians">Egyptian Liberal age</a> and <a href="/wiki/Egyptians#Republic" title="Egyptians">Egyptian Republic</a>.) </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Copts_and_Arab_identity">Copts and Arab identity</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Coptic_identity&action=edit&section=5" title="Edit section: Copts and Arab identity"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <figure class="mw-halign-left" typeof="mw:File"><a href="/wiki/File:Coptic_cross.svg" class="mw-file-description" title="Coptic Orthodox Cross with traditional Coptic script reading: 'Jesus Christ, the Son of God'"><img alt="Coptic Orthodox Cross with traditional Coptic script reading: 'Jesus Christ, the Son of God'" src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/71/Coptic_cross.svg/220px-Coptic_cross.svg.png" decoding="async" width="220" height="220" class="mw-file-element" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/71/Coptic_cross.svg/330px-Coptic_cross.svg.png 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/71/Coptic_cross.svg/440px-Coptic_cross.svg.png 2x" data-file-width="606" data-file-height="606" /></a><figcaption>Coptic Orthodox Cross with traditional Coptic script reading: 'Jesus Christ, the Son of God'</figcaption></figure> <p>While some non-Coptic authors claim that Copts in Egypt have an Arab identity while Copts in the West tend to identify as "non-Arab",<sup id="cite_ref-Abrahamp231_41-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Abrahamp231-41"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>41<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-Henderson_42-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Henderson-42"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>42<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> other non-Coptic scholars disagree, stating that "Copts are not Arabs" and that they predate the Arabs' arrival to Egypt <sup id="cite_ref-43" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-43"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>43<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-44" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-44"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>44<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p><p>They viewed Arabs as invaders and foreigners, and glorified the struggles of their ancestors against the Arab invaders between the 7th and the 9th centuries AD. Indubitably, the struggle against these foreign ideologies centered around the <a href="/wiki/Coptic_language" title="Coptic language">Coptic language</a>: </p> <link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1244412712"><blockquote class="templatequote"><p>The Coptic language provides a Copt with an identity that spells out an impressive commentary upon the character of such person. It exemplifies in him an unyielding spirit that was tried and came out victorious. A spirit that had to endure endless attempts by those that ruled Egypt for the past 2300 years to replace such language with that of their own. If such was achieved then they can subject the Copts to cultural and religious slavery that would forever made them subservient to such foreign rulers. It was attempted first by the <a href="/wiki/Greeks" title="Greeks">Greeks</a>, through their Hellenizing approach. Then it was continued along the same principles by the successive Arab and Muslim dynasties that ruled Egypt since the 7th century AD. The significance of such character can also inspire the Coptic youth to fight off the many harmful pressures, whether in spirit or in body, that are facing them in this turbulent Society of ours.<sup id="cite_ref-stshenouda.com_45-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-stshenouda.com-45"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>45<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup></p></blockquote> <p>In addition, some Copts resisted Arab nationalism by stressing their pre-Arab identity. They saw themselves as the direct descendants of the <a href="/wiki/Ancient_Egypt" title="Ancient Egypt">ancient Egyptians</a>, and their language as a bridge linking the Copts to their Ancient Egyptian roots and their civilization that span over 6,000 years.<sup id="cite_ref-stshenouda.com_45-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-stshenouda.com-45"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>45<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p><p>The strongest statement regarding Coptic identity came in 2008 from a prominent Coptic bishop, namely Bishop Thomas of <a href="/wiki/Cusae" title="Cusae">Cusae</a> and <a href="/wiki/Meir,_Egypt" title="Meir, Egypt">Meir</a>, who gave the following speech at the <a href="/wiki/Hudson_Institute" title="Hudson Institute">Hudson Institute</a>: </p> <link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1244412712"><blockquote class="templatequote"><p>What makes a person change the identity of his own nation and shift the focus of his identity from Egypt to become "the Arabs", even though ethnically he/she is the same person? The Copts have been always focused on Egypt; it's our identity, it's our nation, it's our land, it's our language, it's our culture. But when some of the Egyptians converted to <a href="/wiki/Islam" title="Islam">Islam</a>, their focus changed away from looking to their own [language and culture]. They started to look to the <a href="/wiki/Arabian" class="mw-redirect" title="Arabian">Arabians</a>, and <a href="/wiki/Arabia" class="mw-redirect" title="Arabia">Arabia</a> became their main focus. So the focus here has changed and they would no longer be called "Copts". <i>If you come to a Coptic person and tell him that he's an Arab, that's offensive</i>. <i>We are not Arabs, we are Egyptians</i>. I am very happy to be an Egyptian and I would not accept being "Arab" because ethnically I am not. I speak Arabic. Politically now, I am part of a country that was Arabized and politically I belong to an Arabic country but that doesn't make a person Arab. If a person believes he is an Arab, his main focus is the pan-Arab area, and he no longer belongs to the Egyptian nation. You are either in or out; either you belong or you don't. And this is a big dilemma that is happening for the Copts who kept their <a href="/wiki/Christianity" title="Christianity">Christianity</a>, or rather their identity as Egyptians with their own culture, and who are trying to keep the language, the music, and the calendar of the Copts. That means that the culture of Ancient Egypt is still carried on. A process of <a href="/wiki/Arabization" title="Arabization">Arabization</a> has been ongoing in this country for many centuries, since the 7th century. At the same time <a href="/wiki/Islamization" class="mw-redirect" title="Islamization">Islamization</a> as well is a dilemma that started and is still carrying a lot of the problems. [...] So when we hear the word "Copt", that doesn't only mean "Christian", it means "Egyptian".</p></blockquote> <link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1244412712"><blockquote class="templatequote"><p>What makes an Egyptian become a Copt, and an Egyptian not become a Copt? Simply, this is the shift that has happened in Egypt since the <a href="/wiki/Arab_conquest_of_Egypt" title="Arab conquest of Egypt">Arab invasion of Egypt</a>. Today when you look at a Copt, you don't see only a Christian, but you see an Egyptian who is trying to keep his identity versus another imported identity that is working on him. And that means if these two processes are still actively working till now, it has never stopped because Egypt has not yet in its own mind become completely Islamized or Arabized. That means the process [of Arabization] is still ongoing... You can't study the <a href="/wiki/Coptic_language" title="Coptic language">Coptic language</a>, the native language of the land, in any public school in Egypt. That's not allowed, although we can teach in our public schools any other language. You have a lot of schools that teach English, French, German, Spanish and Greek, but never Coptic. Why? Because that clashes with the process of Arabization. And this is a very dangerous attitude. The cultural heritage of Egypt has been taken away. [Thus], the Copts suddenly felt that they have a responsibility to carry on their own culture and continue it and to fight for it. Yes, we are still fighting very much for our strong heritage of Egypt because we love our heritage and we want to keep it. And that means that if you try to teach your language in a public school, that would not be the right way to do it, so that means that the <a href="/wiki/Coptic_Orthodox_Church_of_Alexandria" class="mw-redirect" title="Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria">Church</a> will carry the responsibility to take in this heritage and work with it, keeping it in a very good nursery till the time would come when openness and good thinking would occur, when this country will come back to its own roots and lift it up. But, until then we have to keep it in a nursery, in a church. We don't want to keep it in, we don't want to isolate it, but we cannot throw it away so nobody will take care of it. That's why we keep it. This is not withdrawal. We could say that this is keeping the heritage in a nursery till the time comes when it will be open and serve the entire Egyptian community. So the word "Copt" here is not only religious, but it has cultural import.<sup id="cite_ref-46" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-46"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>46<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup></p></blockquote> <p>Bishop Thomas' words gained widespread approval within the Coptic community. One other Coptic bishop, namely Bishop Picenti of <a href="/wiki/Helwan" title="Helwan">Helwan</a> and <a href="/wiki/Massarah" class="mw-redirect" title="Massarah">Massarah</a> commented on the issue saying: </p> <link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1244412712"><blockquote class="templatequote"><p>If one reconsiders Bishop Thomas' words, they can discover that he was not wrong. He said that <i>Copts of Egypt are not of Arab origin but rather of Pharaonic origin</i>, and this is correct because it is the truth and history. We are Coptic Egyptians. We are Pharaonic Copts. Coptic meaning ancient Egyptian who then <a href="/wiki/Religious_conversion" title="Religious conversion">converted</a> to <a href="/wiki/Christianity" title="Christianity">Christianity</a>. Copt, is essentially another term for Coptic Christians.<sup id="cite_ref-47" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-47"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>47<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup></p></blockquote> <p>Other prominent Coptic figures who supported Bishop Thomas' statement included the Coptic writer <a href="/wiki/Magdi_Khalil" title="Magdi Khalil">Magdy Khalil</a> who wrote in <a href="/wiki/Al-Dustour_(Egypt)" title="Al-Dustour (Egypt)">el-Dostoor</a> newspaper: </p> <link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1244412712"><blockquote class="templatequote"><p><i>We [the Copts] are Egyptians, and we are not Arabs</i>, with all due respect to the Arabs. We may live in some sort of cultural Arabism and we may speak Arabic, but we are not Arabs. This is a historical fact, whether some people like it or not. Copts both within Egypt and in the diaspora are insulted and accused because they insist on holding strongly to and taking pride in their national Egyptian identity, rather than having another identity that crosses the borders [of Egypt]. The Copts focus their identity on Egypt's geographical borders, which are deeply rooted in history. <sup id="cite_ref-48" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-48"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>48<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup></p></blockquote> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="See_also">See also</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Coptic_identity&action=edit&section=6" title="Edit section: See also"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Copts" title="Copts">Copts</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Christianity_in_Egypt" title="Christianity in Egypt">Christian Egypt</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Pharaonism" title="Pharaonism">Pharaonism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Egyptians" title="Egyptians">Egyptians</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Egyptian_nationalism" title="Egyptian nationalism">Egyptian nationalism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Coptic_nationalism" title="Coptic nationalism">Coptic nationalism</a></li></ul> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="References">References</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Coptic_identity&action=edit&section=7" title="Edit section: References"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1239543626">.mw-parser-output .reflist{margin-bottom:0.5em;list-style-type:decimal}@media screen{.mw-parser-output .reflist{font-size:90%}}.mw-parser-output .reflist .references{font-size:100%;margin-bottom:0;list-style-type:inherit}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns-2{column-width:30em}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns-3{column-width:25em}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns{margin-top:0.3em}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns ol{margin-top:0}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns li{page-break-inside:avoid;break-inside:avoid-column}.mw-parser-output .reflist-upper-alpha{list-style-type:upper-alpha}.mw-parser-output .reflist-upper-roman{list-style-type:upper-roman}.mw-parser-output .reflist-lower-alpha{list-style-type:lower-alpha}.mw-parser-output .reflist-lower-greek{list-style-type:lower-greek}.mw-parser-output .reflist-lower-roman{list-style-type:lower-roman}</style><div class="reflist reflist-columns references-column-width" style="column-width: 30em;"> <ol class="references"> <li id="cite_note-U.S._Bill_Has_Egypt's_Copts_Squirming-1"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-U.S._Bill_Has_Egypt's_Copts_Squirming_1-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1238218222">.mw-parser-output cite.citation{font-style:inherit;word-wrap:break-word}.mw-parser-output .citation q{quotes:"\"""\"""'""'"}.mw-parser-output .citation:target{background-color:rgba(0,127,255,0.133)}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-free.id-lock-free a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/65/Lock-green.svg")right 0.1em center/9px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-limited.id-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .id-lock-registration.id-lock-registration a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d6/Lock-gray-alt-2.svg")right 0.1em center/9px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-subscription.id-lock-subscription a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/aa/Lock-red-alt-2.svg")right 0.1em center/9px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .cs1-ws-icon a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4c/Wikisource-logo.svg")right 0.1em center/12px no-repeat}body:not(.skin-timeless):not(.skin-minerva) .mw-parser-output .id-lock-free a,body:not(.skin-timeless):not(.skin-minerva) .mw-parser-output .id-lock-limited a,body:not(.skin-timeless):not(.skin-minerva) .mw-parser-output .id-lock-registration a,body:not(.skin-timeless):not(.skin-minerva) .mw-parser-output .id-lock-subscription a,body:not(.skin-timeless):not(.skin-minerva) .mw-parser-output .cs1-ws-icon a{background-size:contain;padding:0 1em 0 0}.mw-parser-output .cs1-code{color:inherit;background:inherit;border:none;padding:inherit}.mw-parser-output .cs1-hidden-error{display:none;color:var(--color-error,#d33)}.mw-parser-output .cs1-visible-error{color:var(--color-error,#d33)}.mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{display:none;color:#085;margin-left:0.3em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-left{padding-left:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-right{padding-right:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .citation .mw-selflink{font-weight:inherit}@media screen{.mw-parser-output .cs1-format{font-size:95%}html.skin-theme-clientpref-night .mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{color:#18911f}}@media screen and (prefers-color-scheme:dark){html.skin-theme-clientpref-os .mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{color:#18911f}}</style><cite id="CITEREFIbrahim1998" class="citation news cs1">Ibrahim, Youssef M. 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LookLex Ltd. September 30, 2008.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=unknown&rft.btitle=Egypt+Religions+%26+Peoples+from+%22LOOKLEX+Encyclopedia%22&rft.pub=LookLex+Ltd.&rft.date=2008-09-30&rft_id=http%3A%2F%2Flexicorient.com%2Fe.o%2Fegypt_4.htm&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3ACoptic+identity" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-msn_encarta/Egypt-18"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-msn_encarta/Egypt_18-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite class="citation web cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.webcitation.org/query?id=1257013931677776">"Egypt from "msn encarta"<span class="cs1-kern-right"></span>"</a>. <a href="/wiki/Microsoft_Encarta" class="mw-redirect" title="Microsoft Encarta">Encarta</a>. September 30, 2008. Archived from <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761557408_3/Egypt.html">the original</a> on 2009-10-31.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=unknown&rft.btitle=Egypt+from+%22msn+encarta%22&rft.pub=Encarta&rft.date=2008-09-30&rft_id=http%3A%2F%2Fencarta.msn.com%2Fencyclopedia_761557408_3%2FEgypt.html&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3ACoptic+identity" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-19"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-19">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite class="citation book cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://books.google.com/books?id=xrGL7o69KBIC&dq=coptic+orthodox&pg=PA145"><i>Who are the Christians in the Middle East?</i></a>. Betty Jane Bailey. June 18, 2009. <a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0-8028-1020-5" title="Special:BookSources/978-0-8028-1020-5"><bdi>978-0-8028-1020-5</bdi></a>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=Who+are+the+Christians+in+the+Middle+East%3F&rft.pub=Betty+Jane+Bailey&rft.date=2009-06-18&rft.isbn=978-0-8028-1020-5&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fbooks.google.com%2Fbooks%3Fid%3DxrGL7o69KBIC%26dq%3Dcoptic%2Borthodox%26pg%3DPA145&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3ACoptic+identity" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-Deighton,_H._S_1946_p._519-20"><span class="mw-cite-backlink">^ <a href="#cite_ref-Deighton,_H._S_1946_p._519_20-0"><sup><i><b>a</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-Deighton,_H._S_1946_p._519_20-1"><sup><i><b>b</b></i></sup></a></span> <span class="reference-text">Deighton, H. S. "The Arab Middle East and the Modern World", International Affairs, vol. xxii, no. 4 (October 1946), p. 519.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-nationalcopticassembly.com-21"><span class="mw-cite-backlink">^ <a href="#cite_ref-nationalcopticassembly.com_21-0"><sup><i><b>a</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-nationalcopticassembly.com_21-1"><sup><i><b>b</b></i></sup></a></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external free" href="http://nationalcopticassembly.com/showart.php?main_id=1724">http://nationalcopticassembly.com/showart.php?main_id=1724</a></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-Deighton,_S_1946_p._519-22"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-Deighton,_S_1946_p._519_22-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Deighton, H. S. "The Arab Middle East and the Modern World", International Affairs, vol. xxii, no. 4 (October 1946)</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-23"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-23">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Klales, A. R. (2014). "Computed Tomography Analysis and Reconstruction of Ancient Egyptians Originating from the Akhmim Region of Egypt: A Biocultural Perspective". MA Thesis. University of Manitoba. <a rel="nofollow" class="external autonumber" href="http://mspace.lib.umanitoba.ca/jspui/bitstream/1993/23992/1/Klales_Alexandra.pdf">[2]</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20170311124903/http://mspace.lib.umanitoba.ca/jspui/bitstream/1993/23992/1/Klales_Alexandra.pdf">Archived</a> 2017-03-11 at the <a href="/wiki/Wayback_Machine" title="Wayback Machine">Wayback Machine</a></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-Scientific_Reports-24"><span class="mw-cite-backlink">^ <a href="#cite_ref-Scientific_Reports_24-0"><sup><i><b>a</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-Scientific_Reports_24-1"><sup><i><b>b</b></i></sup></a></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFDobonHassanLaayouniLuisi2015" class="citation journal cs1">Dobon, Begoña; Hassan, Hisham Y.; Laayouni, Hafid; Luisi, Pierre; Ricaño-Ponce, Isis; Zhernakova, Alexandra; Wijmenga, Cisca; Tahir, Hanan; Comas, David; Netea, Mihai G.; Bertranpetit, Jaume (2015). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4446898">"The genetics of East African populations: A Nilo-Saharan component in the African genetic landscape"</a>. <i>Scientific Reports</i>. <b>5</b>: 9996. <a href="/wiki/Bibcode_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="Bibcode (identifier)">Bibcode</a>:<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2015NatSR...5.9996D">2015NatSR...5.9996D</a>. <a href="/wiki/Doi_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="Doi (identifier)">doi</a>:<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://doi.org/10.1038%2Fsrep09996">10.1038/srep09996</a>. <a href="/wiki/PMC_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="PMC (identifier)">PMC</a> <span class="id-lock-free" title="Freely accessible"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4446898">4446898</a></span>. <a href="/wiki/PMID_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="PMID (identifier)">PMID</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26017457">26017457</a>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.genre=article&rft.jtitle=Scientific+Reports&rft.atitle=The+genetics+of+East+African+populations%3A+A+Nilo-Saharan+component+in+the+African+genetic+landscape&rft.volume=5&rft.pages=9996&rft.date=2015&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov%2Fpmc%2Farticles%2FPMC4446898%23id-name%3DPMC&rft_id=info%3Apmid%2F26017457&rft_id=info%3Adoi%2F10.1038%2Fsrep09996&rft_id=info%3Abibcode%2F2015NatSR...5.9996D&rft.aulast=Dobon&rft.aufirst=Bego%C3%B1a&rft.au=Hassan%2C+Hisham+Y.&rft.au=Laayouni%2C+Hafid&rft.au=Luisi%2C+Pierre&rft.au=Rica%C3%B1o-Ponce%2C+Isis&rft.au=Zhernakova%2C+Alexandra&rft.au=Wijmenga%2C+Cisca&rft.au=Tahir%2C+Hanan&rft.au=Comas%2C+David&rft.au=Netea%2C+Mihai+G.&rft.au=Bertranpetit%2C+Jaume&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov%2Fpmc%2Farticles%2FPMC4446898&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3ACoptic+identity" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-25"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-25">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">"The people of Egypt before the Arab conquest in the 7th century identified themselves and their language in Greek as Aigyptios (Arabic qibt, Westernized as Copt); when Egyptian Muslims later ceased to call themselves Aigyptioi, the term became the distinctive name of the Christian minority." <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9026216">Coptic Orthodox Church</a>. <i>Encyclopædia Britannica Online</i>. 2007</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-Werthmuller,_Kurt_J_1250-26"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-Werthmuller,_Kurt_J_1250_26-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Werthmuller, Kurt J. Coptic Identity and Ayyubid Politics in Egypt 1218–1250. American University in Cairo Press. 2009</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-Bagnall,_op_cit.-27"><span class="mw-cite-backlink">^ <a href="#cite_ref-Bagnall,_op_cit._27-0"><sup><i><b>a</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-Bagnall,_op_cit._27-1"><sup><i><b>b</b></i></sup></a></span> <span class="reference-text">Bagnall, <i>op cit.</i></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-28"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-28">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Bagnall, pp. 28–29</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-29"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-29">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">qtd. in Alan K. Bowman, <i>Egypt after the Pharaohs, 332 BC – AD 642</i>, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996, p. 126: "genuine Egyptians can easily be recognized among the linen-weavers by their speech."</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-papyrology-30"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-papyrology_30-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFLennart_SundelinPetra_Sijpesteijn2004" class="citation book cs1">Lennart Sundelin; Petra Sijpesteijn (2004). <i>Papyrology and the History of Early Islamic Egypt</i>. Brill. p. 165.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=Papyrology+and+the+History+of+Early+Islamic+Egypt&rft.pages=165&rft.pub=Brill&rft.date=2004&rft.au=Lennart+Sundelin&rft.au=Petra+Sijpesteijn&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3ACoptic+identity" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-postclassicalbyzantinegreek-31"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-postclassicalbyzantinegreek_31-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFLennart_SundelinPetra_Sijpesteijn2020" class="citation book cs1">Lennart Sundelin; Petra Sijpesteijn (2020). <i>Varieties of Post-classical and Byzantine Greek</i>. De Gruyter. p. 447.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=Varieties+of+Post-classical+and+Byzantine+Greek&rft.pages=447&rft.pub=De+Gruyter&rft.date=2020&rft.au=Lennart+Sundelin&rft.au=Petra+Sijpesteijn&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3ACoptic+identity" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-32"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-32">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Walker, Susan, <i>op cit.</i>, p. 24</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-33"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-33">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Dentition helps archaeologists to assess biological and ethnic population traits and relationships</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-34"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-34">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Irish JD (2006). "Who were the ancient Egyptians? Dental affinities among Neolithic through postdynastic peoples.". <i>Am J Phys Anthropol</i> 129 (4): 529-43</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-Katz_184-35"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-Katz_184_35-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Victor J. Katz (1998). <i>A History of Mathematics: An Introduction</i>, p. 184. Addison Wesley, <link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/0-321-01618-1" title="Special:BookSources/0-321-01618-1">0-321-01618-1</a>: "<i>But what we really want to know is to what extent the Alexandrian mathematicians of the period from the first to the fifth centuries C.E. were Greek. Certainly, all of them wrote in Greek and were part of the Greek intellectual community of Alexandria. And most modern studies conclude that the Greek community coexisted [...] So should we assume that <a href="/wiki/Ptolemy" title="Ptolemy">Ptolemy</a> and <a href="/wiki/Diophantus" title="Diophantus">Diophantus</a>, <a href="/wiki/Pappus_of_Alexandria" title="Pappus of Alexandria">Pappus</a> and <a href="/wiki/Hypatia" title="Hypatia">Hypatia</a> were ethnically Greek, that their ancestors had come from Greece at some point in the past but had remained effectively isolated from the Egyptians? It is, of course, impossible to answer this question definitively. But research in papyri dating from the early centuries of the common era demonstrates that a significant amount of intermarriage took place between the Greek and Egyptian communities [...] And it is known that Greek marriage contracts increasingly came to resemble Egyptian ones. In addition, even from the founding of Alexandria, small numbers of Egyptians were admitted to the privileged classes in the city to fulfill numerous civic roles. Of course, it was essential in such cases for the Egyptians to become "Hellenized," to adopt Greek habits and the Greek language. Given that the Alexandrian mathematicians mentioned here were active several hundred years after the founding of the city, it would seem at least equally possible that they were ethnically Egyptian as that they remained ethnically Greek. In any case, it is unreasonable to portray them with purely European features when no physical descriptions exist.</i>"</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-36"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-36">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Makropoulou, Ifigenia. <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.ekem.gr/archives/2007/01/pan_arabism_wha.html">Pan – Arabism: What Destroyed the Ideology of Arab Nationalism? Hellenic Center for European Studies. January 15, 2007.</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20181002224756/http://www.ekem.gr/archives/2007/01/pan_arabism_wha.html">Archived</a> October 2, 2018, at the <a href="/wiki/Wayback_Machine" title="Wayback Machine">Wayback Machine</a></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-37"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-37">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Jankowski, James. "Egypt and Early Arab Nationalism" in Rashid Khalidi, ed. <i>The Origins of Arab Nationalism</i>. New York: Columbia University Press, 1990, pp. 244–45</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-38"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-38">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Syrian Arab nationalist <a href="/wiki/Sati%27_al-Husri" title="Sati' al-Husri">Sati' al-Husri</a> qtd in Dawisha, Adeed. <i>Arab Nationalism in the Twentieth Century</i>. Princeton University Press. 2003, p. 99</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-39"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-39">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Jankowski, "Egypt and Early Arab Nationalism," p. 246</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-40"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-40">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Dawisha, pp. 264–65, 267</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-Abrahamp231-41"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-Abrahamp231_41-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFAbrahamShryock2000" class="citation book cs1">Abraham, Nabeel; Shryock, Andrew (2000). <a href="/wiki/Arab_Detroit:_from_margin_to_mainstream" class="mw-redirect" title="Arab Detroit: from margin to mainstream"><i>Arab Detroit: from margin to mainstream</i></a> (Illustrated ed.). Wayne State University Press. p. <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://books.google.com/books?id=5cw3WKvVt4MC&q=coptic&pg=PA9">9</a>. <a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0-8143-2812-5" title="Special:BookSources/978-0-8143-2812-5"><bdi>978-0-8143-2812-5</bdi></a>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=Arab+Detroit%3A+from+margin+to+mainstream&rft.pages=9&rft.edition=Illustrated&rft.pub=Wayne+State+University+Press&rft.date=2000&rft.isbn=978-0-8143-2812-5&rft.aulast=Abraham&rft.aufirst=Nabeel&rft.au=Shryock%2C+Andrew&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3ACoptic+identity" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-Henderson-42"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-Henderson_42-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFRandall_P._Henderson2005" class="citation journal cs1">Randall P. Henderson (April 2005). "The Egyptian Coptic Christians: the conflict between identity and equality". <i>Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations</i>. <b>16</b> (2): 155–166. <a href="/wiki/Doi_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="Doi (identifier)">doi</a>:<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://doi.org/10.1080%2F09596410500059664">10.1080/09596410500059664</a>. <a href="/wiki/S2CID_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="S2CID (identifier)">S2CID</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:143826025">143826025</a>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.genre=article&rft.jtitle=Islam+and+Christian-Muslim+Relations&rft.atitle=The+Egyptian+Coptic+Christians%3A+the+conflict+between+identity+and+equality&rft.volume=16&rft.issue=2&rft.pages=155-166&rft.date=2005-04&rft_id=info%3Adoi%2F10.1080%2F09596410500059664&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fapi.semanticscholar.org%2FCorpusID%3A143826025%23id-name%3DS2CID&rft.au=Randall+P.+Henderson&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3ACoptic+identity" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-43"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-43">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Prof. Constantine Gutzman, Chair of the Department of History at Western Connecticut State University: "Copts are not Arabs. Rather, they are the people who lived in Egypt before the Arabs arrived. The <a href="/wiki/Pharaoh" title="Pharaoh">pharaohs</a> were Copts, as were <a href="/wiki/Athanasius_of_Alexandria" title="Athanasius of Alexandria">St. Athanasius</a> and <a href="/wiki/Anthony_the_Great" title="Anthony the Great">St. Anthony</a>."</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-44"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-44">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Washington Post: Copts are not Arabs. January 4, 1994</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-stshenouda.com-45"><span class="mw-cite-backlink">^ <a href="#cite_ref-stshenouda.com_45-0"><sup><i><b>a</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-stshenouda.com_45-1"><sup><i><b>b</b></i></sup></a></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.stshenouda.com/coptlang/coptval.htm">Takla, Hany. The Value of Coptic, The Ecclesiastical and Coptic Principles. Saint Shenouda the Archimandrite Society for Coptic Studies. 02/10/1996</a></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-46"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-46">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Bishop Thomas of <a href="/wiki/Cusae" title="Cusae">Cusae</a> and <a href="/wiki/Meir,_Egypt" title="Meir, Egypt">Meir</a>. Egypt's Coptic Christians: The Experience of the Middle East's largest Christian community during a time of rising Islamization. July 18, 2008</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-47"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-47">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Ranya Badawi. An interview with Bishop Pecenti of Helwan and Massarah. El-Masry El-Yom Newspaper. November 11, 2009</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-48"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-48">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://dostor.org/ar/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=659&Itemid=75">Khalil, Magdy. <i>Copts are truly facing a problem of Islamization, and what Bishop Thomas said was said before by many Egyptian intellectuals</i>. In el-Dostoor newspaper. 08/17/2008</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20090220151536/http://dostor.org/ar/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=659&Itemid=75">Archived</a> 2009-02-20 at the <a href="/wiki/Wayback_Machine" title="Wayback Machine">Wayback Machine</a></span> </li> </ol></div> <div class="navbox-styles"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1129693374"><style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1236075235">.mw-parser-output .navbox{box-sizing:border-box;border:1px solid #a2a9b1;width:100%;clear:both;font-size:88%;text-align:center;padding:1px;margin:1em auto 0}.mw-parser-output .navbox .navbox{margin-top:0}.mw-parser-output .navbox+.navbox,.mw-parser-output .navbox+.navbox-styles+.navbox{margin-top:-1px}.mw-parser-output .navbox-inner,.mw-parser-output .navbox-subgroup{width:100%}.mw-parser-output .navbox-group,.mw-parser-output .navbox-title,.mw-parser-output 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