The word Copt in modern usage refers to Christian natives of Egypt, namely members of the Coptic Orthodox Church (who form the majority), the Coptic Catholic Church, and the Coptic Protestant Church. While their exact numbers are subject to controversy, Coptic sources put forward figures ranging between 7 and 15 millions. However, the latest estimates (2005) put them at nearly 5 million or 6% of the Egyptian population, making them the largest Christian community in the Middle East and the largest Arabic-speaking non-Muslim group in the world.
Etymology
The English word Copt is from New Latin Coptus, which is derived from Arabic qubṭi قبطي (pl: qubṭ قبط and aqbāṭ أقباط), an Arabisation of the Coptic word kubti (Bohairic) and/or kuptaion (Sahidic). The Coptic itself is derived from the Greek word Αἰγύπτιος, aiguptios: "Egyptian", from Αἰγύπτος, aiguptos: "Egypt". & there is an old arabic theory for the name that it may be derived from the name of one of the sons noah who lived in egypt that he is the son of misram that the arabic name of egypt(misr)is derived from.
The Greek term for "Egypt" has a long history. It goes back to the Mycenaean language (an early form of Greek) where the word a3-ku-pi-ti-jo (lit. "Egyptian"; used here as a man's name) was written in Linear B. This Mycenaean form is likely from Egyptian ḥwt-k3-ptḥ ("Hut-ka-Ptah"), literally "Estate (or 'House') of Ptah" (cf. Akkadian āluḫi-ku-up-ta-aḫ), the name of the temple complex of the god Ptah at Memphis. As the chief temple precinct of the capital of Egypt, the name was applied to the entire city of Memphis and ultimately to the country as a whole.
A similar situation is observed in the name Memphis [Greek Μέμφις], which comes from the Egyptian name of the pyramid complex of king Pepi II, mn nfr ppy (lit. "Established in Perfection or 'Beauty' is Pepy") at Saqqara but which was applied to the nearby capital city. Interestingly, this usage survived in Sahidic as Gupton and Kupton, meaning "Memphis". In modern Egyptian Arabic, the local name of the capital Cairo is Masr (Egyptian Arabic مَصر), which is also the name of Egypt as a whole.
There is another theory which states that the Arabic word qibṭ "Copt" was an Arabisation of the Greek name of the town of Κόπτος Coptos (modern قفط Qifṭ; Coptic Kebt and Keft), but is generally no longer accepted.
References to Copts in the Coptic language are both Greek and Coptic in origin. The words kuptaion (Sahidic) and kubti (Bohairic) are attested, but are used in the surviving texts to refer to the language, rather than the people; these both derive from Greek Αἴγύπτιος aiguptios "Egyptian". The "native" Coptic term referring to Copts was rem en kēme (Sahidic), lem en kēmi (Fayyumic), rem en khēmi (Bohairic), etc., literally "people of Egypt"; cf. Egyptian rmṯ n kmt, Demotic rmt n kmỉ.
Usage
Coptic is the contemporary reference pertaining to Egyptian Christianity, its culture, and its followers (who previously included Ethiopian and Eritrean Christians before the separation of their churches), as well as the last phase of the Egyptian language and its written alphabet which are still employed by the Coptic Church. Medieval writers until the Mamluk period often used the words Copts (Arabic: قبط) and Egyptians (Arabic: مصريون) interchangeably to describe all the people of Egypt whether Christian or Muslim. In the 20th century, some Egyptian nationalists and intellectuals began using the term Copts similarly. For example, Morcus Semika Pasha, founder of the Coptic Museum, addressed a group of Egyptian students in these words: "All of you are Copts. Some of you are Muslim Copts, others are Christian Copts, but all of you are descended from the ancient Egyptians." (qtd. in M. Hussein. el Ittigahat el Wataneyya fil Adab el Muʻṣir [National Trends in Modern Literature]. Vol. 2. Cairo. 1954). However, most Egyptian Muslims today are far more likely to identify simply as Egyptian.
Related words
- From the Greek word Αίγυπτος "Aiguptos" or "Aigyptos", the name for Egypt in many European languages was derived.
- The word qabāṭī قباطي, a kind of textile import from Egypt and which was used to cover the Kaaba since before Islam, is derived from Arabic قبط qubṭ.
- The English word gypsy is derived from the Middle English egypcien meaning "Egyptian". Likewise, the Spanish word gitano, also meaning gypsy, derives from a common Latin source. This is due to the mistaken belief that gypsies were of Egyptian origin. Gypsy and the (probably) related term, gyp ("to swindle or cheat") are generally viewed as being pejorative; see the article Roma (people).
- In modern Egyptian Arabic, the word koftes (pl. kafatsa), used colloquially to refer to Christians , is perhaps an Egyptianised form of the Latin Coptus, under phonetic and linguistic factors different from those which existed when qubṭ was derived from Greek aiguptios. This, however, seems unlikely.
References
- Christians and Jews Under Islam (1997) by Youssef Courbage, Phillipe Fargues, Judy Mabro (Translator)
- Denis, E. (2000). "Cent ans de localisation de la population chrétienne égyptienne." Astrolabe(2).
See also
External links
