Coptic Catholics
Coptic Catholics. Members of the Coptic Catholic Church, a semi-autonomous Christian church in communion with the Roman Catholic Church, through the arrangement of the Eastern Rite. Even several centuries before a branch of the Coptic Church joined the Roman Catholic Church, there were Roman Catholics in Egypt. These had importance for the eventual conversion of the church, as they were a bridge to many groups and individuals in the Coptic Church. The Church’s center is in Alexandria, while there are dioceses in Al Minya, Assyut, Sohag, Luxor and Ismailia. Most of the Coptic Catholics live in the middle of Egypt, around the cities with dioceses.
There are no monasteries in the Coptic Catholic Church, in stark contrast to the Coptic Orthodox Church, as well as the Roman Catholic Church. At the end of the twentieth century of the Christian calendar, there were approximately 200,000 Coptic Catholics in Egypt.
The early history of Coptic Catholics is linked with the Coptic Church. However, in 1443, a Coptic delegation signed an agreement creating a union between the Coptic Church and the Roman Catholic Church. The agreement is known as the Cantate Domino, and it was signed at the Council of Florence. But this attempt at union was not supported by the Coptic leaders in Egypt, so none of the plans were implemented.
In 1630, a Capuchin mission was established in Cairo, and in 1675, the Jesuits began their missionary activity in Egypt.
In 1741, the Bishop of Jerusalem, Athanasius, became a Catholic, and converted his bishopric of 2,000 adherents into a Catholic one. Nevertheless, Athanasius’ church would retain much of its Coptic character and independence. Athanasius would later return to the Orthodox Coptic branch, but the Catholic congregation was continued.
In 1829, for the first time, the Ottoman authorities allowed the Coptic Catholics to build their own churches.
In 1893, ten churches located in Egypt were given to the Coptic Catholics by the Franciscans. In 1895, the Coptic Catholics were divided into three dioceses.
In 1899, the patriarch of Alexandria was appointed, although he resided in Cairo.
In 1908, after the Patriarch Vicar Bishop Cyril initiated the introduction of certain Latin rites, a controversy broke out between the Coptic Catholics. As a result, the seat of the Patriarch was left open for almost 40 years.
In 1947, a new patriarch of Alexandria was elected.
Coptic Catholics. Members of the Coptic Catholic Church, a semi-autonomous Christian church in communion with the Roman Catholic Church, through the arrangement of the Eastern Rite. Even several centuries before a branch of the Coptic Church joined the Roman Catholic Church, there were Roman Catholics in Egypt. These had importance for the eventual conversion of the church, as they were a bridge to many groups and individuals in the Coptic Church. The Church’s center is in Alexandria, while there are dioceses in Al Minya, Assyut, Sohag, Luxor and Ismailia. Most of the Coptic Catholics live in the middle of Egypt, around the cities with dioceses.
There are no monasteries in the Coptic Catholic Church, in stark contrast to the Coptic Orthodox Church, as well as the Roman Catholic Church. At the end of the twentieth century of the Christian calendar, there were approximately 200,000 Coptic Catholics in Egypt.
The early history of Coptic Catholics is linked with the Coptic Church. However, in 1443, a Coptic delegation signed an agreement creating a union between the Coptic Church and the Roman Catholic Church. The agreement is known as the Cantate Domino, and it was signed at the Council of Florence. But this attempt at union was not supported by the Coptic leaders in Egypt, so none of the plans were implemented.
In 1630, a Capuchin mission was established in Cairo, and in 1675, the Jesuits began their missionary activity in Egypt.
In 1741, the Bishop of Jerusalem, Athanasius, became a Catholic, and converted his bishopric of 2,000 adherents into a Catholic one. Nevertheless, Athanasius’ church would retain much of its Coptic character and independence. Athanasius would later return to the Orthodox Coptic branch, but the Catholic congregation was continued.
In 1829, for the first time, the Ottoman authorities allowed the Coptic Catholics to build their own churches.
In 1893, ten churches located in Egypt were given to the Coptic Catholics by the Franciscans. In 1895, the Coptic Catholics were divided into three dioceses.
In 1899, the patriarch of Alexandria was appointed, although he resided in Cairo.
In 1908, after the Patriarch Vicar Bishop Cyril initiated the introduction of certain Latin rites, a controversy broke out between the Coptic Catholics. As a result, the seat of the Patriarch was left open for almost 40 years.
In 1947, a new patriarch of Alexandria was elected.
Copts
Copts. People within the Egyptian population who consider themselves the true descendants of the ancient Egyptians. However, such a consideration is only viable when the infusion of Nubians, Greeks, Jews and Romans in ancient times is overlooked. The Copts are distinguished by their Christian beliefs (Coptic religion, but also some Catholic and Protestant). There are few, if any, physical differences between Copts and Egyptians in general, but Copts can be spotted by their wearing a cross around their necks, having a cross tattooed on their wrists, or by their Christian names. While exact figures are difficult to find, it is estimated that they make up slightly less than ten percent of the total Egyptian population. Cities with large Coptic communities are Cairo and Assyut.
The term "Copts" more precisely refers to members of the Coptic Church. The Coptic Church is, by far, the largest Christian group in Egypt as well as in North Africa and Southwest Asia. According to government figures, there were about two million Copts in Egypt at the end of the twentieth century of the Christian calendar. However, most scholars believe this number to be an underestimation because many Copts did not register their religious affiliation in official papers out of fear of discrimination. Most scholars estimate that the Copts actually make up slightly less than ten percent of the total Egyptian population, or about six million people.
The name “Copt” comes from the Greek "Aigyptos" by way of the Arabic "qubt". The Coptic Church is sometimes applied to the Ethiopian Church but the Ethiopian Church actually declared itself independent from the Egyptian branch in 1959 and today the Ethiopian Church does not accept the term “Coptic.”
The Coptic Church is headed by the “pope and patriarch of Alexandria, Pentapolis and Ethiopia” who, as of the year 2000, resided in Cairo. The selection of the pope is done by election by both clergy and laity from three nominees. There are presently twelve monasteries in Egypt, with around 600 monks. In six convents, there are around 300 nuns. The largest monastery, and most famous, is at Wadi Natrun.
In its early history, the Egyptian Church was of great importance to the development of Christianity. Clement of the second century and Origen of the third century were some of the most central Christian personalities of their time. The first Christian convent was formed inside the Egyptian Church.
The Coptic liturgy was based on the Greek rite of Alexandria, but developed from the fourth century its own distinct characteristics. This development happened mainly in the monasteries. In modern times, it is performed in both Coptic and Arabic.
The Coptic Church’s relations with the governments of Egypt have sometimes been difficult, but today there is not much difference in the way the government treats the Copts compared to its treatment of Muslims. However, the Copts have recently faced attacks from militant Islamists of Egypt, and consequently, there has been some emigration of the Copts.
The Coptic Church has been active in talks with other small churches, and has also found a platform for solving theological differences with the Eastern Orthodox Church. This is important because throughout their history there have been many situations where disagreements came from verbal differences between the two churches.
A brief history of the Coptic Church reads as follows:
According to Coptic traditions, the Egyptian Church was formed by the evangelist Mark during the first century of the Christian calendar. This tradition is not generally supported by historians who believe that the Coptic Church had its origins in the Jewish community of Alexandria. However, at this time, there are no reliable sources which document how Christianity first came to be in Egypt.
During the third century of the Christian calendar, ascetic Christians began forming small self-serving communities out in the desert. From this developed the monastery system.
During the fourth and fifth centuries, a debate was waged inside the church on the question of the quality of Jesus as to whether he was man or God… as to whether he was of one or two natures … as to whether he was human and/or divine.
In 451, a large group of the Egyptian Christians did not accept the decrees of Chalcedon which decreed that Jesus was both man and God, but as one. The Egyptian Christians supported the Monophysite (one nature) hypothesis, and it was this group that developed into the church later known as Coptic.
In 641, because of oppression perpetrated by the Christian leaders of the Byzantine Empire, the Egyptian Christians did little to prevent the Arab Muslim invasion of Egypt.
During the seventh and eighth centuries, the number of Christians in Egypt started to decline, mainly due to conversions to Islam. Indeed, by the ninth century of the Christian calendar, Muslims came to outnumber Christians in Egypt.
In 1443, a Coptic delegation signed an agreement creating a union between the Coptic Church and the Roman Catholic Church. The agreement is known as the Cantate Domino and it was signed at the Council of Florence. However, this agreement was not supported by the Coptic leaders in Egypt, so none of the provisions of the agreement were implemented.
In 1971, Shenouda III was elected the Pope of Alexandria. Ten years later, he was placed under house arrest by the Egyptian President Anwar Sadat. In 1985, Shenouda was allowed to return to office.
In 1997, a wave of attacks on Copts by militant Islamists occurred.
According to ancient tradition, Christianity was introduced to the Egyptians by Saint Mark in Alexandria, shortly after the ascension of Christ and during the reign of the Roman emperor Claudius around 42 C.C. The legacy that Saint Mark left in Egypt was a considerable Christian community in Alexandria. From Alexandria, Christianity spread throughout Egypt within half a century of Saint Mark's arrival in Alexandria, as is clear from a fragment of the Gospel of John, written in Coptic, which was found in Upper Egypt and can be dated to the first half of the second century, and the New Testament writings found in Oxyrhynchus, in Middle Egypt, which date around the year 200 C.C. In the second century, Christianity began to spread to the rural areas, and scriptures were translated into the local language, today known as the Coptic language (which was called the Egyptian language at the time). By the beginning of the 3rd century of the Christian calendar, Christians constituted the majority of Egypt’s population, and the Church of Alexandria was recognized as one of Christendom's four Apostolic Sees, second in honor only to the Church of Rome. The Church of Alexandria is therefore the oldest church in Africa.
The Egyptians contributed immensely to the formation of the worldwide Christian mind. For example, the Catechetical School of Alexandria was the oldest catechetical school in the world. Founded around 190 C.C. by the scholar Pantanaeus, the school of Alexandria became an important institution of religious learning, where students were taught by scholars such as Athenagoras, Clement, Didymus, and the great Origen, who was considered the father of theology and who was also active in the field of commentary and comparative Biblical studies. However, the scope of this school was not limited to theological subjects; science, mathematics and humanities were also taught there. The question and answer method of commentary began there, and 15 centuries before Braille, wood-carving techniques were in use there by blind scholars to read and write.
Another major contribution made by the Egyptians to Christianity was the creation and organization of monasticism. The most prominent figures of the monastic movement were Anthony the Great, Paul of Thebes, Macarius the Great, Shenouda the Archimandrite and Pachomius the Cenobite. By the end of the fifth century, there were hundreds of monasteries, and thousands of cells and caves scattered throughout the Egyptian desert. Worldwide Christian monasticism stems, either directly or indirectly, from the Egyptian example. Thus, Saint Basil the Great Archbishop of Caesarea Mazaca, and the founder and organizer of the monastic movement in Asia Minor, visited Egypt around 357 C.C. and his monastic rules are followed by the Eastern Orthodox Churches; Saint Jerome, who translated the Bible into Latin, came to Egypt while en route to Jerusalem around 400 C.C. and left details of his experiences in his letters; and Saint Benedict founded the Benedictine Order in the sixth century on the model of Saint Pachomius, although in a stricter form. Countless pilgrims have visited the Egyptian Desert Fathers to emulate their spiritual, disciplined lives.
The Egyptians also played a major role in the first three Ecumenical councils. Thus, the Council of Nicaea (325 C.C.) was presided over by Pope Alexander of Alexandria, along with Saint Hosius of Córdoba. In addition, the most prominent figure of the council was the future Pope of Alexandria, Athanasius, who played the major role in the formulation of the Nicene Creed, recited today in all Christian churches of different denominations. One of the council's decisions was to entrust the Pope of Alexandria with calculating and annually announcing the exact date of Easter to the rest of the Christian churches. The Council of Constantinople (381 C.C.) was presided over by Pope Timothy of Alexandria, while the Council of Ephesus (431 C.C.) was presided over by Pope Cyril of Alexandria. Undoubtedly, the fact that the first three Ecumenical councils in the history of Christianity were headed by Egyptian patriarchs attested to the major contributions that the See of Alexandria contributed to the establishment of early Christian theology and dogma.
In 451, following the Council of Chalcedon, the Church of Alexandria was divided into two branches. Those who accepted the terms of the Council became known as Chalcedonians or Melkites. Those who did not abide by the Council's terms were labeled non-Chalcedonians or Monophysites (and later Jacobites after Jacob Baradaeus). The non-Chalcedonians, however, rejected the term Monophysites as erroneous and insisted on being called Miaphysites. The majority of the Egyptians belonged to the Miaphysite branch, which led to their persecution by the Byzantines in Egypt.
In 641, Egypt was invaded by the Arabs who faced off with the Byzantine army, but found little to no resistance from the native Egyptian population. Local resistance by the Egyptians, however, began to materialize shortly thereafter and would last until at least the ninth century.
The Arabs imposed a special tax, known as jizya, on the Christians who acquired the status of dhimmis, and all native Egyptians were prohibited from joining the army. Egyptian converts to Islam in turn were relegated to the status of mawali. Heavy taxation was one of the reasons behind Egyptian organized resistance against the new occupying power, as well as the decline of the number of Christians in Egypt. The Arabs' oppression of the Egyptians led the latter to mount several armed rebellions against the Arabs, some of which, such as that of the Beshumurians in the Delta were successful.
The Arabs in the 7th century seldom used the term Egyptian, and used instead the term Copt to describe the people of Egypt. Thus, Egyptians became known as Copts, and the non-Chalcedonian Egyptian Church became known as the Coptic Church. The Chalcedonian Church remained known as the Melkite Church. In their own native language, Egyptians referred to themselves as rem-en-kimi, which translates into "those of Egypt". Religious life remained largely undisturbed following the Arab occupation, as evidence by the rich output of Coptic arts in monastic centers in Old Cairo (Fustat) and throughout Egypt. Conditions, however, worsened shortly after that, and in the eighth and ninth centuries, during the period of the great national resistance against the Arabs, Muslim rulers banned the use of human forms in art (taking advantage of an iconoclastic conflict in Byzantium) and consequently destroyed many Coptic paintings and frescoes in churches.
The Fatimid period of Islamic rule in Egypt was tolerant with the exception of the violent persecutions of caliph Al-Hakim. The Fatimid rulers employed Copts in the government and participated in Coptic and local Egyptian feasts. Major renovation and reconstruction of churches and monasteries were also undertaken. Coptic arts flourished, reaching new heights in Middle and Upper Egypt. Persecution of Egyptian Christians, however, reached a peak in the early Mameluke period following the Crusader wars. Many forced conversions of Christians took place. Monasteries were occasionally raided and destroyed by marauding Bedouin, but were rebuilt and reopened.
The position of the Copts did not begin to improve until the rule of Muhammad Ali in the early 19th century, who abolished the jizya and allowed Egyptians (Copts as well as Muslims) to enroll in the army. Conditions continued to improve throughout the nineteenth century under the leadership of the great reformer Pope Cyril IV, and in the first half of the twentieth century (known as the Golden Age by the Copts) during Egypt's liberal period. Copts participated in the Egyptian national movement for independence and occupied many influential positions. Two significant cultural achievements include the founding of the Coptic Museum in 1910 and the Higher Institute of Coptic Studies in 1954. Some prominent Coptic thinkers from this period are Salama Moussa, Louis Awad and Secretary General of the Wafd Party Makram Ebeid. Following the 1952 coup d'état by the Free Officers, the conditions of the Copts have been slowly deteriorating and their human rights are often violated.
In 1952, Nasser led some army officers in a coup d'état against King Farouk, which overthrew the Kingdom of Egypt and established a republic. Nasser's mainstream policy was pan-Arab nationalism and socialism. The Copts were severely affected by Nasser's nationalization policies because, although they represented about twenty percent (20%) of the population, they were so economically prosperous as to have held more than fifty percent (50%) of the country's wealth. In addition, Nasser's pan-Arab policies undermined the Copts' strong attachment to and sense of self about their Egyptian pre-Arab, and certainly non-Arab, identity. As a result, many Copts left their country for Australia, North America or Europe.
Today, members of the non-Chalcedonian Coptic Orthodox Church constitute the majority of the Egyptian Christian population. Mainly through emigration and partly through European, American, and other missionary work and conversions, the Egyptian Christian community now also includes other Christian denominations such as Protestants (known in Arabic as Evangelicals), Roman and Eastern Rite Catholics, and other Orthodox congregations. The term Coptic remains exclusive however to the Egyptian natives, as opposed to the Christians of non-Egyptian origins. Some Protestant churches for instance are called "Coptic Evangelical Church", thus helping differentiate their native Egyptian congregations from churches attended by non-Egyptian immigrant communities such as Europeans or Americans.
Religious freedom in Egypt is hampered to varying degrees by discriminatory and restrictive government policies. Coptic Christians, being the largest religious minority in Egypt, are also negatively affected. Copts have faced increasing marginalization after the 1952 coup d'état led by Gamal Abdel Nasser. Until recently, Christians were required to obtain presidential approval for even minor repairs in churches. Although the law was eased in 2005 by handing down the authority of approval to the governors, Copts continue to face many obstacles and restrictions in building new churches. These restrictions do not apply for building mosques.
The Coptic community has been targeted by hate crimes and physical assaults. The most significant was the 2000-2001 El Kosheh attacks, in which Muslims and Christians were involved in bloody inter-religious clashes following a dispute between a Muslim and a Christian.
Boutros Boutros-Ghali is a Copt who served as Egypt's acting foreign minister twice under President Anwar Sadat (1977 and 1978 - 1979). Although Boutros Boutros-Ghali later became the United Nations Secretary-General, his appointment as an only acting foreign minister depicted Egypt's systematic elimination of Copts from all governmental influential positions.
While freedom of religion is guaranteed by the Egyptian constitution, as of 2011, Egyptians were able to convert to Islam generally without difficulty, but Muslims who converted to Christianity faced difficulties in getting new identity papers and some were even arrested for allegedly forging such documents.
Many Copts are internationally renowned. Some of the most well known Copts include Boutros Boutros-Ghali the sixth Secretary-General of the United Nations, Magdi Yacoub an internationally renowned heart surgeon, Hani Azer, a world leading civil engineer, and Fayez Sarofim, one of the richest men in America and the world.
During the seventh and eighth centuries, the number of Christians in Egypt started to decline, mainly due to conversions to Islam. Indeed, by the ninth century of the Christian calendar, Muslims came to outnumber Christians in Egypt.
In 1443, a Coptic delegation signed an agreement creating a union between the Coptic Church and the Roman Catholic Church. The agreement is known as the Cantate Domino and it was signed at the Council of Florence. However, this agreement was not supported by the Coptic leaders in Egypt, so none of the provisions of the agreement were implemented.
In 1971, Shenouda III was elected the Pope of Alexandria. Ten years later, he was placed under house arrest by the Egyptian President Anwar Sadat. In 1985, Shenouda was allowed to return to office.
In 1997, a wave of attacks on Copts by militant Islamists occurred.
According to ancient tradition, Christianity was introduced to the Egyptians by Saint Mark in Alexandria, shortly after the ascension of Christ and during the reign of the Roman emperor Claudius around 42 C.C. The legacy that Saint Mark left in Egypt was a considerable Christian community in Alexandria. From Alexandria, Christianity spread throughout Egypt within half a century of Saint Mark's arrival in Alexandria, as is clear from a fragment of the Gospel of John, written in Coptic, which was found in Upper Egypt and can be dated to the first half of the second century, and the New Testament writings found in Oxyrhynchus, in Middle Egypt, which date around the year 200 C.C. In the second century, Christianity began to spread to the rural areas, and scriptures were translated into the local language, today known as the Coptic language (which was called the Egyptian language at the time). By the beginning of the 3rd century of the Christian calendar, Christians constituted the majority of Egypt’s population, and the Church of Alexandria was recognized as one of Christendom's four Apostolic Sees, second in honor only to the Church of Rome. The Church of Alexandria is therefore the oldest church in Africa.
The Egyptians contributed immensely to the formation of the worldwide Christian mind. For example, the Catechetical School of Alexandria was the oldest catechetical school in the world. Founded around 190 C.C. by the scholar Pantanaeus, the school of Alexandria became an important institution of religious learning, where students were taught by scholars such as Athenagoras, Clement, Didymus, and the great Origen, who was considered the father of theology and who was also active in the field of commentary and comparative Biblical studies. However, the scope of this school was not limited to theological subjects; science, mathematics and humanities were also taught there. The question and answer method of commentary began there, and 15 centuries before Braille, wood-carving techniques were in use there by blind scholars to read and write.
Another major contribution made by the Egyptians to Christianity was the creation and organization of monasticism. The most prominent figures of the monastic movement were Anthony the Great, Paul of Thebes, Macarius the Great, Shenouda the Archimandrite and Pachomius the Cenobite. By the end of the fifth century, there were hundreds of monasteries, and thousands of cells and caves scattered throughout the Egyptian desert. Worldwide Christian monasticism stems, either directly or indirectly, from the Egyptian example. Thus, Saint Basil the Great Archbishop of Caesarea Mazaca, and the founder and organizer of the monastic movement in Asia Minor, visited Egypt around 357 C.C. and his monastic rules are followed by the Eastern Orthodox Churches; Saint Jerome, who translated the Bible into Latin, came to Egypt while en route to Jerusalem around 400 C.C. and left details of his experiences in his letters; and Saint Benedict founded the Benedictine Order in the sixth century on the model of Saint Pachomius, although in a stricter form. Countless pilgrims have visited the Egyptian Desert Fathers to emulate their spiritual, disciplined lives.
The Egyptians also played a major role in the first three Ecumenical councils. Thus, the Council of Nicaea (325 C.C.) was presided over by Pope Alexander of Alexandria, along with Saint Hosius of Córdoba. In addition, the most prominent figure of the council was the future Pope of Alexandria, Athanasius, who played the major role in the formulation of the Nicene Creed, recited today in all Christian churches of different denominations. One of the council's decisions was to entrust the Pope of Alexandria with calculating and annually announcing the exact date of Easter to the rest of the Christian churches. The Council of Constantinople (381 C.C.) was presided over by Pope Timothy of Alexandria, while the Council of Ephesus (431 C.C.) was presided over by Pope Cyril of Alexandria. Undoubtedly, the fact that the first three Ecumenical councils in the history of Christianity were headed by Egyptian patriarchs attested to the major contributions that the See of Alexandria contributed to the establishment of early Christian theology and dogma.
In 451, following the Council of Chalcedon, the Church of Alexandria was divided into two branches. Those who accepted the terms of the Council became known as Chalcedonians or Melkites. Those who did not abide by the Council's terms were labeled non-Chalcedonians or Monophysites (and later Jacobites after Jacob Baradaeus). The non-Chalcedonians, however, rejected the term Monophysites as erroneous and insisted on being called Miaphysites. The majority of the Egyptians belonged to the Miaphysite branch, which led to their persecution by the Byzantines in Egypt.
In 641, Egypt was invaded by the Arabs who faced off with the Byzantine army, but found little to no resistance from the native Egyptian population. Local resistance by the Egyptians, however, began to materialize shortly thereafter and would last until at least the ninth century.
The Arabs imposed a special tax, known as jizya, on the Christians who acquired the status of dhimmis, and all native Egyptians were prohibited from joining the army. Egyptian converts to Islam in turn were relegated to the status of mawali. Heavy taxation was one of the reasons behind Egyptian organized resistance against the new occupying power, as well as the decline of the number of Christians in Egypt. The Arabs' oppression of the Egyptians led the latter to mount several armed rebellions against the Arabs, some of which, such as that of the Beshumurians in the Delta were successful.
The Arabs in the 7th century seldom used the term Egyptian, and used instead the term Copt to describe the people of Egypt. Thus, Egyptians became known as Copts, and the non-Chalcedonian Egyptian Church became known as the Coptic Church. The Chalcedonian Church remained known as the Melkite Church. In their own native language, Egyptians referred to themselves as rem-en-kimi, which translates into "those of Egypt". Religious life remained largely undisturbed following the Arab occupation, as evidence by the rich output of Coptic arts in monastic centers in Old Cairo (Fustat) and throughout Egypt. Conditions, however, worsened shortly after that, and in the eighth and ninth centuries, during the period of the great national resistance against the Arabs, Muslim rulers banned the use of human forms in art (taking advantage of an iconoclastic conflict in Byzantium) and consequently destroyed many Coptic paintings and frescoes in churches.
The Fatimid period of Islamic rule in Egypt was tolerant with the exception of the violent persecutions of caliph Al-Hakim. The Fatimid rulers employed Copts in the government and participated in Coptic and local Egyptian feasts. Major renovation and reconstruction of churches and monasteries were also undertaken. Coptic arts flourished, reaching new heights in Middle and Upper Egypt. Persecution of Egyptian Christians, however, reached a peak in the early Mameluke period following the Crusader wars. Many forced conversions of Christians took place. Monasteries were occasionally raided and destroyed by marauding Bedouin, but were rebuilt and reopened.
The position of the Copts did not begin to improve until the rule of Muhammad Ali in the early 19th century, who abolished the jizya and allowed Egyptians (Copts as well as Muslims) to enroll in the army. Conditions continued to improve throughout the nineteenth century under the leadership of the great reformer Pope Cyril IV, and in the first half of the twentieth century (known as the Golden Age by the Copts) during Egypt's liberal period. Copts participated in the Egyptian national movement for independence and occupied many influential positions. Two significant cultural achievements include the founding of the Coptic Museum in 1910 and the Higher Institute of Coptic Studies in 1954. Some prominent Coptic thinkers from this period are Salama Moussa, Louis Awad and Secretary General of the Wafd Party Makram Ebeid. Following the 1952 coup d'état by the Free Officers, the conditions of the Copts have been slowly deteriorating and their human rights are often violated.
In 1952, Nasser led some army officers in a coup d'état against King Farouk, which overthrew the Kingdom of Egypt and established a republic. Nasser's mainstream policy was pan-Arab nationalism and socialism. The Copts were severely affected by Nasser's nationalization policies because, although they represented about twenty percent (20%) of the population, they were so economically prosperous as to have held more than fifty percent (50%) of the country's wealth. In addition, Nasser's pan-Arab policies undermined the Copts' strong attachment to and sense of self about their Egyptian pre-Arab, and certainly non-Arab, identity. As a result, many Copts left their country for Australia, North America or Europe.
Today, members of the non-Chalcedonian Coptic Orthodox Church constitute the majority of the Egyptian Christian population. Mainly through emigration and partly through European, American, and other missionary work and conversions, the Egyptian Christian community now also includes other Christian denominations such as Protestants (known in Arabic as Evangelicals), Roman and Eastern Rite Catholics, and other Orthodox congregations. The term Coptic remains exclusive however to the Egyptian natives, as opposed to the Christians of non-Egyptian origins. Some Protestant churches for instance are called "Coptic Evangelical Church", thus helping differentiate their native Egyptian congregations from churches attended by non-Egyptian immigrant communities such as Europeans or Americans.
Religious freedom in Egypt is hampered to varying degrees by discriminatory and restrictive government policies. Coptic Christians, being the largest religious minority in Egypt, are also negatively affected. Copts have faced increasing marginalization after the 1952 coup d'état led by Gamal Abdel Nasser. Until recently, Christians were required to obtain presidential approval for even minor repairs in churches. Although the law was eased in 2005 by handing down the authority of approval to the governors, Copts continue to face many obstacles and restrictions in building new churches. These restrictions do not apply for building mosques.
The Coptic community has been targeted by hate crimes and physical assaults. The most significant was the 2000-2001 El Kosheh attacks, in which Muslims and Christians were involved in bloody inter-religious clashes following a dispute between a Muslim and a Christian.
Boutros Boutros-Ghali is a Copt who served as Egypt's acting foreign minister twice under President Anwar Sadat (1977 and 1978 - 1979). Although Boutros Boutros-Ghali later became the United Nations Secretary-General, his appointment as an only acting foreign minister depicted Egypt's systematic elimination of Copts from all governmental influential positions.
While freedom of religion is guaranteed by the Egyptian constitution, as of 2011, Egyptians were able to convert to Islam generally without difficulty, but Muslims who converted to Christianity faced difficulties in getting new identity papers and some were even arrested for allegedly forging such documents.
Many Copts are internationally renowned. Some of the most well known Copts include Boutros Boutros-Ghali the sixth Secretary-General of the United Nations, Magdi Yacoub an internationally renowned heart surgeon, Hani Azer, a world leading civil engineer, and Fayez Sarofim, one of the richest men in America and the world.
Cossack
Cossack (Qazaq) (Kazak) (Kazakh). The term “Cossack” refers to the horse soldiers of southern Russia. The term “Cossack” also referred to members of a Persian brigade trained and chiefly officered by Russian Cossacks up to 1921. In the Turkish language, the term originally meant independent or vagabond. Under the Timurids, it signified the pretenders in contrast to the actual rulers. It also began to be applied to nomad groups which separated from their prince and kinsmen and thus came into conflict with the state. The word became the name of a political unit and later an ethnic designation for the Ozbegs who migrated to northeastern Turkestan and gave their name to present day Kazakhstan. In the seventeenth century, the Kalmuks forced some groups to make an approach to Russia and to accept Russian supremacy.
Cossacks are members of a people dwelling in the northern hinterlands of the Black and Caspian seas. They had a tradition of independence and finally received privileges from the Russian government in return for military services. Originally (in the 15th century) the term referred to semi-independent Tatar groups, which formed in the Dnieper region; the term was also applied (by the end of the 15th century) to peasants who had fled from serfdom in Poland, Lithuania, and Muscovy to the Dnieper and Don regions, where they established free, self-governing military communities. In the 16th century there were six major Cossack hosts: the Don, the Greben (in Caucasia), the Yaik (on the middle Ural River), the Volga, the Dnieper, and the Zaporozhian (mainly west of the Dnieper).
Polish kings in the early 16th century began to organize the Zaporozhian Cossacks into military colonies to protect Poland’s borders. Throughout the 16th century and the first half of the 17th, these Cossacks retained their political autonomy, briefly forming a semi-independent state under Bohdan Khmelnytsky (c. 1649). However, threatened by Polish domination, the Zaporozhian Cossacks signed a treaty with Russia in 1654, under which their autonomy was to be respected. The Russians likewise used the Cossacks first as defenders of the Russian frontier and later as advance guards for the territorial extension of the Russian Empire. Internally, the Cossacks regained a greater degree of their cherished liberties under the Russians than they had known under the Poles. The Russian throne reserved the right to approve Cossacks’ negotiations with the Poles and the Turks, the peoples with whom Russian relations were the most sensitive. Otherwise the chief ruler, or hetman (ataman), of the Cossack army had a free hand in foreign policy. Thus, in exchange for some military obligations, the Cossacks had restored some of their autonomy—in the short term. Over the years, however, Russia increasingly came to dominate the Cossacks.
Under the Russian umbrella, the Cossacks expanded eastward from their home in the Don and were early colonizers of Siberia. By the end of the 19th century the number of Cossack groups had expanded to 11, including the Don, Kuban, Terek, Orenburg, and Ussuri Cossacks.
When their privileges were threatened, the Cossacks revolted, their most famous rebel leaders of the 17th and 18th centuries being Stenka Razin, Kondraty Bulavin, and Yemelyan Pugachov. As a result, they gradually lost their autonomous status. By the late 18th century, all Cossack males were required to serve in the Russian army for 20 years; and, although each Cossack village (stanitsa) continued to elect its own assembly, the hetman was appointed by the central government. The Cossacks’ social structure, which had traditionally been based on equality and communal landholding, deteriorated, particularly after 1869, when Cossack officers and civil servants were allowed to own land privately and rent it to outsiders.
In the 19th and 20th centuries, the Russians used Cossacks extensively to suppress revolutionary activities. The Cossack sense of being a separate and elite community gave them a strong sense of loyalty to the Tsarist government and Cossack units were frequently used to suppress domestic disorder, especially during the Russian Revolution of 1905. The Imperial Government depended heavily on the perceived reliability of the Cossacks, although by the early 20th century their separate communities and semi-feudal military service were increasingly being seen as obsolete. In strictly military terms the Cossacks were not highly regarded by the Russian Army Command, who saw them as less well disciplined, trained and mounted than the hussars, dragoons and lancers of the regular cavalry. The Cossack qualities of initiative and rough-riding skills were not always fully appreciated. As a result, Cossack units were frequently broken up into small detachments for use as scouts, messengers or picturesque escorts.
During the February Revolution of 1917, the Cossacks appear to have shared the general disillusionment with Tsarist leadership and the Cossack regiments in Saint Petersburg joined the uprising. While only a few units were involved, their defection (and that of the Konvoi) came as a stunning psychological blow to the Government of Nicholas II and sped his abdication.
At the end of the 19th century, the Cossack communities enjoyed a privileged tax-free status in the Russian Empire, although having a military service commitment of twenty years (reduced to eighteen years from 1909). Only five years had to be spent in full time service, the remainder of the commitment being spent with the reserves. In the beginning of the twentieth century Russian Cossacks counted 4.5 million and were organized into separate regional Hosts, each comprising a number of regiments.
In the Russian Civil War that followed the October Revolution, the Cossacks found themselves on both sides of the conflict. Many officers and experienced Cossacks fought for the White Army, and some for the Red Army. Following the defeat of the White Army, a policy of Decossackization (Raskazachivaniye) took place on the surviving Cossacks and their homelands since they were viewed as potential threat to the new regime. This mostly involved dividing their territory amongst other divisions and giving it to new autonomous republics of minorities, and then actively encouraging settlement of these territories with those peoples. This was especially true for the Terek Cossacks land. During 1919 and 1920, out of a population of approximately 3 million, the Bolshevik regime killed or deported an estimated 300,000 to 500,000 Cossacks", including 45 thousand Terek Cossacks. The Cossack homelands were often very fertile, and during the collectivization campaign many Cossacks shared the fate of kulaks. The Soviet famine of 1932-1933 hit the Don and Kuban territory the hardest. Nevertheless, in 1936, under pressure from former Cossack descendants, it was decided to reintroduce Cossack forces into the Red Army.
During the Second World War, Cossacks found themselves on both sides of the conflict once again. While most historians agree that the majority of the Russian Cossacks fought in the ranks of the Red Army, a substantial number of them also served with the Nazis. This can be explained by harsh repressions that many of them suffered under the collectivization and Decossackization policies pursued by Joseph Stalin. Like other peoples of the Soviet Union, who suffered persecution under Stalin, many Cossacks dreaming of autonomy greeted the advancing German army as liberators.
While the core of the Nazi collaborators was made up of former White Army refugees, many rank-and-file Cossacks defected from the Red Army to join the German armed forces (Wehrmacht). As early as 1941, the first Cossack detachments, created out of prisoners of war, defectors and volunteers, were formed under German leadership. The Dubrovski Battalion formed of Don Cossacks in December 1941 was reorganized on July 30, 1942 into the Pavlov Regiment, numbering up to 350 men. The Cossacks were successfully utilized for anti-partisan activity in the rear of the German army.
The Cossack National Movement of Liberation was set in the hope of creating an independent Cossack state, Cossackia. It was not until 1943 that the 1st Cossack Division was formed under the command of General Helmuth von Pannwitz, where Cossack emigrees took leading positions. The 2nd Cossack Division, formed in 1944, existed only for a year, as both Cossack divisions were transferred into the Waffen-SS and merged into the XVth SS Cossack Cavalry Corps in 1945. The Corps contained regiments of different Cossack groups: Don, Kuban, Terek and Siberian Cossacks. At the end of the war in 1945, they surrendered to the British Army in Allied-administered Austria, hoping to join the British to fight Communism. There was little sympathy at the time for a group who were seen as Nazi collaborators and who were reported to have committed atrocities against resistance fighters in Eastern Europe. They were accordingly handed over to the Soviet Government. At the end of the war, British commanders repatriated between 40 to 50 thousand Cossacks, including their families, to the Soviet Union. An unknown number were subsequently executed or imprisoned. Reportedly, many of those punished had never been Soviet citizens. This episode is widely known as the Betrayal of the Cossacks.
The majority of the Cossacks fought in the ranks of the Red Army on the Southern theater of the Eastern Front, where open steppes made them ideal for frontal patrols and logistics. A Cossack detachment marched in Red Square during the Moscow Victory Parade of 1945.
Following the war, Cossack units, along with cavalry in general, were rendered obsolete and released from the Soviet Army. In the post-war years many Cossack descendants were thought of as simple peasants, and those who lived inside an autonomous republic usually gave way to the particular minority and migrated elsewhere (notably, to the Baltic region).
In the Perestroika-enlightened Soviet Union of the late 1980s, many successors of the Cossacks became enthusiastic about reviving their national traditions. In 1988 the Soviet Union passed a law which allowed formation of former hosts and the creation of new ones. The ataman of the largest was granted Marshal rank and the right to form a new host. The Cossacks took an active part in many of the conflicts that took place afterwards: the War of Transnistria, the Georgian-Abkhazian conflict, the Georgian-Ossetian conflict, the Kosovo War, the First Chechen War and the Second Chechen War.
At the same time, many attempts were made to increase the Cossack impact on Russian society and throughout the 1990s many regional authorities agreed to hand over some local administration and policing duties to the Cossacks. However in April 2005, Vladimir Putin, President of Russia introduced a bill "On the State Service of the Russian Cossacks" (O gosudarstvennoy sluzhbe rossiyskogo kazachestva) to the State Duma, which was passed at the first reading on May 18, 2005. For the first time in decades the Cossacks were recognized as not only a distinct ethno-cultural entity but also as a potent military force.
Qazaq see Cossack
Kazak see Cossack
Kazakh see Cossack
Cossack (Qazaq) (Kazak) (Kazakh). The term “Cossack” refers to the horse soldiers of southern Russia. The term “Cossack” also referred to members of a Persian brigade trained and chiefly officered by Russian Cossacks up to 1921. In the Turkish language, the term originally meant independent or vagabond. Under the Timurids, it signified the pretenders in contrast to the actual rulers. It also began to be applied to nomad groups which separated from their prince and kinsmen and thus came into conflict with the state. The word became the name of a political unit and later an ethnic designation for the Ozbegs who migrated to northeastern Turkestan and gave their name to present day Kazakhstan. In the seventeenth century, the Kalmuks forced some groups to make an approach to Russia and to accept Russian supremacy.
Cossacks are members of a people dwelling in the northern hinterlands of the Black and Caspian seas. They had a tradition of independence and finally received privileges from the Russian government in return for military services. Originally (in the 15th century) the term referred to semi-independent Tatar groups, which formed in the Dnieper region; the term was also applied (by the end of the 15th century) to peasants who had fled from serfdom in Poland, Lithuania, and Muscovy to the Dnieper and Don regions, where they established free, self-governing military communities. In the 16th century there were six major Cossack hosts: the Don, the Greben (in Caucasia), the Yaik (on the middle Ural River), the Volga, the Dnieper, and the Zaporozhian (mainly west of the Dnieper).
Polish kings in the early 16th century began to organize the Zaporozhian Cossacks into military colonies to protect Poland’s borders. Throughout the 16th century and the first half of the 17th, these Cossacks retained their political autonomy, briefly forming a semi-independent state under Bohdan Khmelnytsky (c. 1649). However, threatened by Polish domination, the Zaporozhian Cossacks signed a treaty with Russia in 1654, under which their autonomy was to be respected. The Russians likewise used the Cossacks first as defenders of the Russian frontier and later as advance guards for the territorial extension of the Russian Empire. Internally, the Cossacks regained a greater degree of their cherished liberties under the Russians than they had known under the Poles. The Russian throne reserved the right to approve Cossacks’ negotiations with the Poles and the Turks, the peoples with whom Russian relations were the most sensitive. Otherwise the chief ruler, or hetman (ataman), of the Cossack army had a free hand in foreign policy. Thus, in exchange for some military obligations, the Cossacks had restored some of their autonomy—in the short term. Over the years, however, Russia increasingly came to dominate the Cossacks.
Under the Russian umbrella, the Cossacks expanded eastward from their home in the Don and were early colonizers of Siberia. By the end of the 19th century the number of Cossack groups had expanded to 11, including the Don, Kuban, Terek, Orenburg, and Ussuri Cossacks.
When their privileges were threatened, the Cossacks revolted, their most famous rebel leaders of the 17th and 18th centuries being Stenka Razin, Kondraty Bulavin, and Yemelyan Pugachov. As a result, they gradually lost their autonomous status. By the late 18th century, all Cossack males were required to serve in the Russian army for 20 years; and, although each Cossack village (stanitsa) continued to elect its own assembly, the hetman was appointed by the central government. The Cossacks’ social structure, which had traditionally been based on equality and communal landholding, deteriorated, particularly after 1869, when Cossack officers and civil servants were allowed to own land privately and rent it to outsiders.
In the 19th and 20th centuries, the Russians used Cossacks extensively to suppress revolutionary activities. The Cossack sense of being a separate and elite community gave them a strong sense of loyalty to the Tsarist government and Cossack units were frequently used to suppress domestic disorder, especially during the Russian Revolution of 1905. The Imperial Government depended heavily on the perceived reliability of the Cossacks, although by the early 20th century their separate communities and semi-feudal military service were increasingly being seen as obsolete. In strictly military terms the Cossacks were not highly regarded by the Russian Army Command, who saw them as less well disciplined, trained and mounted than the hussars, dragoons and lancers of the regular cavalry. The Cossack qualities of initiative and rough-riding skills were not always fully appreciated. As a result, Cossack units were frequently broken up into small detachments for use as scouts, messengers or picturesque escorts.
During the February Revolution of 1917, the Cossacks appear to have shared the general disillusionment with Tsarist leadership and the Cossack regiments in Saint Petersburg joined the uprising. While only a few units were involved, their defection (and that of the Konvoi) came as a stunning psychological blow to the Government of Nicholas II and sped his abdication.
At the end of the 19th century, the Cossack communities enjoyed a privileged tax-free status in the Russian Empire, although having a military service commitment of twenty years (reduced to eighteen years from 1909). Only five years had to be spent in full time service, the remainder of the commitment being spent with the reserves. In the beginning of the twentieth century Russian Cossacks counted 4.5 million and were organized into separate regional Hosts, each comprising a number of regiments.
In the Russian Civil War that followed the October Revolution, the Cossacks found themselves on both sides of the conflict. Many officers and experienced Cossacks fought for the White Army, and some for the Red Army. Following the defeat of the White Army, a policy of Decossackization (Raskazachivaniye) took place on the surviving Cossacks and their homelands since they were viewed as potential threat to the new regime. This mostly involved dividing their territory amongst other divisions and giving it to new autonomous republics of minorities, and then actively encouraging settlement of these territories with those peoples. This was especially true for the Terek Cossacks land. During 1919 and 1920, out of a population of approximately 3 million, the Bolshevik regime killed or deported an estimated 300,000 to 500,000 Cossacks", including 45 thousand Terek Cossacks. The Cossack homelands were often very fertile, and during the collectivization campaign many Cossacks shared the fate of kulaks. The Soviet famine of 1932-1933 hit the Don and Kuban territory the hardest. Nevertheless, in 1936, under pressure from former Cossack descendants, it was decided to reintroduce Cossack forces into the Red Army.
During the Second World War, Cossacks found themselves on both sides of the conflict once again. While most historians agree that the majority of the Russian Cossacks fought in the ranks of the Red Army, a substantial number of them also served with the Nazis. This can be explained by harsh repressions that many of them suffered under the collectivization and Decossackization policies pursued by Joseph Stalin. Like other peoples of the Soviet Union, who suffered persecution under Stalin, many Cossacks dreaming of autonomy greeted the advancing German army as liberators.
While the core of the Nazi collaborators was made up of former White Army refugees, many rank-and-file Cossacks defected from the Red Army to join the German armed forces (Wehrmacht). As early as 1941, the first Cossack detachments, created out of prisoners of war, defectors and volunteers, were formed under German leadership. The Dubrovski Battalion formed of Don Cossacks in December 1941 was reorganized on July 30, 1942 into the Pavlov Regiment, numbering up to 350 men. The Cossacks were successfully utilized for anti-partisan activity in the rear of the German army.
The Cossack National Movement of Liberation was set in the hope of creating an independent Cossack state, Cossackia. It was not until 1943 that the 1st Cossack Division was formed under the command of General Helmuth von Pannwitz, where Cossack emigrees took leading positions. The 2nd Cossack Division, formed in 1944, existed only for a year, as both Cossack divisions were transferred into the Waffen-SS and merged into the XVth SS Cossack Cavalry Corps in 1945. The Corps contained regiments of different Cossack groups: Don, Kuban, Terek and Siberian Cossacks. At the end of the war in 1945, they surrendered to the British Army in Allied-administered Austria, hoping to join the British to fight Communism. There was little sympathy at the time for a group who were seen as Nazi collaborators and who were reported to have committed atrocities against resistance fighters in Eastern Europe. They were accordingly handed over to the Soviet Government. At the end of the war, British commanders repatriated between 40 to 50 thousand Cossacks, including their families, to the Soviet Union. An unknown number were subsequently executed or imprisoned. Reportedly, many of those punished had never been Soviet citizens. This episode is widely known as the Betrayal of the Cossacks.
The majority of the Cossacks fought in the ranks of the Red Army on the Southern theater of the Eastern Front, where open steppes made them ideal for frontal patrols and logistics. A Cossack detachment marched in Red Square during the Moscow Victory Parade of 1945.
Following the war, Cossack units, along with cavalry in general, were rendered obsolete and released from the Soviet Army. In the post-war years many Cossack descendants were thought of as simple peasants, and those who lived inside an autonomous republic usually gave way to the particular minority and migrated elsewhere (notably, to the Baltic region).
In the Perestroika-enlightened Soviet Union of the late 1980s, many successors of the Cossacks became enthusiastic about reviving their national traditions. In 1988 the Soviet Union passed a law which allowed formation of former hosts and the creation of new ones. The ataman of the largest was granted Marshal rank and the right to form a new host. The Cossacks took an active part in many of the conflicts that took place afterwards: the War of Transnistria, the Georgian-Abkhazian conflict, the Georgian-Ossetian conflict, the Kosovo War, the First Chechen War and the Second Chechen War.
At the same time, many attempts were made to increase the Cossack impact on Russian society and throughout the 1990s many regional authorities agreed to hand over some local administration and policing duties to the Cossacks. However in April 2005, Vladimir Putin, President of Russia introduced a bill "On the State Service of the Russian Cossacks" (O gosudarstvennoy sluzhbe rossiyskogo kazachestva) to the State Duma, which was passed at the first reading on May 18, 2005. For the first time in decades the Cossacks were recognized as not only a distinct ethno-cultural entity but also as a potent military force.
Qazaq see Cossack
Kazak see Cossack
Kazakh see Cossack
Cubanids
Cubanids (Chupanids). Term refers to the family of Mongol amirs in Persia, who served the Il-Khans between 1289 and 1343. They were overcome by Hasan Buzurg, the founder of the Jalayrids.
Chupanids see Cubanids
Cubanids (Chupanids). Term refers to the family of Mongol amirs in Persia, who served the Il-Khans between 1289 and 1343. They were overcome by Hasan Buzurg, the founder of the Jalayrids.
Chupanids see Cubanids
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