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Discoveries: Coptic Egypt: Christians of the Nile
This art-filled treasury unfolds a vivid history of the Egyptian Christians called the Copts. A highly connected story of religion, art, literature, and customs over a period of 2,000 years, the book provides an intriguing look at a mystery-cloaked ancient sect from the land of the Bible.
144 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 2001
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
October 24, 2010
Informative and heavily illustrated, this is a useful if slightly dull introduction to Coptic Egyptian Christianity including what is known about how the Gospel reached across the water, and what the experience was like for believers. They were tolerated to a surprising extent, even after Islam took controlling interest in the region. My, how Islam has changed.
June 22, 2017
A good short summary of the history of the Coptic Christians. The first couple chapters would be familiar to anyone who studied early church history, but the remainder of the book deals with the varied relations the Coptic church in a predominantly Muslim Egypt from the 7th century and after.
March 28, 2025
Being from a Coptic background myself, I thought I had a solid grasp of Coptic history, but this little book which surprised me with how much information it managed to pack in, humbled me by showing how much I didn’t know, or thought I knew but had wrong or mixed up. It brought me down from the peak of the Dunning-Kruger curve.
I may be biased, but I genuinely believe Coptic Christian Egypt is a fascinating and important part of the history of this region—and of humanity in general. It carried over many elements from Ancient Egyptian culture into Christianity and played a significant role in the early history of Christianity and in shaping its faith.
Several aspects of Coptic Christianity particularly stand out. One is monasticism, which originated in Egypt (St. Antony of Egypt, c. 251–356, is traditionally seen as the father of Christian monasticism), and the idea was later carried to Europe by figures like St. Jerome and St. Benedict of Nursia. Another idea I find fascinating, from a sociological perspective, is how the Church of Alexandria—once persecuted by the Roman Empire—later became a source of persecution itself toward Pagans and Jews after rising to power, only to become oppressed again later in history. The highs and lows of the church during the different Arab/Islamic dynasties is also interesting, and so is its position against the crusades.
The roots of the Coptic language, tracing back to Ancient Egyptian language, and its slow decline befoer modern revival efforts, are also captivating. It was particularly interesting to know about the role of Coptic language as a linguistic bridge to decipher Egyptian hieroglyphs. It was also good to know more about Coptic art with its unique features, and influences from Ancient Egyptian, Byzantine, and Persian influences.
The book achieves its purpose; offering broad brushstrokes of Coptic history and culture. The best part about it in my view is the rich illustrations and their captions which add a much needed depth and visual context. I plan to do another quick reading soon to summarise key dates and events, and make a photo collage of some of the illustrations.
I may be biased, but I genuinely believe Coptic Christian Egypt is a fascinating and important part of the history of this region—and of humanity in general. It carried over many elements from Ancient Egyptian culture into Christianity and played a significant role in the early history of Christianity and in shaping its faith.
Several aspects of Coptic Christianity particularly stand out. One is monasticism, which originated in Egypt (St. Antony of Egypt, c. 251–356, is traditionally seen as the father of Christian monasticism), and the idea was later carried to Europe by figures like St. Jerome and St. Benedict of Nursia. Another idea I find fascinating, from a sociological perspective, is how the Church of Alexandria—once persecuted by the Roman Empire—later became a source of persecution itself toward Pagans and Jews after rising to power, only to become oppressed again later in history. The highs and lows of the church during the different Arab/Islamic dynasties is also interesting, and so is its position against the crusades.
The roots of the Coptic language, tracing back to Ancient Egyptian language, and its slow decline befoer modern revival efforts, are also captivating. It was particularly interesting to know about the role of Coptic language as a linguistic bridge to decipher Egyptian hieroglyphs. It was also good to know more about Coptic art with its unique features, and influences from Ancient Egyptian, Byzantine, and Persian influences.
The book achieves its purpose; offering broad brushstrokes of Coptic history and culture. The best part about it in my view is the rich illustrations and their captions which add a much needed depth and visual context. I plan to do another quick reading soon to summarise key dates and events, and make a photo collage of some of the illustrations.
June 25, 2017
A nice, concise history of the Copts.
May 28, 2009
It's a page turner. I'm getting into this book more than I should. I'm learning more about Gnostic Christians too, and how wacky they were. Our orthodox christians are coming across as a bit more sane in retrospect. I'm still not going to support modern christianity. I'll stick with my modern feminist gnostic approach, thank you very much.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews