Coptic Christianity in Ottoman Egypt

Abstract

This book explores Coptic religious life in Ottoman Egypt (1517–1798), focusing closely on manuscripts from Coptic archives. Ottoman Copts frequently turned to religious discourses, practices, and rituals as they dealt with various transformations in the first centuries of Ottoman rule. These included the establishment of a new political regime, changes within communal leadership structures (favoring lay leaders over clergy), the economic ascent of the archons (lay elites), and developments in the Copts’ relationship with other religious communities, particularly with Catholics. The book explores how Copts, as a minority living in a dominant Islamic culture, identified themselves and distinguished themselves from other groups by turning to an impressive array of religious traditions. Among these were the reproduction of martyrdom narratives, the visitation of saints’ shrines, the relocation of major festivals to remote destinations, the development of new pilgrimage practices, and the writing of sermons that articulated a Coptic religious ethos in reaction to Catholic missionary discourses. Central to this analysis is the Copts’ relationship to local political rulers, military elites, the Muslim religious establishment, and other non-Muslim communities. The book aims to recognize and document the Coptic experience within the Egyptian context while focusing on new documentary sources and on a historical era that has long been neglected.