Coptic Christianity in Ottoman Egypt

Abstract

In this study, Febe Armanios uses a series of snapshots of religious life—discourses, rituals, and festivals—in order to chart the history of the Ottoman Coptic community from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century. As such, it is a study predicated on the centrality of the church in communal life and on the primacy of religious identity in the early modern period. Still, this history is rigorously contextualized; it is also deeply informed by the author's knowledge of broader Coptic history and the histories of other religious minorities in the Ottoman Empire. The period under investigation was a tumultuous time in Egyptian history. In 1517, Egypt came under Ottoman control, bringing to an end several centuries of Mamluk rule and issuing a period of religious persecution, economic insecurity, and political upheaval. Although centralized authority would not return until the early nineteenth century, in the eighteenth century, the rise of military households/tax farms provided the backdrop against which the Coptic community experienced a measure of revival. The Copts—Egypt's largest Christian (and non-Muslim) community whose religion is ancient, ritualistic, and ceremonial—have historically been insular. Their transition from Mamluk rule (and its generally oppressive treatment of non-Muslims) did not bring immediate relief. Although Ottoman rule over Egypt brought Copts in closer contact with the region's other non-Muslims, including the Greek Orthodox and Armenian communities, their geographic confinement to Egypt did not afford them the benefits, available to others, of imperial connections or European coreligionists. At the same time, intensified Catholic missionary activity and the arrival of newly Uniate Syrian Christians in Egypt would add to the community's challenges. In the eighteenth century, ironically, their lack of European contact made them trustworthy in the eyes of the powerful military households that held sway in Egypt and who were eager to make use of the Copts' local knowledge as scribes, accountants, and tax collectors. Although lay Coptic leaders, archons, played a significant role in community affairs, it is their relationship to clerical authority and role as patrons of religion that is addressed here.