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The Meaning of Coptic
The word "Copt or more accurately, "Gibt", once sometimes written "Gopt" or "Kopto". This was the name given, after the Arab conquest, to the Christian inhabitants of the Nile Valley. The name is derived from the Greek word for "Egypt" Most probably the Greek word is itself a derivative of the hieroglyphic expression Hu-ka-Ptah, which means "The temple of ptah's soui", one of the names given to Memphis, the Ancient capital of Egypt at the time of the Pharaohs. |
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The Coptic language
The Coptic language, moreover, is the same as the ancient Egyptians but in the late form spoken by the inhabitants of Egypt throughout the first centuries of the Christian era. However, Coptic, when written used the letters of the Greek alphabet, for the Egyptians when they adopted Christianity, exchanged their old picture, symbols for a modified Greek alphabet, to which they added seven letters borrowed from their own Demotic (aid popular writing), to denote seven sounds non existent in Greek. The Egyptians resorted to the Greek alphabet because their native Demotic which represented the last stage in the development of hieroglyphic |
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writing, was extremely difficult and complicated, whereas Greek was much easier Moreover, Greek was, al that time, well-known in Egypt and widely spread, at least among the upper and middle classes. |
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The complete prevalence of Coptic was prevented by two main factors-Firstly, Coptic was never the official nor the only language of the country. Secondly, it did not thrive for long. It had a very short life indeed, for Greek was the language of the government and the educated classes alike throughout the Greco-Roman and the Byzantine epochs, while the use of the old national language was restricted to affairs of the Church, i.e. to religious teaching and sermons, and to the ordinary conversations and commercial transactions of the common people. It is to be noted that Coptic flourished in a certain measure after the Arab conquest of Egypt, but not for long, for Arabic gradually replaced it. The 11 the century, or thereabouts marks the end of intellectual and literary creation in Coptic, the language there after surviving only in the Coptic Church, where it is used in its liturgy. |
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The Coptic museum
This is not an old church, dating only from 1909, but there has been a church in Coptic Cairo dedicated to he Martyr since the 10th century.Turn left outside the door to St. George and the path leads to the Church of St. Sergius (Abu Serga), which legend has it is built atop one of the sites where the Holy Family rested on their flight from Herod. Continuing on this path brings one first to the Ben Ezra Synagogue , which is Egypt's oldest and dates to the 9th Century. Past that is St. Barbara , named for the young girl who was martyred for trying to convert her father to Christianity. There is also a gate that leads to the Greek Orthodox cemetery, which surrounds the complex to the east. |
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The Roman walls
To exiting Coptic Cairo, go back out the door at St. Georges, and take a left back on Mar Girgis and head north. The rubbish fields one passes on the right are actually Fustat, the first Islamic city in Cairo and the origins of modern Cairo. The area was razed to the ground when the Fatimids took Cairo, and the Mamluks made it a dump ground, yet it is one of the most important Islamic archaeological sites in the world. Continuing past this, and veering right at a y in the street we will eventually come to the Mosque of Amr Ibn al-As . Though little remains of the original structure, this Mosque is the oldest in Egypt, it's ancestor having been built in 642 AD. |
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