The Meaning of the Term ‘Copt’

The word ‘Copt’ comes directly from the Arabic word Qubt, which in turn comes from the Greek word Aiguptios, meaning Egyptian. The Greek word represents an attempt to pronounce the Pharaonic word Hikaptah, one of the names of the ancient metropolis Memphis, which was in current use when the Greeks first settled in Egypt in the 7th century B.C. Thus, ‘Copt’ and ‘Egyptian’ have the same meaning and are derived from the same source. While the terms overlap, there are nevertheless differences in their usage.

The most important difference is that while all Copts are Egyptians, not all Egyptians are Copts. The Muslim conquerors of Egypt, who came from the Arabian Peninsula in 641 A.D., called the local inhabitants by their Greek name, (ai)gupt(ios). Since the entire population of the country at that time was Christian, the Muslim Arabs used the word qubt to refer to Egyptians as a whole. When these Egyptians gradually converted to Islam, they naturally ceased to be Christians (i.e. qubt) and became members of the Islamic ‘nation’ (umma), who were called muslimin (Muslims) or misryin (the Arabic name for Egypt is Misr). In this way the term ‘Copt’ came to refer exclusively to members of the Egyptian church. Until the 1970s, the church in Ethiopia came under the authority of the Patriarch of Alexandria and its members have also been known as Copts both in Ethiopia and the West for many generations.

Sometimes the term “Copt’ is used specifically to identify those members of the Egyptian church who broke off relations with Constantinople and the west in 451 A.D. at the Ecumenical Council of Chalcedon. The dispute which caused this rupture centered on deciding which formula would best describe the nature of Jesus Christ. In short, the theologians of Constantinople and the west preferred the doctrine that Christ embodied the nature of God and the nature of man; while the Egyptians insisted that there could be only one nature which was both divine and human. The Greek term for the Egyptian stance-monophysite-has come to be used almost interchangeably with the term ‘Copt’ in western literature about the Egyptian church. This equation is somewhat confusing, since there are in fact some Copts (in this sense, Egyptian Christians) who are members of the Roman Catholic Church, as well as others who belong to various Evangelical sects. The Monophysite Copts are known today in Egypt as Orthodox: their patriarch has the official title ‘Patriarch of Alexandria’ and the current holder of this title is Pope Shenouda III.

The adjective ‘Coptic’ therefore refers principally to matters relating to the Orthodox Church in Egypt (which in this case has nothing to do with the Orthodox Church in the west, a term which refers to the Greek or Byzantine church that served its relations with Rome in the 11th century).

When ‘Coptic’ is used in connection with history, it usually refers to the history of the Coptic Church. Since the Egyptian church became autonomous in 451, the period of its history from that date to the Arab conquest is sometimes called the ‘Coptic Period’.

Finally, a word about the term ‘Coptic’ in relation to various cultural artifacts, especially textiles and pottery; it is often used loosely to indicate objects which were manufactured in Egypt around the 5th century onwards, a period which coincides with the autonomy of the Egyptian church.