Today’s Copts, members of the Coptic Orthodox Church, comprise the largest Christian community in the Middle East. Unofficial sources estimate their number at 9 million or more. The term “Copt” and the adjective “Coptic” derive from qibt, an abbreviated, Arabic transliteration of the Greek word for the indigenous inhabitants of Egypt (Άίγυπτος)/“aigyptioi” (Egyptians), itself a phonetic corruption of ancient Egyptian “Hikaptah,” a name for Memphis, the ancient capital at the apex of the Nile Delta. After the Arab conquest of Egypt in 641, the term qibt came to distinguish the native Christians from the Muslim Arabs. When the majority of Egyptians converted to Islam during the following centuries, they naturally ceased to be Christians (qibt). [download]
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