ABSTRACT
Traditionally regarded as one of the five ancient sees of Christianity, the see of Alexandria, and with it the Coptic Orthodox Church, represents the largest Christian body in the modern Middle East, with sizeable immigrant communities and bishoprics throughout Western Europe, the Americas, and Australia. Since the Council of Chalcedon in 451, the Coptic Church has constituted the numerically dominant of two orthodox hierarchies that maintain apostolic succession from Saint Mark the Evangelist (the Melkite, or Greek Orthodox, Church of Alexandria is the other). While government and ecclesiastical estimates fluctuate wildly as to the exact number of Christians in Egypt, who purportedly represent anywhere from 5 to 12 percent of the population, all major studies identify nearly 95 percent of Egypt’s Christians as Coptic Orthodox. The initial nomenclature identified the jurisdiction as the “Apostolic See,” “Throne,” or “Patriarchate” of Alexandria, with the adoption of “Coptic” likely dating to the mid-eighth century. Originally, “Coptic” denoted “Egypt” or “Egyptian” (Copt: Ar. qibt < Gr. Agyptos/Agyptoi < Anc. Egyptian Ha ka-Ptah), but since most Egyptians the early Arab conquerors encountered were Christians, the two terms became synonymous and the Christians themselves, the majority of whom were anti-Chalcedonians, readily adopted the term as a means of self-identification.
