ABSTRACT
The status of the Coptic Orthodox Church and community under Islamic rule fluctuated erratically due to several factors, such as the tenor of interpersonal relations among governing authorities and Coptic lay and clerical elites, regional politics, and caliphal relations with Byzantines and Crusaders. This inexorably complicates any attempt to succinctly summarize the history of the confession. Still, while assessing the standing of the community at any juncture is predicated upon a multitude of factors, the overall trajectory is obvious enough. From the seventh through the early sixteenth centuries, the Copts experienced radical demographic demise, lost a large percentage of their religious endowments (awqāf), and succumbed to a host of progressively stringent legal regulations. The harshest of these laws, the dhull (Debasement) Regulations—a restrictive body of laws, including clothing and riding regulations, that were often accompanied by a purging of non-Muslims (dhimmīs) from the administration—were not strictly enforced beyond limited periods ranging from a few months to a few years (Cohen 1994: ch. 4), but the frequency of their imposition increased under the Ayyūbids (1171–1250) and they were reissued at nearly every decade during the fifteenth century under the Mamlūks. Sobering as they are, these facts should not cloud another equally significant narrative of perseverance, adaptation, innovation, and the Copts’ contribution to Egyptian society and culture.
