ABSTRACT
Many historians characterize the period that begins with the 1798 French occupation and ends with the July 1952 Revolution as the era that launched Egypt, and parts of the Middle East under French occupation, into a modern renaissance and openness to the West. Such sweeping statements, however, should be made more cautiously. The multi-ethnic, multi-religious, and multicultural structure of the Ottoman Empire, and the good status of the Coptic Orthodox community in the eighteenth century in particular, ultimately culminated in a vibrant and engaged Coptic community at the beginning of the nineteenth century. This enabled the Coptic community to play a prominent and important role in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Egypt. The fact that the Copts were marginalized, and their access to most jobs restricted—because their jobs were confined to administrative and financial positions—led some scholars to suggest that their role was limited to paying taxes and the jizyah (a head tax paid by non-Muslims to Muslim rulers) without crediting them with their distinctive and effective role as nation builders.
