ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the circumstances and choices of converted Muslims who tried to retain their connections with and, perhaps, return to their former religion, Christianity, in fourteenth-century Egypt. It explains the scholarship that presents the Muslim-Christian relationship within a framework of persecution and martyrdom. The chapter surveys the stages through the accounts of the new Muslims in past studies and Muslim sources. It analyzes the portrayal of those who reconverted in little-known Coptic hagiographical works of the same era, thus illuminating the Church's perceptions of them. The chapter examines the process of forced conversion, the suspicions surrounding it, and reconversion. In fourteenth-century Egypt, conversion to Islam was not necessarily a terminal act. The chapter shows the complexity of the conversion process and the means other than martyrdom available for those who wished to return to their former religion.
