Copts (ethnic group)
| Regions with significant populations | |
|---|---|
 Egypt | 70,070,000 [1] |
| Languages | |
| Egyptian Arabic Liturgical according to Christians Coptic | |
| Religion | |
| Predominantly: Sunni Islam Minorities Coptic Orthodox Christianity;Coptic Catholicism; various Protestant minorities | |
The Copts are native Egyptians (Egyptian Arabic: قبط), a major ethnic group in Egypt, which includes both Egyptian Muslims and Egyptian Christians. This group views themselves as solely Egyptian, without any Arab sentiment.[3]
Historically they spoke the Coptic language, a direct descendant of the Demotic Egyptian spoken in the Roman era, but it has been near-extinct and mostly limited to liturgical use since the 18th century. They now speak Arabic.
Copts as Egyptians[edit]
The term Copt designates the native population of Egypt, as opposed to the various invaders or settlers (Greeks, Romans, Jews, Arabs, etc.) who came to Egypt from other countries.
The word Copt was adopted in English in the 17th century, from New Latin Coptus, Cophtus, which is derived from Arabic collective qubṭ, qibṭ قبط "the Copts" with nisba adjective qubṭī, qibṭī قبطي, plural aqbāṭ أقباط; Also quftī, qiftī, Arabic /f/ representing historical Coptic /p/. an Arabisation of the Coptic word kubti (Bohairic) and/or kuptaion (Sahidic). The Coptic word is in turn an adaptation of the Greek Αἰγύπτιος "Egyptian".
After the Muslim conquest of Egypt, the term Copt gradually became restricted to those Egyptians adhering to the Christian religion.[4]
In their own Coptic language, which represents the final stage of the Egyptian language, the Copts referred to themselves as rem en kēme (Sahidic) ⲣⲙⲛⲕⲏⲙⲉ, lem en kēmi (Fayyumic), rem en khēmi (Bohairic) ⲣⲉⲙ̀ⲛⲭⲏⲙⲓ, which literally means "people of Egypt" or "Egyptians"; cf. Egyptian rmṯ n kmt, Demotic rmt n kmỉ.
Coptic identity[edit]
In the 20th century, some Egyptian nationalists and intellectuals began using the term Copt in the historical sense,[5] also referred to as Egyptian nationalism. When the Egyptian nationalist leader Saad Zaghlul met the Arab delegates at Versailles in 1918, he insisted that their struggles for statehood were not connected, stressing that the problem of Egypt was an Egyptian problem and not an Arab one.[6] The "Arab identity" which was forced upon all Egyptians by Nasser in the form of pan-Arabism.[7]
Genetic studies and anthropology[edit]
Egypt has experienced several invasions during its history. However, these do not seem to account for more than about 10% overall of current Egyptians ancestry when the DNA evidence of the ancient mitochondrial DNA and modern Y chromosomes is considered.
In general, various DNA studies have found that the gene frequencies of modern North African populations are intermediate between those of the Horn of Africa and Eurasia,[8] though possessing a greater genetic affinity with the populations of Eurasia than they do with Africa.[9][10] The present population of the Sahara is Caucasoid in the extreme north, with a fairly gradual increase of Negroid component as one goes south.[11][12][13] The results of these genetic studies is consistent with the historical record, which records significant bidirectional contact between Egypt and Nubia, and the Levant/Middle East within the last few thousand years, but with general population continuity from the Early Dynastic Period of Egypt up to the modern day era.[14][15]
Genetic analysis of modern Egyptians reveals that they have paternal lineages common to indigenous North-East African populations primarily (Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco), and to Middle Eastern peoples to a lesser extent—these lineages would have spread during the Neolithic and were maintained by the predynastic period.[16][17]
A study by Krings et al. (1999) on mitochondrial DNA clines along the Nile Valley found that a Eurasian cline runs from Northern Egypt to Southern Sudan and a Sub-Saharan cline from Southern Sudan to Northern Egypt.[18] Another mtDNA study of modern Egyptians from the Gurna region near Thebes in Southern Egypt by Stevanovicth et al. 2004 revealed that Eurasian Out of Africa haplogroups represented 61.8% of the population, with the remainder being of Sub-Saharan (20.6%) and with a high frequency (17.6%) of haplogroup M1. According to the authors "This sedentary population presented similarities to the Ethiopian population by the L1 and L2 macrohaplogroup frequency (20.6%), by the West Eurasian component (defined by haplogroups H to K and T to X) and particularly by a high frequency (17.6%) of haplogroup M1... Our results suggest that the Gurna population has conserved the trace of an ancestral genetic structure from an ancestral East African population, characterized by a high M1 haplogroup frequency". The oral tradition of the Gurna people indicates that they, like most modern day Egyptians, descend from the Ancient Egyptians.[19]
Luis et al. (2004) found that the male haplogroups in a sample of 147 Egyptians were E1b1b (36.1%, predominantly E-M78), J (32.0%), G (8.8%), T(8.2%), and R (7.5%). E1b1b and its subclades are characteristic of some Afro-Asiatic speakers and are believed to have originated in either the Middle East, North Africa, or the Horn of Africa. Cruciani et al. (2007) suggests that E-M78, E1b1b predominant subclade in Egypt, originated in "Northeastern Africa", which in the study refers specifically to Egypt and Libya.[20][21]
Other studies have shown that modern Egyptians have genetic affinities primarily with populations of Asia, North and Northeast Africa,[22][23][24][25] and to a lesser extent Middle Eastern and European populations.[26]
Some genetic studies done on modern Egyptians suggest that most do not have close relations to most Sub-Saharan Africans,[27] and other studies show that they are mostly related to other North Africans,[24] and to a lesser extent southern European/Mediterranean and Middle Eastern populations.[25] A 2004 mtDNA study of upper Egyptians from Gurna found a genetic ancestral heritage to modern Northeast Africans, characterized by a high M1 haplotype frequency and an L1 and L2 macrohaplogroup frequency of 20.6%. Another study links Egyptians in general with people from modern Eritrea and Ethiopia.[23][28]
Though there has been much debate of the origins of haplogroup M1, a 2007 study had concluded that M1 has West Asia origins not a Sub-Saharan African origin.[29] Origin A 2003 Y chromosome study was performed by Lucotte on modern Egyptians, with haplotypes V, XI, and IV being most common. Haplotype V is common in Berbers and has a low frequency outside North Africa. Haplotypes V, XI, and IV are all predominantly North African/Horn of African haplotypes, and they are far more dominant in Egyptians than in Middle Eastern or European groups.[30]
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ↑ http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/history.../32.1keita.pdf
- ↑ "Egypt from "The World Factbook"". American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). September 4, 2008.
- ↑ Deighton, H. S. "The Arab Middle East and the Modern World", International Affairs, vol. xxii, no. 4 (October 1946), p. 519.
- ↑ "The people of Egypt before the Arab conquest in the 7th century identified themselves and their language in Greek as Aigyptios (Arabic qibt, Westernized as Copt); when Egyptian Muslims later ceased to call themselves Aigyptioi, the term became the distinctive name of the Christian minority." Coptic Orthodox Church. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 2007
- ↑ qtd. in M. Hussein. el Ittigahat el Wataneyya fil Adab el Muʻaṣir [National Trends in Modern Literature]. Vol. 2. Cairo, 1954
- ↑ Makropoulou, Ifigenia. Pan - Arabism: What Destroyed the Ideology of Arab Nationalism? Hellenic Center for European Studies. January 15, 2007.
- ↑ Haeri, Niloofar. Sacred language, Ordinary People: Dilemmas of Culture and Politics in Egypt. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. 2003, pp. 47, 136.
- ↑ Cavalli-Sforza, History and Geography of Human Genes, The intermediacy of North Africa and to lesser extent East Africa between Africa and Europe is apparent
- ↑ Cavalli-Sforza, L.L., P. Menozzi, and A. Piazza. 1994. The History and Geography of Human Genes. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
- ↑ Bosch, E.; Calafell, F; Pérez-Lezaun, A; Comas, D; Mateu, E; Bertranpetit, J (1997). "Population history of north Africa: evidence from classical genetic markers". Human Biology. 69 (3): 295–311. PMID 9164042.
- ↑ Manni F, Leonardi P, Barakat A, Rouba H, Heyer E, Klintschar M, McElreavey K, Quintana-Murci L (2002). "Y-chromosome analysis in Egypt suggests a genetic regional continuity in Northeastern Africa". Hum Biol. 74 (5): 645–58. doi:10.1353/hub.2002.0054. PMID 12495079.CS1 maint: Multiple names: authors list (link)
- ↑ Arredi B, Poloni E, Paracchini S, Zerjal T, Fathallah D, Makrelouf M, Pascali V, Novelletto A, Tyler-Smith C (2004). "A predominantly neolithic origin for Y-chromosomal DNA variation in North Africa". Am J Hum Genet. 75 (2): 338–45. doi:10.1086/423147. PMC 1216069. PMID 15202071.CS1 maint: Multiple names: authors list (link)
- ↑ Cavalli-Sforza. "Synthetic maps of Africa". The History and Geography of Human Genes. ISBN 978-0-691-08750-4. Search this book on
The present population of the Sahara is Caucasoid in the extreme north, with a fairly gradual increase of Negroid component as one goes south
- ↑ Krings, T; Salem, AE; Bauer, K; Geisert, H; Malek, AK; Chaix, L; Simon, C; Welsby, D; et al. (1992). "mtDNA Analysis of Nile River Valley Populations: Genetic Corridor or a Barrier to Migration?" (PDF). Am J Hum Genet. 64 (5): 1116–76. doi:10.1086/302314. PMC 1377841. PMID 10090902.
- ↑ Lucotte, G.; Mercier, G. (2001). "Brief communication: Y-chromosome haplotypes in Egypt". American Journal of Physical Anthropology. 121 (1): 63–6. doi:10.1002/ajpa.10190. PMID 12687584.
- ↑ Arredi B, Poloni E, Paracchini S, Zerjal T, Fathallah D, Makrelouf M, Pascali V, Novelletto A, Tyler-Smith C (2004). "A Predominantly Neolithic Origin for Y-Chromosomal DNA Variation in North Africa". Am J Hum Genet. 75 (2): 338–45. doi:10.1086/423147. PMC 1216069. PMID 15202071.CS1 maint: Multiple names: authors list (link)
- ↑ Manni F, Leonardi P, Barakat A, Rouba H, Heyer E, Klintschar M, McElreavey K, Quintana-Murci L (2002). "Y-chromosome analysis in Egypt suggests a genetic regional continuity in Northeastern Africa". Hum Biol. 74 (5): 645–58. doi:10.1353/hub.2002.0054. PMID 12495079.CS1 maint: Multiple names: authors list (link)
- ↑ Kings, T; Salem, AE; Bauer, K; Geisert, H; Malek, AK; Chaix, L; Simon, C; Welsby, D; et al. (1992). "mtDNA Analysis of Nile River Valley Populations: Genetic Corridor or a Barrier to Migration?" (PDF). Am J Hum Genet. 64 (5): 1116–76. doi:10.1086/302314. PMC 1377841. PMID 10090902.
- ↑ Stevanovitch, A.; Gilles, A.; Bouzaid, E.; Kefi, R.; Paris, F.; Gayraud, R. P.; Spadoni, J. L.; El-Chenawi, F.; Beraud-Colomb, E. (2004). "Mitochondrial DNA Sequence Diversity in a Sedentary Population from Egypt". Annals of Human Genetics. 68 (Pt 1): 23–39. doi:10.1046/j.1529-8817.2003.00057.x. PMID 14748828.
- ↑ Luis, J. R.; et al. (2004). "The Levant versus the Horn of Africa: Evidence for Bidirectional Corridors of Human Migrations" (PDF). American Journal of Human Genetics. 74 (3): 532\u2013544. doi:10.1086/382286. PMC 1182266. PMID 14973781.
- ↑ Underhill (2002), Bellwood and Renfrew, ed., Inference of Neolithic Population Histories using Y-chromosome Haplotypes, Cambridge: McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, ISBN 978-1-902937-20-5.
- ↑ Kivisild T, Reidla M, Metspalu E; et al. (2004). "Ethiopian mitochondrial DNA heritage: tracking gene flow across and around the gate of tears". Am. J. Hum. Genet. 75 (5): 752–70. doi:10.1086/425161. PMC 1182106. PMID 15457403.CS1 maint: Multiple names: authors list (link)
- ↑ 23.0 23.1 Stevanovitch A, Gilles A, Bouzaid E; et al. (2004). "Mitochondrial DNA sequence diversity in a sedentary population from Egypt". Ann. Hum. Genet. 68 (Pt 1): 23–39. doi:10.1046/j.1529-8817.2003.00057.x. PMID 14748828.CS1 maint: Multiple names: authors list (link) Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; name "pmid14748828" defined multiple times with different content - ↑ 24.0 24.1 Arredi B, Poloni E, Paracchini S, Zerjal T, Fathallah D, Makrelouf M, Pascali V, Novelletto A, Tyler-Smith C (2004). "A predominantly neolithic origin for Y-chromosomal DNA variation in North Africa". Am J Hum Genet. 75 (2): 338–45. doi:10.1086/423147. PMC 1216069. PMID 15202071.CS1 maint: Multiple names: authors list (link)
- ↑ 25.0 25.1 Manni F, Leonardi P, Barakat A, Rouba H, Heyer E, Klintschar M, McElreavey K, Quintana-Murci L (2002). "Y-chromosome analysis in Egypt suggests a genetic regional continuity in Northeastern Africa". Hum Biol. 74 (5): 645–58. doi:10.1353/hub.2002.0054. PMID 12495079.CS1 maint: Multiple names: authors list (link)
- ↑ Luca Cavalli-Sforza, Luigi; Paolo Menozzi; Alberto Piazza (1996-08-05). The History and Geography of Human Genes. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-02905-4. Search this book on
- ↑ Cavalli-Sforza, L.L., P. Menozzi, and A. Piazza. 1994, The History and Geography of Human Genes. Princeton:Princeton University Press.
- ↑ Kivisild T, Reidla M, Metspalu E, Rosa A, Brehm A, Pennarun E, Parik J, Geberhiwot T, Usanga E; Reidla; Metspalu; Rosa; Brehm; Pennarun; Parik; Geberhiwot; Usanga; Villems; et al. (2004). "Ethiopian mitochondrial DNA heritage: tracking gene flow across and around the gate of tears". Am J Hum Genet. 75 (5): 752–70. doi:10.1086/425161. PMC 1182106. PMID 15457403.CS1 maint: Multiple names: authors list (link)
- ↑ Mitochondrial lineage M1 traces an early human backflow to Africa
- ↑ Keita, S.O. (2005). "History in the interpretation of the pattern of p49a, f TaqI RFLP Y-chromosome variation in Egypt: a consideration of multiple lines of evidence". Am J Hum Biol. 17 (5): 559–67. doi:10.1002/ajhb.20428. PMID 16136533.
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