rity and the Christians. The Copts were excellent scribes
and accountants and were continued in their posts under the Arab rule;
the government offices were full of them; sometimes even the wazirate
(vizierate) was held by a Copt, and that too in a time of persecution of
the Christians. The pride of the Copts, still seen in the objection
which the poorest among them have to engaging in any mean work or trade,
was a serious danger, perhaps even a chief source of their troubles, in
earlier days; devout Moslems on more than one occasion stirred the mob
to fury when they saw Christians lording it over "true believers." The
lower orders of the Copts were continually oppressed. Thus there was
every inducement amongst the Christians to turn Mahommedan. Arab tribes,
too, were encouraged to settle in Egypt until the Mahommedans exceeded
the Copts in numbers.

The history of the Copts consists on the one hand of the record of
religious strife, of growing scandals in the church, such as simony, and
attempted reforms; and on the other hand of persecutions at the hands of
the Moslems. As examples of the severity of the persecutions, it may be
noted that, in the 8th century, the monks not only were compelled to pay
a capitation tax, but were branded with name and number, civilians were
oppressed with heavy taxation, churches demolished, pictures and crosses
destroyed (722-723). Degrading dresses were imposed upon the Christians
(849-850); later, under Hakim (997), they were compelled to wear heavy
crosses and black turbans as an ignominious distinction. Salaheddin
(Saladin) in 1171 reenforced these statutes and defiled the churches. In
1301, the blue turban was introduced, but many Copts preferred a change
of religion to the adoption of this head-dress. In 1348 a religious war,
attended by the destruction of churches and mosques and great loss of
life, raged at Cairo between the Copts and Mahommedans, and large
numbers of the former embraced Islam. Their oppression practically
ceased under Mehemet Ali (1811).

There have been very few cases of conversion from Mahommedanism to
Christianity; and, as intermarriage of Christians with Mahommedans
implied conversion to Islam, the Copts have undoubtedly preserved the
race of the Egyptians as it existed at the time of the Arab conquest in
remarkable purity. The Coptic agricultural population (fellah[=i]n) in
the villages of Upper Egypt and elsewhere are not markedly different
from the Mahom