Copts

The Copts, NiRemenkemi Christians, are Egypt's native Christian nation, descended of the ancient Egyptians and living on the Nile since antiquity. Copt once meant every Egyptian; after the Muslim conquest of 639 to 646 it came to mean the native Christians, 5 to 15 percent of Egypt today and the largest Christian people of the Middle East, with kin in Sudan and Libya. The Coptic Orthodox Church, with a Catholic minority, guards the liturgy of Saint Mark in the Coptic tongue, direct child of Demotic Egyptian. Desert Fathers invented monasticism in Scetis and the Red Sea hills; Nag Hammadi codices hid the banned gospels in jars. Tolerance and persecution have alternated since the seventh century, yet the monasteries, the Christmas liturgy of millions and the desert saints keep the Pharaonic language praying. Sudanese and Libyan Copts keep the same liturgy abroad. Coptic is still chanted in every liturgy, though Arabic rules the street.