197 



COPT. 



COPTIC LANGUAGE. 



198 



an estate. A proportion of coppice on an estate is essential to the 

 production of game and to its preservation. 



The ground most favourable for coppice is that which is too steep or 

 rocky for cultivation, and where the climate will not allow of the vine. 

 Where the land is flat, and can be well drained, arable farms will 

 always be most profitable, unless in some poor sandy soils, where corn 

 will not grow without extraordinary manuring, while the roots of 

 some kinds of trees will sink to a great depth and find there the 

 nourishment necessary to then- growth. In such sandy soils the 

 birch, the maple, and the acacia sometimes grow luxuriantly, when 

 the grass on the surface scarcely shows signs of vegetation. On wet 

 and boggy soils the willow and the alder are almost the only trees 

 that will thrive. Whoever plants a coppice must be well acquainted 

 with the soil to a considerable depth, and must choose his plants 

 accordingly. 



COPT, the name given to the Christian descendants of the ancient 

 Egyptians. It is correctly pronounced either Ckoobt or Ckibt, and it 

 is generally believed that the name is derived from Coptos, once a 

 great city in Upper Ejypt, now called Ckooft or Gooft, to which, 

 during their persecution by the Roman emperors, many of the Egyptian 

 Christians retired. We are inclined to recognise in Copt the main 

 part of the ancient name of the country Alyvrros. The name Copts 

 seems to have been used as the common designation of the 

 Christians in Egypt from the time of the Emperor Heraclius, 

 when the patriarch Benjamin was permitted to return from his 

 exile in the Thebais (about A.D. 644) and to resume his functions 

 as a bishop at Alexandria. (Le Quien, ' Oriens Christianus," ii 

 481.) They are not an unmixed race, their ancestors in the earlier 

 ages of Christianity having intermarried with Greeks, Nubians, 

 and Abyssinians. The secession of the early Christians of Egypt 

 from the Church of Constantinople occasioned bitter enmities to 

 spring up between them and the Greeks, en which account they 

 suffered so much persecution, that they united with the Arab invaders 

 of their country to expel the Greeks ; but though their revenge was 

 gratified, they were compelled to bow to a heavier yoke. With the ex- 

 ception of a small proportion who profess the Romish or the Greek 

 faith, the Copts are Christians of a sect called Jacobites, Eutychians, 

 Monophysites, and Monothelites, whose creed was condemned by the 

 il of Chalcedon, A.D. 451. The number of churches and convents 

 in ruins prove that the Copts were once far more numerous than at 

 present : they do not now compose more than one-fourteenth part of 

 the population of Egypt, their number not exceeding 150,000, about 

 10,000 of whom reside at Cairo. Conversions to the Mohammedan 

 faith, and intermarriages with tile Moslems, hare occasioned this 

 decrease in their numbers ; to which may be added the persecutions 

 which they endured from their Arabic invaders and subsequent rulers. 

 They were forced to adopt distinctions of dress, and they still wear a 

 turban of a black or blue, or a grayish or light brown colour, in con- 

 tradistinction to the red or white turban. The distinction is generally 

 carefully observed in the towns, but leas so in the villages. Under 

 the dominion of the recent Pashas of Egypt, the Copts are not 

 the despised race they once were : some of them have even been 

 raised to the rank of beys. The male adults pay a tribute, besides the 

 income tax which they pay in common with the rest of the inhabitants ; 

 but they are exempt from military service. This immunity is the 

 result of Moslem prejudice. 



In some parts of Upper Egypt there are villages exclusively inha- 

 bited by the Copts, and in every village of moderate size is a Mo'allim 

 (a title given to all Copts except those of the poor class or peasants), 

 who keeps the register of the taxes. Most of the Copts in Cairo are 

 employed as secretaries and accountants, or tradesmen; they are 

 chiefly engaged in the government offices ; and as merchants, gold- 

 smiths, silversmiths, jewellers, architects, builders, and carpenters, they 

 are generally considered more skilful than the Moslems. In the 

 Tillages they are employed in agriculture, like the rest of the peasantry. 

 The patriarch or head of the Coptic church, judges petty causes 

 among his people in the metropolis, and the inferior clergy do the 

 lame in other places ; but an appeal may be made to the cadi A 

 Moslem aggrieved by a Copt may demand justice either from the 

 patriarch or cadi, but a Copt who seeks redress from a Moslem must 

 apply to the cadi. The Copts are somewhat under the middle size. 

 Tln-y are extremely bigoted, and bear a bitter hatred to all other 

 Christians ; they are of a sullen temper, extremely avaricious, great 

 dissemblers, ignorant, and faithless. In their habits they scarcely 

 differ from their fellow-countrymen. Their dress, with the exceptions 

 already noticed, is similar. The women veil their faces, according to 

 the custom of the country. The Copts frequently indulge in excessive 

 drinking ; but in their meals, the mode of eating, the manner in which 

 they pass their hours of leisure, which is chiefly in smoking their 

 aid drinking coffee, they resemble the other inhabitants of the 

 country. The women, however, though closely veiled when out of 

 doors, like the Turkish women, eat at the same table with their 

 husbands and family, unveiled, even in the presence of strangers; 

 and the priest has unrestricted access to them for the purposes of 

 confewion. 



The Coptic hierarchy consist* of a patriarch, a metropolitan of the 

 Abyssinians, bishops, arch priests, priests, deacons, and monks. The 

 patriarch is styled " Patriarch >f Alexandria," but generally resides in 



Cairo. ' He is usually chosen by lot, and always from several monks of 

 the convent of St. Anthony, in the Eastern Desert, who are nominated 

 by the superior. He continues to observe the monastic regulations, 

 one of which is to remain unmarried. The metropolitan of Abyssinia, 

 who always resides within his diocese, is appointed by the patriarch, 

 and retains his office for life. The number of bishops is twelve, who 

 are generally chosen from the monastic order. The arch-priests are 

 numerous, and selected from among the priests. The priests are re- 

 quired to be of the age of thirty-three years at the least, and are not 

 permitted to marry, though they may have married before taking the 

 priesthood ; but if the wife dies they cannot marry again ; and the 

 widow of a priest is not allowed to marry a second husband. The 

 priests are supported only by alms and by what they obtain by their 

 own industry. A deacon must be either a person unmarried, or have 

 been only once married to a virgin bride. By taking a second wife he 

 loses his office. The monks undergo a severe novitiate, and take the 

 vow of celibacy. The churches contain ill-executed and gaudy pictures 

 of various saints, but no images are admitted. The number of Coptic 

 churches and convents is said to amount to 146, but the former are 

 few in comparison with the latter. The form of service is not cha- 

 racterised by much solemnity, and the conduct of the priests is often 

 somewhat indecorous. The marriage ceremony is pe'rformed either by 

 a priest, or without his assistance by mutual consent before witnesses ; 

 and divorces are as easily to be obtained by either party as with the 

 Mussulmans. Baptism is practised under a belief that if the ceremony 

 be omitted the child will be bund in the next world. The children 

 are generally circumcised ; but in Cairo the custom is less strictly ob- 

 served than in other parts of the country. Confession is required of 

 all members of the Coptic church, and is indispensable before receiving 

 the Lord's supper. Wednesday and Friday are observed as fast-days, 

 except during the fifty days immediately following the Great Fast. 

 The seven great festivals are as follow : the Nativity of Christ, 

 Baptism, the Annunciation, Palm Sunday, Easter, the Ascension, and 

 Whit-Sunday. The Copts are not allowed by then- church to inter- 

 marry with persons of any other sect. 



(An Account of the Manners and Customs of tne Modern Egyptians, 

 mitten in Egypt duriny the years 1833, 1834, and 1835, by Edward 

 William Lane; Seise in den Orient, by Konstantin Tischendorf, 

 Leipzig, 1846.) 



COPTIC LANGUAGE, the language spoken and written by the 

 inhabitants of Egypt since the introduction of the Christian religion 

 into that country ; and distinguished from the more ancient Egyptian 

 language, which was in use under the Pharaohs and the Ptolemies. 

 What was the relation of the ancient to the more recent language of 

 Egypt, we are unable to determine, as our information respecting 

 the former is very imperfect. Egypt lost much of its consequence 

 when it became a Roman province ; and when Alexandria ceased to be 

 a royal residence, arts and literature would naturally fall into decay. 

 Another cause which proved fatal to Egyptian literature was the early 

 introduction of Christianity into Egypt. This event which contributed 

 to extend the study of Greek literature and the use of the Greek 

 language, at the same time deprived the ancient literature of the 

 country, as chiefly connected with the old religion, of the better 

 part of its interest. Notwithstanding these unfavourable circum- 

 stances, the language of the country continued in ordinary use, par- 

 ticularly in the interior provinces. Many hermits in the desert of 

 Thebais, and many bishops of Upper and Lower Egypt, knew no other 

 language ; and the Egyptian, or as it is more appropriately called 

 during these later times, the Coptic language survived for seven or 

 eight centuries after the conquest of Egypt by the Arabs, but it 

 gradually gave way to the Arabic, which is now the language generally 

 in use throughout Egypt. 



The literature extant in the Coptic language is by no means rich. 

 The only part of any intrinsic value seems to be the Coptic transla- 

 tions of the Bible, probably made towards the close of the 3rd and in 

 the beginning of the 4th century, and following, as far as the Old 

 Testament is concerned, the Septuagint version, the readings of which, 

 as well as those of the Alexandrine text of the New Testament, they 

 may serve to determine. Of the prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, 

 and Daniel, Dr. Henry Tattam published an edition, with a parallel 

 Latin version, in 185^. Besides these, there exist Coptic translations 

 of sermons from the Greek fathers, fragments of the decrees of coun- 

 cils, likewise generally translated from the Greek, liturgies, acts of 

 martyrs, original mystic treatises on ethics, with numerous examples 

 from the lives of pious hermits, and translations from the Greek of 

 some apocryphal books of the New Testament. 



Such as we find it, the Coptic language exhibits evident traces of the 

 fate of the country in which it was spoken. Under the Ptolemies, 

 and afterwards under the Romans, new forms of government and 

 administration were introduced into Egypt ; and the inhabitants neces- 

 sarily borrowed from their conquerors the names of public offices and 

 other terms relating to political matters. The Coptic language re- 

 ceived a further supply of foreign words in consequence of the intro- 

 duction of Christianity. A great number of Greek words were retained 

 in tliu Coptic versions from an apprehension, as it seems, of profaning 

 the Christian doctrine by venturing to translate expressions deemed 

 peculiarly holy hi the Greek original text. It has been remarked, that 

 the proportion of Greek expressions is not the same in all Coptic 



