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General article
History & Councils

Copts under the Umayyads

Under Umayyad rule (661–750), Copts remained important in Egyptian administration while experiencing fiscal pressures, changing religious policies, and gradual linguistic and social change.[^1][^2][^3]

Also known as: Umayyads, Copts under the · Copts under Umayyad rule · Umayyad rule and the Coptic Church

Published 10/1/2026Updated 3 revisionsPage history

In brief

Copts under the Umayyads were the Egyptian Christian community living under the Damascus-based dynasty from 661 to 750. They remained important in taxation, provincial administration, and naval labor while facing changing fiscal and religious policies. Documentary and ecclesiastical sources offer contrasting perspectives on coercion, conversion, and the gradual spread of Arabic.

Historical setting

The Umayyad dynasty ruled from 661 to 750, with its capital at Damascus; Egypt was governed by Arab officials appointed by the caliph.1 The supplied accounts differ in their interpretation of this period: narratives of ecclesiastical suffering stand alongside documentary studies emphasizing administrative continuity and gradual social change.267

The dynasty took its name from the Banu Umayyah, a merchant family of Mecca, and established the first hereditary dynasty of the Islamic world following a civil war.14 Its empire extended as far as France in the west and India in the east, while Egypt was administered from Damascus as a province of Syria.15 Umayyad favoritism toward ethnic Arabs, particularly documented for Syria, Iraq, and the Persian-speaking East, produced discrimination against non-Arab converts and explains the frequent description of the polity as the “Arab Empire.”16

Background: conquest and the Coptic church

The religious divisions inherited by Umayyad Egypt had developed under Byzantine rule: after the Council of Chalcedon in 451, the imperial authorities adhered to the Melchite confession, which the Copts rejected.17 Under Cyrus al-Muqawqas, Patriarch Benjamin I fled Alexandria and spent years moving between desert monasteries to avoid arrest.18 One account presents Copts as initially standing aside during the Arab-Byzantine struggle and reports, following John of Nikiou, that some subsequently supplied the Muslims with fodder and provisions.19 Another account cautions that the Copts were not a unified body welcoming the invaders and emphasizes the strong resistance encountered in Delta towns after the fall of Pelusium in 639.20 The fortress of Babylon fell on 6 April 641, while Alexandria passed into Arab hands on 29 September 642 after the departure of Byzantine troops.21

Under ‘Amr ibn al-‘As, Benjamin emerged again at Alexandria, was honored by the Muslim conquerors, and was permitted to occupy numerous churches previously appropriated by the Melchites.22 The Covenant of ‘Umar, ascribed to Caliph ‘Umar ibn al-Khattab (634–644), was regarded as a fundamental document governing relations with Jewish and Christian dhimmi subjects, including the Copts.23 An account of Coptic architecture likewise states that church construction and maintenance were guaranteed in principle by the surrender treaty of 641.24

Administration and taxation

Greek, Coptic, and Arabic papyri indicate that administration after the Arab conquest depended substantially on the Coptic church and provincial Coptic notables. Central officials assigned an overall tax assessment to each agricultural district, while local Egyptian intermediaries apportioned the burden among villagers.2

The documentary interpretation explains this dependence partly by the limited initial Arab settlement: apart from a few high-ranking personnel, it places Arab settlement in Egypt roughly half a century after the conquest.25 It identifies the revenues from Egypt's celebrated agricultural wealth and the poll tax on non-Muslims as central Umayyad interests, with fiscal intervention eventually reshaping administrative and social relations.26 The local intermediary, often a churchman, not only assessed individual villagers but also collected their taxes.27

Between approximately 715 and 740, the administration changed the fiscal classification of Egyptian land from treaty to nontreaty status, reportedly doubling its tax rate. The account connects this change, provisionally, with tax revolts beginning in 725, involving first Copts and subsequently both Arabs and Copts.8

The same documentary study cautions that kharaj, in the precise juridical sense of land conquered without treaty, is not attested in the Umayyad papyri, and notes that the periodic revolts continued into Abbasid times.28

The government also began assessing farmers individually and, around 717, attempted to replace Coptic administrative personnel with Muslims. Documentary evidence nevertheless indicates that Coptic officials remained in office well into the eighth century.2 Excessive assessments could drive cultivators from their land and cause the church to lose holdings occupied by tenant farmers.9

Some officials reportedly overassessed landholders deliberately in order to dispossess them and acquire their land.29 Coptic church sources interpreted the loss of landed tenure and of their intermediary position between government and cultivators as religious persecution.30

An account of early Muslim taxation describes the capitulation terms as supposedly fixing jizyah at two dinars per adult male, with an additional land tax on provincial landowners, including churches, and obligations to supply clothing and hospitality to itinerant Muslims.31 That account nevertheless warns that later chroniclers and jurists supplied divergent theoretical explanations, whereas contemporary evidence reveals frequent changes in fiscal status and in the levels and incidence of taxation rather than a consistently fixed system.32

The pagarch remained an important provincial administrative officer, documented in the correspondence of Qurrah with Basilius of Aphrodito and of Papas, pagarch of Apollonos Ano, with the amir of the Thebaid.33 The same account describes large estates and autopract domains of Coptic landowners as being abolished and appropriated for allotment, while the pagarchic system itself survived beyond Umayyad rule.34

Church and government

Ecclesiastical accounts describe extraordinary levies on bishops, monks, and patriarchs. One passage reports that al-Asbagh imposed additional taxation on monks and demanded 2,000 dinars from each bishop beyond the normal kharaj assessment.10 During the selection of Kha’il I, patriarch from 744 to 767, the governor Hafs ibn al-Walid required the candidate to appear before him before consecration; the delegation's accompanying appeal for tax relief was unsuccessful.11

Policies varied between rulers and could change within a reign. The account of ‘Umar ibn ‘Abd al-‘Aziz (717–720) describes initial relief for churches and episcopates, followed by a requirement that government employees be Muslim. It reports that Yazid II (720–724) restored suppressed imposts and ordered the destruction of crosses and sacred images, while portraying Hisham (724–743) more favorably.3

‘Umar's initial measures also directed officials to restore ruined towns and villages; the ecclesiastical narrative associates the subsequent reversal with the appointment of Ayyub ibn Sharhabil as governor in 717.35 The History of the Patriarchs expresses its condemnation of the employment requirement by comparing ‘Umar to Antichrist, while describing Hisham as God-fearing and a deliverer of the Orthodox.36

Coercion, epidemic, and wartime requisitions

The narrative of Alexander II's patriarchate describes a recurring pattern in which newly appointed governors demanded payments beyond jizyah and kharaj, causing inhabitants to flee their homes.37 It reports attempts to recover and control fugitives through tattooing, cauterizing, and restraints of lead or iron, together with confiscations of cattle, property, and the estates of deceased persons that would otherwise have passed to their heirs.38 In this account, religious personnel lost earlier exemptions, while imprisonment, flogging, amputation, and killing were among the punishments inflicted on subjects who failed to meet demands.39

The accession of al-Walid ibn ‘Abd al-Malik brought replacements among provincial officials, including Qurrah's appointment in 709; the same narrative reports that a plague killed both Copts and Muslims and claimed Qurrah himself in 714.40 His successor, ‘Abd al-Malik ibn Rifa‘ah al-Fahmi (714–717), is said to have taken office during a famine whose mortality exceeded that of the preceding plague.41

In its account of preparations surrounding the siege of Constantinople, the ecclesiastical narrative places a prohibition on hosting Byzantine sailors in the period beginning in 716 and attributes a severe disruption of international trade to that restriction.42 It also connects the financing of Byzantine expeditions with the seizure of gold and silver sacramental vessels, colored marble pillars, and carved wooden structures from churches for nonreligious use.43 Some monasteries were reportedly invaded or ruined, and monks were carried away for forced work in the Islamic fleet.44

Patriarchal rivalry and the final Umayyad years

During Alexander II's patriarchate, a Chalcedonian named Anastasius reportedly bribed the governor to install a Chalcedonian physician, Onopus, on the throne of Saint Mark in Alexander's place.45 Opposition from the Alexandrian population frustrated the attempt, after which Onopus withdrew his claim and asked forgiveness.46

The account of Kha’il I describes Hafs being pursued by a new governor, Hawtharah, who burned him alive, killed most of his supporters, and confiscated their property.47 Despite this violence, the History of the Patriarchs portrays Hawtharah favorably toward the Orthodox and says that, while residing with his army at Wasim for three years, he consulted Abba Moses about the salvation of his soul.48

Under Marwan II (744–750), a Chalcedonian goldsmith in the caliph's household, Theophylact, obtained appointment as patriarch of the Greeks under the name Cosmas, in opposition to Kha’il.49 The governor ‘Abd al-Malik ibn Musa ibn Nasir supported Cosmas's effort to recover Byzantine churches occupied by Copts after the conquest, including the cathedral of Saint Menas at Mareotis, which the account attributes to Emperor Arcadius.50 A heated dispute followed, in which the narrative credits Kha’il's eloquence and reasoning with prevailing over the Chalcedonian claim, despite attempts to influence the outcome through bribery.51 Prolonged discussions about restoring unity between the two churches were subsequently overshadowed by a pestilence.52

Government demands for extraordinary payments affected both patriarchs, and Kha’il sought permission to travel to Upper Egypt to collect the required funds.53 His involvement in a dispute between the king of Nubia and the king's bishop also brought political danger: after an exchange of letters between king and patriarch, the Egyptian governor learned of the matter and seized Kha’il.54

Conversion and its interpretation

The passages offer different explanations of conversion. Ecclesiastical narratives emphasize financial burdens and pressure on officeholders, whereas another interpretation stresses the church's weakening economic and social position and the possible attraction of joining the ruling class to protect property.3910

A further account maintains that conversion was generally discouraged under the Umayyads and did not necessarily bring exemption from the poll tax. This differs in emphasis from accounts of rulers requiring Muslim affiliation for government service; the passages do not establish a single, consistently applied policy throughout the dynasty.312 The documentary interpretation characterizes conversion overall as very slow.9

The interpretation emphasizing discouraged conversion also points to its potential social cost, since converts could face isolation or exclusion within their former confessional community.55 It relates this problem to the character of al-Fustat, which remained predominantly a provincial Arab garrison and administrative outpost rather than the expanding Muslim urban center visible by approximately the end of the ninth century.56 In that analysis, the absence of mass conversion limited the migration that might otherwise have made al-Fustat an attractive destination for converts, while the town's limited opportunities reinforced the lack of an immediate incentive to convert.57

For comparison beyond the Umayyad period, the documentary study observes that parties to published Arabic legal documents remained overwhelmingly Coptic, as indicated by names and genealogies, even as late as the eleventh century.58 It interprets combinations of Muslim and Christian personal names and patronymics in contracts as evidence that intermarriage contributed to conversion among provincial people otherwise largely absent from urban Muslim biographical writing.59 Examples include a woman with a Coptic patronymic marrying a man with a Muslim name and patronymic, and a state official with a Muslim name and patronymic whose mother's name and patronymic were Coptic.60 Because Islamic jurisprudence required Muslim witnesses, the study also considers that some contract witnesses with mixed naming patterns may have been recent converts or members of recently converted families.61

Language and law

A narrative account places an order to replace Coptic with Arabic in tax registers under al-Walid ibn ‘Abd al-Malik.613 This administrative measure should be distinguished from everyday language use: eighth-century private contracts continued to be written in Coptic, and Muslim authorities adjudicated disputes between Christians using contracts in Coptic and Greek.4

Contracting parties retained a choice of documentary language, and officials continued to offer Coptic as an option as late as fifteen years after their assumption of judicial authority around 718.62 The documentary study interprets that practice as evidence both of officials' familiarity with Coptic legal formularies and of their recognition as valid before Muslim jurists.63 Coptic, Greek, and Arabic contract forms displayed numerous parallels without being identical: Arabic contracts from Umayyad Egypt included distinctive clauses and modified earlier Egyptian wording to conform to Islamic norms.64

The slow spread of spoken Arabic is illustrated by tenth-century contracts from the Fayyum stating that a document had been read to the seller in Arabic and explained in the “foreign language,” evidence that the study places within a continuing lack of provincial arabization three centuries after the conquest.65

Naval contribution

Arabic, Greek, and Coptic documents attest to Christian Egyptian participation in building and manning the Umayyad fleet. Medieval Arabic accounts report an order to send one thousand Copts with their families to assist shipyard and fleet construction at Tunis. The evidence remains fragmentary, and the extent of Coptic participation, particularly in combat, is uncertain.5

The strategic purpose of recruiting Egyptian skilled labor was to build or refit ships capable of countering Byzantine maritime supremacy in the Mediterranean.66 Accounts by al-Bakri, al-Raqiq al-Qayrawani, and al-Tjani attribute the Tunis order to Caliph ‘Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan (685–705), who instructed his brother ‘Abd al-‘Aziz, governor of Egypt, to send the workers to Hassan ibn al-Nu‘man, commander of the Arab forces in North Africa.67 The naval study identifies this as the only historical text explicitly naming Copts, whereas other texts refer more broadly to Christians or non-Muslim Egyptians or imply Coptic participation without naming it.68

The Byzantine chronicler Theophanes, who died in 818, reports that the fleet attacking Constantinople in 717–718 under Emperor Leo III sailed principally from Egypt and received reinforcements from Africa, identified in the study as Tunisia.69 Alongside the Byzantine use of Greek fire, he credits the attack's failure to Egyptians who escaped to the city in small boats from merchant vessels and supplied information about the Muslim fleet.70 The study understands these Egyptians as non-Arab sailors and the reference to merchant vessels as evidence of Christian service aboard supply ships, rather than proof of their participation in combat.71

Differing assessments of the sources

The governor Qurrah ibn Sharik illustrates the disagreement between accounts. One narrative depicts his administration as especially harsh; another argues that the Arabic and Greek Qurrah Papyri reveal a careful and effective administrator, in contrast to hostile later portrayals. These differing assessments caution against treating either characterization as uncontested.67

This disagreement occurred within the circumstances of the Abbasid overthrow of the Umayyads in 750, a revolution associated with discontent among non-Arab converts and an ensuing increase in Persian influence.72 Abbasid accounts served to justify the overthrow and persecution of their predecessors, and nineteenth-century European histories compounded that partisan inheritance with an imperial outlook blaming Islam for Egypt's decline.73 The article's contributor was affiliated with Iona College.74

Coptic survival under Arab rule depended on two sustaining factors: adherence to the church as a comprehensive spiritual way of life and Muslim rulers' continuing acceptance of Copts as useful participants in state affairs.75 Spirituality and public service were complementary resources for communal endurance, rather than survival being understood solely through episodes of persecution.76

Questions

Frequently asked questions

What administrative roles did Copts hold under the Umayyads?
Coptic churchmen and provincial notables apportioned and collected local taxes. Despite efforts to replace them with Muslims around 717, documents show Coptic officials continuing in office well into the eighth century.
Did conversion to Islam always remove the poll tax?
No. One account states that conversion was generally discouraged under the Umayyads and did not always bring exemption from jizyah; other accounts emphasize pressure on government employees to become Muslim.
Did Arabic immediately replace Coptic?
No. An order introduced Arabic into tax registers, but Coptic remained a language of private contracts, and Muslim authorities accepted documents written in Coptic and Greek.
How did Copts contribute to the Umayyad fleet?
Christian Egyptians helped build, refit, and man ships. Arabic accounts describe the dispatch of one thousand Copts with their families to Tunis, but their participation in naval combat remains uncertain.
Why do accounts of Umayyad treatment of Copts differ?
Ecclesiastical narratives emphasize extraordinary levies and suffering, while documentary studies highlight administrative continuity and gradual change. The latter also question the influence of hostile Abbasid portrayals on later histories.

References

Sources

  1. 1.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 7 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 612)
    The Umayyads (661-750), named after the Banu Umayyah, a merchant family of Mecca, following a civil war established the first dynasty to rule the Islamic world. ... The Umayyads moved the capital of the Islamic world, and therefore the center of gravity, from Mecca to Damascus, whence Egypt was ruled as a province of Syria by ethnic Arab governors appointed by the caliph.
  2. 2.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 7 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 613)
    From Greek, Coptic, and Arabic papyri we know that following the Arab conquest Egypt was administered largely through the Coptic church and provincial Coptic notables. ... The government began to assess peasant farmers individually, and it launched an effort to replace Coptic administrative personnel with Muslims beginning around 717. This was a very slow process, according to the testimony of documents, which indicate that Coptic officials continued in place well into the eighth century, and long after that according to narrative sources. Previously, Arab officials of the central government d
  3. 3.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 1 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 225)
    With the accession of ‘Umar ibn ‘Abd al-‘Aziz (717-720) to the Umayyad caliphate, a period of respite dawned on the Copts, for the new caliph issued a number of edicts for the relief of churches and episcopates from past, illegal financial imposts. ... The caliph wrote the governor that only Muslims should be in his employ, and Copts who wanted to remain in office would have to apostatize to Islam. ... The accession of Yazid II (720-724) to the caliphate after ‘Umar brought a renewal of the rule of financial terror and miseries, since he restored the imposts suppressed by his predecessor and f
  4. 4.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 7 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 617)
    First, private documents continued to be written in Coptic in the eighth century. In legal documents, parties to contracts had a choice of language in which to have their documents recorded, and they opted for Coptic. ... According to a body of documentary litigation dating from the eighth century, Muslims adjudicated between Christians on the basis of contracts written in Coptic and in Greek.
  5. 5.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 7 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 609)
    Arabic, Greek, and Coptic documents from the Umayyad period (661-750) indicate the contribution of Christian Egyptians, including Copts, in the building and the manning of the Muslim fleet. The extent of this participation is unclear, since these documents contain sparse and fragmentary information, and are insufficient for a thorough study of this topic. ... A number of Arabic medieval accounts—including those of al-Bakri, al-Raqiq al-Qayrawani, and al-Tjani—report that the Umayyad caliph ‘Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan (685-705) ordered his brother ‘Abd al-Aziz (governor of Egypt, 685-705) to dispa
  6. 6.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 1 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 224)
    The same story recurred throughout the patriarchate of Alexander II, the only differences being that the financial imposts were multiplied and were accompanied by ferocious treatment of the innocent and helpless subjects. ... Qurrah Shurayk thus became governor of Egypt in 709. He turned out to be even worse in dealing with his subjects. ... It was also during the caliphate of al-Walid that a royal decree was issued to the governor of Egypt to impose the use
  7. 7.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 7 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 612)
    As a corrective to this double distortion of Umayyad rule in Egypt, the Qurrah Papyri (written in Arabic and Greek) contradict the later Abbasid narrative sources, which misrepresent the character of Umayyad administration in Egypt. These provincial Egyptian documents indicate, for example, that the governor Qurrah ibn Sharik (ruled 709-714) was a careful and effective administrator and not the godless tyrant portrayed by Abbasid historians.
  8. 8.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 7 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 613)
    From about 715 to 740 the Umayyad administration took a radical step to increase tax remittance to the fisc. It changed the tax status of the land of Egypt from treaty to nontreaty (Noth, 1984). This change reputedly doubled the tax rate. ... This change in tax status probably accounts for the endemic tax revolts by, first, Copts, then both Arabs and Copts, which began in 725 and continued periodically into the Abbasid period.
  9. 9.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 7 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 616)
    When tax officials succeeded in extracting excessive taxes, peasants stood to be abused to the point of abandoning the land. ... In the case of tenant farmers on church lands, it led to the church's loss of that land. ... While many historians have focused on the emphasis on religious persecution in Coptic sources as the likely reason for conversion, it has been suggested that the church's weakening economic and social status was a more demonstrable and likely factor. In this interpretation, conversion can be seen as a means of joining the new ruling class in an attempt to protect one's proper
  10. 10.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 1 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 223)
    Al-Asbagh imposed extraordinary taxation, beyond the normal capitation of the JIZYAH (poll tax), and for the first time in history imposed it on the monks in the desert. Furthermore, he imposed a levy of 2,000 dinars above the normal tax of the KHARAJ (communal tax) on every bishop. So squeezed were the Copts by both legal and illegal imposts that many of them were constrained to convert to Islam as a means of escape from these financial burdens. ... Instead of receiving him, the governor ordered the patriarch's arrest and demanded the immediate payment of 3,000 dinars as a price for his freed
  11. 11.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 5 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 146)
    KHA’IL I, forty-sixth patriarch of the See of Saint Mark (744-767). ... This was granted by Hafs ibn al-Walid al-Hadrami on the condition that they bring the candidate for an audience before the consecration. ... The delegation left for Alexandria with Hafs's approval, but without securing relief from Abu al-Qasim's imposts.
  12. 12.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 3 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 671)
    During the Umayyad period, conversion was officially discouraged and when it was permitted, it did not always entail release from the JIZYAH (poll tax) that had been imposed by the Arabs, theoretically at least, solely on non-Muslims in the conquered territories.
  13. 13.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 1 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 225)
    of Arabic instead of Coptic in the manipulation of the tax registers.
  14. 14.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 7 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 612)
    named after the Banu Umayyah, a merchant family of Mecca, following a civil war established the first dynasty to rule the Islamic world
  15. 15.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 7 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 612)
    reaching as far as France in the west and India in the east ... whence Egypt was ruled as a province of Syria
  16. 16.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 7 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 612)
    Umayyad favoritism toward ethnic Arabs resulted in discrimination against non-Arab converts to Islam, hence the literature often refers to the Umayyad empire as the "Arab Empire."
  17. 17.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 2 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 830)
    Since the Council of CHALCEDON in 451, the Byzantine lords in Egypt were of the Melchite creed, which the Copts disregarded as heretical.
  18. 18.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 2 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 833)
    he had spent most of the years of his reign a fugitive moving from one desert monastery to another for fear of arrest by the Byzantine ruler Cyrus al-Muqawqas
  19. 19.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 2 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 830)
    they stood aside during the progressive struggle between the Arabs and the Byzantine defenders ... people "began to help the Muslims," at least by carrying fodder and provisions
  20. 20.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 3 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 692)
    The Copts were not a monolithic group welcoming wholeheartedly the Arab armies. After the fall of Pelusium in 639, the troops of ‘Amr ibn al-‘As met strong resistance in the towns of the Delta
  21. 21.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 3 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 692)
    Babylon (Old Cairo) fell only on 6 April 641 and Alexandria even later, on 29 September 642, after the Byzantine troops had left the town.
  22. 22.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 2 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 833)
    Benjamin I was honored by the Muslim victors, who permitted him to occupy numerous churches previously appropriated by the Melchites
  23. 23.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 2 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 830)
    COVENANT OF ‘UMAR, ascribed to the second Orthodox caliph, ‘Umar ibn al-Khattab (634-644), and regarded as a document of primary importance in regulating the relations between the Muslim conquerors of the Middle East and their Dhimmi subjects
  24. 24.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 1 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 675)
    The construction and even the maintenance of the churches were guaranteed in principle by the surrender treaty of 641.
  25. 25.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 7 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 613)
    This was of necessity as no Arabs, other than a few high-level personnel, settled in Egypt until a half century later.
  26. 26.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 7 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 613)
    Egypt's agrarian wealth was legendary. Umayyad interest in Egypt was fiscal, the wealth yielded by agricultural taxation as well as the poll tax levied on non-Muslims.
  27. 27.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 7 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 613)
    a native Egyptian notable, often a churchman, apportioned the district's assessment ... This same native Egyptian notable collected the individually assessed taxes
  28. 28.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 7 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 613)
    The precise juridical term used to indicate land conquered without treaty, kharaj, is unknown in the Umayyad papyri ... continued periodically into the Abbasid period.
  29. 29.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 7 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 616)
    Officials reputedly deliberately overassessed landholders in some instances in order to dispossess them and then take over their lands.
  30. 30.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 7 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 616)
    Coptic church sources viewed their loss of tenure and the loss of their position as intermediaries between the state and the peasant as religious persecution.
  31. 31.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 1 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 485)
    at two dinars per adult male, and an additional kharaj (land tax) payable by those (including churches) possessing land in the provinces. In addition, the protected population was required to provide a measure of clothing and hospitality to any itinerant Muslim.
  32. 32.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 1 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 485)
    Much of this confused material reflects the theoretical variations of a later date ... frequent and seemingly haphazard changes in status and in levels and incidence of taxation.
  33. 33.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 1 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 485)
    the PAGARCH, whose role is amply documented for us in two sets of correspondence, that between Qurrah and Basilius of Aphrodito, and that between Papas, pagarch of Apollonos Ano, and the amir of the Thebaid
  34. 34.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 1 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 485)
    the large estates and autopract domains of Coptic landowners ... were swiftly abolished and appropriated for allotment. The pagarchic system survived long after the Umayyad period
  35. 35.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 1 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 225)
    He also directed his men to concentrate on the restoration of ruined towns and villages ... until a new governor, Ayyub ibn Sharhabil, was appointed for Egypt in 717. A reversal of the policy of understanding followed.
  36. 36.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 1 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 225)
    according to the History of the Patriarchs, "he was like Antichrist" ... "was a God-fearing man. . . .and he became the deliverer of the Orthodox"
  37. 37.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 1 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 224)
    throughout the patriarchate of Alexander II ... every new caliph to appoint a new governor, who naturally renewed his claim for more taxation beyond the limitations of the jizyah and the kharaj. People began to flee their domiciles
  38. 38.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 1 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 224)
    by tattooing, cauterizing, and even chaining their victims with lead and iron bracelets or pendants. Confiscation of property and cattle was not unusual ... confiscating the property of a deceased person, instead of passing the inheritance to the heirs.
  39. 39.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 1 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 224)
    Even the religious personalities, previously exempt ... began to be subjected to the same treatment ... Incarceration, flogging, amputation of limbs, and even outright murder of a delinquent subject were customary punishments.
  40. 40.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 1 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 224)
    The accession of al-Walid ibn ‘Abd al-Malik brought about changes in provincial governors ... Qurrah Shurayk thus became governor of Egypt in 709 ... a plague outbreak, which killed many Copts and Muslims, including Governor Qurrah in the year 714.
  41. 41.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 1 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 224)
    His successor, ‘Abd al-Malik ibn Rifa‘ah al-Fahmi (714-717), was inaugurated in the midst of an outbreak of famine that killed more people than the previous plague.
  42. 42.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 1 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 225)
    In the period of the siege of Constantinople that began in 716, people were forbidden from hosting sailors from Byzantium—which halted the progress of international trade
  43. 43.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 1 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 225)
    the caliph's thirst for funding his Byzantine expeditions ... All the gold and silver utensils used in sacramental services were looted, and even pillars of precious colored marble and beautiful carved wooden structures were taken from churches
  44. 44.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 1 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 225)
    monasteries were invaded; some were completely ruined, and their monks carried away for slave work in the Islamic fleet.
  45. 45.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 1 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 225)
    A Chalcedonian named Anastasius bribed the governor to place a Chalcedonian physician by the name of Onopus on the throne of Saint Mark instead of Alexander II.
  46. 46.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 1 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 225)
    This movement was foiled by the Alexandrian people, and Onopus rescinded his claim and asked forgiveness.
  47. 47.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 5 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 147)
    Hafs was pursued by a new governor, Hawtharah, who burned him alive and killed most of his supporters and confiscated all their property.
  48. 48.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 5 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 147)
    he loved the Orthodox; and as he resided at Wasim with all his army for three years he used to consult the Father Abba Moses about the salvation of his soul.
  49. 49.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 5 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 147)
    Marwan II (744-750) ... a Chalcedonian by the name of Theophylact, a goldsmith by profession, who prevailed upon the caliph to make him Chalcedonian patriarch of the Greeks ... now Chalcedonian patriarch under the name of Cosmas
  50. 50.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 5 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 147)
    'Abd al-Malik ibn Musa ibn Nasir ... encouraged Theophylact ... to reclaim some Byzantine churches that had been appropriated by the Copts after the Arab conquest of Egypt, including the famous cathedral of Saint Menas (Abu Mina), built by Emperor Arcadius in Mareotis.
  51. 51.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 5 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 147)
    though the Chalcedonians tried to prevail by bribery, apparently the eloquence and the logic of the Coptic patriarch in the end won this battle of wits
  52. 52.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 5 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 147)
    the Chalcedonians tried to restore the unity of the two churches, with subsequent prolonged discussions between the two parties, general attention was drawn away from religious dialogue by a pestilence
  53. 53.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 5 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 147)
    the government resumed its quest for extraordinary financial imposts from both patriarchs. The Coptic patriarch was constrained to ask permission to go to Upper Egypt to collect funds
  54. 54.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 5 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 147)
    He was led to interfere in a conflict between the king of Nubia and his bishop. After a long exchange of letters between the king and the Patriarch, the governor of Egypt became aware of the situation and seized Kha’il
  55. 55.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 3 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 671)
    the act itself meant social isolation if not total pariah status in one's former confessional community
  56. 56.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 3 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 671)
    In Umayyad times, al-Fustat was not the developing Muslim urban agglomeration the sources reveal by approximately the end of the ninth century ... remained little more than an administrative outpost
  57. 57.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 3 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 671)
    The growth of Muslim towns was predicated in part on the migration of new converts from their previous confessional homes ... the bulk of the Coptic community did not yet see any advantages to conversion.
  58. 58.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 7 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 616)
    Parties to published Arabic legal documents dating from as late as the eleventh century continue to be Copts overwhelmingly, by the evidence of their names and genealogies.
  59. 59.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 7 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 616)
    the means of conversion among the provincial population, too humble to have come to the attention of Muslim biographers resident in capital cities, was intermarriage
  60. 60.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 7 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 616)
    a woman with a Coptic patronymic marries a man with a Muslim first name and patronymic. A state functionary bears a Muslim name and patronymic, while his mother's name and patronymic are both Coptic.
  61. 61.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 7 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 616)
    According to Islamic jurisprudence, witnesses were required to be Muslim. Some of the witnesses ... may have been recent converts, or from families recently converted.
  62. 62.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 7 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 617)
    Umayyad officials continued to give the option of having a contract written in Coptic as late as fifteen years after their assumption of judicial authority around 718
  63. 63.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 7 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 617)
    demonstrating not only their familiarity with the Coptic formulary but also its acceptance as valid before Muslim jurists
  64. 64.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 7 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 617)
    there are many parallels between the Coptic and Arabic formularies, as well as between the Greek and Arabic, they are not identical. Arabic contracts from Umayyad Egypt contain unique clauses as well as modification of phrases making earlier Egyptian formularies conform to Islamic norms.
  65. 65.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 7 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 617)
    Tenth-century documents from the Fayyum expressly state that the contract in question had been "read to the seller in Arabic and explained to him in the "foreign language.'"
  66. 66.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 7 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 609)
    the Arabs, in their effort to counter Byzantine maritime supremacy in the Mediterranean, made use of available skilled labor in building or refitting naval vessels
  67. 67.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 7 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 609)
    including those of al-Bakri, al-Raqiq al-Qayrawani, and al-Tjani—report that the Umayyad caliph ‘Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan (685-705) ordered his brother ‘Abd al- Aziz (governor of Egypt, 685-705) to dispatch to Hassan ibn al-Nu‘man (commander of the Arab forces in North Africa)
  68. 68.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 7 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 609)
    This is the only historical text in which Copts are specifically mentioned. Other texts either refer to Christians or to non-Muslim Egyptians in general, or include information that implies that Copts are meant.
  69. 69.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 7 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 609)
    Theophanes (d. 818) ... the Arab naval assault on Constantinople in 717-718, during the rule of Emperor Leo III (717-741). It states that the main fleet sailed from Egypt and was later reinforced from Africa (Tunisia).
  70. 70.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 7 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 609)
    not only because the Byzantines used Greek fire but also ... the "Egyptians . . . took the merchant ships' light boats, and . . . fled to the city," thus providing the Byzantines with information about the Muslim fleet
  71. 71.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 7 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 609)
    "Egyptians" is a reference to non-Arab sailors, and the mention of "merchant ships" in this passage indicates that Christian sailors were manning supply ships. The question of their actual participation in the fighting is left unanswered.
  72. 72.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 7 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 612)
    Discontent among converts led to the overthrow of the Umayyads and their replacement by the Abbasid dynasty ... which brought in its wake increasing ethnic Persian influence.
  73. 73.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 7 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 612)
    the history of the Umayyads was written as propaganda justifying their overthrow ... accepted and compounded by an imperial mind-set that saw Islam as the cause of the decline of Egypt's fortunes
  74. 74.The Coptic Encyclopedia — Introduction — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 22)
    Frantz-Murphy, Gladys Iona College Umayyads, Copts under the
  75. 75.The Coptic Encyclopedia — Introduction — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 63)
    their profound spirituality, which sustained their unflinching adherence to their church as a comprehensive way of life ... their acceptance as an integral part of the country by the Muslim rulers, who systematically employed them in the affairs and offices of state
  76. 76.The Coptic Encyclopedia — Introduction — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 63)
    The miracle of the survival of the Copts as a community through the ages may be ascribed to two main factors—the one internal and the other external.

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