The Islam conquers Egypt
Certainly, the faithful, the Jews, the Christians and the Sabians -
who among them believe in Allah and the last Day, shall receive their reward
from the Lord and no fear shall overcome them, nor shall they grieve.
Qur'an, Sura 2 (Al-Baqarah), 63
In 570 Mohammed, the prophet of the Islam, was born in Mekka. The
Muslims count their years from 622, the year Mohammed was driven from
Mekka to Medina. Here in Medina Mohammed became the religious and political leader,
and in 10 years he conquered Central-Arabia. In 632 he died,
and that lead to quarrels about his succession.
In 656 Ali, nephew and son-in-law of Mohammed became caliph, leader of
the Muslims, but the family of his predecessor did not accept this, and
the result was a civil war.
The followers of Ali became de Shiites, his enemies the Sunites.
Both groups still exist, and their conflicts go on.
At that moment the East-Romans (Byzantines) controlled a.o. Turkey, Syria,
Libanon, Israel, Jordan, Egypt, Lybia, Tunis, Algeria, en Morocco,
and parts of Spain and Italy. But they had long wars with the Persians,
to mutual exhaustions.
This gave the Arabs the chance to conquer most of the countries around them.
In 638 they conquered Jerusalem, and they allowed Jews to live there again.
That had been forbidden since 135 (by Hadrian).
This conquest brought a shock about in the Christian world.
In 642 Egypt was conquered, and in 711 they had conquered the whole of
North-Africa and crossed de Strait of Gibraltar. Spain fell into their hands,
and only in 732 they were defeated by Charles Martel near Poitiers.
They also were succesful against Persia. Turkey and the north of
Syria remained in the hands of the East-Romans.
So the Egyptian Christians, called Copts from then on, got new rulers.
They did not have much trouble with it. They had been suppressed by the
East-Romans, who considered these Monophysitic Christians as heretics.
They, (and the Jews), in fact were better of in the new situation;
(the Koran teaches people to have respect for Jews and Christians,
who are also people of the Book, see e.g., the text above this document)
even if they had to pay a special tax.
But they were free of military service.
However, when the well-known Harun al-Rasjid became caliph in Bagdad,
and built much, the taxes rose, and in 830, when his sons reigned the
Copts revolted. To no avail.
Just before that, in 828, Venetian merchants had stolen the bones of
Mark
(In 1968 the bones have been returned.)
In 969 the Shiitic Fatimids seized power. It was a good time for Egypt.
The University of Cairo was founded, which still exists,
The economy flourished, and big and luxurious palaces were built.
The Copts in Egypt lived a peaceful life.
All this changed when Al-Hakim became caliph (996): he suppressed both Jews and Christians. And after him prosperity and with it political stability disappeared. Revolts and political murders were the order of the day.
In the Church outside Egypt it was the time of the Iconoclasts:
people who thought that images of Christ and the saints ought
to be forbidden, having them was contrary to the second Command. This lead to many
conflicts, even to the destruction of images on a large scale.
In the end it was decided that images, icons, were allowed.
In the West statues were allowed as well.
Whether the Copts were involved in this discussions is not clear.
They have icons in their churches but not statues.
In 1071 the East-Roman army was defeated near Manzikert (in the present-day
East of Turkey by the invading Turks. The whole of Asiatic Turkey was lost, and pelgrims
to the Holy Land could not travel that way anymore.
This had great consequences.