이슬람 이전 시대의 이집트 콥트교의 유래와 발전과정 연구

Abstract

It’s not so easy in most of the Arab countries to hear the word ‘Copt’, but in Egypt. Usual pictures we imagine about Egypt are Pyramids, Pharaoh, Sphinx and Islam. And we can also imagine the Nile River which was the root of the flourishing Egyptian civilization, one of the Four Great Ancient Civilizations, and its numerous temples. Egypt has various characteristics and it’s possible to identify it by four time period: the Pharaonic era, the Greco-Roman era, the Coptic era and Islamic era, and also by three regional aspects: as a part of the Arab world, the Mediterranean world and Africa. The Copt shapes a big body of Christianity in the Middle East in which the Christianity was born. Because History of the Copt in Egypt is longer than 19 centuries, Egypt is mentioned in the Old Testament by many prophets. Coptic believers of Egypt have great self-confidence that they are offspring of ancient Egyptians who build the Egyptian civilization far before the beginning of Christianity and are consequently original natives of the region. Their ancestors had created their identities through resisting and sometimes adapting themselves to powers from outside such as Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Persians and Muslims. Even though, through the long history, 90% of Coptic believers became Muslims partly because of economic benefits and partly imposition and many other reasons in B.C. 640 when Arabs conquered the land of Egypt, some of them had firmly preserved their faith to protect their identities, resisting being assimilated into Islam. This thesis will analyze the process of historical development of the Copt through the period from early Christianity to the time before Islam conquered the region, and includes the definition and identity of the Copt and its development before and after the Byzantine era.