EGYPT

EGYPT. The Roman province of Egypt included the Nile valley to the First Cataract, the present-day Aswan Dam, and the territory of Cyrenica, the coastlands of modern Libya. An intensely conservative peasantry and pagan priesthood were politically and culturally dominated by the Greek-speaking capital, Alexandria (q.v.). While most of the Christian literature coming from Egypt through the 4th c. and 5th c. was in Greek, the conversion of the peasantry by the latter century gave birth to monasticism (q.v.) and to the earliest Coptic literature. Following the Council of Chalcedon (451), the Egyptian or Coptic Church (q.v.)-i.e., the vast majority of indigenous Christians-broke communion with the sees of Rome and Constantinople (qq.v.). Much reduced by the presence of Islam (q.v.) over the past thirteen centuries, this community today numbers perhaps five to six million, about 5 to 10 percent of the population of modern Egypt, but enjoys a leadership role in the modern nation disproportionate to its size.