Exploring the Communal beyond the “Copts and Muslims Paradigm”
Considering the Place of the Coptic Community in the Historiography of Colonial Egypt
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 11288024 |
|---|---|
| Authors | William Bland (0000-0002-5733-3688, Post-doctoral Research Associate, Faculty of History, University of Oxford Oxford UK, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 54 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 35-55 |
| Publication date | 2025-04-04 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Exchange (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0166-2740 • E-ISSN: 1572-543X |
| Publisher | Walter de Gruyter GmbH (PUBLISHER • DE) |
| DOI | 10.1163/1572543x-bja10090 |
| OpenAlex | W4409201402 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 35 |
This article considers the place of Egypt’s Coptic Christian community in modern Egyptian historiography. Reviewing scholarly literature on Egypt’s colonial period (1882–1956) reveals an overall trend to obscure and ignore Coptic communal experiences that are both distinct and intertwined with the trajectory of Egyptian national history. I highlight the common trope within scholarly literature to primarily refer to Copts in the phrase “Copts and Muslims,” a euphemism for the Egyptian nation that deploys cross-sectarian relations to evaluate national unity. The Copts and Muslims paradigm, I argue, stems from an overwhelming historiographical tendency to emphasize the Egyptian nation and Islam as the primary lenses for approaching Egyptian history. In narratives defined by these currents, the utility of Copts is to serve as signals of the ebbs of flows of national unity or as objects of Islamist discourse, ultimately limiting the place of the Coptic community as a historical subject
Epistemology · Paradigm shift · Islamic Studies and History · Philosophy · Religion and Society Interactions · Religion, Society, and Development
Middle East Studies
Liberalism without Democracy
The Society Of The Muslim Brothers
Middle Eastern studies
Parliaments and Parties in Egypt
Copts and the Millet Partnership
The Age of the Efendiyya
Nasser and His Generation
Identifying with Nationality
Egypt as a Woman
Working out Egypt
Ordinary Egyptians
Colonial Bridgehead
The Dispersion of Egyptian Jewry
Egypt, Islam, and the Arabs
Modern Egypt
The Women's Awakening in Egypt
Egypt from Independence to Revolution, 1919-1952
Liberal Nationalism in Egypt
Egypt in Search of Political Community
Egypt from Monarchy to Republic
Egypt's Liberal Experiment, 1922-1936
Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age, 1798-1939
The Great Social Laboratory
On the Theory and Practice of Compradors
Remembering Cosmopolitan Egypt
Feminists, Islam, and Nation
Islam and Modernism in Egypt. A Study of the Modern Reform Movement Inaugurated by Muhammad Abduh
For Better, For Worse
Tinker, Tailor and Textile Worker
American Evangelicals in Egypt
State, Private Enterprise, and Economic Change in Egypt, 1918-1952
Redefining the Egyptian Nation, 1930-1945
A Fabian in Egypt
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |