The Copts are Egypt’s indigenous Christian ethno-religious community, constituting up to 10 percent of Egypt’s population. The term Copt refers to members of the Coptic Orthodox Church, the largest Christian body in Egypt, or as a generic term for Egyptian Christians.
Copts are descendants of pre-Islamic Egyptians and speak a late form of the Egyptian language known as Coptic. The Coptic Orthodox Church has maintained its autonomy since breaking with the imperial Melchites in the 5th century, with its beliefs and rituals remaining largely unchanged. In the 19th and 20th centuries, they began calling themselves Coptic Orthodox to distinguish themselves from Copts who had converted to Roman Catholicism and from Eastern Orthodox Christians.