Coptic Orthodox Church

National Christian church of predominantly Muslim Egypt. Egyptians before the Arab conquest of the 7th century identified themselves and their language as Aigyptios in Greek (Westernized as Copt) and later when Egyptian Muslims stopped calling themselves Aigyptioi, the term became the distinctive name of the Christian minority. Since the 5th century these Christians have been Monophysites, meaning that they acknowledge only one nature in Christ.