AHC: Coptic Christian resurgence

With a POD after the Middle Ages, the challenge is to get a resurgence in the Coptic Church in Egypt, to the extent that 30%+ of the Egyptian population is Coptic Christian by the modern day.

My best idea is that Muslim leaders try to promote religious Muslim nationalism in Egypt by trashing the pagan and Christian history, including the pyramids etc. Coptic Christianity thus becomes seen as the true Egyptian identity that many flock to once nationalism arrives.

Thoughts?
 
How's about: Egypt gets taken over by a European country sometime in the 18th century. Said country removes the legal discrimination non-Muslims suffer (no more jizya [sp.?] etc.), or even reverses it (preferentially recruiting Copts into the local administration in the expectation that they'd be more loyal, and things of that like). As a result the number of Copts starts to increase, reaching 30% of the population sometime before January 2nd, 2017.
 
With a POD after the Middle Ages, the challenge is to get a resurgence in the Coptic Church in Egypt, to the extent that 30%+ of the Egyptian population is Coptic Christian by the modern day.

My best idea is that Muslim leaders try to promote religious Muslim nationalism in Egypt by trashing the pagan and Christian history, including the pyramids etc. Coptic Christianity thus becomes seen as the true Egyptian identity that many flock to once nationalism arrives.

Thoughts?

Define 'after the Middle Ages.'
 
As said before, the best way to do this is to have Egypt be colonized (France?), have the colonial overlords basically go "oh, hey, look, native Christians" and put them in charge, and then have these administrators promote Coptic Christianity. Even better if the Coptic Church joins the Catholic or Orthodox church.

However, if you want Miaphysite evangelism, the Ethiopian Orthodox Tehawedo Church is a better bet because of the widespread interest in the Book of Enoch. Maybe have many black churches in the American south loose faith in Baptist or Methodist denominations that seem to be leaving them out in the cold with segregation. Have an Ethiopian Bishop or Archbishop offer to unite whole churches with the EOTC if the pastor is trained on how to be a priest. Have this movement become popular, and then eventually white churches will either join the EOTC or an American Orthodox Tewahedo Church is formed (though it may have the same problems the Orthodox Church in America has had OTL).
 
The Americans lose the Battle of Saratoga. France decides to not intervene in the American Revolution and goes neutral - leaving the other European powers to follow their lead; the OTL huge amounts of manpower, funds and material resources spent aiding the Americans are not spent - leaving France's financial state in a better place. Egypt has always been of interest to the French since before Napoleon - aristocrat and military officer Francois Baron de Tott went on a secret mission to the Levant in the 1770s to determine the feasibility of a possible French conquest. The report was favorable but no immediate action was taken - likely due to France's intervention in the War for American Independence putting any plans to subjugate Egypt in the back-burner. No French intervention in America's problems and I can see a French conquest of Egypt (and the Levant) happening sometime in the 1780s.

This isn't Egypt of Mohammad Ali's era - a regional powerhouse that almost destroyed the Ottoman Empire. It's a backwater province of the Ottoman Empire - de facto controlled by the Mamluks who often more than not ruled without much say from Constantinople. The Egyptian population chafed under the tulbah - a forced payment made by Mamluk troops on the inhabitants of the country, regardless of religion: of course you had the Copts suffering discrimination and having to pay the jizya. Egypt had just recently declared independence under Ali Bey and was reconquered by the Ottomans - due to intrigue by Ali Bey's own Mamlukes. There's plenty of reasons to take Egypt - its rich agricultural lands, access to new markets for French goods, the possibility of that Meditterranean-Red Sea canal becoming a thing, a fifth column of Christians that would easily support a French invasion, land for French settlers and an easy target to ward off any possible anti-Bourbon sentiment felt by the population - nothing like replaying the Crusades to stir up nationalistic feeling and popularity for the monarchy.

legion-cophte-1799.png


In OTL, Napoleon recruited Egyptian Christians and organized them into a Coptic Legion to augment his meager forces during his occupation of Egypt. What would stop the Bourbons from doing the same? I'd imagine thousands, if not tens of thousands joining the French if the Bourbons promised to abolish the discriminatory policies against the Copts and give them a role in the new administration of the country. Maybe the Coptic Church in turn sees the line in the sand and offers to align itself with the Catholic Church as one of the Eastern Catholic Churches like the Maronites.
 
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Given the experience of British Egypt, French Algeria and Italian Libya, European colonialism would seem to make the Christians hated as a fifth column and stir national hatred, rather than expand Christianity. This is why I was going for the reverse: have colonialism by Arab Muslims and Egyptian Christianity be seen as the opposition liberation movement.

I like the Ethiopian idea. The problem is that it was submissive to the church of Alexandria until the 1960s. I also suspect Egyptians look down on black Africans in this time period.
 
However, if you want Miaphysite evangelism, the Ethiopian Orthodox Tehawedo Church is a better bet because of the widespread interest in the Book of Enoch. Maybe have many black churches in the American south loose faith in Baptist or Methodist denominations that seem to be leaving them out in the cold with segregation. Have an Ethiopian Bishop or Archbishop offer to unite whole churches with the EOTC if the pastor is trained on how to be a priest. Have this movement become popular, and then eventually white churches will either join the EOTC or an American Orthodox Tewahedo Church is formed (though it may have the same problems the Orthodox Church in America has had OTL).

African Orthodox Church wank?

Also not certain how they'd attract many white followers (most black denominations are about 99% black) or start a parallel movement in the white churches.
 
African Orthodox Church wank?

Also not certain how they'd attract many white followers (most black denominations are about 99% black) or start a parallel movement in the white churches.
Those denominations are 99 per cent black, but there are a lot of in and out, and someone could at least take some of the ideas from an African Orthodox Church and integrate it into a new denomination. Think Pentecostals with a bigger bible.
 
I played once with the idea of Egypt becoming a high-income country with First World social indicators, including fertility rates sharply below replacement levels. This Egypt was a natural destination for African immigrants including Ethiopian Christians.
 
I've read that just a century ago, Christians may have been a quarter of Egypt's population, and that it was 20th-century demographic changes/emigration that caused their population to be closer to 10% now.
 
I played once with the idea of Egypt becoming a high-income country with First World social indicators, including fertility rates sharply below replacement levels. This Egypt was a natural destination for African immigrants including Ethiopian Christians.

... and how will you do that? There's pretty good reasons that Egypt aren't a high income country, and I can't really see how those reasons would change.
 
... and how will you do that? There's pretty good reasons that Egypt aren't a high income country, and I can't really see how those reasons would change.

The POD was back in the early 19th century. It was enough to get Egypt most of the way to the First World--think, oh, Romanian levels of income.
 
I'd say that when Portugal rounds the Cape of Good Hope, it finds and creates a major ally in Ethiopia, setting up a major trade post in the region, where they partner with the Ethiopians to control trade (and as a base for raiding trade). With money coming in via the Portuguese and the technologies introduced, Ethiopia can create a gunpowder army and dominate the region, and then move north when the Mamluks inevitably do something to the Patriarch of Alexandria.

Boom, Gunpowder Ethiopia invades and takes much if not all of Egypt and encourages a Coptic restoration. Egyptian culture doesn't get overwhelmed as it has the larger demographics, but forms the front line in a series of wars between Ethiopia and the Ottomans. Assuming the Ethiopians are victorious in such a war, Egypt becomes more Coptic than previously, if not an outright or overwhelming majority of the people are Coptic.

Portugal stays allies in exchange for trade privileges in Alexandria/Somewhere in N.Egypt, and Ethiopia gets a healthy income from "passage fees" as the Portuguese dominate the Red Sea route and Mediterranean Trade.

A bit diner napkip, but I think the premise would work.
 
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