Coptic Egypt: A History and Guide

This book is pretty austere as a travel guide: few photos, mostly narrative text unbroken by headings which might aid quick reference. But it's a good book for its history and its knowledgeable, if sometimes dry, descriptions of places of interest. Kamil wants to emphasize the distinctiveness of the Coptic church from other manifestations of Christianity, and tries to tie it in which earlier Egyptian pagan practices. I appreciate her effort to not subsume the Coptic church under an indistinct universal "Christianity", but sometimes her examples seem strained. In any event, that's a topic for a much longer and more in-depth book than this introductory guide, which serves its purpose pretty nicely. You can pick up a used copy for pretty cheap, so it's certainly worth it.

Coptic Egypt is little known and less understood. Outside Cairo, it's monuments go virtually ignored by the ordinary tourist, while within the city, they are visited briefly, if at all, while on tours of "Old Cairo" which emphasize Islamic Cairo. While neither so grand nor so old as Egypt's Pharonic sites, the Coptic sites are fascinating in their own right and take Egyptian history forward from the time of the pharaohs through the Arab invasions of the seventh century (until which time, Egypt was a Christian country) to approximately the 12th century when many of the monasteries were deserted. This book is a wonderful introduction to the religion, its practices, its history, and its beliefs. It goes on to list the various sites by region of the country-churches and convents in Cairo, monasteries in the rest of the country. There is an excellent chapter on the Coptic Museum where outstanding examples of Coptic art are displayed. Some of the monasteries, dating back to the third and fourth centuries are deserted, but many are still in use and functioning, so a list of religious holidays is helpful if the traveler wishes to avoid the crowds. These monasteries are not only well-preserved examples of 5th century ecclesiastical architecture, but also contain some first-rate icons which can range in age anywhere from the fifth to the twelfth century. All in all an excellent introduction to a fascinating subject.