What it was
The Coptic Orthodox Church is the church of Egypt’s Christians, and tradition holds that it was founded by Mark the Evangelist in Alexandria in the 1st century. After the Council of Chalcedon in 451 it separated from the imperial church over Christological doctrine, taking the Miaphysite position, under its own Pope of Alexandria — a line the church counts from Mark. Coptic, the final stage of the ancient Egyptian language, survives as its liturgical language.
Role
Early Christian Egypt left a deep mark on the wider faith. The Catechetical School of Alexandria produced teachers such as Clement and Origen, and Christian monasticism itself was born in the Egyptian desert, where Anthony the Great pioneered the hermit life and Pachomius the communal form.
Fate
Under Islamic rule from the 7th century, Copts lived as a protected tax-paying community and gradually became a minority, but the church endured through every later era. Today it is the largest Christian community in the Middle East — commonly estimated at roughly a tenth of Egypt’s population, though figures are contested — with its pope based in Cairo and a growing worldwide diaspora. In the modern era Copts have periodically faced sectarian violence and attacks.