An account of the manners and customs of the modern Egyptians

by Edward William Lane

The Coptic Church recommends baptizing boys at the age of forty days, and girls at the age of eighty days, if they continue so long well and healthy; but earlier if they be ill, and in apparent danger of death: for it is a prevailing belief among the Copts, that, if a child die unbaptized, it will be blind in the next life, and the parents are held guilty of a sin, for which they must do penance, either by repeating many prayers, or by fasting: yet people of the lower orders, if living at an inconvenient distance from a church, and even in other cases, often neglect baptizing their children for a whole year. The child is dipped three times in the water, in which a little holy oil, dropped on the priest’s thumb, has been washed off; and prayers, entirely in Coptic, are repeated over it. The Copts hold that the Holy Spirit descends upon the child in baptism. No money is taken by the priest for performing the baptismal service, unless voluntarily offered.

I have said that most of the Copts circumcise their sons. Not many of them in Cairo, I am told, do so; but in other parts, all, or almost all, observe this rite. The operation is generally performed when the child is about seven or eight years of age; and always privately: there is no fixed age for its performance: some of the Copts are circumcised at the early age of two years; and some at the age of twenty years, or more. The more enlightened of the Copts certainly regard circumcision as a practice to be commended; but not as a religious rite; which the priests declare it is not. It appears, however, from its being universal among the peasantry, that these look upon it as something more than a mere civil rite; for if they regarded it as being of no higher importance, surely they would leave the more polished to comply with the custom. Some say it is in imitation of Christ, who submitted to this rite, that they perform it. It is a relic of ancient customs.

The Copts have numerous schools; but for boys only: very few females among them can read; and those have been instructed at home. The boys are taught the Psalms of David, the Gospels, and the Apostolical Epistles, in Arabic; and then the Gospels and Epistles in Coptic. They do not learn the Coptic language grammatically; and I am told that there is not to be found, among the Copts, any person who can write or speak that language with correctness or ease; and that there are very few persons who can do more than repeat what they have committed to memory, of the Scriptures and Liturgy. The Coptic language gradually fell into disuse after the conquest of Egypt by the Arabs. For two centuries after that event, it appears to have been the only language that the generality of the Copts understood; but before the tenth century of our era, most of the inhabitants of Lower Egypt had ceased to speak and understand it;[^[637]] though in the Sa’eed (or Upper Egypt), El-Makreezee tells us, the women and children of the Copts, in his time (that is, about the close of the fourteenth century of our era, or the early part of the fifteenth), scarcely spoke any other language than the Sa’eedee Coptic; and had a complete knowledge of the Greek. Soon after this period, the Coptic language fell into disuse in Upper Egypt, as it had done so long before in the Lower Provinces; and the Arabic was adopted in its stead. All the Copts who have been instructed at a school still pray, both in the church and in private, in Coptic; and the Scriptures are still always read in the churches in that language; but they are explained, from books, in Arabic. Many books for the use of priests and other persons are written in the Coptic language, expressed in Arabic characters.

The ordinary private prayers of the Copts are a subject particularly worthy of notice. In these they seem to have imitated the Jews, and to resemble the Muslims. I am informed that there are few of them in Cairo who do not comply with a precept of their church which enjoins them to pray seven times in the course of the day. The first prayer is said at day-break; the second, at the third hour; the third, at the sixth hour; the fourth, at the ninth hour; the fifth, at the eleventh hour; the sixth, at the twelfth hour, which is sunset; and the seventh, at midnight. In each of these prayers, those persons who have learned to read, and are strict in the performance of their religious duties, recite several of the Psalms of David (about a seventh part of the whole book of Psalms) in Arabic, and a chapter of one of the four Gospels in the same language; after which they say, either in Coptic or Arabic, “O my Lord! have mercy!” forty-one times; some using a string of forty-one beads; others counting by their fingers: they then add a short prayer in Coptic. In the seven prayers of each day, altogether, they repeat the whole book of Psalms. Such, I am assured, are the rigid practices of the more strict and instructed classes in their daily worship. The illiterate repeat, in each of the seven daily prayers, the Lord’s prayer seven times, and “O my Lord! have mercy!” forty-one times. Previously to private as well as public prayer, persons of the better and stricter classes wash their hands and face; and some also wash their feet; and in prayer they always face the east. Though in most of the rules above mentioned they nearly resemble the Jews and the Muslims, they differ from both these sects in holding that prayer, excepting with the congregation in the church, is better performed in private than in public. Their ordinary prayers, or at least the latter and shorter form, they often repeat while walking or riding or otherwise actively employed. I can hardly believe that the longer form is generally used by the instructed classes; though I am positively assured that it is.

The larger churches are divided into four or five compartments. The “Heykel,” or Chancel, containing the altar, occupies the central and chief portion of the compartment at the upper end, which is screened from the rest of the church by a close partition or wall of wooden panel-work, having a door in the centre, the entrance of the Heykel, before which is suspended a curtain, with a large cross worked upon it. The compartment next before this is appropriated to the priests who read the lessons, etc., and to boys who serve as acolytes and singers, and the chief members of the congregation: this is separated from the compartment next before it by a partition of wooden lattice-work, about eight or nine feet high, with three doors, or a single door in the centre. The inferior members of the congregation occupy the next compartment, or next two compartments; and the lowest is appropriated to the women, and is screened in front by a partition of wooden lattice-work, to conceal them entirely from the men. Upon the walls of the church are suspended ill-executed and gaudy pictures of various saints; particularly of the patron saint; but no images are admitted. The floor is covered with mats.

Every man takes off his shoes on entering the church; but he retains his turban. He first goes to the door of the Heykel, prostrates himself before it, and kisses the hem of its curtain. He then prostrates himself, or makes a bow, and a salutation with the hand, before one or more pictures of saints, and sometimes kisses the hand of one or more of the officiating priests, in the compartment next before the Heykel. Almost every member of the congregation has a crutch, about four feet and a half or five feet long, to lean upon while he stands; which he does during the greater part of the service. The full service (with the celebration of the Eucharist) occupies between three and four hours; generally commencing at day-break.

The priests who officiate in the Heykel are clad in handsome robes; but the others wear only their ordinary dress. The whole of the service that is performed in the Heykel is in the Coptic language; no other language being allowed to be spoken within the sanctuary. The priests without, standing opposite and facing the door of the Heykel, read and chant explanations and lessons in Arabic and Coptic.[^[638]] A priest is not permitted to sit down while reading the service in the sanctuary; and as this occupies so long a time, he pauses, in order that he may sit down, several times, for a few minutes, and on these occasions, cymbals of various sizes and notes are beaten as long as he remains sitting. Several times, also, a priest comes out from the Heykel, waves a censer, in which frankincense is burning, among the congregation, and blesses each member, placing his hand upon the person’s head. Having done this to the men, he proceeds to the apartment of the women. The Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper is often performed in the Coptic Church. The bread, which is made in the form of small round cakes, or buns, stamped upon the top, is moistened with the wine, and in this state administered to the congregation, and partaken of by the ministers in orders, who have larger shares than the laymen, and are alone privileged to drink the wine. Each member of the congregation advances to the door of the Heykel to receive his portion.

The priests and others are often guilty of excessive indecorum in their public worship. I heard a priest, standing before the door of the sanctuary in the patriarchal church in Cairo, exclaim to a young acolyte (who was assisting him, I suppose, rather awkwardly), “May a blow corrode your heart!” and a friend of mine once witnessed, in the same place, a complete uproar: a priest from a village, having taken a part in the performance of the service, was loudly cursed, and forcibly expelled, by the regular officiating ministers; and afterwards, many members of the congregation, in pressing towards the door of the Heykel, vociferated curses, and beat each other with their crutches. The form of service in itself struck me as not much characterized by solemnity; though probably it approaches very nearly to that of the earliest age of the Christian Church.

Confession is required of all members of the Coptic Church; and is indispensable before receiving the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. Each person generally confesses to the same priest. The penance which the confessor usually imposes is a certain number of crossings and prostrations, with the repetition, during each prostration, of the Lord’s Prayer, or, “O my Lord! have mercy!”

The Copts observe long and arduous fasts. A week before their Great Fast, or Lent, commences a fast of three days, kept in commemoration of that of Nineveh, which was occasioned by the preaching of Jonah. Some of the Copts observe this fast by total abstinence during the whole period of three days and three nights; others keep it in the same manner as the other fasts, of which an account here follows.