Our speaker gave us a fascinating exploration of Egypt from the splitting of the Roman Empire into its Eastern and Western domains in 395AD up to the arrival of the Arabs in 642AD and the subsequent establishment of Islam. A perhaps unfamiliar topic for those of us steeped in Pharaonic and Greco-Roman aspects of Egyptian history.

As the 4thC began the Roman Empire underwent a dramatic transformation when Emperor Diocletian, who had stabilised the Empire, decided to retire to his allotment to plant cabbages! His departure initiated a splitting of the Empire into Eastern and Western territories. Maximian/Augustus was appointed co-Emperor, reigning the Western Empire, whilst Diocletian retained authority of the Eastern Empire. A later division would see the establishment of a Tetrarchy, or "Rule of Four" comprising the two Augustae and two junior colleagues both referred as Caesar. Despite the effectiveness of the "Rule of Four" it finally collapsed due to competing dynastic claims. Theodosius reunited the Empire at the end of the 4thC, but after some 80 years it finally collapsed into the Eastern Empire, which became the Byzantine Empire and the Western, which became the Roman Empire under the father of Constantine. The territory of Egypt subsequently became home to mixed temples of varying groups including both Orthodox and Christians.

In 1945 the discovery of the Nag Hammadi Texts in Upper Egypt revealed the gospels of the Gnostics, written in the Coptic script, which shed light on the early Christians’ struggles to define Orthodoxy. In the 3rd Century a prophet from Persia, Mani, had proposed his own religion, Zoroastrianism, which comprised elements of Christian teaching alongside elements of religious teachings from India. We also learned that St. Augustin, a philosopher from Roman Africa who brought Christianity to England, was a follower of the Manichaeans.

Egypt itself was sitting on the edge of the Roman Empire and was ruled from Constantinople. Various Roman Emperors did visit Egypt including Vespasian, who visited Alexandria, Hadrian and his lover Antonius and finally Caracalla.

Michael went on to describe a Manichaean Quarter comprising an area of houses found in Kellis, near the Dakhla Oasis, which contained texts including prayers and rituals. The earliest surviving, purpose built churches were found here, oriented east/west, with the apse towards the east and including various ancillary rooms for the communities. Thus, around the 4thC, Egyptian religion existed in parallel to Christianity. Emperor Constantine tolerated this situation but began to provide further funding to build churches thus supporting the expansion of Christianity in Egypt. The monastic movement in Egypt began to take form around this time, notably with St. Anthony the Hermit supporting a new phenomenon, being the spread of monasteries in desert communities.

The last vestiges of Egyptian religion can be found at the Philae Temple, near Aswan in Upper Egypt. Here can be seen the last dated inscription in both Egyptian hieroglyphs and demotic. Following this demise came the arrival of the Coptic alphabet, which comprised predominately Greek signs and included some additional signs to encapsulate the range of sounds of the Egyptian language. Coptic was thus used for both the church and the civil administration and comprised a book or codex that could be copied, such as the Codex Glazier and used to support the bureaucracy.

Following the death of Theodosius in Alexandria the Greeks and Christians collaborated to destroy the Temple of Serapis and other key buildings such as the Serapeum and library complex.

In the 5thC, Christianity had spread further south from Egypt down to Ethiopia with its chief centre at Axum. Around this time a group of nomadic tribesmen, known as the Blemmyes, established a kingdom in lower Nubia. They showed similarities to folkloric images of the Middle Ages that depicted a mythical, headless man with his face on his chest!

Around this time a new Patriarch emerged in Alexandria, one St. Cyril of Alexandria. During his time the last pagan philosophers arose. Chief of these was the legendary female Neoplatonist philosopher, Hypatia. She had great support among both pagans and Christians and had great influence with the political elite in Alexandria. She was a mathematician and astronomer and is particularly notable for her use of the astrolabe to study the heavens. She was a close advisor to Orestes of Alexandria who was engaged in political dispute with the Bishop Cyril. He was known to be particularly stern and uncompromising and as a result of Hypatia's support of Orestes, he had her caught and killed in the marketplace by his Christian followers.

Further religious turmoil in the 5thC, lead to the establishment of four ecumenical church councils located first in Nicea then Constantinople, Ephesus and Calcedon who proposed a debate to conceptualise God as the Father, Son and Holy Spirit based on Greek philosophy. Cyril was in political dispute with the Patriarch of Constantinople, but following his death a compromise formula was established by the Council of Calcedon defining God as both fully God and fully human. This two natures concept led to a rift in the Church between Egypt and Constantine which resulted in a separate Coptic Church in Egypt headed by its own Pope. Many pagan sites and shrines were subsequently taken over and elaborate churches built at those sites. Notable examples include the Coptic church in the Temple of Dendera in Middle Egypt, the Coptic Monastery near the site of the workmen’s village in Deir el-Medina, the Red Monastery at Sohag and the St. Catherine monastery of Greek Orthodox monks in Sinai. In the 6thC Justinian imposed Christianity, finally ridding Egypt of paganism and closing the Temple of Philae in 530AD.

The 7thC heralded conflict between the Byzantines and the Sassanians of Persia which resulted in the Byzantines losing Egypt to the Persians. Despite being reconciled with the Byzantines, Byzantium finally lost Egypt in 639-642AD as a result of the Arab Conquest becoming majority Muslim.