Faith Across the Ages of Egypt: Pharaohs to the Moving Mountain

Faith Across the Ages of Egypt: Pharaohs to the Moving Mountain (Contents)

Faith Across the Ages of Egypt: Pharaohs to the Moving Mountain, Faith Across the Ages of Egypt: Pharaohs to the Moving Mountain

Contents – Religion, Egypt, Faith, Mokattam Mountain

Chapter 1 – The Dawn of Egyptian Spirituality Chapter 2 – Foreign Influence and Religious Syncretism Chapter 3 – The Rise of Christianity and the Coptic Identity Chapter 4 – Doctrinal Conflict and the Coptic Church Chapter 5 – The Arab Conquest of Egypt (641 CE) Chapter 6 – Gradual…
Chapter 1 – The Dawn of Egyptian Spirituality

Faith Across the Ages of Egypt: Pharaohs to the Moving Mountain, Faith Across the Ages of Egypt: Pharaohs to the Moving Mountain

Egypt

Part I – The Sacred Origins of Egypt 1.1 The Nile as the Source of Life and Faith The civilisation of ancient Egypt emerged along the fertile banks of the Nile around 3100 BCE, when Upper and Lower Egypt were unified under King Narmer. The river’s annual inundation transformed arid…
Chapter 2 – Foreign Influence and Religious Syncretism

Faith Across the Ages of Egypt: Pharaohs to the Moving Mountain, Faith Across the Ages of Egypt: Pharaohs to the Moving Mountain

Egypt, Persia

Part I – The Sacred Origins of Egypt 2.1 The Persian and Hellenistic Encounters (525–332 BCE) In 525 BCE the Persian Achaemenid Empire, under Cambyses II, conquered Egypt and absorbed it into a vast multicultural realm stretching from the Indus to the Aegean. Persian rule largely preserved Egypt’s administrative and…
Chapter 3 – The Rise of Christianity and the Coptic Identity

Faith Across the Ages of Egypt: Pharaohs to the Moving Mountain, Faith Across the Ages of Egypt: Pharaohs to the Moving Mountain

Christian, Egypt, Evangelism

Part II – The Christianisation of Egypt 3.1 St Mark the Evangelist and the Birth of the Alexandrian Church According to early ecclesiastical tradition, St Mark the Evangelist arrived in Alexandria around 42 CE, bringing the Christian message from Jerusalem to one of the ancient world’s greatest intellectual capitals. While…
Chapter 4 – Doctrinal Conflict and the Coptic Church

Faith Across the Ages of Egypt: Pharaohs to the Moving Mountain, Faith Across the Ages of Egypt: Pharaohs to the Moving Mountain

Church, Egypt

Part II – The Christianisation of Egypt 4.1 The Council of Chalcedon (451 CE) and the Schism The fifth century marked a decisive rupture in Egyptian Christianity. The Council of Chalcedon (451 CE) attempted to resolve long-standing Christological disputes concerning the nature of Christ. Building upon the formulations of the…
Chapter 5 – The Arab Conquest of Egypt (641 CE)

Faith Across the Ages of Egypt: Pharaohs to the Moving Mountain, Faith Across the Ages of Egypt: Pharaohs to the Moving Mountain

Arab, Egypt, Islam

Part III – The Coming of Islam and the Reconfiguration of Society 5.1 The Historical Setting By the early seventh century, Egypt stood as one of the richest provinces of the Byzantine Empire, supplying grain to Constantinople and functioning as a bastion of imperial power in the eastern Mediterranean. Yet,…
Chapter 6 – Gradual Islamisation and Cultural Integration

Faith Across the Ages of Egypt: Pharaohs to the Moving Mountain, Faith Across the Ages of Egypt: Pharaohs to the Moving Mountain

Egypt, Islam

Part III – The Coming of Islam and the Reconfiguration of Society 6.1 From Conquest to Cultural Transformation The Arab conquest of Egypt (641 CE) brought administrative and political change, yet the process of Islamisation—the adoption of Islam as a faith and culture—was gradual and complex. Initially, Muslims formed a…
Chapter 7 – Taxation, Law, and Tolerance in Medieval Egypt

Faith Across the Ages of Egypt: Pharaohs to the Moving Mountain, Faith Across the Ages of Egypt: Pharaohs to the Moving Mountain

Egypt, Islam, Tax

Part III – The Coming of Islam and the Reconfiguration of Society 7.1 Fiscal Foundations: Zakat, Jizya, and Kharāj The early Islamic state that emerged after 641 CE was both a religious community and a fiscal entity. Its stability depended upon a just and sustainable taxation system. In Egypt, as…
Chapter 8 – Egypt under the Fatimids

Faith Across the Ages of Egypt: Pharaohs to the Moving Mountain, Faith Across the Ages of Egypt: Pharaohs to the Moving Mountain

Egypt, Miracle, Mokattam Mountain

Part IV – The Fatimid Era and the Miracle of Mokattam Mountain 8.1 The Rise of the Fatimid Caliphate The Fatimid Caliphate (909–1171 CE) emerged in North Africa as an Ismāʿīlī Shiʿa dynasty claiming direct descent from the Prophet Muḥammad through his daughter Fāṭima. Unlike the Sunni Abbasids in Baghdad,…
Chapter 9 – The Story of Saint Simon the Tanner

Faith Across the Ages of Egypt: Pharaohs to the Moving Mountain, Faith Across the Ages of Egypt: Pharaohs to the Moving Mountain

Egypt, Miracle, Mokattam Mountain, Saint Simon

Part IV – The Fatimid Era and the Miracle of Mokattam Mountain 9.1 Historical and Religious Context The reign of Caliph al-Muʿizz li-Dīn Allāh (953–975 CE) was marked by prosperity, intellectual debate, and religious tolerance. Within his pluralistic court, inter-faith disputations were encouraged as demonstrations of the empire’s scholarly sophistication.…
Chapter 10 – The Miracle Re-examined

Faith Across the Ages of Egypt: Pharaohs to the Moving Mountain, Faith Across the Ages of Egypt: Pharaohs to the Moving Mountain

Egypt, Miracle, Mokattam Mountain

Part IV – The Fatimid Era and the Miracle of Mokattam Mountain 10.1 Primary Sources and Transmission The earliest and most authoritative record of the Moving of Mokattam appears in the Coptic History of the Patriarchs of Alexandria, compiled between the 11th and 13th centuries (Gawdat & Vivian 2013). The…
Chapter 11 – Muslim and State Perspectives

Faith Across the Ages of Egypt: Pharaohs to the Moving Mountain, Faith Across the Ages of Egypt: Pharaohs to the Moving Mountain

Egypt, Islam, Mokattam Mountain

Part IV – The Fatimid Era and the Miracle of Mokattam Mountain 11.1 Fatimid Pragmatism and Religious Neutrality The Fatimid Caliphate (969–1171 CE) was remarkable for its administrative sophistication and religious pragmatism. While the Caliphs were Ismāʿīlī Shiʿa, they governed a majority Sunni Muslim and Coptic Christian population with deliberate…
Chapter 12 – From Miracle to Memory

Faith Across the Ages of Egypt: Pharaohs to the Moving Mountain, Faith Across the Ages of Egypt: Pharaohs to the Moving Mountain

Egypt, Miracle, Mokattam Mountain

Part V – Modern Egypt and Religious Continuity 12.1 The Enduring Presence of Mokattam Over a millennium after the supposed Moving of the Mountain, the Mokattam Hills still dominate Cairo’s eastern skyline—no longer a site of fear or debate, but of worship, art, and community life. The Coptic Church continues…
Chapter 13 – The Enduring Coptic and Islamic Identities

Faith Across the Ages of Egypt: Pharaohs to the Moving Mountain, Faith Across the Ages of Egypt: Pharaohs to the Moving Mountain

Egypt, Islam, Mokattam Mountain

Part V – Modern Egypt and Religious Continuity 13.1 Egypt as a Land of Two Faiths Modern Egypt remains one of the world’s oldest and most complex religious landscapes. Roughly 90–92% of Egyptians are Muslim, predominantly Sunni, while 8–10% are Christian, almost entirely Coptic Orthodox (CAPMAS 2021). Both faiths claim…
Chapter 14 – The Legacy of Faith: Lessons from Mokattam

Faith Across the Ages of Egypt: Pharaohs to the Moving Mountain, Faith Across the Ages of Egypt: Pharaohs to the Moving Mountain

Egypt, Faith, Mokattam Mountain

Part V – Modern Egypt and Religious Continuity 14.1 The Journey of Faith through Time From the pharaohs to the Fatimids, and from the Copts to contemporary Cairo, Egypt’s history is not merely political — it is profoundly spiritual. Across 5,000 years, belief has taken many forms: Each era has…