Editing Coptic language (section)

=== Islamic period ===
[[File:Page from 19th century Coptic Language Grammar.png|thumb|Page from 19th-century Coptic-language grammar]]

The [[Muslim conquest of Egypt]] by [[Arabs]] came with the [[spread of Islam]] in the seventh century. At the turn of the eighth century, [[Caliph]] [[Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan]] decreed<ref>{{Cite web |title=Collections Online {{!}} British Museum |url=https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/term/BIOG118129 |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20240302065803/https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/term/biog118129 |archive-date=2024-03-02 |access-date=2025-01-22 |website=www.britishmuseum.org |language=en}}</ref> that Arabic replace [[Koine Greek]] as the sole [[administrative language]]. Literary Coptic gradually declined, and within a few hundred years, Egyptian bishop [[Severus ibn al-Muqaffa]] found it necessary to write his ''History of the Patriarchs'' in Arabic. However, ecclesiastically the language retained an important position, and many [[hagiography|hagiographic]] texts were also composed during this period. Until the 10th century, Coptic remained the spoken language of the native population outside the capital.

The Coptic language massively declined under the hands of Fatimid Caliph [[Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah]], as part of his campaigns of religious persecution. He issued strict orders completely prohibiting the use of Coptic anywhere, whether in schools, public streets, and even homes, including mothers speaking to their children. Those who did not comply had their tongues cut off. He personally walked the streets of Cairo and eavesdropped on Coptic-speaking homes to find out if any family was speaking Coptic.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eSodnQEACAAJ | title=The Vision of Theophilus: Resistance Through Orality Among the Persecuted Copts | last1=Guirguis | first1=Fatin Morris | year=2010 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book | first=Mark N. | last=Swanson | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6l-Eun-EzkkC | isbn=978-977-416-093-6 | title=The Coptic Papacy in Islamic Egypt (641-1517) | year=2010 | publisher=American Univ in Cairo Press | access-date=2023-03-19 | archive-date=2024-05-26 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240526082128/https://books.google.com/books?id=6l-Eun-EzkkC | url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yR9JDwAAQBAJ|title=Egypt's Identities in Conflict: The Political and Religious Landscape of Copts and Muslims|pages=71–72|isbn=978-1-4766-7120-8 |last1=Naiem |first1=Girgis |date=12 February 2018 |publisher=McFarland }}</ref><ref>{{cite encyclopedia |author=Emile Maher Ishaq |url=https://ccdl.claremont.edu/digital/collection/cce/id/520/rec/1 |title=Coptic language, Spoken |encyclopedia=The Coptic Encyclopedia |volume=2 |pages=604a–607a}}</ref>

As a written language, Coptic is thought to have completely given way to [[Arabic]] around the 13th century,<ref>{{Cite journal|url=https://journals.openedition.org/ema/1920|title=The Transition from Coptic to Arabic|first=Samuel|last=Rubenson|date=December 31, 1996|journal=Égypte/Monde arabe|issue=27–28|pages=77–92|via=journals.openedition.org|doi=10.4000/ema.1920|doi-access=free|access-date=June 20, 2019|archive-date=September 2, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210902083451/https://journals.openedition.org/ema/1920|url-status=live}}</ref> though it seems to have survived as a spoken language until the 17th century{{sfn|Allen|2020|p=1}} and in some localities even longer. The language may have survived in isolated pockets in [[Upper Egypt]] as late as the 19th century.<ref>James Edward Quibell, "When did Coptic become extinct?" in ''Zeitschrift für ägyptische Sprache und Altertumskunde'', 39 (1901), p. 87.</ref> In the village of Pi-Solsel (Az-Zayniyyah, El Zenya or Al Zeniya north of [[Luxor]]), [[Passive speaker (language)|passive speakers]] over 50 years old were recorded as late as the 1930s, and traces of traditional vernacular Coptic reported to exist in other places such as [[Abydos, Egypt|Abydos]] and [[Dendera]].<ref>Werner Vycichl, [https://copticsounds.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/pi-solsel-ein-dorf-mit-koptischer-uberlieferung1.pdf ''Pi-Solsel, ein Dorf mit koptischer Überlieferung''] in: ''Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts, Abteilung Kairo'', (MDAIK) vol. 6, 1936, pp. 169–175 (in German).</ref>

From the medieval period, there is one known example of [[Tarsh|''tarsh''-printed]] Coptic. The fragmentary [[amulet]] A.Ch. 12.145, now in the [[Austrian National Library]], contains a frame of Coptic text around an Arabic main text.{{sfnp|Schaefer|2006|p=50}}