The Copts are the native Christians of Egypt (Coptic: Remenkīmi en.Ekhristianos ; Egyptian Arabic: اقباط, a major ethnoreligious group in Egypt and the largest Christian group there. Christianity was the religion of the vast majority from 400–800 A.D. and the majority after the Muslim conquest until the mid-10th century and remains the faith of a significant minority population. Historically they spoke the Coptic language, a direct descendant of the Demotic Egyptian spoken in the Roman era, but it has been near-extinct and mostly limited to liturgical use since the 18th century. They now speak Arabic.
Copts in Egypt constitute the largest Christian community in the Middle East, as well as the largest religious minority in the region, accounting for an estimated 10% of the Egyptian population.[14] Most Copts adhere to the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria. The remainder of around 800,000[18] are divided between the Coptic Catholic and various Coptic Protestant churches.