Magdi
GUIRGUIS

 
This project aims to study the Copts (Christians of Egypt) who were living outside the boundaries of the "Coptic Community", in Ottoman Egypt till mid-nineteenth century. With the community system we could much easily locate 10% percent of Copts under this category, who almost living in cities and towns. those were affiliated to the church and paying jizia and were desriped as zimmis. So, there was majority of Copts who were neither affiliated by religious institution nor paying jizia. Where could we locate them? I will try to study those Copts in the context of rural society, emphasizing the economic and the social rather than the political or religious. In a wider perspective, the project tries to present a different approach to the study of what is called “Islamic society”, which has usually been studied from the perspective of the city.