THE COPTS : DIRECT DESCENDANTS OF ANCIENT EGYPTIANS.
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Copts are a Christian ethno religious group indigenous to North Africa who have primarily inhabited the area of modern Egypt and Sudan since antiquity. They are the largest Christian denomination in Egypt and the Middle East, as well as in Sudan and Libya. Copts in Egypt account for roughly 5–15 percent of the Egyptian population; Copts in Sudan account for 1 percent of the Sudanese population, while Copts in Libya similarly account for 1 percent of the Libyan population.
Could they be direct descendants of ancient Egyptians? Continue watching to find out.
Copts are the descendants of pre-Islamic Egyptians, when Egyptian Muslims later ceased to call themselves by the demonym, the term became the distinctive name of the Christian minority. According to Y-DNA analysis by Hassan et al. (2008), around 45% of Copts in Sudan carry the Haplogroup J. The remainder mainly belong to the E1b1b clade (21%). Both paternal lineages are common among other local Afroasiatic-speaking populations (Beja, Ethiopians, Sudanese Arabs), as well as the Nubians. E1b1b/E3b reaches its highest frequencies among North Africans, Levantine Middle Easterners, and Ethiopid East Africans. The next most common haplogroups borne by Copts in Sudan are the European-linked R1b clade (15%), as well as the archaic African B lineage (15%).
Hollfelder et al. (2017) analysed various populations in Sudan and observed that Sudanese Copts have remained relatively isolated since their arrival to Sudan with only low levels of admixture with local northeastern Sudanese groups. This could mean that Sudanese Copts are genetically closest to the Ancient Egyptians due to the limited admixture with Arabs.
Let’s delve more into the Coptic Language.
Copts have historically spoken the Coptic language, a direct descendant of the Demotic Egyptian that was spoken in late antiquity. The Coptic language is the most recent stage of the Egyptian language. Coptic remained th
