Christianity arrived early in Egypt, brought - according to tradition - by Saint Mark the Evangelist, who became the first patriarch of Alexandria. The Coptic Orthodox Church has flourished ever since, with millions of adherents both in Egypt and in Coptic communities around the world. Since it split from the Byzantine Church in 451, the Coptic Church has maintained its early traditions, and influence from the outside has been minimal: the liturgy is still sung to unique rhythms in Coptic, a late stage of the same ancient Egyptian language that is inscribed in hieroglyphs on temple walls and papyri. Dr Otto Meinardus, an authority on the history of the Coptic Church, has revised, updated and combined his studies, "Christian Egypt, Ancient and Modern" (AUC Press 1965 and 1977) and "Christian Egypt, Faith and Life" (AUC Press, 1970) into a new, definitive, one-volume history for the Millennium, surveying the 20 centuries of existence of one of the oldest churches in the world.
