Alexandria Patriarchal See

Tradition holds that Mark the Evangelist founded the church of Alexandria in the first century and was martyred there. The Council of Chalcedon in 451 split the ancient see in two: the patriarch Dioscorus was deposed for his Miaphysite teaching, the Copts kept their own non-Chalcedonian popes, and a Greek-speaking minority formed the Melkite patriarchate.

After the Arab conquest of 642 both communities lived as dhimmis. In 828 or 829 Venetian merchants smuggled the body of Saint Mark, minus the head, to Venice. In the eleventh century the Coptic popes moved their residence from Alexandria to Cairo.

Under Mamluk rule, attacks in 1321 destroyed churches and monasteries across Egypt, and the riots of 1354 drove mass conversions. Under Ottoman rule the Copts faced heavy taxation and Catholic missionary pressure, while the Greek patriarchate survived as a small community.