ESTIMATION OF THE POPULATION OF THE COPTS IN EGYPT, 1844 AD, AS GIVEN BY CHARLES LORING BRACE IN HIS BOOK, THE RACES OF THE OLD WORLD: A MANUAL OF ETHNOLOGY
In his interesting book, The Races of the Old world: A Manual of Ethnology,[i] which was published in 1863, Charles Loring Brace (1826 – 1890) gives the population of Egypt’s inhabitants, and shows the proportion of the different races in Egypt, in 1844. I herewith publish the figures he gave: [ii] [iii]
Mohammedan Fellahs 1,600,000
Christian Kopts 150,000
(Osmanlis) Turks 12,000
(Bedouin) Arabs 70,000
Negroes (slaves) 10,000
Circassians, Georgians, &c. (slaves) 5,000
Greeks and Romans 7,000
Underneath, the reader will find a pie chart to make these figures clearer:
Brace does not quote his reference. If these figures were right, then the total population of Egypt in 1844, when Egypt was still ruled by Muhammad Ali (1805 – 1848), was 1,880,500. The Copts numbered 150,000, which makes their proportion around 8%.
As always, figures in Egypt are often inaccurate, particularly when it comes to population statistics. We shall see in other articles that the Coptic census varied significantly. We shall review in other articles other estimates, and we shall publish all under the category, “Coptic Census”, all in an effort to arrive at a more accurate estimation of the population of the Copts – that of Coptia.
[i] The Races of the Old world: A Manual of Ethnology by Charles Loring Brace (New York, C. Scribner, 1863).
[ii] Ibid; p. 196.
[iii] I have kept the names of the different races as they were given by Brace. Some of these labels are unacceptable to many, including myself; nevertheless, I have kept them to retain the original.