Egypt (Republic)

Republic since the 1952 revolution; the most populous Arab state — Islamised after ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ's conquest (640), later the seat of the Fatimid, Ayyubid and Mamluk states and of al-Azhar, among the foremost centres of Sunni learning.

☾ The Coming of Islam

The Arab conquest and the Arabisation of Egypt

ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ led the Muslim conquest of Byzantine Egypt around 640 and founded the garrison town of Fusṭāṭ, the nucleus of Cairo. Over the following centuries the country's language and culture gradually took on an Arab-Islamic character, and Egypt became a central land of the wider Muslim world.

☾ Religious Composition

A Sunni-Muslim majority with an ancient Coptic-Christian minority

Egyptians are overwhelmingly Sunni Muslims, following mainly the Shāfiʿī and Ḥanafī schools, alongside the Coptic Orthodox Church — one of the oldest Christian communities in the world — and smaller Christian groups.

Demographic shares are approximate.

▤ Scholars & Institutions

Cairo, al-Azhar, and centuries of Islamic learning

The Ismāʿīlī Fāṭimids founded Cairo (969) and its mosque-university al-Azhar (972); under the later Sunni Ayyūbids and Mamlūks al-Azhar became, and remains, one of the foremost centres of Sunni scholarship. Mamlūk Cairo also hosted the shadow ʿAbbāsid caliphate after the fall of Baghdad.

⌂ Contemporary Muslim Life

Islam as state religion and al-Azhar's authority

Islam is the state religion, and al-Azhar remains a globally influential seat of Sunni religious authority. Sufi orders retain a large popular following alongside more reformist currents.

At a glance