THE COPTS.
343
knowledge of Arabic literature, gradually deprived the native Christians of the
chief administrative functions. The inferior positions of scribes and notaries are,
Fig. 100. — Egyptian Type: Bas-Relief ornamenting the Tombs oy Sheikh Ard-el-Gurnah, at Thebes.
however, still left in the hands of the Copts, and the Egyptian bureaucracy comprises altogether more Christians than Mohammedans.
The Coptic clerk, we are told by Mr. Stanley Lane-Poole, is even "practically the judge of first instance, for it depends upon his favour whether the peasant's
