in Old Cairo was founded in the third century, making it one of the oldest churches in Egypt.In the mid 7th century, the Rashidun Caliphate successfully conquered Egypt from the Byzantine Empire. This ended seven centuries of mostly uninterrupted Roman rule over Egypt. However, local resistance by the Egyptians occurred during the
Umayyad Caliphate that lasted until at least the ninth century. One contributing factor to this resistance was taxation. Under the Rashidun Caliphate and its successors, non-Muslims were required to pay a special tax called
jizya and were given status as
dhimmis. The taxation was argued as being justified as local Christians were never drafted to serve in the army. This resistance escalated to armed rebellions against the Umayyads and Abbasids in a number of instances, such as during the
Bashmurian revolts in the
Nile Delta. was the first mosque built in both Egypt and Africa. It was built in Fustat (now
Old Cairo), the newly founded capital of Rashidun Egypt. Religious life remained largely undisturbed following the establishment of Arab rule, as evidence by the rich output of
Coptic Orthodox Christian arts in monastic centers in Old Cairo (
Fustat) and throughout Egypt. Conditions, however, worsened shortly after that, and in the eighth and ninth centuries when Muslim rulers banned the use of human forms in art (taking advantage of an iconoclastic conflict in the
European-ruled
Byzantium) and consequently destroyed many Coptic Christian paintings mainly of
Jesus and frescoes in churches. Under the
Fatimid Caliphate, Egypt experienced a period of relative tolerance. The Fatimid rulers employed Copts in the government and participated in Coptic and local Egyptian feasts. Major renovation and reconstruction of churches and monasteries were also undertaken. Coptic arts flourished, reaching new heights in Middle and Upper Egypt. Despite this, by this time, Coptic Christians had lost their majority status, as a result of the intermittent persecution and the destruction of the Christian churches and
forced conversions to
Islam. However, the subsequent
Mamluk Sultanate returned to previous practices of levying
jizya and forcing conversions. as a result of
persecution, destruction of churches, and to retain employment. By the end of the Mamluk period, the ratio of Muslims to Christians in Egypt may have risen to 10:1. According to the medieval Egyptian historian
Al-Maqrizi, soon afterwards in "all the provinces of Egypt, both north and south, no church remained that had not been razed.... Thus did Islam spread among the Christians of Egypt." ==See also==