100 cuneiform monasticism attracted Greeks, Romans, Nubians, Libyans, Ethiopians, Cappadocians, and others Each monastery had a section for each nationality and provided a fellow citizen to guide the monks Prominent Christians who went to the deserts included John Chrysostom, bishop of Constantinople; the Italian Jerome and Rufinus; Cappadocian father Basil the Great, who organized the monastic movement in Asia Minor; the French saint John Cassian, and Benedict who followed the Pachomian model in the sixth century, but made it stricter Coptic Christianity was devoted to missionary work from the time of St Mark In exile, in the armies of Rome, as travelers, Copts spoke and lived their faith, drawing converts as well as persecution Coptic missionaries were in the British Isles long before the arrival of Augustine of Canterbury in 597 Some credit the Copts with bringing Christianity to the Irish (Irish Christianity was a great civilizing agent in the Middle Ages) Coptic missionaries preached in Africa, Arabia, Persia, India, and Europe Nubia became Christian in 559 Coptic Christians Frumentius and Aedesius converted Ethiopia Alexandria by the fourth century was the largest Christian city in the world Monasticism attracted the pious but also attracted misfits and scoundrels, as well as young peasants, illiterate and easily formed into monastic mobs that could be used against heretics and political rivals in the church Monks also served in the city’s hospitals Those who came to study at Alexandria returned to their lands full of Coptic knowledge and the urge to spread it by writing, establishing monasteries and schools, and otherwise proselytizing According to the Melkite patriarchs, who served as both civil and religious rulers of the Eastern Roman Empire, Egyptian Copts were heretics because they rejected the agreement of Chalcedon Despite massacre, torture, and persecution by both religious and civil authorities, the Copts outlasted the state church persecution Finally, in 642 Arabs conquered Egypt Under Arab rule, the capital of Egypt relocated to Cairo, and Alexandria, including the library and museum, was burned Coptic Christians continued to practice their religion but under the tight restrictions of Islamic law (sharia) Periodic persecution, particularly during the 10th and 11th centuries, and the European Crusades accelerated a gradual process of conversions to Islam, and by the end of the 12th century Egypt was predominantly Muslim Muslim restrictions on the Copts eased in the 19th century, and in the 20th century Coptic religion was strong, with 40 million adherents worldwide See also Ephesus and Chalcedon, Councils of; libraries, ancient Further reading: Coptic Network Available online URL: http://www.coptic.net (November 2005); Isichei, Elizabeth History of Christianity in Africa Grand Rapids, MI: William B Eerdmans Publishing, 1995; Johnson, Paul A History of Christianity New York: Simon and Schuster, 1976; Kamil, Jill Christianity in the Land of the Pharaohs New York: Routledge, 2002; Meinardus, Otto F A Two Thousand Years of Coptic Christianity Cairo, Egypt: American University in Cairo Press, 1999; Patrick, Theodore Hall Traditional Egyptian Christianity Greensboro, NC: Fisher Park Press, 1996; Pearson, Birger A Gnosticism and Christianity in Roman and Coptic Egypt New York: T and T Clark International, 2004 John H Barnhill cuneiform Cuneiform is a writing system in which signs are carved on soft clay tablets using a reed stylus Cuneiform writing was used throughout the ancient world for more than three millennia until around 75 c.e Continuous lines etched into the clay formed the earliest signs Because drawing was a relatively slow process, signs were later created with individual cuneus, or wedge-shaped strokes, impressed into the clay The wedge shapes became so characteristic of the script that, even though unnecessary, they were included when inscriptions were later engraved in stone or metal The earliest cuneiform texts were excavated at the southern Mesopotamian city of Uruk and dated just before 3000 b.c.e Denise Schmandt-Besserat proposed a sequence in which small clay tokens found throughout the Near East are the precursors to cuneiform writing From the eighth millennium b.c.e., clay tokens of various shapes were used to represent quantities of items in order to keep track of agricultural products To prevent unauthorized tampering, tokens were sealed and enclosed in hollow clay envelopes Because the tokens would be hidden, they were first impressed onto their envelopes for easy identification Soon it was recognized that the impressions themselves could convey the same information, without the cumbersome use of tokens It is plausible that the etched sign was a natural progression from the impressed image