At the turn of the first millennium in Fatimid Egypt, Ismāʿīlī and Sunnī schools of law governed public life. Their legal regulations included enforcing laws for the Coptic dhimmi class. During the reign of al-Ḥākim bi-Amr Allāh (r. 996-1021), Coptic autonomy was further eroded through policies that resulted in the destruction of churches, the murder of Coptic leaders, and forced conversions, among other actions. Living under the capricious Islamic legal authority of this era was one well-regarded former Muslim who had converted to the Coptic Church named Būluṣ ibn Rajāʾ. He had become a monk in the desert of Scetis and composed an extensive 30-chapter rejection of Islamic theological and legal claims. Būluṣ ibn Rajāʾ composed The Truthful Exposer (Kitāb al-wāḍiḥ bi-l-ḥaqq) to help Coptic Christians navigate this environment of persecution, elaborating on how Coptic Christian political identity could be developed through specific forms of resistance to Fatimid rule.

This presentation will examine how Ibn Rajāʾ’s The Truthful Exposer made resistance to Islamic rule into a marker of Coptic political identity. Having studied with important traditionists in Fatimid Cairo, both Sunnī and Ismāʿīlī, Ibn Rajāʾ amassed a variegated collection of material on the Qur’an, the biography of Muhammad, the commentary traditions, and Islamic legal regulations. Through these sources, Ibn Rajāʾ articulated a fourfold identity of political resistance to Fatimid rule: 1) Intellectual Resistance; 2) Spiritual Resistance; 3) Covert Resistance; 4) Communal Resistance; and 5) Martyrdom as Resistance.

The presentation will utilize examples from The Truthful Exposer to elucidate each of these four points of Coptic political identity vis-à-vis Fatimid law. Ibn Rajāʾ employs intellectual resistance through polemical critiques of the Qur’an, Muhammad, and Islamic law as contradictory and illegitimate, challenging their political authority for Christians. Spiritual resistance is explained through Ibn Rajāʾ’s emphasis on the Bible as the true lamp and guide, stressing the loyalty of Christ and his followers in contrast to the lack of unity found among Muslims in Islamic history and sources. Ibn Rajāʾ explains covert resistance through his accounts of crypto-Christians, who converted publicly to conform to Muslim rule but maintained their Christian faith privately. For communal resistance, he asserts that communal autonomy for Copts is paramount in their struggle, but he implicitly accepts Fatimid political power rather than embracing open confrontation. Finally, Ibn Rajāʾ acknowledges martyrdom as a form of resistance, explaining his own personal struggles with persecution after converting to Christianity, and he adds stories about other Coptic martyrs, arguing that true loyalty belongs to God in defiance of oppressive Fatimid rulers. Identifying these five modes of resistance to the legitimacy of Fatimid rule as constructed by Būluṣ ibn Rajāʾ gives us a better understanding of Coptic political identity in Egypt around the year 1000.