In my article, “For God’s Sake, Where Does Gaston Wiet Get His “Very Accurate” Estimation That 92 Percent of The Current Egyptian Population Is of Coptic Origin?” (September 22, 2020), I questioned where the French Orientalist Gaston Wiet ((1887 – 1971)) got his bizarre estimate that 92% of present day Egyptians are Coptic in origin. I can now reveal where his assertion was made and his sources.
The claim has come in his article “Kibt”, that’s Copts, which formed part in the second volume of The Encyclopaedia of Islam, ed. M. Th. Houssma, A. J. Wensinck, T. W. Arnold, W. Heffening, and E. Lévi-Provençal, which was published in 1927.
After a study on the Islamisation, its progress and causes, that is of the copts, to which are dedicated pages 991 -1000, he concludes in page 998:
“To sum up, agreeing with Massignon and all the Orientalists, we estimate that 92% of the Egyptian population nis of Coptic origin.”
Wiet does not tell us who these “all the Orientalists” are, and mentions only one by name: Massignon. This is Louis Massignon (1883 – 1962), a French Catholic priest and apologist for Islam. But even with Massignon, he does not give a reference. Neither does he explain, on his own right, how this figure has been derived and obtained.
Wiet was an apologist for Islam too, and his article, Kibt, can reasonably be described as anti-Coptic to say the least. But for this, another article must be dedicated.
Wiet is talking rubbish. Of course, he is. And his article, full of false claims, and abundant with prejudice to the Copts, has unfortunately influenced many researchers. His damage to the Copts is the French equivalent to that caused by the British Orientalist Edward William Lane (1801 – 1876)). For this latter, I invite you to read my article, Edward William Lane and His Responsibility for Demonising the Copts And Misguiding the British About the Copts (April 15, 2011).