Egypt is one of the most ethnically homogeneous countries although she was invaded by many foreign armies. The country was known as the land of the Copts. It is a unique country where two religious transformations took place: from paganism to Christianity and from Christianity to Islam. The official language of the country also changed twice: from Egyptian to Greek and from Greek to Arabic, although the population was speaking Coptic from about the fourth century BC to the thirteenth century AD. In the first century AD all Egypt was Christianized. Many Copts adopted Islam to evade paying the tax, to such an extent that those who preferred to remain Christian became a minority. They were persecuted by the Romans, the Arabs, and by the Mamelukes and were considered heretics by the Byzantines. Their history is briefly told by in 92 pages, fully illustrated by colored pictures.