Why do people in Egypt now believe in Allah instead of their Egyptian Gods?
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Egypt was conquered by Muslims in the early, rapid spread of Islam. It was conquered by the Muslim Rashidun Caliphate (the first caliphate after the death of Mohamed) in 642 A.D. When the Caliphate conquered Egypt, they brought their new religion with them, although it took several centuries to really cement itself.
Even prior to this though, the unified ancient Egyptian religion was significantly declining in influence for several reasons. First was the decline of Egypt as a centralized power politically and the decline of the Egyptian culture and civilization. By roughly 600 B.C., Egypt had already been on the decline, due largely to a number of invasions and occupations from neighboring empires such as Persia, and Assyria, which placed Egypt under the rule of foreign leaders who were not Egyptian and had no connection to the culture or religion. This left Egypt without a centralized authority to promote and guide the religion.
In 332 BC, Egypt was conquered by Alexander the Great, a Macedonian Greek. This led to nearly 300 years of Egypt ruled by Macedonian Greeks, and their religion and culture in some ways merged with the local Egyptian religion and culture, creating a blend. Then in 30 BC, Egypt was conquered by Rome, and became a province of the Roman Empire, adding further foreign influence from the Roman religion.
Not long after that, Egypt became an early center of Christianity, which took root and flourished there in the first centuries, before Rome officially accepted Christianity in 313 AD. Christianity continued to be widespread there until it was conquered by the Rashudin Caliphate in 642 A.D. Although again, it took a long time for Islam to really spread and take hold.
And across the centuries while all of this was going on, the ancient Egyptian religion was just sort of neglected and stagnant and slowly disappeared as political and cultural change and upheaval brought new beliefs.
It’s important to note that Christianity is still a major religion in Egypt. Roughly 10% of Egyptians are Coptic Christians, so while the large majority are Sunni Muslims, not all are.
So anyway, that’s how it happened. Many centuries of decline, invasions, and being overtaken by other religions.
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