Qift (Egyptian Arabic: قفط [ʔeftˤ]; Coptic: Ⲕⲉϥⲧ Keft or Kebto; Egyptian Gebtu; Ancient Greek: Κόπτος Coptos / Koptos; Roman Justinianopolis) is a city in the Qena Governorate of Egypt about 43 km (27 mi) north of Luxor, situated a little south of latitude 26° north, on the east bank of the Nile. In ancient times its proximity to the Red Sea made it an important trading emporium between India, Punt, Arabia Felix and the North. It was important for nearby gold and quartzite mines in the Eastern Desert, and as a starting point for expeditions to Punt (in modern Somalia) by way of the path through the Wadi Hammamat to the Red Sea port at Tjau (modern El Qoseir).

In ancient Egypt, Qift, known then as Gebtu, was an important center for administration, religion, and commerce, being the chief city of the fifth Upper Egyptian nome of Harawî (Two Hawks). From Qift and Qus, trading expeditions heading for the Red Sea and many mining expeditions into the Eastern Desert left the Nile Valley. Gebtu was at the starting-point of the two great caravan routes leading to the coast of the Red Sea, the one toward the port Tââou (Myoshormos or Myos Hormos), the other more southerly, toward the port of Shashirît (Berenice). Under the native pharaohs, the whole trade of southern Egypt with the Red Sea passed over these two roads; under the Ptolemies as well as in Roman and Byzantine times, merchants followed the same roads for purposes of barter at the coasts of Zanzibar and in Southern Arabia, India, and the Far East.

Gebtu was the most important religious center in the area. Its principal male deity was Min, a sky-god whose symbol was a thunderbolt. He became a male fertility deity, and also was regarded as the male deity of the desert region to the east.

His cult rose to prominence in the Middle Kingdom. At that time, he became associated with Horus as the deity, Min-Horus. Later, he was fused with Amen in the deity Min-Amen-ka-Mut-ef, as "Min-Amen-bull of his mother" (Hathor-Isis). Isis (Hathor-Isis) and her infant, Horus, were the deities connected with Gebtu, named Coptos during the Greco-Roman period, probably from the reinterpretation of the Two Hawks of the Nome, Harawî, standard as Min and Horus. Gebtu, once politically important, especially under the Eleventh Dynasty, was overshadowed by Thebes.

The town was of importance in Hellenistic times, when it was the terminus of a caravan route to Berenice on the Red Sea. It was built up by Augustus, fell to the Blemmyes in the 3rd cent. AD, and was almost destroyed by Diocletian in AD 292.

It recuperated its prominence under the Antonines; it was the base camp of Legio III Cyrenaica, or at least one of its subunits. It rebelled, but soon was captured in 292 by Diocletian after a long siege and the original city got heavily damaged. It was then reconstructed as a Roman City with many fortifications and Roman camps. In the 6th century, Qift was renamed Justinianopolis, like several other cities, after the Byzantine emperor Justinian I. The present-day village of Qift is on the site.

The epic poet Christodorus was from the city.

Under the caliphs and the sultans in the Islamic era Qift was a chief city of Upper Egypt and a Shi'ite waqf of the Ashraf Alids. In the 12th/13th century the geographer Yaqut al-Hamawi wrote of Qift's commerce with India and its surrounding orchards. Several generations of qadi high-officials of the Ayubids derived their family nisba (surname), 'Al-Qifti', from the territory. The celebrated biographer al-Qifti, was born here in 1172, where he received an early education. In 1176, the Copts revolted against the rule of Al-Adil I, the brother of Saladin. He forcefully put down the revolt by hanging 3000 Copts from trees around the city. In the 13th century, numerous monasteries continued in operation around the city. However, when the Ottomans who ruled over Egypt leveled much of the medieval town in the 16th century, its former significance was never regained, and, by the early 20th century, its population stood at just 8934.