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History of Egypt
The origins of ancient Egyptian
civilization, which many regard as one of
the fountainheads of Western culture, cannot
be established with certainty.
Archaeological evidence suggests that early
dwellers in the Nile Valley were influenced
by cultures of the Near East, but the degree
of this influence is yet to be determined.
Describing the development of Egyptian
civilization, like attempts to identify its
intellectual foundations, is largely a
process of conjecture based on
archaeological discoveries of enduring
ruins, tombs, and monuments, many of which
contain invaluable specimens of the ancient
culture. Inscriptions in hieroglyphs, for
instance, have provided priceless data.
The framework for the study of the Dynastic
period of Egyptian history, between the 1st
dynasty and the Ptolemaic period, relies on
the Aegyptiaca of Manetho, a
Ptolemaic priest of the 3rd century BC, who
organized the country's rulers into 30
dynasties, roughly corresponding to
families. General agreement exists on the
division of Egyptian history, up to the
conquest of Alexander the Great,
into Old, Middle, and New kingdoms with
intermediate periods, followed by the late
and Ptolemaic periods, but chronology and
genealogy are continually being refined in
light of new evidence and by the use of
increasingly sophisticated dating
techniques.
Prehistory
Some 60,000 years ago the Nile River began
its yearly inundation of the land along its
banks, leaving behind rich alluvial soil.
Areas close to the floodplain became
attractive as a source of food and water. In
time, climatic changes, including periods of
aridity, further served to confine human
habitation to the Nile Valley, although this
was not always true. From the Chalcolithic
period (the Copper age, beginning about 4000
BC) into the early part of the Old Kingdom,
people apparently used an extended part of
the land.
In the 7th millennium BC, Egypt was
environmentally hospitable, and evidence of
settlements from that time has been found in
the low desert areas of southern, or Upper,
Egypt; remains of similar occupation have
been discovered at Nubian sites in modern
Sudan. Enough pottery has been found in
Upper Egyptian tombs from the 4th millennium
BC (in the Predynastic period) to establish
a relative dating sequence. The Predynastic
period, which ends with the unification of
Egypt under one king, is generally
subdivided into three parts, each of which
refers to the site at which its
archaeological materials were found:
Badarian, Amratian (Naqada I), and Gerzean (Naqada
II and III). Northern sites (from about 5500
BC) have yielded datable archaeological
material of apparent cultural continuity but
no long-term sequences such as those found
in the south.
Early Dynastic (or Archaic) Period
Archaeological sources
indicate the emergence, by the late Gerzean
period (about 3200 BC), of a dominant
political force that was to become the
consolidating element in the first united
kingdom of ancient Egypt. The earliest known
hieroglyphic writing dates from this period;
soon the names of early rulers began to
appear on monuments. This period began with
a 0 Dynasty, which had as many as 13 rulers,
ending with Narmer (about 3100 BC), followed
by the 1st and 2nd dynasties (about
3100-2755 BC), with at least 17 kings. Some
of the earliest massive mortuary structures
(predecessors of the pyramids) were built
at Abydos,
and elsewhere
during the 1st and 2nd dynasties.
The Old Kingdom 
The Old Kingdom (about
2755-2255 BC) spanned five centuries of rule
by the 3rd through the 6th dynasties. The
capital was in the north, at
Memphis,
and the ruling
monarchs held absolute power over a strongly
unified government. Religion played an
important role; in fact, the government had
evolved into a theocracy, wherein the
pharaohs, as the rulers were called, were
both absolute monarchs and, also gods on
earth.
The 3rd Dynasty was the first of the
Memphite houses, and its second ruler, Zoser,
or Djoser, who reigned about 2737-2717 BC,
emphasized national unity by balancing
northern and southern motifs in his mortuary
buildings at Sakkara . His architect,
Imhotep, used stone blocks rather than
traditional mud bricks in the complex there,
thus creating the first monumental structure
of stone; its central element, the Step
Pyramid, was Zoser's tomb. In order to deal
with affairs of state and to administer
construction projects, the king began to
develop an effective bureaucracy. In
general, the 3rd Dynasty marked the
beginning of a golden age of cultural
freshness and vigor.
The 4th Dynasty began
with King senfru
,
whose building
projects included the first true pyramid at
Dahshor (south of sakkara ). Snefru, the
earliest warrior king for whom extensive
documents remain, campaigned in Nubia and
Libya and was active in the Sinai. Promoting
commerce and mining, he brought prosperity
to the kingdom. Snefru was succeeded by his
son Khufu (or Cheops), who built the Great
Pyramid at Giza. Although little else is
known of his reign, that monument not only
attests to his power but also indicates the
administrative skills the bureaucracy had
gained. Khufu's son Redjedef, who reigned
about 2613-2603 BC, introduced the solar
element (Ra, or Re) in the royal titular and
the religion. Khafre (or Chephren), another
son of Khufu, succeeded his brother to the
throne and built his mortuary complex at
Giza. The remaining rulers of the dynasty
included Menkaure, or Mycerinus, who reigned
about 2578-2553 BC; he is known primarily
for the smallest of the three large pyramids
at Giza.
Under the 4th Dynasty, Egyptian civilization
reached a peak in its development, and this
high level was generally maintained in the
5th and 6th dynasties. The splendour of the
engineering feats of the pyramids was
approximated in every other field of
endeavour, including architecture,
sculpture, painting, navigation, the
industrial arts and sciences, and astronomy;
Memphite astronomers first created a solar
calendar based on a year of 365 days. Old
Kingdom physicians also displayed a
remarkable knowledge of physiology, surgery,
the circulatory system of the body, and
antiseptics.
Beginning of Decline:
Although the 5th Dynasty maintained
prosperity with extensive foreign trade and
military incursions into Asia, signs of
decreasing royal authority became apparent
in the swelling of the bureaucracy and the
enhanced power of no royal administrators.
The last king of the dynasty, Unas, who
reigned about 2428-2407 BC, was buried at
sakkara , with a body of religious spells,
called Pyramid Texts, carved on the walls of
his pyramid chamber. Such texts were also
used in the royal tombs of the 6th Dynasty.
Several autobiographical inscriptions of
officials under the 6th Dynasty indicate the
decreasing status of the monarchy; records
even indicate a conspiracy against King Pepi
I, who reigned about 2395-2360 BC, in which
the ruler's wife was involved. It is
believed that during the later years of Pepi
II, who reigned about 2350-2260 BC, power
may have been in the hands of his vizier
(chief minister). Central authority over the
economy was also diminished by decrees of
exemption from taxes. The
Nomes (districts) were rapidly
becoming individually powerful, as the monarchs—governors
of the districts—were beginning to remain in
place rather than being periodically
transferred to different
Nomes.
First
Intermediate Period
The 7th Dynasty marked
the beginning of the First Intermediate
period. As a consequence of internal strife,
the reigns of this and the succeeding 8th
Dynasty are rather obscure. It is clear,
however, that both ruled from Memphis and
lasted a total of only 25 years. By this
time the powerful nomarchs were in effective
control of their districts, and factions in
the south and north vied for power. Under
the Heracleopolitan 9th and 10th dynasties,
the nomarchs near Heracleopolis controlled
their area and extended their power north to
Memphis (and even into the delta) and south
to Asyut (Lycopolis). The rival southern
nomarchs at Thebes
established the 11th Dynasty, controlling
the area from Abydos to Elephantine, near
Syene (present-day Aswan). The early part of
this dynasty, the first of the Middle
Kingdom, overlapped the last part of the
10th.
The Middle Kingdom:
Without one centralized government, the
bureaucracy was no longer effective, and
regional concerns were openly championed.
Egyptian art became more provincial, and no
massive mortuary complexes were built. The
religion was also democratized, as commoners
claimed prerogatives previously reserved for
royalty alone. They could, for instance, use
spells derived from the royal Pyramid Texts
on the walls of their own coffins or tombs.
Reunification
Although the Middle Kingdom (2134-1784 BC)
is generally dated to include all of the
11th Dynasty, it properly begins with the
reunification of the land by Mentuhotep II,
who reigned 2061-2010 BC. The early rulers
of the dynasty attempted to extend their
control from Thebes both northward and
southward, but it was left to Mentuhotep to
complete the reunification process, sometime
after 2047 BC. Mentuhotep ruled for more
than 50 years, and despite occasional
rebellions, he maintained stability and
control over the whole kingdom. He replaced
some nomarchs and limited the power of the
nomes, which was still considerable. Thebes
was his capital, and his mortuary temple at
Dayr al Bahrì incorporated both traditional
and regional elements; the tomb was separate
from the temple, and there was no pyramid.
The
reign of the first 12th Dynasty king,
Amenemhet I, was peaceful. He established a
capital near Memphis and, unlike Mentuhotep,
de-emphasized Theban ties in favor of
national unity. Nevertheless, the important
Theban god Amon was given prominence over
other deities. Amenemhet demanded loyalty
from the nomes, rebuilt the bureaucracy, and
educated a staff of scribes and
administrators. The literature was
predominantly propaganda designed to
reinforce the image of the king as a “good
shepherd” rather than as an inaccessible
god. During the last ten years of his reign,
Amenemhet ruled with his son as co-regent.
“The Story of Sinuhe,” a literary work of
the period, implies that the king was
assassinated.
Amenemhet's successors continued his
programs. His son, Sesostris I, who reigned
1962-1928 BC, built fortresses throughout
Nubia and established trade with foreign
lands. He sent governors to Palestine and
Syria and campaigned against the Libyans in
the west. Sesostris II, who reigned
1895-1878 BC, began land reclamation in Al
Fayyum.
His successor, Sesostris III, who reigned
1878-1843 BC, had a canal dug at the first
cataract of the Nile, formed a standing army
(which he used in his campaign against the
Nubians), and built new forts on the
southern frontier. He divided the
administration into three powerful
geographic units, each controlled by an
official under the vizier, and he no longer
recognized provincial nobles. Amenemhet III
continued the policies of his predecessors
and extended the land reform.
A vigorous renaissance of culture took place
under the Theban kings. The architecture,
art, and jewelry of the period reveal an
extraordinary delicacy of design, and the
time was considered the golden age of
Egyptian literature.
Second Intermediate Period
The rulers of the 13th Dynasty—some 50 or
more in about 120 years—were weaker than
their predecessors, although they were still
able to control Nubia and the administration
of the central government. During the latter
part of their rule, however, their power was
challenged not only by the rival 14th
Dynasty, which won control over the delta,
but also by the
Hyksos,
who invaded from western Asia. By the 13th
Dynasty there was a large Hyksos population
in northern Egypt. As the central government
entered a period of decline, their presence
made possible an influx of people from
coastal side of Phoenicia
and Palestine and the establishment of a
Hyksos dynasty. This marks the beginning of
the Second Intermediate period, a time of
turmoil and disunity that lasted for some
214 years. The Hyksos of the 15th Dynasty
ruled from their capital at Avaris in the
eastern delta, maintaining control over the
middle and northern parts of the country. At
the same time, the 16th Dynasty also existed
in the delta and Middle Egypt, but it may
have been subservient to the Hyksos. More
independence was exerted in the south by a
third contemporaneous power, the Theban 17th
Dynasty, which ruled over the territory
between Elephantine and Abydos. The Theban
ruler Kamose, who reigned about 1576-1570
BC, battled the Hyksos successfully, but it
was his brother, Ahmose
who finally subdued them, reuniting
Egypt.
The New Kingdom
With the unification of the land and the
founding of the 18th Dynasty by Ahmose I,
the New Kingdom (1570-1070 BC) began. Ahmose
re-established the
borders, goals, and bureaucracy of the
Middle Kingdom and revived its
land-reclamation program. He maintained the
balance of power between the nomarchs and
himself with the support of the military,
who were accordingly rewarded. The
importance of women in the New Kingdom is
illustrated by the high titles and position
of the royal wives and mothers.
The 18th Dynasty Kings
Once Amenhotep I, who
reigned 1551-1524 BC, had full control over
his administration—he was co-regent for five
years—he began to extend Egypt's boundaries
in Nubia and Palestine. A major builder at
Karnak, Amenhotep, unlike his predecessors,
separated his tomb from his mortuary temple;
he began the custom of hiding his final
resting place, then he
continued the
advances of the new Imperial Age and
emphasized the preeminence of the god Amon.
His tomb was the first in the
Valley of the Kings. Thutmose II, his
son by a minor wife, succeeded him, marrying
the royal princess Hatshepsut to strengthen
his claim to the throne. He maintained the
accomplishments of his predecessors. When he
died in 1504 BC, his heir, Thutmose III, was
still a child, and so Hatshepsut
governed as a regent. Within a year, she had
herself crowned pharaoh, and then mother and
son ruled jointly. When Thutmose III
achieved sole rule upon Hatshepsut's death
in 1483 BC, he reconquered Syria and
Palestine, which had broken away under joint
rule, and then continued to expand his
empire. His annals in the temple at Karnak
chronicle many of his campaigns. Nearly 20
years after Hatshepsut's death, he ordered
the obliteration of her name and images.
Amenhotep II, who reigned 1453-1419 BC, and
Thutmose IV
tried
to maintain the Asian conquests in the face
of growing threats from the Mitanni and
Hittite states, but they found it necessary
to use negotiations as well as force.
Amenhotep III ruled
peacefully for nearly four decades,
1386-1349 BC, and art and architecture
flourished during his reign. He maintained
the balance of power among Egypt's neighbors
by diplomacy. His son and successor,
Akhenaton (Amenhotep IV), was a religious
reformer who fought the power of the Amon
priesthood. Akhenaton abandoned Thebes for a
new capital, Akhetaton (see Tall al ‘Amarana
,
which was built in honor of Aton, the disk
of the sun on which his monotheistic
religion centered. The religious revolution
was abandoned toward the end of his reign,
however, and his son-in-law, Tutankhamen,
returned the capital to Thebes. Tutankhamen
is known today chiefly for his richly
furnished tomb, which was found nearly
intact in the
Valley of the Kings by the British
archaeologists Howard Carter and Lord
Carnarvon in 1922. The 18th Dynasty ended
with Horemheb, who reigned 1321-1293 BC.
The Ramesside Period
The founder of the
19th Dynasty, Ramses I, who reigned
1293-1291 BC, had served his predecessor as
vizier and commander of the army. Reigning
only two years, he was succeeded by his son,
Seti
I, who reigned 1291-1279 BC; he led
campaigns against Syria, Palestine, the
Libyans, and the Hittites. Seti built a
sanctuary at Abydos. Like his father, he
favored the delta capital of Pi-Ramesse (now
Qantir). One of his sons,
Ramses II,
succeeded him and reigned for nearly 67
years. He was responsible for much
construction at Luxor and Karnak, and he
built the Ramesseum (his funerary temple at
Thebes), the rock-cut temples at Abu
Simbel, and sanctuaries at Abydos and
Memphis. After campaigns against the
Hittites, Ramses made a treaty with them and
married a Hittite princess. His son
Merneptah, who reigned 1212-1202 BC,
defeated the Sea Peoples, invaders from the
Aegean who swept the Middle East in the 13th
century BC, and records tell of his
desolating Israel. Later rulers had to
contend with constant uprisings by subject
peoples of the empire.
The second ruler of
the 20th Dynasty,
Ramses III,
had his
military victories depicted on the walls of
his mortuary complex at Medinet Habu, near
Thebes. After his death the New Kingdom
declined, chiefly because of the rising
power of the priesthood of Amon and the
army. One high priest and military commander
even had himself depicted in royal regalia.
Third Intermediate Period
The 21st through the
24th dynasties are known as the Third
Intermediate period. Kings ruling from
Tanis,
in
the north, vied with a line of high priests,
to whom they appear to be related, from
Thebes, in the south. The rulers of the 21st
Dynasty may have been partially Libyan in
ancestry, and the 22nd Dynasty began with
Libyan chieftains as kings. As the Libyans'
rule deteriorated, several rivals rose to
challenge them. In fact the next two
dynasties, the 23rd and 24th, were
contemporaneous with part of the 22nd
Dynasty, just as the 25th (Kushite) Dynasty
effectively controlled much of Egypt during
the latter years of the 22nd and the 24th
dynasties.
Late Period
The 25th through the
31st dynasties ruled Egypt during the time
that has come to be known as the Late
Period. The Cushites ruled from about 767 BC
until they were ousted by the Assyrians in
671 BC. Native rule was reestablished early
in the 26th Dynasty by
Psamtik I. A
resurgence of cultural achievement,
reminiscent of earlier epochs, reached its
height in the 26th Dynasty. When the last
Egyptian king was defeated by Cambyses II
in 525
BC, the country entered a period of Persian
domination under the 27th Dynasty. Egypt
reasserted its independence under the 28th
and 29th dynasties, but the 30th Dynasty was
the last one of native rulers. The 31st
Dynasty, which is not listed in Manetho's
chronology, represented the second Persian
domination.
The Hellenistic and Roman Periods
The occupation of
Egypt by the forces of Alexander the Great
in 332 BC brought an end to Persian rule.
Alexander appointed Cleomenes of Naucratis,
a Greek resident in Egypt, and his
Macedonian general, known later as
Ptolemy I, to
govern the country. Although two Egyptian
governors were named as well, power was
clearly in the hands of Ptolemy, who in a
few years took absolute control of the
country.
The Ptolemaic Dynasty
Rivalries with other
generals, who carved out sections of
Alexander's empire after his death in 323
BC, occupied much of Ptolemy's time, but in
305 BC he assumed the royal title and
founded the dynasty that bears his name (see
Ptolemaic Dynasty). Ptolemaic Egypt was one
of the great powers of the Hellenistic
world, and at various times it extended its
rule over parts of Syria, Asia Minor,
Cyprus, Libya, Phoenicia, and other lands.
Partly because native
Egyptian rulers had a reduced role in
affairs of state during the Ptolemaic
regime, they periodically demonstrated their
dissatisfaction by open revolts, all of
which were, however, quickly suppressed. In
the reign of
Ptolemy VI,
Egypt became a protectorate under Antiochus
IV of Syria, who successfully invaded the
country in 169 BC. The Romans, however,
forced Antiochus to give up the country,
which was then divided between Ptolemy VI
and his younger brother, Ptolemy VIII; the
latter took full control upon the death of
his brother in 145 BC.
The succeeding
Ptolemies preserved the wealth and status of
Egypt while continually losing territory to
the Romans.
Cleopatra VII
was the last great ruler of the Ptolemaic
line. In an attempt to maintain Egyptian
power she aligned herself with Julius Caesar
and,
later, Mark Antony, but these moves only
postponed the end. After her forces were
defeated by Roman legions under Octavian
(later Emperor Augustus), Cleopatra
committed suicide in 30 BC.
Roman and Byzantine Rule
For nearly seven
centuries after the death of Cleopatra, the
Romans controlled Egypt (except for a short
time in the 3rd century AD, when it came
under the power of Queen
Zenobia
of
Palmyra). They treated Egypt as a valuable
source of wealth and profit and were
dependent on its supply of grain to feed
their multitudes. Roman Egypt was governed
by a prefect, whose duties as commander of
the army and official judge were similar to
those of the pharaohs of the past. The
office, therefore, was one with which the
native population was familiar. Because of
the immense power of the prefects, however,
their functions were eventually divided
under Emperor Justinian, who in the 6th
century AD put the army under a separate
commander, directly responsible to him.
Egypt in the Roman period was relatively
peaceful; its southern boundary at Aswan
was only rarely attacked by the Ethiopians.
Egypt's population had become Hellenized
under the Ptolemies, and it included large
minorities of Greeks and Jews, as well as
other peoples from Asia Minor. The mixture
of the cultures did not lead to a
homogeneous society, and civil strife was
frequent. In 212, however, Emperor
Caracalla
granted the entire population citizenship in
the Roman Empire.
Alexandria, the port city on the
Mediterranean founded by Alexander the
Great, remained the capital as it had been
under the Ptolemies. One of the great
metropolises of the Roman Empire, it was the
center of a thriving commerce between India
and Arabia and the Mediterranean countries.
It was the home of the great Alexandrian
library and museum and had a population of
some 300,000 (excluding slaves).
Egypt became an economic mainstay of the
Roman Empire not only because of its annual
harvest of grain but also for its glass,
metal, and other manufactured products. In
addition, the trade brought in spices,
perfumes, precious stones, and rare metals
from the Red Sea ports. Once part of the
empire, Egypt was subject to a variety of
taxes as well.
In order to control the people and placate
the powerful priesthood, the Roman emperors
protected the ancient religion, completed or
embellished temples begun under the
Ptolemies, and had their own names inscribed
on them as pharaohs; the cartouches of
several can be found at Isna, Kawn Umbu,
Dandara, and Philae. The Egyptian cults of
Isis and Serapis spread throughout the
ancient world. Egypt was also an important
center of early Christendom and the first
one of Christian monasticism. Its Coptic or
Monophysite church separated from mainstream
Christianity in the 5th century.
During the 7th century the power of the
Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire was
challenged by the Sassanids of Persia, who
invaded Egypt in 616. They were expelled
again in 628, but soon after, in 642, the
country fell to the Arabs, who brought with
them a new religion, Islam, and began a new
chapter of Egyptian history.
Egypt Under the the
Byzantinans:
Alienated by the religious intolerance and
heavy taxation of the Byzantine government,
the Coptic Egyptians offered little
resistance to their Arab conquerors. A
treaty was subsequently signed, by which the
Egyptians agreed to pay a poll tax (jizyah)
in return for an Arab promise to respect the
religious practices, lives, and property of
the Copts. Besides the poll tax, the male
population, estimated at between 6 and 8
million, paid the kharaj, a tax levied on
agricultural land.
Local Government
No changes in the administration were made
by the Arabs, who adopted the Byzantine
decentralized system of provincial governors
reporting to a chief governor, resident in
the capital, Alexandria. They did, however,
later move the capital to a new, more
central location, called Al Fustat (“the
tent”), a few miles south of present-day
Cairo.
For the next two centuries Egypt was ruled
by governors appointed by the caliph, the
leader of the Muslim community. In this
system, mild and generous rule alternated
with severity and religious oppression,
depending on the character of the governor
appointed, his relationship with the
population, and his financial needs.
Immigration of Arab tribes and the
replacement of the Coptic language by Arabic
in all public documents began a slow process
of Arabization that was eventually to turn
Coptic-speaking Christian Egypt into a
largely Muslim and wholly Arabic-speaking
country. Coptic became a liturgical
language.
Internal Strife
Under the Abbasid caliphs (750-868),
governors were appointed for brief periods,
and Egypt was plagued by a series of
insurrections arising from conflicts between
the different sects of Muslims who had
settled there: the Sunni, or orthodox
majority, and the minority Shia sect. On
several occasions the Copts also rose to
protest excessive taxation. Such uprisings
were met with repression and persecution by
the government. Internal conditions became
so bad in the late 8th century that a group
of new immigrants from Andalusia allied
themselves with an Arab tribe and seized
Alexandria, holding it until an army arrived
from Baghdad
and exiled them to Crete. Insurrections
continued to break out among the Arabs, who
even defeated a governor and burned his
baggage. Rebellions by the Copts continued
until Caliph Abdullah al-Mamun led a Turkish
army to put down the revolts in 832. This
was a period of ruthless and unscrupulous
governors, who abused the population and
extorted money from them. The only bulwark
against such oppression lay in the chief
qadi, the country's leading Muslim
magistrate, who maintained the sacred
law—the Sharia—in the face of abuse of
power, and helped ease the rapacity of the
governors.
Despite a
predominantly rural population, commercial
centers flourished, and Al Fustat grew to
become a trading metropolis.From 856 onward
Egypt was given as an iqta, a form of fief,
to the Turkish military oligarchy that
dominated the caliphate in Baghdad.
In 868 Ahmad ibn Tulun, a 33-year-old Turk,
was sent to the country as governor. A man
of ability and education, Tulun ruled wisely
and well, but he also turned Egypt into an
autonomous province, linked with the
Abbasids only by the yearly payment of a
small tribute. Tulun built a new city,
Al
Qita‘ì (“the Wards”),
north of Al Fustat.
Under his benevolent rule Egypt prospered
and expanded to annex Syria. Tulun's dynasty
(the Tulunids) ruled for 37 years over an
empire that included Egypt, Palestine, and
Syria.
The Fatimid
After the last rule by
the Tulunids, the country fell into a state
of anarchy. Its weak and defenseless
condition made it an easy prey for the
Fatimids, a Shiite dynasty that in 909,
rejecting the authority of the Abbasids, had
proclaimed their own caliphate in Tunisia
and by the mid-10th century controlled most
of North Africa. In 969 they invaded and
conquered Egypt and subsequently founded a
new city, Cairo, north of Al Fustat, making
it their capital. See
Caliphate.
Al Fustat, however, remained the commercial
hub of the country under the Fatimids. It
was an impressive, multistoried urban center
with an excellent underground sewage system.
An Iranian traveler, Nasir-i-Khosrau, who
visited Egypt in 1046, marveled at the rich
markets and the security of the land. Egypt
was then enjoying a period of tranquillity
and prosperity.
The Fatimids, although Shiites in their
beliefs, for the most part coexisted
peacefully with the predominantly Sunni
population. They founded the oldest
university in the world, Al Azhar, and Cairo
became a great intellectual center.
The Ayyubids:
Tranquillity
disappeared with later Fatimid rulers, who
could not control their unruly regiments of
Berber and Sudanese soldiers. A low Nile
caused serious famine in 1065. New danger
appeared with the First Crusade from western
Europe, which established Christian control
over Syria and Palestine in the late 1090s.
The Fatimid caliphs, by now pawns in the
hands of their generals, appealed to Nur
ad-Din of Halab (Aleppo), and he sent an
army to help them against the Crusaders in
1168. Saladin, one of Nur ad-Din's generals,
was installed as vizier. In 1171 he
abolished the Fatimid caliphate, founding
the Ayyubid dynasty and restoring Sunni rule
to Egypt. Saladin reconquered most of Syria
and Palestine from the Crusaders and became
the most powerful Middle Eastern ruler of
this time. His nephew, Sultan al-Kamil, who
reigned 1218-1238, successfully defended
Egypt against a Christian attack in
1218-1221, but after his death Ayyubid power
declined. The Ninth Crusade, led by Louis IX
of France, was repelled in 1249, with the
aid of the
Mamelukes,
slave troops in Ayyubid service. The
following year the Mamelukes overthrew the
Ayyubids and established their own ruling
house.
The Mamelukes
The first Mameluke
dynasty, the Bahri, held power as sultans of
Egypt until 1382. Hereditary succession was
frequently disregarded and the throne
usurped by the more powerful emirs (military
commanders). Many among them were remarkable
rulers, such as
Baybars I,
who halted the Mongol advance into Syria and
Egypt in 1260. Two other Mongol invasions
were repelled by the Mamelukes, who also
expelled the Crusaders from the region and
captured ‘Akko, their last stronghold in
Palestine, in 1291. In the late 13th and
early 14th centuries, the Mameluke realm
extended north to the borders of Asia Minor.
The age of the Mamelukes was one of
extraordinary brilliance in the arts. It was
also an age of commercial expansion; Egypt's
spice traders, the Karimi, were merchant
princes who vied with the emirs in
patronizing the arts.
After the death of the last great Bahri
sultan, al-Nasir, in 1341, Egypt lapsed into
decline. His descendants were mere
figureheads who allowed real power to remain
in the hands of the emirs. In 1348 the
plague known as the Black Death swept over
the land, radically reducing the population.
The second dynasty of
Mameluke sultans, the Burjis, was of
Circassian
origin and ruled from 1382 to 1517. Most of
the Burji rulers exercised little real
authority; their dynasty was marked by
continual power struggles among the Mameluke
elite. In the midst of rebellion and civil
strife, the Mamelukes continued to hold
Egypt and Syria by virtue of their ability
to repel invasions. By the early 16th
century, however, they were threatened by
the growing power of the Ottoman Empire, and
in 1517 the Ottoman Sultan Selim I invaded
Egypt and ruled it.
The Ottoman
Although the real hold of the Ottoman Turks
over Egypt was to last only until the 17th
century, the country remained nominally part
of the Ottoman Empire until 1915. Rather
than exterminate the Mamelukes, the Ottomans
used them in their administration. They
established a governor and settled six ocaks
(regiments) in Egypt as a garrison. In time
the roman ocaks intermarried with the native
people, playing an important role in the
country's economic and political life. Rural
areas were treated as crown lands, parceled
into plots called iqta, the produce of which
went to the Ottoman elite.
The Mameluke come back:
As time went on, an inflationary trend that
historians have noted in 16th-century Europe
had repercussions in Egypt as well. Rising
prices led to rivalry among the ocaks over
the country's wealth. This weakened their
control, and the Mamelukes stepped into the
breach. By the mid-17th century the Mameluke
emirs, or beys, had established their
supremacy. Land taxes were farmed out among
them, and the urban guilds, which were
closely allied with the roman ocaks, were
heavily taxed as a means of diminishing
Ottoman influence and of increasing revenue.
The Ottomans acquiesced in the system so
long as the tribute was regularly paid.
The period from the 16th to the mid-18th
century was an age of commercial prosperity
when Egypt, at the crossroads of several
commercial routes, was the center of a
flourishing intermediary trade in coffee,
textiles, and spices.
The Ottoman governor quickly became a
puppet, first in the hands of the regiments,
which held the military power, and then in
the hands of the Mamelukes, who came to
control the ocaks. The leading Mameluke bey,
called the Shaikh al-Balad (“chief of the
city”), thus became recognized as the real
ruler of the land. The beys imposed higher
taxes to finance their military expeditions
in Syria and Arabia. Although defeated in
Syria by the Ottomans, who once more sought
to reinforce their authority, the Mamelukes
dominated Egypt until 1798. The last 30
years of the 18th century were marked by
plagues and famine that reduced the
population to a bare 4 million. |
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The Time of Muhammad Ali:
The French occupation
of Egypt in 1798, led by
Napoleon
Bonaparte, was a brief interlude, for the
French never acquired full dominion or
control. The grain-producing regions of
Upper Egypt remained in Mameluke hands.
Napoleon's invasion was too short-lived to
have any lasting impact, but it marked the
beginning of a renewed European interest in
Egypt. In 1801 an Anglo-Ottoman force
expelled the French. For the next few years,
struggles between Mamelukes and Ottomans for
mastery ruined the country until Muhammad
Ali, an Ottoman general of Albanian origin,
seized power with the cooperation of the
local population. In 1805 the Ottoman sultan
declared him the governor of Egypt.
Muhammad Ali, a man of genius, slowly and
methodically destroyed or bought off all his
opponents until he became the only source of
power in the country. To gain control of all
the trade routes into Egypt, he embarked on
wars of expansion. He first conquered Al Hijaz
(the Hejaz, now in Saudi Arabia) in 1819 and
Sudan from 1820 to 1822; by 1824 he was
ready to help the Ottoman sultan put down an
insurrection in Greece. The European powers,
however, intervened to halt Egyptian
advances in Greece, and Muhammad Ali was
forced to withdraw his army.
At home, Muhammad Ali encouraged the
production of cotton to supply the textile
mills of Europe, and he used the profits to
finance industrial projects. He established
a monopoly over all commodities and imposed
trade barriers to nurture industry. He sent
Egyptians abroad for technical education and
hired experts from Europe to train his army
and build his manufacturing industries
(which, however, were never as successful as
he hoped they would be).
In 1831 Muhammad Ali invaded Syria, thereby
coming into conflict with his Turkish
overlord. The Egyptians defeated the Ottoman
armies, and by 1833 they were threatening
the Turkish capital, Constantinople
(present-day
Istanbul).
Once again, Russia, Britain, and France
intervened, this time to protect the sultan.
Muhammad Ali's forces withdrew, but he was
left in control of Syria and Crete.
Egyptian expansion and control over trade
routes conflicted with Britain's growing
interest in the Middle East as a market for
its burgeoning industrial production. The
threat to the integrity of the Ottoman
Empire also disturbed Britain and roused
fears of Russian encroachment in the
Mediterranean. For these reasons the British
opposed Egypt, and when Muhammad Ali again
rebelled against the sultan in 1839, they
stepped in for the third time to make him
back down. He was offered hereditary
possession of Egypt, but had to give up his
other conquests and remain an Ottoman
vassal.
Bankruptcy and Foreign influence
After the death of Muhammad Ali in 1849,
Egypt came increasingly under European
influence. His son, Said Pasha, made some
attempt to modernize the government, but
left a huge debt when he died. His
successor,
Ismail
,
increased the national debt by borrowing
lavishly from European bankers to develop
the country and pay for the Suez Canal,
which was opened in 1869. These spendthrift
rulers drove the country into bankruptcy and
ultimately into the control of their British
and French creditors. In 1876 an
Anglo-French commission took charge of
Egypt's finances, and in 1879 the sultan
deposed Ismail in favor of his son Tawfik
Pasha. Army officers, disgusted by the
government's weakness, then led a rebellion
to end foreign control. Tawfik appealed to
the British for help, and they occupied
Egypt in 1882.
Egypt Under the British:
British interest in
Egypt stemmed from the Suez Canal as the
short route to India. Promises to evacuate
the country once order had been restored
were broken, and the British army remained
in occupation until 1954. Although Tawfik
remained on the throne as a figurehead
prince, the British consul general was the
real ruler of the country. The first and
most important consul general was Sir
Evelyn Baring
(known
after 1892 as Lord Cromer).
A
nationalist movement led by Mustafa Kamil, a
European-educated lawyer, was backed by
Tawfik's successor,
Abbas II,
during the late 1800s and early 1900s. Kamil
agitated for self-government and an end to
the British occupation but was ignored by
British authorities.In
this period Egyptian agriculture was so
completely dominated by cotton grown to feed
the textile mills of Lancashire, England,
that grain had to be imported to feed the
rural population. Irrigation projects were
carried out to increase the arable land, and
in due course the entire debt to Britain was
paid.British promises to evacuate diminished
as Egypt and the Suez Canal became an
integral part of British Mediterranean
defense policy. The illegal occupation was,
in fact, internationally sanctioned in 1904,
when France recognized British rights in
Egypt in return for British acknowledgment
of French rights in Morocco.
Protectorate Declared:
The outbreak of World War I in 1914 brought
nationalist activities in Egypt to an end.
When Turkey entered the war on the side of
Germany, Britain declared Egypt a
protectorate and deposed Abbas II in favor
of his uncle, Hussein Kamil, who was given
the title of sultan. Legal ties between
Egypt and Turkey were finally severed, and
Britain promised Egypt some changes in
government once the war was over.
The war years resulted in great hardship for
Egyptian peasants, the fellahin, who were
conscripted to dig ditches and whose
livestock was confiscated by the army.
Inflation was rampant. These factors were
responsible for increasing resentment
against the British and set the stage for
the violent upheaval that was to come after
World War I ended in 1918.
llied promises that
former Ottoman territories would be allowed
self-determination raised hopes in Egypt of
independence once the war was over. A new
nationalist movement, the Wafd
(“delegation”), was formed in 1918 to plan
for the country's future. Hopes were dashed
when Britain refused to consider Egyptian
needs, and Saad Zaghlul, the leader of the
Wafd, was exiled. The country erupted in
violent revolt, and Britain was forced to
reconsider its decision. Zaghlul was
released, but his efforts to get a hearing
at the Paris Peace Conference were thwarted
by the British. Violence continued until
1922, when Britain unilaterally declared
Egypt an independent monarchy under
Hussein's successor, who became king as
Fuad I.
The British, however, reserved the right to
intervene in Egyptian affairs if their
interests were threatened, thereby robbing
Egypt of any real independence and allowing
British control to continue unabated.
The new constitution of 1924 set up a
bicameral legislature but, under pressure
from the British and Fuad, gave the latter
the right to nominate the premier and to
suspend Parliament. The result was a
tripartite struggle for mastery over Egypt
involving the king, the British ambassador,
and the Wafd, which was the only grass-roots
party. One government after another fell
after trying unsuccessfully to extract
concessions from the British. In 1936, under
pressures caused by the Italian invasion of
Ethiopia, an Anglo-Egyptian treaty was
finally signed, but it continued the
physical occupation of Egypt by the British
army and the involvement of the British army
in internal affairs.
The Coup of 1952
World War II (1939-1945) suspended further
political bargaining. The war years brought
inflation, interparty strife, and
disillusion with the Wafd. Fundamentalist
religious organizations, such as the Muslim
Brotherhood, and Communist groups
developed.In 1948 Egypt and several other
Arab states went to war in an unsuccessful
attempt to prevent the establishment of the
state of Israel. Blaming the government for
its loss, the army turned against King
Faruk, Fuad's son, who showed no aptitude
for government and a blatant disregard for
public well-being and morality. In 1952 a
group of army officers carried out a
successful coup d'etat that ousted the king
and in 1953 declared Egypt a republic.
Egypt as a republic :
The first
president of the republic, General
Muhammad
Naguib,
was a figurehead. The real leader was Gamal
Abdel
Nasser
of the
Revolutionary Command Council, the officers
who had plotted the revolution. In April
1954 Nasser became prime minister. In
November of that year, Naguib was removed
from power, and Nasser assumed complete
executive authority. In July 1956 Nasser was
officially elected president.
At first Nasser followed a pro-Western
policy and successfully negotiated the
evacuation of British forces from Egypt in
1954. Soon he turned to a policy of
neutrality and solidarity with other African
and Asian nations and became an advocate of
Arab unity.
The Suez Crisis
In efforts to acquire armaments, which the
Western world would not supply to Egypt,
Nasser turned to the Eastern bloc. In
retaliation, the World Bank turned down
Egypt's request for a loan to finance the
Aswan
High Dam project. Nasser therefore
nationalized the Suez Canal and sought to
use its revenues to finance the dam. Angered
by that move, Britain and France, the main
stockholders in the canal, joined with
Israel in attacking Egypt in 1956. Pressure
from the United States and the Union of
Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) forced the
three countries to evacuate Egyptian
territory, and United Nations (UN) forces
were placed as a buffer between Egypt and
Israel.
Pursuing his dream of Arab unity, Nasser in
1958 effected a union between Egypt and
Syria under the name of the United Arab
Republic. Although it lasted only three
years before the Syrians rebelled and
reaffirmed their independence, Egypt
retained the official name of the republic
for many years afterward.
Arab Socialism
Within Egypt the Nasser regime suppressed
political opposition and established a
one-party system as a means of reforming
political life. A series of decrees limited
land ownership and undermined the authority
of the landowning elite. In 1961 foreign
capital invested in Egypt was nationalized,
as were public utilities and local
industries, all of which became part of the
public sector. This new order, which Nasser
called Arab Socialism, aimed at greater
social equality and economic growth. In 1962
a national charter was drawn up, and the
official National Union Party was renamed
the Arab Socialist Union. Women, who had
been emancipated earlier, were elected to
the union, as were workers. The first woman
cabinet minister was appointed.
Wars of the 1960s
In 1962 Egypt became
embroiled in a civil war in Yemen, backing a
republican movement against monarchist
forces. This venture cost lives and money
and left the country weakened. In 1967
Nasser, continuing the Arab struggle against
Israel, closed the
Strait of Tiran
to
Israeli shipping and requested that the UN
forces be withdrawn from the border. The
Israelis, believing that Nasser was
preparing for war, struck first, attacking
and destroying Egyptian airfields and
positions in the Sinai. Israeli forces
advanced until they reached the right bank
of the Suez Canal. This Six-Day War left
Israel in possession of the whole Sinai
Peninsula. The UN Security Council called
for Israeli withdrawal from occupied
territories. Israel Did decline and
continued to occupy the Sinai. When
negotiations seemed to be leading nowhere,
Nasser turned to the USSR, which rearmed
Egypt in return for a naval base.Nasser died
suddenly in 1970. Problems of succession to
the post of president were settled when Vice
President
Anwar El-Sadat,
a long-time colleague of Nasser, was chosen
to succeed him.
The Sadat Regime
Sadat was elected by opposing political
factions as a compromise candidate, on the
assumption that he could be manipulated. The
new president, however, outwitted his
would-be puppeteers and, with the support of
the army, put them under arrest. He freed
political prisoners who had been
incarcerated by Nasser for opposing his
policies, and called for a regime of
economic and political liberalization,
especially for the press, which Nasser had
strictly controlled.
The 6th of october war :
clashes between Egypt and Israel had
continued after 1969, and this “war of
attrition” had resulted in high Egyptian
casualties and burdensome military
expenditures. Sadat tried to find a way out
of that impress negotiation. successfully
he secretly planned a for a war to free the
occupied sinai from Israel. He first
repaired his fences with the Arab states,
especially Saudi Arabia, which financed arms
purchases from the Soviet Union. Then, on
October 6, 1973, on the Jewish holy day of
Yom Kippur and during the Muslim holy month
of Ramadan(10th of Ramadan), Egypt launched
an air and artillery
counterattack across the Suez Canal.
Within hours, thousands of Egyptian soldiers
had successfully crossed into the Sinai.
Protected by a missile umbrella that
destroyed Israeli aircrafts, they overran
and captured the string of Israeli
fortifications known as the Bar-Lev line.
Israel was caught unprepared.
It was a total victory . By the
middle of the month, however,
with immidate aid from the united
states ,it had
regained the initiative and was able to
encircle Egyptian units on the outskirts of
Suez. The United Nations then imposed a
cease-fire, and an armistice line patrolled
by UN forces was eventually established
between the Egyptian and the Israeli armies.
peace treaty with Isreal
After the war
Sadat
was ready for negotiations. In 1974 and 1975
Egypt and Israel concluded agreements—again
mediated by Kissinger—providing
disengagement on the Sinai front. In June
1975 Egypt reopened the Suez Canal,
permitting passage to ships carrying Israeli
cargoes. Israel withdrew beyond the
strategic passes and from some of the oil
fields in the Sinai.Meanwhile, Egypt's
economic position was growing rapidly worse;
by early 1976 the country's debt to the USSR
was estimated at $4 billion. The following
year, surprising all, Sadat asked the Soviet
military advisers to leave the country and
threw his lot in with the United States,
declaring it held the key to peace in the
Middle East. Even more surprising, on
November 19, 1977, Sadat flew to Israel and
addressed the Knesset (parliament) . The
historic journey was followed by further
negotiations under U.S. auspices. At a
tripartite conference with U.S. president
Jimmy Carter
at Camp
David, Maryland, in September 1978, Sadat
and Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin
agreed on a framework for an
Israeli-Egyptian settlement. A peace treaty
between the two nations, based on the Camp
David accords, was signed in Washington,
D.C., on March 26, 1979.
Sadat regime :
The
rest of the Arab world denounced Egypt for
making a separate peace with Israel, and
some of the more “hard-line” Arab leaders
branded Sadat a traitor to the Arab cause.
The Sinai was gradually restored to Egypt,
but later Egyptian-Israeli talks on a
settlement of the Palestinian issue made
little progress. Egypt was expelled from the
Arab League
in
1979 because of the peace treaty, and the
league's headquarters were moved from Cairo
to Tunis, Tunisia. In 1989 Egypt was
readmitted to the league; the headquarters
were moved back to Cairo the following year.By
1981 Sadat was meeting increasing opposition
within Egypt itself, especially from Muslim
fundamentalists, who opposed any
accommodation with Israel. Sadat responded
with a crackdown, arresting and jailing
hundreds of his opponents, and placing
restrictions on the press. In such an
atmosphere he was assassinated by religious
fanatics within his own army on October 6,
1981, during a military parade commemorating
the Yom Kippur War.Sadat
was succeeded by Vice President
Hosni Mubarak.
While adhering to the Camp David accords,
Mubarak sought political liberalization
within Egypt as well as improved relations
with other Arab states. Israel completed its
withdrawal from the Sinai on April 25, 1982.
president Mubarak applied and embraced
democracy and still doing his best to
enhance the life of the Egyptians.
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