Encyclopedia
Egypt , officially the
Arab Republic of Egypt, is a
Middle Eastern country in
North Africa. Egypt is geographically situated in
Africa, with the
Sinai Peninsula, east of the
Suez Canal, connecting as a land bridge to
Asia.
Covering an area of about 1,001,450 square kilometers , Egypt
borders
Libya to the west,
Sudan to the south, and
Israel and the
Gaza Strip to the northeast; on the north and the east are the
Mediterranean Sea and the
Red Sea, respectively.
Egypt is the sixteenth most populous country in the world. The vast majority of its 78.8 million population live near the banks of the
Nile River , where the only arable agricultural land is found. Large areas of land are part of the
Sahara Desert and are sparsely inhabited. About half of the Egyptian people today are urban, living in the densely populated centres of greater
Cairo, the largest city in Africa and the Middle East, and
Alexandria.
Egypt is famous for its
ancient civilization and some of the world's most ancient and important monuments, including the
Giza Pyramids and the
Great Sphinx of Giza; the southern city of
Luxor contains a particularly large number of ancient artifacts such as the
Karnak Temple and the
Valley of the Kings. Today, Egypt is widely regarded as the main political and cultural centre of the Arab and Middle Eastern regions.
Etymology
Mir, the
Arabic and official name for modern Egypt, is of
Semitic origin directly cognate with the
Hebrew ????????? , meaning "the two straits" , and possibly means "a country" or "a state".
Mir in Arabic also means "a country" or "a state". The ancient name for the country,
kemet, or "black land," is derived from the fertile black soils deposited by the Nile floods, distinct from the 'red land' of the desert. This name became
keme in a later stage of
Coptic and appeared in early Greek as
Chymeía. The English name "Egypt" came via the Latin word
Aegyptus derived from the ancient Greek word ????pt?? . According to
Strabo, ????pt?? , in ancient Greek meant "below the Aegean" , and was formed by the combination of the two words. It has also been suggested that the word is a corruption of the ancient
Egyptian phrase
hwt-k3-pt meaning "home of the Ka of Ptah", the name of a temple of the god
Ptah at
Memphis.
History
The regularity and richness of the annual Nile River flood, coupled with semi-isolation provided by
deserts to the east and west, allowed for the development of one of the world's great civilizations. A unified kingdom was founded circa 3200 BC by King
Narmer, and a series of dynasties ruled in Egypt for the next three millennia.
Egypt is known for the many famous
pyramids its country holds.
The last native dynasty, known as the Thirtieth Dynasty,
fell to the Persians in 343 BC who dug the predecessor of the
Suez canal and connected the
Red Sea to the
Mediterranean. Later, Egypt fell to the
Greeks, Romans, Byzantines and Persians again.
?After the
Muslim conquest of Egypt in the seventh century, the Muslim Arabs introduced
Islam and the
Arabic language to the Egyptians, who gradually adopted both. Muslim rulers nominated by the Islamic Caliphate
remained in control of Egypt for the next six centuries, including a period for which it was the seat of the Caliphate under the Fatimids. With the end of the
Ayyubid dynasty, a local military caste, the
Mamluks took control about 1250 and continued to govern even after the
conquest of Egypt by the Ottoman Turks in 1517. After the end of the French Invasion of Egypt in 1801, a series of civil wars took place between the Ottoman Turks, the Mamelukes, and Albanian mercenaries resulting in the Albanian
Muhammad Ali taking control of Egypt where he was appointed as the Ottoman
viceroy in 1805. The
reign of Muhammad Ali and his successors continued till the declaration of Egyptian republic on June 18, 1953.
Following the completion of the
Suez Canal in 1869, Egypt became an important world transportation hub; however, the country also fell heavily into debt. Ostensibly to protect its investments, the
United Kingdom seized control of Egypt's government in 1882, but nominal allegiance to the
Ottoman Empire continued until 1914 when as a result of the declaration of
war with the Ottoman Empire, Britain declared a protectorate over Egypt and deposed the khedive, replacing him with
his uncle who was appointed Sultan of Egypt.
Almost fully independent from the UK since 1922, the Egyptian Parliament drafted and implemented a new constitution in 1923 under the leadership of the popular revolutionary
Saad Zaghlul. Between 1924-1936, there existed a short-lived but successful attempt to model Egypt's constitutional government after the European style of government; known as Egypt's Liberal Experiment. The British, however, retained a degree of control which led to continued instability in the government. In 1952, a military
coup d'état forced
King Farouk I, a constitutional monarch, to abdicate in support of his son
King Ahmed Fouad II.
Finally, the Egyptian Republic was declared on 18 June 1953 with General
Muhammad Naguib as the first President of the Republic. After Naguib was also forced to resign in 1954 by
Gamal Abdel Nasser, the real architect of the 1952 movement, the latter assumed power as President and forced the British out of Egypt declaring the full independence of Egypt from UK on June 18 1956. He also nationalized the
Suez Canal on July 26 1956 leading to the 1956
Suez Crisis. Nasser came out of the war an Arab hero, and
Nasserism won widespread influence in the region though was met with mixed reactions amongst Egyptians, many of whom had previously been indifferent to
Arab nationalism.
Between 1958 and 1961, Nasser undertook to form a union between Egypt and
Syria known as the
United Arab Republic. This attempt too was met with mixed reactions, and it was clear that many Egyptians resented finding that the name of their country, which had endured for thousands of years, was suddenly eliminated. Three years after the 1967
Six Day War, in which Egypt lost the
Sinai to
Israel, Nasser died and was succeeded by
Anwar Sadat, who presented his takeover in terms of a Corrective Revolution. Sadat switched Egypt's
Cold War allegiance from the
Soviet Union to the
United States, expelling Soviet advisors in 1972, and launched the Infitah economic reform, while violently clamping down on religious and secular opposition alike. Egypt's name was also restored.
In 1973, Egypt, along with
Syria, launched a surprise attack on
Israel in the October War . Despite not being a complete military success, most accounts agree that the war presented Egypt with a political victory. Both the United States and the USSR intervened, and a cease-fire was reached between Egypt and Israel. In 1977, Sadat made a historical visit to Israel which led to the 1978
peace treaty in exchange for the complete Israeli withdrawal from Sinai. Sadat's initiative sparked enormous controversy in the Arab world and led to Egypt's expulsion from the Arab League . Sadat was assassinated in Cairo by a fundamentalist military soldier in 1981, and succeeded by the incumbent
Hosni Mubarak.
Politics
NationalEgypt has been a republic since 18 June 1953. President
Mohamed Hosni Mubarak has been the President of the Republic since October 14 1981, following the assassination of former-President
Mohammed Anwar El-Sadat. Mubarak is currently serving his fifth term in office. He is the leader of the ruling National Democratic Party. Prime Minister Dr.
Ahmed Nazif was sworn in as Prime Minister on 9 July 2004, following the resignation of Dr.
Atef Ebeid from his office.
Although power is ostensibly organized under a multi-party
semi-presidential system, whereby the executive power is theoretically divided between the President and the Prime Minister, in practice it rests almost solely with the President who traditionally has been elected in single-candidate elections for more than fifty years. Egypt also holds regular multi-party parliamentary elections. The last presidential election, in which Mubarak won a fifth consecutive term, was held in September 2005 .
In late-February 2005, President Mubarak announced in a surprise television broadcast that he had ordered the reform of the country's presidential election law, paving the way for multi-candidate polls in the upcoming presidential election. For the first time since the 1952 movement, the Egyptian people had an apparent chance to elect a leader from a list of various candidates. The President said his initiative came "out of my full conviction of the need to consolidate efforts for more freedom and democracy." However, the new law placed draconian restrictions on the filing for presidential candidacies, designed to prevent well-known candidates such as Ayman Nour from standing against Mubarak, and paved the road for his easy re-election victory.
Concerns were once again expressed after the 2005 elections about government interference in the election process through fraud and vote-rigging. In addition, violence by pro-Mubarak supporters against opposition demonstrators and police brutality were evident during the elections. This poses major questions about the government's purported commitment to democracy.
As a result, most Egyptians are skeptical about the process of democratisation and the role of the elections. A very small proportion of those eligible to vote actually turned out for the 2005 elections. Newspapers, however, have exhibited an increasing degree of freedom in criticizing the president, and the results of the recent parliamentary elections, which saw Islamist parties such as the banned
Muslim Brotherhood winning many seats, genuinely indicate that a change of some sorts is underway.
InternationalThe permanent headquarters for the League of Arab States is located in Cairo. The Secretary General of the League has traditionally been an Egyptian. Former Egyptian Foreign Minister
Amr Moussa is the present Secretary General of the Arab League. The Arab League briefly moved out of Egypt to Tunis in 1978 as a protest at the peace treaty with Israel, but returned in 1989.
Egypt was the first Arab state to establish diplomatic relations with the state of Israel, after the signing of the Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty at the
Camp David Accords. Egypt has a major influence amongst other Arab states, and has historically played an important role as a mediator in resolving disputes between various Arab nations, and in the Israeli-Palestinian dispute. Most Arab nations still give credence to Egypt playing that role, though its effects are often limited.
Former Egyptian Deputy Prime Minister
Boutros Boutros-Ghali served as Secretary General of the United Nations from 1991 to 1996.
A territorial dispute with Sudan over an area known as the
Hala'ib Triangle, has meant that diplomatic relations between the two remain strained.
Military
The Egyptian military is the largest and strongest military power on the African continent, and one of the strongest in the Middle East . The Egyptian Armed forces have also had more battle-field experience than most armies in the region. The Egyptian Armed forces have a combined troop strength of around 450,000 active personnel.
The Supreme Commander is the President, currently
Hosni Mubarak. During peacetime, the title of Supreme Commander is ceremonial.
Conscription is compulsory for Egyptian men of 18 years of age who are not the only male child. Full-time students may defer their service until the age of 29. The length of the service depends on the level and kind of education achieved by the conscript and needs of the army at the time of conscription.
Military cooperation between the United States and Egypt is strong, and covers a number of strategic areas, including cooperation in the ongoing process of modernising Egyptian armaments and training the Egyptian armed forces.
Egypt takes part regularly in military exercises with the US and other European and Arab allies, including the manoeuvres that take place in Egypt every two years.
Egypt continues to contribute regularly to United Nations peacekeeping missions, most recently in
East Timor,
Sierra Leone, and
Liberia.
Administrative Divisions
Egypt is divided into 26 governorates and the city of Al Uqsur , which is classified as a city rather than a governorate. There will soon be 27 governorates, as the city of Al Uqsur is becoming a governorate.
Governorates Regionally Classified
For many practical purposes , governorates are often regionally classified as follows:
- Urban Governorates: Port Said, Cairo, Suez and Alexandria
- Lower Governorates: Damietta, Ismailia, Gharbia, Kalyoubia, Dakahlia, Menoufia, Sharkia, Kafr El-Sheikh and Behera
- Upper Governorates: Aswan, Giza, Luxor, Quena, Beni-Suef, Menia, Suhag, Assyout and Fayoum
- Frontier Governorates: Red Sea, New Valley, Matrouh, North Sinai and South Sinai.
Economy
Egypt's economy depends mainly on agriculture, media, petroleum exports, and tourism; there are also more than 5 million Egyptians working abroad, mainly in Saudi Arabia, the Gulf area like
UAE, and
Europe. The
United States as well has a large population of Egyptian immigrants.
The completion of the
Aswan High Dam in 1971 and the resultant Lake Nasser have altered the time-honored place of the Nile River in the
agriculture and ecology of Egypt. A rapidly-growing population , limited arable land, and dependence on the Nile all continue to overtax resources and stress the economy.
The government has struggled to prepare the economy for the new millennium through economic reform and massive investments in communications and physical infrastructure. Egypt has been receiving U.S. foreign aid and is the third-largest recipient of such funds from the United States following the Iraq war. Its main revenues however come from tourism as well as traffic that goes through the
Suez Canal.
Economic conditions are starting to improve considerably after a period of stagnation from the adoption of more liberal economic policies by the government, as well as increased revenues from tourism and a booming stock market. In its annual report, the
IMF has rated Egypt as one of the top countries in the world undertaking economic reforms.
Demographics
Egypt is the second most populous country in Africa, with nearly 79 million people. Almost all the population is concentrated along the banks of the Nile and in the Delta and near the Suez Canal. Approximately 90% of the population adheres to
Islam and most of the remainder to Christianity . Apart from religious affiliation, Egyptians can be divided demographically into those who live in the major urban centers and the
fellahin or farmers of rural villages.
Since ancient times, particularly before the unification of
Upper and Lower Egypt,
North African and Eastern
Mediterranean influences have come to predominate in the north, while Egyptians in the south are also related to
Nubians, Eritreans and
Ethiopians. Despite these differences, the bulk of modern Egyptians are more closely related to one another and are descended from ancient Egyptian society, which has always been rural and quite populous compared to neighboring regions. . The Egyptian people have spoken only languages from the
Afro-Asiatic family throughout their history starting with
Old Egyptian to modern Egyptian Arabic.
The
Arabization of Egypt was a cultural process that began with the introduction of
Islam and the
Arabic language following the Arab Muslim conquest in the 7th century AD. In the centuries to follow, a social hierarchy was created whereby Egyptians who converted to Islam acquired the status of mawali or "clients" to the ruling Arab elite, while those who remained Christian, the
Copts, became
dhimmis. The privilege enjoyed by the Arab minority continued in a modified form into the modern period in the countryside, where remnants of
Bedouin Arab tribes lived alongside Egyptian farmers. One author describes the social demographics of rural Upper Egypt as follows:
Upper Egypt comprises the country's eight southernmost governorates. ... the region's history is one of isolated removal from the center of national life. The local relationships resulting from this centuries-old condition gave Upper Egypt an identity of its own within the modern Egyptian state. Alongside the even more ancient presence of Copts, tribal groupings dating from the Arab conquest combined to form a hierarchical order that placed two [minority] groups, the ashraf and the arab, in dominating positions. These were followed by lesser tribes, with the [Egyptian] fellah at the bottom of the social scale [...] Religion was central to the development of Upper Egyptian society. The ashraf claimed direct descent from the Prophet, while the Arabs traced their lineage to a group of tribes from Arabia. On the other hand, the status of the fellahin rested on the belief that they descended from Egypt's pre-Islamic community and had converted to Islam, a history that placed them inescapably beneath both the ashraf and Arabs. [...] In Muslim as well as Christian communities, and particularly at the lower socio-economic levels, religious practices are strongly imbued with non-orthodox folk elements, some of pharaonic origin.
in Arabic " ???? " is equivalent to "tiller", "farmer" or "peasant" in English, and it is the
Arabic appellation by which the indigenous rural peoples of the lands conquered by Arabs came to be known. Comprising 60% of the Egyptian population , the fellahin lead humble lives and continue to live in mud-brick houses like their ancient ancestors. Their percentage was much higher in the early 20th century, before the large influx of fellahin into urban towns and cities. In 1927, anthropologist Winifred Blackman, author of
The Fellahin of Upper Egypt, conducted ethnographic research on the life of Upper Egyptian farmers and concluded that there were observable continuities between the cultural and religious beliefs and practices of the fellahin and those of ancient Egyptians.
Ethnic minorities in Egypt include the small number of
Bedouin Arab tribes living in the eastern and western deserts and the
Sinai Peninsula, the
Berber-speaking Siwis of the
Siwa Oasis, and the ancient
Nubian communities clustered along the Nile in the southernmost part of Egypt. Egypt also hosts some 90,000 refugees and asylum seekers, made up mostly of 70,000
Palestinian refugees and 20,000 Sudanese refugees. The once-vibrant Jewish community in Egypt has virtually
disappeared, with only a small number remaining in Egypt and those who visit on religious occasions. Several important Jewish archaeological and historical sites also remain.
Religion
Religion plays a central role in most Egyptians' lives as visitors to the country quickly discover. The rolling calls to prayer that erupt five times a day have the informal effect of regulating the pace of everything from business to entertainment. Cairo is famous for its numerous mosque minarets and church towers.
According to the constitution, any new legislation must implicitly agree with Islamic laws. Egypt is predominantly Muslim, at approximately 90% of the population, with the majority being adherents of the Sunni branch of Islam [https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/eg.html#People]. Christians represent about 10% of the population, with the largest being the
Coptic denomination at 9%, while the remaining 1% include
Catholics,
Greek Orthodox,
Syriac Orthodox, and
Armenian Orthodox, largely found in
Alexandria and
Cairo.
There also remains a small Jewish community, of an estimated three hundred Egyptians.
There are Egyptians who identify as
atheist and agnostic, but their numbers are largely unknown as openly advocating such positions risks legal sanction. In 2000, an openly atheist Egyptian writer, who called for the establishment of a local association for atheists, was tried on charges of insulting Islam and its prophet in four of his books.
The mainstream Hanafi school of Sunni Islam is largely organised by the state, through
Wizaret Al-Awkaf .
Al-Awkaf controls all mosques and overviews Muslim clerics. Imams are trained in Imam vocational schools and at
Al-Azhar University. The department supports Sunni Islam and has commissions authorised to give
Fatwa judgements on Islamic issues.
Egypt hosts two major religious institutions.
Al-Azhar University is the oldest
Islamic 
