- This article is about the contemporary North African ethnic group. See Egyptians (disambiguation)
Egyptians may refer to:*Egyptians, an Arabic speaking ethnic group of North Africa**Copts, the ethnic Egyptian Christian minority*Inhabitants of the Arab Republic of Egypt, see Demographics of Egypt*Inhabitants of Ancient Egypt, see Ancient Egyptians...
for other uses.
Egyptians (
CopticCoptic or Coptic Egyptian is the final stage of the Egyptian language, a northern Afro-Asiatic language spoken in Egypt until at least the seventeenth century. Egyptian began to be written using the Greek alphabet in the first century...
:
;
Egyptian ArabicEgyptian Arabic is a variety of the Arabic language of the Semitic branch of the Afroasiatic language family. It originated in the Nile Delta in Lower Egypt around the capital Cairo...
:
;
Standard ArabicArabic is a Central Semitic language, thus related to and classified alongside other Semitic languages such as Hebrew and the Neo-Aramaic languages. In terms of speakers, the Arabic macrolanguage is the largest member of the Semitic language family. It is spoken by more than 280 million people as...
:
) is the name of the
nationalityNationality is the relationship between a person and their state of origin, culture, association, affiliation and/or loyalty. Nationality affords the state jurisdiction over the person and affords the person the protection of the state....
and Mediterranean
North AfricaNorth Africa or Northern Africa is the northernmost region of the African continent, linked by the Sahara to Sub-Saharan Africa.Geopolitically, the UN definition of Northern Africa includes the following seven countries or territories; Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Sudan, Tunisia,Mauritania, and...
n
ethnic groupAn ethnic group is a group of humans whose members identify with each other, through a common heritage that is real or presumed.Ethnic identity is further marked by the researcher Seng Yang in the recognition from others of a group's distinctiveness and the recognition of common cultural,...
native to
EgyptEgypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Western Asia...
.
Egyptian identity is closely tied to the
Geography of EgyptThe Geography of Egypt can be split into two sections. Southwest Asia and North AfricaEgypt has shorelines on the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea. It borders Libya to the west, Sudan to the south, and the Gaza Strip and Israel to the east...
, dominated by the lower Nile Valley, the small strip of cultivable land stretching from the
First CataractThe cataracts of the Nile are shallow stretches of the river between Aswan and Khartoum where the water's surface is broken by numerous small boulders and stones protruding from the river bed, as well as many small rocky islets...
to the
Mediterranean SeaThe Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean surrounded by the Mediterranean region and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Anatolia and Europe, on the south by Africa, and on the east by the Levant. The sea is technically a part of the Atlantic Ocean, although it...
and enclosed by desert both to the
eastThe Eastern Desert is the desert east of the river Nile, between the Nile and the Red Sea. It extends from Egypt in the north to Eritrea in the south, and also comprises parts of Sudan and Ethiopia.-See also:*Western Desert...
and to the
westThe Western Desert is a desert region encompassing 600,000km² of land to the west of the Nile in Egypt and Libya. In most of Upper Egypt, the desert encroaches very near the Nile, with a flood plain only a few kilometers wide.-Western Desert:...
. This unique geography has been the basis of the development of Egyptian society since
antiquityAncient Egypt was an ancient civilization of eastern North Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. The civilization coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh, and...
.
The daily language of the Egyptians is the local variety of Arabic, known as
Egyptian ArabicEgyptian Arabic is a variety of the Arabic language of the Semitic branch of the Afroasiatic language family. It originated in the Nile Delta in Lower Egypt around the capital Cairo...
or
Masri. Egyptians are predominantly adherents of
Sunni IslamSunni Islam is the largest denomination of Islam. It is also referred to as Ahl as-Sunnah wa’l-Jamā‘ah or Ahl as-Sunnah for short...
with a Shia minority and a significant proportion who follow native Sufi
ordersṬarīqah means "way, path, method" and refers to an Islamic religious order; in Sufism, it is conceptually related to ḥaqīqah "truth", the ineffable ideal that is the pursuit of the tradition. Thus one starts with Islamic law, the exoteric or mundane practice of Islam and then is initiated onto the...
. A sizable minority of Egyptians belong to the Coptic Orthodox Church, whose liturgical language,
CopticCoptic or Coptic Egyptian is the final stage of the Egyptian language, a northern Afro-Asiatic language spoken in Egypt until at least the seventeenth century. Egyptian began to be written using the Greek alphabet in the first century...
, is the last stage of the indigenous
Egyptian languageEgyptian is the indigenous language of Egypt and a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. Written records of the Egyptian language have been dated from about 3400 BCE, making it one of the oldest recorded languages known. Egyptian was spoken until the late 17th century CE in the form of Coptic...
.
The national identity of Egyptians as it developed in the 19th to 20th centuries consists of overlapping or conflicting ideologies, secular Egyptian nationalism (also known as "Pharaonism"), secular
Arab nationalismArab nationalism is a nationalist ideology which rose to prominence amongst Arabs from the early 20th century onwards. Its central premise is that the peoples and countries of the Arab World, from the Atlantic Ocean to the Arabian Sea, constitute one nation and are bound together by their common...
(including
pan-ArabismPan-Arabism is a movement for unification among the peoples and countries of the Arab World, from the Atlantic Ocean to the Arabian Sea. It is closely connected to Arab nationalism which asserts that the Arabs constitute a single nation. The idea was at its height during the 1960s...
), and
IslamismIslamism is a set of ideologies holding that Islam is not only a religion but also a political system; that modern Muslims must return to their roots of their religion, and unite politically....
.
Names
- Egyptians, from Greek , , from , "Egypt". The Greek name is derived from Late Egyptian
Late Egyptian is the stage of the Egyptian language that was written by the time of the New Kingdom around the Amarna period. Texts written wholly in Late Egyptian date to the Ramesside Period and later...
Hikuptah "MemphisMemphis was the ancient capital of the first nome of Lower Egypt, and of the Old Kingdom of Egypt from its foundation until around 2200 BC and later for shorter periods during the New Kingdom, and an administrative centre throughout ancient history....
", a corruption of the earlier EgyptianEgyptian is the indigenous language of Egypt and a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. Written records of the Egyptian language have been dated from about 3400 BCE, making it one of the oldest recorded languages known. Egyptian was spoken until the late 17th century CE in the form of Coptic...
name Hat-ka-Ptah , meaning "home of the kaThe Ancient Egyptians believed that a human soul was made up of five parts: the Ren, the Ba, the Ka, the Sheut, and the Ib. In addition to these components of the soul there was the human body...
(soul) of Ptah", the name of a temple to the god PtahIn Egyptian mythology, Ptah was the deification of the primordial mound in the Ennead cosmogony, which was more literally referred to as Ta-tenen , meaning risen land, or as Tanen, meaning submerged land, though Tatenen was a god in his own right before being assimilated with Ptah...
at Memphis. StraboStrabo was a Greek historian, geographer and philosopher.-Life:Strabo was born in a wealthy family from Amaseia in Pontus , which had recently become part of the Roman Empire.. He studied under various geographers and philosophers; first in Nysa, later in Rome...
provided a folk etymology according to which had evolved as a compound from , meaning "below the Aegean". In English, the noun "Egyptians" appears in the 14th century, in Wycliff's Bible, as Egipcions.
- Copts ( قبط) – Under Muslim rule, the Egyptians came to be known as Copt
A Copt is a native Egyptian Christian...
s, a derivative of the Greek word , Aiguptios (Egyptian), from , Aiguptos (Egypt). The Greek name in turn may be derived from the EgyptianEgyptian is the indigenous language of Egypt and a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. Written records of the Egyptian language have been dated from about 3400 BCE, making it one of the oldest recorded languages known. Egyptian was spoken until the late 17th century CE in the form of Coptic...
, literally "Estate (or 'House') of PtahIn Egyptian mythology, Ptah was the deification of the primordial mound in the Ennead cosmogony, which was more literally referred to as Ta-tenen , meaning risen land, or as Tanen, meaning submerged land, though Tatenen was a god in his own right before being assimilated with Ptah...
", the name of the temple complex of the god PtahIn Egyptian mythology, Ptah was the deification of the primordial mound in the Ennead cosmogony, which was more literally referred to as Ta-tenen , meaning risen land, or as Tanen, meaning submerged land, though Tatenen was a god in his own right before being assimilated with Ptah...
at MemphisMemphis was the ancient capital of the first nome of Lower Egypt, and of the Old Kingdom of Egypt from its foundation until around 2200 BC and later for shorter periods during the New Kingdom, and an administrative centre throughout ancient history....
. After the majority of Egyptians converted from ChristianityChristianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as presented by the revelations in the New Testament....
to IslamIslam Islam Islam ( al-’islām,
[There are ten pronunciations of Islam in English, differing in whether the first or second syllable has the stress, whether the s is or , and whether the a is pronounced as in father, as in cat, or (when the stress is on the i) as in the a of sofa...]
due to the Islamic takeover, the term became exclusively associated with Egyptian Christianity and Egyptians who remained Christian, though references to native Muslims as Copts are attested until the MamlukA mamluk was a soldier who converted to Islam and served the Muslim Arab caliphs from the 9th to the 16th centuries. They were of mixed ancestry but mainly Kipchak Turks...
period.
- – The modern Egyptian name comes from the ancient Semitic
The Semitic languages are a group of related languages whose living representatives are spoken by more than 467 million people across much of the Middle East, North Africa and the Horn of Africa...
name for Egypt and originally connoted "civilization" or "metropolis". Classical ArabicClassical Arabic , also known as Qur'anic or Koranic Arabic, is the form of the Arabic language used in literary texts from Umayyad and Abbasid times . It is based on the Medieval dialects of Arab tribes...
(Egyptian ArabicEgyptian Arabic is a variety of the Arabic language of the Semitic branch of the Afroasiatic language family. It originated in the Nile Delta in Lower Egypt around the capital Cairo...
) is directly cognate with the Biblical HebrewBiblical Hebrew, also called Classical Hebrew, is an archaic form of the Hebrew language in which the Hebrew Bible and various Israelite inscriptions were written....
Mitzráyīm, meaning "the two straits", a reference to the predynastic separation of Upper and Lower EgyptAncient Egypt was divided into two regions, known as Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt. To the north was Lower Egypt where the Nile stretched out with its several branches to form the Nile Delta. To the south was Upper Egypt, stretching to Syene. The two kingdoms of Upper and Lower Egypt were united c....
. Edward William LaneEdward William Lane was a British Orientalist, translator and lexicographer....
writing in the 1820s, said that Egyptians commonly called themselves 'the Egyptians', 'the Children of Egypt' and 'the People of Egypt'. He added that the Turks "stigmatized" the Egyptians with the name or the 'People of the Pharaoh'.
- – This was the native Egyptian
Egyptian is the indigenous language of Egypt and a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. Written records of the Egyptian language have been dated from about 3400 BCE, making it one of the oldest recorded languages known. Egyptian was spoken until the late 17th century CE in the form of Coptic...
name of the people of the Nile Valley, literally 'People of Kemet' (i.e., Egypt). In antiquityAncient Egypt was an ancient civilization of eastern North Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. The civilization coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh, and...
, it was often shortened to simply or "the people". The name is vocalized as in the CopticCoptic or Coptic Egyptian is the final stage of the Egyptian language, a northern Afro-Asiatic language spoken in Egypt until at least the seventeenth century. Egyptian began to be written using the Greek alphabet in the first century...
stage of the language, meaning "Egyptian" ( , with the plural indefinite article, "Egyptians"; , with the plural definite article, "the Egyptians").
Demographics
An estimated 76.4 million Egyptians live around the world, but the vast majority are in
EgyptEgypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Western Asia...
where ethnic Egyptians constitute about 94% (74 million) of the total population. Ethnic minorities in Egypt are formed by Nubians,
BerberBerbers are the indigenous peoples of North Africa west of the Nile Valley. They are discontinuously distributed from the Atlantic to the Siwa oasis, in Egypt, and from the Mediterranean to the Niger River. Historically they spoke various Berber languages, which together form a branch of the...
s,
BedouinThe Bedouin, , are a predominantly desert-dwelling Arab ethnic group found throughout most of the desert belt extending from the Atlantic coast of the Sahara via the Western Desert, Sinai, and Negev to the Arabian Desert...
s,
ArabArab people or Arabs are an ethnic group whose members identify along linguistic, cultural or genealogical grounds...
s,
BejaThe Beja are an ethnic group dwelling in parts of North Africa and the Horn of Africa.-Geography:The Beja are found mostly in Sudan, but also in parts of Eritrea, and Egypt...
and
DomThe Dom of the Middle East are an Indo-Aryan ethnic group. Some authors relate them to the Domba people of India.They have a rich oral tradition and express their culture and history through music, poetry and dance...
.
Approximately 90% of the population of Egypt are
Muslim:A Muslim , , is an adherent of the religion of Islam. The feminine form is Muslimah . Literally, the word means "one who submits ". Muslim is the participle of the same verb of which Islam is the infinitive. Muslims believe that there is only one God, translated in Arabic as Allah...
and 10% are
ChristianA Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic, religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, who Christians believe was the Messiah prophesied in the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible, and the Son of God.The term "Christian" is also used adjectivally to...
(9%
Copticstyle="float: right; clear: right; background-color: transparent"|- {http://www.copticindex.com}||-The Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria style="float: right; clear: right; background-color: transparent"|- {http://www.copticindex.com}||-The Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria style="float:...
, 1% other Christian), though estimates vary. The majority live near the banks of the
Nile RiverThe Nile is a major north-flowing river in Africa, generally regarded as the longest river in the world....
where the only
arable landIn geography, arable land is an agricultural term, meaning land that can be used for growing crops. It is distinct from cultivated land and includes jungles that are not currently used for human purposes. Arable land covers an area of approximately 12 million square miles...
is found. Close to half of the Egyptian people today are urban; most of the rest are fellahin living in rural towns and villages. A large influx of fellahin into urban cities, and rapid urbanization of many rural areas since the turn of the last century, have shifted the balance between the number of urban and rural citizens. Egyptians also form smaller minorities in neighboring countries,
North AmericaNorth America is the northern continent of the Americas, situated in the Earth's northern hemisphere and in the western hemisphere. It is bordered on the north by the Arctic Ocean, on the east by the North Atlantic Ocean, on the southeast by the Caribbean Sea, and on the west by the North Pacific...
,
EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus Mountains , and the Black Sea to the southeast...
and
AustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the continental mainland , the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans...
.
Historically, it was rare for Egyptians to leave their country permanently or for an extended period of time—it was not until the 1970s that Egyptians began to emigrate in large numbers. Until recently, a study on the pattern of Egyptian emigration was quoted as saying "Egyptians have a reputation of preferring their own soil. Few leave except to study or travel; and they always return... Egyptians do not emigrate." Egyptians also tend to be provincial, meaning their attachment extends not only to Egypt but to the specific
provincesEgypt is divided into 29 governorates and one self-governing city. This designation replaces that of "province" . Egyptian governorates are the top tier of the five-tier jurisdiction hierarchy. A governorate is administered by a governor appointed by the president of Egypt...
, towns and villages from which they hail. Therefore, return migrants, such as temporary workers abroad, come back to their region of origin in Egypt.
A sizable
Egyptian diasporaEgyptians emigrated from Egypt for many centuries, mainly to Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, The Emirates and Iraq, this happened under different circumstances but mainly to escape prosecution and/ or high taxes....
did not begin to form until well into the 1980s, when political and economic conditions began driving Egyptians out of the country in significant numbers. Today, the diaspora numbers nearly 4 million (2006 est). Generally, those who emigrate to the United States and western European countries tend to do so permanently, with 93% and 55.5% of Egyptians (respectively) settling in the new country. On the other hand, Egyptians migrating to Arab countries almost always only go there with the intention of returning to Egypt; virtually none settle in the new country on a permanent basis. Prior to 1974, only few Egyptian professionals had left the country in search for employment. Political, demographic and economic pressures led to the first wave of emigration after 1952. Later more Egyptians left their homeland first after the 1973 boom in oil prices and again in 1979, but it was only in the second half of the 1980s that Egyptian migration became prominent.
Egyptian emigration today is motivated by even higher rates of unemployment, population growth and increasing prices. Political repression and human rights violations by Egypt's ruling régime are other contributing factors (see Egypt - Human rights). Egyptians have also been impacted by the wars between Egypt and
IsraelIsrael officially the State of Israel , is a developed state in Western Asia located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan in the east, and Egypt on the southwest, and contains geographically diverse features within its...
, particularly after the
Six-Day WarThe Six-Day War of June 5-10, 1967 was a war between the Israel army and the armies of the neighboring states of Egypt, Jordan, and Syria. The Arab states of Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria also contributed troops and arms. At the war's end, Israel had gained control of the...
in 1967, when migration rates began to rise. In August 2006, Egyptians made headlines when 11 students from
Mansoura UniversityMansoura University was founded in 1972 in Mansoura city, Egypt. Now, it also has in Damietta. It is one of the biggest Egyptian universities and has contributed much to the cultural and scientific life in Mansoura and Egypt.-History:...
failed to show up at their
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
host institutions for a cultural exchange program in the hope of finding employment. Many
Coptic ChristiansA Copt is a native Egyptian Christian...
also leave the country due to discrimination and harassment by the Egyptian government and Islamist groups.
Egyptians in neighboring countries face additional challenges. Over the years, abuse, exploitation and/or ill-treatment of Egyptian workers and professionals in the
Arab states of the Persian GulfThe Arab Gulf States, also known as Arab states of the Persian Gulf or Gulf Arab states or Gulf states, are usually reserved for the six Arab monarchical states joined since 1981 in the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf, or Gulf Cooperation Council : Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, the...
,
IraqIraq , officially the Republic of Iraq , also known as Mesopotamia, is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert.Iraq shares borders with Jordan to the west, Syria...
and
LibyaLibya , officially the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya , is a country located in North Africa...
have been reported by the Egyptian Human Rights Organization and different media outlets. Arab nationals have in the past expressed fear over an "'Egyptianization' of the local dialects and culture that were believed to have resulted from the predominance of Egyptians in the field of education" (see also Egyptian Arabic - Geographics). The Egyptians for their part object to what they call the "Saudization" of their culture due to Saudi Arabian petrodollar-flush investment in the Egyptian entertainment industry. Twice Libya was on the brink of war with Egypt due to mistreatment of Egyptian workers and after the signing of the
peace treatyThe 1979 Egypt–Israel Peace Treaty was signed in Washington, DC, United States, on March 26, 1979, following the 1978 Camp David Accords...
with Israel. When the
Gulf WarThe Persian Gulf War , known also as the Gulf War, the First Gulf War,or often as the Second Gulf War and by Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein as The Mother of all Battles, or commonly as Desert Storm, for the military response...
ended, Egyptian workers in Iraq were subjected to harsh measures and expulsion by the Iraqi government and to violent attacks by Iraqis returning from the war to fill the workforce.
Identity
Egyptian identity since the Iron Age Empire evolved under the influence of a succession of foreign rulers,
NubianThe Twenty-Fifth Dynasty of Egypt, also known as the Nubian dynasty or Kushite Empire, was a line of rulers originating in the Kingdom of Kush. They reigned in part or all of Ancient Egypt from 760 BC to 656 BC.. The dynasty began with Kashta's invasion of Upper Egypt and culminated in several...
, Persian, Greek, Roman, Arab, Turkish,
FrenchFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
and British, accommodating two new religions,
Christianitystyle="float: right; clear: right; background-color: transparent"|- {http://www.copticindex.com}||-The Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria style="float: right; clear: right; background-color: transparent"|- {http://www.copticindex.com}||-The Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria style="float:...
and
IslamIslam Islam Islam ( al-’islām,
[There are ten pronunciations of Islam in English, differing in whether the first or second syllable has the stress, whether the s is or , and whether the a is pronounced as in father, as in cat, or (when the stress is on the i) as in the a of sofa...]
, and a new language,
Egyptian ArabicEgyptian Arabic is a variety of the Arabic language of the Semitic branch of the Afroasiatic language family. It originated in the Nile Delta in Lower Egypt around the capital Cairo...
.
The degree to which Egyptians identify with each layer of Egypt's history in articulating a sense of collective identity can vary. Questions of identity came to fore in the 20th century as Egyptians sought to free themselves from British occupation, leading to the rise of ethno-territorial, secular Egyptian nationalism (also known as "Pharaonism"), secular
Arab nationalismArab nationalism is a nationalist ideology which rose to prominence amongst Arabs from the early 20th century onwards. Its central premise is that the peoples and countries of the Arab World, from the Atlantic Ocean to the Arabian Sea, constitute one nation and are bound together by their common...
(including
pan-ArabismPan-Arabism is a movement for unification among the peoples and countries of the Arab World, from the Atlantic Ocean to the Arabian Sea. It is closely connected to Arab nationalism which asserts that the Arabs constitute a single nation. The idea was at its height during the 1960s...
), and
IslamismIslamism is a set of ideologies holding that Islam is not only a religion but also a political system; that modern Muslims must return to their roots of their religion, and unite politically....
.
"Pharaonism" has its roots in the 19th century and rose to prominence in the 1920s and 1930s. It looked to Egypt's pre-Islamic past and argued that Egypt was part of a larger Mediterranean civilization. This ideology stressed the role of the Nile River and the
Mediterranean SeaThe Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean surrounded by the Mediterranean region and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Anatolia and Europe, on the south by Africa, and on the east by the Levant. The sea is technically a part of the Atlantic Ocean, although it...
. Pharaonism's most notable advocate was
Taha HusseinTaha Hussein was one of the most influential Egyptian writers and intellectuals. He was a figurehead for the modernist movement in Egypt.- Biography :...
.
It became the dominant mode of expression of Egyptian anti-colonial activists of the pre- and inter-war periods:
In 1931, following a visit to Egypt, Syrian Arab nationalist
Sati' al-HusriSāti` al-Husrī was a Syrian writer and an influential Arab nationalist thinker in the 20th century.-Early life:Al-Husri was born in Sana'a, Yemen, to a government official from a wealthy Aleppine family...
remarked that "[Egyptians] did not possess an Arab nationalist sentiment; did not accept that Egypt was a part of the Arab lands, and would not acknowledge that the Egyptian people were part of the Arab nation." The later 1930s would become a formative period for Arab nationalism in Egypt, in large part due to efforts by Syrian/Palestinian/Lebanese intellectuals. Nevertheless, a year after the establishment of the
League of Arab StatesThe Arab League , officially called the League of Arab States , is a regional organization of Arab states in Southwest Asia, and North and Northeast Africa. It was formed in Cairo on March 22, 1945 with six members: Egypt, Iraq, Transjordan , Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and Syria...
in 1945, to be headquartered in Cairo,
Oxford UniversityThe University of Oxford , located in the UK city of Oxford, is the oldest surviving university in the English-speaking world and is regarded as one of the world's leading academic institutions. Although the exact date of foundation remains unclear, there is evidence of teaching there as far back...
historian H. S. Deighton was still writing:
It was not until the
NasserGamal Abdel Nasser was the second President of Egypt from 1956 until his death in 1970. He led the Egyptian Revolution of 1952, which removed King Farouk I and heralded a new period of industrialization in Egypt, together with a profound advancement of Arab nationalism, including a short-lived...
era more than a decade later that Arab nationalism, and by extension
Arab socialismArab socialism is a political ideology based on an amalgamation of Pan-Arabism and socialism. Arab socialism is distinct from the much broader tradition of socialist thought in the Arab World, which predates Arab socialism by as much as fifty years.- Background and influence :Arab socialism...
, became a state policy and a means with which to define Egypt's position in the Middle East and the world, usually articulated vis-à-vis
ZionismZionism is the international political movement that originally supported the reestablishment of a homeland for the Jewish People in Palestine. The area was the Jewish Biblical homeland, called the Land of Israel...
in the neighboring Jewish state. For a while Egypt and
SyriaSyria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south and Israel to the southwest....
formed the
United Arab RepublicThe United Arab Republic , often abbreviated as the U.A.R., was a union between Egypt, and Syria. The union began in 1958 and existed until 1961 when Syria seceded from the union...
. When the union was dissolved, Egypt continued to be known as the UAR until 1971, when Egypt adopted the current official name, the Arab Republic of Egypt. The Egyptians' attachment to Arabism, however, was particularly questioned after the 1967
Six-Day WarThe Six-Day War of June 5-10, 1967 was a war between the Israel army and the armies of the neighboring states of Egypt, Jordan, and Syria. The Arab states of Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria also contributed troops and arms. At the war's end, Israel had gained control of the...
. Thousands of Egyptians had lost their lives and the country became disillusioned with Arab politics. Nasser's successor Sadat, both through public policy and his peace initiative with
IsraelIsrael officially the State of Israel , is a developed state in Western Asia located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan in the east, and Egypt on the southwest, and contains geographically diverse features within its...
, revived an uncontested Egyptian orientation, unequivocally asserting that only Egypt and Egyptians were his responsibility. The terms "Arab", "Arabism" and "Arab unity", save for the new official name, became conspicuously absent. (See also Liberal age and Republic sections.)
Many Egyptians today feel that Egyptian and Arab identities are inextricably linked, and emphasize the central role that Egypt plays in the Arab world. Others continue to believe that Egypt and Egyptians are simply not Arab, emphasizing indigenous Egyptian heritage, culture and independent polity; pointing to the failures of Arab and pan-Arab nationalist policies; and publicly voicing objection to the present official name of the country.
In late 2007,
el-Masri el-Yom daily newspaper conducted an interview at a bus stop in the working-class district of
ImbabaImbaba is a neighbourhood in northern Egypt, located in the Giza governorate, and part of the greater Cairo metropolitan area...
to ask citizens what Arab nationalism (
el-qawmeyya el-'arabeyya) represented for them. One Egyptian Muslim youth responded, "Arab nationalism means that the Egyptian Foreign Minister in Jerusalem gets humiliated by the Palestinians, that Arab leaders dance upon hearing of Sadat's death, that Egyptians get humiliated in the
Arab states of the Persian GulfThe Arab Gulf States, also known as Arab states of the Persian Gulf or Gulf Arab states or Gulf states, are usually reserved for the six Arab monarchical states joined since 1981 in the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf, or Gulf Cooperation Council : Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, the...
, and of course that Arab countries get to fight Israel until the last Egyptian soldier." Another felt that,"Arab countries hate Egyptians," and that unity with Israel may even be more of a possibility than Arab nationalism, because he believes that Israelis would at least respect Egyptians.
Some contemporary prominent Egyptians who oppose Arab nationalism or the idea that Egyptians are Arabs include Secretary General of the
Supreme Council of AntiquitiesThe Supreme Council of Antiquities is the branch of the Egyptian Ministry of Culture responsible for the conservation, protection and regulation of all antiquities and archaeological excavations in Egypt...
Zahi HawassZahi Hawass is an Egyptian archaeologist, an Egyptologist and the current Secretary General of the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities...
, popular writer
Osama Anwar OkashaOsama Anwar Okasha is an Egyptian screenwriter and journalist, who writes weekly for El-Ahram newspaper. He is famous for writing some of the most popular series on Egyptian television, such as Layali el Helmeyya and El Shahd wel Demou, which are popular in Egypt and all across the Middle East.His...
, Egyptian-born Harvard University Professor
Leila AhmedLeila Ahmed is an Egyptian American professor of Women's Studies and Religion at the Harvard Divinity School. Prior to coming to Harvard, she was professor of Women’s Studies and Near Eastern studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst...
, Member of Parliament Suzie Greiss, in addition to different local groups and intellectuals. This understanding is also expressed in other contexts, such as Neil DeRosa's novel
Joseph's Seed in his depiction of an Egyptian character "who declares that Egyptians are not Arabs and never will be."
Egyptian critics of Arab nationalism contend that it has worked to erode and/or relegate native Egyptian identity by superimposing only one aspect of Egypt's culture. These views and sources for collective identification in the Egyptian state are captured in the words of a linguistic anthropologist who conducted fieldwork in Cairo:
Languages
The
official languageAn official language is a language that is given a special legal status in a particular country, state, or other territory. Typically a nation's official language will be the one used in that nation's courts, parliament and administration. However, official status can also be used to give a...
of Egypt today is
ArabicArabic is a Central Semitic language, thus related to and classified alongside other Semitic languages such as Hebrew and the Neo-Aramaic languages. In terms of speakers, the Arabic macrolanguage is the largest member of the Semitic language family. It is spoken by more than 280 million people as...
. The spoken vernacular is known as
Egyptian ArabicEgyptian Arabic is a variety of the Arabic language of the Semitic branch of the Afroasiatic language family. It originated in the Nile Delta in Lower Egypt around the capital Cairo...
, while
Modern Standard ArabicStandard Arabic or Literary Arabic is the standard and literary variety of Arabic used in writing and in formal speech...
is reserved for more formal contexts.
The recorded history of Egyptian Arabic as a separate dialect begins in Ottoman Egypt with a document by a 17th century author writing about the peculiarities of the speech of the Egyptian people. This suggests that the language by then was spoken by the majority of Egyptians. It is represented in a body of
vernacular literatureVernacular literature is literature written in the vernacular - the speech of the "common people".In the European tradition, this effectively means literature not written in Latin...
comprising novels, plays and poetry published over the course of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Classical ArabicClassical Arabic , also known as Qur'anic or Koranic Arabic, is the form of the Arabic language used in literary texts from Umayyad and Abbasid times . It is based on the Medieval dialects of Arab tribes...
is also a significant cultural element in Egyptian culture, as Egyptian novelists and poets were among the first to experiment with modern styles of Arabic literature, and the forms they developed have been widely imitated.
In Byzantine Egypt, both the native
Coptic languageCoptic or Coptic Egyptian is the final stage of the Egyptian language, a northern Afro-Asiatic language spoken in Egypt until at least the seventeenth century. Egyptian began to be written using the Greek alphabet in the first century...
(the direct descendant of the ancient
Egyptian languageEgyptian is the indigenous language of Egypt and a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. Written records of the Egyptian language have been dated from about 3400 BCE, making it one of the oldest recorded languages known. Egyptian was spoken until the late 17th century CE in the form of Coptic...
) and
Koine GreekKoine Greek is the popular form of Greek which emerged in post-Classical antiquity . Other names are Alexandrian, Hellenistic, Patristic, Common, Biblical or New Testament Greek...
were in use for administrative purposes.
Following the
Muslim conquest of EgyptAt the commencement of the Muslim conquest of Egypt, Egypt was part of the Byzantine Empire with its capital in Constantinople. However, it had been occupied just a decade before by the Persian Empire under Khosrau II...
in the 7th century, Egypt came under Arab rule.
Use of both Greek and Coptic as administrative languages was discontinued in favour of the
Arabic languageArabic is a Central Semitic language, thus related to and classified alongside other Semitic languages such as Hebrew and the Neo-Aramaic languages. In terms of speakers, the Arabic macrolanguage is the largest member of the Semitic language family. It is spoken by more than 280 million people as...
in
705Alternate meanings: Area code 705; Project 705; Life 705-Asia:* February 20—In a coup d'état, Chinese Chancellor Zhang Jianzhi executes the Zhang brothers and restores Emperor Zhongzong...
, and Coptic suffered a continuous decline over the following centuries. Especially under
MamlukA mamluk was a soldier who converted to Islam and served the Muslim Arab caliphs from the 9th to the 16th centuries. They were of mixed ancestry but mainly Kipchak Turks...
rule, speakers of Coptic were actively persecuted.
The Coptic language was virtually extinct by the 18th century, although it remained in continuous use as the liturgical language of
Coptic Christianitystyle="float: right; clear: right; background-color: transparent"|- {http://www.copticindex.com}||-The Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria style="float: right; clear: right; background-color: transparent"|- {http://www.copticindex.com}||-The Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria style="float:...
. Since the 19th century, there have been attempts at
revivalLanguage revitalization, language revival or reversing language shift is the attempt by interested parties, including individuals, cultural or community groups, governments, or political authorities, to reverse the decline of a language. If the decline is severe, the language may be endangered,...
(see
Liberal Egyptian PartyLiberal Egyptian Party , formerly Mother Egypt is a grassroots movement and a secular political party in Egypt...
), and it is now reported as the native language of a few hundred members of the
Egyptian diasporaEgyptians emigrated from Egypt for many centuries, mainly to Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, The Emirates and Iraq, this happened under different circumstances but mainly to escape prosecution and/ or high taxes....
..
Origins
Over the years, the findings of
archaeologyArchaeology or archeology is the science that studies human cultures through the recovery, documentation, analysis, and interpretation of material culture and environmental data, including architecture, artifacts, biofacts, and landscapes...
, biological anthropology and
population geneticsPopulation genetics is the study of the allele frequency distribution and change under the influence of the four evolutionary processes: natural selection, genetic drift, mutation and gene flow. It also takes account of population subdivision and population structure in space. As such, it attempts...
have shed light on the origins of the Egyptians. The
indigenousThe term indigenous peoples can be used to describe any ethnic group of people who inhabit a geographic region with which they have the earliest known historical connection, alongside more recent immigrants who have populated the region and may be greater in number...
Nile Valley population became firmly established during the
PleistoceneThe Pleistocene is the epoch from 2.588 million to 12 000 years BP covering the world's recent period of repeated glaciations. The name pleistocene is derived from the Greek and ....
epochIn the fields of chronology and periodization, an epoch means an instant in time chosen as the origin of a particular era. The "epoch" then serves as a reference point from which time is measured...
when nomadic
hunter-gathererA hunter-gatherer society is one whose primary subsistence method involves the direct procurement of edible plants and animals from the wild, foraging and hunting without significant recourse to the domestication of either...
s began living along the
Nile RiverThe Nile is a major north-flowing river in Africa, generally regarded as the longest river in the world....
. Traces of these proto-Egyptians appear in the form of
artifactsAn artifact or artefact is any object made or modified by a human. In archaeology, an artifact is an object recovered by some archaeological endeavor, which may have a cultural interest. Examples include stone tools such as projectile points, pottery vessels, metal objects such as buttons or guns,...
and rock carvings in the terraces of the Nile and the desert oases. Beginning in the
predynastic periodThe Predynastic Period of Ancient Egypt is traditionally the period between the Early Neolithic and the beginning of the Pharaonic monarchy starting with King Narmer...
, some differences between the populations of Upper and Lower Egypt were ascertained through their skeletal remains, suggesting a gradual
clinalIn biology, an ecocline or simply cline is a term used to describe an ecotone in which a series of biocommunities display continuous gradient....
pattern north to south.
When Lower and Upper Egypt were unified
c. 3150 BC, the distinction began to blur, resulting in a more "homogeneous" population in Egypt, though the distinction remains true to some degree to this day. Some biological anthropologists such as
Shomarka KeitaShomarka Omar Yahya Keita M.D., DPhil., is an African American physician and anthropologist. He is affiliated with the National Human Genome Center of Howard University and the Department of Anthropology of the Smithsonian Institution...
believe the range of variability to be primarily indigenous and not necessarily the result of significant intermingling of widely
divergentGenetic divergence is the process of one species diverging over time into more than one species. Passing small random advantages characteristic changes over time from one generation to the next generations. The genetic characters can be observable structures from different species or they can be...
peoples. Keita describes the northern and southern patterns of the early
predynasticThe Predynastic Period of Ancient Egypt is traditionally the period between the Early Neolithic and the beginning of the Pharaonic monarchy starting with King Narmer...
period as "northern-Egyptian-Maghreb" and "tropical African variant" (overlapping with
NubiaNubia is the region in the south of Egypt, along the Nile and in northern Sudan. Most of Nubia is situated in Sudan with about a quarter of its territory in Egypt...
/
KushThe Kingdom of Kush or Cush was an ancient African state centered on the confluences of the Blue Nile, White Nile and River Atbara in what is now the Republic of Sudan. It was one of the earliest civilizations to develop in the Nile River Valley...
) respectively. He shows that a progressive change in Upper Egypt toward the northern Egyptian pattern takes place through the predynastic period. The southern pattern continues to predominate in
AbydosAbydos , one of the most ancient cities of Upper Egypt, is about 11 kilometres west of the Nile at latitude 26° 10' N...
, Upper Egypt by the
First DynastyThe first dynasty of Ancient Egypt is often combined with the second dynasty under the group title, Early Dynastic Period of Egypt. At that time the capital was Thinis.-Rulers:Known rulers, in the History of Egypt, for the First Dynasty are as follows:...
, but "lower Egyptian,
MaghrebThe Maghreb , also rendered Maghrib , meaning "place of sunset" or "western" in Arabic, is a region in North Africa. The term is generally applied to all of Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia, but in older Arabic usage pertained only to the area of the three countries between the high ranges of the...
ian, and
EuropeanThe genetic history of Europe can be inferred from the patterns of genetic diversity across continents and time. The primary data to develop historical scenarios coming from sequences of mitochondrial, Y-chromosome and autosomal DNA from modern populations and if available from ancient DNA...
patterns are observed also, thus making for great
diversityDiversity may refer to: an old old wooden ship used in the civil war era*Diversity , the business tactic which encourages diversity to better serve a heterogeneous customer base...
."
A 2006
bioarchaeologicalThe term bioarchaeology was first coined by British archaeologist Grahame Clark in 1972 as a reference to zooarchaeology, or the study of animal bones from archaeological sites...
study on the dental
morphologyIn biology morphology is the form, structure and configuration of an organism.This includes aspects of the outward appearance as well as the form and structure of the internal parts like bones and organs...
of ancient Egyptians by Prof. Joel Irish shows dental traits characteristic of indigenous
North AfricaNorth Africa or Northern Africa is the northernmost region of the African continent, linked by the Sahara to Sub-Saharan Africa.Geopolitically, the UN definition of Northern Africa includes the following seven countries or territories; Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Sudan, Tunisia,Mauritania, and...
ns and to a lesser extent
Southwest AsiaWestern Asia, West Asia, Southwest Asia or Southwestern Asia are terms that describe the westernmost portion of Asia. The terms are partly coterminous with the Middle East - which describes geographical position in relation to Western Europe rather than location within Asia...
n and southern
EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus Mountains , and the Black Sea to the southeast...
an populations. Among the samples included in the study is skeletal material from the Hawara tombs of Fayum, which clustered very closely with the Badarian series of the
predynasticThe Predynastic Period of Ancient Egypt is traditionally the period between the Early Neolithic and the beginning of the Pharaonic monarchy starting with King Narmer...
period. All the samples, particularly those of the Dynastic period, were significantly divergent from a neolithic West Saharan sample from Lower Nubia. Biological continuity was also found intact from the dynastic to the post-pharaonic periods. According to Irish:
[The Egyptian] samples [996 mummies] exhibit morphologically simple, mass-reduced dentitionDentition is the development of teeth and their arrangement in the mouth.All mammals except the monotremes, the xenarthrans, the pangolins, and the cetaceans have up to four distinct types of teeth, with a maximum number for each. These are the incisor , the canine, the premolar, and the molar ...
s that are similar to those in populations from greater North Africa (Irish, 1993, 1998a–c, 2000) and, to a lesser extent, western Asia and Europe (Turner, 1985a; Turner and Markowitz, 1990; Roler, 1992; Lipschultz, 1996; Irish, 1998a). Similar craniofacial measurements among samples from these regions were reported as well (Brace et al., 1993)... an inspection of MMD values reveals no evidence of increasing phenetic distance between samples from the first and second halves of this almost 3,000-year-long period. For example, phenetic distances between First-Second Dynasty Abydos and samples from Fourth Dynasty Saqqara (MMD ¼ 0.050), 11-12th Dynasty Thebes (0.000), 12th Dynasty Lisht (0.072), 19th Dynasty Qurneh (0.053), and 26th–30th Dynasty Giza (0.027) do not exhibit a directional increase through time... Thus, despite increasing foreign influence after the Second Intermediate Period, not only did Egyptian culture remain intact (Lloyd, 2000a), but the people themselves, as represented by the dental samples, appear biologically constant as well... Gebel Ramlah [Neolithic Nubian/Western Desert sample] is, in fact, significantly different from BadariThe Badarian culture provides the earliest direct evidence of agriculture in Upper Egypt during the Predynastic Era. It flourished between 4500 to 3800 BCE, and might have already existed as far back as 5000 BCE. It was first identified in El-Badari, Asyut....
based on the 22-trait MMD (Table 4). For that matter, the Neolithic Western Desert sample is significantly different from all others [but] is closest to predynastic and early dynastic samples.
A group of noted physical anthropologists conducted
craniofacialCraniofacial may be used to describe certain congenital malformations, injuries, surgeons who subspecialize in this area, multi-disciplinary medical-surgical teams that treat and do research on disorders affecting this region, and organizations with interest in...
studies of Egyptian skeletal remains and concluded similarly that "the Egyptians have been in place since back in the Pleistocene and have been largely unaffected by either invasions or migrations. As others have noted, Egyptians are Egyptians, and they were so in the past as well."
GeneticGenetic genealogy is the application of genetics to traditional genealogy. Genetic genealogy involves the use of genealogical DNA testing to determine the level of genetic relationship between individuals.-History:...
analysis of modern Egyptians reveals that they have paternal lineages common to indigenous North Africans/
BerberBerbers are the indigenous peoples of North Africa west of the Nile Valley. They are discontinuously distributed from the Atlantic to the Siwa oasis, in Egypt, and from the Mediterranean to the Niger River. Historically they spoke various Berber languages, which together form a branch of the...
populations primarily, and to
Near EastNear East today is an ambiguous term that covers different countries for archeologists and historians, on one hand, and for political scientists, economists, and journalists, on the other...
ern peoples to a lesser extent—these lineages would have spread during the
NeolithicThe Neolithic Age, Era, or Period, or New Stone Age, was a period in the development of human technology, beginning about 9500 BCE in the Middle East that is traditionally considered the last part of the Stone Age...
and maintained by the
predynastic periodThe Predynastic Period of Ancient Egypt is traditionally the period between the Early Neolithic and the beginning of the Pharaonic monarchy starting with King Narmer...
. Studies based on maternal lineages also link Egyptians with people from modern
EritreaEritrea , officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in the Horn of Africa. It is bordered by Sudan in the west, Ethiopia in the south, and Djibouti in the southeast. The east and northeast of the country have an extensive coastline on the Red Sea, directly across from Saudi Arabia and Yemen...
/
EthiopiaEthiopia , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country situated in the Horn of Africa. Ethiopia is bordered by Eritrea to the north, Sudan to the west, Kenya to the south, Somalia to the east and Djibouti to the northeast. Its size is 1,100,000 km² with an...
such as the
TigreThe Tigre are an ethnic group residing in the north and eastern lowlands of Eritrea who speak the Tigre language.They are a mostly Muslim nomadic people who inhabit the northern, western, and coastal lowlands of Eritrea as well as areas in eastern Sudan...
, who are characterized by haplogroup M1 believed to have originated in West Asia.
University of ChicagoThe University of Chicago is a private, coeducational research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by oil magnate and benefactor John D...
Egyptologist Frank Yurco confirmed this finding of historical and regional continuity, saying:
Certainly there was some foreign admixture [in Egypt], but basically a homogeneous African population had lived in the Nile Valley from ancient to modern times... [the] Badarian people, who developed the earliest Predynastic Egyptian culture, already exhibited the mix of North African and Sub-Saharan physical traits that have typified Egyptians ever since (Hassan 1985; Yurco 1989; Trigger 1978; Keita 1990; Brace et al., this volume)... The peoples of Egypt, the Sudan, and much of East Africa, Ethiopia and Somalia are now generally regarded as a Nilotic (i.e. Nile River) continuity, with widely ranging physical features (complexions light to dark, various hair and craniofacial types) but with powerful common cultural traits, including cattle pastoralist traditions (Trigger 1978; Bard, Snowden, this volume). Language research suggests that this Saharan-Nilotic population became speakers of the Afro-Asiatic languages... Semitic was evidently spoken by Saharans who crossed the Red Sea into Arabia and became ancestors of the Semitic speakers there, possibly around 7000 BC... In summary we may say that Egypt was distinct North African culture rooted in the Nile Valley and on the Sahara.
History
Ancient Egypt
Ancient EgyptAncient Egypt was an ancient civilization of eastern North Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. The civilization coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh, and...
sees a succession of thirty dynasties spanning three millennia, during which Egyptian culture underwent significant development in terms of
religionAncient Egyptian religion encompasses the various religious beliefs and rituals practiced in ancient Egypt over more than 3,000 years, from the predynastic period until the adoption of Christianity in the early centuries AD...
,
artsAncient Egyptian art refers to the style of painting, sculpture, crafts and architecture developed by the civilization in the lower Nile Valley from 5000 BC to 300 AD. Ancient Egyptian art was expressed in paintings and sculptures & was both highly stylized and symbolic...
,
languageEgyptian is the indigenous language of Egypt and a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. Written records of the Egyptian language have been dated from about 3400 BCE, making it one of the oldest recorded languages known. Egyptian was spoken until the late 17th century CE in the form of Coptic...
and
customsAncient Egypt was an ancient civilization of eastern North Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. The civilization coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh, and...
.
Egypt fell under "foreign rulers", the
HyksosbfThe Hyksos were an Asiatic people who invaded the eastern Nile Delta, in the Twelfth dynasty of Egypt initiating the Second Intermediate Period of Ancient Egypt...
, in the Middle Bronze Age, which the native nobility managed to expulse by the Late Bronze Age, initiating the New Kingdom of Egypt rising to the status of an "Empire" under
Thutmose IIIThutmose III was the sixth Pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty. During the first twenty-two years of Thutmose's reign he was co-regent with his aunt, Hatshepsut, who was named the pharaoh...
, and it remained a super-regional power throughout the successful
19thThe Nineteenth Dynasty of ancient Egypt was one of the periods of the Egyptian New Kingdom. Founded by Vizier Ramesses I, whom Pharaoh Horemheb chose as his successor to the throne, this dynasty is best known for its military conquests in modern Israel, Lebanon, and Syria.The warrior kings of the...
and
20thThe Eighteenth, Nineteenth, and Twentieth Dynasties of ancient Egypt are often combined under the group title, New Kingdom. This dynasty is considered to be the last one of the New Kingdom of Egypt, and was followed by the Third Intermediate Period....
dynasties (the
Amarna PeriodThe Amarna Period was an era of Egyptian history during the latter half of the Eighteenth Dynasty when the royal residence of the pharaoh and his queen was shifted to Akhetaten in what is now modern-day Amarna...
and the
Ramesside PeriodThe Ramesside Period encompasses the Nineteenth and Twentieth dynasties of Ancient Egypt. It is named after "Ramesses", the name taken by the majority of the rulers of Egypt dating to this period of time....
, lasting into the Early Iron Age. The
Bronze Age collapseThe Bronze Age collapse is the name given by those historians who see the transition in the Near East and Eastern Mediterranean from the Late Bronze Age to the Early Iron Age, as violent, sudden and culturally disruptive...
that had afflicted the Mesopotamian empires reaches Egypt with some delay, and it is only in the 11th century BC that the Empire declines, falling into the comparative obscurity of the
Third Intermediate Period of EgyptThe Third Intermediate Period refers to the time in Ancient Egypt from the death of Pharaoh Ramesses XI in 1070 BC to the foundation of the Twenty-Sixth Dynasty by Psamtik I in 664 BC, following the expulsion of the Nubian rulers of the Twenty-Fifth Dynasty....
. The
25th dynastyThe Twenty-Fifth Dynasty of Egypt, also known as the Nubian dynasty or Kushite Empire, was a line of rulers originating in the Kingdom of Kush. They reigned in part or all of Ancient Egypt from 760 BC to 656 BC.. The dynasty began with Kashta's invasion of Upper Egypt and culminated in several...
of Nubian rulers was again briefly replaced by native nobility in the 7th century BC, but in 525 BC, Egypt fell under Persian rule.
Alexander the GreatAlexander III of Macedon, popularly known as Alexander the Great , was an Ancient Greek king of Macedon who created one of the largest empires in ancient history...
was greeted as a liberator as he conquered Egypt in 332 BC. The
Late Period of ancient EgyptThe Late Period of Egypt refers to the last flowering of native Egyptian rulers after the Third Intermediate Period from the 26th Saite Dynasty into Persian conquests and ended with the death of Alexander the Great...
is taken to end with his death in 323 BC. The
Ptolemaic dynastyPtolemaic Egypt began when Ptolemy I Soter declared himself Pharaoh of Egypt in 305 BC and ended with the death of queen Cleopatra of Egypt and the Roman conquest in 30 BC. The Ptolemaic Kingdom was a powerful Hellenistic state, extending from southern Syria in the east, to Cyrene to the west, and...
ruled Egypt from 305 BC to 30 BC and introduced
HellenicHellenistic civilization represents the zenith of Greek influence in the ancient world from 323 BC to about 146 BC ; note, however that Koine Greek language and Hellenistic philosophy and religion are also indisputably elements of the Roman era till Late Antiquity...
culture to Egyptians.
Throughout the Pharaonic epoch (viz., from 2920 BC to 525 BC in
conventional Egyptian chronologyThe Conventional Egyptian chronology represents the scholarly consensus on the chronology of the rulers of ancient Egypt, taking into account well accepted developments during the 20th century but not including any of the major revision proposals that have also been made in that time.All dates are...
), divine kingship was the glue which held Egyptian society together. It was especially pronounced in the Old and Middle Kingdoms and continued until the Roman conquest. The societal structure created by this system of government remained virtually unchanged up to modern times. The role of the king, however, was considerably weakened after the
20th dynastyThe Eighteenth, Nineteenth, and Twentieth Dynasties of ancient Egypt are often combined under the group title, New Kingdom. This dynasty is considered to be the last one of the New Kingdom of Egypt, and was followed by the Third Intermediate Period....
. The king in his role as Son of Ra was entrusted to maintain Ma'at, the principle of truth, justice and order, and to enhance the country's agricultural economy by ensuring regular
Nile floodsFlooding of the Nile is an important cycle in Egypt. It is celebrated by Egyptians as an annual holiday for two weeks starting August 15, known as Wafaa El-Nil. It is also celebrated in the Coptic Church by ceremonially throwing a martyr's relic into the river...
. Ascendancy to the Egyptian throne reflected the myth of Horus who assumed kingship after he buried his murdered father
OsirisOsiris was an Egyptian god, usually called the god of the Afterlife, underworld or dead.Osiris is one of the oldest gods for whom records have been found; one of the oldest known attestations...
. The king of Egypt, as a living personification of Horus, could claim the throne after burying his predecessor, who was typically his father. When the role of the king waned, the country became more susceptible to foreign influence and invasion.
The attention paid to the dead, and the veneration with which they were held, were one of the hallmarks of ancient Egyptian society. Egyptians built tombs for their dead that were meant to last for eternity. This was most prominently expressed by the Great Pyramids. The ancient
EgyptianEgyptian is the indigenous language of Egypt and a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. Written records of the Egyptian language have been dated from about 3400 BCE, making it one of the oldest recorded languages known. Egyptian was spoken until the late 17th century CE in the form of Coptic...
word for tomb
means 'House of Eternity.' The Egyptians also celebrated life and this is attested by tomb reliefs and inscriptions, papyri and other sources depicting Egyptians farming, conducting trade expeditions, hunting, holding festivals, attending parties and receptions with their pet dogs, cats and monkeys, dancing and singing, enjoying food and drink, and playing games. The ancient Egyptians were also known for their engaging sense of humor, much like their modern descendants.
Another important continuity during this period is the Egyptian attitude toward foreigners—those they considered not fortunate enough to be part of the community of
rmṯ or "the people" (i.e., Egyptians.) This attitude was facilitated by the Egyptians' more frequent contact with other peoples during the New Kingdom, when Egypt expanded to an empire that also encompassed
NubiaNubia is the region in the south of Egypt, along the Nile and in northern Sudan. Most of Nubia is situated in Sudan with about a quarter of its territory in Egypt...
through
Jebel BarkalJebel Barkal or Gebel Barkal is a very small mountain located some 400 km north of Khartoum, in Karima town in Northern State in Sudan, on a large bend of the Nile River, in the region called Nubia. Around 1450 BC, the Egyptian Pharaoh Thutmose III extended his empire to that region and...
and parts of the
LevantThe Levant describes, traditionally, the Eastern Mediterranean at large, but can be used as a geographical term that denotes a large area in Western Asia formed by the lands bordering the eastern shores of the Mediterranean, roughly bounded on the north by the Taurus Mountains, on the south by...
. The Egyptian sense of superiority was given religious validation, as foreigners in the land of
Ta-Meri (Egypt) were anathema to the maintenance of Maat—a view most clearly expressed by the
admonitions of IpuwerThe Ipuwer Papyrus is a single surviving papyrus holding an ancient Egyptian poem, called The Admonitions of Ipuwer or The Dialogue of Ipuwer and the Lord of All. Its official designation is Papyrus Leiden I 344 recto...
in reaction to the chaotic events of the
Second Intermediate PeriodThe Second Intermediate Period marks a period when Ancient Egypt once again fell into disarray between the end of the Middle Kingdom, and the start of the New Kingdom...
. Foreigners in Egyptian texts were described in derogatory terms; e.g., 'wretched Asiatics' (Semites), 'vile Kushites' (Nubians), and 'Ionian dogs' (Greeks). Egyptian beliefs remained unchallenged when Egypt fell to the Hyksos,
AssyriaAssyria was a civilization centered on the Upper Tigris river, in Mesopotamia , that came to rule regional empires a number of times in history. It was named for its original capital, the ancient city of Assur...
ns,
LibyansBerbers are the indigenous peoples of North Africa west of the Nile Valley. They are discontinuously distributed from the Atlantic to the Siwa oasis, in Egypt, and from the Mediterranean to the Niger River. Historically they spoke various Berber languages, which together form a branch of the...
, Persians and Greeks—their rulers assumed the role of the Egyptian Pharaoh and were often depicted praying to Egyptian gods.
The ancient Egyptians used a solar calendar that divided the year into 12 months of 30 days each, with five extra days added. The calendar revolved around the annual
NileThe Nile is a major north-flowing river in Africa, generally regarded as the longest river in the world....
Inundation (
akh.t), the first of three seasons into which the year was divided. The other two were Winter and Summer, each lasting for four months. The modern Egyptian
fellahFellah , also alternatively known as Fallah is a peasant, farmer or agricultural laborer in the Middle East. The word derives from the Arabic word for ploughman or tiller...
in calculate the agricultrual seasons, with the months still bearing their ancient names, in much the same manner. The importance of the Nile in Egyptian life, ancient and modern, cannot be overemphasized. The rich alluvium carried by the Nile inundation were the basis of Egypt's formation as a society and a state. Regular inundations were a cause for celebration; low waters often meant famine and starvation. The ancient Egyptians personified the river flood as the god
HapyHapi was a deification of the annual flooding of the Nile River, in Egyptian mythology, which deposited rich silt on its banks, allowing the Egyptians to grow crops. When pairing of deities began to occur in the Egyptian pantheon, occasionally a token wife, named Meret , was given to him...
and dedicated a
Hymn to the Nile to celebrate it.
km.t, the Black Land, was as
HerodotusHerodotus of Halicarnassus was a Greek historian who lived in the 5th century BC and is regarded as the "Father of History" in Western culture. He was the first historian known to collect his materials systematically, test their accuracy to a certain extent and arrange them in a...
observed, "the gift of the river."
Graeco-Roman period
When Alexander died, a story began to circulate that
Nectanebo IINectanebo II , also known by the name Nakhthoreb, was the third and last king of the Thirtieth dynasty of Egypt and also the last native Egyptian ruler of the country in antiquity....
was Alexander's father. This made Alexander in the eyes of the Egyptians a legitimate heir to the native pharaohs. The new Ptolemaic rulers, however, exploited Egypt for their own benefit and a great social divide was created between Egyptians and Greeks. The local priesthood, however, continued to wield power as they had during the Dynastic age. Egyptians continued to practice their religion undisturbed and largely maintained their own separate communities from their foreign conquerors. The language of administration became
GreekGreek , an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, is the language of the Greeks. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. In its ancient form, it is the language of classical...
, but the mass of the Egyptian population was
EgyptianEgyptian is the indigenous language of Egypt and a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. Written records of the Egyptian language have been dated from about 3400 BCE, making it one of the oldest recorded languages known. Egyptian was spoken until the late 17th century CE in the form of Coptic...
-speaking and concentrated in the countryside, while most Greeks lived in Alexandria and only few had any knowledge of Egyptian.
The Ptolemaic rulers all retained their Greek names and titles, but projected a public image of being Egyptian pharaohs. Much of this period's vernacular literature was composed in the
demoticDemotic refers to either the ancient Egyptian script derived from northern forms of hieratic used in the Delta, or the stage of the Egyptian language following Late Egyptian and preceding Coptic. The term was first used by the Greek historian Herodotus to distinguish it from hieratic and...
phase and script of the Egyptian language. It was focused on earlier stages of Egyptian history when Egyptians were independent and ruled by great native pharaohs such as
Ramesses IIRamesses II was the third Egyptian pharaoh of the Nineteenth dynasty...
. Prophetic writings circulated among Egyptians promising expulsion of the Greeks, and frequent revolting by the Egyptians took place throughout the Ptolemaic period. A revival in animal cults, the hallmark of the Predyanstic and Early Dyanstic periods, is said to have come about to fill a spiritual void as Egyptians became increasingly disillusioned and weary due to successive waves of foreign invasions.
When the
RomansThe Roman Empire was the post-Republican phase of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean. The term is used to describe the Roman state during and after the time of the first emperor,...
annexed Egypt in 30 BC, the social structure created by the Greeks was largely retained, though the power of the Egyptian priesthood diminished. The Roman emperors lived abroad and did not perform the ceremonial functions of Egyptian kingship as the Ptolemies had. The art of
mummy portraitureMummy portraits or Fayum mummy portraits is the modern term for a type of realistic painted portraits on wooden boards attached to mummies from Roman Egypt . They belong to the tradition of panel painting, one of the most highly regarded forms of art in the Classical world...
flourished, but Egypt became further stratified with Romans at the apex of the social pyramid, Greeks and Jews occupied the middle stratum, while Egyptians, who constituted the vast majority, were at the bottom. Egyptians paid a poll tax at full rate, Greeks paid at half-rate and Roman citizens were exempt. The Roman emperor
CaracallaCaracalla , born Lucius Septimius Bassianus and later called Marcus Aurelius Antoninus and Marcus Aurelius Severus Antoninus, was the eldest son of Septimius Severus and Roman Emperor from 211 to 217. He was one of the most nefarious of Roman emperors...
advocated the expulsion of all ethnic Egyptians from the city of Alexandria, saying "genuine Egyptians can easily be recognized among the linen-weavers by their speech." This attitude lasted until AD 212 when Roman citizenship was finally granted to all the inhabitants of Egypt, though ethnic divisions remained largely entrenched. The Romans, like the Ptolemies, treated Egypt like their own private property, a land exploited for the benefit of a small foreign elite. The Egyptian peasants, pressed for maximum production to meet Roman quotas, suffered and fled to the desert.
The cult of
IsisIsis was a goddess in Ancient Egyptian religious beliefs, whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. She was worshiped as the ideal mother, wife, patron of nature and magic. She was the friend of slaves, sinners, artisans, the downtrodden, as well as listening to the prayers of the...
, like those of
OsirisOsiris was an Egyptian god, usually called the god of the Afterlife, underworld or dead.Osiris is one of the oldest gods for whom records have been found; one of the oldest known attestations...
and
SerapisSerapis was a syncretic Hellenistic-Egyptian god in Antiquity. His most renowned temple was the Serapeum of Alexandria. Under Ptolemy Soter, efforts were made to integrate Egyptian religion with that of their Hellenic rulers...
, had been popular in Egypt and throughout the
Roman EmpireThe Roman Empire was the post-Republican phase of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean. The term is used to describe the Roman state during and after the time of the first emperor,...
at the coming of Christianity, and continued to be the main competitor with Christianity in its early years. The main temple of Isis remained a major center of worship in Egypt until the reign of the
ByzantineThe Byzantine Empire or Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire during the Middle Ages, centered on the capital of Constantinople, and ruled by Emperors in direct and de jure succession to the ancient Roman Emperors...
emperor
Justinian IFlavius Petrus Sabbatius Iustinianus ; AD 483 – 13 or 14 November 565, known in English as Justinian I or Justinian the Great, was the second member of the Justinian Dynasty and Eastern Roman Emperor from 527 until his death...
in the 6th century, when it was finally closed down. Egyptians, disaffected and weary after a series of foreign occupations, identified the story of the mother-goddess Isis protecting her child
HorusHorus is one of the oldest and most significant of the deities in the Ancient Egyptian religion who was worshipped from at least the late Predynastic period through to Greco-Roman times. Different forms of Horuses are recorded in history and these are treated as distinct gods by Egyptologists...
with that of the
Virgin MaryMary , usually referred to by Christians as the Virgin Mary or Saint Mary, was a Jewish woman of Nazareth in Galilee, identified in the New Testament as the mother of Jesus of Nazareth. Muslims also refer to her as the Virgin Mary or Syeda Mariam which means Our Lady Mary...
and her son
JesusJesus of Nazareth —also known as Jesus Christ or occasionally Jesus the Christ—is the central figure of Christianity. Within most Christian denominations...
escaping the emperor
HerodHerod , also known as Herod I or Herod the Great Herod , also known as Herod I or Herod the Great Herod , also known as Herod I or Herod the Great (born 74 BC, died 4 BC in Jericho, was a Roman client king of Israel. He is often confused...
. Consequently, many sites believed to have been the resting places of the holy family during their sojourn in Egypt became sacred to the Egyptians. The visit of the holy family later circulated among Egyptian Christians as fulfillment of the Biblical prophecy "When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt" (Hosea 11:1). The feast of the coming of the Lord of Egypt on June 1 became an important part of Christian Egyptian tradition. According to tradition, Christianity was brought to Egypt by Saint Mark the Evangelist in the early 40s of the 1st century, under the reign of the Roman emperor
NeroNero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus , born Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus, also called Nero Claudius Caesar Drusus Germanicus, was the fifth and last Roman emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty. Nero was adopted by his great uncle Claudius to become heir to the throne...
. The earliest converts were Jews residing in
AlexandriaAlexandria , with a population of 4.1 million, is the second-largest city in Egypt, and is the country's largest seaport, serving about 80% of Egypt's imports and exports...
, a city which had by then become a center of culture and learning in the entire Mediterranean
oikoumeneEcumene a term originally used in the Greco-Roman world to refer to the inhabited earth . The term derives from the Greek , short for "inhabited world"...
.
St. Mark is said to have founded the Holy Apostolic See of Alexandria and to have become its first
Patriarch. Within 50 years of St. Mark's arrival in Alexandria, a fragment of
New TestamentThe New Testament is the name given to the second major division of the Christian Bible, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament, both terms being associated with Supersessionism...
writings appeared in
OxyrhynchusOxyrhynchus is a city in Upper Egypt, located about 160 km south-southwest of Cairo, in the governorate of Al Minya. It is also an archaeological site, considered one of the most important ever discovered...
(Bahnasa), which suggests that Christianity already began to spread south of Alexandria at an early date. By the mid-third century, a sizable number of Egyptians were persecuted by the Romans on account of having adopted the new Christian faith, beginning with the Edict of
DeciusGaius Messius Quintus Decius was the Emperor of Rome from 249 to 251. In the last year of his reign, he co-ruled with his son Herennius Etruscus until both of them were killed in the Battle of Abrittus.-Early life and rise to power:...
. Christianity was tolerated in the Roman Empire until AD 284, when the Emperor
DiocletianGaius Aurelius Valerius Diocletianus , born Diocles and commonly known as Diocletian , was Roman Emperor from 20 November 284 to 1 May 305. Born to a Dalmatian family of low status, he rose through the ranks of the military to become cavalry commander to the emperor Carus...
persecuted and put to death a great number of Christian Egyptians. This event became a watershed in the history of Egyptian Christianity, marking the beginning of a distinct Egyptian or
Coptic Churchstyle="float: right; clear: right; background-color: transparent"|- {http://www.copticindex.com}||-The Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria style="float: right; clear: right; background-color: transparent"|- {http://www.copticindex.com}||-The Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria style="float:...
. It became known as the 'Era of the Martyrs' and is commemorated in the
Coptic calendarThe Coptic calendar, also called the Alexandrian calendar, is used by the Coptic Orthodox Church and still used in Egypt. This calendar is based on the ancient Egyptian calendar...
in which dating of the years began with the start of Diocletian's reign. When Egyptians were persecuted by Diocletian, many retreated to the desert to seek relief. The practice precipitated the rise of
monasticismMonasticism is the religious practice in which one renounces worldly pursuits in order to fully devote one's life to spiritual work...
, for which the Egyptians, namely
St. AntonyAnthony the Great , , also known as Saint Anthony, Anthony the Abbot, Anthony of Egypt, Anthony of the Desert, Anthony the Anchorite, Abba Antonius , and Father of All Monks, was a Christian saint from Egypt, a prominent leader among the Desert Fathers...
,
St. BakhumSaint Pakhom , also known as Pachome and Pakhomius, is generally recognized as the founder of Christian cenobitic monasticism. His saint day is celebrated on 9 May.-Biography:...
,
St. ShenoudaSaint Shenouda the Archimandrite was the abbot of the White Monastery in Egypt. He is considered a saint by the Oriental Orthodox Churches, and is one of the most renowned saints of the Coptic Orthodox Church....
and
St. AmunAmmon or Amun was a saint and hermit of Egypt. He was one of the most venerated ascetics of the Nitrian Desert, and Saint Athanasius mentions him in his life of Saint Anthony...
, are credited as pioneers. By the end of the 4th century, it is estimated that the mass of the Egyptians had either embraced Christianity or were nominally Christian.
The Catachetical School of Alexandria was founded in the 3rd century by
PantaenusSaint Pantaenus was a Christian theologian who founded the Catechetical School of Alexandria about AD 190. This school was the earliest catechetical school, and became influential in the development of Christian theology....
, becoming a major school of Christian learning as well as science, mathematics and the humanities. The
PsalmsPsalms is a book of the Hebrew Bible , included in the collected works known as the "Writings" or Ketuvim.-Etymology:...
and part of the New Testament were translated at the school from Greek to Egyptian, which had already begun to be written in Greek letters with the addition of a number of demotic characters. This stage of the Egyptian language would later come to be known as
CopticCoptic or Coptic Egyptian is the final stage of the Egyptian language, a northern Afro-Asiatic language spoken in Egypt until at least the seventeenth century. Egyptian began to be written using the Greek alphabet in the first century...
along with its
alphabetThe Coptic alphabet is the script used for writing the Coptic language. The repertoire of glyphs is based on the Greek alphabet augmented by letters borrowed from the Demotic and is first Alphabetic Script used for the Egyptian Language...
. The third theologian to head the Catachetical School was a native Egyptian by the name of
OrigenOrigen was an early Christian scholar and theologian, and one of the most distinguished of the early fathers of the Christian Church. According to tradition, he is held to have been an Egyptian who taught in Alexandria, reviving the Catechetical School of Alexandria where Clement of Alexandria had...
. Origen was an outstanding theologian and one of the most influential
Church FathersThe Church Fathers, Early Church Fathers, or Fathers of the Church are the early and influential theologians and writers in the Christian Church, particularly those of the first five centuries of Christian history. The term is used of writers and teachers of the Church, not necessarily saints...
. He traveled extensively to lecture in various churches around the world and has many important texts to his credit including the
HexaplaHexapla is the term for an edition of the Bible in six versions. Especially it applies to the edition of the Old Testament compiled by Origen of Alexandria, which placed side by side:#Hebrew...
, an
exegesisExegesis is a critical explanation or interpretation of a text.Biblical exegesis is a critical explanation or interpretation of the Bible. The goal of Biblical exegesis is to find the meaning of the text which then leads to discovering its significance or relevance.Traditionally the term exegesis...
of various translations of the
Hebrew BibleIn Christianity, the Old Testament is the collection of books that form the first of the two-part Christian Biblical canon. These works correspond to the Hebrew Bible , with some variations and additions. In the Eastern Orthodox Church the comparable texts are known as the Septuagint, from the...
.
At the threshold of the
ByzantineThe Byzantine Empire or Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire during the Middle Ages, centered on the capital of Constantinople, and ruled by Emperors in direct and de jure succession to the ancient Roman Emperors...
period, the New Testament had been entirely translated into Coptic. But while Christianity continued to thrive in Egypt, the old pagan beliefs which had survived the test of time were facing mounting pressure. The Byzantine period was particularly brutal in its zeal to erase any traces of ancient Egyptian religion. Under emperor
Theodosius IFlavius Theodosius , also called Theodosius I and Theodosius the Great , was Roman Emperor from 379 to 395. Reuniting the eastern and western portions of the empire, Theodosius was the last emperor of both the Eastern and Western Roman Empire...
, Christianity had already been proclaimed the religion of the Empire and all pagan cults were forbidden. When Egypt fell under the jurisdiction of
ConstantinopleConstantinople was the imperial capital of the Roman Empire , the Byzantine/Eastern Roman Empire , the Latin Empire , and the Ottoman Empire...
after the split of the Roman Empire, many ancient Egyptians temples were either destroyed or converted into monasteries.
One of the defining moments in the history of the Church in Egypt is a controversy that ensued over the nature of Jesus Christ which culminated in the final split of the Coptic Church from both the Byzantine and Roman Catholic Churches. The
Council of ChalcedonThe Council of Chalcedon is considered by the Roman Catholics, the Eastern Orthodox, the Old Catholics, and various other Western Christian groups to have been the Fourth Ecumenical Council . It was held from 8 October to 1 November 451 at Chalcedon...
convened in AD 451, signaling the Byzantine Empire's determination to assert its hegemony over Egypt. When it declared that Jesus Christ was of two natures embodied in Christ's person, the Egyptian reaction was swift, rejecting the decrees of the Council as incompatible with the
MiaphysiteMiaphysitism is the Christology of the Oriental Orthodox Churches and part of the Christology of the various churches adhering to the "Seven Ecumenical Councils"...
doctrine of Coptic Orthodoxy. The Copts' upholding of the Miaphysite doctrine against the pro-Chalcedonian Greek
MelkiteThe term Melkite is used to refer to various Christian churches and their members originating in the Middle East. The word comes from the Syriac word malkāyā , meaning "imperial"...
s had both theological and national implications. As Coptologist Jill Kamil notes, the position taken by the Egyptians "paved [the way] for the Coptic church to establish itself as a separate entity...No longer even spiritually linked with Constantinople, theologians began to write more in Coptic and less in Greek.
Coptic artCoptic art is a term used either for the art of Egypt produced in the early Christian era or for the art produced by the Coptic Christians themselves. Coptic art is most well known for its wall-paintings, textiles, illuminated manuscripts, and metalwork, much of which survives in monasteries and...
developed its own national character, and the Copts stood united against the imperial power."
Arab Egypt
Before the
Muslim conquest of EgyptAt the commencement of the Muslim conquest of Egypt, Egypt was part of the Byzantine Empire with its capital in Constantinople. However, it had been occupied just a decade before by the Persian Empire under Khosrau II...
, the Byzantine Emperor
HeracliusFlavius Heraclius was a Byzantine Emperor of Armenian origin, who ruled the Eastern Roman Empire for over thirty years, from October 5, 610 to February 11, 641...
was able to reclaim the country after a brief Persian invasion in AD 616, and subsequently appointed
Cyrus of AlexandriaCyrus of Alexandria was a Melchite patriarch of the Egyptian see of Alexandria in the seventh century, one of the authors of Monothelism and last Byzantine prefect of Egypt; died about 641.-Biography:...
, a Chalcedonian, as Patriarch. Cyrus was determined to convert the Egyptian Miaphysites by any means. He expelled Coptic monks and bishops from their monasteries and sees. Many died in the chaos, and the resentment of the Egyptians against their Byzantine conquerors reached a peak. Meanwhile, the new religion of
IslamIslam Islam Islam ( al-’islām,
[There are ten pronunciations of Islam in English, differing in whether the first or second syllable has the stress, whether the s is or , and whether the a is pronounced as in father, as in cat, or (when the stress is on the i) as in the a of sofa...]
was making headway in Arabia, culminating in the
Muslim conquestsMuslim conquests , also referred to as the Islamic conquests or Arab conquests, began after the death of the Islamic prophet Muhammad...
that took place under the
CaliphateThe term caliphate refers to the first form of government inspired by Islam. It was initially led by Muhammad's disciples as a continuation of the political authority the prophet established, known as the 'rashidun caliphates'. It represented the political unity of the Muslim Ummah, and was the...
following
MuhammadMuhammad ibn ‘Abdullāh , is the founder of the religion of Islam [ إِسْلامْ ] and is regarded by Muslims as a messenger and prophet of , the last and the greatest law-bearer in a series of Islamic prophets as taught by the...
's death. In AD 639, the Arab general 'Amr ibn al-'As marched into Egypt with his small
Rashidun armyThe Rashidun Caliphate Army or Rashidun army was the primary military body of the Rashidun Caliphate's armed forces during the Muslim conquests of the 7th century, serving alongside the Rashidun Navy...
, facing off with the Byzantines in the
Battle of HeliopolisThe Battle of Heliopolis, or "Ayn Shams," was a decisive battle between Arab Muslim armies and Byzantine forces for the control of Egypt. Though there were several major skirmishes after this battle, it effectively decided the fate of the Byzantine rule in Egypt, and opened the door for the Muslim...
that ended with the Byzantines' defeat. The relationship between the Greek Melkites and the Egyptian Copts had grown so bitter that most Egyptians did not put up heavy resistance against the Arabs.
The new Muslim rulers moved the capital to Fustat and, through the 7th century, retained the existing Byzantine administrative structure with
GreekGreek , an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, is the language of the Greeks. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. In its ancient form, it is the language of classical...
as its language. Native Egyptians filled administrative ranks and continued to worship freely so long as they paid the
jizyaUnder Islamic law, jizya or jizyah is a per capita tax levied on a section of an Islamic state's non-Muslim citizens, who meet certain criteria...
poll tax, in addition to a
land taxIn Islamic law, kharaj is a tax on agricultural land. Kharaj has no basis in the Qur'an or hadith, being rather the product of ijma, consensus of Islamic scholars, and urf, Islamic tradition....
that all Egyptians irrespective of religion also had to pay. The authority of the Miaphysite doctrine of the Coptic Church was for the first time nationally recognized. Soon increased taxation by the Arabs became heavier, leading many Christians to adopt Islam in order to escape the jizya. According to
al-Ya'qubiAhmad ibn Abu Ya'qub ibn Ja'far ibn Wahb Ibn Wadih al-Ya'qubi , known as Ya'qubi, was a Muslim historian and geographer.-Biography:He was a great-grandson of Wadih, the freedman of the caliph Mansur...
, repeated revolts by Egyptian Christians against the Arabs took place in the 8th and 9th centuries under the reign of the
UmayyadThe Umayyad Caliphate was the second of the four Islamic caliphates established after the death of Muhammad. It was ruled by the Umayyad dynasty, whose name derives from Umayya ibn Abd Shams, the great-grandfather of the first Umayyad caliph. Although the Umayyad family originally came from the...
s and
AbbasidThe Abbasid Caliphate was the third of the Islamic Caliphates of the Islamic Empire. It was ruled by the Abbasid dynasty of caliphs, who built their capital in Baghdad after overthrowing the Umayyad caliphs from all but Al Andalus....
s. The greatest was one in which disaffected Muslim Egyptians joined their Christian compatriots around AD 830 in an unsuccessful attempt to repel the Arabs. The Egyptian Muslim historian Ibn Abd al-Hakam spoke harshly of the Abbasids—a reaction that according to
EgyptologistEgyptology Egyptology Egyptology (from Egypt and Greek , -logia. , is a major field of archaeology, the study of ancient Egyptian history, language, literature, religion, and art from the 5th millennium BC until the end of its native religious practices in the AD 4th century...
Okasha El-Daly can be seen "within the context of the struggle between proud native Egyptians and the central Abbasid caliphate in Iraq."
The form of Islam that eventually took hold in Egypt was Sunni, though very early in this period Egyptians began to blend their new faith with indigenous beliefs and practices that had survived through Coptic Christianity. Just as Egyptians had been pioneers in early
monasticismMonasticism is the religious practice in which one renounces worldly pursuits in order to fully devote one's life to spiritual work...
so they were in the development of the mystical form of Islam,
SufismSufism or ' , also spelled as tasavvuf and tasavvof, is generally understood to be the inner, mystical dimension of Islam. A practitioner of this tradition is generally known as a ' , though some adherents of the tradition reserve this term only for those practitioners who have attained the goals...
. Various Sufi orders were founded in the 8th century and flourished until the present day. One of the earliest Egyptian Sufis was
Dhul-Nun al-MisriDhul-Nun al-Misri was an Egyptian Sufi saint. He was considered the Patron Saint of the Physicians in the early Islamic era of Egypt, and is credited with having introduced the concept of Gnosis into Islam...
(i.e., Dhul-Nun the Egyptian). He was born in
AkhmimAkhmim is a city in the Upper Egyptian Sohag Governorate. The Greek names of the city were Khemmis, Chemmis and Panopolis. It is located the east bank of the Nile, 4 miles to the northeast of Sohag.-History:Akhmim was known in Ancient Egypt as Ipu, Apu or Khent-min...
in AD 796 and achieved political and social leadership over the Egyptian people. Dhul-Nun was regarded as the Patron Saint of the Physicians and is credited with having introduced the concept of
GnosisGnosis is the spiritual knowledge of a saint or mystically enlightened human being. In the cultures of the term gnosis was a special knowledge or insight into the infinite, divine and uncreated in all and above all, rather than knowledge strictly into the finite, natural or material world which...
into Islam, as well as of being able to decipher a number of hieroglyphic characters due to his knowledge of
CopticCoptic or Coptic Egyptian is the final stage of the Egyptian language, a northern Afro-Asiatic language spoken in Egypt until at least the seventeenth century. Egyptian began to be written using the Greek alphabet in the first century...
. He was keenly interested in ancient Egyptian sciences, and claimed to have received his knowledge of alchemy from Egyptian sources. By the end of the 9th century, Islam appears to have become predominant among Egyptians.
In the years to follow the Arab occupation of Egypt, a social hierarchy was created whereby Egyptians who converted to Islam acquired the status of
mawaliMawali or mawala is a term in Classical Arabic used to address non-Arab Muslims.The term gained prominence in the centuries following the early Arab Muslim conquests in the 7th century, as many non-Arabs such as Persians, Egyptians, and Turks converted to Islam...
or "clients" to the ruling Arab elite, while those who remained Christian, the Copts, became dhimmis. In time, however, the power of the Arabs waned throughout the
Islamic EmpireThe Islamic Caliphate may refer to the following Caliphates:*The Rashidun Caliphate*The Umayyad Caliphate**The Umayyad Caliphate of Córdoba*The Abbasid Caliphate*The Fatimid Caliphate*The Ottoman Caliphate*The Sokoto Caliphate...
so that in the 10th century, the Turkish
IkhshidsThe Ikhshidid dynasty of Egypt ruled from 935 to 969. It was founded by Muhammad bin Tughj, a Turkic slave soldier, who began as governor, and was later given the title Ikhshid by the Caliph...
were able to take control of Egypt and made it an independent political unit from the rest of the empire. Egyptians continued to live socially and politically separate from their foreign conquerors, but their rulers like the Ptolemies before them were able to stabilize the country and bring renewed economic prosperity. It was under the
ShiiteShia Islam , is the second largest denomination of Islam, after Sunni Islam. The followers of Shia Islam are called Shi'as or Shi'ites....
FatimidThe Fatimid Caliphate or al-Fātimiyyūn was an Arab Shi'a dynasty that ruled over varying areas of the Maghreb, Egypt, Sicily, Malta and the Levant from 5 January 909 to 1171. The caliphate was ruled by the Fatimids, who established the Egyptian city of Cairo as their capital. The term Fatimite is...
s from the 10th to the 12th centuries that Muslim Egyptian institutions began to take form along with the
Egyptian dialectEgyptian Arabic is a variety of the Arabic language of the Semitic branch of the Afroasiatic language family. It originated in the Nile Delta in Lower Egypt around the capital Cairo...
of Arabic, which was to eventually supplant native Egyptian or Coptic as the spoken language. Al-Azhar was founded in AD 970 in the new capital
CairoCairo is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab World. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a center of the region's political and cultural life...
, not very far from its ancient predecessor in Memphis. It became the preeminent Muslim center of learning in Egypt and by the
AyyubidThe Ayyubids were a Sunni Muslim dynasty of Kurdish origin centered in Cairo and Damascus that ruled much of the Middle East during the 12th and 13th centuries CE. The Ayyubid family, under the brothers Ayyub and Shirkuh, originally served as soldiers for the Zengids until they gradually gained...
period it had acquired a Sunni orientation. The Fatimids with some exceptions were known for their religious tolerance and their observance of local Muslim, Coptic and indigenous Egyptian festivals and customs. Under the Ayyubids, the country for the most part continued to prosper until it fell to the
MamlukA mamluk was a soldier who converted to Islam and served the Muslim Arab caliphs from the 9th to the 16th centuries. They were of mixed ancestry but mainly Kipchak Turks...
s.
The Mamluk period (AD 1258-1517) is generally regarded as one under which Egyptians, Muslims and Copts, greatly suffered. Copts were forcibly converted to Islam in greater numbers following the Crusader assaults on Egypt. By the 15th century most Egyptians had already been converted to Islam, while Coptic Christians were reduced to a minority. The Mamluks were mainly ethnic
CircassiansCircassians is a term derived from the Turkic Cherkess . Generically it refers to the Caucasian peoples of northwest Caucasus. It might be understood in a narrower sense , or in a broader sense...
and
TurksThe Turkish people , also known as the "Turks" are defined mainly as citizens of the Republic of Turkey. An early historic text provided the definition of being a Turk as "any individual within the Republic of Turkey; whatever his/her faith or racial/ethnic background; who speaks Turkish, grows up...
who had been captured as slaves then recruited into the army fighting on behalf of the Islamic empire. Native Egyptians were not allowed to serve in the army until the reign of
Mohamed AliMuhammad Ali Pasha al-Mas'ud ibn Agha , Muhamed Ali Pasha in Albanian or Kavalalı Mehmet Ali Paşa in Turkish, was born 4 March in 1769 in Kavala in the Ottoman territory of Macedonia - died at Alexandria August 2, 1849, was Wāli of Egypt and Sudan, and is regarded as the "founder of modern Egypt"...
. Historian James Jankwoski writes:
Ottoman Egypt
Egyptians under the
Ottoman TurksThe Ottoman Turks were the subdivision of the Ottoman Muslim Millet that dominated the ruling class of the Ottoman Empire. Reliable information about the early history of the Ottomans is scarce. According to some sources , the leader of the Kayi tribe of the Oguz Turks, Ertugrul, left Persia in...
from the 16th to the 18th centuries lived within a social hierarchy similar to that of the Mamluks, Arabs, Romans, Greeks and Persians before them. Native Egyptians applied the term
atrak (Turks) indiscriminately to the Ottomans and Mamluks, who were at the top of the social pyramid, while Egyptians, most of whom were farmers, were at the bottom. Frequent revolts by the Egyptian peasantry against the Ottoman-Mamluk
BeyBey is a Turkish title for "chieftain," traditionally applied to the leaders of small tribal groups. In historical accounts, many Turkish, other Turkic and Persian leaders are titled Bey, Beg, Bek, Bay, Baig or Beigh...
s took place throughout the 18th century, particularly in Upper Egypt where the peasants at one point wrested control of the region and declared a separatist government. The only segment of Egyptian society which appears to have retained a degree of power during this period were the Muslim ulama or religious scholars, who directed the religious and social affairs of the native Egyptian population and interceded on their behalf when dealing with the Turko-Circassian elite. Egyptians, as Muslims, were part of a wider Islamic community, yet they also held on to their separate national identity:
Modern history
Modern Egyptian history is generally believed to begin with the French expedition in Egypt led by
Napoleon BonaparteNapoleon Bonaparte later known as Napoleon I, and previously Napoleone di Buonaparte, was a military and political leader of France whose actions shaped European politics in the early 19th century.Born in Corsica and trained as an artillery officer in mainland France, Bonaparte rose to prominence...
in 1798. The
FrenchFrench people can refer to:* The legal residents and citizens of France, regardless of ancestry. For a legal discussion, see French nationality law.* People whose ancestors lived in France or the area that later became France....
defeated a Mamluk-Ottoman army at the
Battle of the PyramidsThe Battle of the Pyramids, also known as the Battle of Embabeh, was a battle fought on July 21, 1798 between the French army in Egypt under Napoleon Bonaparte, and local Mamluk forces. It occurred during France's Egyptian Campaign and was the battle where Napoleon put into use one of his...
, and soon they were able to seize control of the country. The French occupation was short-lived, ending when
BritishThe British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom, that had originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height it was...
troops drove out the French in 1801. Its impact on the social and cultural fabric of Egyptian society, however, was tremendous. To be sure, the Egyptians were deeply hostile to the French, whom they viewed as yet another foreign occupation to be resisted. At the same time, the French expedition introduced Egyptians to the ideals of the
French RevolutionThe French Revolution was a period of political and social upheaval and radical change in the history of France, during which the French governmental structure, previously an absolute monarchy with feudal privileges for the aristocracy and Catholic clergy, underwent radical change to forms based...
which were to have a significant influence on their own self-perception and realization of modern independence. When Napoleon invited the Egyptian ulama
to head a French-supervised government in Egypt, for some, it awakened a sense of nationalism and a patriotic desire for national independence from the TurksThe Ottoman Turks were the subdivision of the Ottoman Muslim Millet that dominated the ruling class of the Ottoman Empire. Reliable information about the early history of the Ottomans is scarce. According to some sources , the leader of the Kayi tribe of the Oguz Turks, Ertugrul, left Persia in...
. In addition, the French introduced the printing press in Egypt and published its first newspaper. The monumental catalogue of Egypt's ecology, society and economy, Description de l'ÉgypteThe Description de l'Égypte was a series of publications, appearing first in 1809 and continuing until the final volume appeared in 1829, which offered a comprehensive scientific description of ancient and modern Egypt as well as its natural history...
, was written by scholars and scientists who accompanied the French army on their expedition.
The withdrawal of French forces from Egypt left a power vacuum that was filled after a period of political turmoil by Mohammed AliMuhammad Ali Pasha al-Mas'ud ibn Agha , Muhamed Ali Pasha in Albanian or Kavalalı Mehmet Ali Paşa in Turkish, was born 4 March in 1769 in Kavala in the Ottoman territory of Macedonia - died at Alexandria August 2, 1849, was Wāli of Egypt and Sudan, and is regarded as the "founder of modern Egypt"...
, an Ottoman officer of AlbanianAlbanians are a people from southeast Europe who live in Albania and neighboring countries. They speak the Albanian language. About half of them live in Albania, with other large groups residing in Kosovo, the Republic of Macedonia, Serbia, and Montenegro...
descent. He rallied support among the Egyptians until he was elected by the native Muslim ulama as governor of Egypt. Mohammed Ali is credited for having undertaken a massive campaign of public works, including irrigation projects, agricultural reforms and the cultivation of cash crops (notably
cottonCotton is a soft, staple fiber that grows in a form known as a boll around the seeds of the cotton plant, a shrub native to tropical and subtropical regions around the world, including the Americas, India and Africa. The fiber most often is spun into yarn or thread and used to make a soft,...
,
riceRice is the seed of a monocot plant Oryza sativa, of the grass family . As a cereal grain, it is the most important staple food for a large part of the world's human population, especially in East, South, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Latin America, and the West Indies...
and
sugar-caneSugarcane, or sugar cane, is any of six to thirty-seven species of tall perennial grasses of the genus Saccharum . Native to warm temperate to tropical regions of Asia, they have stout, jointed, fibrous stalks that are rich in sugar, and measure two to six meters tall...
), increased industrialization, and a new educational system—the results of which are felt to this day. In order to consolidate his power in Egypt, Mohammed Ali worked to eliminate the Turko-Circassian domination of administrative and army posts. For perhaps the first time since the Roman period, native Egyptians filled the junior ranks of the country's army. The army would later conduct military expeditions in the
LevantThe Levant describes, traditionally, the Eastern Mediterranean at large, but can be used as a geographical term that denotes a large area in Western Asia formed by the lands bordering the eastern shores of the Mediterranean, roughly bounded on the north by the Taurus Mountains, on the south by...
,
SudanSudan is a country in northeastern Africa. It is the largest country in Africa and in the Arab World, and tenth largest in the world by area...
and against the
WahabisWahhabi or Wahhabism is a sect attributed to Muhammad ibn Abd-al-Wahhab, an 18th century scholar from what is today known as Saudi Arabia, who advocated to purge Islam of what he considered innovations in Islam...
in Arabia. Many Egyptians student missions were sent to
EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus Mountains , and the Black Sea to the southeast...
in the early 19th century to study at European universities and acquire technical skills such as printing, shipbuilding and modern military techniques. One of these students, whose name was Rifa'a et-Tahtawy, was the first in a long line of intellectuals that started the modern Egyptian Renaissance.
Nationalism
The period between 1860 − 1940 was characterized by an Egyptian nahda, renaissance or rebirth. It is best known for the renewed interest in
Egyptian antiquityAncient Egypt was an ancient civilization of eastern North Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. The civilization coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh, and...
and the cultural achievements that were inspired by it. Along with this interest came an indigenous, Egypt-centered orientation, particularly among the Egyptian intelligentsia that would affect Egypt's autonomous development as a sovereign and independent nation-state. The first Egyptian renaissance intellectual was
Rifa'a el-TahtawiRifa'a al-Tahtawi was an Egyptian writer, teacher, translator, Egyptologist and renaissance intellectual. Tahtawi was among the first Egyptian scholars to write about Western cultures in an attempt to bring about a reconciliation and an understanding between Islamic and Western civilizations...
. In 1831, Tahtawi undertook a career in journalism, education and translation. Three of his published volumes were works of political and moral
philosophyPhilosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems concerning matters such as existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing these questions by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on reasoned...
. In them he introduces his students to
EnlightenmentThe Age of Enlightenment, or simply The Enlightenment, is a term used to describe a time in Western philosophy and cultural life, centered upon the eighteenth century, in which reason was advocated as the primary source and legitimacy for authority....
ideas such as
secularSecularism is the concept that government or other entities should exist separately from religion and/or religious beliefs.In one sense, secularism may assert the right to be free from religious rule and teachings, and freedom from the government imposition of religion upon the people, within a...
authority and political rights and liberty; his ideas regarding how a modern civilized society ought to be and what constituted by extension a civilized or "good Egyptian"; and his ideas on public interest and public good.
Tahtawi was instrumental in sparking indigenous interest in Egypt's ancient heritage. He composed a number of poems in praise of Egypt and wrote two other general histories of the country. He also co-founded with his contemporary
Ali MubarakAli Pasha Mubarak was an Egyptian public works and education minister during the second half of the nineteenth century. He is often considered one of the most influential and talented of Egypt's 19th century reformers. He was born in a Nile Delta village and attended a government prep school...
, the architect of the modern Egyptian school system, a native
EgyptologyEgyptology Egyptology Egyptology (from Egypt and Greek , -logia. , is a major field of archaeology, the study of ancient Egyptian history, language, literature, religion, and art from the 5th millennium BC until the end of its native religious practices in the AD 4th century...
school that looked for inspiration to medieval Egyptian scholars like
SuyutiImam Jalaluddin Al-Suyuti also known as Ibn al-Kutb was an Egyptian writer, religious scholar, juristic expert and teacher whose works deal with a wide variety of subjects in Islamic theology. He was precocious and was already a teacher in 1462. In 1486, he was appointed to a chair in the mosque...
and
MaqriziTaqi al-Din Ahmad ibn 'Ali ibn 'Abd al-Qadir ibn Muhammad al-Maqrizi ; Arabic: , was an Egyptian historian more commonly known as al-Maqrizi or Makrizi...
, who studied ancient Egyptian history, language and antiquities. Tahtawi encouraged his compatriots to invite Europeans to come and teach the modern sciences in Egypt, drawing on the example of Pharaoh
Psamtek IPsamtik I , was the first of three kings of the Saite, or Twenty-sixth dynasty of Egypt. His prenomen, Wahibre, means "Constant is the Heart of Re." The story in Herodotus of the Dodecarchy and the rise of Psamtik is fanciful...
who had enlisted the
GreeksThe Greeks , also known as Hellenes, are a nation and ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighbouring regions, who can also be found in diaspora communities around the world....
' help in organizing the Egyptian army.
Among Mohammed Ali's successors, the most influential was
Isma'il PashaIsma'il Pasha , known as Ismail the Magnificent , was Wāli and subsequently Khedive of Egypt and Sudan from 1863 until he was removed at the behest of the British in 1879. While in power he greatly modernized Egypt and Sudan, but also put the country heavily in debt...
who became
khediveThe term Khedive is a title largely equivalent to the English word viceroy. It was first used, without official recognition, by Muhammad Ali Pasha , the Ottoman Wali of Egypt and Sudan...
in 1863. Ismail's reign witnessed the growth of the army, major education reforms, the founding of the
Egyptian MuseumThe Museum of Egyptian Antiquities, known commonly as the Egyptian Museums, in Cairo, Egypt, is home to an extensive collection of ancient Egyptian antiquities. It has 120,000 items, with a representative amount on display, the remainder in storerooms...
and the
Royal Opera HouseThe Khedivial Opera House or Royal Opera House was the original opera house in Cairo, Egypt. It was dedicated on November 1, 1869 and burned down on October 28, 1971....
, the rise of an independent political press, a flourishing of the arts, and the inauguration of the
Suez CanalThe Suez Canal is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, connecting the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea. Opened on November 1869, it allows water transportation between Europe and Asia without navigating around Africa...
. In 1866, the Assembly of Delegates was founded to serve as an advisory body for the government. Its members were elected from across Egypt, including villages, which meant that native Egyptians came to exert increasing political and economic influence over their country. Several generations of Egyptians exposed to the ideas of
constitutionalismConstitutionalism has a variety of meanings. Most generally, it is "a complex of ideas, attitudes, and patterns of behavior elaborating the principle that the authority of government derives from and is limited by a body of fundamental law." These ideas, attitudes and patterns of behavior,...
made up the emerging intellectual and political milieu that slowly filled the ranks of the government, the army and institutions which had long been dominated by an aristocracy of Turks, Greeks,
CircassiansCircassians is a term derived from the Turkic Cherkess . Generically it refers to the Caucasian peoples of northwest Caucasus. It might be understood in a narrower sense , or in a broader sense...
and
ArmeniansThe Armenians are a nation and ethnic group which originated in the Caucasus and the Armenian Highland. It is estimated that there are 8 million Armenians around the world. There is a large concentration of Armenians in the Caucasus, especially in Armenia, and there is a significant presence in...
.
Ismail's massive modernization campaign, however, left Egypt indebted to European powers, leading to increased European meddling in local affairs. This led to the formation of secret groups made up of Egyptian notables, ministers, journalists and army officers organized across the country to oppose the increasing European influence. When the British deposed of Ismail and installed his son
TawfikHH Muhammed Tewfik Pasha ' was Khedive of Egypt and Sudan between 1879 and 1892, and the sixth ruler from the Muhammad Ali Dynasty.-Early life:...
, the now Egyptian-dominated army reacted violently, staging a
revoltThe Urabi Revolt or Orabi Revolt , also known as the Orabi Revolution, was an uprising in Egypt in 1879-82 against the Khedive and European influence in the country. It was led by and named after Colonel Ahmed Urabi.-Prologue:Egypt in the 1870s was under occupation, corrupt, misgoverned and in a...
led by Minister of War
Ahmed UrabiColonel Ahmed Orabi or Ahmed Urabi , was an Egyptian army officer and later an army general who revolted against the khedive and European domination of Egypt in 1879 in what has become known...
, self-styled el-Masri ('the Egyptian'), against the Khedive, the Turko-Circassian elite, and the European stronghold. The revolt was a military failure and
BritishThe British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom, that had originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height it was...
forces occupied Egypt in 1882. Technically, Egypt was still part of the
Ottoman EmpireThe Ottoman Empire or Ottoman State , also known by its contemporaries as the Turkish Empire or Turkey , was an empire that lasted from 1299 to November 1, 1922 The Ottoman Empire or Ottoman State (Ottoman Turkish: دَوْلَتِ عَلِیَّهِ عُثْمَانِیَّه Dawlet-il ʿAliyyat-il ʿOs̠māniyye, Modern Turkish:...
with the
Mohammed Ali familyThe Muhammad Ali Dynasty was the ruling dynasty of Egypt and Sudan from the 19th to the mid-20th Century. It is named after its progenitor, Muhammad Ali Pasha, regarded as the founder of modern Egypt...
ruling the country, though now with British supervision and according to British directives. The Egyptian army was disbanded and a smaller army commanded by British officers was installed in its place.
Liberal age
Egyptian self-government, education, and the continued plight of Egypt's peasant majority deteriorated most significantly under British occupation. Slowly, an organized national movement for independence began to form. In its beginnings, it took the form of an Azhar-led religious reform movement that was more concerned with the social conditions of Egyptian society. It gathered momentum between 1882 and 1906, ultimately leading to a resentment against European occupation. Sheikh
Muhammad AbduhMuhammad Abduh was an Egyptian jurist, religious scholar and liberal reformer, regarded as the founder of Islamic Modernism...
, the son of a Delta farmer who was briefly exiled for his participation in the Urabi revolt and a future Azhar
MuftiA mufti is an Islamic scholar who is an interpreter or expounder of Islamic law . A muftiat or diyanet is a council of muftis.-Qualifications:...
, was its most notable advocate. Abduh called for a reform of Egyptian Muslim society and formulated the
modernistModernism, in its broadest definition, is modern thought, character, or practice. More specifically, the term describes both a set of cultural tendencies and an array of associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western society in the late...
interpretations of
IslamIslam Islam Islam ( al-’islām,
[There are ten pronunciations of Islam in English, differing in whether the first or second syllable has the stress, whether the s is or , and whether the a is pronounced as in father, as in cat, or (when the stress is on the i) as in the a of sofa...]
that took hold among younger generations of Egyptians. Among these were
Mustafa KamilMuṣṭafā Kāmil Pasha was an Egyptian journalist and political figure. The son of an Egyptian army officer, Mustafa Kamil was trained as a lawyer at the French law school in Cairo and the Law Faculty at the University of Toulouse in France...
and
Ahmed Lutfi el-SayedAhmed Lutfi el-Sayed was an Egyptian intellectual, anti-colonial activist, the first director of Cairo University. He was also one of the architects of modern Egyptian nationalism as well as the architect of Egyptian secularism and liberalism. He was fondly known as the Professor of the Generation...
, the architects of modern Egyptian nationalism. Mustafa Kamil had been a student activist in the 1890s involved in the creation of a secret nationalist society that called for British evacuation from Egypt. He was famous for coining the popular expression, "If I had not been an Egyptian, I would have wished to become one."
Egyptian nationalist sentiment reached a high point after the 1906 Dinshaway Incident, when following an altercation between a group of British soldiers and Egyptian farmers, four of the farmers were hanged while others were condemned to public flogging. Dinshaway, a watershed in the history of Egyptian anti-
colonialColonialism is the building and maintaining of colonies in one territory by people from another territory. Sovereignty over the colony is claimed by the metropole...
resistance, galvanized Egyptian opposition against the British, culminating in the founding of the first two political parties in Egypt: the secular, liberal Umma
(the Nation, 1907) headed by Ahmed Lutfi el-SayedAhmed Lutfi el-Sayed was an Egyptian intellectual, anti-colonial activist, the first director of Cairo University. He was also one of the architects of modern Egyptian nationalism as well as the architect of Egyptian secularism and liberalism. He was fondly known as the Professor of the Generation...
, and the more radical, pro-Islamic Watani Party (National Party, 1908) headed by Mustafa Kamil. Lutfi was born to a family of farmers in the Delta province of Daqahliya in 1872. He was educated at al-Azhar where he attended lectures by Mohammed Abduh. Abduh came to have a profound influence on Lutfi's reformist thinking in later years. In 1907, he founded the Umma Party newspaper, el-Garida, whose statement of purpose read: "El-Garida is a purely Egyptian party which aims to defend Egyptian interests of all kinds."
Both the People and National parties came to dominate Egyptian politics until
World War IWorld War I , also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All Wars, was a global military conflict which involved most of the world's great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances: the Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance...
, but the new leaders of the national movement for independence following four arduous years of war (in which
Great BritainGreat Britain is an island lying to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island. With a population of about 59.6 million people, it is the third most populated island on Earth. Great Britain is surrounded by over 1000 smaller...
declared Egypt a British
protectorateA protectorate, in international law, is an autonomous territory that is protected diplomatically or militarily against third parties by a stronger state or entity. In exchange for this, the protectorate usually accepts specified obligations, which may vary greatly, depending on the real nature of...
) were closer to the secular, liberal principles of
Ahmed Lutfi el-SayedAhmed Lutfi el-Sayed was an Egyptian intellectual, anti-colonial activist, the first director of Cairo University. He was also one of the architects of modern Egyptian nationalism as well as the architect of Egyptian secularism and liberalism. He was fondly known as the Professor of the Generation...
and the People's Party. Prominent among these was
Saad ZaghlulSaad Zaghloul was an Egyptian political figure. He served as prime minister of Egypt from 26 January 1924 to 24 November 1924....
who led the new movement through the
Wafd Party- The Rise of the Wafd Party :The Wafd party was an Egyptian nationalistic movement that came into existence in the aftermath of World War I. Though it was not the first nationalistic movement or resistance against the Khedive, it has had the longest lasting importance...
. Saad Zaghlul held several ministerial positions before he was elected to the Legislative Assembly and organized a mass movement demanding an end to the British Protectorate. He garnered such massive popularity among the Egyptian people that he came to be known as 'Father of the Egyptians'. When on March 8, 1919 the British arrested Zaghlul and his associates and exiled them to
MaltaMalta , officially the Republic of Malta , is a densely populated developed European country in the European Union. The Southern European island nation is an archipelago that includes the inhabited islands of Malta, Gozo and Comino, along with a number of smaller, uninhabited islands...
, the Egyptian people staged their
first modern revolutionThe Egyptian Revolution of 1919 was a countrywide non-violent revolution against the British occupation of Egypt. It was carried out by Egyptians from different walks of life in the wake of the British-ordered exile of revolutionary leader Saad Zaghlul and other members of the Wafd Party in 1919...
. Demonstrations and strikes across Egypt became such a daily occurrence that normal life was brought to a halt.
The Wafd Party drafted a
new Constitution in 1923The 1923 Constitution was a previous working constitution of Egypt during the period 1923-1952. It was replaced by the 1930 Constitution for a 5-year period before being restored in 1935. It adopted the parliamentary representative system based on separation of and cooperation among authorities...
based on a
parliamentaryA parliamentary system is a system of government where in the ministers of the executive branch are drawn from the legislature, and are accountable to that body, such that the executive and legislative branches are intertwined...
representative system. Saad Zaghlul became the first popularly-elected Prime Minister of Egypt in 1924. Egyptian independence at this stage was provisional, as British forces continued to be physically present on Egyptian soil. In 1936, the
Anglo-Egyptian TreatyThe Anglo-Egyptian Treaty of 1936 was a treaty signed in 1936, between the United Kingdom and the Kingdom of Egypt, officially known as The Treaty of Alliance Between His Majesty, in Respect of the United Kingdom, and His Majesty the King of Egypt...
was concluded. New forces that came to prominence were the
Muslim BrotherhoodThe Muslim Brothers is a Sunni transnational movement and the largest political opposition organization in many Arab states, particularly Egypt...
and the radical
Young Egypt PartyThe Misr El-Fatah Party is a small Egyptian political party, with the membership of some 225 members.- Platform :The Party platform calls for:
* Establishing a parliamentary/presidential ruling system....
. In 1920,
Banque MisrBanque Misr is an Egyptian bank founded by industrialist Talaat Pasha Harb in 1920.- Operations :The bank has branch offices in all of Egypt's governates, and currency exchange and work permit offices for overseas workers in Egypt.Related organizations: Banque Misr presents long lists of its...
(Bank of Egypt) was founded by
Talaat Pasha HarbTalaat Pasha Harb was a leading Egyptian economist and founder of Banque Misr , and its group of companies, in May 1920.- His works :...
as "an Egyptian bank for Egyptians only", which restricted shareholding to native Egyptians and helped finance various new Egyptian-owned businesses.
Under the parliamentary monarchy, Egypt reached the peak of its modern intellectual Renaissance that was started by Rifa'a el-Tahtawy nearly a century earlier. Among those who set the intellectual tone of a newly independent Egypt, in addition to
Muhammad AbduhMuhammad Abduh was an Egyptian jurist, religious scholar and liberal reformer, regarded as the founder of Islamic Modernism...
and
Ahmed Lutfi el-SayedAhmed Lutfi el-Sayed was an Egyptian intellectual, anti-colonial activist, the first director of Cairo University. He was also one of the architects of modern Egyptian nationalism as well as the architect of Egyptian secularism and liberalism. He was fondly known as the Professor of the Generation...
, were
Qasim AminQasim Amin was an Egyptian jurist and one of the founders of the Egyptian national movement and Cairo University. Born to an Upper Egyptian mother and an Kurdish father who had served as an administrator in Kurdistan then Egypt, Amin is perhaps most noted as an early advocate of women's rights in...
,
Muhammad Husayn HaykalMuhammad Husayn Haykal was an Egyptian writer, journalist, politician and Minister of Education in Egypt.- Life :...
,
Taha HusseinTaha Hussein was one of the most influential Egyptian writers and intellectuals. He was a figurehead for the modernist movement in Egypt.- Biography :...
,
Abbas el-'AkkadAbbas Mahmud al-Aqqad [] was an Egyptian writer.-Biography:Al-Aqqad was born in Aswan, a city in Lower Egypt, in 1889. He graduated only out of elementary school; he did not finish school until the end. Unlike his schoolmates, he spent all his weekly allowance on books rather than candy and food...
,
Tawfiq el-HakeemTawfiq el-Hakim or Tawfik el-Hakim was a prominent Egyptian writer. He was born in Alexandria, Egypt, the son of a wealthy judge...
, and
Salama MoussaSalama Moussa was a notable Egyptian journalist and reformer in the 1920s. Born in Zagazig to a Coptic Christian family, Moussa was known for his wide interest in science and culture, as well as his firm belief in the human intellect as a guarantor of progress and prosperity...
. They delineated a liberal outlook for their country expressed as a commitment to individual freedom,
secularismSecularism is the concept that government or other entities should exist separately from religion and/or religious beliefs.In one sense, secularism may assert the right to be free from religious rule and teachings, and freedom from the government imposition of religion upon the people, within a...
, an
evolutionIn biology, evolution is change in the genetic material of a population of organisms from one generation to the next. Though changes produced in any one generation are normally small, differences accumulate with each generation and can, over time, cause substantial changes in the population, a...
ary view of the world and faith in science to bring progress to human society. This period was looked upon with fondness by future generations of Egyptians as a
Golden AgeThe term Golden Age comes from Greek mythology and legend, but can also be found in other ancient cultures . It refers either to the earliest and best age in a sequence of ages, such as the Greek range of Golden, Silver, Bronze, and Iron Ages, or to a time in the beginnings of humanity that was...
of Egyptian liberalism, openness, and an Egypt-centered attitude that put the country's interests center stage.
When Egyptian novelist and Noble Prize laureate
Naguib MahfouzNaguib Mahfouz was an Egyptian novelist who won the 1988 Nobel Prize for Literature. He is regarded as one of the first contemporary writers of Arabic literature, along with Tawfiq el-Hakim, to explore themes of existentialism. He published over 50 novels, over 350 short stories, dozens of movie...
died in 2006, many Egyptians felt that perhaps the last of the Greats of Egypt's golden age had passed away. In his dialogues with close associate and journalist Mohamed Salmawy, published as Mon Égypte, Mahfouz had this to say:
Republic
Increased involvement by
King FaroukFarouk I of Egypt , was the tenth ruler from the Muhammad Ali Dynasty and the penultimate King of Egypt and Sudan, succeeding his father, Fuad I, in 1936. He was considered the first native Egyptian monarch for millennia despite his mixed roots...
in parliamentary affairs, government corruption, and the widening gap between the country's rich and poor led to the eventual toppling of the monarchy and the dissolution of the parliament through a
coup d'étatA coup d'état , or coup for short, is the sudden unconstitutional deposition of a legitimate government, usually by a small group of the existing state establishment—typically the military—to replace the deposed government with another, either civil or military...
by a group of
army officersIn Egypt, the clandestine revolutionary Free Officers Movement was composed of young junior army officers committed to unseating the Egyptian monarchy and its British advisors...
in 1952. The Egyptian Republic was declared on June 18, 1953 with General
Muhammad NaguibMuhammad Naguib was the first President of Egypt, serving from the declaration of the Republic on June 18, 1953 to November 14 1954. Along with Gamal Abdel Nasser, he was the primary leader of the Egyptian Revolution of 1952, which ended the rule of the Muhammad Ali Dynasty in Egypt and Sudan...
as the first President of the Republic. After Naguib was forced to resign in 1954 and later put under house arrest by
Gamal Abdel NasserGamal Abdel Nasser was the second President of Egypt from 1956 until his death in 1970. He led the Egyptian Revolution of 1952, which removed King Farouk I and heralded a new period of industrialization in Egypt, together with a profound advancement of Arab nationalism, including a short-lived...
, the real architect of the 1952 movement, mass protests by Egyptians erupted against the forced resignation of what became a popular symbol of the new régime. Nasser assumed
powerPolitical power is a type of power held by a group in a society which allows administration of some or all of public resources, including labour, and wealth. There are many ways to obtain possession of such power. At the nation-state level political legitimacy for political power is held by the...
as President and began a
nationalizationNationalization, also spelled nationalisation, is the act of taking an industry or assets into the public ownership of a national government or state. Nationalization usually refers to private assets, but may also mean assets owned by lower levels of government, such as municipalities, being state...
process that initially had profound effects on the socioeconomic strata of Egyptian society. According to one historian, "Egypt had, for the first time since 343 BC, been ruled not by a Macedonian Greek, nor a Roman, nor an Arab, nor a Turk, but by an Egyptian."
Nasser nationalized the
Suez CanalThe Suez Canal is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, connecting the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea. Opened on November 1869, it allows water transportation between Europe and Asia without navigating around Africa...
leading to the 1956
Suez CrisisThe Suez Crisis, also referred to as the Tripartite Aggression, was a military attack on Egypt by Britain, France, and Israel beginning on 29 October 1956....
. Egypt became increasingly involved in regional affairs until three years after the 1967 Six Day War, in which Egypt lost the
SinaiThe Sinai Peninsula or Sinai The Sinai Peninsula or Sinai The Sinai Peninsula or Sinai (sina; Egyptian Arabic: سينا sina; sina'a; is a triangular peninsula in Egypt. It lies between the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Red Sea to the south, forming a land bridge between Africa and Southwest...
to
IsraelIsrael officially the State of Israel , is a developed state in Western Asia located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan in the east, and Egypt on the southwest, and contains geographically diverse features within its...
, Nasser died and was succeeded by
Anwar SadatMuhammad Anwar Al Sadat, or Anwar El Sadat , was the third President of Egypt, serving from 15 October 1970 until his assassination on 6 October 1981...
. Sadat revived an Egypt Above All orientation, switched Egypt's
Cold WarThe Cold War was the continuing state of political conflict, military tension, and economic competition existing after World War II , primarily between the USSR and its satellite states, and the powers of the Western world, including the United States...
allegiance from the
Soviet UnionThe Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. The name is a translation of the , tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated СССР, SSSR. The common short name is Soviet Union, from , Sovetskiy Soyuz...
to the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, expelling Soviet advisors in 1972, and launched the
InfitahInfitah is an Arabic word meaning "open door" and refers to Egyptian President Anwar Sadat's policy of "opening the door" to private investment in Egypt...
economic reform policy. Like his predecessor, he also clamped down on religious and leftist opposition alike. Egyptians fought one last time in the 1973 October War in an attempt to liberate Egyptian territories captured by Israel six years earlier. The October War presented Sadat with a political victory that later allowed him to regain the Sinai. In 1977, Sadat made a historic visit to Israel leading to the signing of the 1978
peace treatyThe Camp David Accords were signed by Egyptian President Anwar El Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin on September 17, 1978, following twelve days of secret negotiations at Camp David. The two agreements were signed at the White House, and were witnessed by United States President Jimmy...
, which was supported by the vast majority of Egyptians, in exchange for the complete Israeli withdrawal from Sinai. Sadat was finally assassinated in
CairoCairo is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab World. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a center of the region's political and cultural life...
by a fundamentalist soldier in 1981, and was succeeded by
Hosni MubarakMuhammad Hosni Mubarak, Muhammad Hosni Mubarak, Muhammad Hosni Mubarak, , (born 4 May 1928), is the 4th and current President of the Arab Republic of Egypt. He was appointed Vice President in 1975, and assumed the presidency on...
.
President
Mohamed Hosni MubarakMuhammad Hosni Mubarak, Muhammad Hosni Mubarak, Muhammad Hosni Mubarak, , (born 4 May 1928), is the 4th and current President of the Arab Republic of Egypt. He was appointed Vice President in 1975, and assumed the presidency on...
has been the
President of the RepublicThe President of the Arab Republic of Egypt is the elected Head of State of Egypt.Under the Constitution of Egypt, the President is also the Commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces and head of the Executive branch of the Egyptian government....
since October 14 1981, currently serving his fifth term in office. Although power is ostensibly organized under a
multi-partyA multi-party system is a system in which three or more political parties have the capacity to gain control of government separately or in coalition....
semi-presidential systemThe semi-presidential system, also known as the presidential-parliamentary system, or premier-presidential system, is a system of government in which a president and a prime minister are both active participants in the day-to-day administration of the state...
, in practice it rests almost solely with the President. In late February 2005, for the first time since the 1952 coup d'état, the Egyptian people had an apparent chance to elect a leader from a list of various candidates, most prominently
Ayman NourAyman Abd El Aziz Nour is an Egyptian politician, a former member of the Egyptian Parliament and chairman of the El Ghad party...
. Most Egyptians today are skeptical about the process of
democratizationDemocratization is the transition to a more democratic political regime. It may be the transition from an authoritarian regime to a full democracy or transition from a semi-authoritarian political system to a democratic political system...
and fear that power may ultimately be transferred to the President's first son,
Gamal MubarakGamal Mubarak , orGamal El Deen Muhammad Hosni Sayed Mubarak , born 1963, is the younger of the two sons of current Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Mrs. Suzanne Mubarak . In contrast to his older brother Alaa, Gamal has pursued an active public profile and is starting to wield some influence...
. In 2003, the Egyptian Movement for Change or simply Kefaya (Egyptian Arabic for "Enough!") was founded as a grassroots mobilization of Egyptians seeking a return to democracy, a transparent government and greater equality and freedom; however, it has thus far met with very limited success in reform of the Egyptian government.
The long road to Egyptian independence took more than 20 centuries to achieve, and for many Egyptians it is still a work in progress. Egyptians have endured as a people for more than 5,000 years thanks in large part to Egypt's unique geography. They take pride in their pharaonic heritage and in their descent from one of mankind's earliest civilizations.
Culture
- For ancient Egypt, see Ancient Egyptian technology
The characteristics of ancient Egyptian technology are indicated by a set of artifacts and customs that lasted for thousands of years. The Egyptians invented and used many basic machines, such as the ramp and the lever, to aid construction processes. They used rope trusses to stiffen the beam of...
, Egyptian mathematicsEgyptian mathematics refers to the style and methods of mathematics performed in Ancient Egypt.Egyptian multiplication and division were performed by doubling and halving a known number to approach the solution. The method of false position may have been used for division and algebra problems...
.
Egyptian culture boasts five millennia of recorded history.
Ancient EgyptAncient Egypt was an ancient civilization of eastern North Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. The civilization coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh, and...
was among the earliest and greatest civilizations during which the Egyptians maintained a strikingly complex and stable culture that influenced later cultures of
EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus Mountains , and the Black Sea to the southeast...
, the
Near EastNear East today is an ambiguous term that covers different countries for archeologists and historians, on one hand, and for political scientists, economists, and journalists, on the other...
and
AfricaAfrica is the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area. With a billion people in 61 territories, it accounts for about 14.8% of the...
. After the Pharaonic era, the Egyptians themselves came under the influence of
HellenismHellenistic civilization represents the zenith of Greek influence in the ancient world from 323 BC to about 146 BC ; note, however that Koine Greek language and Hellenistic philosophy and religion are also indisputably elements of the Roman era till Late Antiquity...
,
Christianitystyle="float: right; clear: right; background-color: transparent"|- {http://www.copticindex.com}||-The Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria style="float: right; clear: right; background-color: transparent"|- {http://www.copticindex.com}||-The Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria style="float:...
and
IslamicIslamic culture is a term primarily used in secular academia to describe all cultural practices common to historically Islamic peoples. As the religion of Islam originated in 6th century Arabia, the early forms of Muslim culture were predominantly Arab...
culture. Today, many aspects of ancient Egyptian culture exist in interaction with newer elements, including the influence of modern
Western cultureWestern culture refers to cultures of European origin.The term "Western culture" is used very broadly to refer to a heritage of social norms, ethical values, traditional customs, religious beliefs, political systems, and specific artifacts and technologies...
, itself influenced by Ancient Egypt.
Egypt has the highest number of
Nobel PrizeThe Nobel Prize is a Sweden-based international monetary prize. The award was established by the 1895 will and estate of Swedish chemist and inventor Alfred Nobel. It was first awarded in Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature, and Peace in 1901...
Laureates in Africa and of any country in the Muslim world.
Surnames
Today, Egyptians carry names that have Egyptian, Greek, Arabic, Turkish, English and French origins, among others. The concept of a
surnameA surname is a name added to a given name and is part of a personal name. In many cases a surname is a family name; the family-name meaning first appeared in 1375. Many dictionaries define "surname" as a synonym of "family name". It is also known as a "last name". In some cultures, the surname may...
is lacking in Egypt. Rather, Egyptians tend to carry their father's name as their first middle name, and stop at the 2nd or 3rd first name, which thus becomes one's surname. In this manner, surnames continuously change with generations, as first names of 4th or 5th generations get dropped.
It is not entirely unusual for families of Egyptian origin (especially Coptic ones) to have names or family names beginning with the
EgyptianEgyptian is the indigenous language of Egypt and a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. Written records of the Egyptian language have been dated from about 3400 BCE, making it one of the oldest recorded languages known. Egyptian was spoken until the late 17th century CE in the form of Coptic...
masculine possessive pronoun pa
(generally ba in Arabic, which lost the phoneme in the course of developing from Proto-Semitic). For example, Bayoumi (variations: Baioumi, Bayoumi, Baioumy) - meaning "of the sea", i.e. Lower Egyptian - Bashandi, Bakhoum ("the eagle"), Bekhit, Bahur ("of
HorusHorus is one of the oldest and most significant of the deities in the Ancient Egyptian religion who was worshipped from at least the late Predynastic period through to Greco-Roman times. Different forms of Horuses are recorded in history and these are treated as distinct gods by Egyptologists...
") and Banoub ("of
AnubisAnubis is the Greek name for a jackal-headed god associated with mummification and the afterlife in Egyptian mythology. In the ancient Egyptian language, Anubis is known as Inpu, . The oldest known mention of Anubis is in the Old Kingdom pyramid texts, where he is associated with the burial of the...
"). The name Shenouda, which is very common among
CoptA Copt is a native Egyptian Christian...
s, means "slave of God". Hence, names and many toponyms may end with -nouda
or -nuti
, which means Of God in
EgyptianEgyptian is the indigenous language of Egypt and a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. Written records of the Egyptian language have been dated from about 3400 BCE, making it one of the oldest recorded languages known. Egyptian was spoken until the late 17th century CE in the form of Coptic...
and
CopticCoptic or Coptic Egyptian is the final stage of the Egyptian language, a northern Afro-Asiatic language spoken in Egypt until at least the seventeenth century. Egyptian began to be written using the Greek alphabet in the first century...
. In addition, Egyptian families often derive their name from places in
EgyptEgypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Western Asia...
, such as Minyawi from Minya and
SuyutiImam Jalaluddin Al-Suyuti also known as Ibn al-Kutb was an Egyptian writer, religious scholar, juristic expert and teacher whose works deal with a wide variety of subjects in Islamic theology. He was precocious and was already a teacher in 1462. In 1486, he was appointed to a chair in the mosque...
from
AsyutAsyut , is the capital of the modern Asyut Governorate, Egypt; there is an ancient city nearby. The modern city is located at: , while the ancient city is located at: .-Etymology:...
; or from one of the local Sufi orders such as el-Shazli and el-Sawy.
With the adoption of Christianity and eventually Islam, Egyptians began to take on names associated with these religions. Many Egyptian surnames also became
HellenizedHellenization is a term used to describe the spread of ancient Greek culture, and to a lesser extent, language. It is mainly used to describe the spread of Hellenistic civilization during the Hellenistic period following the campaigns of Alexander the Great of Macedon...
and
ArabizedArabization describes a growing cultural influence on a non-Arab area that gradually changes into one that speaks Arabic and/or incorporates Arab culture...
, meaning they were altered to sound
GreekGreek , an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, is the language of the Greeks. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. In its ancient form, it is the language of classical...
or
ArabicArabic is a Central Semitic language, thus related to and classified alongside other Semitic languages such as Hebrew and the Neo-Aramaic languages. In terms of speakers, the Arabic macrolanguage is the largest member of the Semitic language family. It is spoken by more than 280 million people as...
. This was done by the addition of the Greek suffix -ios
to Egyptian names; for example, Pakhom to Pakhomios; or by adding the Arabic definite article el
to names such as Baymoui to el-Bayoumi. Names starting with the Egyptian affix pu
("of the place of") were sometimes Arabized to abu ("father of"); for example,
BusiriBūsīrī was an Egyptian poet who lived in Egypt, where he wrote under the patronage of Ibn Hinna, the vizier. His poems seem to have been wholly on religious subjects...
("of the place of
OsirisOsiris was an Egyptian god, usually called the god of the Afterlife, underworld or dead.Osiris is one of the oldest gods for whom records have been found; one of the oldest known attestations...
") occasionally became
AbusirAbusir is the name given to an Egyptian archaeological locality – specifically, an extensive necropolis of the Old Kingdom period, together with later additions – in the vicinity of the modern capital Cairo...
and al-Busiri. Some people might also have surnames like el-Shamy ("the Levantine") indicating a possible Levantine origin, or Dewidar indicating an Ottoman-Mamluk remnant. Conversely, some Levantines might carry the surname el-Masri ("the Egyptian") suggesting a possible Egyptian extraction. The Egyptian peasantry, the fellahin, are more likely to retain indigenous names given their relative isolation throughout the Egyptian people's history.
See also
- Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Western Asia...
- Ancient Egypt
Ancient Egypt was an ancient civilization of eastern North Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. The civilization coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh, and...
- Ancient Egyptian race controversy
The most recent specific conference on the race of the ancient Egyptians was at UNESCO’s international Cairo Symposium in 1974, where more than 20 recognised international scholars debated inter alia the race of the founders of ancient Egyptian civilization...
- Culture of Egypt
The Culture of Egypt has five thousand years of recorded history. Ancient Egypt was among the earliest civilizations. For millennia, Egypt maintained a strikingly complex and stable culture that influenced later cultures of Europe, the Middle East and Africa...
- Demographics of Egypt
This article is about the demographic features of the population of Egypt, including population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population....
- Religion in Egypt
Religion in Egypt controls many aspects of social life and is endorsed by law. The 2006 census counting method did not include religion, so the number of adherents of the different religions are usually rough estimates made by religious and non-governmental agencies.Egypt is predominantly Muslim,...
- Copt
A Copt is a native Egyptian Christian...
s
- List of Egyptians
- Egyptian athletes
- Egyptian American
Egyptian Americans are Americans of Egyptian ancestry, first-generation Egyptian immigrants, or descendants of Egyptians who immigrated to the United States. In the 2007 U.S. census, the number of people with Egyptian ancestry was estimated at 195,000, although some estimates range from several...
s
- Egyptian Australian
According to the Australian 2006 Census, 33,494 Australian residents declared that they were born in Egypt and 31,786 declared that they were of Egyptian ancestry either alone or with another ancestry. Egyptian Australians might also have nominated themselves as being of Coptic ancestry...
s
- Egyptian British
Egyptians in the United Kingdom are people of Egyptian ancestry who are citizens or residents of the United Kingdom. According to the 2001 UK Census some 24,700 Egyptian-born people were present in the UK....