Egypt Historical Setting
Sphinx and pyramids at Giza (Al Jizah)
THE ROOTS OF EGYPTIAN civilization go back more than 6,000
years to the beginning of settled life along the banks of the
Nile River. The country has an unusual geographical and cultural
unity that has given the Egyptian people a strong sense of
identity and a pride in their heritage as descendants of
humankind's earliest civilized community.
Within the long sweep of Egyptian history, certain events or
epochs have been crucial to the development of Egyptian society
and culture. One of these was the unification of Upper Egypt and
Lower Egypt sometime in the third millennium B.C. The ancient
Egyptians regarded this event as the most important in their
history, comparable to the "First Time," or the creation of the
universe. With the unification of the "Two Lands" by the
legendary, if not mythical, King Menes, the glorious Pharaonic
Age began. Power was centralized in the hands of a god-king, and,
thus, Egypt became the first organized society.
The ancient Egyptians were the first people of antiquity to
believe in life after death. They were the first to build in
stone and to fashion the arch in stone and brick. Even before the
unification of the Two Lands, the Egyptians had developed a plow
and a system of writing. They were accomplished sailors and
shipbuilders. They learned to chart the heavens in order to
predict the Nile flood. Their physicians prescribed healing
remedies and performed surgical operations. They sculpted in
stone and decorated the walls of their tombs with naturalistic
murals in vibrant colors. The legacy of ancient Egypt is written
in stone across the face of the country from the pyramids of
Upper Egypt to the rock tombs in the Valley of the Kings to the
Old Kingdom temples of Luxor and Karnak to the Ptolemaic temples
of Edfu and Dendera and to the Roman temple to Isis on Philae
Island.
The Arab conquest of 641 by the military commander Amr ibn al
As was perhaps the next most important event in Egyptian history
because it resulted in the Islamization and Arabization of the
country, which endure to this day. Even those who clung to the
Coptic religion, a substantial minority of the population in
1990, were Arabized; that is, they adopted the Arabic language
and were assimilated into Arab culture.
Although Egypt was formally under Arab rule, beginning in the
ninth century hereditary autonomous dynasties arose that allowed
local rulers to maintain a great deal of control over the
country's destiny. During this period Cairo was established as
the capital of the country and became a center of religion,
learning, art, and architecture. In 1260, the Egyptian ruler,
Qutuz, and his forces stopped the Mongol advance across the Arab
world at the battle of Ayn Jalut in Palestine. Because of this
victory, Islamic civilization could continue to flourish when
Baghdad, the capital of the Abbasid caliphate, fell to the
Mongols. Qutuz's successor, Baybars I, inaugurated the reign of
the Mamluks, a dynasty of slave-soldiers of Turkish and
Circassian origin that lasted for almost three centuries.
In 1517 Egypt was conquered by Sultan Selim I and absorbed
into the Ottoman Empire. Since the Turks were Muslims, however,
and the sultans regarded themselves as the preservers of
Sunni (see Glossary)
Islam, this period saw institutional continuity,
particularly in religion, education, and the religious law
courts. In addition, after only a century of Ottoman rule, the
Mamluk system reasserted itself, and Ottoman governors became at
times virtual prisoners in the citadel, the ancient seat of
Egypt's rulers.
The modern history of Egypt is marked by Egyptian attempts to
achieve political independence, first from the Ottoman Empire and
then from the British. In the first half of the nineteenth
century, Muhammad Ali, an Albanian and the Ottoman viceroy in
Egypt, attempted to create an Egyptian empire that extended to
Syria and to remove Egypt from Turkish control. Ultimately, he
was unsuccessful, and true independence from foreign powers would
not be achieved until midway through the next century.
Foreign, including British, investment in Egypt and Britain's
need to maintain control over the Suez Canal resulted in the
British occupation of Egypt in 1882. Although Egypt was granted
nominal independence in 1922, Britain remained the real power in
the country. Genuine political independence was finally achieved
between the 1952 Revolution and the 1956 War. In 1952 the Free
Officers, led by Lieutenant Colonel Gamal Abdul Nasser, took
control of the government and removed King Faruk from power. In
1956 Nasser, as Egyptian president, announced the nationalization
of the Suez Canal, an action that resulted in the tripartite
invasion by Britain, France, and Israel. Ultimately, however,
Egypt prevailed, and the last British troops were withdrawn from
the country by the end of the year.
No history of Egypt would be complete without mentioning the
Arab-Israeli conflict, which has cost Egypt so much in lives,
territory, and property. Armed conflict between Egypt and Israel
ended in 1979 when the two countries signed the Camp David
Accords. The accords, however, constituted a separate peace
between Egypt and Israel and did not lead to a comprehensive
settlement that would have satisfied Palestinian demands for a
homeland or brought about peace between Israel and its Arab
neighbors. Thus, Egypt remained embroiled in the conflict on the
diplomatic level and continued to press for an international
conference to achieve a comprehensive agreement.
Data as of December 1990
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