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EGYPT
The Valley of the Nile tell us a story of human progress such as we can find nowhere else, the Egyptians are one of the earliest people known as a nation, ( Egypt - Greek, Aiguptos: - Hebrew Misr or Misraim; - ancient Egyptian, Chem or Chemi, the ' black land ', - Arabic Misr or Musr. ). It is thus natural to begin the worlds history with life in ancient Egypt.
EGYPTIAN WRITING
At first, writing was merely a series
of notches of varying size made on sun-baked mud for purposes of measurement: then came "picture-signs,"
designed to express a single word (such as "water" by a wavy line, or the drawing of a bee to represent
an insect). Real writing, as we understand it, was only developed when ideas impossible to represent directly (such
as the word "belief," for instance) came to be expressed phonetically by "pictures" denoting
the same syllable in whatever word they occurred.
In the course of centuries these hieroglyphics, at first cut on stone or painted on wood, but later written with
reed pens on paper made from papyrus-grass, became modified until they were entirely conventional after the manner
of our own alphabet. Also, while hieroglyphics were still employed for inscriptions, two other sorts of writings
were evolved, the hieratic hand used by the priests who were often government scribes, and the demotic, or popular,
that bore much the same relation to hieratic as our ordinary writing does to print.
At first when archaeologists began to take an interest in ancient Egypt they were in despair, because all around
they saw a wealth of inscriptions and literature they could not read; but in 1799 Champollion, a French savant, discovered a stone near the Rosetta mouth of the Nile, bearing the same
inscription in three scripts, hieroglyphic, demotic and Greek. This served the purpose of a dictionary; and from
that time we have been able to study the life of ancient Egypt through her revealing literature, not merely in
her inscriptions but in her "Book of the Dead," with its guidance for the soul in the Underworld; in
her treatises on medicine and science, and even in her fairy-tales and stories of adventure.
AGRICULTURE
Agriculture is one of the great civilizing influences of the world; They profited, from sowing the grass seeds of maize and millet, along with grain, by digging channels or raising dykes they were enriched by the rich black mud a natural fertilizer. The Egyptian's soon discovered that if the mighty force of the Nile was to be kept from mischief, they must be united in harnessing it. The homes were raised above flood level and soon linked into villages; and when the Nile was violent one village grew accustomed to seeking help from another until at last provinces, or Nomes, were formed, whose chiefs directed the energies of those under their rule and received in return the earliest form of taxes, namely a settled portion of each harvest. Finally the whole land was divided into two very large districts, the Kingdom of Lower Egypt in the north, stretching from the Mediterranean to just below modern Cairo, and the Kingdom of Upper Egypt, whose southern frontiers were the Soudan and Nubia.
So by the time Abraham entered the Delta from Canaan they had been long enjoying the advantages of a settled government. They had built cities, invented hieroglyphic signs, and improved them into syllabic writing, and an early alphabet. They had invented records and wrote their kings names and actions on the massive temples which they raised.
The arrangement of Egyptian chronology is still a much-disputed amongst scholars. A list of the kings of Egypt, arranged in thirty dynasties, was given by the priest Manetho (about 250 B.C.), and this division is still used. His list, however, is in a very corrupt condition and his method is not strictly chronological. Hence in the various systems of chronology adopted by Egyptologists the dates assigned to Mena (or Menes) vary from 5702 to 2440 B.C.
Tradition tells us that Menes, a warrior chief of Upper Egypt, succeeded in conquering Lower Egypt and made Memphis his capital, thus founding the First Dynasty of kings, later called "Pharaohs" (Per-o was "the Great House" or Palace of the King).
THE PYRAMIDS
We do need not guess as to whom the
ancient tombs and temples belong, since the builders themselves have left us in pictures and hieroglyphics their
own records for posterity. In the reign of King Zoser (III.rd Dynasty) we arrive at "the first stone house
that was made" according to the chronicler Manetho; for Imhotep, Zoser's chief minister and architect (afterwards
deified by the Ptolomies), designed a tomb for his royal master, built in limestone platforms up to a height of
nearly 200 feet. This is the famous "Step-pyramid" of Sakhara; and to understand this new fashion in
architecture it is necessary to recognize the background of Egyptian thought that made possible in practice work
on so grand a scale.
The pyramids are indeed the witness of Egypt's essentially religious outlook and belief in a life after death,
for which it was necessary to preserve the human body from destruction, especially that of the King-god who was
both their ruler and high-priest. Polytheistic, for every province and even village possessed its local deities,
Egyptian faith centered chiefly on the sun-god Ra; the man-god Osiris, who was slain and lived again; in Isis,
his wile, in Horus, their son, and in Set "the Evil," the enemy of Osiris and his worshippers.
After death the soul of man, even
of Pharaoh, must make its perilous way, beset by demons, to the judgment-seat of the Other World, where Osiris
now reigned, there to be weighed in the scales against the peacock. feather that was the symbol of righteousness.
Because the new life was believed to be in many ways the counterpart of the old, the custom grew up of burying
the dead with their favourite belongings, as well as of painting on the walls of the tombs familiar scenes of the
previous earth-life, for the satisfaction of the Ka, or spirit-double.
Since Pharaoh's tomb must exceed in magnificence those of his subjects, yet prove strong enough to keep at bay
the greedy curiosity of robbers, there arose the pyramid design, with its burial chamber hidden away in the heart
of the mighty pile of masonry, the passages leading to it blocked and concealed by every possible device of the
builder and engineer.
Nearly a century after Zoser, King Seneferu (IV.th Dynasty is distinguished as the ' Pyramid Dynasty.' ) commanded two tombs of this type to be built, one in steps at Medum for his mummy, the other for his Ka at Dahshur, filled in with polished limestone, so that in shape it is the first of the true pyramids.
More famous still of course, are the
"Great" and second pyramids of Gizeh, the tombs of King Khufu (Cheops) Khafra, and Menkaura (according
to Herodotus, Cheops, Chephren, and Mykerinos), built the largest pyramids.
Covering an area of thirteen acres with more than 2,300,000 blocks of limestone, each weighing some two and a half
tons, the Great Pyramid would be even to-day an immense piece of work. At a date when only manpower, provided with
copper or stone tools, could be employed, it seems almost incredible, whether that power represented gangs of slaves
driven by overseers, or the fellahin hired during the seasons when floods prevented farming. Whichever theory is
true, at any rate the work was not carelessly done. Rather, Sir Flinders Petrie tells us, that the mason's skill
that cut these blocks and fitted them stone to stone, is "equal to optician's work but on a scale of acres
instead of inches."
The smaller of the two pyramids, that of Khafra, was connected by a causeway with the monument we call the Great
Sphynx. This has been described as "the largest portrait figure ever made"; for it represents the King's
head on the body of a lion, keeping watch over his tomb.The date assigned to three kings in the chronology of Lepsius
is 2800 - 2700.
HYKSOS PRINCES OF THE DESERT
Pyramid building continued till the VI.th dynasty; but the spirit that had inspired Khufu and Khafra did not long survive them, and both design and workmanship declined. Towards the end of this period there developed a Feudal Age, lasting several centuries, during which great nobles built up hereditary estates along the valleys of the Nile and ruled there as petty kings. When they died, some of the most important were buried in tombs cut in the cliff side, whose pillared doorways still look down upon the passing river-traffic.
With the beginning of Dynasty XII. the Theban line was firmly established. The chief princes of this dynasty are Amenemhat I. (2380), who seems to have extended the power of Egypt over a part of Nubia; Usurtasan I, who made further conquests In this direction; and Amenemhat III.. (2179), who constructed Lake Meri (Moeris), a large reservoir for regulating the water supply of the Nile.About 2400 the government of the empire seems to have been transferred from Memphis to Thebes.
This Feudal Age ended in bloodshed and confusion. It would seem that Egypt, hitherto protected by her deserts and the sea, had at last in her growing luxury attracted the covetous eyes of aliens.
About 2100 Egypt was conquered by the Hyksos (Princes of the desert) or shepherd kings, who invaded Egypt from the east in chariots drawn by horses, up till this time unknown in the land of the Nile, where oxen and asses were the ordinary beasts of burden. Without much difficulty the Hyksos defeated the peace-loving Egyptians and established their capital at Tanis (Zoan) The Hyksos ruled as closely after the manner of those they had dethroned as they could contrive, though without making any headway in the affection of their subjects. It would be natural, then, if the tradition were true that declares Joseph the Canaanite, who was sold into Egypt, to have found favour with a Pharaoh of his own Semite race, and to have been raised to the post of his chief minister.
THE IMPERIAL DYNASTY
The Theban princes seem, however,
to have preserved a state of semi-independence, and about 1580 B.C a revolt commenced which ended by the shepherd
kings being completely driven out of Egypt by King Aahmes (Amasis) of Thebes, the first of the XVIII.th Dynasty.
With Aahmes and the expulsion of the shepherd kings began the reigns of those great Theban kings who built the
magnificent temples and palaces at Thebes. The kings of the other parts of Egypt sank to the rank of sovereign
priests.
Ahmenhotep I not only conquered
Nubia and the country between the Third and Fourth Cataracts of the Nile, but also, marching by way of Palestine,
invaded Syria as far north as the Euphrates. On his return he employed the spoils he had acquired in beginning
the Temple of Karnak, whose building was to take nearly 2000 years for its completion.
Thutmes (or Thothmosis II.) added Memphis to his dominions by his marriage with Queen Nitocris.One of the succeeding
rulers of this dynasty, Queen Hatshepsut, raised an obelisk at Karnak, and was more interested in a temple that
she ordered to be cut in terraces and colonnades out of the mountain-side at Der-al-Bahri, that she dedicated to
her Father Ammon, the god of Thebes.Hatshepsut has been described as "the first woman in history" and
she was certainly a great personality; amassing wealth and power by peaceful means rather than through war. During
her reign a fleet was fitted out that sailed up the Nile to near its mouth, crossed by a canal to the Red Sea,
and afterwards explored the African coast. From "Punt," possibly Somaliland, it returned with a cargo
of tropical marvels: gold, spices, ebony, apes and monkeys.
This Queen was
succeeded by her nephew, Thotmes III. (c. 1500 B.C.), who had indeed shared her throne during the last years of
her reign, and hated her so exceedingly that, after her death, he tried to erase her name from all her monuments
and inscriptions. Under Thotmes III. and his successors there were successful expeditions against the Syrians and
the Ethiopians, he also added to the Temple of Karnak, where he caused the history of his wars and victories to
be inscribed on the inner walls. He likewise set up two obelisks at Heliopolis, one of which (miscalled Cleopatra's
Needle) now stands on the Thames embankment.
Another of the famous Pharaohs
of this imperial line was Ahmenhotep III, whose mother was a princess of Mitanni, one of the leading peoples of
Asia Minor; and we can read of his alliances with Syrian and Babylonian kings. International relations, it will
be seen, were already a natural feature of world politics, and many stories of embassies can be found, inscribed
in stone or on the clay tablets that were the writing blocks of the day. They show us that Ahmenhotep III, the
Lion-hunter, cut a considerable figure beyond the boundaries of Egypt. Amenhotep III. set up his two gigantic statues
in the plain of Thebes, one of which the Greeks called the musical statue of Memnon, it was carved as his memorial
from a single block of grit-stone, and that still stands gazing out across the Nile.
After his death the dynasty declined
in power but not in interest, for Ahmenhotep III's son, the seventeen-year-old Ahrnenhotep IV, is the "heretic
Pharaoh" who, if he had not been born some centuries too early for the thought of the rest of his day, might
have hastened the course of civilization.
This young prince had been
brought up in the special worship of Aton, a manifestation of the light and heat-giving power of the Sun-god, Ra,
and directly he began to reign he proclaimed that Aton was alone to be worshipped, singing his praises in a hymn
he had himself written, and that has been called "one of the greatest poems of antiquity." In this, for
the first time in the world's history, as far as we know, monotheism was preached; and what was even more interesting
was that the god whose praises were sung by this young Pharaoh was no jealous tyrant but the source of all beauty,
life, and energy, one who loved and made provision for what he had created, from man to the very birds nesting
in the marshes.
Because Thebes, the chief city of Imperial Egypt, was largely in the power of a priesthood devoted to the old gods
and bitterly hostile to his new religion, the young Pharaoh, who had changed his name to Akhnaton (Aton is satisfied),
removed his capital farther north to where the modern Tel-el.Amarna stands and began to build temples there and
a palace for himself and his Queen Nefertiti. Occupied with his new faith, and disliking the wars of conquest that
had been the previous amusement of his dynasty, he turned a deaf ear to the complaints of provincial governors
and the demands of his father's foreign allies.
It was hardly a way to win popularity amongst his officials and nobles; and when he died before he was thirty years old, leaving no son to succeed him, the Theban priests once more seized power, brought back the seat of government to their own city, and to the best of their ability erased the name of Aton and his high-priest from all monuments and inscriptions.
TUTANKHAMEN
Akhnaton's son-in-law, the boy Tut-ankh Amen, was forced to return to the old faith; and when in a few years he also died they buried him with a vast amount of magnificence and ceremony in the Valley of the Tombs of the Kings.
Even before the reign of Akhnaton, decay had begun to eat into the fabric of Imperial Egypt. The Ramessides form the XIX.th Dynasty.(1320 - 1200 B.C.) they commence with Ramses I., who seems to have been of Lower Egyptian extraction. Two warrior Pharaohs, Seti I and his son Rameses II or Sesostris, did their best to restore the old supremacy of the land of the Nile invading Palestine, and waging frequent campaigns against the neighbouring Arabs .
The inscriptions of these reigns tell of many hard-fought battles, and especially of the reckless bravery of Rameses who, when cut off with his staff and a small section of his army at Kadesh, succeeded after making repeated charges in driving his chariot to safety through the enemy's lines. From the view of heroism the "Day of Kadesh" was magnificent; but Egypt achieved no permanent glory.
Ramses II. covered Egypt with magnificent buildings, and was probably the Pharaoh who oppressed the Hebrews, and the exodus may have occurred under his successor Meneptah or Merenptah.
A new dynasty, XXI., came to the throne with King Hirhor. The seat of their power was Tanis in the Delta During this period a great number of foreigners, Libyans as well as Asiatics, established themselves in Egypt. About 961 Sheshenk I., the Shishak of the Bible, of a Shemite family from Bubastis, established a new dynasty (XXII.). He attempted to restore Egyptian rule in the East, and conquered and plundered Jerusalem. After his death Egypt was torn by civil wars, and eventually the Ethiopians under Shabak (Sabako) conquered it (XXV.th Dynasty). For a time it was subject alternately to Ethiopian and Asyrian princes, but in the 7th century the kings of Sais once more restored its independence and prosperity to Egypt.
Psamethik I. (Psammetichus.)
warred successfully in Syria and Palestine. King Nekho (610 - 594) defeated Josiah, king of Judah, but his further
progress was checked by Nebuchadnezzar. His sailors circumnavigated Africa
Uahbra (the Greek Apries, the Hophrah of the Bible); and Aahmes II. (Greek Amasis) followed.
About 523 Cambyses, King of Persia, overran Egypt and made it a Persian province. During the reign of Cambyses
the Egyptians suffered much oppression. After the Persian defeat at Marathon the Egyptians rose and recovered their
independence for a short time, but were again subdued, and, in spite of two other revolts, Egypt remained a Persian
province till Persia itself was conquered by Alexander the Great B.C. 332.
Egypt now became a Greek state, many Greeks having been already settled in the country, and the Egyptians were treated as an inferior race. Alexandria was founded as the new Greek capital. On Alexander's death his general, Ptolemy, took possession of the throne and became the first of a Greek dynasty that for three hundred years made Egypt one of the chief kingdoms of the world. The Ptolemies were magnificent patrons of letters and arts. Theocritus, Callimachus, Euclid the geometrician, the astronomers Eratosthenes and Aratus, &c., flourished under their rule, But while the Alexandria, Greeks managed to keep down the native Egyptians, they were themselves sinking under the Romans Ptolemy Auletes went to Rome to ask help against his subjects, and the famous Cleopatra maintained her power only through her personal influence with Julius Caesar and Mark Antony. On the defeat of Mark Antony by Augustus, B.C. 30, Egypt became a province of Rome. It was still a Greek state, and Alexandria was the chief seat of Creek learning and science. On the spread of Christianity the old Egyptian doctrines lost their sway. Now arose in Alexandria the Christian catechetical school, which produced Clemens said Origen. The sects of Gnostics united astrology and magic with religion. The school of Alexandrian Platonics produced Plotinus and Proclus. Monasteries were built all over Egypt; Christian monks took the place of the pagan hermits, and the Bible was translated into Coptic.
On the division of the great Roman Empire (A.D. 337), in the time of Theodosius into the Western and Eastern Empires,
Egypt became a province of the latter, and sank deeper and deeper in barbarism and weakness. It was conquered in
640 A.D. by the Saracens under Caliph Omar. As a province of the caliphs it was under the government of the celebrated
Abbasides - Harun-al-Rashid and Al- Mamun - and that of the heroic Sultan Saladin. The last dynasty was, however,
overthrown by the Mamelukes (1250); and the Mamelukes in their turn were conquered by the Turks (1516 - 17).
The Mamelukes made repeated attempts to cast off the Turkish yoke, and had virtually done so, when the French conquered Egypt and held it till 1801, when they were driven out by the British under Abercromby and Hutchinson.
On the expulsion of the French a Turkish force under Mehemet Ali Bey took possession of the country. Mehemet Ali was made pasha, and being a man of great ability administered the country vigorously and greatly extended the Egyptian territories. At length he broke with the Porte, and after gaining a decisive victory over the Ottoman troops in Syria in 1839 he was acknowledged by the sultan as viceroy of Egypt, with the right of succession in his family. Mehemet Ali died in 1849, having survived his son Ibrahim, who died in 1848. He was succeeded by his grandson Abbas, who, dying in 1854, was succeeded by his uncle Said, son of Mehemet. Under his rule railways were opened, and the cutting of the Suez Canal commenced. After Said's death Ismail Pasha, a grandson of Mehemet Ali, obtained the government in 1863. His administration was vigorous but exceedingly extravagant, and brought the finances of the country into disorder. In 1866 he obtained a firman from the sultan granting him the title of khedive. In 1879 be was forced to abdicate under pressure of the British and French governments, and was replaced by his son Tewfik. In 1882 the national party under Arabi Pasha revolted and forced the khedive to flee. On July 11 a British fleet bombarded Alexandria and restored the khedive, and at Tel-el-Kebir Arabia forces were totally crushed on 13th September. A rebellion in the Soudan under the leadership of Mohammed Ahmed, the so-called mahdi, now gave the government trouble. In 1883 the mahdi's forces annihilated an Egyptian force under Hicks Pasha in Kordofan. British troop. were now despatched to Suakin and inflicted two severe defeats on. the mahdi's followers there. But the British cabinet had resolved to abandon the Soudan; and General Gordon, already famous for his work in this district, was sent to effect the safe withdrawal of the garrisons (1884). He was shut up in Khartoum by mahdi's forces, where he maintained himself for nearly a year, but was murdered Jan. 1885) before the relief expedition under Wolseley could reach him. The country south of Wady Halfa was thou temporally given up, but has since been re-conquered The khedive, Abbas II., succeeded his father Tewfik in 1892.
