Egyptians (people)

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ancient Roman tomb image of an Egyptian

The Egyptians are an indigenous ethnic group in the Mediterranean region , today mainly in Egypt . The Egyptian people have a history of more than 8000 years and are characterized by a great cultural and historical heritage. There are about 100 million people of Egyptian descent today, 95 million of whom live in Egypt.

The Egyptian language was spoken until the 17th century and gradually replaced by the Egyptian-Arabic dialect . However, both languages ​​are related and, like the Berber languages or Hebrew , are part of the Afro-Asian language family .

origin

Today's population of Egypt - like the ancient Egyptians - descends from the indigenous Mediterranean North Africans , who are genetically closely related to today's Berbers and Arabs .

Today's Egyptians are the direct descendants of the ancient Egyptians. Genetic studies show that despite many invasions by other peoples , the Egyptian people remained virtually unchanged and are the heirs of the millennia-old culture. The closest related peoples are therefore the people of the Levant , Arabs , Berbers and Europeans .

Culture and religion

The ancient Egyptian religion was one of the great ancient polytheistic religions of the Mediterranean . She is characterized by her belief in many different gods , spirits and magic . Furthermore, ancestral cult , animistic and partly shamanistic are a central and important component. It is documented from the early development of the pharaonic state, in the last half of the 4th millennium BC. Until the time of Roman rule , when it was ousted by Christianity and finally banned by the Roman emperors.

From 632 onwards, Islam began to spread in Egypt and other parts of North Africa and became the dominant religion in 642. Nevertheless, there is still a Christian minority: the Copts .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ 91 مليون نسمة عدد سكان مصر منهم 8 ملايين بالخارج . In: صحيفة الاقتصادية . August 30, 2012 ( aleqt.com [accessed August 22, 2018]).
  2. ↑ Cavalli-Sforza, LL; Menozzi, P .; Piazza, A. (1994). The History and Geography of Human Genes . Princeton: Princeton University Press. pp. 169-74.
  3. ^ "The races of man: an outline of anthropology and ethnography", by Joseph Deniker, pg 432
  4. ↑ Federico Sánchez-Quinto, Laura R. Botigué, Sergi Civit, Conxita Arenas, María C. Ávila-Arcos: North African Populations Carry the Signature of Admixture with Neandertals . In: PLoS ONE . tape 7 , no. 10 , October 17, 2012, ISSN  1932-6203 , doi : 10.1371 / journal.pone.0047765 , PMID 23082212 , PMC 3474783 (free full text).
  5. ↑ Barbara Arredi, Estella S. Poloni, Silvia Paracchini, Tatiana Zerjal, Dahmani M. Fathallah: A Predominantly Neolithic Origin for Y-Chromosomal DNA Variation in North Africa . In: American Journal of Human Genetics . tape 75 , no. 2 , August 2004, ISSN  0002-9297 , p. 338-345 , PMID 15202071 , PMC 1216069 (free full text).
  6. ^ Manni F, Leonardi P, Barakat A, Rouba H, Heyer E, Klintschar M, McElreavey K, Quintana-Murci L (October 2002). "Y-chromosome analysis in Egypt suggests a genetic regional continuity in Northeastern Africa". Human biology . 74 (5): 645-58.