History of Egypt
This article covers the history of Egypt from the first settlement of Egypt and its immediate surroundings to the present day.
Paleolithic
Early Paleolithic
Some representatives of Homo erectus are likely to have left Africa for the first time around 2 million years ago towards the Levant , Black Sea region and Georgia, and possibly via northwest Africa towards southern Spain. About 600,000 years ago there was probably a second wave of propagation. Then Homo erectus developed into the Neanderthal in Europe , while in Africa about 200,000 years ago Homo erectus became the archaic Homo sapiens and from this the anatomically modern man emerged. Homo erectus , which comes from East Africa, reached Israel 1.8 million years ago, similar to Georgia, but so far no traces have been found in Egypt. As early as the 19th century, however, stone tools were found in the Nile Valley that can be assigned to the late Acheuleans . Closed groups of hand axes that may be 300,000 to 400,000 years old have been found in Egypt, such as in the Nile Valley. Rescue excavations in Nubia , which before the start of construction of Lake Nasser began, showed that the region perhaps represented a culture province, as typical of Africa Cleaver were missing. These are large, rectangular artifacts, usually made on both sides, with a sharp, wide edge at one end.
The Nile Valley has been inhabited continuously for around 500,000 years. The Sahara, on the other hand, was only habitable when there was sufficient rainfall. The lower Nile was not directly affected by the cold ages, like the north of America, Europe and Asia, but in the south the glaciers absorbed water during these phases, which only flowed to the lower reaches of the river to a lesser extent. The remains of these phases are 20 to 30 m above today's flood level. Rare old Paleolithic sites and more common Middle Paleolithic sites are mostly located in these higher-lying areas. Fishing began at the latest in the Middle Paleolithic, which became tangible in Egypt 230,000 years ago.
In the oases of Kharga and Dakhila, as well as Bir Sahara East , about 350 km west of Abu Simbel , artifacts from the Old Paleolithic were found. 10 km further east, near Bir Tarfawi and in a wadi 50 km southeast of it ( Bir Safsaf ), a site that was located on an ephemeral lake, artefacts were probably found from the Middle Acheuleans on the border between Egypt and Sudan. Apparently tools were made from the stone immediately on site and no longer carried around.
Middle Paleolithic
Characteristic of the Middle Paleolithic, as in the rest of the Mediterranean, is the shield core or Levallois technique , which is associated with the Neanderthals in Europe, the Middle East and West Asia, but who did not live in North Africa. This cutting technique rationalized the use of stone as a raw material and led to the refinement of the tools made with it. In addition to the Levallois target tees, blades, points and scrapers were manufactured. In Egypt, too, in the Middle Paleolithic, the composite tools made by connecting several parts can be documented, as well as forward-looking planning already during the extraction and preparation of the stone components of the overall tool.
The epoch, known as the Nubian Middle Stone Age or Nubian Middle Paleolithic, initially shows strong similarities with the simultaneous cultures of the Mediterranean, whereas in the last phase influences of the Central and West African Sangoan - Lupemban (before 30,000 or until after 13,000 BC) are more evident .). The first phases apparently got by without hand axes, instead blade tips or knock-off tools dominated . At the same time, the raw material used was not flint, but a very hard sandstone. The finds from the Khormusan, some made using the Levallois technique, are dated between 65,000 and 55,000 years ago. Apparently the Khormusan comes from the same time as the Dabhan in Cyrenaica. But a dry phase followed in which the connecting regions between the two cultures became uninhabitable.
The hunting spectrum occasionally included hares and porcupines as well as wild cats , but also buffalo , hippopotamus and giraffes . But the most common food was the gazelle, especially the Dorcas gazelle , which occurs in all arid regions of North Africa. Excavations in the Sodmein cave near Quseir in the mountains on the Red Sea point to considerably wetter phases in which crocodiles, buffalo, elephants, kudu and other large mammals lived here. Such sites have not yet been found in the Nile Valley; instead, mining sites for raw materials such as Nazlet Khater and Taramsa (n) were discovered there.
At the same time the climate became drier. This meant that hunting animals and edible plants were almost exclusively found in the river valleys, and people in the drying areas were forced to move there. In the last section of the Middle Paleolithic, the Taramsan , a considerably drier phase, the production of a large number of mostly long blades from a single, extremely large core succeeded. In the impressive Taramsan I quarry near Qena , which gave the epoch its name, the transition to Upper Paleolithic blade manufacture can be captured . There was also an anatomically modern skeleton of a child buried there, which was dated to around 55,000 years ago.
During the migration of modern people towards the Levante ( Out of Africa 2 ) there were apparently two high points, namely 130,000 and 80,000 years ago. The two processes were separated from each other by the aforementioned drastic climate change. Occasionally, a distinction is made between Out of Africa 2a and Out of Africa 2b , whereby the first emigrants may have been defeated in the food competition with the Neanderthals (or failed for other reasons), while the second emigration succeeded.
Upper Paleolithic
Upper Paleolithic sites are rare in Egypt. The oldest site, Nazlet Khater, is on the transition edge between the desert and the Nile valley. Around 40,000 year old traces of what is probably the oldest mining flint extraction, as well as the remains of a modern person ( Nazlet Khater 2 ), which could be dated to an age of 38,000 years, were found there. In order to get to the coveted types of stone, not only 2 m deep trenches were dug here for the first time, but also the oldest underground galleries were created. These originated on an area of over 25 km² in a period of 35 to 30,000 years ago.
The deceased, who is considered to be the oldest modern person in Egypt, was a 1.65 m tall adolescent with very strong arms, who was buried under stones and sand at a depth of about 60 cm. He was found about 250 m from the nearest flint store. The body was buried on its back. Its head shape points to similarities with the oldest find of modern man in Europe, which was made at Peştera cu oasis in Romania . The sharp changes in the backbone may indicate (too) early, hard work in mining. Next to his right ear was a broad hatchet or adze like the ones used in mining.
Various methods were used to mine the flint. Trenches were dug, vertical shafts and underground galleries. The horns of hartebeest and gazelle were used as picks, as were stone axes . One of the trenches measured 9 by 2 m and was dug 1.5 m into the wadi. Vertical tunnels were dug down to the gravel ground with the flint, where they were widened to form a bell.
The next youngest archaeological industry is the Shuwikhatien, which lacks ax-like tools. Shuwikhat 1 has been dated to 25,000 BP . It was a fishing and hunting camp, several of which were found around the Upper Egyptian Qina and Esna . Blades , end scrapers and burins predominated.
In the western desert areas artifacts of the Atérien , which otherwise predominates in northwestern Africa, were found . However, the Upper Palaeolithic of Egypt seems to have been comparatively isolated, although contacts to Cyrenaica and the south of Israel and Jordan are possible.
Late Paleolithic
In contrast to the Upper Palaeolithic, quite a lot of sites are known from the late Paleolithic in Egypt. They go back between 21,000 and 12,000 years. The climate remained extremely dry, and the Nile carried less water. Heavy erosion in Ethiopia caused the mud layers in Nubia to swell to a height of 25 to 30 m above today's level. At the same time, the level of the Mediterranean sank by more than 100 m when the last major glaciations occurred in the north. These two processes have the consequence that the potential archaeological sites are inaccessible; consequently there are no finds from lower or middle Egypt. In addition, the Nile valley sank so deep that there was increased erosion on its steeper banks.
A 20 to 25-year-old man was found in Wadi Kubbaniya near Aswan who had been killed by arrows 23,000 years ago. His right arm must be broken while trying to fend off an attack. The man lived in an area that was very advantageous for hunters and gatherers, because the dunes of the Nile, which were piled up every year by its floods, blocked the outflow of the wadi, so that a lake was created here. There were several camps here that were visited seasonally. Sourgrass , chamomile, and tiger almond were part of the diet , the latter requiring careful handling, which may explain the large number of millstones found on the site. Fish, especially catfish, made up the largest proportion of animal food . Apparently both the rising tides and the shallow water of the beginning dry season in November were used to catch whole schools.
The slaughterhouse E71K12 near Esna belongs to the fakhuria. Numerous animals gathered here and moved from the floodplain to this natural groundwater lake. The main prey of the hunters were red hartebeest , aurochs or wild cattle and gazelle. The sites are likely to represent the general, strongly seasonal part of the year at the end of the Nile flooding and the time after.
The Nubian Upper Stone Age, or Neolithic Age, was followed by a final Stone Age phase known as the Nubian Final Stone Age . Its first phase is called Halfan (17,000 BG); it was followed by the Qadan (between the 2nd cataract and southern Egypt), the Arkinia and the Shamarkia .
The warming after the end of the last glacial period resulted in massive changes in the entire Nile. The floods were extraordinarily productive and reached areas that had hardly seen any water for a long time. This phase, known as the “wild Nile”, was not caused by precipitation in the still dry Lower Egypt, but by a strong climate change in sub-Saharan Africa. Makhadma 4, an affan industry site from around 12,900 to 12,300 BP north of Qena, was missed by the catastrophic flooding. Today it is 6 m above the flood level. 68% of the fish remains found there came from tilapia , 30% from predatory catfish . Apparently the fish was preserved by drying in pits. At the Makhadma 2 site, predatory catfish were apparently the basic foodstuff during the "wild Nile" phase around 12300 BP.
The microlithic qadan industry south of the 2nd cataract is primarily associated with three burial sites. There, 300 km south of Wadi Kubbaniya, was the cemetery at Gebel Sahaba (12,000 to 10,000 BC). Of the remains of 59 men, women and children unearthed there, 24 showed signs of serious injuries. Some still had arrowheads in their bodies, even in their skulls, so that a massacre can be assumed. This picture is confirmed by a kind of mass grave of up to 8 people in a pit. A smaller cemetery was found on the opposite side of the Nile. No traces of violence were found there.
The Sibilien industry can be found in the entire area between Qena and the 2nd cataract. This industry is characterized by large discounts and a preference for quartz and volcanic rock types. Since such preferences do not otherwise exist in Egypt, it could be the intrusion of groups from outside the country.
The first example of rock painting was discovered at site XXXII on the 2nd cataract. To the south of Edfu, i.e. in Egypt proper, images of fish traps were found near el-Hosh.
Between 12000 and 7000 BC BC sites in the Nile Delta are extremely rare. Apparently the area was almost completely depopulated, to which drought, but perhaps also the high mortality, contributed.
Around 6700 BC settled at the Nabta site. Shepherds with their cattle on a shallow lake barely 100 km from Wadi Kubbaniya, on the eastern edge of the Sahara. There were 12 round and oval huts there. Around 5800 BC Sheep and goats were added.
Ceramic in its oldest form in Nubia can be assigned to the Shamarkian ; this also applies to the roughly simultaneous phases of the Abkan and Khartoum . These ceramic types are strongly influenced by Egypt. The later settlements were considerably larger than those of earlier epochs, so that it is assumed that they were already villages with cultivated land.
Epipalaeolithic in the Nile Valley and in the desert
From 7000 BC BC people lived in the Nile Valley again, but only a few sites are known. Hunting, fishing and collecting continued to provide the basis of life. Artifacts from the time between 7000 and 6700 BC were found near Elkab. In contrast to the fishermen of the previous periods, the inhabitants equipped boats. In the area of the wadis, aurochs , dorkas and mane sheep were hunted . The Elkabian industry was microlithic, millstones existed, but red pigments were found on many of them, so that they cannot be taken as evidence of agriculture. The inhabitants were more likely nomads who moved to the desert in the rainier summer and hunted and fished in the Nile valley in winter. The Qarunia was formerly called Fayyum B. Its sites are found above around 7050 BC. Proto-Moeris-See created in BC. The abundant fish stocks made it possible for the inhabitants to live mainly from these catches. A woman around 40 was placed on her left side in a slightly crouched position. Her head faced east, facing south. Physiologically, it appears more modern than the late Neolithic Mechtoids (Mechta-Afalou), which were related to the Ibéromaurusia .
Traces of settlement in the area of the Red Sea, more precisely in its mountainous zone, such as in the Sodmein Cave near Quseir , show the introduction of domesticated sheep and goats for the first half of the 6th millennium.
Neolithic (from 8800 BC)
Western desert: Neolithic without tillage
In the western desert, abandoned towards the end of the Middle Paleolithic, rose around 9300 BC. The rainfall increased slightly so that people could gain a foothold again for some time. They probably came from the Nubian part of the Nile Valley, and they exhibited an essential feature of the Neolithic , namely livestock farming. Thus the beginning Neolithic Egypt differs fundamentally from that of neighboring Israel, where it was connected with the tillage, as well as elsewhere in the Fertile Crescent. In addition, ceramics were found in the western desert, the Neolithic of which was probably created on site .
A distinction is made between an early (8800-6800 BC) and a middle (6500–6100 BC) and a late Neolithic (5100-4700 BC). The times between these phases were caused by the return of the drought that made the area uninhabitable. The most important sites for the early phase are Nabta-Playa and Bir Kiselba. The smaller sites were mostly hunters and gatherers' camps in salt plains , so-called playas. These were used for a long time, but had to be cleared during the annual floods. By 7500 BC BC these cattle farmers only came into the desert with the summer rains. Although we find it in every place millstones, but the related plants, such as wild grasses, wild sorghum and Watkins , a buckthorn plant , found only at archaeological site E-75-6 (7000 v. Chr.) At Nabta Playa. Ceramics were rare, and ostrich eggs were preferred for water transport . Pottery, the decoration of which refers to the symbolic level, is probably an independent invention of Africa.
Settlement reached its peak during the following two phases. Most of the numerous camps from this period are small, but some were considerably expanded. Structures like mud-covered huts, pit houses and wells now appear more frequently. The large settlements on the Playa lakes were probably now permanently inhabited. Mussels show that there was contact with both the Mediterranean and the Red Sea. Around 5600 BC Sheep and goat appear as new pets, but the majority of the meat still came from wild animals.
The tool industry changed drastically in the Middle Neolithic. The previous blade production declined in favor of tee-offs for blade-like arrowheads that were concave at the base. The pottery remains similar to that of the early Neolithic and belongs to before 5100 BC. The Sahara-Sudanese or Khartoum tradition. Shortly before 4900 BC It was replaced quite abruptly by fired and smoothed goods. A monumental complex was found in Nabta-Playa. This consisted of ten stones of 2 x 3 m, a circle of upright plates with a diameter of almost 4 m. There were also two tumuli covered with plates, and in one of the two graves the remains of a bull with long horns were found in a chamber.
Around 5400 BC The diet largely depended on herds of cattle. These herds, which consisted mainly of goats, originally came from the Levant. After 4900 BC The amount of rain decreased again, even more after 4400 BC. However, some areas remained inhabited until historical times.
Nile valley: agriculture (from 5450 BC)
For the period between 7000 and 5400 BC Practically every knowledge is missing. A small site was found in the necropolis of Thebes, in at-Tarif , another near Armant . This epipalaeolithic, ceramic culture remains hardly tangible. The pottery finds consist only of small fragments, and there are no traces of livestock or agriculture.
Between 5450 and 4400 BC The Fayyum culture (formerly Fayyum A) existed. Their tools are closely related to the culture of the western desert. There were storage pits for grain. For the first time in Egypt, agriculture is the basis of nutrition. 109 silos with diameters between 30 and 150 cm were found in one storage area. In terms of cattle, there are still sheep and goats as well as cattle, but also pigs; fishing remained significant. In addition to mussels from the Mediterranean and Red Sea, Nubian diorite and pearls made from green feldspar were found , but no copper.
Merimde culture (mid-sixth millennium to around 4000 BC)
The Merimde culture was a culture whose name is derived from the location Merimde Beni Salama, about 45 km northwest of Cairo . A distinction must be made between three chronologically consecutive settlement complexes, which differ in their material culture, burial method and settlement image. The original settlement, which can be classified in the beginning of the ceramic Neolithic, has Southwest Asian roots. Prior to and related to the Merimde culture, it is a pre-ceramic Neolithic from the Heluan site , a place 25 km southeast of Cairo.
The ceramics of the Ursiedlung mostly consist of simple plate, bowl and kump shapes. It is noticeable that its basic substance was produced without any weight additives. A herringbone pattern was usually attached to closed forms as the only ornament. Special features are vessels for cultic use (cylindrical basins with pronounced standing rings, "altars"), miniature and handle vessels.
The manufacture of stone tools is characterized by a blade cutting technique, which is more likely to be derived from epipalaeolithic industries. Drills made from chips with a tip are typical. Coarse tools are very numerous, the most common among them being scrapers that are worked on one side. Bullet tips and an arrowhead with a handle and side notches indicate the usual reinforcement here.
Small finds include a human-shaped idol, bull sculptures, jewelry in the form of processed freshwater mussels and pendants made of mollusks, ostrich egg pearls, bone artifacts with fine eyelets, a pierced cattle tooth, cut artifacts made of hard stone, red chalk for body painting, and grinding and grinding stones.
After the first settlement was abandoned, it took some time before the place was repopulated. But apart from in the cultic area (bull sculptures) there are only a few continuities that indicate a connection between the middle Merimde culture (5500-4500 BC) and the original settlement. The differences to the original settlement in ceramics are serious. On the one hand, the ceramic is leaned out of chaff; their stability benefited from this, so that much larger vessels could be made. Oval vessels were added as special forms, which became the leading form of the middle settlement layer. In addition to the red polished ceramics, there was a gray polished category, which, with the smoothed ware, completes the ceramic inventory. In contrast to the original settlement, the pottery was undecorated, and there are no cult vessels.
A break with the middle Merimde culture can be seen in the manufacture of stone tools. This manifests itself in the production of beaten artifacts from cores. For armoring weapons, arrowheads with very long wings, triangular points with a flat scarf notch and polished spearheads in the form of cross-cutters were made. Sickle inserts indicate harvesting equipment. Very long and narrow drills are typical.
There were bull sculptures and ostrich egg pearls again, but now pearls of various shapes, small clay spheroids and fishhooks made of mussel shells were added. Numerous devices made of bones came into use. Pendants made of dog teeth and bangles made of ivory served as jewelry . Small finds made of stone are also quite numerous: stone vessels made of alabaster , club heads, net countersinks as well as grinding and grinding stones. Red chalk was used by people for jewelry purposes.
In contrast to the finds of the first three layers, which indicate small settlements close to the river, the fourth and fifth layers of settlement of the younger Merimde culture (4600-4100 BC) show larger dimensions. The most obvious changes are found in the ceramic finds of the younger compared to those of the middle Merimde culture. From layer III on, the red and gray polished goods are joined by a black polished product. What is new is that the polishes form different patterns on the respective vessel. Pottery painted in impasto can also be found occasionally. Apparently there were attempts to differentiate between a smoothed utility ceramic and a polished fine ceramic that was open to innovations.
The quality standard of the stone goods is occasionally very high. Stone tools were also made from cores, only a few tools were made from blades, such as small denticulated saws. In Layer IV, the bullet tips developed into the classic Merimde tip with short beveled wings. These arrowheads then also appeared in the Fayum-A culture . Different forms of sickles appeared, they became larger.
Human and animal-like clay figurines are documented in layers IV and V. Imprint-decorated bracelets are new. The bone artifacts form the largest group of small finds.
The people supplemented their diet with hunting and fishing. From the beginning, the proportion of cattle dominated and even increased in the younger settlements. Pigs were present in all phases of settlement, the number of sheep decreased steadily from the beginning of settlement. From the middle settlement onwards, fishing became very important and contributed to nutrition at a high level up to the younger settlements. Together with the hunt for hippos, crocodiles and turtles and the consumption of river mussels, fishing indicated that the population was oriented towards the Nile. The hunt for wild game in the desert, on the other hand, was insignificant;
The grain stocks apparently belonged to individual houses, so that the economic unit of the family gained greater independence. These houses were between 1.5 and 3 m wide, their floors were sunk about 40 cm into the ground; the roofs were covered with branches and thatch. A small number of figurines have been discovered, a roughly cylindrical head of which is believed to be the oldest human representation in Egypt.
Southwest Asia no longer plays a role, but Northeast Africa. This can be seen in harpoons, dechs, clam hooks and hatchets. This cultural change is associated with an arid phase in Palestine between the middle of the sixth and the middle of the fifth millennium BC. BC, from which no settlements can be proven for the area south of Lebanon.
The younger Merimde settlements, on the other hand, have a completely different cultural profile. They have now developed into a Neolithic culture in Lower Egypt, which influenced the Fayum-A culture and the delta cultures such as the Buto-Maadi culture. Egypt took over in the third millennium BC Not the processing of tin and copper to bronze, apart from two artifacts. These are two vessels from Abydos and unclear metal fragments from Tell el-Fara'in in the Nile Delta.
Predynastics
As Prädynastik (Vordynastik) in which it is Egyptology the phase prior to the formation of dynasties in the late 4th millennium BC. Chr., Whereby the first unification of the empire was the focus. In the age of nationalism, this unquestionably represented a turning point in an era; therefore, the times of rule not borne by Egyptians, i.e. foreign rule or phases of fragmentation, are only perceived as "interim times". The predynastic includes the epochs of the Badari culture up to the beginning of the 1st dynasty .
Badari culture (5000/4400 to 4000 BC), copper processing
The Badari culture is the oldest known from Upper Egypt with a sedentary, soil-cultivating way of life. It is dated to around 4400 to 4000 BC. BC - perhaps it began as early as 5000 BC. A - and followed the Merimde culture . A previous Tasa culture (4300-4000 BC) is discussed. This culture had ceramic connections in Sudan, but animal husbandry and type of agriculture point to Palestine. It may have been a nomadic culture that interacted with the Badari culture. The Badari culture, for its part, may also have been shaped by seasonal migrations. A total of about 600 graves and 40 settlements were found.
The name Badari culture comes from the village of the same name, el-Badari, south of Asyut on the east bank of the Nile. There were small villages on the flat desert strip on the edge of the Nile. The people living there practiced agriculture, cattle breeding, hunting and fishing. There is the first evidence of copper and faience working and relations with Palestine. The shells of the Badari culture come from the Red Sea. There were round houses, probably for the cattle that were slaughtered during the periods of flooding. Wheat, rye, lentils and root crops were stored in storage pits. In addition to the core area, Badari artifacts were also found in the south at Mahgar Dendera, Armant, Elkab and Hierakonpolis , and in the east as far as Wadi Hammamet.
At the edge of their villages they buried their dead in oval pits, mostly on the left, in a crouched position and facing west, as was customary in the subsequent epochs. The graves were very unevenly distributed, with the richer graves being concentrated in certain areas of the cemeteries.
Very young children were buried within those parts of the settlements that were no longer in use. Figurines with gazelle or hippopotamus heads were used as symbolic additions. Such symbols from the animal world shaped the entire ancient Egyptian culture.
While people used rather coarse ceramic vessels in everyday life, they gave their dead fine ceramic dishes made of red or brown polished clay. Typical of the ceramics of Badariculture was the black edge strip, which was produced using a special firing technique. Another characteristic is a ribbed surface that people created by “combing” the polish on the finest vessels. Particularly thin-walled vessels characterize a certain luxury production. Among the additions there are also carvings made of ivory and bone of particular beauty. Copper can also be found sporadically in the form of needles and pearls, but in very small quantities. This distinctive grave cult can be found for the first time in Egyptian culture and shaped the following epochs.
Combs and jewelry, such as bracelets, pearls made of bone and ivory, but above all greywacke palettes, were found quite often. The latter became typical of the subsequent Naqada culture. Only a few abstract to realistic statuettes of women were found; they are made of clay and ivory.
Naqada culture (4000–3200 BC)
The Naqada culture following the Badari culture is considered to be the forerunner of the ancient Egyptian empire. It is divided into three stages, with the first stage going up to around 3500 BC. The second to 3200 and the third to about 3000 BC. Chr.
In the 4th millennium, a predominantly manufacturing economy can be documented for the first time. It is unclear whether the ancestors of the domesticated cattle, pigs and goats came from the Middle East or North Africa. Sites like Naqada provide traces of agriculture and livestock farming. The spatial extent of the Naqada-I sites extends from Matmar in the north to Kubaniya and Khor Bahan in the south. In stage II it extends northward to the eastern edge of the delta and southward to the Nubian neighbors.
Only a few traces of settlement from Naqada I have survived, mostly post holes and accumulations of organic substances. The houses were made of tamped clay, wood, grass and palm leaves. In Hierakonpolis, archaeologists excavated a hearth and a rectangular house measuring 4 by 3.5 meters.
The burial places grew in level I in relation to the previous cultures. The dead were buried in wooden or earthen coffins, and the graves were richer. The largest grave in Hierakonpolis measured 2.5 by 1.8 m. Disc clubs attest to the prominent position of some of the dead; society evidently became more hierarchical. Boats are one of the leitmotifs of Naqada II. Figurines are common, they represent either the hunt or the victorious warrior. The hunt took place with a bow and arrow, often with dogs. Of the thousands of known graves, only a few contained figurines, mostly only one. The highest number of figurines in a single grave was 16. Soon the triangular beard and a kind of Phrygian headgear became very distinctive and also had an impact far into historical times.
Naqada II has larger and more elaborate graves. At the same time, the spectrum broadened, which now ranged from small oval pits to rectangular pits with separate compartments for grave goods. Some of the corpses have already been wrapped in linen strips. In Adaima near Hierakonpolis a double grave was found with the first traces of mummification. The corpses were also occasionally dismantled so that rows of skulls were created. In Adaima, there were signs of human sacrifice (traces of cut throats with subsequent decapitation).
On 3320 BC Finds dated to the U of Umm el-Qaab near Abydos (grave U - j ) in the BC cemetery may indicate that the script was developed independently of the Sumerian script .
The term "zeroth dynasty" describes the period in which the first inscribed minor kings can be proven. These rulers first used the Serech as a name seal. Upper Egypt occupied lower Egyptian regions, which resulted in an empire unification. The red crown of the north , which later symbolically represented Lower Egypt, still stood for the northern part of Upper Egypt in predynastic times, while the white crown was mainly worn by kings in southern Upper Egypt.
In the time of Scorpio II , Ka and other rulers, cultural innovations also become clear. Soil management and trade became more complex. Scorpio diversified offices and hierarchies; Provinces and principalities merged and expanded.
Vessels with typical Upper Egyptian decorations were found in the Nile Delta and vice versa. The permanent exchange between the kingships, which was not only economically but also ideologically motivated, led to a certain standardization of material cultures. At the latest under King Narmer , it becomes clear in the vessel inscriptions and in the finds in Abyden and Thinitic tombs how multi-layered and complex the hierarchical class system has been since the Naqada culture. Given the fact that every kingdom in Scorpio's time had its own central administrative and power center, it seems to have been only a matter of leadership which of the early dynastic rulers finally succeeded in unifying the empire.
One of the greatest economic and power factors will have been the irrigation systems, the development and use of which reached their first peak under Scorpio II. However, the areas with controlled irrigation were apparently limited to very small areas.
Naqada II shows enormous advances in stone processing technology and extraction. Alabaster and marble, basalt and gneiss, diorite and gabbro were quarried along the Nile, but especially in the Wadi Hammamet. Copper was no longer only used on small objects, but increasingly replaced stone works. This is how axes, blades, bracelets and rings were made from the material. Gold and silver were also increasingly used.
For the first time, real settlement centers emerged with Naqada II, while the Nile became a long chain of village-like settlements. The most important centers were in Upper Egypt. These were Naqada, then Hierakonpolis, finally Abydos, where the first pharaohs had their necropolis built. In the southern city of Naqada, a building structure measuring 50 by 30 m was found, which may have represented a temple or a residence.
Maadi culture in the north
In the time before the expansion of the Naqada culture, there were independent cultures in the north that go back to Neolithic roots. The Cairo district of Maadi is the namesake of a culture that was tangible from the second half of Naqada I and existed up to Naqada IIc / d. Maadi goes back to the Neolithic cultures of Fayyum and Merimda Beni Salama. The culture differs in that hardly any cemeteries are known here, while our knowledge, in contrast to Naqada, goes back to settlement finds.
In Maadi, the predynastic remains cover an area of 18 hectares. Three types of settlement can be distinguished, one of which is strongly reminiscent of settlements such as Be'er Scheva in southern Palestine. The houses include oval buildings three by five meters that are buried up to three meters deep. A single house has stone walls and adobe bricks. The other house types of Maadi can also be found in the rest of Egypt. These include oval huts with external ovens and storage pits, but also rectangular huts with walls made of plant material.
The oldest ceramic pieces point to Upper Egyptian and Sudanese contacts. Trade contacts with Palestine already existed at this time. So oil, wine and raisins came from there. Flint tools also show a strong Middle Eastern influence (Canaanite blades). Combs and objects made of polished bone and ivory, such as needles and harpoons, came from Upper Egypt. Metal objects were much more common than in the south. Significant amounts of copper were found in Maadi, probably from copper sites in Wadi Arabah in the southeast of the Sinai Peninsula.
Despite these significant influences, Maadi culture was based on livestock farming and land cultivation. Pigs, cattle, goats and sheep made up the bulk of animal foods. Donkeys, which can be detected for the first time in Egypt, were used as transport animals.
Judging by the roughly 600 graves - in the south there were around 15,000 - the social hierarchy was not very well developed. Usually the dead were given one or two clay pots on the way, often nothing. However, some graves were more elaborately equipped than the others. The dead were buried in a crouched position, hands in front of their faces. The more elaborately equipped graves, albeit still simple compared to the south, were mixed with dog and gazelle graves. The Buto site shows the transition to the Naqada culture. In the beginning, Naqada pottery increased significantly and a cultural assimilation process is emerging. The social complexity in the trading empire also increased.
Old Egypt
Naqada III (3200-3000 BC) and Early Dynastic Period (3100-2686 BC)
Two factors favored a cultural, perhaps also an ethnic expansion from south to north. For one thing, Naqada was evidently much more active in trade than the north was. The central means of trade were boats and ships, the builders of which in turn relied on cedar wood from Lebanon. At the same time, it was a constant challenge to control and secure the trade routes. In any case, the independent cultural development of the north ended with Naqada III at the latest. But Naqada itself soon no longer played a role, but was overtaken by Abydos.
The trade routes to Palestine were apparently already secured at this time. There were Egyptians working with local materials in Egyptian technique. They apparently maintained a network of settlements. The trade in lapis lazuli , which came from Afghanistan , covered many more areas during this period .
In later Egyptian sources, King Menes appears (around 3000 BC) as the first king of an entire Egyptian state. He is also the first ruler of the 1st Dynasty. It is difficult for modern research to equate this king with contemporary rulers. The following first two dynasties are known as the Thinite Age . At the beginning of the first dynasty, the country's capital was moved to Memphis . The kings are buried in monumental tombs in Abydos . Large court cemeteries were built near Memphis. Campaigns to Nubia and Palestine are known of inscriptions, but apparently these were mostly just individual raids. Under the long rule of Den , Egypt experienced the height of the 1st dynasty. The font is further developed. There are advances in architecture and art. The names of institutions and dignitaries are also known from the inscriptions, suggesting a sophisticated administration. In our sources, the first dynasty is politically relatively stable. Eight rulers ruled for a period of over 100 years. In the 2nd dynasty, the center of the country shifted further and further north. The first rulers of the dynasty were now buried in monumental tombs near Memphis. In the middle of the dynasty there are some indications of the presence of confusion. The country's unity may even have broken apart. Only Chasechemui , the last ruler of the dynasty, restored the unity of the country. Two statues of him have also survived, which show all the characteristics of ancient Egyptian sculpture in terms of style and design.
Old Kingdom (approx. 2686–2160 BC)
The Old Kingdom began with the third dynasty. It is the epoch in which the typical Egyptian expression in art , religion and culture was found and, above all, developed to full bloom for the first time. The administrative center and royal residence was Memphis throughout the Old Kingdom. Most of the rulers of this era are just names for us, known for their pyramids. Texts that convey political events are extremely rare. The sun cult of Re, which was connected with an increasing importance of the king, experienced a comprehensive boom. Occasional campaigns to Palestine, against Libyans and to Nubia took place, trade contacts there remained.
Third and fourth dynasties: early pyramids, division into Gaue, increased cult of the dead
Djoser was the first important ruler of this dynasty. He was the son of Nimaathapi , who in turn was the wife of Chasechemui, the last ruler of the 2nd dynasty. Djoser had a stone pyramid built for himself. It is the first building made of carved stone in Egypt and ushers in the age of the pyramids. Its builder Imhotep was worshiped as a deity in Hellenistic times. Little is known about Djoser's reign and his successors seem to have only ruled briefly, so that the dynasty appears problematic in many ways.
Sneferu (around 2670 to 2620 BC) was the first ruler of the 4th Dynasty. He built three pyramids at once and can therefore be described as the greatest master builder in Egypt. During this time, the country was under a strong centralized regime. Much of Egypt's resources were brought to the residential region for the construction of the pyramids. The basic structure of the administration was expanded in the way that it was to remain in the entire Old Kingdom, with the highest officials often being family members of the royal family. Nubian campaigns by Sneferu are known from annals, but little else is known about his reign. His successor Chufu (Cheops) is the builder of the largest pyramid in Egypt. Only a few events are known from his reign. The same goes for Chephren , who built a pyramid almost as large. The tombs of his successors, on the other hand, are relatively small, although still gigantic in themselves.
Fifth and sixth dynasties: increased cult of rulers, rising nobility, bureaucracy
The 5th Dynasty is marked by the special attention that many rulers paid to the sun god Re . Many kings of this dynasty built monumental sun shrines while their pyramids are slightly smaller than those of the 4th Dynasty. From the end of the 5th Dynasty, the influence of the provinces began to grow. Important provincial tombs date from this period, indicating that some of the land's resources remained on site and were not brought into the residence. At the end of the 5th Dynasty, no further sun shrines were built.
In the 6th dynasty the tendencies of the 5th dynasty continued. The provinces are becoming more and more important. Residence officials are employed there, apparently to ensure control of the residence over the distant provinces. The kings now also began to build temples in the provinces, which mostly served the cult of the king. The biography of the civil servant Weni comes from the 6th dynasty , from which one learns of military trains to southern Palestine. At the end of the long reign of Pepi II (around 2245 to 2180 BC), the unity of Egypt seems to have shattered. There were various local princes who ruled practically independently of the residence, even though the ruler in Memphis was still nominally recognized as king. After the death of Pepi II, a number of little-known and only briefly reigning kings followed.
First intermediate period (2160–2055 BC), fragmentation, dominance of Thebes and Herakleopolis
After the death of Pepi II, a few previously poorly documented rulers ruled. The country fell into various more or less independent principalities, which the kings in Memphis could control less and less. The following 7th and 8th dynasties are poorly documented. According to Manetho, the 7th Dynasty is said to have consisted of 70 kings who ruled in 70 days. This dynasty probably didn't even exist. The rulers of the 8th dynasty are mainly known from later lists of kings, only a few of them have survived on contemporary monuments. The pyramid was found by King Qakare Ibi . It's small and shows the dwindling resources of the Memphis rulers. The tomb of Anchtifi comes from Upper Egypt around this time and proudly reports on his conquests there. He acted practically like an independent ruler, even if he did not run the royal statute. The 9th and 10th dynasties are described by Manetho as Herakleopolitan . Both dynasties probably ruled from Herakleopolis (in the north of the country, at the entrance to the Fayyum). Their rulers are also only known from a few inscriptions and later king lists. At around the same time, local princes assumed the royal stature in Thebes, Upper Egypt. Within 100 years they managed to conquer large parts of Upper Egypt. Fights against the Herakleopolitans are attested. Mentuhotep II , who came from Thebes, finally managed to defeat the northern enemy within his 51-year reign and bring all of Egypt under his rule.
Middle Kingdom (2055–1650 BC)
The Middle Kingdom is the second great epoch of the Egyptian Empire. It includes the 11th, 12th and parts of the 13th dynasty. The Middle Kingdom is considered to be the feudal period in Egyptian history. Local princes ruled in various provinces, although they were loyal to the king and were partially put into power by him, but left considerable land resources in the province. Compared to the Old Kingdom, there is a richly diversified wealth. The Middle Kingdom can be divided into two phases. The early Middle Kingdom up to Sesostris II. Was strongly decentralized, while in the late Middle Kingdom, from Sesostris III. the power of the local princes was severely curtailed and the administration of the country was also reorganized. A strong centralization can be observed. A new custom of the Middle Kingdom is coregentity. Many rulers put a son on the throne while they were still alive and ruled with him. Obviously, disputes over the throne were avoided in advance.
Early Middle Kingdom
After under Mentuhotep II in the 11th dynasty Egypt around 2000 BC. BC was reunited into one state, the ruler began to set up a new administration and reorganize the country. This ruler also began an aggressive foreign policy. The ruler waged war above all in Nubia , but also in Palestine. Mentuhotep II also began an extensive temple building project in which he rebuilt various local temples in Upper Egypt in stone. His son Mentuhotep III. seems to have continued his father's policy, but little is known about his reign. The 11th dynasty probably ended in turmoil. Some kings of this time are known from Lower Nubia who laid claim to the throne. At the beginning of the following 12th dynasty is Amenemhet I. He moved the capital from Thebes to Itj-taui in the region of Fayyum. Amenemhet I also succeeds in expanding the borders of Egypt into the heart of Nubia. In the east of the delta, a line of defense, the ruler's wall, was built. This ruler also starts building a pyramid again. His son and successor Sesostris I continued the policy. He mainly conquered Nubia up to the 2nd cataract and began to build fortresses there. In an extensive temple building program, almost all the important temples in Egypt seem to have been rebuilt or at least reshaped in stone. Its pyramid is in many details a copy of a pyramid from the Old Kingdom and shows how much the Middle Kingdom was oriented towards the Old Kingdom. Especially at the end of the 11th and the beginning of the 12th dynasty there were probably civil war-like conditions throughout the country. Obviously the kings were not recognized on all sides. Already at the beginning of the 12th dynasty, the Fayyum, a river oasis that had hardly been used for agriculture, was made usable for agriculture. For Amenemhet II there is evidence of campaigns to Palestine, where two cities were sacked.
Late Middle Kingdom
Under Sesostris III. began the late Middle Kingdom. The power of the local princes was now severely curtailed. The ruler waged war in Nubia, where further fortresses were built, and he waged war in Palestine, with the latter undertakings being rather poorly documented. After all, Sesostris is considered by posterity to be one of the greatest generals in Egypt. New institutions appeared in the administration. His son Amenemhet III. finally brought the fertility of the fayyum to an end. He built two pyramids, one of them near the Fayyum. His two successors only ruled for a relatively short time. With Nefrusobek , probably a daughter of Amenemhet III, the dynasty passed around 1800 BC. Chr. To the end.
The following 13th dynasty consists of a large number of rulers who only ruled briefly. The late Middle Kingdom continues uninterrupted in culture and administration, but there seem to have been disputes for the throne, of which Egyptian sources report nothing, but which can be inferred from the many kings who followed one another in quick succession. After a particularly troubled phase at the beginning of the dynasty, the rulers Neferhotep I and Sobekhotep IV , who ruled together for about 20 years, experienced a brief recovery phase, but already under the successors Jaib and Aja I , who perhaps more than 30 years Years ruled, the empire fell into disrepair. Much has been puzzled about the causes, but Asians who immigrated to the delta and at some point took power there certainly played an important role.
Second Intermediate Period (c. 1685–1532 or 1528 BC)
With the Second Intermediate Period , another epoch begins, which is marked by the incursion of Semitic peoples from the east. The Hyksos (15th Dynasty) occupied the Nile Delta and large parts of Lower Egypt and made Auaris their capital. The Egyptian court withdrew to Thebes in Upper Egypt. These are the 16th and 17th dynasties, with some research looking into the 16th dynasty as vassal kings of the Hyksos. There kings ruled in succession to the 13th dynasty. The few sources report constant wars against the northern neighbors and one learns that at an uncertain point in time Nubians invaded Egypt. The few monuments from this era show a drastic decline in art. King Ahmose at the end of the 17th dynasty is also considered to be the founder of the 18th dynasty and united all of Egypt under his rule.
New Kingdom (1550/1528 to 1070 BC)
The New Kingdom includes the 18th, 19th and 20th dynasties. Thebes became the religious and Memphis the administrative capital. The period is well documented by royal and private inscriptions, though there are many unanswered questions. The country opened up to other Middle Eastern cultures more than ever before, and the kings conducted extensive correspondence with all of the major contemporary rulers.
18th dynasty: extreme expansion, internal religious conflict
Ahmose and Amenophis I (around 1525 to 1504 BC) consolidated the now reunited empire. Thutmose I was already able to expand the border in the south of the country, as a result of which more prisoners were transferred to Egypt due to military campaigns. Nubia was conquered by the 4th cataract. The ruler also fought wars in the Middle East and reached Syria and the Euphrates . After the death of the reigning queen Hatshepsut , Thutmose III followed. ; his 33 campaigns further consolidated Egypt's supremacy, especially in the Middle East. The local small and city states up to the Euphrates became vassals of Egypt. There were conflicts with the great power Mitanni in what is now Syria.
Amenophis IV moved his seat of government to the newly built city of Akhet-Aton in Middle Egypt and changed his name to Akhenaten . Above all, however, he preached the cult of the sun god Aton and pursued the cult of the god Amun and other deities. His reign plunged Egypt into a deep religious and political crisis. Shortly after his death, the successors returned to the old cults. As a result, power passed into the hands of the Haremhab military .
19th and 20th Dynasty: Wars with Hittites and Sea Peoples
Since many rulers of these dynasties bore the name of Ramses, this epoch is also known as the Ramesside period. Haremhab was followed by the 19th dynasty with Ramses I and Sethos I , who resumed the policy of conquest in the Orient, and finally Ramses II , who used all his strength to defeat the Hittites , but no real decision was made. He moved his capital to Piramesse in the eastern delta. In his 21st year in office, there was a peace treaty between the two powers. Ramses II married a daughter of the Hittite great king to confirm the good relations between the two great powers. Ramses II ruled for over 60 years, and for the second half of his reign there are signs that Libyans invaded the delta. Under Merenptah there was a counterattack that was celebrated as a victory, but the clashes continued to smolder. The 19th dynasty ended in disputes for the throne, after Merenptah some rulers who ruled only briefly followed and the country was at times divided.
In the 20th dynasty, Ramses III ruled . who managed to repel the Sea Peoples . These were different peoples who, coming from the north, overran parts of the Levant and destroyed the Hittite Empire. They could only be repulsed in the Nile Delta. In the period that followed, Egypt was marked by crises and civil wars. The seat of government remained in the north of the country. The transition to the following 21st dynasty is unclear, in any case a new ruling family, who resided in Tanis but already had power, seems to have taken over after the death of the last Ramses.
Third Intermediate Period (1069–664 / 652 BC)
In the 21st Dynasty, Egypt was ruled by kings who resided in Tanis . Especially under Psusennes I , this city was expanded into a residence. The rulers of the dynasty were probably of Libyan descent, while in Upper Egypt a sideline of the royal family ruled, the members of which carried military and priestly titles and even partially assumed royal titles. The following 22nd dynasty was also Libyan. Under Scheschonq I (around 946 to 924 BC), the founder of the dynasty, Egypt again led an aggressive foreign policy. The king invaded Palestine and sacked cities without any further conquests. Important positions in the country, such as that of the high priest, were occupied by him and the following rulers by sons of kings.
However, this quickly led to a fragmentation of the country, as many of these sons tried to usurp power and assume the title of king themselves. Overall, it is difficult for research to distinguish the individual rulers of the 22nd and the following 23rd dynasty, as they often had identical names and throne names. When the Nubian king Pije (around 746 to 715/713 BC) invaded Egypt, he found the country divided into numerous small kingdoms. Pije was the founder of the 25th Dynasty. At least in part, Egypt was now ruled from Nubia.
Under Taharqa the country experienced intense royal building activity. But this ruler also had to fight with the Assyrians , whom he was able to repel several times. 671 BC BC Memphis was conquered, but the Assyrians could not hold out in Egypt and were repulsed. Tanotamun could 664 BC. To conquer the Nile Delta and until 663 BC Chr. Drive out the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal , who however subsequently persecuted Tanotamun to Thebes. Around 655 BC BC Psammetich I ended the Assyrian rule in Lower Egypt.
Late period (664–332 BC)
After the expulsion of the Assyrians, Psammetich I, a native king, came to power again (although probably also Libyan in the broadest sense). He founded the 26th Dynasty (around 664 to 525 BC), which united Egypt. This era is often referred to as the time of the strings, as Sais in the Delta was now the capital.
Even with this dynasty it was not a matter of a single ruling family in the strict sense. While the first kings of this dynasty were related, the last two belonged to a different family. A new administration was set up inside the country. The rulers waged war in the Middle East, where the Neo-Babylonian Empire had become a strong enemy.
Amasis conquered Cyprus in the first decade of his rule and formed an alliance with Cyrene, founded by Greek settlers in what is now eastern Libya, which his predecessor had fought against. In Naukratis , a Greek trading colony was established on Egyptian soil. 539 BC The New Babylonian Empire was conquered by the Achaemenid Empire in 525 BC. They were able to defeat the ruling Pharaoh. Egypt became a satrapy of the Achaemenid Empire.
The rule of the Persians lasted from 525 to 404/401 BC. And from 341 to 332 BC The capital of satrapy was Memphis, where a satrap administered the province. In the first decades of rule the Persian kings built temples in Egyptian style and had themselves represented on them as pharaohs with a royal titular in Egyptian style. There is less evidence of this for the later part of Persian rule. The canal, which was started under Necho II and connected the Nile with the Red Sea, was also built between about 510 and 497 BC. Completed. There were various Egyptian revolts; Amyrtaios was finally able, supported by Greek mercenary armies, from 404 BC. To drive the Persians out of Egypt. He is the only ruler of the 28th Dynasty. The subsequent 28th and 29th dynasties could last until 341 BC. Withstand the Persian pressure. Above all, the rulers of the 30th dynasty developed a brisk building activity. After several attacks on Egypt, which played a dangerous role for Persia in the uprisings in the empire and in the fight with the Greeks, Nectanebos II was finally taken over by the army of the Persian king Artaxerxes III. beaten. However, Persian rule only lasted until 332 BC. Chr.
Greco-Roman Period (332 BC – 395 AD)
Alexander Empire, Ptolemaic (332–30 BC)
After Alexander the great the Persian king Darius III. defeated, he went to Egypt. The Persian satrap Mazakes surrendered the rule before Memphis. A short time later, Alexander was crowned Pharaoh according to the Egyptian rite and took the name "the beloved of Re, the chosen of Amun". The port city of Alexandria was also founded according to the plans of the king and pharaoh. The Alexandrians established a cult of the founder-hero ( héros ktístes ), yes of the founder-god ( théos ktístes ). Since Alexander withdrew with his army relatively quickly, he appointed a satrap like the Persians .
Alexander, who died on June 10, 323 BC. BC in Babylon, had given his signet ring to Perdiccas before his death . Ptolemy preferred a less centralized association of the successors of Alexander. In the " Imperial Order of Babylon " in 323 the satrapies were given to the individual generals, with Ptolemy receiving Egypt. He seized Alexander's body and the burial took place in Alexandria.
Perdiccas , who tried to hold the Alexander Empire together, advanced in 321 BC. BC to Egypt, but Ptolemy was able to repel him at Memphis. The son of Antigonus I. Monophthalmos , the successor of the murdered Perdiccas, was also born near Gaza in 312 BC. Defeated in BC, Ptolemy confirmed as Egyptian satrap. After the victory of 306 over the second who tried to conquer Egypt, over Antigonus I. Monophthalmos himself, the empires of the Diadochi established themselves . Ptolemy ruled from 305 BC. As king. Other diadochi also founded kingdoms; the Ptolemies established themselves in most of the coastal areas of Asia Minor. The Greek states hoped for Egyptian help against the Macedonian superiority, which in turn allied with the Seleucids , who ruled West Asia. Three heavy defeats ended Ptolemaic naval rule. 258 BC BC it was defeated against the fleet of a Rhodian admiral, a second defeat took place against the Macedonian king and 245 BC. BC the Egyptians were defeated before Andros . In the Fifth Syrian War , Egypt lost in 195 BC. BC also its influence in Syria to the Seleucids. Only the island of Cyprus remained Ptolemaic for more than a quarter of a millennium.
The closed Ptolemaic monetary system applied not only to Egypt, but also to Cyrene and Cyprus. But the Greek opponents made the Ptolemies to create and 246 BC. BC there was a first uprising in Egypt, 217 to 197 there was a revolt of the soldiers in Lower Egypt. Alexandria has grown into an impressive metropolis. The construction of the Alexandria library and the lighthouse , which was one of the seven wonders of the world , were completed under Ptolemy II . At least a quarter of the city was occupied by palaces, the sema, the burial place where Alexander lay in a gold, later glass coffin, was one of the showpieces. The dynasty achieved a previously impossible integration with a view to the administration and the economy in the empire. The dynasty was increasingly associated with Zeus , Dionysus and Apollo . All Ptolemies belonged to a family of gods who had their own cult with extensive sacrificial rituals.
However, in addition to the external struggles, internal struggles raged among the Ptolemies' relatives through all the following generations, in which the population also interfered, especially those of the capital. The power of the Alexandrians was first broken by the legions of Caesar in 48/47 BC. There was an independent state in the Thebais between 205 and 186 under King Haronophris, who was in 197 BC. Chr. Chaonnophris followed. Perhaps this showed the political ambition of the Amun priesthood in connection with religious xenophobia.
Rome interfered more and more in the affairs. It waged wars against the Hellenistic empires, 167 BC. The kingdom of Macedonia disappeared, followed by Asia Minor (from 133 BC) and 64 BC. The annexation of the remaining empire of the Seleucids. At the same time Rome became a guarantor for the continued existence of the Ptolemaic Empire. After the Roman victory over Macedonia, Gaius Popillius Laenas went to Alexandria to deliver an ultimatum to the Seleucid king demanding the immediate withdrawal from occupied Egypt. 96 BC BC Rome acquired the Cyrenaica, 58 BC. BC Cyprus.
During the Roman civil wars , the general Gnaeus Pompeius first landed on the run from Caesar in Alexandria, but was murdered. His victorious opponent Julius Caesar intervened in the dynastic dispute to decide it in favor of Cleopatra against her brothers. Around 50 BC There was serious unrest. 50/49 BC There were riots in the Herakleopolitian Gau, but these were put down. Finally, on October 27, 50 BC. BC issued a royal order in which all grain buyers in Middle Egypt were obliged to bring their goods only to the capital, punishable by death. Around the autumn of 49 BC Cleopatra was expelled from Alexandria.
Cleopatra, now Caesar's lover, was born in the summer of 46 BC. Invited to Rome. After the assassination attempt on Caesar, she fled to Egypt. There the queen also won the heart of Mark Antony , who gave her 36 BC. The earlier Ptolemaic territories in Syria and Asia Minor. After the couple's fleets in 31 BC BC in the battle of Actium by Octavian, the later Emperor Augustus , Egypt fell to the Roman Empire the following year .
Roman Empire
Egypt as a Roman province
30 BC BC Roman troops took Alexandria, the capital of the Ptolemies. Octavian annexed the country as a new Roman province , but only once, in the year 27 BC. Visited.
Aegyptus held a special position among the Roman provinces for a long time because of its great wealth, but also because of its cultural diversity. It was subsequently the breadbasket of the empire and was directly subordinate to the emperor, who administered the province through the praefectus Aegypti . Augustus alone gave the senators and members of the imperial family permission to enter the country. Diodorus Siculus gives the population of Egypt in the 1st century with 3 million, while Flavius Josephus gives 7.5 million - without Alexandria, which had 300,000 to 500,000 inhabitants. There were 2000 to 3000 villages with perhaps 1000 to 1500 inhabitants. Slaves made up perhaps 11% of the population, of whom about two-thirds were female. In the rest of the population there was more of a male surplus. Life expectancy for girls at birth was perhaps 20 to 25 years, for boys it was certainly over 25 years. According to the research, one sixth of the marriages were between siblings, the men married later than the women.
For the historical sciences, Egypt is of enormous importance, as papyri have survived better in its dry climate than in the other provinces. This is where Oxyrhynchus stands out, a place 200 km above Cairo, after which the Oxyrhynchus papyri were named. Also the ostraka , described clay tablets from the eastern desert, more precisely from the Mons Claudianus fort , of which more than 9,000 have been found, offer unusually broad and deep insights into the societies that produced them. In addition to papyri, other organic materials, such as fabrics and clothes, baskets, leather, but also food, were better preserved because of the drought.
Prefect, civil and military administration, ethnically determined hierarchy
Rome took over the administrative division of the country, so that there were still 30 nomes under the respective strategoi , who were accountable to the prefect, with their own capital. The prefect was the personal representative of his master in Egypt, military commander of the legions stationed there, appellate authority on legal issues and head of administration. For long stretches of the imperial era, the office was considered the pinnacle of a knightly career.
The first prefect in Egypt was Cornelius Gallus . Shortly after his appointment, he moved in 29 BC. BC to Upper Egypt to put down a rebellion there. Further south, he then repulsed the advancing Ethiopians.
Around AD 70, the prefecture of Egypt stepped down from the praetorian prefects in the ranking of knightly offices . The praefectus Aegypti were subordinate to three or four epistrates who also belonged to the knighthood. The administration of a province in this form was unique in the empire. The top administration was Roman, the middle administrative strata of the Gau level (Gaustrategen) Greek and only the local administration Egyptian.
The praefectus Aegypti had its seat in the port city of Alexandria. He traveled regularly through Egypt to hold court and make administrative decisions. His most important task was the tax and financial administration, in which he was supported by procurators from the knighthood. He also commanded the legions and auxiliaries stationed in Egypt . His term of office was not fixed and was determined by the respective emperor. It was usually two or three years, sometimes, as under Tiberius , it was also significantly longer.
The cities initially enjoyed no self-government. This changed under Emperor Septimius Severus in 200 when a city council was introduced in each of the thirty main towns. With that the places developed to Municipia . From 212 onwards, all cities in the empire had at least the rank of municipium, which, however, entailed considerable financial burdens. Every male resident between 14 and 60 years old had to pay an annual tax. The small group of Roman citizens was exempt from this, however, the upper classes (metropolites) paid a reduced tax.
Of the three legions, one was in Alexandria. There were also three Roman cohorts there, three more each in Syene on the southern border, and finally three in the rest of the country. The three cavalry units (alae) were also distributed throughout the country. In Alexandria the fortress Nikopolis stood, about 5 km east of the city center, there were observation towers all over the country, because any movement through the desert was only allowed with appropriate permits, be it on ostraca or on papyrus. Legionnaires also accompanied the tax collectors, guarded the grain transport on the Nile, secured mines and the transport of materials.
Uprisings, counter-emperors, administration and provinces
During the reign of Emperor Caligula , a guerrilla war broke out in Alexandria between the Hellenic and Jewish populations. In 69 Vespasian , who was proconsul of the province of Africa at the time, was proclaimed emperor in Alexandria.
Avidius Cassius , who, as a descendant of the Seleucids, made it to the praefectus Aegypti , became governor of Syria in 166. In 172 he ended the uprising of the Bucoles in Lower Egypt, which had started in 166/67 (Cass. Dio 71, 4). The leader had been a priest by the name of Isodorus. In 175 Avidius Cassius was proclaimed emperor by the Egyptian legions after a false report of the death of Mark Aurel had spread. He was murdered in Syria that same year.
In 268 Lower Egypt was occupied by the army of Queen Zenobia of Palmyra , while Upper Egypt was partly occupied by the Blemmyern , a Nubian tribe. In 270 the Roman general Tenagino Probus succeeded in reintegrating Egypt into the empire. In 279, Kaiser Probus led a successful campaign against the Blemmyes. Emperor Diocletian paid them annual fees, but this did not prevent them from further raids; Finally Diocletian was forced to give up parts of the threatened province. The border was moved back to the first cataract and secured by fortresses.
When a revolt broke out in Upper Egypt in 292 and Alexandria rose against the Romans two years later, Emperor Diocletian recaptured the country in 295. The last but also the most violent persecution of Christians took place during his reign. Maximinus Daia was the last Roman emperor recorded in Egypt (until 313).
As part of Diocletian's provincial reform, which separated civil administration from military tasks, the province of Egypt was divided up, which was later changed several times. The administrative area of the praefectus Aegypti was limited to Lower Egypt and at times the Fayyum Basin , the other areas were administered by praesides . The dux Aegypti et Thebaidos utrarumque Libyarum was solely responsible for military questions .
The Praefectus praetorio per Orientem was subordinate to the dioceses of Oriens , which included Egypt, the Levant, Cilicia and Isauria, then Pontica (northern and eastern Anatolia) and Asiana (southern and western Anatolia). In 395, however, Egypt was separated and the number of prefectures increased to five.
Under Constantine the Great (306–337) the administration was reorganized. Egypt became a diocese and divided into the six provinces of Egypt , Augustamnica , Heptanomis (later Arcadia ), Thebais , Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt . In 365 a severe earthquake hit the Nile Delta with an epicenter off Crete .
Economy, colony
Almost immediately Rome became dependent on the wheat deliveries from the fertile land on the Nile. A second important area were the mines, especially in the eastern desert area (including gold mines), where rare types of stone such as porphyry (at Mons Porphyrites from 29 AD to the 4th or 5th century), red granite near Aswan or were mined Granodiorite were mined on Mons Claudianus , which served the gigantic growing building needs in the Roman Empire, in the fall of Mons Claudianus probably only the imperial buildings in Rome. In addition, all trade with the east, i.e. in the direction of the Persian Gulf , India, Malaysia , perhaps even China, ran through Egypt with its center in Alexandria. The main port on the Red Sea was Berenike , which outstripped Myos Hormos ("shell port"), which was important in Ptolemaic times. The ships sailed south towards the Gulf of Aden in July and returned in November. The larger ships that cast off in Alexandria or Berenike may have been 60 m long and carried about 1000 tons. Along the 350 km long caravan route from Berenike to Koptos on the Nile there were water points every 20 to 30 km, with a branch leading to Edfu (Apollinopolis Magna). In particular, the increasing demand for building materials and luxury goods stimulated the economy.
The taxes were based on how high the flood of the Nile was, as Pliny reports. A level of 5.5 m caused famine, 6 m meant hunger, 6.5 m joy, 6 ¾ m confidence, 7 m enthusiasm. Under Augustus, the fleets brought 20 million modii of approx. 8.7 liters each to the Tiber as a tax . This corresponded to over a million tons, with suppliers possibly also having to finance the transport. The deliveries from the growing areas to the port of Alexandria were subjected to strict controls, sealed samples were given to the river captains who drove in the company of a soldier; this should prevent undergrinding or the partial exchange of goods for inferior replacements. Roman procurators received the grain and were responsible for storage and security. In May or June the ships went to Rome, where they were on the road for one, often two months because of the prevailing headwinds. They preferred coastal routes. It only took them two weeks to get back.
Papyri show how a farm like that of the wealthy landowner Aurelius Appianus worked in the Fayyum. The administrators came from the region, were either councilors or landowners themselves. The actual production was directed by phrontistai , who possibly worked for several goods at the same time. The real work was done by a tribe of workers who were reinforced in the harvest season. Apparently they were wage workers. Some worked on the estate for life and had free accommodation, others were freelance workers who often concluded contracts of several years and came from the surrounding villages. Appianus mainly produced export wine, as well as fodder for the cattle, grain for taxes and for employees.
This refers to the transition phase in the development from free farmer to colonate. Imperial laws, presumably on the initiative of the large landowners, created the prerequisites for transferring almost unlimited power of disposition and police power to local masters, whose growing economic units were thereby increasingly isolated from state influence. The rural population was initially forced to cultivate the land and taxes (tributum) to be paid. Until the 5th century, the people who worked the land were often tied to their land while their property belonged to their master, but after three decades in this legal status others could take their mobile property or their property into their own possession. Under Emperor Justinian I there was no longer any distinction between free and unfree colonies. Colons and unfree were now used identically to describe arable farmers who were tied to the clod and had no free property.
Since Constantine the Great, gentlemen have been allowed to chain fugitive colonies that had disappeared less than thirty years ago. Since 365 it has been forbidden for the colonists to dispose of their actual possessions, probably primarily tools. Since 371 the gentlemen were allowed to collect the taxes from the colonies themselves. Finally, in 396, the farmers lost the right to sue their master.
religion
Egyptian, Greek, Roman gods
The gods of ancient Egypt changed. Amun, who was originally the god of water and air, became the giver of life. Horus was often indistinguishable from Ra. The Greeks identified the Egyptian gods with their own, so that Horus was equated with Apollo, Thoth with Hermes, Amun with Zeus, or Hathor with Aphrodite. Serapis was supposed to give the Ptolemaic empire greater uniformity; he was derived from the Egyptian god Osirapis, but he was not depicted as an animal, but as a bearded man. He was especially venerated in Memphis and Alexandria, where 285 BC. The Serapeum of Alexandria was completed. The name arose from the names of Osiris (Sir / Sar) and Apis (Hepi). The Apis bull embodied fertility. The Serapis cult spread in many provinces of the Roman Empire, but also in Rome itself. The cult of his wife and sister Isis also spread, especially in Hispania. The Hathor Temple in Dendera, which was built between 125 BC. BC and AD 60, Roman emperors also made sacrifices, at least as statues.
Even the Roman emperors allowed themselves to be venerated by the population as pharaohs - and even worshiped the Egyptian gods - and again called themselves Pharaohs of Egypt . In many temples there are imperial relief representations and sculptures in Egyptian costume during the execution of rituals. A mixture of Roman and ancient Egyptian elements can be observed in the cult of the dead, for example in the mummy portraits painted in Roman style . During a visit from Emperor Hadrian in 130, his youthful love Antinous drowned in the Nile. Hadrian raised him to god and founded the city of Antinoupolis in his honor , the only Roman foundation in Egypt. In everyday culture, however, forms and styles from the Hellenistic-Roman world were adopted in all areas. Material culture became largely Roman in the first century AD.
Christianization
Around the middle of the 2nd century, the first Christian groups could be found in Alexandria , at the end of the 2nd century many communities had already formed in the Nile Delta, but Emperor Septimius Severus forbade conversion to the Christian faith in 204 by edict. Under Emperor Decius (249-251) significant persecution of Christians began throughout the country, which lasted into the reign of Valerian . It was not until Emperor Gallienus that these 260 were stopped, and finally after the persecution of Diocletian. Under Julian there were violent clashes between pagans and Christians. Theodosius I made the Christian religion the state religion in 394 . Under Justinian I , pagan cult activities are still documented ( Philae ), but these were then stopped.
According to tradition, a peculiarity of Egyptian Christianity arose from Paulus von Thebes (228–341), who is considered the first hermit and anchorite through the vita of the church father Hieronymus . In contrast, Antony the Great (perhaps 251–356) became the "father of the monks". The two men not only reached a "biblical age", but also founded institutions that had a profound impact on the Mediterranean region.
With the end of the persecutions since Constantine I (313) and the increasing privileges by the state, which included tax exemption, a steeper ecclesiastical hierarchy emerged. The bishops in the respective metropolis of the provinces became archbishops from 325, to whom the other bishops of the province owed obedience. Below the Bishop plane found deacons and deaconesses , elders and lecturers , were added gravedigger, doorkeeper , Protopresbyter and subdeacons . The clergy was the only class to which all social classes had access, even if not everyone could rise to the highest positions in the most important church centers and the higher classes probably did not strive for a diocese in less respected areas. The Clergy on the estates of the landlords put residents who are tenant farmers .
Byzantine Period (395-642)
Christianity as state religion, division of the empire (395), divisions between churches
With the establishment of Constantinople as the second imperial city, Christianity gradually became the dominant religion in the Roman Empire, and in 394 it actually became the state religion. Around 400, Greek finally gained the upper hand over Latin as the administrative language in the east of the empire, but it was used in the army and at court until the 6th century.
In 391 there were clashes between pagans and Christians in Alexandria. Among other things, pagans had holed up in the Serapis shrine and forced some Christians to sacrifice or crucified. To calm the situation, Emperor Theodosius I pardoned the murderers, but ordered the destruction of the temple as a warning to the pagans of the city. In connection with this destruction, the other temples were also destroyed under the leadership of Theophilos of Alexandria . Other temples had already been destroyed by local governors and bishops. In Alexandria in 415 the pagan philosopher Hypatia was murdered by a Christian mob; but even after her there were pagan scholars in the city for decades .
But the disputes between pagans and Christians were soon overlaid by intra-Christian ones. When the empire was effectively divided in 395 , Egypt was added to the Eastern Roman Empire . At the time of Emperor Arcadius , the "founder" of the Egyptian Coptic Church Schenute von Atripe was head of the White Monastery near Sohag on the west bank of the Nile.
Theophilus died in 412, his successor was Cyril , one of the most powerful churchmen of his time, who was able to enforce his theological positions bindingly for the imperial church at the ecumenical council of Ephesus in 431 and is still considered the most important founder figure of the Miaphysites . Cyrill's successor Dioskur , who took over the patriarchal office in 444, was initially able to assert himself with his Monophysite teaching at the so-called Synod of Robbers of Ephesus in 449 . But only two years later there was a split at the fourth ecumenical council in Chalcedon : Pope Leo the Great rejected the Monophysite doctrine, and the majority of the council and Emperor Markian endorsed this position. However, the majority of the Egyptians stuck to the rejection of the council resolutions, which repeatedly led to tensions between Egypt and Constantinople.
Monophysitism arose against the background of rivalries between the Patriarchate of Alexandria and that of Antioch . In addition to Egypt, monophysitism was also gaining ground in Syria. In the 480s, the emperors tried to implement a compromise solution formulated in the Henoticon , which ignored all disputes between “Orthodox” and “Monophysite” Christians and ignored the resolutions of Chalcedon; but this attempt failed and instead of an agreement with the Monophysites only led to the 30-year-long Akakian schism with the Roman church (until 519). The 2nd Council of Constantinople in 553 could not reach an agreement either. The same was true for the short-lived promotion of the Monophysite special current of aphthartodocetism by Emperor Justinian.
During his reign (450–457), Emperor Markian fought against Nubians and Blemmyes . There is evidence of famine in Egypt in 502 . Otherwise, the country on the Nile experienced, practically undisturbed by external attacks, a time of peace and an economic boom. Egyptian grain supplied Constantinople as it used to supply Rome.
At the end of the 5th century the Western Roman Empire no longer existed, but Odoacer , who had deposed the last emperor in Rome, formally recognized the rule of the Eastern Emperor. However, he was overthrown in 493 by Ostrogoths who attacked him in Italy on behalf of the Eastern Roman emperor. These made themselves completely independent of the supremacy of Constantinople. With the reconquest of the Vandal Empire in North Africa and the Ostrogoth Empire in Italy, an attempt was made to bring the lost territories under the rule of the Eastern Emperor.
Emperor Justinian issued new administrative rules for Egypt during his reign. The country was one of the richest and most important provinces of the empire in the 6th century. Ancient education was maintained in Alexandria for a long time, and even in the countryside there were people on the Nile who had received a classical Greek upbringing ( paideia ), as the example of Dioskoros shows. Under Justinian, however, the last tolerated pagan temple in Egypt, the Isis shrine of Philae , was closed in 535 or 537 . In the first years of his reign, Emperor Maurikios (582–602) had to put down the dangerous Abaskiron rebellion .
The disputes continued to smolder. In the early 7th century, monotheleticism was developed as an attempt at a compromise solution . According to this, Jesus had a divine and a human nature. But these natures had only one single ( monos ), common will ( thelos ) in him. This attempt at an agreement also failed. Monotheletism was rejected in the Reich Church, especially in the West, after Maximus Confessor's objection .
Persians conquer Egypt (619)
The Egyptian grain deliveries were vital for Constantinople ; Ostrom was hit hard by the temporary loss of the country to the Sassanids in 619. Emperor Herakleios was able to regain Egypt in 630, but in 642 the country fell to the Arabs. Papyrological and literary sources not only allow a relatively precise reconstruction of the conquest, but also show how existing military infrastructures were skillfully used. This, after Cambyses, the second Persian conquest of Egypt, was considered particularly cruel according to the traditional sources. In an ostracon that is in the Coptic Museum in Cairo, a widow turns to a clergyman with her worries. Not only was her son slain by the Persians, but the animals were also annexed to feed the troops.
The Roman-Persian battles of the 7th century were characterized by the will to defeat the enemy completely and no longer just to gain territories. The war in the time of Chosraus I (531-579) had already been waged with great intensity. After several wars, in the course of which the Persians besieged Edessa unsuccessfully in 544 , Ostrom and Persia concluded a fifty-year peace in 562. But already in the 570s and 580s there was again fierce fighting in upper Mesopotamia . Only when Chosrau II had to flee from a usurper to the Eastern Romans in 590 and was reinstated as Persian king by Emperor Maurikios , a new peace was concluded in 591.
But towards the end of the 6th century, the unrestricted dominance of the Roman Empire over the eastern Mediterranean had finally faltered. The Avars attacked from 580 and Slavic groups invaded the Balkans in the 7th century. At the end of the century, the Bulgarians conquered most of the Balkans and expanded their area of influence. The Slavs and Avars advanced far south.
When Maurikios was overthrown in 602, Chosrau II attacked the Romans in 603. Since 611 his troops went to large-scale conquests. In 613 Jerusalem fell. Finally, in 619, Chosrau's troops took Egypt and began to integrate it permanently into the Sassanid Empire under a marzban . After almost a millennium, Persians ruled the land on the Nile again.
As early as 600 and 616, Avar units also moved towards Constantinople, then again in 626 in a pincer attack with the Persians. But this attempt to finally overthrow Ostrom under Emperor Herakleios failed. Chosrau II was overthrown in 628, civil war broke out in Persia, and in 630 Syria and Egypt were returned to the Eastern Romans.
Early Islamic Period (642–969)
Arab conquest, Islamization (from 639)
Conquest of Egypt
From 632 onwards the Islamic expansion towards the East and the Persian Empire began. In 636 Damascus fell and the imperial army was defeated in Syria. The Arab general Amr ibn al-As conquered Pelusium with only 9,000 men on behalf of the caliph ʿUmar ibn al-Chattāb in 639 and defeated an Eastern Roman army at Heliopolis in 642, and Alexandria fell in 642. A few decades later, Greek was replaced by Arabic as the administrative language. The most important center was al-Fustat , Amr's army camp near Babylon, which the Egyptians called Pi-Hapi-n-On ("House of Hapi", a Nile god). Here the conqueror had the first mosque in Africa named after him built.
The tradition on the fate of Alexandria is less clear. According to Arab sources, the huge city was home to 600,000 men, 200,000 of whom were Romans (or "Byzantines") and 70,000 Jews. Johannes von Nikiu reports that the capital, seat of the patriarch Cyrus (called "Muqauqis" by the Arabs), had agreed with Amr in early November 641 that Jews and Christians would be allowed to stay and practice their religion, but that the Romans would leave after eleven months were allowed if the city paid a corresponding tax and the Romans did not try to recapture the city. Amr collected the taxes, but there were no attacks. In fact, the Romans left the city on September 17, 642 on ships. The Arab sources, on the other hand, report a 14-month siege, possibly due to the fact that a conquered city lost all protection from looting and destruction, while a city that surrendered without a fight was to be spared. The legend that Amr had the books in the great library burned to heat the public baths only appears in the 13th century in Abd al-Latif al-Baghdadi and Gregorius Bar-Hebraeus .
Byzantine attempts to reclaim Alexandria from the sea, such as those from December 644 to 646, ultimately remained unsuccessful. After the conquest, Egypt, whose first Muslim governor Amr was until 644, was the starting point for further campaigns. While advances to Nubia (641, 651) failed and the independence of the local Christian empire Makuria was recognized by treaty in 652 (the border remained with Aswan ), 643 Arabs stood in Cyrenaica, 647 in Tripolitania, 654 Crete was conquered from Egypt for the first time, A second occupation took place in 674. Despite severe setbacks, the Maghreb was conquered from around 670 onwards , which, like all areas of Islamic North Africa, was under the governor of Egypt until 705. In the following period, Egypt was ruled first by the Umayyads , then (from 750) by the Abbasids , while the Iberian Peninsula split off from the empire that had emerged within a few decades under the only surviving Umayyad. Refugees from al-Andalus, in turn, conquered Byzantine Crete from Egypt , where they founded their own emirate .
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Umayyads (632–656), division of the community
According to Muslim tradition, both the Umayyads and the Prophet Mohammed of Abd Manaf ibn Qusayy descend from the Quraish tribe . His sons, Abd Shams ibn Abd Manaf and Haschim , became the progenitors of the Umayyads and the Hashimites (the clan of Muhammad). Abd Shams' son Umayya ibn Abd Shams was named after the Umayyads.
At the beginning of the 7th century, the descendants of Umayya were one of the most influential families in Mecca . During this time, Muhammad began to proclaim his new religion in the city. After he and his followers had to flee to Medina in 622 and there was subsequent fighting between the Muslims who had fled and Mecca, members of the Umayyad family assumed leading positions on the side of the Meccans. In the later course of the fighting, Abū Sufyān ibn Harb, the head of the clan, was at the forefront of Meccan politics. In the end, however, he had to surrender to Mohammed and converted to Islam himself shortly before the Muslim troops conquered Mecca in 630.
This change of sides turned out to be advantageous for the Umayyads, as they also played an important role in the now emerging Islamic-Arab state. For example, Muawiya , a son of Abu Sufyan, served as Muhammad's secretary for a number of years. After the death of the Prophet he took part in the campaigns of the Muslims against the Eastern Roman Empire and was rewarded in 639 with the post of governor of Syria . In 644, Uthman ibn Affan , a member of the Umayyad clan, was elected caliph. In contrast to the rest of his family, Uthman was one of the earliest supporters of Muhammad and had already been there when he escaped from Mecca in 622. In the allocation of influential posts in the empire, he greatly favored his own relatives, so that an opposition to his rule soon formed. In 656 he was finally murdered in Medina. ʿAlī ibn Abī Tālib , the cousin and son-in-law of the Prophet, was elected to succeed him.
Ali's election as caliph was not widely recognized by Muslims. As a supporter of the murdered Uthman, Muawiya was also proclaimed caliph in 660 in Damascus, Syria. This was the first time that the Muslim community (the Umma ) was divided. The result was the first Fitna , the first civil war of the Islamic state.
Although Muawiya I was able to enforce his rule among the Muslims after Ali's murder by the Kharijites (661) and establish the Umayyad dynasty, he was still not recognized as a legitimate ruler by the supporters of Ali. The result was a schism between Sunnis and Shiites .
First, Muawiya moved the capital from Medina to Kufa , then to Damascus, with which Arabia quickly lost its political importance. Muawiya also abolished the caliph's election and replaced it with succession by declaring his son Yazid I as his successor. The council of elders only had to formally give its approval to the new caliph. An Arab aristocracy began to emerge under the Umayyads.
Split into Sunnis and Shiites (680), resumption and end of expansion
After Muawiya's death, several revolts against the Umayyads broke out under his successor Yazid I (680–683). Husain , Ali’s second son and grandson of Mohammed, took advantage of the situation and took to the field against Yazid. However, he was killed in the Battle of Karbala in 680. This act sealed the final separation between Sunnis and Shiites and became the occasion for the Shiite funeral festival Ashura .
After the death of Yazid I and his son Muʿāwiya II , the succession to the throne under the Umayyads in 684 was completely unclear. The opposition took advantage of this and proclaimed Abdallah ibn az-Zubair as caliph in Mecca. At times this was even recognized by the majority of Muslims. The Umayyads were only able to win the civil war that followed in 692 under Abd al-Malik (685–705).
After the end of the civil war, another period of large-scale conquests began. The Indus region (711) and Transoxania (712) were occupied in the east . In the west, the Berber resistance was broken by 709 and the Maghreb was subdued, and the Visigoth Empire on the Iberian Peninsula from 711 to 715. This was followed by raids in the Franconian Empire as far as the Loire and Burgundy .
But in three places, above all in Byzantium , all attempts at conquest failed. After Constantinople had withstood the besiegers in 668 to 669, 674 to 678 and 717 to 718, and several campaigns against the Khazars north of the Caucasus remained largely unsuccessful, and finally the advances into the Franconian Empire in 732 were stopped by the Frankish housekeeper Karl Martell , which weakened Islamic expansion.
Even more serious, but related, were the internal conflicts. Since 718 Shiite, Persian and other Muslim groups had rallied around the Abbasids , the descendants of Muhammad's uncle Abbas . These demanded that only men from this uncle's branch were allowed to exercise the office of caliph. Since the Umayyads did not have this kinship legitimation, they tried to stop the Abbasid propaganda. But the dynasty was increasingly weakened by fierce rivalries between the Arab tribal factions. The Abu Muslim uprising that broke out in eastern Iran in 747 could therefore no longer be suppressed by the Umayyads. In 750 these were defeated under Marwan II by the Abbasids in northern Iraq on the Great Zab. In the following years the Umayyads were exterminated by the Abbasids in the Orient.
Abbasids (from 750)
Origin, Islam and Arab dominance, change of dynasty
The Abbasid caliphs came to power through an insurrection that was directed against the Umayyads, which many Muslims consider to be too secular. The latter represented rather the old Arab Meccan aristocracy .
The proto- Shiite group from Kufa , the Hashimiyya, played a decisive role in the success of the Abbasid revolution . Abu Muslim was sent to Khorasan by the Abbasids from Kufa . He led the uprising against the Umayyads in Merw / Khorasan from 747 and contributed to Abu l-Abbas as-Saffah , a descendant of Abbas, the uncle of the Prophet Mohammed, becoming caliph. The rebels were mainly drawn from the Persian and Iranian population, who were dissatisfied with the rule of the Arab nobility. Since under the Umayyads only men were allowed to hold important positions who could prove an Arab origin, many felt disadvantaged in Persia, Egypt and Syria. By promising to allow every Muslim, regardless of origin, access to important posts, the Abbasids quickly gained support.
In 750 the Abbasids broke the last resistance of the Umayyads under Marwan II in the Battle of the Great Zab in Northern Iraq . A single Umayyad prince escaped the following massacre of the Umayyads to the west , where he founded the Emirate of Córdoba in 756 as Abd ar-Rahman I. While Andalusia was slipping away from them, the Abbasids were able to assert the newly acquired Transoxania against China in the Battle of the Talas in 751 .
Consolidation
Abu 'l-Abbas as-Saffah died in 754. His brother and successor al-Mansur had Abu Muslim murdered in 755. In contrast to the Umayyads, the Abbasids mainly relied on Iranians and later on Turks for their rule . Baghdad emerged as the new capital by 762 . The administration was completely centralized in the hands of the caliph and secured by a spy system. A Shiite rebellion in the Hejaz was suppressed in 762–763.
Under Hārūn ar-Raschīd (786-809) the development initiated by his predecessors reached its climax. The vizier of the Persian Barmakids ensured the stability of the empire. Still, control of the Maghreb was lost when the Rustamids , Idrisids and Aghlabids gained independence between 778 and 800 .
Despite these territorial losses, the empire benefited from a unique economic expansion that led to the development of a thriving urban culture. People of all professions settled in the new economic centers, new palaces, markets and residential areas were built. There was also trade, which benefited from a common language and religion as well as great freedom of movement. There were flows of goods with dimensions that had not been known for a long time, accompanied by banking transactions.
But the urban culture also brought social tensions. Tax farmers like to set the taxes arbitrarily, which they also had to be paid in advance. The taxes that the Christians had to pay were also hard collected (see the chronicle of Pseudo-Dionysius of Tell Mahre for these reprisals ). This overstrain in the tax system resulted in the farmers becoming indebted. There was exodus from the countryside and unrest of a religious and social nature, in Egypt in 789 and 793, as almost everywhere in the empire.
After Harun's death in 809, power was divided between the brothers al-Amin (in Baghdad) and al-Ma'mun (in Merw). In 810 a fight broke out between the two, which al-Ma'mun won in 813. However, he did not move back into Baghdad until 819 and, until his death in 833, became famous mainly for his promotion of science. Around 825 he founded the House of Wisdom (bait al-hikma) , which however did not survive the Sunni reaction of his successor al-Mutawakkil (847-861). The Fatimids later founded a corresponding House of Wisdom in Cairo.
Decline and de facto disempowerment of the dynasty
After al-Ma'mun, his brother al-Mutasim (833-842) ruled . Two conspiracies induced him in 836 to build a new capital, Samarra , and to set up a Turkish bodyguard, the Mamluks . In the following years the influence of this guard on the caliphs grew. Mu'tasim's successor al-Mutawakkil was murdered by her in 861 at the instigation of his own son.
Now the caliphs took turns in similar revolts. The army consumed half of the state's revenue and demanded secure sources of money, which is why Ma'mun had already started a personal fiefdom to his deserving general Tahir (in Khorasan). In the following years it became common to give such fiefs ( iqta ) to Turkish military leaders, who soon ruled their lands as independent feudal princes.
Because of the decline of the central power, the Tahirids in Khorasan, the Saffarids in Sistan and the Tulunids in Egypt recognized the Abbasids only nominally on coins and in Friday prayers as caliphs and otherwise pursued an independent policy. Around 900 the caliphs still ruled Iraq, western Iran ( Jibal ), Syria and, at times, Egypt. Attacks by Byzantine fleets were added to these internal battles. In 853 and 859 they attacked Egypt.
Turkish Tulunids (869–905), last reign of the Abbasids (905–935)
As early as 750 a process began in which the peripheral areas gradually withdrew from the control of the gigantic Arab empire. As early as 740–42 there was the Maysara uprising in the far west , some Berber groups made themselves independent, finally in 789 the Idrisids (789–985) broke away from the empire, in 800 the Aghlabids followed . In Egypt in 868 the former Turkish slave Ahmad ibn Tulun (868-884) swung himself up as governor, and in 870 the caliph made him Lord Alexandria. He proclaimed independence from the caliphate . Since the tax revenue was no longer paid to the caliphs, it was possible to expand the irrigation systems and build a fleet, which greatly promoted trade and improved protection against naval attacks. In 878 Palestine and Syria were occupied, only a rebellion of his eldest son forced him to repent.
Under Chumarawaih (884–896), the Abbasids were able to recapture northern Syria. In a peace agreement, Chumarawaih waived claims in Mesopotamia and agreed to pay tributes. For this, Caliph al-Mutadid (892-902) recognized the rule of the Tulunids in Egypt and Syria and the son of the caliph was supposed to marry a daughter of Chumarawaihs named Katr-en-neda, whom he married himself. Under al-Mutadid's rule, the Ismaili Qarmatians expanded into Syria and were to rule the core Islamic areas in the 10th century.
Despite the enormous burden of his daughter's marriage, there was extensive building activity under Chumarawaih. A remarkable testimony was left with the al-Kata'i Mosque (built between 876 and 879) in a newly founded district in Cairo. An expensive, sumptuous court continued to burden the state finances and after the assassination of the head, harem intrigues led to the rapid decline of the dynasty. In 905 Egypt was subjugated again by the Abbasid troops, which started a long chain of clashes. However, the Abbasids lost Egypt again in 935 to the Ichschidids , who went into business for themselves.
Ichschididen (935 / 39–969)
The Ichschididen can be traced back to the Ferghana area, whose princes bore the title "Ichschid". One of them entered the service of al-Mu'tasim. He was the grandfather of the founder of the dynasty, Muhammad ibn Tughj . This rose in the military caste and was made governor of Syria and 933 of Egypt by the caliph in 930. Despite the strong position of power, he continued to recognize the suzerainty of the Abbasids , because he needed support to defend his rule against the attacks of the Fatimids from Ifrīqiya and internal uprisings by Shiites . Nevertheless, he ruled practically independently from 939 and was thus able to establish the Ichschididen dynasty. Muhammad occupied Palestine, the Hejaz and Syria as far as Aleppo between 942 and 944. In 945 an agreement was reached with the Hamdanids on the division of power in Syria.
The black eunuch Abu l-Misk Kafur , usually simply called Kafur, won the reign for the successors of Muhammad . He promoted art and science and was able to achieve his recognition as governor by the caliph in 966 . However, the Fatimids succeeded in conquering Egypt under the Ichshidid ruler Abu l-Fawaris in 969 and overthrew the last representative of the short-lived dynasty, the twelve-year-old Abu l-Fawaris, who had ruled the previous year.
Fatimids (969–1171)
Origin, orientation towards Shiism
After the death of the founder of the religion, Mohammed, in 632, the Muslims split into Sunnis and Shiites . The latter were led by imams who were descendants of ʿAlī ibn Abī Tālib and Muhammad's daughter Fatima . However, Shi'aism continued to split as the transition of leadership role was controversial. This is how the movements of the twelve Shiites , the Ismailites (also seven Shiites) and the Zaidites (also five Shiites) emerged until the 9th century . The Ismailis recognized as the rightful successor of Jafar al-Sadiq not Mūsā al-Kāzim , but Ismail ibn Jafar - hence their name. Ismail's son Muhammad plays the central role in the Ismaili teaching system: He was regarded by his followers as the seventh imam (hence the seventh Shiite) and is said not to have died, but to have gone into secrecy , from which he as Qaim ("the rising one", " the rising one ”) or Mahdi would return.
In the middle of the 9th century, Abdallah al-Akbar (died after 874) began to appear as a representative for the Mahdi Muhammad ibn Ismail. He announced the appearance of the hidden seventh imam, through whom the Abbasids should be overthrown, all religions of the law (besides Christianity and Judaism also Islam ) should be abolished and the cultless original religion should be established. The sect's founder first appeared in Askar Mukram in Chusistan , Iran , but then fled via Basra to Salamya in Syria. He gathered a growing community around him and sent missionaries ( Dais ) to all parts of the Islamic world , who spread the teachings of their grand master and built up a network of secret Ismailite cells.
After Abdallah's death, first his son Ahmad and then his grandson Abu sh-Schalaghlagh took over the leadership of the sect. Under the latter, the mission achieved considerable success, especially in the Maghreb , where Abū ʿAbdallāh al-Shīʿī worked. Since Abu sh-Schalaghlagh had no son, he designated his nephew Said ibn al-Husain, who finally revealed himself to be the real Mahdi, as his successor. With this he again triggered a split in the Ismailis, as the Karmatians and other groups continued to hold on to the expectation of the hidden Mahdi Muhammad ibn Ismail.
After the missionary Abū ʿAbdallāh al-Shīʿī had spread the teachings of the Ismailis among the Berbers of the Maghreb, he overthrew the Aghlabid dynasty in Ifrīqiya , which had its power base in eastern Algeria, Tunisia and northern Libya. With this he paved the way for his lord Abdallah al-Mahdi , who fled Salamya , ie Said ibn al-Husain, who founded the Fatimid Empire in Ifriqiya. As a descendant of Imam Jafar al-Sadiq, he traced his descent back to the daughter of the prophet Fatima.
Caliphate (909), conquest of the Maghreb, first attacks on Egypt (from 914)
In 909 he proclaimed himself caliph and thus founded the Fatimid dynasty (until 1171). He regarded the Sunni Umayyads on the Iberian Peninsula and the Sunni Abbasids as usurpers . His missionaries made contact with opposition groups in the Abbasid Empire, they eliminated the power of the Aghlabids, in 911 they eliminated the Berbers, especially the Kutama, as rivals for supremacy in Ifriqiya. However, the dynasty failed to introduce Sharia law .
Under al-Qa'im bi-amri 'llah , the son of the dynasty's founder, the first attempts at expansion towards Egypt began, but they failed in 914–915 and 919–921. From 917 the conquest of the western Maghreb began, but real rule could only be said in Ifriqiya. Under Abu l-Qasim al-Qaim (934–946) Sicily was conquered and the coasts of Italy and France sacked. Ismail al-Mansur (946–953) succeeded the second Fatimid ruler, who died in 946 . After the end of the revolt of the Kharijite Banu Ifran (944-947), the third Fatimid caliph took the nickname "al-Mansur". A new residence was built near Kairuan with al-Mansuriya .
After the reorganization of the empire by Ismail al-Mansur and Abu Tamin al-Muizz (953-975), the Fatimids succeeded in advancing as far as the Atlantic , but rule over Morocco could not be maintained because the focus of their policy was on conquest Egypt aligned.
Conquest of Egypt (969), founding of the capital Cairo
In 969 the Fatimid general Jawhar as-Siqillī succeeded in conquering Egypt and overthrowing the Ichschidids there . Caliph al-Muizz moved his residence to the newly founded city of Cairo in 972 and established the Zirids as viceroys in the Maghreb.
Under al-ʿAzīz , the Fatimid rule in Egypt was consolidated, the office of vizier ("someone who helps one to carry a load") was taken over by the Abbasids, who had known it since the 8th century. Despite the Shiite-Ismaili creed of the Fatimids, Sunni Muslims were tolerated. Palestine and Syria subjugated the Fatimids by 978; they also gained control of Mecca and Medina . The most important shrines of Islam were under their control.
Under her rule, Egypt's economy flourished by building roads and canals and promoting trade between India and the Mediterranean. Culture and science were also promoted by the Fatimids, with the establishment of the al-Azhar University becoming extremely important. Today it is a Sunni center.
Under Al-Hakim (995-1021), religious policy towards non-Muslims became significantly more intolerant. Public processions and ritual acts by Christians and Jews were prohibited, as was the consumption of wine and beer. At times, Christian churches and monasteries were also looted to raise funds for the army and the construction of mosques. In 1009 the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem was destroyed. Around 1017, a sect emerged in Egypt that regarded al-Hakim as the incarnation of God. The Druze religious community later developed from this .
Az-Zahir (1021-1036) succeeded in pacifying the empire and suppressing some Bedouin revolts in Syria. The height of power was reached by the Fatimids under al-Mustansir (1036-1094) when Ismaili missionaries seized power in Yemen and the Abbassids in Baghdad were briefly overthrown in 1059.
Loss of territory by the Seljuks and crusaders (from 1098), fall by the Kurdish Ayyubids
However, this extensive power politics led to the emaciation of the empire and the decline of the dynasty. Although the Zirids in Ifriqiya could be brought back under the control of the Fatimids, Syria and Palestine were lost to the Seljuks in 1076 . Internally, too, the government increasingly had to be left to the commanders of the troops and the viziers .
The Fatimids could no longer prevent the conquest of Jerusalem by the Crusaders during the First Crusade in 1099 and the establishment of the Kingdom of Jerusalem . After unsuccessful attempts to recapture them ( Battle of Ramla ), they came increasingly under the influence of the Crusaders in 1130. With the conquest of Ascalon by King Baldwin III. of Jerusalem they lost their last base in Palestine in 1153. In order to forestall a conquest of Egypt by the Crusaders, Nur ad-Din , the ruler of Damascus, led a campaign to Egypt as early as 1163 until his officer Saladin overthrew the Fatimids in 1171 and founded the Ayyubid dynasty.
Even though there were considerable setbacks in the 11th century with the rise of the Orthodox Sunnis, especially in Iran , the Ismaili communities continued to exist even after the fall of the Fatimids. The Fatimids are also of importance to the Ismailis because it was under them that an-Numan laid the foundation for the Ismaili school of law .
Ayyubids (1171–1252)
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Overthrow of the Fatimids, Saladin (1171–1193), conquest of Jerusalem
Against the attacks by the Kingdom of Jerusalem , the Fatimids called on the Zengids , who ruled Syria. They sent troops to Egypt under Shirkuh , who was appointed vizier . After his death, his nephew Saladin became a vizier in 1169. He eliminated the Fatimid dynasty in 1171 and established the Kurdish Ayyubid dynasty.
Agriculture and trade were promoted under Saladin. Until 1181 the rule over Syria, Upper Mesopotamia, Yemen and Nubia was extended. After consolidating his rule, he defeated the Crusaders on July 4, 1187 in the battle of Hattin near Tiberias and conquered Jerusalem. In the Third Crusade that followed, the crusaders succeeded in retaking some coastal cities (including Acre ), but they were unable to retake Jerusalem.
Succession struggles, defense against the crusaders, al-Kamil and Friedrich II.
Since Saladin divided the empire before his death, there were initially power struggles in which al-Adil I (1200–1218) fought against al-Mansur (1198–1200), al-Aziz's underage son (1193–1198) , was able to prevail. Al-Adil also divided the empire before his death, but his successor al-Kamil (1218-1238) was able to fend off the Damiette (1217-1221) crusade in Egypt and the crusade of Frederick II (1228-1229) through negotiations Emperor Friedrich II quit. He ceded the unfortified Jerusalem to the Crusaders, but the kingdom was no longer a great danger. Shortly before his death, al-Kamil was also able to assert himself in Syria.
After the outbreak of renewed dynastic power struggles, as-Salih (1240–1249) succeeded in reuniting large parts of the Ayyubid Empire, even if Northern Syria, Upper Mesopotamia and Yemen were finally lost. He was also able to finally conquer Jerusalem in 1244.
Mamluks, Ayyubid sidelines
Immediately after another crusade (1249-1254) had been repulsed, the last Ayyubide Turan Shah fell victim to a conspiracy of the Turkish Mamluks in the army when he wanted to limit their influence. Until 1257 his stepmother Shajar ad-Dur led the government as regent, where she married the Mamlukenführer Aybak . This rose as al-Malik al-Muizz to sultan in 1252 and founded the Mamluk Empire, which lasted until 1517.
However, Ayyubid sidelines ruled in Damascus and Aleppo until 1260, in Homs until 1262 and in Hama even until 1341. In addition, there were Ayyubid rulers in Hasankeyf (Hisn Keyfa) on the Tigris , who remained there until the 15th century .
Mamluken (1252-1517)
Mamluks - white military slaves - were used in the Abbasid Empire especially since the 9th century. Al-Mu'tasim (833–842) in particular built a bodyguard out of slaves. The Samanids in Transoxania controlled the trade in warrior slaves, but they were replaced in 1005 by a slave dynasty of the Ghaznavids . Saladin's bodyguard also consisted of soldiers who were mostly bought in childhood and adolescence on the slave markets of northern Anatolia or the Caucasus and then prepared for their service through training to become horsemen and an Islamic education. They could gain freedom and then acquire mamluks in turn. Even if they formed a military elite, the Mamluks were neither noblemen nor did they have a special blessing through descent from the family of prophets.
Fall of the Ayyubids (1249), victory over Mongols (1260), caliphate
After the death of the Ayyubid Sultan al-Salih in 1249 and the murder of his son Turan Shah , the Mamluk general Izz ad-Din Aibak seized power in Egypt together with the sultan's widow, Shadjar ad-Dur , whom he married.
After Aibak's death, the Mamluks had to deal with the threat posed by the Mongolian Il-Khans , who conquered Baghdad in 1258 . In 1260 they conquered Syria, but were defeated by the Mamluks under Qutuz and Baibars in the battle of ʿAin Jālūt . This made the Mamluk Empire the only state in the Middle East that could assert itself against the Mongols.
After the destruction of Baghdad in 1258 by Hülegü , who executed the last ruling caliph al-Mustasim , the Abbasid caliphate became extinct. However, the Abbasid prince al-Mustansir II , a cousin of the last caliph, managed to escape to Egypt, where the Mamluk sultan Baibars, who had just come to power, installed him as the next caliph. The Abbasids only served to legitimize the rule of the Mamluks and had no political influence. Only al-Mustain (1406-1414) was able to achieve short-term political power in 1412 when he was proclaimed Sultan of Egypt.
Expulsion of the Crusaders (until 1291), Bahri dynasty (from 1279)
Baibars (1260-1277) took advantage of the victory to gain power in Egypt. He consolidated his rule in Egypt and Syria. He began with the expulsion of the Franks, among other things with the conquest of Antioch (1268) and had Nubia subjugated. In 1261 Baibars established a shadow caliphate of the Abbasids in Cairo to legitimize the rule of the Mamluks. Despite all the successes, Baibars did not succeed in securing the successor to his son Berke Qan (1277–1279). This was overthrown in 1279 by Qalawun , the founder of the Bahri dynasty .
Qalawun (1279–1290) and his son Chalil (1290–1293) finally conquered the Crusader states (the last bastion, Acre , fell in 1291). The castles and cities were destroyed. Above all, the agricultural foundations were destroyed so permanently that Palestine remained only sparsely populated until the Jewish immigration. The intent behind this destruction was to prevent strangers from ever building self-sufficient posts in the Levant again. In the period that followed, the Mamluks gradually destroyed almost all of the old sea towns on the Syrian coast. Since Egypt did not have any wood stocks suitable for shipbuilding and the overall seafaring status did not have a high status, the Mamluks rarely undertook maritime activities. When Acre, the last important fortress town of the Franks in the Holy Land, fell to the Mamluks in 1291, most of the survivors fled to Cyprus.
Qalawun was keen to promote economic ties with Europe. The crusaders, however, were "natural" allies of the real enemies of the Mamluks, namely the Mongolian Il-Chane in the east. The successful military successes against crusader states and Il-Chane were made possible by Caucasian mercenaries who were recruited on a large scale; they were to overthrow the Bahri dynasty 100 years later and take power themselves.
The historically significant Sultan an-Nasir (1293–1294 and 1309–1341) was pushed aside by emirs as a child and had to wait 15 years before he could take power. In the meantime, various emirs came to power. Kitbugha's reign (1294-1296) was particularly catastrophic ; these years were marked by disease, famine and conflict. The Emir Ladschin (1297–1299) tried a fresh start. His successors Anwar and Baibars found themselves again in conflict with the Ilchans and with the Johannites, who invaded Lower Egypt; both could be pushed back, but a severe earthquake in Lower Egypt in 1303 triggered a new economic crisis.
When an-Nasir finally succeeded in taking power in 1309, he forced the emirs to swear to only use Bahris as sultans. In the following years the economy was able to flourish again. The tax burden was transferred from the poor and middle classes to the big landowners, corruption was radically fought, and large-scale construction projects created work.
Burjiyya dynasty (1382-1517)
After an-Nasir's death, the Bahri dynasty provided rulers for another 40 years, albeit only formally - in fact the Mamluk emirs ruled again. During this phase, the Mamluks succeeded in transforming themselves into a caste of large landowners, thereby bringing both politics and the economy under control. In terms of foreign policy, the Mamluks were able to hold out against their rivals.
The Burji dynasty was also able to initially successfully defend the borders of the Mamluk Empire. But Egypt got increasingly into a severe economic crisis due to the high tax burdens of the wars, bad harvests, famines and the population decline triggered by the plague epidemics.
Crusade against Alexandria (1365), opposed to the Ottoman Empire
Peter I of Cyprus undertook a trip to Europe from 1362-1365 to advertise a crusade against the Mamluks . With an army and a fleet of 115 ships, which were provided by Venice, the Hospitallers and Cyprus, he attacked Alexandria in 1365. The city was looted, some of the inhabitants were killed and 5,000 people were abducted as slaves. 70 barges were required to transport the booty away. Venice and Genoa seem to have eventually forced Peter to make peace in order to be able to pursue their commercial interests in Egypt again.
Until the conquest of Lesser Armenia by the Mamluks in 1375, Lajazzo in particular had played an extremely important role for the Italian long-distance trading metropolises Venice and Genoa. This was facilitated by the fact that direct trade with Egypt came to an almost complete standstill from 1322 to 1345 as a result of a papal ban. But from the northwest the Ottomans expanded their power in Anatolia again until 1420. Karaman submitted to the Mamluks in vain in 1417.
In 1425 the Mamluks were able to invade Limassol Castle after defeating a Frankish squadron for the first time in history. In 1426 a Mamluk unit landed in Avmediou in order to combat the increasing piracy, especially by the Catalans who had their bases in Cyprus . King Janus' troops were defeated at Khirokitia , Limassol, Lefkoşa and the royal castle of Potamia in the district of Nicosia were plundered and numerous prisoners were taken. King Janus swore to Sultan Barsbay (1422–1438) in Cairo the vassal oath, which the Cypriots did not agree to. He was released for a ransom of 200,000 florins and an annual tribute obligation. In 1440 a fleet made a stopover in Cyprus en route to Rhodes, an indication of how dependent the island was on Cairo.
Cem Sultan , the younger brother of Sultan Bayezid II proclaimed himself Sultan of Anatolia, but he was defeated and fled to Cairo. Sultan El-Ashraf Seyfeddin Kaitbey , the most powerful opponent of the Ottomans, sent him when the news reached him that Cem and his followers were approaching Cairo, his most important court officials with the message that he was welcome at the court of Cairo and safe from his Be brother. For the time being, however, he did not respond to Cems' request to support him in his fight for the throne. Instead, he tried to mediate between the two brothers while Cem went on the pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina . After another defeat, Cem fled to Rhodes.
Ottoman period (1516 / 17–1805): conquest, loss of the caliphate, continued existence of the military slaves
With the conquest of Egypt by Selim I (1512–1520) in 1517, Constantinople became the seat of the caliph and numerous artists went from Cairo to the Bosphorus. The system of rule of the military slaves continued to exist under Ottoman rule. But Syria was withdrawn from the administration of Egypt. From Egypt the coastal areas of the Red Sea and Yemen were subjugated and the Portuguese in the Indian Ocean attacked with a fleet .
However, the Ottomans gradually lost control of Egypt, so that the Mamluk elite regained their influence. From 1630 onwards they gradually ousted the Ottoman janissaries and governors again from power. However, the factions of the Faqariyya (Circassian under Ridwan Bey), Qasimiyya (Ahmad Bey) and Upper Egyptian Bedouins fought bitterly with one another. Although there were clashes between the factions of the Faqariyya (predominance 1631–1656) and the Qasimiyya (predominance 1660–1692), the economy was able to develop further , especially due to the coffee trade .
In 1730, the survivors of the power struggles initially united. In 1768 Ali Bey (of Georgian descent) rose up in revolt and even invaded Syria as a self-proclaimed Sultan of Egypt. However, he was beaten by his own son-in-law, and after his death various Mamluken factions fought for power. Finally, the allied Mamluken emirs Murad Bey and Ibrahim Bey succeeded in ultimately ousting the Mamluken faction around Ismail Bey from power, which was allied with the Ottomans.
The economy did not begin to decline until the 18th century, as the increasing political uncertainty, the Bedouin invasions and heavy tax burdens caused agriculture to decline due to the lack of maintenance of the irrigation systems, and trade was also severely disrupted. In addition, there was a sharp decline in population due to famine and plague epidemics . At the same time, from around 1760 the dependence of the Ottoman Empire on the grain of Egypt decreased. This role was taken over by manors (Çiftlik) in the Balkans and Anatolia. From 1792, Ottoman Greeks also brought Russian grain to the Bosporus.
Although some leaders of the Mamluks succeeded, u. a. Ali Bey (1760–1772) tried to gain control of Egypt, but the internal power struggles and the occasional Ottoman intervention failed to establish stable rule.
End of Ottoman domination, Napoleon, Muhammad Ali (1768 / 90–1811)
The Mamluks return to power
Finally, the allied Mamluken emirs Murad Bey Muhammad and Ibrahim Bey succeeded in 1790 in finally ousting the Mamluken faction around Ismail Bey, allied with the Turks, from power. This gave France two formal reasons to intervene: On the one hand, the Kingdom of France had been an ally of the Ottoman sultan since 1536 and could claim to want to restore his authority. On the other hand, Paris has been able to argue since the French Revolution that it wanted to bring the Egyptians freedom from the yoke of feudal Mamluk rule.
France and Egypt, Napoleon's Egyptian campaign
Economically, Egypt had a reputation for legendary fertility. In an average year, France imported goods worth around three million livres from the ports there . These were domestic products such as rice, grain, baking soda , cotton, flax, senna leaves , buffalo and camel skins, as well as goods from the intermediate trade such as tamarinds , ivory , ostrich feathers and gold dust, as well as products such as coffee , gum arabic , Asante , frankincense and myrrh , which came to Egypt from the area of the Indian Ocean via Suez .
Napoleon himself had dreamed of the Orient since childhood. From the Histoire philosophique et politique des établissements du et commerce des Européens dans les deux Indes (dt. History of the Indies ) of the Abbé Raynal he had copied a passage in his youth in Egypt as the key connection between Africa and Asia with Europe was shown. The preoccupation with Egypt had become fashionable in France at least since the publication of the novel Sethos, anecdotes de l'ancienne Égypte by the Abbé Jean Terrasson in 1731. Gardens of wealthy Parisians were adorned with sphinxes and obelisks ; Masonic symbolism took up the pyramid motif. Travel reports such as those of the Dane Frederic Louis Norden or the Englishman Richard Pococke , translated in 1755 and 1772, found an audience as large as the Lettres sur l'Égypte (1786) by Claude-Étienne Savary and the Voyage en Syrie et en Égypte (1787) by Constantin François Volney . Volney's ideal of a cultural development in Egypt in the sense of the Enlightenment later served above all to legitimize the scholars who traveled to Egypt with Napoleon.
Of all the considerations about the conquest of Egypt, however, the strongest motive of Bonaparte was probably the chance of “self-styling as ruler” and thus the signal to the French that they were ready to take over rule. To idealize the age of the pharaohs and to explain the following epochs as times of decay, was the task of the accompaniment of scientists, artists and reporters, who stylized the expedition as a success and thus gave Bonaparte the myth of the savior. But this project was in conflict with British interests.
The military and scientific enterprise under Napoleon's command from 1798 to 1801 is called Napoleon's Egyptian Campaign or Egyptian Expedition . Napoleon was supposed to turn Egypt into a French province, break British supremacy in the Mediterranean and secure a dominant role for France in Levantine trade. Numerous scholars, engineers and artists accompanied them ( Commission des sciences et des arts ). In 1798, the Institut d'Égypte was founded in Cairo, a scientific institution whose task it was to research the country. The results of the expedition were documented in the multi-volume text and image collection Description de l'Égypte (German: Description of Egypt ), which laid the foundation for later Egyptology .
280 merchant ships carried 28,200 infantry , engineers and gunners as well as 2,800 cavalry , 60 field and 40 siege guns of the French expeditionary army. 13 ships of the line , four frigates and a few gunboats accompanied the fleet. There were also 150 French artists, scientists and researchers.
The fleet arrived off Malta on June 9, and the surrender paper was signed on board the L'Orient on June 11 . The fleet then sailed on to Egypt and landed with the entire force at Abukir . Alexandria was captured on July 2, 1798. In the Battle of the Pyramids on July 21, 1798, the Turkish-Egyptian army was put to flight together with an elite Mamluk unit under Mourad Bey and Ibrahim Bey, a total of around 5,000 (plus 12,000 servants or arms bearers). Napoleon declared in two proclamations that the aim of the invasion was to free the country from slavery and exploitation by the Mamluks and their autocratic beys. The residents, their families, their homes and property would be protected. Their way of life, their religion would be respected and Dīwāne would be established for self-government , staffed with local dignitaries.
On 1st / 2nd August 1798, the French fleet lying off the coast was destroyed by the British under Admiral Horatio Nelson in the sea battle at Abukir . An uprising in Cairo from October 22nd to 23rd, 1798 was suppressed by Napoleon; fourteen leaders were captured, five executed, and some 2,000 to 2,500 insurgents killed.
Under British and Russian pressure, the Ottoman Empire declared war on France. Meanwhile, the Directory in Paris expected Napoleon's defeat. It was left to him to turn against Constantinople in order to divide the Ottoman Empire or to maintain his positions in Egypt. In February 1799 Napoleon led a campaign to Syria with 14,000 men to defend the conquest of Egypt against a forming Turkish army. The initial successes in al-Arish , Gaza , Hebron , Jaffa , on Mount Tabor ended in front of the city of Acre , which he besieged from March 19 to May 1799 in vain. Napoleon finally had to withdraw to Egypt - also because of high losses in the fighting, epidemics and the heat - where he defeated the Ottomans again on July 25, 1799 at the Battle of Abukir . Napoleon left his army and transferred the supreme command in Egypt to his general Jean-Baptiste Kléber .
Kléber negotiated free withdrawal from Egypt with the Ottomans, but when Britain demanded unconditional surrender, the war resumed. The Ottomans were defeated again on March 20, 1800 at Heliopolis by Kléber and Cairo was reoccupied after another uprising was put down. The city was punished with a large contribution. However, Kléber was murdered by a Muslim in Cairo on June 14, 1800.
On March 8, 1801, 17,000 British troops landed at Abukir. The Ottoman army under Yussuf-Pasha numbered more than 20,000 men. The French troops are said to have been 16,000 strong. On March 21, they lost a first battle near Alexandria, the city itself was enclosed. Cairo surrendered on June 27 and Alexandria on August 31. The French troops had to leave Egypt, but were able to take their equipment with them, but not the documents and records of the scientific companions of the expedition. The latter successfully protested by threatening to throw their works into the sea rather than handing them over to the English. The governments of both countries started negotiations that led to the Peace of Amiens in 1802 . Two thirds of Napoleon's 30,000 men were killed.
Napoleon's reforms consisted of modernizing the administration, introducing a new postal service, encouraging the construction of windmills, and combating the bubonic plague . The printing press was also introduced and all of Egypt was mapped.
Ascent of Muhammad Ali, governor (from 1805); Destruction of the Mamluks (1811)
But the supremacy of the Mamluks was badly shaken by the defeats against the French. This made the rise of Muhammad Ali Pasha possible. Murad Bey, who sided with the French in 1799, died in 1801, his faction was initially continued by Alfi Bey with British help. Ibrahim Bey, on the other hand, had fought the French and after the British victory became governor again until 1804, before he was defeated by the commander of the Albanian contingent, Muhammad Ali Pascha, who became governor from 1805. In 1807, Alfi's faction and the British were also defeated, and on March 11, 1811, the remaining Mamluks were lured into an ambush. 480 of them were murdered on Mehmet Ali's orders. A small part of the Mamluks is said to have escaped to Sudan and initially served the local rulers there (Fundsch / Sennar, Darfur, Kordofan) as mercenaries, but then seized power there in 1818. At least it was precisely this argument that prompted Egypt to conquer Sudan in 1820.
Muhammad Ali and his successors (1811-1882)
The pacification of the country and the expansion of the irrigation system brought about an economic upswing, which was also promoted by the attempt at state industrialization. After the massacre in Cairo, in which Muhammad Ali Pasha eliminated the Mamluks as a power factor in 1811 , an administration based on Western standards was established.
With the newly formed Egyptian army , the Wahhabis were defeated in Arabia from 1811 to 1818 and Sudan was conquered from 1820 to 1823 . During the Greek uprising (1822-1827) the Ottoman sultan was forced to call on the modern troops of vassal Muhammad Ali for help. Nevertheless, the Ottoman Empire had to give Greece independence in 1830 after a British-French fleet intervened in favor of the rebels.
In order to secure the political and economic rise of Egypt, the invasion of Palestine and Syria began in 1831 , with the Egyptian army under Ibrahim Pascha , the son of Muhammad Ali, advancing through Anatolia towards Istanbul after victories near Homs and Konya. Ibrahim Pasha had to withdraw again, but he was able to maintain Syria and Cilicia . It was not until the European powers intervened in 1840 that Muhammad Ali was forced to withdraw from Syria and Palestine. However, in 1841 the Ottomans had to recognize him as hereditary viceroy in Egypt.
Despite their apparent annihilation, after the death of Muhammad Ali and his first successors, especially after the Egyptian-Ottoman Compromise in 1867, the influence of the Circassians and Turks increased again. Successors of the Mamluks and newly arrived Caucasians made up most of the officers in the army and key positions in the army State apparatus. The uprising of the Egyptian military under Urabi Pasha in 1881, suppressed by the British , was also directed against this Turkish-Circassian competition.
The strong focus on the export of cotton led to the formation of large estates, which in turn led to increased rural exodus to the cities. Although the Suez Canal was opened in 1869 , Egypt gained such great strategic importance for the European powers that it came to be more heavily involved. In addition, Egypt was forced to sell its shares in the Suez Canal to Great Britain, also due to the unsuccessful financial policy under Ismail Pasha. After the de facto national bankruptcy, an international financial regulator was set up under British leadership.
The Urabi movement (1881–1882), which was supported by officers of the Egyptian army, was directed against European influence . This was used by London to occupy Egypt militarily in 1882 and to crush the Urabi movement (see British rule in Egypt ).
Part of the British Empire (1882–1922), conquest of Sudan
With the occupation by British troops under Garnet Joseph Wolseley , Great Britain took control of the country without formally ending its assignment to the Ottoman Empire. The Khedive of Egypt therefore remained a vassal of the Ottomans. British rule was represented by the Consul General , who as an advisor was the actual ruler of the country. Abbas Hilmi Pascha was the last Ottoman khedive or viceroy in Egypt from 1892 to 1914.
From 1883 to 1907 the office of British Consul General was exercised by Evelyn Baring . Under him, Egypt was economically integrated into the British Empire and subordinated to its interests. So agriculture was converted to the cultivation of cotton . It soon made up 92% of exports. In addition to the expansion of large estates, this meant that the traditional grain exporting country now had to import grain. From 1883 the army had British generals as commanders in chief, who carried the title Sirdar , and was also trained by British officers.
Simultaneously with the British occupation, Egypt had also lost control of Sudan in 1882 through the Mahdi uprising . In 1896 an Anglo-Egyptian force was marched to occupy the country. Sudan was not returned to Egypt after the Battle of Omdurman , but was established as an Anglo-Egyptian condominium in 1899 . This condominium existed until 1956.
First World War, end of formal Ottoman rule, Sultanate of Egypt, Protectorate
During the First World War , the Sinai Peninsula served as a border area to Ottoman Palestine until 1917. After Great Britain declared war on the Ottoman Empire in November 1914, the Khedive Abbas II was declared deposed for supporting the nationalist movement against the British occupation.
In his place came Hussein Kamil with the title of Sultan . The resulting Sultanate of Egypt was declared a British Protectorate on December 18, 1914 , with the result that the last formal ties to the Ottoman Empire were terminated. Instead of the consul general, a British high commissioner took over the administrative tasks. As a result, the British enforced the war economy , the high purchasing power of the British troops in Egyptian currency caused food prices to rise sharply, while the value of exports, especially cotton, fell under British pressure.
Nationalist Movement, Kingdom
When the British prevented a delegation of Egyptian nationalists under Saad Zaghlul ( Wafd party ) to the Paris Peace Conference in 1919 , there were serious unrest, strikes and the boycott of British products. Under this pressure, High Commissioner Edmund Allenby pushed through to grant Egypt independence so that British interests could continue to be safeguarded.
Independence, Kingdom (1922–1953)
The country gained independence in the Declaration to Egypt on February 28, 1922 , but Great Britain reserved some rights. On March 15, 1922, the previous sultan proclaimed himself king as Fu'ad I , thus creating the Kingdom of Egypt . British troops remained in the country, however, and Great Britain retained extensive rights of intervention in Egypt and in jointly administered Sudan . Great Britain also reserved special rights in the area of the Suez Canal and on the Nile , for example to secure the claims of foreign creditors. In Egypt, a broad modernist movement was formed during this time, including intellectuals such as Tāhā Husain , Salāma Mūsā and the Islamic scholar ʿAlī ʿAbd ar-Rāziq . The Egyptian suffragette Hudā asch-Schaʿrāwī defied conservative Islamic scholarship in 1923 by throwing her veil into the Mediterranean Sea when she left the ship after attending an international women's conference in Rome .
When Fuad I. died in 1936, his sixteen-year-old son Faruq succeeded him. Due to the alliance agreement of August 26, 1936, Great Britain waived further rights and withdrew its troops to the Suez Canal zone, but secured the right to access the Egyptian transport and communication system in the event of war. In 1937 Egypt was admitted to the League of Nations .
In 1942, after a government crisis, London forced King Faruq, who was said to have sympathy for the Axis powers Italy and Germany , to dismiss the government. Egypt was reoccupied in World War II and was the most important deployment area in the fight against the Italian-German troops in Libya (→ Africa campaign , Tunisian campaign ).
On March 22, 1945, Egypt became a founding member of the Arab League . In the Palestinian War of 1948 his troops were able to penetrate Israel , but despite military and financial aid from Saudi Arabia and other Arab states , they had to leave the country again in 1949. In 1951 Faruq assumed the title of King of Egypt and the Sudan , which until then had only been the unofficial title of the Egyptian monarchs.
After allegations of corruption and mismanagement, he was overthrown in a military coup led by Muhammad Nagib and Gamal Abdel Nasser on July 23, 1952. On July 26, Faruq had to abdicate in favor of his six-month-old son Fu'ad II and went into exile in Italy.
Republic (from 1953)
Gamal Abdel Nasser, Soviet ally, Pan-Arabism
On June 18, 1953, the Republic was proclaimed and Fu'ad II was exiled to his family.
Nasser overthrew General Nagib and formed the Nasser II cabinet (April 17, 1954 to February 22, 1958). On October 8, 1954, an assassination attempt on Nasser allegedly planned by the Muslim Brotherhood failed . Nasser had the Muslim Brotherhood smashed, and numerous activists were arrested and tortured, including Sayyid Qutb , whose writings were widely distributed in the Arab world after his execution in 1966.
Until his heart attack death in September 1970, Nasser determined politics as president. The government became socialist and a one-party state was built under the Arab Socialist Union . The planned land reform and the fight against poverty did not lead to the hoped-for successes.
On July 26, 1956, the Suez Canal was nationalized (ostensibly or in fact to finance the construction of the Aswan Dam ). This led to the Suez Crisis in October 1956 , in which Great Britain , France and Israel attacked Egypt and occupied the Suez Canal Zone and Sinai . Under pressure from the two great powers, the USA and the Soviet Union , the interveners had to withdraw again. Nasser was able to convert the military defeat into a political victory. In 1956 women were given the right to vote and stand as a candidate . Voting was compulsory for men, not for women. Men who had the right to vote were automatically registered, women had to file a special application in order to exercise their political rights, and even in 1972 only 12 percent of women were registered. It was not until 1979 that this disadvantage for women was abolished.
Egypt became a leading member of the Non-Aligned Movement and supported the anti-colonial struggle and the like. a. in Algeria and Yemen . Nasser also propagated pan-Arabism . In 1958 the United Arab Republic with Syria was formed, which only existed until 1961, as well as the merger of this United Arab Republic with Northern Yemen to form the United Arab States . This put Nasser in opposition to the conservative monarchies, especially in Jordan and Iraq , which merged in the Arab Federation . A reunification with Syria and Iraq to form the United Arab Republic in 1963 failed due to differences between the Iraqi and Syrian wings of the Ba'ath Party . 1962-1967 still existed a union with the now republican North Yemen ; nevertheless, Nasser's pan-Arabism had failed.
The defeat of Egypt in the Six Day War of 1967 and the occupation of the Sinai Peninsula by Israel made Nasser even closer to the Soviet Union. On April 11, 1971, Egypt received modern MiG-23 fighter aircraft from its ally. Israel saw their stationing endanger the balance in the Middle East.
Anwar as-Sadat (1970–1981), orientation towards the West, war with Israel, peace at Camp David
Under Anwar as-Sadat , there was a break with the Soviet Union and rapprochement with the USA in 1972/1976. Nevertheless, on March 1, 1977, the Soviet Union surprisingly delivered 50 MiG-21 fighter aircraft to Egypt. In the Yom Kippur War between October 6 and 24, 1973, the Egyptian troops were able to achieve initial successes against Israel. After Sadat's visit to Israel (November 19-21, 1977) and the Camp David Agreement of September 17, 1978, Sadat and Menachem Begin received the Nobel Peace Prize . On March 26, 1979, in Washington , a peace with Israel closed, which led to the withdrawal of Israeli troops. However, this equalization led to the isolation of Egypt in the Islamic world; so the expulsion from the Arab League took place . In 1977 there was a four-day border war with neighboring Libya , which strongly condemned Egypt's rapprochement with Israel.
Hosni Mubarak (1981–2011), re-entry into the Arab League, Muslim Brotherhood
After Sadat was murdered by members of the Muslim terrorist group al-Jihad on October 6, 1981, Hosni Mubarak took over the government. Under him, the Muslim Brotherhood was suppressed and Egypt's isolation in the Islamic world was broken again. In 1989 he was re-accepted into the Arab League.
In early 1992, open clashes began between Islamic militants and the government, which turned out to be the bloodiest since Sadat's assassination in 1993. The main goal of the Islamists was the overthrow of Mubarak and the establishment of a state of God . Numerous attacks against foreigners, tourist facilities, high-ranking politicians and security forces shook internal security. In August 1993, the newly appointed Interior Minister Hassan Alfi escaped seriously injured from an assassination attempt, while Prime Minister Sidqi escaped unharmed from a bomb attack in November. The government responded with police actions, hundreds of arrests were made in the Islamist strongholds of Aswan , Cairo and Assiut , and military courts imposed several death sentences. In particularly bloody attacks in densely populated residential areas of Cairo, Egyptian civilians were now among the victims. Mubarak was confirmed as head of state for a third term in a referendum in October 1993 with 94% of the vote. In the largest government reshuffle since he took office, the cabinet was expanded by three posts to 34.
Attacks on Mubarak failed in 1994 and 1996, and there were also terrorist attacks against tourism, which was (and is) the most important economic sector. After the attacks in Luxor and Cairo, in which several tourists died, tourism suffered a significant slump. For the planning of an attack against a Coptic church in Alexandria in early 2011, the Muslim Brotherhood was also initially held responsible; However, at the beginning of February 2011, proceedings were opened against the former Interior Minister Habib al-Adli .
In the elections to the People's Council from November 9, 2005, the opposition was able to achieve strong profits. In total, the alliance received almost 100 of the 440 seats. The ruling National Democratic Party , however, won with 311 seats, even though it still had 388 in the 2000 elections . This was followed by the Muslim Brotherhood with 88 seats (17) and the liberal New Wafd Party with 6 (7) seats. 27 seats (30) were occupied by independents and members of smaller parties. The success of the Muslim Brotherhood is mainly due to their social commitment in the poor neighborhoods of Cairo.
Revolution (2011/12), Government of the Muslim Brotherhood
The Egyptian revolution in 2011 and 2012 was inspired by the Tunisian revolution . Mass protests on Tahrir Square in Cairo played a decisive role. It was part of the " Arab Spring ". A population growth from 50 to 85 million people within the last 25 years puts enormous pressure on the labor market and regional food production and contributes significantly to growing poverty and high unemployment, especially among the younger ones. Rising food and energy prices around the world exacerbated the situation.
On January 25, 2011, demonstrations began in many large cities, which peaked on January 28, known as "Day of Wrath". The demonstrators turned against the regime of President Muhammad Husni Mubarak , which had existed since October 1981, and was accused of corruption and abuse of office. He was forced to resign on February 11th. By then, at least 846 people had been violently killed. On January 28, 2011, the headquarters of the National Democratic Party in Cairo was set on fire. The Egyptian Museum opposite was protected from the fire and from looting by demonstrators. The ruling party of Mubarak was dissolved by the Supreme Administrative Court. Mubarak was arrested on April 8, 2012 and sentenced by a court to life imprisonment in early June.
A constitutional referendum was held on March 19, and the new constitution was approved by 77% of voters. Islamic law, the Sharia , has been established as the main source of nationwide jurisprudence. The Islamist parties won the popular assembly election with around 70%. The presidential election took place in May and June 2012. Mohammed Morsi , leader of the Muslim Brotherhood , won the election with 51.7% of the vote.
Parliamentary elections for the People's Assembly began on November 28, 2011 . On January 20, 2012, the final official result showed that the Islamic Freedom and Justice Party came in at 45.7%, the Salafist Party of Light reached 24.6%, the liberal New Wafd Party and the liberal party alliance Egyptian Bloc reached 8 , 4 and 6.6%. The party alliance The Revolution Continues scoring 2%.
For the runoff election for president (June 16 and 17), voters chose Ahmad Schafiq (Air Force officer who was appointed Prime Minister by Husni Mubarak in January 2011) and Mohammed Morsi (first chairman of the Islamist and economically liberal Freedom and Justice Party ). Mursi achieved 24.9%, Schafik 24.4%. Hamdin Sabahi (chairman of the left-wing and Nassist Party of Dignity ) came third with 21.1% and Abdel Moneim Abul Futuh (former Muslim Brother) came fourth with 17.8%. The state of emergency was lifted on May 31.
At the end of November 2012, there were again large demonstrations on Tahrir Square. The trigger was an expansion of the powers of President Morsi, with which he severely restricted the control of the judiciary over decrees he had decreed and over the parliamentary chambers dominated by the Muslim Brotherhood and Islamist forces and the Constituent Assembly of Egypt .
At the end of 2012, the Egyptians voted on the draft constitution. Copts and opposition groups stayed away from the preparation, as they did not find themselves in the draft, which is dominated by Sharia law. In the referendum, 63.8% voted for the proposed constitutional text, 36.6% voted against. Almost 33% of the 52 million eligible voters, i.e. hardly more than 17 million, had cast a vote.
Overthrow of the government of President Mohammed Morsi by the military (2013)
During the reign of the first democratically elected President of Egypt, Mohammed Morsi (swearing in June 30, 2012, dismissal on July 3, 2013), there were numerous protests and demonstrations against Morsi and the Kandil government . Mass protests broke out in early summer. On July 1, the Supreme Military Council gave Morsi a 48-hour ultimatum to “resolve the conflict”. On July 3, 2013 , the military under General Abd al-Fattah as-Sisi struck a coup against the elected government after the ultimatum had expired, suspended the constitution approved by referendum, overthrew President Morsi and appointed constitutional judge Adli Mansur as interim head of state.
The security forces began the ongoing series of mass killings of demonstrators with the shooting of demonstrators on July 5, 2013 and the mass killing of demonstrators on July 5, 2013 , which was to continue and intensify during the interim government of Beblawie.
Military-backed transitional government
Beblawi cabinet
The new military-backed transitional government banned the Muslim Brotherhood and branded it as a terrorist organization. A new constitution was also adopted after being confirmed by a referendum.
In a wave of violence unprecedented in recent Egyptian history, several mass killings of demonstrators by security forces occurred during the Beblawi government, including on July 27, 2013 , August 14, 2013 , August 16, 2013 and October 6, 2013 . Some of the most serious acts of violence in Egypt since the violent breakup of the two pro-Morsi sit-ins on August 14, 2013, which Human Rights Watch called "the worst murderous incident in recent Egyptian history," occurred on August 25 , 2013 . January 2014 , the third anniversary of the 2011 popular uprising.
At the end of February 2014, the Beblawi cabinet surprisingly resigned.
Mahlab cabinet
On March 1, 2014, the cabinet of the new military-backed transitional government was officially sworn in. The ministers who resigned from the transitional government were mainly liberal and left-wing representatives. The newly arrived ministers, on the other hand, were recruited more from the business elite from the time of the long-term ruler Husni Mubarak, who was overthrown in 2011.
On 26 March 2014, since the coup of 3 July 2013 declared de facto power performers in Egypt military chief Sisi, who previously self-titled Field Marshal had lent officially be leaving the service of the army of the Egyptian for the office To run for president. Sisi's successor at the head of the army and as defense minister of the military-backed transitional government became Chief of Staff Sidki Sobhi .
literature
Overview works
- Robert L. Tignor: Egypt. A short history. Princeton University Press 2010. (from the Old Kingdom to Mubarak).
- Joseph Mélèze-Modrzejewski : The Jews of Egypt. From Rameses II to Emperor Hadrian. Princeton University Press, 1995. - French. 1992.
- Emma Brunner-Traut : Little Egyptology. From the pharaohs to today. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2000, ISBN 3-17-015564-4 .
- Arthur Goldschmidt Jr .: Biographical Dictionary of Modern Egypt. Boulder / London: Lynne Rienner, 2000, ISBN 1-55587-229-8 (Important personalities in Egyptian history since the late 18th century).
- Jaromír Málek : Egypt. A historical and cultural journey through seven millennia. Orbis, Niederhausen 2002, ISBN 3-572-01325-9 .
Prehistory and early history
- Kathryn A. Bard (Ed.): Encyclopedia of the Archeology of Ancient Egypt. Psychology Press, 1999.
- Béatrix Midant-Reynes: The Prehistory of Egypt from the First Egyptians to the First Pharaohs. Blackwell, Oxford 2000.
- Willeke Wendrich (Ed.): Egyptian Archeology. John Wiley & Sons 2011.
- Steven E. Sidebotham, Martin Hense, Hendrikje M. Nouwens: The Red Land. The Illustrated Archeology of Egypt's Eastern Desert. American University in Cairo Press, 2008.
Paleolithic
- Pierre Vermeersch (Ed.): Palaeolithic Living Sites in Upper and Middle Egypt , Leuven University Press 2000.
- Pierre Vermeersch (Ed.): Palaeolithic Quarrying Sites in Upper and Middle Egypt , Leuven University Press 2002.
- Hans-Joachim Pachur, Norbert Altmann: The Eastern Sahara in the late Quarter, ecosystem change in the largest hyperarid space on earth , Springer 2006.
- Pierre Vermeersch (Ed.): A Holocene Prehistoric Sequence in the Egyptian Red Sea Area: The Tree Shelter , Leuven University Press 2008.
- Philip Van Peer, Pierre M. Vermeersch, Etienne Paulissen: Chert Quarrying, Lithic Technology and a Modern Human Burial at the Palaeolithic Site of Taramsa 1, Upper Egypt , Leuven University Press 2010.
- Fred Wendorf, Romuald Schild, Angela E. Close: Egypt During the Last Interglacial. The Middle Paleolithic of Bir Tarfawi and Bir Sahara East , Plenum Press, 1993.
- Jean-Jacques Hublin, Shannon P. McPherron: Modern Origins: A North African Perspective , Springer 2012.
- Jean-Jacques Hublin, Richard G. Klein: Northern Africa could also have housed the source population for living humans , in: PNAS 108,28 (2011).
- Jiří A. Svoboda: Prehistory of the southern Bahariya Oasis, Western Desert, Egypt. An outline , in: Archeology, Ethnology and Anthropology of Eurasia 28.1 (2006) 18-30.
- Stan Hendrickx, RF Friedman, KM Cialowicz, M. Chlodnicki: Egypt at its Origins. Studies in Memory of Barbara Adams - Proceedings of the International Conference "Origin of the State, Predynastic and Early Dynastic Egypt , Peeters Publishers, Leuven 2004.
Epipalaeolithic, Neolithic
- David Wengrow: The Archeology of Early Egypt. Social transformations in north-east Africa, 10,000 to 2650 BC , Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2006.
- Noriyuki Shirai: The Archeology of the First Farmer-Herders in Egypt. New Insights Into the Fayum Epipalaeolithic and Neolithic , Leiden University Press 2012.
- Steven Mithen: Farmers in the Nile Valley and Beyond. The arrival of cereal agriculture in North Africa. 5500-4000 BC , in: Ders .: After the Ice. A Global Human History, 20,000-5000 BC , Harvard University Press 2006, pp. 499-503.
- Wolf Schijns, Olaf E. Kaper, Joris Kila: Vernacular Mudbrick Architecture in the Dakhleh Oasis, Egypt. And the Design of the Dakhleh Oasis Training and Archaeological Conservation Center , Oxbow, 2008.
- Donald O. Henry (Ed.): Neanderthals in the Levant. Behavioral Organization and the Beginnings of Human Modernity , Continuum International Publishing Group, New York 2003, with a focus on the Jordanian Tor Faraj.
"Old Egypt"
- Lexicon of Egyptology. 7 volumes, Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1972–1995.
- Thomas Schneider : Lexicon of the Pharaohs , Albatros, Düsseldorf 2002.
- Alan B. Lloyd (Eds.): A Companion to Ancient Egypt , John Wiley & Sons 2010.
- Ian Shaw: The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt , 1st edition. 2000, new edition, Oxford University Press 2003. (covers the history of Egypt from the earliest human traces to AD 395).
- Wolfgang Helck: History of Ancient Egypt , Brill, Leiden, Cologne 1981.
- Marc Van De Mieroop: A History of Ancient Egypt , John Wiley & Sons 2011.
- Carolyn Graves-Brown: Dancing for Hathor. Women in Ancient Egypt , Continuum International Publishing Group 2010.
- Emily Teeter: Religion and Ritual in Ancient Egypt , Cambridge University Press 2011.
- Richard Bussmann: The provincial temples of Egypt from the 0th to the 11th dynasty. Archeology and history of a social institution between residence and province , 2 vols., Brill, Leiden 2009.
- László Török: Between Two Worlds. The Frontier Region Between Ancient Nubia and Egypt 3700 BC - 500 AD , Brill, Leiden 2009.
- Jochem Kahl, Nicole Kloth, Ursula Zimmermann: The inscriptions of the 3rd dynasty. An inventory , Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1995.
Predynastics
- Stan Hendrickx: Predynastics . In: E. Hornung, R. Kraus, DA Warburton (Eds.): Ancient Egyptian Chronology , Brill, Leiden, Boston 2006.
- Jochem Kahl: Upper and Lower Egypt: A dualistic construction and its beginnings. In: Rainer Albertz (Ed.): Spaces and Borders: Topological Concepts in the Ancient Cultures of the Eastern Mediterranean. Utz, Munich 2007.
- Peter Kaplony: Inscriptions of the early Egyptian period: Supplement. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1966.
- Ludwig David Morenz: Image letters and symbolic signs: The development of the writing of the high culture of ancient Egypt , Friborg 2004.
- Dietrich Wildung: Egypt in front of the pyramids - Munich excavations in Egypt , von Zabern, Mainz 1986.
- Krzysztof Marek Ciałowicz: La naissance d'un royaume: L'Egypte dès la période prédynastique à la fin de la Ière dynastie . Inst. Archeologii Uniw. Jagiellońskiego, Kraków 2001.
- Michael Allen Hoffman: The predynastic of Hierakonpolis: An interim report , in: Egyptian Studies Association Publication. 1, Cairo University Herbarium, Giza 1982.
- Michael Allan Hoffman: Egypt before the Pharaohs. The Prehistoric Foundations of Egyptian Civilization , Routledge and Kegan Paul, London 1980.
- Toby AH Wilkinson: Early Dynastic Egypt. Strategy, Society and Security , Routledge, London 1999.
- Béatrix Midant-Reynes: The Naqada Period (4000-3200 BC.). In: Ian Shaw: The Oxford history of ancient Egypt. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2003.
Old, Middle and New Kingdom, intermediate times
- Wolfgang Helck : Investigations on the Thinite Age (= Ägyptologische Abhandlungen (ÄA). Vol. 45). Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1987, ISBN 3-447-02677-4 .
- Jürgen von Beckerath : Chronology of the pharaonic Egypt. The timing of Egyptian history from prehistoric times to 332 BC Chr. Von Zabern, Mainz 1997, ISBN 3-8053-2310-7 .
- Farouk Gomaà: Egypt during the First Intermediate Period. (= Tübingen Atlas of the Middle East. Supplements. Vol. 27). Reichert, Wiesbaden 1980, ISBN 3-88226-041-6 .
- Kim SB Ryholt: The Political Situation in Egypt during the Second Intermediate Period. Copenhagen 1997.
- Jürgen von Beckerath: Investigations into the political history of the Second Intermediate Period in Egypt. Augustin, Glückstadt / New York 1964.
- KA Kitchen : The Third Intermediate Period in Egypt. 1100-650 B.C. 4th edition. Aris & Phillips, Warminster 2009.
- David P. Silverman, Josef William Wegner, Jennifer Houser Wegner: Akhenaten and Tutankhamun. Revolution and Restoration. University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archeology and Anthropology, 2006.
- Rosemarie Klemm & Dietrich Klemm: Gold and Gold Mining in Ancient Egypt and Nubia. Geoarchaeology of the Ancient Gold Mining Sites in the Egyptian and Sudanese Eastern Deserts. Springer, Berlin / Heidelberg 2013, ISBN 978-3-642-22507-9 .
- Steven E. Sidebotham: Berenike and the Ancient Maritime Spice Route. University of California Press 2011.
- Frank Kammerzell: Studies on the language and history of the Carians in Egypt. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1993, ISBN 3-447-03411-4 .
- Gaston Maspero: Egypt and Assyria. BG Teubner, 1891.
Greco-Roman Antiquity, Eastern Byzantium
- Günther Hölbl : Ancient Egypt in the Roman Empire. The Roman Pharaoh and his Temples , 3 volumes, Mainz 2000–2005.
- Günther Hölbl: History of the Ptolemaic Empire. Politics, ideology and religious culture from Alexander the Great to the Roman conquest , reviewed reprint of the 1st edition from 1994, Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 2004.
- Werner Huss : Egypt in the Hellenistic Period, 332–30 BC Chr. Munich 2001.
- Stefan Pfeiffer : The Roman Emperor and the land on the Nile. Emperor worship and imperial cult in Alexandria and Egypt from Augustus to Caracalla (30 BC – 217 AD) , habilitation thesis, University of Trier 2007, Stuttgart 2010.
- Fabian Reiter: The nomarchs of the Arsinoites. A contribution to taxation in Roman Egypt , dissertation, Heidelberg University 2003, Paderborn 2004.
- Christina Riggs (Ed.): The Oxford Handbook of Roman Egypt , Oxford 2012.
- Andrea Jördens: governor administration in the Roman Empire. Studies on praefectus Aegypti , Steiner, Stuttgart 2009.
- Roger S. Bagnall: Currency and Inflation in Fourth-Century Egypt , in: Bulletin of the American Society of Papyrologists Supplements , Scholars Press, Chico, California 1985.
- Alan K. Bowman: Egypt After the Pharaohs: 332 BC – AD 642 from Alexander to the Arab Conquest , British Museum Press, London 1986.
- Roger S. Bagnall: Egypt in the Byzantine World, 300-700. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2007.
- Jean Gascou: Les grands domaines, la cité et l'état en Egypte byzantine , in: Travaux et Mémoires No. 9, Paris 1985, pp. 1-90.
- Birger A. Pearson, James E. Goehring: The Roots of Egyptian Christianity , Fortress, Philadelphia 1986.
- Martin Krause (ed.): Egypt in late antique Christian times. Introduction to the Coptic culture (= languages and cultures of the Christian Orient, vol. 4). Reichert, Wiesbaden 1999.
- Erhard Schaub: History of Roman Egypt. From the conquest under Octavian / Augustus to Diocletian , Rahden / Westf. 2017.
Muslim empire: Umayyads, Abbasids, Fatimids
- Hugh Kennedy: The Prophet and the Age of the Caliphates. The Islamic Near East from the Sixth to the Eleventh Century. 2nd Edition. Longman, London et al. 2004.
- Gernot Rotter: The Umayyads and the Second Civil War (680 - 692) , Steiner, Wiesbaden 1982.
- Heinz Halm: The Caliphs of Cairo. The Fatimids in Egypt (973-1074) . Beck, Munich 2003.
Mamluks and Ottomans, Napoleon, Muhammad Ali
- Ulrich Haarmann : The rule system of the Mamluks , in: Ulrich Haarmann (Ed.): History of the Arab World , CH Beck, Munich 2004 (1st edition 1987).
- Febe Armanios: Coptic Christianity in Ottoman Egypt , Oxford University Press, 2011.
- Alan Mikhail: Nature and Empire in Ottoman Egypt. An Environmental History , 1992, Psychology Press, 2005.
- Jane Hathaway: The Politics of Households in Ottoman Egypt: The Rise of the Qazdaglis , Cambridge University Press, 1997.
- Michael Winter: Society and Religion in Early Ottoman Egypt , Transaction Publishers, New Brunswick, New Jersey 1982, 2009.
- Galal H. El-Nahal: The Judicial Administration of Ottoman Egypt in the Seventeenth Century , Bibliotheca Islamica, 1979.
- Alan Mark Mikhail: The Nature of Ottoman Egypt: Irrigation, Environment, and Bureaucracy in the Long Eighteenth Century , ProQuest, 2001, 2008.
- Stanford J. Shaw : Ottoman Egypt in the Eighteenth Century. The Nizamname-I Misir of Cezzar Ahmed Pasha , Literary Licensing 2011.
- Yaron Ben-Naeh: Jews in the Realm of the Sultans. Ottoman Jewish Society in the Seventeenth Century , Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 2008.
- Norman A. Stillman: The Jews of Arab Lands. A History and Source Book , Jewish Publication Society, 1979.
- E. Mary Smallwood: The Jews in Egypt and Alexandria , in: Dies .: The Jews Under Roman Rule. From Pompey to Diocletian: a Study in Political Relations, Brill, Leiden 1976, 2nd ed. 1981, pp. 220-255.
- Yves Laissus: L'Egypte, une aventure savante, 1798–1801 , Paris 1998.
- Juan Cole : Napoleon's Egypt: Invading the Middle East , Basingstoke 2008.
- Afaf Lutfi Al-Sayyid Marsot: Egypt in the Reign of Muhammad Ali , Cambridge University Press 1984, reprinted 1994, 2001.
- Maurus Reinkowski: Ottomans and Post-Ottomans in Egypt , in: Börte Sagaster et al. (Ed.): Hoşsohbet. In honor of Erika Glassen . Würzburg: Ergon, 2011, ISBN 978-3-89913-836-8 , pp. 237–250 (short, legible overview of the change in the political elite in Egypt from Ottomans to "post-Ottomans" under Muhammad Ali and his successors) .
British colonial rule
- William M. Welch: No country for a gentleman. British Rule in Egypt, 1883-1907. Greenwood Press, 1988.
- Dominic Green: Three Empires on the Nile. The Victorian Jihad, 1869-1899. Simon and Schuster, New York 2007.
- Michael Doran: Pan-Arabism Before Nasser. Egyptian Power Politics and the Palestine Question. Oxford University Press, 2002.
- Gudrun Krämer: The Jews in Modern Egypt, 1914–1952. IB Tauris, London 1989.
Kingdom, republic, revolution
- Alexander Flores: Secularism and Islam in Egypt. The 1980s debate. LIT Verlag, Münster 2012.
- Alaa Al Aswany: On the State of Egypt: What Made the Revolution Inevitable. Vintage Books, New York 2012.
Web links
- Rodolfo Fattovich, Marcello Piperno , Barbara E. Barich, Isabella Caneva: La preistoria e la protostoria dell'Africa , treccani, 2005.
- Kathryn Bard: The Egyptian Predynastic: A review of the evidence , 1994.
- Archéo-Nile, French or engl. (predynastic Egypt)
- Information and images on the Merimde culture, University College London website
- Full Collection - by Period , The Virtual Egyptian Museum
- Encyclopaedia of Islam : Articles Mamluk ( memento of March 18, 2005 in the Internet Archive ) and Mamlaks ( memento of March 18, 2005 in the Internet Archive )
- Tahrir Documents - Launched in March 2011, the website archives and translates documents from activists from the 2011 uprising and beyond. Scans of the original documents are shown together with an English translation. Editors / editors are Cameron Hu, Levi Thompson, Elias Saba and Emily Drumsta (as of April 2012). Details are also documented on the forces, organizations and parties supporting the revolution, revolutionary newspapers and details on the overthrown Mubarak regime and the important religious and ideological currents in Egypt.
- Change of power in Egypt on the information portal for political education
Remarks
- ↑ Friedemann Schrenk , Stephanie Müller: The Neanderthals. Beck, Munich 2005, p. 42.
- ↑ Carl Zimmer : Where do we come from? The origins of man. Spektrum Akademischer Verlag, 2006, p. 90.
- ^ Ian Shaw: Exploring Ancient Egypt , Oxford University Press, 2003, p. 7.
- ↑ Kathryn Ann Bard, Steven Blake Shubert (Ed.): Encyclopedia of the Archeology of Ancient Egypt. Psychology Press, 1999, p. 6.
- ^ Fred Wendorf , Romuald Schild , Angela E. Close : Egypt During the Last Interglacial. The Middle Paleolithic of Bir Tarfawi and Bir Sahara East. Plenum Press, 1993.
- ^ Veerle Rots, Philip Van Peer, Pierre M. Vermeersch : Aspects of tool production, use, and hafting in Palaeolithic assemblages from Northeast Africa. In: Journal of Human Evolution 60.5. 2011, pp. 637-664.
- ^ Fred Wendorf: Prehistoric Sites in Egypt and in Sudan , website of the Nubia Museum in Aswan .
- ↑ Barbara Ann Kipfer: Encyclopedic Dictionary of Archeology , Springer 2000, p. 278.
-
↑ Philip Van Peer, Pierre M. Vermeersch, Etienne Paulissen: Chert Quarrying, Lithic Technology, and a Modern Human Burial at the Palaeolithic Site of Taramsa 1, Upper Egypt. In: African Archaeological Review 27.3. 2010, pp. 251-253.
Philip Van Peer, Pierre M. Vermeersch, Etienne Paulissen: Chert Quarrying, Lithic Technology, and a Modern Human Burial at the Palaeolithic Site of Taramsa 1, Upper Egypt. Leuven University Press 2010. - ↑ Pierre M. Vermeersch: La vallée du Nil et le Sahara oriental. Une population préhistorique fluctuante sous l'effet des climatiques variations. In: Comptes Rendus Palevol 5.1-2. 2006, pp. 255-262.
- ^ Ian Shaw: The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt. Oxford University Press 2003, p. 20.
- ↑ Amud . In: Encyclopedia Britannica. 2007.
- ↑ A middle palaeolithic burial of a modern human at Taramsa Hill, Egypt . 2009.
- ↑ Elena AA Garcea: Successes and failures of human dispersals from North Africa. In: Quaternary International 270. 2012, pp. 119–128. On the trigger, see: Philip Van Peer: Did middle stone age moderns of sub-Saharan African descent trigger an upper paleolithic revolution in the lower nile valley? . In: Anthropologie 42.3. 2004, pp. 215-225.
- ↑ Isabelle Crevecoeur: The Upper Paleolithic Human Remains of Nazlet Khater 2 (Egypt) and Past Modern Human Diversity , in: Modern Origins. Vertebrate Paleobiology and Paleoanthropology 2012 (205-219) and L. Bouchneb, Isabelle Crevecoeur: The inner ear of Nazlet Khater 2 (Upper Paleolithic, Egypt) , in: Journal of Human Evolution 56 (2009) 257-262. Overall presentation by Isabelle Crevecoeur: Etude anthropologique du squelette du Paléolithique supérieur de Nazlet Khater 2 (Egypte). Apport à la compréhension de la variabilité passée des hommes modern , Leuven University Press 2009.
- ↑ A picture of the skull can be found here
- ↑ Ron Pinhasi, Patrick Semal: The position of the Nazlet Khater specimen among prehistoric and modern African and Levantine populations , in: Journal of Human Evolution 39.3 (2000) 269–288, dated to an age of about 33,000 years.
- ↑ Linda Bouchneb, Isabelle Crevecoeur, The inner ear of Nazlet Khater 2 (Upper Paleolithic, Egypt) , in: Journal of Human Evolution 56 (2009) 257-262.
- ↑ K. Kris Hirst: Nazlet Khater. Early Modern Human Mining in Egypt , in: About.com.
- ^ PM Vermeersch (Ed.): Palaeolithic Living Sites in Upper and Middle Egypt , Leuven University Press 2000, pp. 111–158.
- ^ Jean-Jacques Hublin, Shannon P. McPherron: Modern Origins. A North African Perspective , Springer 2012, p. 191.
- ^ Steven Mithen: After the Ice: A Global Human History, 20,000-5000 BC , Harvard University Press 2003, 2006, p. 445.
- ↑ Steven Mithen: After the Ice: A Global Human History, 20,000-5000 BC , Harvard University Press 2003, 2006, p. 452.
- ↑ Stan Hendrickx, Pierre Vermeersch: Prehistory: From the Paleolithic to the Badarian Culture (700,000-4000 BC.) , In: Ian Shaw: The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt , Oxford 2003, pp. 16–40, here: p. 24 .
- ↑ Stan Hendrickx, Pierre Vermeersch: Prehistory: From the Paleolithic to the Badarian Culture (700,000 - 4000 BC.) , In: Ian Shaw: The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt , Oxford 2003, pp. 16–40, here: p. 25 .
- ^ F. Wendorf: Prehistory of Nubia , Southern Methodist University Press, Dallas, Vol. 2, 1968, pp. 954-999.
- ^ El-Hosh , Netherlands-Flemish Institute in Cairo.
- ^ Steven Mithen: After the Ice: A Global Human History, 20,000-5000 BC , p. 494.
- ↑ Michael Brass offers a brief overview . 2002. Badarian government and religious evolution ( Memento dated March 4, 2007 in the Internet Archive ), Antiquity of Man.
- ^ Béatrix Midant-Reynes: The Naqada-Period (4000-3.200 BC.) , In: Oxford History of Ancient Egypt, Oxford University Press 2003, pp. 41-56.
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- ↑ This uncertainty goes back to Manetho, with some copyists (like Eusebius of Caesarea ) the dynasty is described as Theban, with others as belonging to the Hyksos (like Sextus Iulius Africanus ).
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- ↑ This is the best-researched mine in Egypt, as detailed articles show: Marijke van der Veen: The food and fodder supply to the Roman quarry settlements in the Eastern desert of Egypt , in: Dies. (Ed.): The Exploitation of Plant Resources in Ancient Africa , Kluwer Academic / Plenum Publishers, New York 1999, pp. 171-183.
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- ^ Jonah Steinberg: Isma'ili Modern. Globalization and Identity in a Muslim Community , University of North Carolina Press 2011, p. 37.
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- ^ Hans Theunissen: Ottoman-Venetian Diplomatics: The 'ahd-names. The Historical Background and the Development of a Category of Political-Commercial Instruments together with an Annotated Edition of a Corpus of Relevant Documents. In: Electronic Journal of Oriental Studies 1, 2, 1998, pp. 1–698, here p. 14.
- ↑ Ulrich Haarmann: The rule system of the Mamluken , in: Halm / Haarmann (ed.): History of the Arab world . C. H. Beck, Munich 2004; Albrecht Fuess: Burned Shore: Effects of Mamluk Maritime Policy on Beirut and the Syro-Palestinian Coast (1250–1517) . Islamic history and civilization, vol. 39. Brill Academic Pub, Cologne 2001; Jörg-Ronald Keßler: The world of the Mamluks. Egypt in the late Middle Ages 1250–1517 , Klaus Schwarz Verlag, Berlin 2004.
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- ^ UN worried about high food prices ( memento of September 3, 2011 in the Internet Archive ), Deutsche Welle , February 4, 2011.
- ↑ Der Standard: It's about bread and work, not Sharia , in: Der Standard, January 27, 2011.
- ↑ Mubarak responsible for 846 deaths , the daily newspaper (taz), April 20, 2011 .
- ^ Protests escalate, curfew imposed , in: Der Standard, January 28, 2011.
- ^ Egypt's Mubarak has 'health crisis' after receiving life in prison , in: The Globe and Mail, June 2, 2012.
- ^ Constitutional Declaration: A New Stage in the History of the Great Egyptian People , Egypt State Information Service , March 23, 2011.
- ↑ Muslim Brother Morsi becomes Egypt's new President , in: Spiegel.de, June 24, 2012.
- ↑ FAZ: Islamists win 70 percent
- ↑ Karim El-Gawhary: Muslim Brothers on a cuddle course , in: taz, January 22, 2012.
- ↑ Gong for the second round , in: taz, May 29, 2012.
- ^ Zeit Online: Largest mass protest since Morsi took office on November 27, 2012.
- ↑ Egyptians say yes to the controversial constitution , in: Die Welt, December 25, 2012.
- ↑ AFP / AP / dpa / smb / jw: Egypt: Egypt's military issues a 48-hour ultimatum. In: welt.de . July 1, 2013, accessed October 7, 2018 .
- ^ Franziska Grillmeier: Egypt's head of state: Adli Mansur, a Mubarak official at the top. In: welt.de . July 4, 2013, accessed October 7, 2018 .
- ↑ Egypt: No Acknowledgment or Justice for Mass Protester Killings Set Up a Fact-Finding Committee as a First Step ( Memento from December 25, 2013 on WebCite ). Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, December 10, 2013, archived from the original on December 25, 2013.
- ↑ Egypt: No Acknowledgment or Justice for Mass Protester Killings ( Memento from December 25, 2013 on WebCite ) (English). Human Rights Watch, December 10, 2013, archived from the original on December 25, 2013.
- ↑ Rights groups demand Egypt probe killings of Mursi supporters ( Memento from December 26, 2013 on WebCite ). Reuters Edition US, December 10, 2013, by Tom Perry, archived from the original on December 26, 2013.
- ↑ http://www.heute.at/news/welt/art23661,970734
- ↑ 265 dead in January: Independent count - Independent statistical database Wiki Thawra reports 108 dead on revolution's third anniversary - nearly double the official count of 66 ( Memento from March 1, 2014 on WebCite ), Daily News Egypt, February 13, 2014, from Rana Muhammad Taha, archived from the original on March 1, 2014.
- ↑ 25 January death toll rises to 103: Independent count ( Memento from March 6, 2014 on WebCite ) (English). Daily News Egypt, February 2, 2014, by Ali Omar, archived from the original on March 6, 2014.
- ↑ Construction Minister Mahlab is to form the Egyptian government ( memento from February 26, 2014 on WebCite ), derStandard.at, February 25, 2014, archived from the original on February 26, 2014.
- ↑ Egypt - What Comes After the Transitional Government? ( Memento from February 25, 2014 on WebCite ), Der Tagesspiegel, February 25, 2014 (O: 00 o'clock), by Martin Gehlen, archived from the original on February 25, 2014.
- ↑ Who's who: Egypt's new cabinet - 20 ministers from El-Beblawi's cabinet keep their posts, while 11 ministers are fresh appointees ( Memento from March 2, 2014 on WebCite ). Ahram Online, March 1, 2014, archived from the original on March 3, 2014.
- ↑ New transitional government sworn in in Egypt ( memento from March 2, 2014 on WebCite ), derStandard.at, March 2, 2014, archived from the original on March 3, 2014.
- ^ Government of the Mubarak Elite - Egypt: Sixth Cabinet sworn in since 2011. Army chief Al-Sisi remains Minister of Defense ( memento from March 2, 2014 on WebCite ), Young World, Abroad / Page 6, March 3, 2014, by Sofian Philip Naceur, archived from the original on March 3, 2014.
- ^ A b Egypt - New Government sworn in ( memento from March 2, 2014 on WebCite ), Tageblatt Online, March 2, 2014, archived from the original on March 3, 2014.
- ↑ a b Al-Sisi remains minister - New government in Egypt sworn in ( memento from March 2, 2014 on WebCite ), merkur-online.de, March 2, 2014, archived from the original on March 3, 2014.
- ↑ Government paves the way for presidential elections - fear of the next revolution - Egypt's government has passed a law that paves the way for presidential elections. The favorite, Army Chief Sisi, is pushing for the restoration of the state of the ousted ex-President Mubarak. Critics already fear a new revolution ( Memento from March 12, 2014 in the Internet Archive ), tagesschau.de, March 9, 2014, by Jürgen Stryjak (ARD radio studio Cairo), archived from the original ( Memento from March 12, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) on March 14, 2014.
- ↑ Audio: Waiting for the next revolution ( Memento from March 14, 2014 on WebCite ) ( MP3 ( Memento from March 14, 2014 on WebCite ), 6'15 min.), Tagesschau.de, March 9, 2014, by Jürgen Stryjak (SWR, Cairo)
- ↑ Timeline of Turmoil in Egypt After Mubarak and Morsi ( Memento from March 29, 2014 on WebCite ) (English). The New York Times, July 2, 2013 (nominal), by Shreeya Sinha and Erin Banco, archived from the original on March 29, 2014.
- ^ Rallies also from supporters ( memento from March 29, 2014 on WebCite ) , ORF.at, March 28, 2014, archived from the original on March 29, 2014.
- ↑ Sedki Sobhi sworn in as Egypt's new military chief - Egypt's new armed forces chief and defense minister has been sworn in, a day after Abdul Fattah al-Sisi resigned so he could stand for the presidency ( Memento from March 29, 2014 on WebCite ) (English). BBC News, March 27, 2014, archived from the original on March 29, 2014.
