Egypt

G

International Relations

Egypt led in the formation of the Arab League and was a charter member of the United Nations (UN), both of which were formed in 1945. Egypt played a leading role in Arab opposition to Israel, participating in wars against Israel in 1948-1949, 1956, 1967, and 1973 and spearheading an Arab economic boycott against the Jewish state. In 1979, however, Egypt became the first Arab state to sign a peace treaty with Israel. This treaty led to a period of relative isolation, as Egypt was ostracized by other Arab governments. Egypt was ousted from the Arab League, whose secretariat was moved to Tunis. But because Egypt supported Iraq in its war against Iran and also mended its fences with Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat and with Jordan’s King Hussein, relations gradually improved during the 1980s. In an Arab summit meeting held in Amman, Jordan, in November 1987, most Arab leaders agreed to resume diplomatic ties with Egypt, and the Arab League headquarters moved back to Cairo in 1990.

The Middle East peace process has remained a prominent part of Egypt’s foreign policy, and it has sought to persuade other Arab governments to settle their differences with Israel. Although its efforts have often failed, Egypt has undertaken periodic negotiations to defuse Israeli-Arab crises, hosting a summit meeting at Sharm al-Sheikh on the Sinai Peninsula in February 2005.

From 1955 to 1972 Egypt relied primarily on the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) and other Communist countries for military and economic aid. More recently the Egyptian government developed close political ties with the United States, particularly after the United States helped facilitate the 1979 treaty with Israel. Egypt receives substantial economic and military aid from the United States. Before the Persian Gulf War, Egypt sought to mediate disputes between Iraq and Kuwait in 1990. Egypt supported the anti-Iraq coalition after Saddam Hussein’s forces occupied Kuwait in August 1990 and backed the UN resolutions condemning Iraq’s actions. Egyptian troops joined the multinational force against Iraq in 1990 and 1991. In 2002 Egypt tried to mediate in the conflict between the United States and Iraq. It pressured Iraq to admit UN weapons inspectors and opposed the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003 (see U.S.-Iraq War).

Arthur Goldschmidt, Jr., contributed the Government section of this article.

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VII

History

Egypt has the oldest continuously existing civilization in the world. Most scholars believe that the Egyptian kingdom was first unified in about 3100 bc. Egypt maintained its independence and unity for many centuries thereafter. It suffered disunity now and then and experienced brief periods of foreign domination—by the Semitic Hyksos in the 17th and 16th centuries bc, the Assyrians in the 7th century bc, and the Persians in the 6th and 5th centuries bc—before the arrival of Macedonian conqueror Alexander the Great in 332 bc. Alexander made Egypt a part of his vast empire.

Alexander’s empire broke up after his death in 323 bc. One of his generals, Ptolemy, became ruler of Egypt, and in 305 bc he assumed the title of king. Ptolemy founded the Ptolemaic dynasty. Under these rulers, Egypt became a center of the Hellenistic world—that is, the vast region, encompassing the eastern Mediterranean basin and the Middle East, in which Greek culture and learning were preeminent from Alexander’s conquest until the 1st century bc. Although the Ptolemies preserved many native traditions, they remained unpopular because they kept Egyptians from important governmental posts.

The Romans conquered Egypt in 30 bc, ruling it as a province of their empire for the next several centuries. One of the first countries to be exposed to Christianity, Egypt became predominantly Christian by the end of the 3rd century ad. In 395, when the Roman Empire was divided, Egypt was included in the Eastern Roman Empire, later called the Byzantine Empire. By the 5th century a bitter religious dispute over the nature of Christ, involving a doctrine known as Monophysitism, had developed in the Eastern church. This dispute pitted the Coptic Church, Egypt’s indigenous Christian body, and other Middle Eastern Christians against the Byzantine rulers. The conflict weakened Byzantine rule in Egypt and helped open the way to the conquest of Egypt by an Arab army in 641. Many Egyptians welcomed the Arab conquerors as liberators from foreign taxation and religious persecution.

For a detailed history of Egypt up to the Roman conquest in 30 bc, see Ancient Egypt.

A

Egypt Under the Caliphate

The Arab conquerors brought Islam to Egypt. The country became part of the vast Islamic realm known as the caliphate. The conquerors established their military and administrative headquarters, which they named Al Fustat, in what had been a Roman fortress called Babylon. Al Fustat was situated on the east bank of the Nile south of the delta. Most Egyptians did not at first feel the effects of Arab rule. The predominantly rural population continued to farm the land, practicing Coptic Christianity and speaking the Coptic version of the ancient Egyptian language.

Over the course of many centuries, the majority of the Egyptians gradually embraced Islam and adopted the Arabic language. These changes were due in part to the immigration of some Arab tribes and intermarriage between Egyptians and Arabs. Some Egyptians converted to Islam out of genuine religious conviction, but others did so to secure political or social advancement.

The first great dynasty of caliphs (leaders of the Islamic realm), the Umayyads, ruled Egypt as a province between 661 and 750. They were based in Damascus (in present-day Syria). Their successors, the Abbasids, ruled from their new capital, Baghdād (in present-day Iraq). The Abbasids controlled Egypt from 750 to 868. They imposed heavy taxes on non-Muslims, causing peasant uprisings. The unity of the Islamic world began to erode in the mid-9th century, and Egypt fell under a succession of autonomous foreign dynasties. Two of these dynasties, the Tulunids (868-905) and the Ikhshidids (934-969), improved agricultural techniques, curbed taxes, and reformed governmental administration.

The next rulers, the Fatimids (969-1171), had established an independent rival caliphate in North Africa in the early 10th century. The Fatimid rulers, originally from Tunisia, claimed the caliphate for themselves on the basis of descent from Fatima, daughter of the prophet Muhammad, the founder of Islam. Their branch of the faith, (see Shia Islam), was a minority sect in opposition to the Abbasid caliphs in Baghdād, who were majority Sunni Muslims (see Sunni Islam).

Despite the dispute over the caliphate, the first century of Fatimid rule over Egypt was marked by religious toleration, economic prosperity, and relative political freedom. It was probably during Fatimid rule that the majority of the Egyptians became Muslims, although they embraced Sunni rather than Shia Islam. The Fatimids extended Al Fustat northward, creating a major commercial and political metropolis that they renamed al-Qāhira, or Cairo. Untroubled by foreign invaders or conquerors, Cairo soon surpassed other Islamic cities such as Baghdād and Damascus in wealth and population.

During the First Crusade (1096-1099), a military campaign by Western European Christians to recapture Jerusalem from the Muslims (see Crusades), Egypt faced a possible invasion. Although the Crusaders captured Jerusalem from a small Fatimid garrison in 1099, they did not invade Egypt. The Fatimids formed diplomatic and commercial ties with the newly established Crusader state known as the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, with other Crusader states along the Mediterranean coast of the Middle East, and with the various kingdoms and principalities of Christian Europe. Fatimid power declined in the 12th century, and in 1171 Kurdish military adventurer Saladin overthrew the dynasty.

Saladin restored the official status of Sunni Islam and the formal authority of the Abbasid caliphate in Egypt. Soon afterward, he united Egypt with Syria. In 1187 he led the Islamic reconquest of Jerusalem. Saladin’s descendants, the Ayyubids, ruled Egypt, as well as parts of Syria and Yemen, until 1250. Ayyubid relations with the Crusader states varied; some rulers encouraged European Christians to settle in Palestine and even leased Jerusalem to the Crusaders for a short time. However, Egypt’s Nile Delta suffered Crusader attacks from 1218 to 1221 and from 1249 to 1250. The latter invasion, during the Third Crusade, led to the overthrow of the Ayyubid dynasty by the Mamluks (also spelled Mamelukes), who regarded the Ayyubid rulers as weak and corrupt. The Mamluks were slaves from Central Asia and Caucasus whom the Ayyubids used as soldiers.

B

Mamluk Rule and Ottoman Conquest

Between 1250 and 1517, Mamluk sultans ruled Egypt along with Syria. The Mamluks successfully resisted invasions by the Crusaders and the Mongols, brought about commercial prosperity, and fostered the arts and architecture, most notably in Cairo. A Mamluk sultan usually bequeathed his position to a son or other relative, but a rival Mamluk claimant often toppled the heir and seized the throne.

The Mamluk sultans who ruled from 1250 to 1382 were commonly referred to as the Bahri sultans. They were the descendants mainly of Turkic peoples from Central Asia. The sultans who ruled from 1382 to 1517 were called the Burji sultans. For the most part, they were Circassians, originally from the Caucasus. Egypt prospered under the Bahri sultans but succumbed to plague, famine, and mounting unrest under the Burji rulers.

Under the Mamluks, Egyptians, Syrians, and other Arabs were barred from positions of political or military power. However, they were able to be ulama (Islamic legal experts), merchants, landowners, and administrators. In 1261 the Mamluk ruler Baybars I reestablished in Cairo the Abbasid caliphate, which the Mongols had destroyed at Baghdād in 1258. The caliphs were allowed to perform only religious duties; the Mamluk sultans retained absolute political authority.

Equipped with cannons and other firearms, the armies of the Ottoman Empire defeated the Mamluks in 1516 and 1517. Egypt became an Ottoman province. The Ottomans sent a governor to Cairo, but a general uprising in 1525 convinced them that it would be wiser to delegate local power to the Mamluks. The Ottoman governors retained nominal authority and appointed the highest Muslim judges, but in practice the Mamluks continued to control Egypt in conjunction with the local ulama.

Egypt prospered in the 16th century but later declined as world trade shifted away from Egypt and the Middle East to sea routes around Africa and across the Atlantic. In addition, Mamluk factional strife caused much devastation in the countryside. In the mid-18th century Mamluk prince Ali Bey made a bold attempt to take Egypt and Syria from the Ottomans, as did his lieutenant and successor, Muhammad Bey. In the late 18th century widespread famine reduced the population of Egypt, and factional fighting in Cairo weakened the authority of the Mamluks.

C

Muhammad Ali

In 1798 France was at war with Britain, and French general Napoleon Bonaparte led a large-scale invasion of Egypt to disrupt British commerce in the region. Bonaparte quickly established French rule in the Nile Delta and Cairo and set out to conquer lands farther east and south. However, he encountered stiff resistance from the Mamluks in Upper Egypt and from the Ottomans in Palestine and Syria. In August 1798 the British navy destroyed the French fleet as it lay at anchor in Abū Qīr Bay near Alexandria. In 1799 Napoleon escaped to France, leaving behind a French army of occupation. British and Ottoman troops expelled this army in 1801, ending the French presence in Egypt.

Neither the Mamluks nor the local ulama and merchants could immediately fill the power vacuum that resulted from the expulsion of the French. In 1805 Muhammad Ali, an Ottoman officer leading an Albanian regiment, seized control. Backed by Cairo’s merchant guilds, he persuaded the Ottoman sultan to make him governor of Egypt. He slowly consolidated power, defeating an invading British army in 1807 and massacring many of the Mamluks in 1811. Between 1811 and 1819 he helped the Ottoman Empire to regain control of Arabia from the Wahhabis, who had seized control of much of it at the start of the 19th century. Starting in 1820, his troops conquered much of what is now Sudan. To maintain the strength of his army, Muhammad Ali began conscripting Egyptian peasants. With the aid of French experts, he transformed his inexperienced peasant soldiers into a powerful army that fought against Greek rebels who rose up against Ottoman rule in the 1820s.

In return for his assistance in Greece, Muhammad Ali demanded that the Ottoman sultan grant him rule over Syria. The sultan refused, and Muhammad Ali invaded Syria in 1831, defeating the Ottoman forces and briefly creating an Egyptian empire that stretched from Crete to Syria and Arabia. Wishing to protect the balance of power in the region, a British-led European force intervened in 1840 to restore Ottoman power and restrict Muhammad Ali to Egypt. Although forced to give up his territories outside of Egypt, Muhammad Ali secured hereditary rule in Egypt. He became viceroy of Egypt and freed the country of Ottoman control in all but name. The descendants of Muhammad Ali ruled Egypt until 1952.

Muhammad Ali and his heirs took the first steps toward modernizing Egypt’s economy. They ordered the construction of new canals, barrages (river barriers), and factories. Egypt could not industrialize on a large scale because of competition from foreign manufactures, but it did modernize its agriculture. A new irrigation method made possible the cultivation of three crops annually on lands that formerly had produced only one, and cash crops such as tobacco, indigo, and especially long-staple cotton replaced subsistence crops in much of the Nile Valley.

In 1848 Muhammad Ali’s son Ibrahim Pasha, who had led many victorious military campaigns, assumed power, but he died soon after becoming viceroy. (“Pasha” was an Ottoman title, roughly akin to “Lord”; it was the title used by the viceroys of Egypt.) His successor, Abbas I, tried to undo Muhammad Ali’s reforms and to dismiss his French advisers. Abbas authorized the construction (by a British firm) of the first railroad linking Alexandria and Cairo. His successor, Said Pasha, resumed some of the reforms and also authorized French entrepreneur Ferdinand de Lesseps to construct the Suez Canal, connecting the Mediterranean and Red seas. Completed in 1869, the canal greatly facilitated transportation and trade between Europe and Asia. However, it brought little benefit to Egypt.

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