Egypt

B

Ethnic Groups

The ancestors of the Egyptians include many races and ethnic groups, but the present-day population is relatively uniform in terms of language and religion. Most Egyptians are descendants of the ancient Egyptians, a people who originated in northeastern Africa. Some 4,000 Arab horsemen invaded Egypt in 641 ad and eventually conquered it for Islam. From that time, there was significant Arab migration and intermarriage between Arabs and the indigenous population. Traits of other invading peoples, especially the Greeks, Romans, and Ottomans, are also found in present-day Egyptians. The Mamluks, rulers of Egypt between the 13th and 16th centuries, were of Turkic and Circassian origins. They also intermarried with the indigenous population, especially with its elite ranks.

A separate indigenous group, the Nubians, historically lived in northern Sudan and southern Egypt. Hundreds of their ancestral villages were flooded by the formation of Lake Nasser behind the Aswān High Dam. Today the Nubian population is concentrated in Aswān and Cairo. The government does not recognize the Nubians as an ethnic minority.

Also living in Egypt are small numbers of Greeks, Armenians, Italians, Syrian Christians, and Jews. Their numbers declined sharply as a result of emigration after the Suez Crisis of 1956, when rising Egyptian nationalism made them feel unwelcome. Many of those who remained in the country intermarried with indigenous Muslims or Christians.

C

Language

Nearly the entire population of Egypt speaks Arabic. However, only well-educated people easily understand standard Arabic. Colloquial Egyptian Arabic is the language of daily conversation. Many Nubians also speak their ancestral language. Berber is spoken in a few settlements in the oases of the Western Desert. Coptic Christians use the Coptic language, descended from ancient Egyptian, for liturgical purposes, but it is not a language in daily use. English and French are common second languages among educated Egyptians.

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D

Religion

Islam is the official religion of Egypt. More than 90 percent of all Egyptians are Sunni Muslims (see Sunni Islam). The largest religious minority consists of Coptic Christians, most of whom are members of the Coptic Church, officially called the Coptic Orthodox Church. Other Christian communities include Greek Orthodox, Armenian, Greek and Armenian Catholic, and several Protestant denominations whose members are mainly resident foreigners. Many Copts and others believe that official estimates undercount Christians and that Christians actually constitute about 10 percent of the population. Historically there was a small, but socially and economically significant, Jewish population. Most of that community left the country after the Suez Crisis of 1956, in which the combined forces of Israel, France, and Britain attacked Egypt.

Beginning in the 1980s, Islamic militants belonging to the Islamic Group (al-Gama`a al-Islamīyya) and Islamic Jihad were active, particularly in the Upper Egyptian provinces of Asyūt and Al Minyā. In 1992 they began a campaign of armed violence, centered in Cairo and Upper Egypt, with the goal of establishing a government based on strict Islamic law. The victims of their violence included Copts, government officials, and tourists. See also Islamic Fundamentalism.

Human rights organizations and others have claimed that the Egyptian government discriminates against Copts or turns a blind eye to their persecution by the Islamic militants. The government denies these charges, but nevertheless, Copts are subject to some restrictions. For example, they must receive permission from government authorities to build new churches or to repair existing ones.

E

Education

Historically, religious authorities provided basic education in local mosque schools. Higher Islamic studies became available at Al-Azhar mosque (founded in 970) in Cairo. In 988 Al-Azhar University was established. This is the oldest university in the world and the leading institution of Islamic higher education in the world today. Al-Azhar University operates a network of religious schools parallel to the state system.

In the first half of the 19th century Egyptian viceroy Muhammad Ali established state-run professional, technical, and foreign-language schools for boys. A network of state-run schools for boys was established in 1867. The first state school for girls opened in 1873. Since 1923, primary and intermediate education has been free, and it is now compulsory for children between the ages of 6 and 14. Public secondary and university education is also free but is not compulsory.

Cairo University, established in 1908, is Egypt’s leading institution of higher education. There are 12 other state-run public universities, including Ayn Shams University (founded in 1950), located in Cairo; the University of Alexandria (1942); and the University of Asyūt (1957). Al-Azhar University, renowned as an institution of higher religious studies, also offers programs in engineering, medicine, business administration, and agriculture; women have been admitted since 1962. The American University in Cairo (1919) is the only private and fee-charging institution of higher education. The Institutes of Dramatic Arts, Cinema, and Ballet, run by the ministry of culture, offer higher education in the fine arts.

Rapid population growth has severely overburdened Egypt’s educational system. Classrooms from the primary-school level to the university level are overcrowded, and schools lack many resources—such as up-to-date science laboratories, audio-visual aids, and even sufficient numbers of desks and textbooks—necessary for an adequate education. Although primary-school enrollment is officially 100 percent, many children attend school irregularly or not at all because they must work to help support themselves and their families. In 2007, 72 percent of the adult population was literate: 83.6 percent of males and 60.7 percent of females.

F

Social Structure

For most of Egypt’s history its society was agrarian. Large landowners growing primarily cotton and sugar constituted Egypt’s dominant social class from the 1830s until 1952, when the government enacted a land reform. Before the land reform, about 2,000 large landowners, including the king, owned about 20 percent of all agricultural land, while more than 2 million lesser owners owned about 13 percent. Millions of peasants owned no land at all. The land reform limited the amount of agricultural land that individuals and families could own; limits were lowered further in 1961 and 1969. These measures broke the social and political power of the large landowning class.

About 260,000 hectares (about 650,000 acres) of agricultural land were redistributed as a result of the land reform. However, not enough land was redistributed to allow all peasant families that wished to do so to support themselves by farming. Consequently, large numbers of peasants migrated from rural villages to Cairo and other cities. Many found jobs in the cities, particularly in industries and services, which were growing rapidly as a result of the government’s major industrialization programs of the 1950s and 1960s. During this period the government nationalized and expanded existing banking, textile, and other industries and established many new, large-scale, modern industries. These developments expanded the ranks of the urban wageworkers. However, many former peasants remained underemployed or marginally employed in jobs that were not steady or did not pay cash wages.

Beginning in 1973, large numbers of peasants, as well as urban workers and professionals, migrated to Saudi Arabia, Libya, and other oil-exporting countries to work for wages as much as six times higher than they could earn in Egypt. During the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988), many peasants migrated to Iraq and took farm jobs, replacing Iraqis who had left to fight in the war.

Both trends—migration from the countryside to the cities and working abroad—continued in the 1990s. By the early 2000s only about 35 percent of the labor force was engaged in the traditional occupations of farming, herding, and fishing. An estimated 2.5 million Egyptians worked abroad at any given time.

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