In Conclusion

The romance of Egypt is pyramids, hieroglyphs, the Nile River, and Cleopatra. 

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While all of these items influence Egypt, there is much more to this country.  These things were just a small part of its wonderful history.  A deeper look into the country of Egypt gives a better description of the life and history of these people. The various changes in the types of government to the change in their religious stance as a country are all what make Egypt unique and different in that it was the bridge between Africa and the Mediterranean.  The Nile River “…up- or downstream—between Egypt and inner Africa, creating and preserving racial and cultural interrelations and even unity—but a river that provided Egypt with a distinct environmental setting for the emergence and development of an integrated, advanced, and unique civilization;” (Erlikh, Haggai, p. 98). Through the study of the hieroglyphs and tombs, historians have been able to see the vast changes and developments of Egypt through the ages.

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August 20, 2015, Egypt was attacked by the Islamic State again. The attacks are in retaliation to the latest laws put into place regarding terrorism. (BBC, Aug. 20, 2015). These attacks have been happening more frequently throughout Egypt over the past few years as yet another battle for power continues in Egypt. The constant changing government of this country has been religious and economical.  The majority of the changes surround the use of religion to take over Egypt while politically wanting the entrance into the rest of Africa and a short cut to the India.

In the beginning, well before 3000 B.C. by some estimations, Egypt was the first established culture due to the Nile River.  Here the people were able to have fresh water for crops and survival.  However, with the rise and fall of the Nile, many of the people were nomadic versus pastoral.  From the beginning and to today, the Nile River plays an integral part in Egyptian economic development.  The push by most countries that take over Egypt is to irrigate the Sahara for more agriculture and to help with the over population of the urban areas of Egypt.

Scientists believe they have found that man migrated out of Egypt and Ethiopia into Europe. (El-Awady, June 18, 2015). The belief is man started in Africa and moved into the European countries over the centuries.

Egypt is the English word used for Hikuptah.  Hikuptah means Temple of the Soul of Ptah.  The god Ptah, the first Pharaoh, shows the importance the people of Egypt put on religion and their gods. They believed that the Pharaohs were gods. At the traded with the Mediterranean, they began to include their gods into their beliefs. These beliefs would be the reason Cambyses II was able to conquer Egypt and the way many of the countries conquered Egypt. Cambyses used their god beliefs of the animals by parading the animals first in battle. 

http://www.the-athenaeum.org/art/full.php?ID=108972

The Pharaohs controlled the ruling of Egypt until the invasion of Persia in 525 B.C. (Encyclopedia Britannica). This invasion happened because Cambyses II felt slighted by the Pharaoh of Egypt; therefore, he attacked and won the battle.  The Persians ruled Egypt until Alexander the Great began to rule in 332 B.C.  Rome was able to take Egypt fairly easily because they used Egyptian religious rituals against them.  Rome blended into the society.  Once they blended in, they would proclaim themselves the leader and then proceed to make the area a province of Rome.  In the case of Egypt, they had already incorporated many eastern gods into their culture, so adding Roman gods was nothing new.  However, with Rome, came the entry of St. Mark.  It is believed the St. Mark stopped in Egypt on his way home to Libya.  While in Egypt, he began a church.  This church is the Coptic Church still in Egypt today. 

Rome rule put the taxation on the people that was great and when the Muslims invaded, even the Coptic Church welcomed the change.  Muslim rule was not much different from the Egyptian way of life.  Whoever held power was also the religious leader of the country.  Therefore, Islam was a political religion and fit right into the Egyptian way of life. The reign of Islam only lasted until the Ottoman Empire invaded in the 1500s.  Since the Ottoman Empire was already Muslim, the religious view did not change.  However, the difference in the Ottoman Empire and Muslim rule was that the Ottoman’s incorporated their religion into Egypt and did not force their religion on the people.  Napoleon invaded Egypt from France.  After World War I, the Ottoman Empire was replaced by the British.  The British did not so much get involved in the religion of Egypt as it did in the economics of Egypt.  The Suez Canal is the major event during the British rule.  It was a deal that the French and the British for some time; however, the British completed it.  It was a canal to help with trade between the Mediterranean and the Red Sea.  The canal would open up further trade for Egypt. After World War II, Egypt was declared independent from Britain.  The Suez Canal remains one of the biggest shipping lanes in the world.

All of the above is said to bring us back to Egypt in the 1990s and 2015.  “The New Valley Project was the most ambitious but not the only land reclamation project initiated by the Mubarak regime during the late 1990s.” (Davis, Diana K., pg 50). The jump to this topic is while religion played a huge part in everyday life for Egypt, and the government used this to control the Egyptian nation.  The countries coming into Egypt were doing so to expand trade.  Hosni Mubarak rule was supported by the United States because he kept the Islam militants under control, and he maintain a certain amount of peace with Israel.  His rule in the land was almost thirty years; this was the longest rule since the 1800s.  Since his resignation, Egypt has been in a constant state of revolution.  In the past four years, Egypt has had five rulers and today the continued bombing in Cairo shows the instability of their government. The question is still today whether “Egypt is an emerging democracy.” (Sprusansky, 56-57).  In Egypt, history is still unfolding as to what governmental body will be in place next and will religious freedom prevail or will Islam control the country with continued strife for the Christians of Egypt. The countries around Egypt continue to watch these developments. It is important economically to see who will win because so many countries trade resources with Egypt.  The greatest of these at this time is oil. Therefore, the world still looks to Egypt to see what it is going to do next.

Bibliography

Alfred J., Butler. The Arab Conquest of Egypt and the Last Thirty Years of Roman Dominion. 2nd ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 1978.

Armanios, Febe. Coptic Christianity in Ottoman Egypt. New York: Oxford University Press, 2011.

Davis, Diana K., and Burke, Edmund, eds. Ecology and History: Environmental Imaginaries of the Middle East and North Africa. Athens, OH, USA: Ohio University Press, 2011. Accessed August 20, 2015. ProQuest ebrary.

"Egyptian Security Building in Cairo Rocked by Bomb Blast - BBC News." BBC News. August 20, 2015. Accessed August 21, 2015. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-33998536.

El-Awady, Nadia. "Egypt Identified as Ancient Gateway out of Africa." Nature Middle East. June 18, 2015. Accessed August 20, 2015. http://www.natureasia.com/en/nmiddleeast/article/10.1038/nmiddleeast.2015.101.

Encyclopædia Britannica Online, s. v. "Cambyses II", accessed August 20, 2015,http://www.britannica.com/biography/Cambyses-II.

Erlikh, Haggai, and Isreal Gershoni. The Nile: Histories, Cultures, Myths. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2000.

Goody, Jack. The Logic of Writing and the Organization of Society. Cambridge [Cambridgeshire]: Cambridge University Press, 1986. Accessed August 20, 2015. ProQuest ebrary.

Jackson, Jack. Accessed August 21, 2015. http://www.worldatlas.com/aatlas/infopage/aaaphotos/suezcanal.jpg.

Johansen, Julian. Sufism and Islamic Reform in Egypt: The Battle for Islamic Tradition. Oxford: Clarendon Press; 1996.

Sprusansky, D. (2014). Egyptian Ministers Discuss Politics, Economy. The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, 33(4), 56-57. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1544159612?accountid=12085

Pictures:

Accessed August 21, 2015. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/27/The_lion_of_Egyptian_revolution_(Qasr_al-Nil_Bridge)-edit2.jpg/220px-The_lion_of_Egyptian_revolution_(Qasr_al-Nil_Bridge)-edit2.jpg.

Accessed August 21, 2015. http://bc05.ajnm.me/665003303001/201508/3681/665003303001_4434221129001_vs-55d5b89ee4b0e3fce616178b-782203298001.jpg?pubId=665003303001

Accessed August 21, 2015.  http://i.ytimg.com/vi/YtKvRq8k1rc/maxresdefault.jpg

Accessed August 21, 2015.  http://media-1.web.britannica.com/eb-media/47/153447-004-3E1BE55D.jpg

Accessed August 21, 2015. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/27/The_lion_of_Egyptian_revolution_(Qasr_al-Nil_Bridge)-edit2.jpg/220px-The_lion_of_Egyptian_revolution_(Qasr_al-Nil_Bridge)-edit2.jpg.

El-Awady, Nadia. "Egypt Identified as Ancient Gateway out of Africa." Nature Middle East. June 18, 2015. Accessed August 20, 2015. http://www.natureasia.com/en/nmiddleeast/article/10.1038/nmiddleeast.2015.10

Egypt a Democracy?

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Much of Egypt’s history politically and demographically revolves around the Nile River.  Cohen “…shares with Davis an interest in how visions of the environment, and how they have changed over time, inflect notions of social identity, national and otherwise.” (Davis, p. 12).  This is seen with the idea that the Ottoman Empire built irrigation in Egypt although, still trying to be proved.  Then the French believed they could irrigate Egypt through the Sarah and build forestry in the desert.  Beginning with what history we do have, we see that during the Ottoman Empire, society developed a pattern around the Nile and how it flowed.  The swamp lands, to the peasants in more agricultural areas and then the urbanized areas created the hierarchy of the country. From its origin Egypt has had many different styles of political powers in place, Pharaohs as god, to Ottomans, to Rome, to Islam, to present day Egypt.  With all of the changes the constant is the Nile River and its bearing on the economy of the different political powers.  Ottoman, Rome, French and British all found ways to exploit the Nile with dams and irrigation ideas.

This map shows how Egypt scales it areas
from areas that are safe to areas that are not
https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/egypt

Egypt was the first to overthrow outsiders.  However, as they continued to progress to freedom, Britain and America weighed in on how Egypt could raise its economy.  Today Egypt continues to have political issues as shown in the Musical Chairs article about the stepping down of the Prime Minister Beblawi and the unrest amongst the Islam community. The continued fight against terrorism is still prevalent in this country. Also, as indicated in another journal, there is still question as to whether “Egypt is an emerging democracy.” (Sprusansky, 56-57). They continue to fight for democracy in their country today. As see by the map above, they have given areas where you are not to travel and areas that you should seek advise prior to traveling.  This is a 2015 map of Egypt, this is happening now.

Bibliography: 

Davis, Diana K., and Burke, Edmund, eds. 2011. Ecology and History: Environmental Imaginaries of the Middle East and North Africa. Athens, OH, USA: Ohio University Press. Accessed August 16, 2015. ProQuest ebrary.

“Musical chairs; Egyptian Politics.” The Economist 1 Mar. 2014: 43(US). Academic OneFile. Web. 16 Aug. 2015.

Sprusansky, D. (2014). Egyptian Ministers Discuss Politics, Economy. The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, 33(4), 56-57. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1544159612?accountid=12085

Religion and Politics as One

For almost 5500 years Egypt was a civilization that followed many gods as portrayed here.  They had incorporated some gods from the eastern decent.  As new dynasties came into being, new gods would be introduced.

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Once Rome conquered Egypt, it was no longer considered a world power.  The Romans were known to conquer a land and not remove their gods, just add their gods to the ones already present.  While still under Roman rule, it is believed that St. Mark, a disciple of Christ and who wrote the second book of the Bible, started the first Christian church in Alexandria, Egypt.  The Coptic Orthodox Church of Egypt descended from St. Mark who is believed to be from Lybia.  This would be the reason why he would have gone to Egypt after Christ ascended to heaven.  He taught the people of Christ. He was their first Martyr. Because of their beliefs in separation of Church and State, they have been left alone. The branch of Islam that rested in Egypt was called Sunni. This group did not bother the Coptic Church because Mohammed, their great prophet, had an Egyptian wife and told him to treat the people well and he would prosper.  Many believe this is why Islam has flourished in this country. The cross is a big symbol of the Coptic Church as seen in the following picture.

http://chthonickore.blogspot.com/2013/10/rest-in-pieces.html

After this group, Islam invades.  The Christian Church (Coptic Church) was around during Roman reign; however, the people politically were ready for Rome to be removed from their home.  The oppressive nature of Rome, made Islam a welcome change to many of the people. In 639 A.D., they saw Islam as a savior from Rome.  As Islam invaded, it did not so much push out other religions, it just set up its political field, which would ultimately rule that other religions must follow their Islamic laws.  Therefore, persecution of Christians, Catholics, Jews and even Coptic Christians was seen off and on throughout the reign of Islam. 

In the 1500s the Ottoman Empire invaded Egypt.  It is interesting to note that the beliefs of the Ottoman Empire was Islamic; however, the Muslims of Egypt fled when the Ottoman Empire invaded.  This was due to the fact that as it invaded it replaced the previous religious leaders, who were also the political leader, with their own leaders. Islam is a political religion.  The leader of the Islamic community was also the leader of the country.

World War I brought an end to the Ottoman Empire.  This was mostly due to their influence in other areas they had control such as Turkey.  Britain also did not want Russia in Egypt and pushed to be sure they did not get control of this area.  

Pharaohs were seen as gods, so having a religious leader that was also the political leader was not new to them. Sunni Islam is still the religion of the country with “90% of the population are Muslim and 8% to 10% are Christian,”[1]  The reason Islam is able to keep such a hold on Egypt is because it is a political religion.  Also, it has incorporated into its religion many of the holidays that Egypt already celebrated.  Since Egypt from the beginning was a religious country, these new religions were able to come in and bring their beliefs which would then be incorporated into their daily life.

Bibliography

Armanios, Febe. Coptic Christianity in Ottoman Egypt. New York: Oxford University Press, 2011.

"Egypt - Religions." Religions. http://www.nationsencyclopedia.com/Africa/Egypt-RELIGIONS.html. Accessed August 8, 2015.

Hathaway, Jane. A Tale of Two Factions Myth, Memory, and Identity in Ottoman Egypt and Yemen. Albany, New York: State University of New York, 2003.

Johansen, Julian. Sufism and Islamic Reform in Egypt: The Battle for Islamic Tradition. Oxford: Clarendon Press ; 1996.

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[1] Egypt – Religions.”  Religions. http://www.nationsencyclopedia.com/Africa/Egypt-RELIGIONS.html. Accessed August 8, 2015.