EGITTO

EGYPT. - Egypt (Misr according to the local Arabic designation) comprises the Nile valley north of the second cataract (Wadi Halfa) with the adjacent territories of the Libyan and Arabian deserts.

SUMMARY:

I. Geography

II. History of ancient Egypt

III. Religion of ancient Egypt

IV. Christianity in Egypt

V. Muslim Egypt

VI. Christian art in Egypt

VII. Social organization of Egypt.

I. GEOGRAPHY.

Egypt has an area of 694,300 sq. km. But almost its entire population (19.1 million inhabitants) is concentrated with high densities (up to more than 800 inhabitants per sq. km.) in barely 1/30 of this area (35,000 sq. km.), consisting of the narrow valley through which the river flows, its delta, and some oases.

The utilization of the waters of the Nile, perfected and extended by modern irrigation systems, has enabled Egypt, a country par excellence agricultural, to turn to profitable industrial crops: cotton (of high quality), prevalent in the delta area, and sugar cane in the upper valley of the river, alongside which cereals still retain importance despite their insufficiency for domestic consumption.

Livestock farming is modest in scale, and mineral production is also generally limited, yielding little oil, manganese, wolfram, and especially phosphates. Among industries, the most developed are sugar refineries, textiles, milling, and food processing, which in part meet domestic demand.

The population is 98% Egyptian, considered descendants of the ancient Hamitic progenitors, whose characteristics are preserved both in the fellahin (peasant farmers) and in the merchants of Upper Egypt who have remained faithful to Monophysite Christianity (about 1/10 of the indigenous population). There are also numerous Greeks (70,000), Italians (52,000), English (34,000); mostly Maltese, French, etc. Jews number around 65,000. The capital, Cairo (2.1 million inhabitants), is the most populous city on the African continent; the main port is Alexandria (268,000 inhabitants).

II. HISTORY OF ANCIENT EGYPT.

I. PREHISTORIC EGYPT

While the Bible, in enumerating the descendants of the sons of Noah (Gen. 10:6, 13), merely mentions among those of the lineage of Ham also Misrqim, the name by which the Hebrews usually designated the land of Egypt, recent discoveries allow us to know with greater certainty the most remote events of the country and its people.

In agreement with geology, which demonstrates how the Nile carved its way to the Mediterranean between the lands and rocks of ancient Egypt and shaped the valley in terraces, ever lower, excavations have revealed the presence of ancient man along both banks of the river, in the most distant millennia on the higher ground and gradually on the lower, following in its slow descent the only fluvial factor, indispensable source of fertility and life for the land and its people. Thus traces of Lower Paleolithic man have been found on the heights of el-Qurnah, in the district of Toba, while Upper Paleolithic man, in the characteristic African face of the rock shelter, left their memory at Sabil above Kôm Ombé about 40 km north of Aswan. The Neolithic, on the other hand, is especially represented at el-'Omari (south of Cairo), at Beni Salmoh (Merida) and elsewhere in the Delta. This is followed by the Metal Age, which lasted more than 2,000 years and was also called the Intermediate Period: Dynasty XII (2nd half).

May, Dynasty XII (2nd half).

XIII, capital Thebes.

Intermediate Period, Dynasty XIII (2nd half).

XVIII, Dynasty XVIII (2nd half).

XIX, capital Thebes.

Year 13, Dynasty XIX (2nd half).

XX, capital Thebes.

Year 14, Dynasty XX (2nd half).

XXI, capital Thebes.

Year 15, Dynasty XXI (2nd half).

XXII, capital Thebes.

Year 16, Dynasty XXII (2nd half).

XXIII, capital Thebes.

Year 17, Dynasty XXIII (2nd half).

XXIV, capital Thebes.

Year 18, Dynasty XXIV (2nd half).

XXV, capital Thebes.

Year 19, Dynasty XXV (2nd half).

XXVI, capital Thebes.

Year 20, Dynasty XXVI (2nd half).

XXVII, capital Thebes.

Year 21, Dynasty XXVII (2nd half).

XXVIII, capital Thebes.

Year 22, Dynasty XXVIII (2nd half).

XXIX, capital Thebes.

Year 23, Dynasty XXIX (2nd half).

XXX, capital Thebes.

Year 24, Dynasty XXX (2nd half).

XXXI, capital Thebes.

Year 25, Dynasty XXXI (2nd half).

XXXII, capital Thebes.

Year 26, Dynasty XXXII (2nd half).

XXXIII, capital Thebes.

Year 27, Dynasty XXXIII (2nd half).

XXXIV, capital Thebes.

Year 28, Dynasty XXXIV (2nd half).

XXXV, capital Thebes.

Year 29, Dynasty XXXV (2nd half).

XXXVI, capital Thebes.

Year 30, Dynasty XXXVI (2nd half).

XXXVII, capital Thebes.

Year 31, Dynasty XXXVII (2nd half).

XXXVIII, capital Thebes.

Year 32, Dynasty XXXVIII (2nd half).

XXXIX, capital Thebes.

Year 33, Dynasty XXXIX (2nd half).

XL, capital Thebes.

Year 34, Dynasty XL (2nd half).

XLI, capital Thebes.

Year 35, Dynasty XLI (2nd half).

XLII, capital Thebes.

Year 36, Dynasty XLI (2nd half).

XLIII, capital Thebes.

Year 37, Dynasty XLI (2nd half).

XLIV, capital Thebes.

Year 38, Dynasty XLI (2nd half).

XLV, capital Thebes.

Year 39, Dynasty XLI (2nd half).

XLVI, capital Thebes.

Year 40, Dynasty XLI (2nd half).

XLVII, capital Thebes.

Year 41, Dynasty XLI (2nd half).

XLVIII, capital Thebes.

Year 42, Dynasty XLI (2nd half).

XLIX, capital Thebes.

Year 43, Dynasty XLI (2nd half).

The year 50, Dynasty XLI (2nd half).

The year

the very probable interpretation, two centuries of decline in royal power in favor of a kind of feudalism, which has led some moderns to call this age the Egyptian "Middle Ages"; reference is also made in a famous papyrus (Leiden no. 334) to a veritable popular revolution, perhaps partly imaginary; but there is no doubt that the political activity of the people began to assert itself, paving the way for the rise of new dynasties and new centers, such as Heracleopolis, which would provide the rulers of the 9th Dynasty. Toward the end of this period of Egyptian life, the biblical account of the patriarch Abraham’s migration into Egypt is probably to be placed, according to the narrative in Gen. 12:10-12, from Bethel to the Negeb because of famine; in Egypt Sarah was taken to Pharaoh’s court and then restored to Abraham, who, with his still nomadic tribe, had taken up temporary residence in the land, returning to his starting point as soon as living conditions permitted.

IV. MIDDLE KINGDOM

In this period Egypt resumed its tradition of power and civilization, asserting its arms and prestige from Nubia to Somalia, both by expanding its interests to overseas countries such as the island of Crete and by giving new impetus to the arts and letters and new prosperity to the people.

The best-known rulers are those whose names contain an indication of their religious preferences, the names of the gods Mont, Amon, and Wôsre, characteristic of the new capital, Thebes: Menthôpte (Mentuhotep) IV, Amenmêhê I and his son Zewôsre (Senwosre) I (perhaps the Sesostris of the Greeks). With the 13th Dynasty (1868 B.C.) Egypt rapidly lost all its prosperity, probably because power passed into the hands of incompetent princes who, both internally and externally, brought about the collapse of what had been the glory of previous dynasties. Thus Egypt was opened, around 1785, to the invasion

perpetuate through the millennia the tangible memory of the art of that remote age.

Hyksos (v.), who, from the frontier at Pelusium, which remained under their control, penetrated into the country, spreading through the Delta and even further south, and established their capital at Avaris, in a north-eastern locality of the Delta not yet identified, while in Upper Egypt and at Thebes the descendants of the ancient dynasties survived.

It is usually attributed to this moment in Egyptian life the account of Gen. 37-39, which tells of Joseph, son of Jacob, sold by his envious brothers to Egyptian merchants and later becoming steward to Pharaoh and husband of the daughter of Potiphar, priest of On; having then saved Egypt from a severe famine, he welcomed his brothers and invited, in the name of the king, the entire family of Jacob to move to Egypt, specifically to the land of Goshen (v.) or land of Ramses, almost certainly in the eastern part of the Delta. The counteroffensive against the usurpers was launched around 1573 by the first king of the 18th Dynasty, Ahmose, who drove out the Hyksos, destroyed Avaris, repelled the Nubians, and reorganized the entire country, thus inaugurating the glorious 18th Dynasty and the New Kingdom.

V. New Kingdom

The 18th Dynasty was followed by some of the most powerful rulers of Egypt, who, from Thebes, dominated the entire country and several foreign territories, increasing the prosperity of the citizens through successful military expeditions and leaving behind grand monuments and abundant written testimonies on papyri and inscriptions.

Thutmose (Thutmosis) I extended Egyptian power to the banks of the Euphrates. His daughter Hatshepsut, taking advantage of the premature death of her husband Thutmose II, reigned for about twenty years as regent for the future Thutmose III; among the notable works she left, the grand sanctuary erected in the Theban necropolis at Deir el-Bahri, partially still extant, deserves special mention. Thutmose III, conqueror of Syria and Nubia as far as the fourth cataract of the Nile, is celebrated in surviving sculptures, inscriptions, and papyri. Of Amenhotep (v. Amenophis III), the Memnon of the Greeks, his greatness is extolled, and his two colossal statues still stand in the plain of Thebes, known as the "Colossi of Memnon." After the brief interlude of Amenhotep IV, who, exalting the quasi-monotheistic cult of Aten in opposition to Amon and his priesthood, created a new religion that sought to connect with Palestinian and Hebrew influences and neglected the defense of Syrian conquests, came Tutankhamun, whose fame is well known.

The tomb discovered in 1922 restored Egyptian prestige until Haremhab energetically initiated the 19th Dynasty. Among these rulers, one of the most illustrious is undoubtedly Seti I, who in a first encounter defeated the Hittites of Qadesh (Kadesh), a city on the Orontes, where a few years later, in 1244, he resumed the struggle against a coalition of states at Egypt's expense. His son and successor, Ramesses (Ramesse Ramses [v.]) II, is celebrated in a surviving poem on the Salier III papyrus; the peace terms between Hittites and Egyptians are preserved in surviving treaties from both Hittite and Egyptian sources; one of the daughters of King Hattusil married Ramesses II, who is also renowned for his numerous and imposing constructions. In these constructions and reconstructions, the king is said to have employed foreign workers, including the Hebrew tribe of Goshen, descended from Jacob and settled there at the time of the Hyksos; the Bible (Ex. 1:11) explicitly states that the Hebrews, under a king who was no longer mindful of Joseph's benefits, supervised by relentless overseers, were forced to build "the store-city of Pithom and Ramesses" (perhaps the first in Wadi et-Tumeilat and the other at Tanis) and were subjected to a series of hardships, partly justified by the size of the original tribe, which could have prejudiced state security in the event of a conflict with Palestine. Thus, during perhaps more than 100 years, discontent grew and the Hebrews' longing to return to the Promised Land intensified. This occurred (Ex. 1:14) under the leadership of Moses (v.), exposed to death on the Nile by order of a pharaoh.

Similarly, Jeroboam, fleeing Solomon's wrath (1 Kings 11:40), took refuge in Egypt, as had Adad in David's time (1 Kings 11:17-22). In 927, King Shishak directly interfered in the affairs of Syria and sacked Jerusalem (1 Kings 14:25-26), later invading the kingdom of Jeroboam, his protégé; a stele on the facade of the pylon of the great temple of Amun at Karnak preserves the names of the cities conquered during this campaign of Shishak I. The Bible recounts a defeat inflicted by Asa, king of Judah (913-837), on the Ethiopian king Zerah (2 Chron. 14:9-12), who may have been Osorkon I (925-889) of the 22nd Dynasty. Conflicts followed between the kings of Nubia, with their capital at Napata, and the kingdom of Egypt, with alternating fortunes, until at the beginning of the 24th Dynasty, King Bocchoris ascended the throne, gaining a reputation for justice. But he was killed by the Ethiopian king Sabaco, who succeeded in uniting Egypt once more under a single ruler and formed an alliance with the king of Judah, Hezekiah, to oppose the Assyrian invasion led by Sennacherib (704). His successor Taharqa of the 25th Dynasty advanced with an army against the Assyrians and, probably with the aid of a plague that decimated the Assyrian forces, managed to free the kingdom of Judah. Soon afterward, however, Esarhaddon, king of Assyria, was victorious and not only invaded the Delta with his army but advanced beyond Memphis as far as Thebes.

VII. THE SAITIC PERIOD

The Saitic Period inaugurated an era of revival for Egypt with Psammetichus I (663-610), Necho (609-595), and Psammetichus II (594-589), who from their capital at Sais in the Delta restored order to the country in a relatively short time. Under Necho, Egypt was allied with Assyria at a time when it was rapidly collapsing under the blows of its eastern adversaries; and when Necho marched to its aid in 609, King Josiah of Judah dared to oppose the Egyptians and was defeated and killed at Megiddo (2 Kings 23:29). The new king Jehoahaz was deposed and taken prisoner by Necho and replaced by his brother Jehoiakim, and the country was subjected to heavy tribute. Later, after the fall of Nineveh, while many Jews proposed an ever-closer alliance with the kingdom of Egypt, with which they had maintained good relations since ancient times, the victory of Carchemish by Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon over Necho (604) radically changed Egypt's situation in its relations with Palestine, confining it within its borders and leaving Jerusalem, with inevitable greater or lesser tension, at the mercy of the Chaldeans until 525, when Psammetichus III was defeated at Pelusium by the Persian king Cambyses, who thus inaugurated Persian rule in Egypt, beginning the 27th Dynasty.

VIII. PERSIAN RULE; THE PTOLEMAIC DYNASTY

Direct Persian rule was exercised during the 27th Dynasty (until 404 B.C.), when a national movement brought Amyrtaeus to the throne, establishing the 28th Dynasty. The most interesting issue concerning the period of Persian rule in Egypt is the relationship between Egypt and the Jews and that of the Jewish colony at Elephantine, already indicated by some passages in Herodotus (2.30-31) and in the so-called Letter of Aristeas (XIII), and recently illuminated by a fortunate discovery of papyri and ostraca on the spot.

It concerns a military colony established at Elephantine, probably already under Psammetichus I, the ruler of Egypt who employed numerous foreign mercenaries in the reconstruction of Egyptian authority. The colony was later reinforced by the influx of other loyal Jewish elements and was thus respected, indeed favoured, by Cambyses and his Persians. The Jewish soldiers had their families with them and had built a temple in which they performed their rites. In 412 BC, that is, under Darius II, when anti-Persian movements began throughout the country, the native inhabitants of the surrounding area—perhaps incited by the priests of the god Khnum, a deity with a ram’s head (so that any sacrifice of lambs in his territory was sacrilegious, whereas the Jews sacrificed to Jahweh, especially at Passover)—attacked and destroyed the temple. The temple may have been rebuilt, albeit with restrictions on the use of sacrifices, and the colony survived at least until 400 BC, that is, under the native king Amyrtaeus, after which it is likely that the garrison was dispersed by the nationalists and the Jewish centre at Elephantine destroyed.

For a short time, however, for some years later, in 332 BC, Alexander the Great (q.v.), after his victory at Issus, made his well-known incursion into Egypt, presenting himself as the son of Amun and the liberator from the Persian yoke. The foundation of Alexandria (q.v.), which became the new cosmopolitan centre of the Mediterranean, and the establishment of the Ptolemies as a new dynasty of intentionally native character in the country, until 30 BC, exerted a most notable influence also on relations with the Jews, who, in the process of their dispersion (q.V. DIASPORA) throughout the world—begun, whether voluntarily or not, in even remote centuries—felt themselves drawn by the new Ptolemaic Hellenism to emigrate to this land, which had been hospitable even to their fathers and which had always influenced the fate of their own homeland. The Jewish colony of Alexandria, housed in an initially central district of the city named after it and organised with a single archon and other officials as an autonomous community within the state, then became a centre judged, perhaps, as has been said, superior even to Jerusalem itself; moreover, as papyri demonstrate, synagogues—judicial centres—spread throughout the country. Then, after the Battle of Panium (200 BC) between Ptolemy V and Antiochus III, when Palestine passed from Ptolemaic to Seleucid dominion and the systematic attempt at Hellenisation of Judaism by the rulers of Antioch began, the Jews felt ever more drawn towards the Egyptian kings, who appeared as their natural protectors. Egypt became increasingly the refuge and hope of orthodox—nationalist—Jews, so much so that, around 170 BC, a priest of the house of the Tobids, Onias IV, founded a new Jewish temple at Leontopolis, which remained until the time of Vespasian. Moreover, Ptolemaic Egypt saw, at the initiative of the Ptolemies in the 3rd century BC, the drafting of a Greek translation of the Bible (q.V. SEPTUAGINT) and was one of the greatest channels for the diffusion and propaganda of Judaism; it helped to bind the Jews of the diaspora to the Greek language, distancing them from the use of their original Hebrew tradition.

IX. ROMAN RULE

With the fall of the kingdom of Cleopatra VII Philopator, following the Battle of Actium (30 BC), Egypt passed under the direct rule of Octavian, who replaced the Ptolemaic dynasty with personal power, which to the natives must have appeared no different from that of his predecessors: absolutism was its hallmark, and the maximisation of the exploitation of the country’s resources its aim. The extension of dominion beyond the First Cataract of the Nile at the expense of the kingdom of Napata and the development of trade even into the interior of Africa are among its most notable manifestations.

To the age of Augustus must also be attributed the arrival in Egypt of the Virgin Mary with Jesus to escape Herod the Great’s decree against the infants of Bethlehem (Mt 1:13); it was probably 5 BC, but the sojourn in Egypt can hardly have lasted more than a few months, and we do not know where, for to Joseph the angel (Mt 2:20) ordered his return to the land of Israel.

Both Augustus and his successors clearly saw the importance of the Greek colony and the Jewish one alongside and above the native element, and while the former sought a balance between the two currents, under Caligula first and then Claudius the disorders provoked by Greek jealousy and Jewish intransigence required the repressive intervention of the Romans: notable is the embassy to Caligula by a cultured Hellenised Jew, Philo; and a letter of Claudius to the Alexandrians, found on a papyrus now in London, a letter of reproof against the fomenters of disorder and a warning to the Jews for being too enterprising. At this time Isidorus and Lampon were condemned as anti-Jewish agitators.

Vespasian, immediately upon being acclaimed emperor, set out from Alexandria towards the throne of Rome; the struggle he began against the Jews of Jerusalem had repercussions also in Egypt, where under Trajan, despite the protection of Plotina, matters came to open war and a veritable bloody persecution. Hadrian, admiring the Museum and the Alexandrian Library, toured Egypt as a tourist and peacemaker and there lost his favourite Antinous; during the 3rd and 4th centuries revolts by the Blemmyes and attempts by usurpers, as well as echoes of external events, agitated the country and worsened its material and moral conditions.

X. CULTURE AND CIVILISATION OF EGYPT DURING ANTIQUITY

To characterise the degree of culture and civilisation of ancient Egypt there is no doubt that the study of religion (q.V. below) is of value, for it constitutes one of the deepest and most enduring expressions of Egyptian life and thought; closely linked to it are two other significant manifestations, literature and art.

La literature, entrusted to hieroglyphic writing in its varieties—hieratic, demotic, and Greek-Coptic—is certainly the oldest surviving literature of the Eastern world. The great temple and tomb inscriptions, the numerous papyri, the ostraca, and the wooden tablets have preserved a considerable portion of these literary works, which date back to the Old Kingdom, although they have come down to us in copies from the Middle or New Kingdom. They consist of narrative compositions, moral teachings—of which Egyptian literature seems particularly prolific—epic and love songs, satires, hymns to the gods and sovereigns, books on mathematics and medicine. The Middle Kingdom is considered the age of classical literature, which was later held up as a model in the schools of the New Kingdom. Few are the names of authors: those of Prince Zedefhör, Imhötpe = Prathöhte in the Old Kingdom, Neffi in the Middle Kingdom, and others. The oldest text is that of the Teachings of Prathöhte from the 5th Dynasty, preserved in the Prisse Papyrus in the Louvre and in others in the British Museum.

Among the narrative texts, the following are characteristic: The Adventures of Sinuhe, The Tale of the Shipwrecked Sailor, The Story of King Cheops and the Magicians, The Tale of the Two Brothers, The Journey of Wenamun, and The Adventures of Seton Haemecòs (v. AMEN-EM-OPE; AGNI). There also exists an ancient Egyptian fable tradition; famous are the Rhind Mathematical Papyrus and the medical papyri of Ebers, Smith, Chester Beatty, and many others. No less important was the tradition of scholarly studies, which soon, even under the early Ptolemies, the Greek world of Egypt surrounded with the foundation of the Museum and the Library of Alexandria, continued into the Roman age and was carried on by the Gnostics and then by the Christians in Roman and Byzantine Egypt.

Egyptian art, preserved not only in the great remains of architectural monuments—pyramids, mastabas, temples—but also in statues, bas-reliefs, and paintings, has left us in tomb furnishings a wealth of small objects of every kind that the scholar can still examine in the major museums of Cairo, London, New York, Paris, Turin, and the Vatican. The characteristics of this art seem inspired by the idea of permanence, that is, the desire on the part of the artist and the patron that the work should survive through the most distant centuries; moreover, they aim at respect for tradition, so that Egyptian art appears to consist of a uniformity that is more apparent than real, and of an immobility that disappears under the careful observation of scholars. Nor is there lacking the bold and revolutionary interlude of the art of el-Amarna (v. of Amenhōpte IV). Worthy of special mention are the pyramids or the hypostyle hall of Karnak, with its 124 columns, some of them 21 m high; or statues such as the scribe of the Louvre or the Sheikh el-Balad of the Cairo Museum; or the statues of Rahöhte and Nöfre, also in the Cairo Museum; or the Lady Takušit of Athens, or Queen Nefertiti of Berlin; or the bas-reliefs and paintings, for example, in the tomb of Sej; or the alabaster vases of Cairo and the gold ones of Zaqāzīq; or the golden crown of Twoasro from Bab el-Mulūk; or the jewelry of Dahūr; or the diadems of the Cairo Museum.

III. RELIGION OF ANCIENT EGYPT

### I. CENTERS OF HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT

Despite the abundance of religious texts and documents distributed over more than thirty centuries of history, it is impossible to follow a gradual and logical development of religion, since not all the individual phases of transition and the causes of changes are known to us.

The oldest religious documents, some of which date back to the predynastic period (vase and wall paintings), already attest to one of the concepts that would remain fundamental in the history of Egyptian religion: that of the *numeri loci*, by which each deity was strictly tied to a specific place of worship. Indeed, each territorial district (*nòmo*) possessed from ancient times a religious standard surmounted by a more or less stylized representation of the object of worship. The use of these standards, carried in procession on certain occasions, persisted even after the unification of the country. On them one can observe representations of both inanimate objects (e.g., a shield with two crossed arrows, a scepter, a tree, etc.) and animals (a falcon, a crocodile, a jackal, etc.). These sacred symbols of the *nòmi* have been interpreted by some scholars as evidence of earlier animistic beliefs, by others as a remnant of totemic cults; in any case, they are the oldest religious documents, though one must not divorce them from a political significance.

A decisive factor in the development of religion was undoubtedly the influence of historical events. Indeed, even in the struggles that preceded the unification of Egypt, the local deities of a victorious sovereign prevailed over those of the vanquished, so that while some deities gained greater diffusion and renown, others nearly disappeared. Even after unification, the favor enjoyed by certain gods, to the point of assuming a quasi-national character, was due to their being the official deities of the place of origin of a ruling dynasty. Thus, Horus, from pre-Hittite times, became the dynastic god par excellence, and the sovereigns were called "servants of Horus"; later, with the Elephantine triad, they adopted the solar god Ra.

At the fall of the Old Kingdom, Amon, a secondary deity of Thebes, was destined to rise to the highest honors, as he enjoyed the favor of the rulers of the Twelfth Dynasty, who restored order and peace to the land. Amon was soon assimilated with the solar god Ra, and Amon-Ra remained the dynastic and national deity par excellence until the Saite period, despite the storm of the Hyksos (v. a) and the religious schism of Amenophis IV (v.). Naturally, the renown of these dynastic deities did not annul that of the various local cults, which continued to exist alongside them.

Two further factors brought about notable developments in the religious sphere: theological speculation and divine legends. The former, due to the priests of the most famous sanctuaries, sought to establish a divine hierarchy based on cosmogony. At its head stood the primordial deity from which the others derived, more or less directly. Thus, the most famous cosmogony, that of Heliopolis, consisted of an ennead headed by Atum, who in turn was born from Nun, the primordial ocean. Another important cosmogonic synthesis was the Ogdoad of Hermopolis.

However, these theological speculations were incomprehensible to the people, who from ancient times had woven around their favorite deities a series of captivating legends in which the gods, despite their power, acted driven by human passions and feelings. Among all these legends, the one that, for its profound meaning and vitality, encapsulates the entire religion of Egypt is the moving story of Osiris. From the oldest testimonies, in the Pyramid Texts, to the late polytheistic accounts, the legend of Osiris is incessantly cited with numerous variations in Egyptian religious literature. Originally, Osiris was nothing more than an ancient sovereign deified, whose pathetic fate made him the protagonist of a myth that celebrated, through his death and rebirth, the eternal renewal of nature. At the same time, Osiris had risen to become a symbol and guarantee of human immortality, so that he represented for the Egyptians the prototype of the deceased reborn to life in the afterlife.

In the final period of pharaonic civilization, there were no major innovations in the religious sphere, but in many cases, there was a return to ancient forms of cult, such as animal worship. The god Amon lost almost all his influence, while the goddess Neith, protector of the new capital of Sais, gained great importance. The advent of the Ptolemaic age marked a further decline in the religious sphere, as the Hellenistic sovereigns, while respecting and honoring the ancient deities, favored their assimilation with Greek ones (Amon = Zeus; Horus = Apollo; Isis = Aphrodite, etc.). Of national importance, however, was the god Serapis, promoted by Ptolemy II, who was soon identified with Osiris and Zeus. The spread of the cult of Serapis and Isis in the great cities of the Mediterranean, which had already begun in the Ptolemaic age and continued into the Roman period, marked the twilight of Egyptian religion. The Isiac mysteries, like the other oriental mysteries in general, represented for the Hellenistic-Roman world an attempt at spiritual renewal through new religious experiences of an esoteric nature.

Christianity found Egyptian religion in a state of decline, so that it was easy for Tertullian and Clement of Alexandria to refute and ridicule its beliefs.

The principal deities. — The major deities can be distinguished into: a) local, b) cosmic. Among the former belong:

a) AMMONITI (v.) or Amon. — Anubis (v.). — Atum (v.). — Bast, the cat-goddess venerated at Bubastis; she embodies a joyful deity, protector of music and dance. — Hathor, depicted with the head of a cow or with a human head surmounted by bovine horns between which the solar disk is set (a clue to her assimilation with a cosmic deity); her principal cult centers were Aphroditopolis and Dendera. — Horus (v.). — Isis (v.). — Khnum, the ram-god, particularly worshipped at Elephantine. — Min, the ithyphallic god of the Egyptians, represented with the flail raised as if to strike; a local deity of Coptos. — Mut, the Theban goddess who later became the consort of Amon. — Nephthys (N.b.t.ḥt. = "Lady of the House"), a goddess bearing the hieroglyph of her name on her head, venerated at Diospolis Parva; in the legend of Osiris, she appears as the sister of Isis. — Neith, a warlike goddess whose emblem consisted of two crossed arrows above a shield; her cult center was Sais. — Osiris (v.). — Ptah, the principal Memphite god, considered one of the primordial deities and depicted as a crude, arcane idol with hands emerging from his belly. — Sekhmet (or Sakhmet = "The Powerful"), a lioness-goddess venerated at Memphis and in a locality of the Delta. — Seth, a god appearing in the form of an unidentified animal (perhaps an okapi or a greyhound; in later times, he was mistaken for an ass), originally from Ombos, who from earliest times appears as the adversary of Horus and Osiris. His character as an evil deity is due above all to his role in the legend of Osiris. — Sobek, the crocodile-god, associated with the Faiyum and Kom Ombo. — Thoth (Phut), the ibis-god venerated at Hermopolis Magna but originally from the Delta; assimilated to a cosmic deity, he also became the god of the moon. Patron of scribes and accountants, he sometimes assumes—though the reason is unknown—the aspect of a baboon.

Principal cosmic deities b): Geb (pron. Gheb), the god of the Earth (masculine in Egyptian), imagined as lying supine. — Hapi, the god of the Nile. — Nun, the primordial ocean from which all things were born and which surrounded the earth. — Nut, the goddess of the Sky (feminine in Egyptian), consort of Geb; she was depicted with her feet and fingertips touching the earth—the rest of her body arched above her husband. — Ra, the sun-god, the greatest of the cosmic deities, who, besides the two hypostases of Atum and Khepri (the scarab-god), was assimilated with numerous local deities; suffice it to recall Amon-Ra. He was imagined as traversing the sky in two boats, one for the day and one for the night, accompanied by a retinue of deities. — Shu, the god of the air, i.e., the space between Geb and Nut.

Among the lesser deities, mention should be made of the goddesses Maat and Sasa, abstract personifications the first of Truth, the second of Writing; among the sacred animals, the famous bull Apis (Ḥp), regarded as an incarnation of the soul of Ptah; and among the demigods, Imhotep, who in later times became the god of medicine. The people also worshipped a host of minor deities such as Bes, Tueris, Nefertum, and others.

Finally, of the utmost political importance, the pharaoh himself was considered a god, being by nature descended from Horus, the first god-king who had ruled over all Egypt. In cases where a dynasty succeeded one without direct ties to it, curious theogamic legends were elaborated to authenticate the divine descent.

III. Priests and Cult

The god, regarded in his own city as a sovereign, dwelt in a temple built of the most solid stone. The archaic temples, however, must have been, according to the representations that have come down to us, of very fragile material. Those that still today impress by their grandeur belong to the New Kingdom (Luxor, Karnak) or to the Ptolemaic age (Dendera, Philae, Kom Ombo, etc.). The “house of the god,” from the Eighteenth Dynasty onward, essentially consisted of a vast courtyard preceded by a propylaeum, a hypostyle hall or vestibule, and the true sanctuary, which contained a labyrinth of chambers serving the various needs of the cult. The Holy of Holies housed the naos or tabernacle, seat of the god’s statue. Access to the sanctuary, always shrouded in semi-darkness due to the absence of skylights and windows, was reserved solely to kings and priests; the people could not advance beyond the vestibule.

The priestly hierarchy was divided into three classes: the “pure,” charged with the humblest duties, the “lectors,” and the priests proper. The “servants of the god,” all under the direction of a high priest who represented the pharaoh, the pontifex maximus. In many temples there were also priestesses dedicated to dance, music, and song. Each day at dawn, the high priest, having opened the Holy of Holies, sprinkled the statue of the god, then proceeded to anoint it, adorn it, and clothe it in new garments. Next, he placed on a table prepared for this purpose solid and liquid offerings, then withdrew so that the deity might partake of them. Sacrifice and eloquence were foreign to the cult. All this daily rite was performed according to a fixed formula that has come down to us. On great solemnities, the statue of the god was shown to the faithful from the terrace of the sanctuary or carried in procession (by means of a barque containing the naos) to a chapel near the temple, where it received solemn and public offerings. Under the New Kingdom, these religious festivals attained a spectacular splendor.

IV. The Dead and the Afterlife

One of the most characteristic aspects of Egyptian religion, already noted with wonder by classical writers, was the constant concern for the dead. This arose from the belief that the human soul (from f.v.l.), though leaving the body, could not survive decomposition, so indissoluble was the bond uniting one to the other. Hence the constant effort to preserve the corpse for as long as possible through mummification and to render it inviolable by means of an inaccessible tomb. The deceased moreover continued to be subject to the various material needs of the life he had left behind.

Naturally, over the millennia of Egyptian history, these needs were met in different ways according to the times and the social conditions of the individuals. In prehistoric times, a simple pit held the corpse wrapped in skins, the knees and arms bent. At the dawn of historical times, the corpse was often dried in the sun and wrapped in mats or linen, while a pile of stones was heaped upon the tomb, built of brick, to prevent beasts from gaining access. The type of tomb with a superstructure of squared limestone blocks persisted throughout the Old Kingdom in the forms of the pyramid and the mastaba, with notable development also of the underground part. From the New Kingdom onward, rock-cut hypogea were in use. As for mummification, though the first attempts date to a very remote age, perfection was not achieved until the New Kingdom. The viscera and brain were removed from the corpse, which was then immersed in a bath of resinous substances in a solution of natron, and finally wrapped entirely in thick layers of long bandages impregnated with myrrh and aromatics. The funerary equipment, consisting of one or more sarcophagi, personal objects of the deceased, various kinds of furniture, vases, statues, and common utensils, was in every period extremely rich.

Regarding beliefs about the afterlife and the moral concepts handed down in the Pyramid Texts, the Coffin Texts, and the Book of the Dead, V. DEET; LIBRO DEI MORTI.

V. Christianity in Egypt

The Gospel spread in Egypt already in the apostolic age. The well-founded tradition holds that St. Mark the Evangelist preached in those lands where he was martyred (62-68).

The geographical and political structure of the country favored the development of a central ecclesiastical government, whose seat naturally became the capital Alexandria. On Christianity in the early centuries and the rise of the Alexandrian patriarchate V. ALESSANDRIA d'E.: 3. Storia del patriarcato di A.; 4. I Concilii di A.

At Alexandria, by the second century, the famous school was already functioning, one of the most important theological centers of the Church (v. ALESSANDRIA d'E.: 2. La Scuola di A). The Church in Egypt enjoyed a measure of peace in the first two centuries, while elsewhere persecution raged. In the third century and at the beginning of the fourth, violent persecutions also broke out in Egypt: under Septimius Severus (202 ff.), Decius (250), and Diocletian (304).

Egypt is the cradle of Eastern monasticism, with its centers in the Thebaid, Scetis, Nitria, and its splendid figures such as Paul, Anthony, Pachomius, Shenoute, and many others (v. MONACHISMO). Arianism (v.) originated in Egypt and disturbed its life for almost the entire fourth century. Its most fierce opponent was St. Athanasius (v.), bishop of Alexandria (328-73). Nestorianism, which did not take root in Egypt, found its most strenuous opponent in St. Cyril of Alexandria (v.). Egypt, with its approximately one hundred dioceses, its hermitages and monasteries, and the illustrious array of its Fathers, represented in the first four Christian centuries the most important sector of the East for the development of Christianity.

The heresy opposed to Nestorianism, Monophysitism, professed by Dioscorus, bishop of Alexandria, caused in Egypt a schism that endures to this day. This heresy gave rise to the schismatic Coptic Church (v. COPTI). Only a small minority remained Catholic. Even this minority of Melkites fell into schism, drawn along by the example of Constantinople at a time difficult to determine.

A certain unionist movement of some significance began among the Copts only in the last century. The Catholic Byzantines of Arabic language in Egypt in 1773 were subjected to the Melkite Patriarch of Antioch, who in 1838 obtained the personal privilege of bearing the title of Patriarch of Alexandria. Thus in Egypt there are four original Christian communities of the country itself: the Monophysite Copts, the dissident Greeks (Orthodox), the Catholic Copts and the Catholic Melkites. Other communities are added from immigrant groups in Egypt: Armenians, Chaldeans, Syrians, Maronites, and Latins.

STATISTICS

Non-Catholics:

| Copts | ... | 900,000 |
| Greek Orthodox | ... | 110,000 |
| Protestants | ... | 70,000 |
| ... | ... | 1,080,000 |

Catholics:

Armenians 7,000
Chaldeans 1,600
Copts 63,000
Melkites 25,000
Latins 116,000
Maronites 11,000
Syrians 3,500
227,100

The following are the various ecclesiastical circumscriptions of Catholics in Egypt: Armenians: bishopric with a titular bishop of Alexandria; Chaldeans: patriarchal vicariate at Cairo; Copts: patriarchate, see at Cairo; Melkites: general vicariate, Cairo; Latins: apostolic vicariates of Egypt (Alexandria), of the Nile Delta (Heliopolis, Cairo), of the Suez Canal (Port Said); Maronites: bishopric, Cairo; Syrians: patriarchal vicariate, Cairo.

Egypt is still a predominantly Muslim country (ca. 13 million). After the ancient periods of persecutions, Egypt was the first Muslim country to establish diplomatic relations with the Holy See.

In August 1947 the Egyptian government made an official request. Pope Pius XII, on 23 August 1947, appointed his former Apostolic Delegate, Internuncio in Egypt. Reciprocally, on 17 October 1947, the Egyptian plenipotentiary minister presented his credentials to the Pope.

The situation in Egypt is relatively good. However, concerns have been raised and vigorous protests made over the fact that the government has recently sought to suppress, more or less, the special legislation of the Christian communities regarding family and matrimonial matters.

V. L'EGITTO MUSULMANO.

The history of Muslim Egypt may be considered divided into two great periods by the French occupation (1798–1801), which marks the beginning of European intervention and the movement for national independence.

In the first period, from the Arab conquest to the French occupation (640–1798), Egypt was successively ruled by: 1) governors appointed by the caliphate (640–868; 905–35); 2) dynasties formally or substantially autonomous, together with Syria—except for partial or total intervals (868–905; 935–1517); 3) governors (pashas) of the Ottoman Empire (1517–1798). In the second period, from the French occupation to the present day, the progressive phases of Egyptian independence are marked by the rule of the dynasty of Muhammad 'Ali under the successive titles of: 1) pashas (1805–67); 2) khedives (1867–1914); 3) sultans (1914–22); 4) kings (from 1922 onwards).

I. FROM THE ARAB CONQUEST TO THE FRENCH OCCUPATION

1. Governors appointed by the caliphate (640–868; 905–35)

The Arab conquest of Egypt took place under the command of 'Amr ibn al-'As. Pelusium fell in 640, Babylon in 641, Alexandria in 642 (which rebelled later and was retaken in 646). The Pentapolis was conquered in 643. The successor of 'Amr ibn al-'As, 'Abdallah ibn Sa'd (645–56), extended the conquest southward, reaching as far as Dongola (652).

At first the conquest was organized militarily, centered on the camp of al-Fustat, the future Cairo. The indigenous population was left to administer itself while paying tribute. Gradually, however, the country became ethnically and linguistically Arabized, and Islam gradually gained ground.

From the conquest until 868, Egypt was ruled by governors appointed by the caliphs. During the civil war between 'Ali and Mu'awiyah, 'Amr ibn al-'As took it for the latter (658). The anti-caliph 'Abdallah ibn al-Zubayr occupied it in 683–84.

After the Tulunid dynasty (see below), there was a brief return to governors appointed by the caliphs (905–35), after which the series of autonomous dynasties resumed.

2. Autonomous dynasties (868–905; 935–1517)

As in the rest of the Islamic world (see ISLAM; historical expansion), Egypt, as a result of the emigration of the caliphate, was ruled by dynasties founded by governors or military leaders. With the exception of the Fatimids, they formally paid homage to the 'Abbasid caliphs; the Mamluks even received the latter's descendants at Cairo after the murder of the last caliph of Baghdad (1258).

a) Tulunids (868–905). The dynasty was founded by the Turk Ahmad ibn Tulun, who succeeded in asserting his autonomy from the caliphs and annexing Syria (see). The Tulunids reached their peak under his son Muhammad, then declined amid internal strife until their extinction.

b) Ikhshidids (935–69). After the brief return of governors appointed by the caliph, Muhammad ibn Tughj founded the new Ikhshidid dynasty. He was succeeded by two sons under the tutelage of the Abyssinian eunuch Kafur, who later became ruler in his own right. The Ikhshidids ruled over Egypt and Syria, where they were constantly at war with the Hamdanids. They were overthrown by the Fatimids.

c) Fatimids (909–1171). This was a Shi'ite dynasty (see ISLAM; heterodoxy) that arose in northern Ifriqiya in 909. The Fatimids assumed the title of caliphs in opposition to the Sunni caliphate of Baghdad. In 969, Jawhar, general of the Fatimid caliph al-Mu'izz, conquered Egypt, founding Cairo. Mecca and Medina, Palestine (see), and southern Syria were also conquered, though the conquest of the north was slower and contested. Meanwhile, the Fatimids lost North Africa (972). Internally, they organized persecution of Sunnis, culminating under al-Hakim (969–1021), who was also noted for his patronage of culture. Thereafter decline set in. The Mirdasids became independent at Aleppo (1033); the Seljuk conquest of Damascus put an end to Fatimid rule in Syria; and the Crusades (see) did the same in Palestine. Internal discord led to the intervention of the Kurd Shirkuh, sent by the ruler of Damascus Nur al-Din. Shirkuh's nephew Salah al-Din (Saladin, see) deposed the dynasty in 1171, restoring Sunnism and nominal allegiance to Baghdad, and established the Ayyubid dynasty.

d) Ayyubids (1171–1250). Saladin (1171–93) ruled Syria, Mesopotamia, Yemen (through his brother Turan-Shah), and recovered Jerusalem (1187). At his death, the kingdom was divided among various branches, over which supreme authority was first exercised by his brother al-'Adil Sayf al-Din (Safadin) and then by the latter's son al-Kamil, in whose presence St. Francis preached. The struggle with the Crusaders continued with varying fortunes. Within Egypt, Turkish military slaves (mamluks, whence Mamluks) gradually gained power and in 1250 took control.

e) Mamluks (1250–1517). They are divided into two branches, the Bahri (1250–1390) and the Burji (1390–1517). They formed a military oligarchy, only intermittently with a dynastic character. The greatest sovereigns were Baybars, Qal'un, al-Nasir, Barquq, and Qaytbay. Major events during their rule included the victory over the Mongols at 'Ayn Jalut (1260), which kept them from advancing into Egypt; and the final expulsion of the Crusaders (1291). The Mamluk period was prosperous for Egypt, which served as the trade route between Europe and India. With the victory at Marj Dabiq (1516), the Ottoman Empire overthrew the Mamluks and reduced Egypt to a province (1517); nonetheless, the Mamluks remained an important and powerful class in the country.

### 3. The Ottoman governors (1577–1708)
The Ottomans sent pashas to Egypt, often balancing their authority with that of the Mamluks. In later times, the Mamluks succeeded in obtaining pashas of their choosing. Apart from the revolt of ‘Alt Bey (1771), who briefly seized control of Egypt and Syria, there were no notable events during this period. Egypt progressively declined.

### II. FROM THE FRENCH OCCUPATION TO THE PRESENT DAY
The French occupied Egypt from 1798 to 1801. Expelled by the Ottomans and the British, Egypt returned to Turkish rule. In the internal struggles that followed between the Turks and the Mamluks, the Albanian commander Muhammad ‘Ali emerged, and in 1805 was recognized as pasha by the Ottomans.

#### 1. The pashas (1805–67)
Muhammad ‘Ali (1805–49) destroyed the power of the Mamluks (the massacre of 1811); he aided the Ottoman sultan in a war against the Wahhabis (v.), concluding it victoriously (1819), and intervened in Greece (1823–27). He conquered the Sudan (1820–23). Then, considering himself unjustly dominated by the Sublime Porte, he waged war against it (1831), repeatedly defeating the Turks in Syria (1832, 1839). European intervention induced him to accept the conventions of 1841, by which he received hereditary rule over Egypt. Domestically, Muhammad ‘Ali moderately organized the state with the assistance of Europeans, established a national army, carried out irrigation and cultivation works, and promoted public education. His successor, ‘Abbās I (1849–54), was hostile to European advisors, but under Sa‘īd (1854–63) British and French influence resumed, becoming firmly established under Ismā‘īl (1863–79), who in 1867 obtained from the Porte the title of *khedive* and in 1873 certain sovereign powers.

#### 2. The khedives (1867–1914)
Ismā‘īl extended the state southward and continued Muhammad ‘Ali’s large-scale internal renewal. The Suez Canal was opened in 1869. These enterprises provoked an economic crisis and the consequent intervention of Britain and France in administration and government. In 1879, at the instigation of these powers, the Porte deposed Ismā‘īl. He was succeeded by Tawfīq (1879–92), under whom the nationalist revolt of ‘Arabī Pasha broke out in 1881. This event, and the massacre of Europeans in Alexandria in 1882, prompted British intervention, which occupied Egypt (1882) and restored Tawfīq to power. Meanwhile, the Sudan had risen under the Mahdi (v. 1881–85); it was retaken in 1896–98 and placed under Anglo-Egyptian condominium (1899). The British declared their occupation temporary; theoretically Ottoman sovereignty and the khedive’s rule remained, but in practice the country was controlled by the British consul, Lord Cromer (1883–1907), and his successors. In a 1904 convention, France agreed not to seek a termination of the British occupation. Tawfīq was succeeded by ‘Abbās II (1892–1914). During this period, the anti-British nationalist movement was organized by Muṣṭafā Kāmil Pasha (d. 1908).

#### 3. The sultans (1914–22)
At the outbreak of the First World War, Britain declared a protectorate over Egypt and appointed a high commissioner. Ḥusayn Kāmil was placed on the throne with the title of sultan. He was succeeded in 1917 by Fu’ād. At the war’s end, the nationalist party (Wafd), led by Zaghlūl Pasha, demanded independence. This led to prolonged negotiations, revolts, and repression. In 1922 Britain recognized Egypt’s independence but maintained the occupation pending resolution of the following issues: security of British communications; defense of Egypt; protection of foreigners and minorities; and the Sudan. Fu’ād assumed the title of king.

#### 4. The kings (from 1922)
In 1923 a new constitution was promulgated, modeled on the Belgian system: the parliament consisted of a Chamber of Deputies, elected by universal suffrage, and a Senate, also elective except for two-fifths appointed by the crown. During the reign of Fu’ād I (1922–36), ministries of various tendencies alternated in power, but the Wafd maintained predominance. A constitutional amendment approved by the king in 1930, intended to reduce parliamentary power, was later withdrawn (1934). Negotiations with Britain over outstanding issues led in 1930 to the MacDonald proposals: withdrawal of British troops from the Suez Canal; British dominance in the Sudan. The Wafd rejected these proposals. In 1936 King Fārūq ascended the throne. That same year, a treaty with Britain was concluded on the following terms: end of the occupation and appointment of an ambassador; a twenty-year renewable alliance; retention of British troops along the Suez Canal until Egypt’s capacity to ensure defense was recognized; and condominium in the Sudan. In 1937 the Montreux Conference sanctioned the end of capitulatory jurisdiction for foreigners in Egypt, with a twelve-year transition period. During the Second World War, Egypt placed its territory and bases at Britain’s disposal in accordance with the alliance; in 1945 it declared war on Germany and gained admission to the United Nations. In the same year, the Arab League was founded in Cairo, promoted by Egypt as an important coordinating body among the Arab states of the Near East. Since 1946, Egyptian governments (in which the nationalist movement has played a less dominant role than in Fu’ād’s time) have pressed the issue of relations with Britain, demanding the evacuation of the Suez Canal and sovereignty over the Sudan. The issue, brought before the United Nations in 1947, remains unresolved. Meanwhile, the British have fostered an autonomist movement in the Sudan (al-Ummah) and enacted constitutional reforms (1948). In 1949, as scheduled, capitulatory jurisdiction for foreigners came to an end.

**

In general: S. Lane-Poole, *A History of Egypt in the Middle Ages*, London 1903; C. H. Becker, *Beiträge zur Geschichte Ägyptens unter dem Islam*, Straubing 1902; *Précis de l'histoire d'Égypte*: II. H. Munier–C. Wiet, *L'Égypte byzantine et musulmane*, Cairo 1932, pp. 107–143; III. E. Combe–J. Bainville–L. Briault, *L'Égypte ottomane, l'expédition française en Égypte et le règne de Mohammed-Ali, 1517–1824*, IV, 1923; IV. A. Sammarco, *Les règnes de ‘Abbas, de Sa‘īd et d’Ismail (1848–1879)*, Rome 1935 (fundamental); G. Hanotaux, *Histoire de la nation égyptienne*, IV–VII, Paris 1934–40; C. H. Pouthas, *Histoire de l'Égypte depuis la conquête ottomane, 1517–1914*, 1911–1948.

On the conquest: A. J. Butler, *The Arab conquest of Egypt and the last thirty years of the Roman dominion*, Oxford 1903. On the governors of the caliphate (commendations) Tulunids and Dhi-didi: F. Wüstenfeld, *Die Statthalter von Ägypten zur Zeit der Chalifen*, 4 vols., Göttingen 1875–76. On the Tulunids: Z. M. Hassan, *Les Tulunides, Étude de l'Égypte musulmane à la fin du IXe siècle*, Paris 1933. On Surhi Hissid: Ibn Sa'd, *Kutub al-maghrib fi thala al-maghrib*, IV. *Geschichte des Hūden und Früstärcischen Reiches*, revised edition with notes and indices by K. L. Tallqvist, Leiden 1896. On the Fatimids: F. Wüstenfeld, *Geschichte der Fatimiden-Chalifen*, Göttingen 1887; De Lacy O’Leary, *A short history of the Fatimid caliphate*, London 1923; P. H. Mamour, *Polemics on the origin of the Fatimid caliphs*, IV, 1934. On the Mamluks: W. Muir, *The Mamelukes and their successors in Egypt*, London 1896 (Arabic trans. Cairo 1924); W. Niemeyer, *Ägypten zur Zeit der Mamluken*, Berlin 1936. From the French occupation onward: A. Haschke, *Geschichte Ägyptens im 19. Jahrhundert*, 1936–1944, Halle 1917. On Muhammad ‘Ali: M. Sabry, *L’empire égyptien sous Mohammed Ali et la question d’Orient (1811–1849)*, Paris 1930; A. Sammarco, *Il regno di Mohammed Ali*.

Interior – Interior of the church of the White Monastery.

Interior – Interior of the church of the White Monastery.

(from U. Monneret de Villard, *Les couvents coptes du Sohag*, I, Milan 1925, tav. 13)

Interior – Interior of the church of the White Monastery.

(from U. Monneret de Villard, *Les couvents coptes de Sohag*, I, Milan 1925, tav. 13)

Interior – Interior of the church of the White Monastery.

(from U. Monneret de Villard, *Les couvents coptes du Sohag*, I, Milan 1925, Tav. 13)

Interior – Interior of the church of the White Monastery.

(from U. Monneret de Villard, *Les couvents coptes du Sohag*, I, Milan 1925, tav. 13)

Interior – Interior of the church of the White Monastery.

(from U. Monneret de Villard, *Les couvents coptes du Sohag*, I, Milan 1925, Tav. 13)

Interior – Interior of the church of the White Monastery.

(from U. Monneret de Villard, *Les couvents coptes du Sohag*, I, Milan 1925, tav. 13)

Interior – Interior of the church of the White Monastery.

(from U. Monneret de Villard, *Les couvents coptes du Sohag*, I, Milan 1925, Tav. 13)

Interior – Interior of the church of the White Monastery.

(from U. Monneret de Villard, *Les couvents coptes du Sohag*, I, Milan 1925, tav. 13)

Interior – Interior of the church of the White Monastery.

(from U. Monneret de Villard, *Les couvents coptes du Sohag*, I, Milan 1925, Tav. 13)

Interior – Interior of the church of the White Monastery.

(from U. Monneret de Villard, *Les couvents coptes du Sohag*, I, Milan 1925, tav. 13)

Interior – Interior of the church of the White Monastery.

(from U. Monneret de Villard, *Les couvents coptes du Sohag*, I, Milan 1925, Tav. 13)

The use of the dome is accompanied by that of the three-centered oval arch, also clearly of Asiatic tradition, and of short, sturdy columns far removed from the classical model. Leaving aside the great basilica built in the time of Emperor Arcadius (345–408) over the tomb of St Menas at Mareotis, of a type of distinctly Mediterranean importation, the current of late Syrian Hellenism is evident in the great church of the White Monastery (Deyr al-Abyad) near Sohag, built around 430 by the Byzantine count Cacarius for the monastery of the great monk Shenoute: it is a three-aisled basilica with a narthex and a triapsidal sanctuary, that is, with three apses arranged in a trefoil pattern, according to a structure characteristic of Syria where it is used not only in churches but also in the great halls of palaces, as at Bosra or in the palace described in the Acts of St Thomas. Remains of unquestionable Syrian provenance. The same form of sanctuary is found in the same period in the church of the Red Monastery (Deyr al-Ahmar), not far from the White Monastery, and in that built in front of the façade of the temple of Hathor at Dendera. To the same Hellenistic current belongs the basilica that stood near Armant, destroyed at the beginning of the 19th century but of which good memories remain fortunately in the reliefs of the French scientists of the Napoleonic expedition: this basilica had two opposing apses, one at each end of the central nave, a type that is repeated in the basilica of the baths near the sanctuary of St Menas and in the Byzantine constructions of Marsa Matruh. All these churches are generally built of carefully squared ashlar, with tall monolithic columns and a very wide nave (that of the White Monastery has a span of 12.50 m), which required timber of considerable size to roof II. All this presupposes substantial economic means, especially for the timber, which had to be imported from Syria, since Egypt did not possess trees with trunks large enough for construction. It is therefore understandable that they are foundations of great Byzantine lords who must have summoned architects from their own milieu rather than from the indigenous one. To the same group of monuments, albeit with more modest programmes, belong the church of Deyr Abū Hinnis (Monastery of St John) near Antinoe and that of the Monastery of St Apollo at Bāwīt near Deirūt. All these buildings have their internal walls richly decorated with niches of elaborate forms and with small columns whose shafts are adorned with geometric ornamentation, a characteristic that also derives from Syria where the finest examples are perhaps those small columns reused in the Muslim period for the construction of the

The division of Christian art in Egypt into periods is quite simple. A first Palaeo-Christian period, represented by some catacombs in the Alexandrian region, has no particular characteristics of its own but falls within the great Mediterranean cycle: properly Egyptian Christian art can be divided into two periods with essentially different characteristics. The first runs from its origins to the Muslim conquest (640–642), the second from that moment down to our own time.

The earliest Christian monuments in Egypt, after the catacombs mentioned above, are perhaps some tombs in the cemetery of Oxyrhynchus (al-Bahnasā), which present the type of small single-naved churches with an apse, and the mausolea of the necropolis of Bagawat in the oasis of al-Khārga. The former were built of stone with Hellenizing structures, while the latter were executed in unbaked brick according to the traditional indigenous method and for the most part on a square plan covered by a dome, that is, in a structure that is absolutely non-Hellenistic. Already from these first examples the above-mentioned conflict is evident. These tombs of al-Khārga (whose greatest interest, however, lies in the paintings that adorn their walls) in addition

A far less ambitious program is that to which the indigenous environment adheres. From the earliest Christian times numerous hermits populated the Egyptian desert, and most often they established their residence in ancient tombs from the Pharaonic era: they transformed them not only into dwellings but also into chapels, constructing and carving niches that were to serve as apses. Examples of such adaptations are scattered throughout the Nile Valley, but perhaps the most interesting and most easily accessible are among the tombs of Benihasan and of Mir near al-Qoşiya, a tomb at es-Selikh Sald not far from Malawi, the tomb of Pentche at Tell al-Amatra, that of Ramses IV at Bibán al-Mulk, and those bearing the numbers 8, 9, and 97 at Selikh 'abd el-Qurra in the Theban necropolis. Further south, a tomb near Esna is particularly noteworthy for the paintings adorning its walls, unfortunately still unpublished. Around these hermits there gradually arose small monasteries, where the tomb transformed into a church served as a sanctuary for the community; cells and storehouses were built in the surrounding open space, and later the whole was enclosed by a wall and provided with a tower (fausaq) for defense against desert raiders.

One of the most complete examples of this type of monastery is that of Epiphania at Selikh 'abd al-Qurra; but from a liturgical standpoint the most important is that in the Valley of the Kings (Bibán al-Harim). Here a second church was built in the courtyard in front of the cave: it is of square plan and was covered by a dome; the apse was constructed inside an ancient Christian tomb with a barrel vault in brick, probably the tomb of the founder, and thus above his corpse, clearly marking its character as a tomb-altar.

But the Christians did not only utilize ancient Pharaonic tombs; they also took possession of temples, installing their churches within them. It should be noted, however, that they never thought of transforming the sanctuary proper, where the image of the deity was preserved, into a church; instead, they used only secondary spaces. Unfortunately, modern scholars, in their haste to bring ancient remains to light, have almost always effaced the traces of this Christian occupation: one of the rare cases where they can still be well studied is at es-Sebû'a in Nubia. Often such churches were installed in the vestibule of the temple (Dendera, Edfu, Esna, Philae); at Karnak it was in the great festival hall of Thutmosis III, where the columns still bear traces of large figures of saints. One of the most interesting examples is the church installed in the second courtyard of the temple of Medinet Habu, whose structure can be reconstructed exactly by means of the reliefs executed by Wilkinson in the mid-19th century. In any case, the Christians rarely demolished ancient temples but were content to cover the bas-reliefs on the walls with plaster, then tracing their own inscriptions and paintings over them.

Most often, however, they built their churches ex novo on free ground. The most interesting examples dating to before the 6th century, proceeding from north to south, are the church of Tapporisi in the Marcotide, that of Tebtunis (Tell Umm el-Breigat) in the Faiyûm, the basilicas in the monastery of St. Jeremiah at Saqqâra, that of Dayr Abû Fânâ north of Asmunein, the church in the dromos of the temple of Medamûd, the basilica west of the temple of Luqôr, a basilica at Selikh 'abd al-Qurra in the Theban necropolis, the church near the fortified gate of Ramses III at Medinet Habû, that of Tûd, and the eastern church of Philae, one of the rare monuments dated epigraphically as it was built under Bishop Theodore between 525 and 578. All these churches lack an atrium but almost always have a narthex, sometimes decorated with niches, as at Medamûd. The entrances are generally on the façade, but in some cases the entrance is on the side walls (Bâwîr, western church of Philae, Selikh 'abd al-Qurra) according to a disposition characteristically Syrian and Mesopotamian. The apse is never free-standing and projecting (except in the clearly Byzantine case of Abû Mînâ) but is always hidden behind a flat wall. Such apses display various forms: at Bâwîr it consists of a rectangular space occupying the full width of the church. The most widespread type is that of a semicircular apse flanked by two square or rectangular rooms, which seem to have served as sacristies, as in Syria. At Philae the southern room serves as a staircase, and at Tûd there are instead two rooms on either side of the apse, preceded by a rectangular bay of the type found in Syria at Qalb Lauzeh and Qanawat. At the basilica of Selikh 'abd al-Qurra there is instead a rectangular apse enclosed between two square chambers, another structure characteristically Syrian. At Tapporisi there is a semicircular apse placed between two square rooms and a narrow, long rectangular space behind the apse communicating only with the northern room: a structure linked to several Mesopotamian examples from Tur 'Abdûn and later found at the monastery of St. Simeon near Aswân. A development of this structure is seen in the basilica of the baths at Abû Mînâ, where the corridor actually connects the two rooms beside the apse; examples are found in Syria at Hibis Niha and the so-called tomb of Asron on Mount Hôr, and it will be one of the characteristics of Christian architecture in Nubia. In churches with side entrances, the western wall has a large rectangular niche in the center, which might be seen as a memory or adaptation of an apse opposite the western one. A unique and most interesting case is provided by the basilica of Luqôr, where, based on some surviving elements and old reliefs, it may be possible to reconstruct a type of apse with an ambulatory. The body of the church is generally divided into three naves by two rows of columns; but in some cases (the cemetery basilica of Abû Mînâ, two basilicas at Saqqâra, Dayr Abû Fânâ, the two basilicas of Medinet Habû, eastern church of Philae) in addition to the two longitudinal rows of columns there is a third running parallel to the façade wall, so that the side aisles wrap around the central nave even toward the west. It is a type that will persist into the late Middle Ages in the churches of Old Cairo. All these churches were roofed with wooden ceilings.

The problem of the baptistery in Egypt is a particularly difficult one.

The area is geographically and topographically compact, formed by the monasteries of Wādi en-Natrūn, namely Deyr Suryānī, Deyr Amba Bīšō, Deyr el-Barāmūs, and Deyr Abū Maqār. The most important is the first, rebuilt after the sack and destruction of the year 817: tradition attributes the new construction to two monks from Takrit in Mesopotamia, Mattai and Abraham. The monastery has two main churches: the smaller one, dedicated to the Virgin, reproduces a type of monastic church characteristic of Tūr 'Abdīn, consisting of a rectangular narthex covered by a barrel vault, a choir also rectangular with a north-south axis, also covered by a barrel vault, and a triple sanctuary formed by three rectangular chambers, of which the central one is covered by a dome while the other two have barrel vaults whose axes are perpendicular to that of the choir and narthex vaults. The large church of the monastery, also dedicated to the Virgin, is a basilica whose body consists of a wide nave flanked by two aisles that also run along the western wall, all covered by barrel vaults. This is followed by a rectangular choir with a north-south axis, divided into three bays, of which the central one is covered by a dome and the two side ones by semi-domes, reproducing a structure found in the church of the Virgin at Iḥāḥ in Mesopotamia; the sanctuary is similar to that of the small church.

At the southern end of Egypt are two churches, that of the monastery of St. Simeon at Aswān and that of es-Sikhah, which have very similar characteristics, in that the sanctuary is tripartite, with a central dome and three semi-domes on the three arms, and the central nave is covered by two domes in the first case and by a single dome in the second. They are two monuments probably dating from the end of the 10th or the beginning of the 11th century. A final building of singular importance, datable to the early Middle Ages, is the small basilica that stands about fifty meters north of tomb no. 25 of Qumrī Mūrāni in the Theban necropolis; it belongs to that period known as "eglise cloisonnée," i.e., having the division between the nave and the aisles made with solid walls in which only small doors open. It is the only known example of this type in Egypt to date. Among secondary monuments, mention should be made of the church of Deyr as-Suhadā (Monastery of the Martyrs) near Esna and a group of buildings in the region of Naqāda of Qamūla, especially those of al-'Adra and of Mārī Girgis at Deyr al-Magma', the latter of which shows a system of parallel vaults on transverse arches according to a type of Sicilian-Persian style. But the most widespread structure in the late Middle Ages is that of a rectangular building divided by arches supported mainly on pillars into many squares, each of which is covered by a dome; they even reach the number of 29 at the church of Amba Pakhōm near Madāmūd. The finest example is perhaps that of Deyr al-Mahāraq.

Sculpture in Christian Egypt was conceived as a decorative aid to architecture rather than as having an independent existence; hence statuary disappears completely. Also lost is the art of working hard stones (diorite, porphyry, etc.), which had been a specialty and glory of the country; the only material now used is limestone, except for columns and capitals, for which syenite is still cut. Characteristic of Egypt is the extensive use of wood sculpture in the decoration of monuments.

For an early period, the most interesting examples of sculpture are a series of niche conches with curiously jagged tinnani and human figures treated with strong attention and a distinctly coloristic use of sharp contrasts of voids and solids, with a skilful balancing of masses and play of light and shadow with a distinctly Baroque vision. These were found mainly at Alnās al-Madīna, ancient Heracleopolis, but interesting examples also come from other places, especially al-Bahnasa. Almost all these sculptures have pagan subjects and must therefore be connected with those rich and powerful noble groups that dominated central Egypt, of Hellenistic culture and hostile to the new religion. Stylistically, these sculptures are nothing more than the derivation of a characteristically Syrian school and are linked with others from the Mabatea region, especially those found at Khirbet et-Tannur. With the end of the 5th century and probably with the disappearance of these pagan groups, this school disappeared. Also the most important examples of wood sculpture up to the 5th-6th centuries, some pieces from Bāwīt and above all the beautiful wooden door of the primitive church of St. Barbara in Old Cairo (now in the Coptic Museum), are in the purest Hellenistic tradition of the art of Alexandria or Antioch.

Ivory sculpture, of which so many magnificent monuments survive from the workshops of Alexandria, has left few that can be attributed with relative certainty to Egypt proper, with a predominance of monumental over Hellenistic pictorial styles. The most notable are that in the Louvre with the representation of St. Mark enthroned among his successor patriarchs and the five-part diptych from Murano, now in Ravenna, which Strzygowski considers a product of the monastic art of Upper Egypt. Sculpture proper to Egypt, poor in figurative monuments, achieves instead extraordinary richness and inventiveness in decorative works—capitals, friezes, incrustation slabs, and even tombstones. The repertoire of motifs is of such abundance that it defies any classification; decoration covers every element, with a clear tendency toward horror vacui, one of the peculiar characteristics of Oriental art.

Wall painting also contributes greatly: it can be said that every part of the Egyptian religious building not adorned with carved reliefs was covered with paintings, which fulfill the function that in contemporary Byzantine art would be taken by mosaics. This medium was very rarely employed in Egypt: the text of Abū Ṣāliḥ (13th century), so valuable for the study of Egyptian religious archaeology, mentions only two examples of figured mosaics: the first in the church of the Apostles at the monastery of St. Arsenius at al-Quṣayr, founded by the Melkite patriarch Eustathius (802–804), which depicted the Virgin with angels and the twelve Apostles, and the second in the church of St. Pachomius at Fāfū, whose subject is unknown. Since Eustathius was Melkite, it can be certain that the work he commissioned was a product of imported Byzantine craftsmen. The only surviving mosaic in an Egyptian church is found in a niche in the monastery of St. Anthony and depicts

It presents a triumphal cross. Instead, we are extensively documented on mural painting since very extensive cycles have been preserved. The oldest are those of the sepulchral chapels of the necropolis of Baqawat in the oasis of al-Khàrga (4th century?), of which, however, a large part—both iconographically and stylistically—connects with Alexandrian art. Yet here we already see many of the characteristics that would later become peculiar to Egyptian painting, namely the very extensive use of frontality, the symmetrical arrangement of figures, a generally static representation on a single plane, with no hint of background or environmental details—what is generally indicated by the term “monumental style,” characteristic of Asiatic expression and of which an example can be traced back to the paintings of Dura-Europos. The greatest Egyptian examples of this style are given by the pictorial cycles of Bàwìt and Saqqàra. Here, even if some Hellenistic traces remain in the decorative friezes, the ornamental and symbolic part steadily fades away to make room for historical painting, and landscape treatment disappears to be replaced by monumental representation. Another characteristic clearly appears here: the taste for portraiture, whose tradition goes back to the 2nd–3rd centuries, that is, to that school of craftsmen who executed the Faiyùm mummy portraits in full Hellenistic style, but translated into monumental forms. This tendency toward portraiture, which leads to personalizing every figure, when applied to the representation of sacred personages, also confers an individual character upon the ideal images of the Saviour, the Virgin, the Apostles, and the Evangelists, and tends to crystallize their type. It is well known how these artistic tendencies would have a profound influence on Byzantine art itself, and it can be said that the impetus came from Egypt. Iconographically, Egyptian painting of the early Middle Ages already shows, even at that time, certain characteristics that it would retain for centuries: for example, the use of representing almost all local saints on horseback, almost as warriors triumphant over evil spirits.

After the great paintings of Bàwìt and Saqqàra, which represent, to the best of our knowledge, the moment of greatest splendor of Egyptian painting in the early centuries, documentation is scant until around the 11th century, when a new influence appears, that of archaic art. A large, wealthy, and powerful colony of Armenians had then formed in Egypt, and among them were also artists. It was then to an Armenian painter that we owe the decoration of the large apse conch of the White Monastery. Seemingly localized only to the Syrian monastery at Wàdìt an-Natrùm (Deyr Suryàni), it is a current of Syrian paintings of high artistic value and still insufficiently studied. In the southern apse of the nave are represented the Annunciation and the Nativity, and the inscriptions are in Syriac, except for the name of Joseph, which is written in Greek; in the western apse, at the end of the nave, is the Assumption with the names of Jesus, the apostles Andrew and Simon Peter, the Sun and the Moon written in Syriac, while the latter is also reproduced in Coptic; in the northern apse of the nave is represented the Dormition of the Virgin with the name of Christ written in Syriac. These paintings are thought to date from the time of the monastery superior Moses of Nisibis (907–44), to whom the Mesopotamian-style stuccoes of the sanctuary may also be attributed. Egyptian painting of the late Middle Ages no longer has any artistic value, nor does icon painting, of which the oldest known to us do not predate the fifteenth century.

Illuminated manuscripts are also an art widely practiced in Egypt. Initially, its great development is due to Alexandria, with a magnificent series of manuscripts known to us, if not all in originals, at least in very ancient copies that show the greatest triumph of the Alexandrian picturesque style; yet already with the various copies of the Topography of Cosmas Indicopleustes, the monumental style makes its way in. On the other hand, Egypt, with the papyrus fragments of the Alexandrian Chronicle, perhaps from the beginning of the 5th century, has left us a work of a quite different tendency, where the indigenous character, imbued with old Oriental traditions, is shown most clearly. And it is these traditions that definitively triumph when, at the end of the 5th century, it can be said that Hellenistic art in Alexandria disappears. We possess a large number of illustrated manuscripts that allow us to follow exactly the development of Egyptian illumination, inasmuch as they are for the most part dated, with subscriptions by scribes and painters, and of which it is usually quite easy to determine the place of execution. Thus we can well follow a characteristic tendency, namely that of gradually abandoning the technique of true painting in favor of pen drawing filled in with colors. The masterpiece of properly indigenous Egyptian illumination is given by Coptic manuscript 13 in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, with strong Mesopotamian influences, from the 12th century. Yet in the same period we see the formation of another school of artists who are strongly influenced, especially in decoration, by contemporary Muslim art: the masterpiece of this trend is that two-volume Gospel book, one volume of which is preserved in the Institut Catholique in Paris and the other in the Coptic Museum in Cairo. And it is this school that prevails and will last until the 17th century, though with increasingly inferior work. The history of Egyptian illumination still remains to be written.

Among the minor arts, the one that has left us the greatest number of documents is textile decoration, of which the dry sands of Egypt have preserved extremely interesting specimens. Those with woven wool decoration are executed with a technique identical to that of Franco-Flemish tapestries, which is documented in Egypt from antiquity, examples being fragments bearing the name of Amenhotep II (c. 1400 B.C.) and Thutmosis IV (c. 1466 B.C.), a technique similar to that of some fragments found in Greek tombs in the Crimea from the 3rd or 4th century B.C. In Egypt the places of the most abundant finds (Saqqara, Arsinoe, Akhmim, Antinoe, Arimat, Havarah, etc.) are scattered throughout the country, which shows the diffusion of ever-similar processes. The decoration generally consists of bands, clavi, and square or round inlays, *rotae*. Christian weaving is thus technically nothing more than the unaltered continuation of pagan weaving, and the only difference lies in the motifs represented. In a relatively advanced period, however, some technical variation is observed, approaching that of brocades. There are also fabrics decorated with completely different techniques: these are cloths in which ornamentation is achieved by coloring according to a process (already mentioned by Pliny) very close to that of batik. The cloth with the Bacchic scenes found by Gayet at Antinoe is the finest pagan example not later than the 4th–5th century, while that with Daniel in the Berlin Museum is the most notable among the Christian ones. There are also fabrics decorated with motifs printed with carved wooden blocks. Finally, we must recall examples of silk weaving found in Egyptian tombs, especially at Akhmim and Antinoe, some of which are certainly products of local workshops, while others prove to be imports from Syria, Sassanian Persia, and perhaps even Central Asia.

Finally, a specifically Egyptian industry is that of ivory inlays in wood: the doors of the Syrian monastery at Wadi en-Naqrma perhaps offer the finest example. Christian pottery in Egypt, while interesting, never rises to the level of true art.

VII. SCHOOL SYSTEM OF EGYPT

The Ministry of Public Instruction, the Ministry of Social Affairs, and the Ministries of War and the Navy have collaborated to eliminate illiteracy, the greatest scourge hindering the organization of political and cultural life.

Education is compulsory for boys from ages 12 to 18 and for girls from ages 12 to 15. There are 1,949 male schools and 728 female schools, as well as numerous compulsory courses for members of the police and armed forces. Various private organizations and individuals have founded small schools called *maktab*, where boys and girls are instructed in reading the Qur’an, writing, and mathematics. Employers are legally obligated to ensure that their employees receive education.

In addition to combating illiteracy, the Egyptian government is concerned with the formation of the ruling class. To this end, it has reduced the teaching of foreign languages, elevating from 1940 onward the teaching of Arabic, which is the official language. In all schools, the *pararabic* sentiment and Muslim religiosity must be cultivated. In private schools, it is forbidden to teach students religious doctrines different from their own convictions. The teaching of Arabic is not compulsory in those private schools (English, French, Italian, and Greek) where the number of Egyptian students is less than 15%.

Egyptian education comprises kindergartens; elementary schools called *kuttāb* (divided into government-run, private under direct government supervision, and foreign under indirect government supervision); secondary schools; and universities. The Islamic University of al-Azhar, founded on June 21, 972, by General Gawhar under the Fātimids, imparts religious and political spirit to the entire Islamic world. Fu’ād I University was founded in Cairo in 1908, and Farūq I University was founded in Alexandria on August 2, 1942.

There are also schools of the Coptic Church, which include 12 schools for boys and 4 for girls—altogether insufficient for 850,000 faithful. The United Coptic Church has, in the three dioceses of Alexandria, Hermopolis, and Thebes, 31 schools for boys, 1 school for girls, a *Petit séminaire*, and a *Theological seminary*, serving 20,000 faithful. — See plates XI-XIV.