Ancient Civilization. — When the Egyptians first appeared in history, they were already possessed of a mar velously advanced civilization, which presupposes thousands of years of devel opment, even before the remote period, nearly 4000 B. C., when the pyramid builders reigned. In the sciences, as early as the 4th dynasty the notation of time, and the decimal system of num bers, weights, and measures, and the di vision of the year were already known, while the form of the buildings implies a knowledge of geometry and its sister sciences. They had also a knowledge of astronomy and chemistry. The art of literary composition existed as early as the 4th dynasty. The language of the period, though concise and obscure, was, nevertheless, fixed. Architecture had attained great refinement. The trans port of enormous blocks of stone testi fies to an early development of engineer ing skill. The statues of the 4th dynasty, carved nearly 4,000 years B. C., were generally conventional, owing to their employment in architecture; but in portraiture great perfection was at tained. Painting appeared at the same age chiefly in tempera or whitewashed surfaces, though fresco was occasionally used. In the art of music, the harp and flute appear in use as early as the 4th, and heptachord and pentachord lyres as early as the 12th dynasty; besides which drums, tambourines, flutes, cym bals, trumpets, and guitars are seen in the 18th, and the natural instrument, the jingling sistrum, in the 4th. Poetry was at all times in use.
The civil government was adminis tered by the three highest professions; the priests were distinguished by their superior knowledge, cleanliness, and godliness, and the political and civil government was administered by royal scribes, or secretaries of state, who superintended the revenue, justice, for eign affairs, and all the interests of the executive. Sacred scribes attended to the ecclesiastic interests, and inferior scribes to the local interests. The pub lic works, the collection of grain and of all the linen dues, the cattle, workmen, wells, irrigation, had each their separate superintendents and scribes. The mil itary force, of 410,000 men, at a later period, comprising all arms of the ser vice, was ruled with severe discipline, under the direction of nomarchs, colo nels, captains, and lieutenants.
History.—The Egyptians are the ear liest people known to us as a nation, if we except the Chinese. When Abraham entered the delta from Canaan, they had long been enjoying the advantages of a settled government. The arrange ment of Egyptian chronology is still a much-disputed point. A list of the kings of Egypt, arranged in 30 dynasties, was given by the priest Manetho about 250 B. c.; this division is still used. Accord ing to tradition Mena or Mones formed the old empire of Egypt and founded its capital Memphis. Three kings, Khufu, Khafra, and Menkaura, of the 11th dynasty, built the largest pyramids; the date assigned to these kings by Lepsius is 2800-2700. The shepherd kings were driven out about 1600. With their ex pulsion began the reigns of those great rulers who built the magnificent temples and palaces at Thebes. Rameses II., or Sesostris, was successful against the neighboring Arabs, and covered Egypt with magnificent buildings. He was probably the Pharaoh who oppressed the Hebrews; the Exodus may have oc curred under his son and successor, Maneptah or Merenptah. Under the later Ramessides the Egyptian empire began to decay. Eventually the Ethi opians under Shabak (Sabako) con quered Egypt. For a time it was sub ject alternately to Ethiopian and As syrian princes, but in the 7th century the kings of Sais once more restored its independence and prosperity. About 525, Cambyses, King of Persia, overran Egypt, and it remained a Persian prov ince till Persia was conquered by Alex ander the Great, 332 B. C. Egypt now became a Greek state. Alexandria was founded as the new Greek capital. On Alexander's death, his general, Ptolemy, took possession of the throne and be came the first of a Greek dynasty which for 300 years made Egypt one of the chief kingdoms of the world. Ptolemy Auletes went to Rome to ask help against his subjects, and the famous Cleopatra maintained her power only through her personal influence with Julius Cxsar and Mark Anthony. On the defeat of
Mark Anthony by Augustus, 30 B. c., Egypt became a province of Rome. Next arose in Alexandria the Christian cat echetical school, which produced Clem ens and Origen. On the division of the Roman empire (A. D. 337), Egypt be came a province of the Eastern Empire and sank deeper and deeper in barbar ism and weakness. It was conquered in 640 A. D. by the Saracens under Caliph Omar. As a province of the caliphs it was under the government of the fa mous Abbassides. The last dynasty was overthrown by the Mamelukes (1250) ; the Mamelukes in their turn were con quered by the Turks (1516-1517). The Mamelukes made repeated attempts to cast off the Turkish yoke. Bonaparte led an army of 35,000 French, and de feated them at the battle of the Pyra mids, July 23, 1798. The French held Egypt till 1801, when they were driven out by the British under Abercrombie and Hutchinson.
On the expulsion of the French a Turkish force under Mehemet Ali Bey took possession of the country. Me hemet Ali, a man of great ability, was made Pasha of Cairo in 1804 and great ly extended the Egyptian territories. At length he broke with the Porte, and after gaining a decisive victory over the Ottoman troops in Syria he was in 1839 acknowledged by the Sultan as Viceroy of Egypt, with the right of succession in his family. Under the rule of Said, one of his sons, railways were opened and the cutting of the Suez Canal was begun. In 1882 the "National party" under Arabi Pasha revolted and force 1 the khedive to flee. On July 11 a Brit ish fleet bombarded Alexandria and re stored the khedive, and at Tel-el Kebir Arabi's forces were totally crushed on September 13. A rebellion in the Sudan under the leadership of Mohammed Ah med, the so-called mandi, now gave the government trouble. In 1883 the mah di's forces annihilated an Egyptian force under Hicks Pasha in Kordofan. British troops were now dispatched to Suakim and inflicted two severe defeats on the mandi's followers there. But the British cabinet had resolved to abandon the Sudan; and General Gordon, famous for his work in this district, was sent to effect the safe withdrawal of the garrisons (1884). By this time, the mandi's forces were strong enough to shut the general up in Khartum. For nearly a year he held the town, but was assassinated (January, 1885) before the relief expedition under Sir Garnet Wol seley could reach him. In 1889, Egypt was invaded by 14,000 dervishes, under Wad el N'Jumi, and this army was destroyed at Toski by an Anglo-Egyptian force under General Grenfell. There was no effort to relieve the Sudan from the tyranny of Abdullahi, the mandi's suc cessor, till 1896, by which time the fana tical faith of the dervishes had decayed and many tribes had become disloyal. Slatin Pasha, who escaped from Omdur man in March, 1895, revealed at Cairo the altered situation, and during the fol lowing winter the British Government, as the protector of Egypt, resolved on the reconquest of the Sudan. General Kitchener was given control of the un dertaking. In June, 1898, he attacked an army of 18,000, under Mahmud, sent against him, practically annihilated it, and by September 1 arrived in sight of Omdurman. The khalifa attacked, but was repulsed with the less of almost his entire line of battle. Ascending the Nile The strong hand of Lord Cromer, the British viceroy, prevented, however, any actual outbreak. Under Lord Cromer's rule, great strides were made in the eco nomic and social development of the country. He resigned in 1907 and was succeeded by Sir Eldon Gorst. He made it evident from the beginning of his rule that Great Britain intended to maintain her hold in the country, and there were general manifestations of dissatisfac tion, including the assassination of the Egyptian Prime Minister. The govern ment took repressive measures which were effective. In 1911 Sir Eldon Gorst died and was succeeded by Lord Kitch ener, who at once undertook the pacifi cation of the country by economic re form.