Egypt

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{History of Egypt}

Prehistoric Egypt
There is evidence of rock carvings along the Nile terraces and in the
desert oases. In the 10th millennium BC, a culture of hunter-
gatherers and fishers replaced a grain-grinding culture. Climate
changes and/or overgrazing around 8000 BC began to desiccate the
pastoral lands of Egypt, forming the Sahara. Early tribal peoples
migrated to the Nile River where they developed a settled
agricultural economy and more centralized society.

By about 6000 BC the Neolithic culture rooted in the Nile Valley.During the
Neolithic era, several predynastic cultures developed independently in Upper and
Lower Egypt. The Badarian culture and the successor Naqada series are generally
regarded as precursors to Dynastic Egyptian civilization. The earliest known Lower
Egyptian site, Merimda, predates the Badarian by about seven hundred years.
Contemporaneous Lower Egyptian communities coexisted with their southern
counterparts for more than two thousand years, remaining somewhat culturally
separate, but maintaining frequent contact through trade. The earliest known
evidence of Egyptian hieroglyphic inscriptions appeared during the predynastic
period on Naqada III pottery vessels, dated to about 3200 BC.

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Ancient Egypt pt.1

A unified kingdom was founded circa 3150 BC by King Menes, giving rise to a
series of dynasties that ruled Egypt for the next three millennia. Egyptians
subsequently referred to their unified country as tawy, meaning "two lands", and
later kemet (Coptic: kīmi), the "black land", a reference to the fertile black soil
deposited by the Nile river. Egyptian culture flourished during this long period
and remained distinctively Egyptian in its religion, arts, language and customs.
The first two ruling dynasties of a unified Egypt set the stage for the Old Kingdom
period, c.2700−2200 BC., famous for its many pyramids, most notably the Third
Dynasty pyramid of Djoser and the Fourth Dynasty Giza Pyramids.

The First Intermediate Period ushered in a time of political upheaval for about 150
years. Stronger Nile floods and stabilization of government, however, brought back
renewed prosperity for the country in the Middle Kingdom c. 2040 BC, reaching a
peak during the reign of Pharaoh Amenemhat III. A second period of disunity
heralded the arrival of the first foreign ruling dynasty in Egypt, that of the Semitic
Hyksos. The Hyksos invaders took over much of Lower Egypt around 1650 BC and
founded a new capital at Avaris. They were driven out by an Upper Egyptian force
led by Ahmose I, who founded the Eighteenth Dynasty and relocated the capital
from Memphis to Thebes.
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Ancient Egypt pt.2

Giza Pyramid
Djoser Pyramid The Great Sphinx and
Giza Pyramid

The New Kingdom (c.1550−1070 BC) began with the Eighteenth Dynasty, marking
the rise of Egypt as an international power that expanded during its greatest
extension to an empire as far south as Tombos in Nubia, and included parts of the
Levant in the east. This period is noted for some of the most well-known Pharaohs,
including Hatshepsut, Thutmose III, Akhenaten and his wife Nefertiti,
Tutankhamun and Ramesses II. The first historically attested expression of
monotheism came during this period in the form of Atenism. Frequent contacts
with other nations brought new ideas to the New Kingdom. The country was later
invaded and conquered by Libyans, Nubians and Assyrians, but native Egyptians
eventually drove them out and regained control of their country.

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{History of Egypt}

Persian, Greek and Roman Occupation

The Thirtieth Dynasty was the last native ruling dynasty during
the Pharaonic epoch. It fell to the Persians in 343 BC after the
last native Pharaoh, King Nectanebo II, was defeated in battle.
Later, Egypt fell to the Greco–Macedonians and Romans,
beginning over two thousand years of foreign rule. The last
ruler from the Ptolemaic line was Cleopatra VII, who
committed suicide with her lover Marc Antony, after Caesar
Augustus had captured them.

Before Egypt became part of the Byzantine realm, Christianity

The Hanging Church had been brought by Saint Mark the Evangelist in the AD first
of Cairo, first built in century. Diocletian's reign marked the transition from the
the third or fourth Roman to the Byzantine era in Egypt, when a great number of
century AD, is one of
the most famous Egyptian Christians were persecuted. The New Testament had
Coptic Churches in by then been translated into Egyptian. After the Council of
Egypt. Chalcedon in AD 451, a distinct Egyptian Coptic Church was
firmly established.

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{History of Egypt}

Arab and Ottoman Era

The Byzantines were able to regain control of the country after a brief Persian invasion
early in the seventh century, until in AD 639, Egypt was absorbed into the Islamic Empire
by the Muslim Arabs. When they defeated the Byzantine Armies in Egypt, with the help
of some revolutionary Egyptians, the Arabs brought Sunni Islam to the country. Early in
this period, Egyptians began to blend their new faith with indigenous beliefs and practices
that had survived through Coptic Christianity that was expanded in Egypt by the
Byzantines, giving rise to various Sufi orders that have flourished to this day. Muslim
rulers nominated by the Islamic Caliphate remained in control of Egypt for the next six
centuries, with Cairo as the seat of the Caliphate under the Fatimids. With the end of the
Ayyubid dynasty, the Mamluks, a Turco-Circassian military caste, took control about AD
1250. By late 13th century, Egypt linked the Red Sea, India, Malaya, and East Indies. The
strategic positioning "assured importance in productive economy". They continued to
govern the country until the conquest of Egypt by the Ottoman Turks in 1517, after which
it became a province of the Ottoman Empire. The mid-14th-Century Black Death killed
about 40% of the country's population. After the 15th century, the threat of military
European Crusaders and Central Asian Mongols set the Egpytian system into decline. The
defensive militarization challenged the civil society and economic institutions. The
weakening of the economic system combined with the effects of Black Death left Egypt
vulnerable to foreign invasion which can be seen with the Portuguese taking over their
trade. The famine that afflicted Egypt in 1784 cost it roughly one-sixth of its population.

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Modern History pt.1

The brief French invasion of Egypt led by Napoleon Bonaparte began in
1798. The expulsion of the French in 1801 by Ottoman, Mamluk, and British
forces was followed by four years of anarchy in which Ottomans, Mamluks,
and Albanians who were nominally in the service of the Ottomans, wrestled
for power. Out of this chaos, the commander of the Albanian regiment,
Muhammad Ali (Kavalali Mehmed Ali Pasha) emerged as a dominant
Coat of arms figure and in 1805 was acknowledged by the Sultan in Istanbul as his
of the House viceroy in Egypt; the title implied subordination to the Sultan but this was
of Mohamed in fact a polite fiction: Ottoman power in Egypt was finished and
Ali Muhammad Ali, an ambitious and able leader, established a dynasty that
was to rule Egypt (at first really and later as British puppets) until the
revolution of 1952.
His primary focus was military: he annexed Northern Sudan (1820–1824), Syria (1833),
and parts of Arabia and Anatolia; but in 1841 the European powers, fearful lest he topple
the Ottoman Empire itself, checked him: he had to return most of his conquests to the
Ottomans, but he kept the Sudan and his title to Egypt was made hereditary. A more
lasting consequence of his military ambition is that it made him the moderniser of Egypt.
Anxious to learn the military (and therefore industrial) techniques of the great powers he
sent students to the West and invited training missions to Egypt. He built industries, a
system of canals for irrigation and transport, and reformed the civil service.

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Modern History pt.2

For better or worse, the introduction in 1820 of long-staple cotton, the Egyptian
variety of which became famous, transformed Egyptian agriculture into a cash-crop
monoculture before the end of the century. The social effects of this were enormous:
it led to the concentration of agriculture in the hands of large landowners, and, with
the additional trigger of high cotton prices caused by the United States' civil war
production drop, to a large influx of foreigners who began in earnest the exploitation
of Egypt for international commodity production.

Muhammad Ali was succeeded briefly by his son Ibrahim (in September 1848), then
by a grandson Abbas I (in November 1848), then by Said (in 1854), and Isma'il (in
1863). Abbas I was cautious. Said and Ismail were ambitious developers;
unfortunately they spent beyond their means. The Suez Canal, built in partnership
with the French, was completed in 1869. The expense of this and other projects had
two effects: it led to enormous debt to European banks, and caused popular
discontent because of the onerous taxation it necessitated. In 1875 Ismail was forced
to sell Egypt's share in the canal to the British Government. Within three years this
led to the imposition of British and French controllers who sat in the Egyptian
cabinet, and, "with the financial power of the bondholders behind them, were the real
power in the Government."

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Modern History pt.3

Local dissatisfaction with Ismail and with European
intrusion led to the formation of the first nationalist
groupings in 1879, with Ahmad Urabi a prominent figure. In
1882 he became head of a nationalist-dominated ministry
committed to democratic reforms including parliamentary
control of the budget. Fearing a diminishment of their
control, Britain and France intervened militarily, bombarding
Alexandria and crushing the Egyptian army at the battle of
Tel el-Kebir. They reinstalled Ismail's son Tewfik as
figurehead of a de facto British protectorate.

In 1914 the Protectorate was made official, and the title of the
head of state, which had changed from pasha to khedive in
1867, was changed to sultan, to repudiate the vestigial
suzerainty of the Ottoman sultan, who was backing the
Female nationalists
demonstrating in Cairo, Central Powers in World War I. Abbas II was deposed as
1919. khedive and replaced by his uncle, Hussein Kamel, as sultan.

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Modern History pt.4

In 1906, the Dinshaway Incident prompted many neutral Egyptians to join the nationalist
movement. After the First World War, Saad Zaghlul and the Wafd Party led the Egyptian
nationalist movement, gaining a majority at the local Legislative Assembly. When the
British exiled Zaghlul and his associates to Malta on 8 March 1919, the country arose in its
first modern revolution. Constant revolting by the Egyptian people throughout the
country led Great Britain to issue a unilateral declaration of Egypt's independence on 28
February 1922.

The new Egyptian Government drafted and implemented a new constitution in 1923
based on a parliamentary representative system. Saad Zaghlul was popularly elected as
Prime Minister of Egypt in 1924. In 1936 the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty was concluded.
Continued instability in the Government due to remaining British control and increasing
political involvement by the king led to the ousting of the monarchy and the dissolution of
the parliament in a military coup d'état known as the 1952 Revolution. The officers,
known as the Free Officers Movement, forced King Farouk to abdicate in support of his
son Fuad.

On 18 June 1953, the Egyptian Republic was declared, with General Muhammad Naguib
as the first President of the Republic. Naguib was forced to resign in 1954 by Gamal Abdel
Nasser – the real architect of the 1952 movement – and was later put under house arrest.
Nasser assumed power as President in June 1956. British forces completed their

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withdrawal from the occupied Suez Canal Zone on 13 June 1956. His nationalization of
the Suez Canal on 26 July 1956 prompted the 1956 Suez Crisis.

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Modern History pt.5

Three years after the 1967 Six-Day War, during which Israel
had invaded and occupied Sinai, Nasser died and was
succeeded by Anwar Sadat. Sadat switched Egypt's Cold War
allegiance from the Soviet Union to the United States,
expelling Soviet advisors in 1972. He launched the Infitah
economic reform policy, while violently clamping down on
religious and secular opposition alike.
View of Cairo, the largest
city in Africa and the In 1973, Egypt, along with Syria, launched the October War, a
Middle East. The Cairo
Opera House (bottom- surprise attack against the Israeli forces occupying the Sinai
right) is the main Peninsula and the Golan Heights. It was an attempt to liberate
performing arts venue in part of the Sinai territory Israel had captured 6 years earlier.
the Egyptian capital.

Sadat hoped to seize some territory via military force, and then regain the rest of the
peninsula by diplomacy. The conflict sparked an international crisis between the two
world superpowers: the US and the USSR, both of whom intervened. Two UN-
mandated ceasefires were needed to bring military operations to a halt. While the
war ended in a military stalemate, it presented Sadat with a political victory that later
allowed him to regain the Sinai in return for peace with Israel.

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Modern History pt.6

Sadat made an historic visit to Israel in 1977, which led to the 1979 peace treaty in
exchange for the complete Israeli withdrawal from Sinai. Sadat's initiative sparked
enormous controversy in the Arab world and led to Egypt's expulsion from the Arab
League, but it was supported by the vast majority of Egyptians.[19] A fundamentalist
military soldier assassinated Sadat in Cairo in 1981. He was succeeded by the
incumbent Hosni Mubarak. In 2003, the Egyptian Movement for Change, popularly
known as Kefaya, was launched to seek a return to democracy and greater civil
liberties.

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 Morphology pt.1
At 1,001,450 square kilometers (386,660 sq mi), Egypt is the
world's 38th-largest country. In land area, it is about the same
size as all Central America, twice the size of Spain, four times
the size of the United Kingdom,[49] and the combined size of
the US states of Texas and California.

Nevertheless, due to the aridity of Egypt's climate, population

centres are concentrated along the narrow Nile Valley and
Delta, meaning that about 99% of the population uses only
about 5.5% of the total land area. Egypt is bordered by Libya
Map of Egypt.
to the west, Sudan to the south, and by the Gaza Strip and
Israel to the east. Egypt's important role in geopolitics stems
from its strategic position: a transcontinental nation, it
possesses a land bridge (the Isthmus of Suez) between Africa
and Asia, which in turn is traversed by a navigable waterway
(the Suez Canal) that connects the Mediterranean Sea with the
Indian Ocean by way of the Red Sea.

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Morphology pt.2
Apart from the Nile Valley, the majority of Egypt's landscape
is a desert. The winds blowing can create sand dunes more
than 100 feet (30 m) high. Egypt includes parts of the Sahara
Desert and of the Libyan Desert. These deserts were referred
to as the "red land" in ancient Egypt, and they protected the
Kingdom of the Pharaohs from western threats.

The Nile River near Towns and cities include Alexandria, one of the greatest
Aswan. ancient cities, Aswan, Asyut, Cairo, the modern Egyptian
capital, El-Mahalla El-Kubra, Giza, the site of the Pyramid of
Khufu, Hurghada, Luxor, Kom Ombo, Port Safaga, Port Said,
Sharm el Sheikh, Suez, where the Suez Canal is located,
Zagazig, and Al-Minya. Oases include Bahariya, el Dakhla,
Farafra, el Kharga and Siwa. Protectorates include Ras
Mohamed National Park, Zaranik Protectorate and Siwa.

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 Economy pt.1
Egypt's economy depends mainly on agriculture, media, petroleum exports, and
tourism; there are also more than three million Egyptians working abroad, mainly in
Saudi Arabia, the Persian Gulf and Europe. The completion of the Aswan High Dam
in 1970 and the resultant Lake Nasser have altered the time-honored place of the Nile
River in the agriculture and ecology of Egypt. A rapidly growing population, limited
arable land, and dependence on the Nile all continue to overtax resources and stress
the economy.
The government has struggled to prepare the economy for the new millennium
through economic reform and massive investments in communications and physical
infrastructure. Egypt has received U.S. foreign aid (since 1979, an average of $2.2
billion per year) and is the third-largest recipient of such funds from the United
States after the Iraq war. Its main revenues however come from tourism as well as
traffic that goes through the Suez Canal.
Egypt has a developed energy market based on coal, oil, natural gas, and hydro
power. Substantial coal deposits are in the north-east Sinai, and are mined at the rate
of about 600,000 metric tons (590,000 LT; 660,000 ST) per year. Oil and gas are
produced in the western desert regions, the Gulf of Suez, and the Nile Delta. Egypt
has huge reserves of gas, estimated at 1,940 cubic kilometres, and LNG is exported to
many countries.

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 Economy pt.2
Economic conditions have started to improve considerably after a period of stagnation
from the adoption of more liberal economic policies by the Government, as well as
increased revenues from tourism and a booming stock market. In its annual report, the
IMF has rated Egypt as one of the top countries in the world undertaking economic
reforms.[citation needed] Some major economic reforms taken by the new Government
since 2003 include a dramatic slashing of customs and tariffs. A new taxation law
implemented in 2005 decreased corporate taxes from 40% to the current 20%, resulting in
a stated 100% increase in tax revenue by the year 2006.

FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) into Egypt has increased considerably in the past few
years due to the recent economic liberalization measures taken by minister of investment
Mahmoud Mohieddin, exceeding $6 billion in 2006.

Although one of the main obstacles still facing the Egyptian economy is the trickle down
of the wealth to the average population, many Egyptians criticize their Government for
higher prices of basic goods while their standards of living or purchasing power remains
relatively stagnant. Often corruption is blamed by Egyptians as the main impediment to
feeling the benefits of the newly attained wealth. The Government promises major
reconstruction of the country's infrastructure, with a large part of the sum paid for the
newly acquired third mobile license ($3 billion) by Etisalat.

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Economy pt.3
The best known examples of Egyptian companies that have
expanded regionally and globally are the Orascom Group and
Raya. The IT sector has expanded rapidly in the past few years,
with many new start-ups conducting outsourcing business to
North America and Europe, operating with companies such as
Microsoft, Oracle and other major corporations, as well as many
SME's. Some of these companies are the Xceed Contact Center,
Raya Contact Center, E Group Connections and C3 along with
other start ups in that country. The sector has been stimulated
Tourists ride in a by new Egyptian entrepreneurs trying to capitalize on their
traditional Nile boat. country's huge potential in the sector, as well as constant
Government encouragement.

An estimated 2.7 million Egyptians abroad contribte actively to

the development of their country through remittances (US$ 7.8
in 2009), as well as circulation of human and social capital and
investment.

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Population
Population of Egypt, according to a survey conducted in July 2007, is estimated to be
around 80,335,036. The estimated rate of growth of population in Egypt is 1.721%. Egypt is
considered to be one of the populous countries in Africa. The sex ratio of Egypt
population is 1.017 males per female.

The total area occupied by Africa is 1,001,450 sq km. The Egypt population is mainly
dense in and around the Nile basin. The fertile river plains have always attracted people
to settle down in this region. Thus the population of Egypt comprises immigrants as well
as the local inhabitants.

People of Egypt comprise different ethnic groups. The nationality of the people of the
country is Egyptian. They comprise of 98% of the total population. Bedouin, Nubian and
Beja cover only 1% among the population. Rest of the 1% of population is comprised of
the Europeans mainly of French and Italian origin. Armenians and Greeks also form part
of the population.

The religion of population of Egypt is mainly Islam. Muslims dominate 90% of the total
population, most of which are Sunni Muslims. Christianity is also practiced by some
people. 9% of them are Coptic and only 1% is consists of other Christian communities.

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 Bilateral pt.1
Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Menteri Koperasi dan Usaha Kecil
dan Menengah (KUKM), Dr Syarifudin Hasan dan Menteri
Kerjasama Internasional Mesir, Dr Faiza Abu Naja
menandatangani MoU kerjasama pemamfaatan eceng
gondok yang ada di sepanjang sungai Nil, di Cairo, pekan
lalu.

Keterangan tertulis KBRI Cairo yang diterima ANTARa, Kamis, menyebutkan acara MoU
tersebut disaksikan oleh Menteri Irigasi dan Sumber Daya Air Mesir, Dr Mohammed
Naseruddin Allam dan pelaksanaan acara itu bertepatan peringatan 63 tahun hubungan
diplomatik Indonesia-Mesir.

Dalam sambutannya, Menteri Faiza mengungkapkan latarbelakang diadakannya MoU

tersebut diawali ketika dirinya berkunjung ke kantor Kementerian KUKM yang dipimpin
Suryadharma Ali tahun 2007 yang lalu, ketika itu Menteri KUKM memperlihatkan hasil
kerajinan pengusaha Indonesia yang terbuat dari bambu dan eceng gondok.

Menurut Menteri Faiza, dirinya sangat kagum dengan keberhasilan Indonesia yang
mampu memanfaatkan eceng gondok yang justru menjadi masalah serius di sungai Nil
dan menjadi limbah di negeri piramida itu, bahkan pemerintah mengalokasikan dana
untuk pembasmian rerumput liar yang pertumbuhan dan perkembangannya sangat

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pesat.

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 Bilateral pt.2
Selain itu, eceng gondok tersebut terdapat di sepanjang sungai Nil, maka dari Mesir akan
mengupayakan ekspor hasil industri tersebut ke Afrika yang diawali dengan Sudan dan
ke pasar Eropa. Mesir akan menimba pengalaman Indonesia dalam pengelolaan
rerumput tersebut.

Di lain pihak Menteri KUKM Indonesia, Syarifudin Hasan menyampaikan optimisnya

dalam meningkatkan hubungan Indonesia - Mesir dalam bidang ekonomi, terlebih saat
ini hubungan politik antara kedua negara semakin erat terjalin.

Menurutnya Indonesia memiliki kesamaan dalam berbagai hal, terutama dalam hal
kesamaan sebagai negara berpenduduk mayoritas Muslim dan kesamaan budaya
lainnya. Dirinya yakin kerjasama yang dijalin melalui MoU tersebut dapat memberikan
stimulus untuk meningkatkan kerjasama di bidang lain.

Di Indonesia, Pemerintah sangat mendukung eksistensi KUKM dan upaya-upaya yang

dilakukannya, karena dengan keberadaannya pulalah Indonesia berhasil survive dalam
menghadapi krismon dunia akhir-akhir ini, tidak seperti banyak negara di dunia.

Menteri KUKM dalam penutupnya mengundang mitra kerjanya untuk berkunjung ke

Indonesia guna membicarakan peluang kerja sama lainnya.

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Bilateral pt.3
Sejalan dengan Menteri KUKM, Menteri Perairan dan Irigasi Mesir menyampaikan
terima kasihnya kepada Indonesia atas penandatanganan MoU tersebut, hal ini akan
membantu Mesir dalam memaksimalkan usaha mengurangi efek negatif eceng gondok
di sungai Nil dan justru memberikan manfaat bagi pengusaha kecil yang ada saat ini.

Selain MoU di tingkat Pemerintah, dalam acara tersebut ditandatangani juga MoU antara
Ketua Asosiasi Industri Permebelan dan Kerajinan Indonesia, Ambar Tjahyono dengan
Ketua Egyptian-Indonesian Business Council, Ir Muhammad Barakah.

Kerjasama yang dibangun antarpengusaha ini bertujuan untuk membangun kemitraan

dalam tataran teknis berupa transfer informasi dan keahlian mengenai pemanfaatan
eceng gondok dalam hal industri kecil dan menengah.

Penandatanganan MoU mendapat liputan luas dari media cetak dan elektronik Mesir.
Tampak meliput acara ini beberapa harian terkemuka Mesir seperti al-Ahram,
Gomhouria, Al-Akhbar dan Kantor Berita Mesir (MENA/Middle East News Agency)
serta media elektronik diantaranya yaitu Nile TV International, Nile News Channel,
Channel 1 Egypt dan Egyptian Satellite Channel.(*)
(Ant/R009)

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