Egypt
- PDF / 425,677 Bytes
- 6 Pages / 577.587 x 739.162 pts Page_size
- 16 Downloads / 228 Views
© RM Education Limited 2017 All Rights Reserved
Ancient Egyptian civilization began to fragment in conflict with Hittite invaders during the XIXth dynasty (around 1250 BC). The subsequent rise of Assyria to the northeast and Nubian conquests from the south hastened the decline. The last pharaoh was ousted by Persian invading forces led by Cambyses in 525 BC. The Persians remained in power until overrun by Alexander the Great in 332 BC. He founded the port of Alexandria, including its great lighthouse, and made the city the commercial and cultural centre of the Greek world. On his death in 305 BC, Ptolemy of Macedonia seized power, establishing a dynasty which lasted until 30 BC and the suicide of Cleopatra. Egypt then became a province of the Roman Empire until Arabian forces invaded in AD 642, absorbing the Nile valley into the Ummayad Caliphate, centred on Damascus. The Arabic language became the official language of government in 706. The Abbasid defeat of the Ummayad dynasty in 750 brought a shift of Arab power to the new city of Baghdad. Abdullah bin Tahir sent a deputy to rule Egypt. The Fatimid caliphs, whose origins were in Tunisia, entered Egypt in 960 and founded Cairo as their capital, later establishing the Muslim university. Over the next 200 years they built an empire that stretched from Tunisia to Syria and Yemen, with extensive trade routes across the Mediterranean and into the Indian Ocean. Weakened by the Christian Crusades, the Fatimid caliphate fell to the Ayyubid dynasty in 1169, led by Tikrit-born Saladin (Salahuddin al-Ayyubi). Operating from Damascus, he fought the Crusader States and by the end of the 12th century controlled much of the Eastern Mediterranean. Egypt was largely governed by his deputy, Karaksh. In 1250 Egypt was seized by Saif ad Din Qutuz, a Turkic former slave who founded the Mamluk Sultanate. There were frequent revolts and changes of leaders (beys, or princes), but the Sultanate survived until 1517 when Egypt was absorbed into the Ottoman empire. Napoleonic forces seized the country between 1798 and 1801 but were forced out by a combined Anglo-Ottoman force. Muhammad Ali, appointed Egyptian pasha by the Ottoman emperor in 1805, swiftly destroyed the remnants of Mamluk power. He introduced sweeping political and social reforms and modernized agriculture. Like many of his predecessors he took control of Syria, Nubia and part of the Arabian peninsula. The opening of the Suez Canal during the reign of Muhammad Said Pasha in 1867 heralded an era of foreign intervention and domination, with Said selling his shares in the Suez Canal to the British in 1875. British forces occupied Alexandria and then Cairo in 1882, ruling the country through the consul general, Lord Cromer. During the First World War, Britain declared Egypt a British Protectorate, ousting the khedive, Abbas I, for supporting Germany. Calls for independence grew louder after the war ended and Fuad I ruled a partially independent Egypt from 1923. Although Egypt was officially neutral until the last days of the Sec
Data Loading...
