Ancient Egypt, civilization in northeastern Africa that dates from the 4th millennium bce. Its many achievements, preserved in its art and monuments, hold a fascination that continues to grow as archaeological finds expose its secrets. This article focuses on Egypt from its prehistory through its unification under Menes (Narmer) in the 3rd millennium bce—sometimes used as a reference point for Egypt’s origin—and up to the Islamic conquest in the 7th century ce.
The period of Egyptian history between the advent of Islam and Egypt’s entrance into the modern period opens and closes with foreign conquests: the Arab invasion led by ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ in ad 639–642 and the Napoleonic expedition of 1798 mark the beginning and end of the era. Within the context of Egyptian internal history alone, this era was one in which Egypt cast off the heritage of the past to embrace a new language and a new religion—in other words, a new culture. While it is true that the past was by no means immediately and completely abandoned and that many aspects of Egyptian life, especially rural life, continued virtually unchanged, it is nevertheless clear that the civilization of Islamic Egypt diverged sharply from that of the previous Greco-Roman period and was transformed under the impact of Western occupation. The subsequent history of Egypt is therefore largely a study of the processes by which Egyptian Islamic civilization evolved, particularly the processes of Arabization and Islamization. But to confine Egyptian history to internal developments is to distort it, for during that entire period Egypt was a part of a great world empire; and within this broader context, Egypt’s history is a record of its long struggle to dominate an empire—a struggle that is not without its parallels, of course, in both ancient and modern times. Read More…
The Democrat-controlled House of Representatives has voted to fund efforts to "enhance the border security" of Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt and Tunisia while moving to deny all funding to build walls, fencing or any other structures to enhance the border security of the United States. Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her lieutenants have their priorities. To them, borders on the other side of the world are more important ...
Last year, Christians were persecuted more than ever before in the modern era — and this year is expected to be worse: "4,136 Christians were killed for faith-related reasons," according to Open Doors USA in its recently published World Watch List 2019 (WWL) of the top 50 nations where Christians are persecuted. "On average, that's 11 Christians killed every day for their faith." Additionally, "2,625 Christians ...
An ancient and much-debated fragment of the Gospel of Mark has been dated to the late second to early third century A.D., making it the oldest fragment of Mark ever found. The Egypt Exploration Society made the announcement about the fragment – known as P.Oxy LXXXIII 5345 – on its website May 24. “After rigorous comparison with other objectively dated texts, the hand of this papyrus ...
Udo Ulfkotte, a German journalist and whistleblower who spoke out against fake news from government and intelligence sources, died from a heart attack at the age of 56. He was an assistant editor for German mainstream media newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, and he lived in many Middle Eastern countries during his career, including Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Oman, United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Jordan. As ...
Israel was behind the 2013 coup in Egypt that toppled Mohamed Morsi, the African country’s first ever democratically-elected president, an Israeli general has revealed. Morsi, a member of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood party, entered office after the 2011 Egyptian uprising against the regime of former dictator Hosni Mubarak. Brigadier General Aryeh Eldad wrote in an article in Maariv newspaper that Israeli intelligence officials had reason to ...
Israeli citizen Ofir Harrari, recently accused by Egypt of spying for Israel, was allegedly involved in a complicated scheme intended to harm Egyptian reproduction abilities, Egypt’s official state paper Al-Ahram has claimed. Harrari, accused by Egypt of being an agent of the Mossad, is set be tried in absentia on charges of “spying for a foreign country with the purpose of harming Egyptian national interest,” news ...
Media reports have finally acknowledged that the so-called “protest movement” in Syria was instigated by Washington. It was not a protest movement, it was an armed insurgency integrated by US-Israeli and allied supported “jihadist” death squads? From Day One, the Islamist “freedom fighters” were supported, trained and equipped by NATO and Turkey’s High Command. According to Israeli intelligence sources (Debka, August 14, 2011): NATO headquarters in Brussels and ...
As American bombs rain down upon Libya on the premise that Qaddafi was brutalizing indigenous pro-democratic demonstrators, the accusing fingers of Libya, Iran, China, Syria, Belarus, and a growing number of other nations are pointing at Washington for funding and plotting regime change against their respective governments. Either in an act of absolute hubris or to spin emerging evidence that the US indeed has been funding and ...
(Statement of Walid Batouty, nephew of Gameel El-Batouty, co-pilot on flight 990) "On October 31st 1999, Egypt Air Flight 990 bound for Cairo mysteriously, plunged into the Atlantic Ocean, about 60 miles south of the island of Nantucket,Massachusetts, killing all 217 people aboard. The Boeing 767-300ER exploded at 11,000 feet after 40 minutes of its take-off from Kennedy International Airport in New York. Controversy surrounds the crash ...
Between Mar. 5, 1998 and Jul. 11, 1999, The Kosovo War was fought between the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (largely Serbia Orthodox Christians) and the so-called Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). The KLA was supported by Islamist foreign volunteers from Albania, Turkey, North Africa, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan and Egypt. The KLA was funded by Islamist organizations and drug smuggling. In January, 1999, as the US and ...
