EGYPT 



281 7 



EGYPT 



By about 1530 B.C. Tehutmes I 

 had conquered all Syria out to the 

 Euphrates near Aleppo. All this 

 was retained until the wars of 

 Tehutmes III, about 1460, and 

 almost as much until the crumbling 

 of the foreign hold under Akhena- 

 ten about 1370 B.C. In the XlXth 

 dynasty Sety I recovered Syria 

 entirely, about 1320 B.C. ; and 

 Rameses II, though pressed by the 

 Hittites, kept the greater part of 

 that land till about 1250. After 

 that, Egypt barely held a little of 

 the S. of Palestine. On the W. 

 Egypt did not extend any political 

 influence, and the connexion was 

 only by trade, which is mainly seen 

 by objects of Amenhotep III, about 

 1400 B.C., at Mycenae and other 

 centres, and by great quantities of 

 Greek vases imported into Egypt, 

 especially about 1370 B.C. When 

 Egypt became weakened, there 

 were great coalitions of the Al- 

 gerian and western peoples against 

 it in 1229 B.C. in the reign of Mer- 

 neptah, and again in 1197 in that 

 of Rameses III. This was followed 

 by a coalition of Syrians and 

 western peoples in 1194, who were 

 overthrown in a great naval battle. 

 Semitising of Languages and Art 



The frequent wars in Syria led 

 to the bringing of great numbers of 

 Syrian men and women into Egypt, 

 and so to the semitising of Egyp- 

 tian language and art. A greater 

 change took place in 100 years 

 than had arisen in 1,000 years 

 before. The fashion of the time was 

 for a light and piquant style, as 

 seen in Crete ; and the sober 

 matter-of-fact Egyptian responded 

 to it, with fatal results to his own 

 character. Graceful and pleasing 

 as many of the tomb scenes are, 

 they have none of the solidity of 

 the old tomb sculptures or paint- 

 ings on hard rock ; a mere coat of 

 plaster or mud over a very rough 

 chamber, all askew and irregular, 

 was sufficient grounding for the 

 perishable colour washes, which 

 would be ruined by a touch of 

 water ; the older work was so firm 

 that it could be scrubbed without 

 removing the colour. 



The XXIst dynasty (1102-952 

 B.C.) was an age of poverty and 

 weakness. The land was amicably 

 divided between a succession of 

 priest -kings at Thebes, and the 

 kings at Tanis in the Delta. The 

 main interest lies in the desperate 

 attempts to save the mummies of 

 the kings of the XVIIth-XXth 

 dynasties from destruction by 

 robbers. After many had been 

 attacked, and most had been 

 examined and shifted about for 

 safety, the priest-kings at last 

 made one great cache at Deir el 

 Bahri, which was left unopened 



because it was known that no gold 

 remained with the bodies. Thus it 

 was left until our times, and we can 

 now see most of the celebrated 

 kings of this age face to face in the 

 Cairo Museum. 



The XXIInd and XXIIIrd dy- 

 nasties (952-721 B.C.) revived the 

 power of Egypt somewhat. They 

 were due to the energy of a Mesopo- 

 tamian adventurer, Sheshenq or 

 Shishak, and his family,who settled 

 at Bubastis. But there was no 

 revival in the life of the country, the 

 products were only a continued 

 degradation of the style of the 

 XlXth dynasty. 



The Ethiopian invasion about 

 727 B.C. found Egypt split up 

 among eighteen or more little states, 

 but it seems to have put fresh life 

 into the country, and a real revival 

 of work can be seen. The Ethio- 

 pian kings who ruled till 664 B.C. 

 were vigorous and able men, and 

 they had a good system of ap- 

 pointing the crown-prince as viceroy 

 of Egypt, so that there was ener- 

 getic management under expe- 

 rienced control. 



The XXVIth-XXXth dynasties 

 (664-342 B.C. ), founded the Seventh 

 civilization. . They were under 

 Ethiopian influence and then 

 largely controlled by Greek action, 

 and under Persian rule. There was 

 some revival of energy abroad. 

 Necho in 609 raided all Syria to the 

 Euphrates and held it more or less 

 for four years, when the new power 

 of Babylon defeated him, and he 

 retired to Egypt. The Persians 

 held the country from 525 to 401 

 B.C., and then the native Egyptians 

 in the Delta revived for a couple of 

 generations, forming the XXIXth 

 and XXXth dynasties, 399-342 B.C. 

 Ten years of miserable destruc- 

 tion under the degenerate Persian 

 ushered in the golden age of Alex- 

 ander's conquest. 



The Rule of the Ptolemies 



The transition from Alexander and 

 his heir to the rule of the old general 

 Ptolemy Soter (theSaviour) was very 

 gradual. Ptolemy, it may be said, 

 ruled from the death of Alexander 

 in 323. The earlier of the family 

 were very able men, wary, strong 

 and enlightened, backed by power- 

 ful queens of their own family. 

 Egypt had not been so peaceful 

 and prosperous for some centuries 

 as it was from 300 to 200 B.C. Even 

 under the effete rule of the later 

 Ptolemies, the country was one of 

 the most learned and richest in the 

 world. This dynasty possessed 

 Cyprus and Gyrene for a long time, 

 and parts of Syria and the S. of Asia 

 Minor in the intervals of the peren- 

 nial squabbles with the Antiochi. 



THE ROMAN AGE (30 B.C. to A.D. 

 640). The end of Egyptian inde- 



pendence was the death-stroke to 

 the country. From being one of the 

 richest lands, it became the milch - 

 cow of the emperor of Rome, the 

 private property of the Crown. It 

 was steadily drained of all wealth, 

 taxed in corn to feed Rome, taxed 

 in money, and after three or four 

 centuries even the shabbiest copper 

 coin ceased to be struck, and the 

 people were reduced to barter. Occa- 

 sional massacres were about the only 

 events that marked the Roman rule. 

 The Arab Rule (A.D. 640-1517; 



This was the Eighth Civilization. 

 The Roman government collapsed 

 before a few thousand wild Arab 

 horsemen. Yet such was the 

 vitality of the country, that under 

 the alien but just rule of the Arab, 

 within two centuries the land tax 

 alone produced six or seven million 

 sterling far the largest revenue of 

 any country of that age. There 

 can be no comparison between the 

 advantages of Roman and of Arab 

 rule. Yet that, like all other power, 

 decayed, and the Mamluk dynas- 

 ties, for some centuries before the 

 Turkish conquest, were a ceaseless 

 turmoil of fighting and plundering. 

 This unrest was renewed when 

 Turkish power waned, and only the 

 strong hand of Mehemet Ali re- 

 covered the advantages of a united 

 government. 



THE PEOPLE. Egypt, in spite of 

 its isolated position, has been sub- 

 ject to continued mixtures of race. 

 Starting with an Algerian stock, 

 there have been four or five inflows 

 from the E., two more from the W., 

 a large Greek population in the 

 Delta, and continual mixtures of 

 Southerners from slave labour. 

 Yet the national type of character 

 has remained much the same, 

 and the skull measurements after 

 each mixture return in a few 

 centuries to the older size. Agri- 

 culture has always been the main 

 industry of the country, the regular 

 inundation and strong sunshine 

 making it very profitable. Cattle 

 are not kept in large numbers, as all 

 the fertile land is inundated for a 

 third of the year, and there is no per- 

 manent pasture. The usual feeding 

 of cattle is by tethering in green 

 crops, or by hand in the summer. 



The ancient organization, which 

 may still be seen in the remote 

 country, is for each district to be the 

 property of a great man anciently 

 an hereditary noble. The police and 

 guards of his district were his per- 

 sonal servants. On his estate he 

 kept workmen for all current pur- 

 poses; in his great house lived all 

 the artificers that were needed for 

 manufactures ; weavers, carpen- 

 ters, smiths, jewellers, boat builders 

 all belonged to the establishment, 

 and worked as directed. Trade was 



