large feet, high cheek-bones and large lips; both types are represented on the monuments.

A national name for the people as such never seems to have existed. Among themselves they were Romet, men, par excellence; all others were inferior races, "miserable" Cushites, Libyans, Asiatics, Shasu. They themselves were the wards of the great gods, and Pharaoh was descended from Ra, who had himself once ruled in Egypt. Other peoples were descended from the enemies of their deities, and when Ra had overthrown them at Edfu a portion escaped, those southward became Ethiopians, northward Asiatics, westward Libyans, eastward Bedouin.

Personal experience has warped the judgment of observers as to their character. Herodotus praises the cleverness of the Egyptians and their excellence of memory; Diodorus declares them to be the most grateful of people; the Emperor Hadrian characterized them as "thoroughly frivolous, unstable, following every rumor, refractory, idle and libelous." The modern notion is that they were so occupied with the thoughts of the future as to be oblivious of the present. There is undoubtedly a degree of truth in all of these estimates, but a broader survey shows that they were energetic in their undertakings, as is evidenced by their temples and the Pyramids, still the wonder of the world; possessed of sufficient skill to perform by force of numbers labors which would test modern mechanics severely, practical in their methods of utilizing the forces of nature; peaceable as compared with other nations, and little given to love of novelty; artistic in their execution and accurate in their observation; a people given to realism, unversed in literary arts, devoted to agricultural pursuits, developed within narrow limits, and little affected by external and foreign influences.

The peasant class, or Fellahin, is the most numerous class in the population of the present day and is indigenous. They are to a certain extent descendants of the ancient Egyptians, but they have been subjected to crossings and have embraced Mohammedanism. Next in number are the Copts, the descendants of the ancient Egyptians who embraced and still cling to the Christian religion. (See COPTS). Though comparatively few in number (about 600,000), their education and useful talents enable them to hold a respectable position in society filling the posts of clerks, accountants, etc. With these aboriginal inhabitants mingled in various proportions Turks, Arabs (partly Bedouins), Armenians, Berbers, negroes, and a considerable number of Jews, Greeks and other Europeans. The Turks hold many of the principal offices under the government. The great bulk of the people are Mohammedans, the Christians being only about 7.5 per cent. The Egyptians in the mass are quite illiterate, but under the supervision of the Ministry of Public Instruction progress is being made.

are

In

The language in general use is Arabic. The Fellahin, the most superior type of the Egyptian, are a fine race, handsome, of excellent physique, and courteous in their manners. northern Egypt they are of a yellowish complexion, growing darker toward the south, until the hue becomes a deep bronze. Mr. Lane, the best authority upon the subject, speaks highly of their mental capacity, and gives them credit

for uncommon quickness of apprehension and readiness of wit. They are highly religious, and are generally honest, cheerful, humane and hospitable. But these are exceptions in a mixed population of Bedouins, negroes, Abyssinian's, Turks, Syrians, Greeks, Armenians, Jews and Europeans.

Population. The population, according to the census of 1907, was 11,189,978, and is estimated at present to be about 12,500,000. Of this total 5,667,074 were males, and 5,620,285 females. The population was divided by nationality as follows: Egyptians, 10,903,677; Ottomans, 69,725; Sudanese, 65,162; Greeks, 62,973; Italians, 34,926; English, 20,653; French, 14,591; Austro-Hungarians, 7,704; Russians, 2,410; Germans, 1,847; Persians, 1,385; all others, 4,925. In 1800 the French estimated the population at 2,460,200. In 1821 the census returns showed 2,536,400; that of 1846 4,476,440; of 1882 6,831,131; 1897, 9,734,405; 1907, 11,189,978. According to its religious beliefs the population is divided as follows: Mussulmans, 10,269,445; Copts, 706,322; Orthodox Greeks, 76,953; Roman Catholics, 57,744; Protestants, 12,736; Jews, 38,635; others, 28,143. Of the Egyptian population over 10 years 62.65 per cent was engaged in agriculture and of the foreign element less than 1 per cent; 16.27 per cent of the natives engage in commerce and industry, in which are employed 47.85 per cent of the foreigners.

History. The history of Egypt and its civilization covers a period that the most recent studies estimate as extending over 10,000 years. From this, according to Petrie, should be deducted the 3,500 years that witnessed the first stumbling prehistoric effort at expression, and in addition the centuries of Græco-Roman domination, and the period from the beginning of Christianity down to our days. This leaves a period of over 50 centuries during which the religious, artistic, social and political ideas of the people underwent little change, and did not absorb any elements of the civilization of Asia and the rest of the Mediterranean littoral. Egyptian chronology, to which reference is constantly made in treating of the monuments executed during the 30 dynasties deemed historical, arrives only at exact historical certitude from the period of the conquest of Alexander the Great (about 340 B.C.). The divisions established by historians and archæologists are based chiefly on the fragments of Egyptian history written in Greek in the 3d century B.C. by Manetho, priest of Heliopolis. It contained the lists of the kings, from the 1st dynasty down to Alexander. But unfortunately only about one-third of the original has come down to us. (The fragments and lists of kings were published in Müller's Fragmenta historicorum græcorum,' Paris 1848). The exactitude of the periods at which began the several dynasties varies greatly. The Egyptians divided the solar day into 24 hours, the latter they subdivided into minutes, seconds and thirds of seconds; 10 days formed a week, and 3 weeks one month, 12 months (360 days) and 5 complementary days formed the Egyptian year. In remote times the year consisted of 360 days, but the premature arrival of the seasons being noted, in the reign of Pepi II (6th dynasty), the five complementary days were added. The year was divided into three

seasons: the first (Shat), commenced 19 July, terminated about 15 November and corresponded to the period of the inundation of the Nile; the second (Pert) from 15 November to 15 March, and the third (Shmu) from 15 March to 19 July. There is as we have noted above considerable difference among Egyptologists in regard to fixing the dates of the various dynasties. Myer and Sethe have assigned the beginning of the 1st dynasty to a date corresponding approximately to the year 3400 B.C. Breasted, Erman and Steindorff also favor this date. A noteworthy circumstance in this connection is the complete lack of any reference to eclipses in the Egyptian texts so far interpreted. The history proper divides itself into six great periods: (1) The Pharaohs or native kings; (2) the Persians; (3) the Ptolemies; (4) the Romans; (5) the Arabs; (6) the Turks.

The Pharaohs.- The main sources of its history under the Pharaohs are the Scriptures, the Greek writers Herodotus, Diodorus and Eratosthenes, and fragments of the writings of Manetho (an Egyptian priest in the 3d century B.C.). From the Scriptures we learn that the Hebrew patriarch Abraham went into Egypt because of a famine that prevailed in Canaan. He found the country ruled by a Pharaoh, Egyptian per da, meaning "Great house," the Egyptian term for king. The date of Abraham's visit, according to the chronology of the Hebrew text of the Bible, was 1920 B.C.; according to the Septuagint, 2551; while Bunsen fixed it at 2876. Nearly two centuries later Joseph, a descendant of Abraham, was sold into Egypt, as a slave to Potiphar, the captain of the guards of another Pharaoh, whose prime minister or grand vizier the young Hebrew eventually became. Joseph's father, Jacob, and his family, to the number of 70, accompanied, as Bunsen conjectures, by 1,000 or 2,000 dependents, followed their fortunate kinsman into Egypt, where they settled in a district called the land of Goshen. There they remained until their numbers had multiplied into two or three millions, when under the lead of Moses they revolted and quitted Egypt to conquer Canaan.

Ptolemaic Period.- When Alexander's army occupied Memphis the numerous Greeks who had settled in Lower Egypt found themselves the ruling class. Egypt became at once a Greek kingdom, and Alexander showed his wisdom in the regulations by which he guarded the prejudices and religion of the Egyptians. He founded Alexandria as the Greek capital, which became the emporium of commerce and centre of learning for several centuries. Ptolemy I was ŝucceeded by Ptolemy II, Philadelphus. He was successful in his external wars, built the Museum, founded the famous library of Alexandria, purchased the most valuable manuscripts, engaged the most celebrated professors, and had ordered 70 Hebrew sages to translate the Hebrew Scriptures into the Greek language, hence known as the Septuagint, and the Egyptian history to be written by Manetho. His successor Ptolemy III, Euergetes, pushed the southern limits of his empire to Axum. Ptolemy IV, Philopator (221-204 B.C.) warred with Antiochus, persecuted the Jews and encouraged learning. Ptolemy V, Epiphanes (204-180 B.C.) experienced repeated rebellions, and was succeeded by Ptolemy VII, Philometor (180-145

B.C.) and Euergetes (145-116 B.C.) by Ptolemy X., Soter II and Cleopatra, till 106 B.C. and by Ptolemy XI, Alexander I (87 B.C.) under whom Thebes rebelled; then by Cleopatra, Berenice, Ptolemy XII, Alexander II (80 B.C.), and Ptolemy XIII, Neos Dionysius (51 B.C.), and finally by the celebrated Cleopatra. After the battle of Actium (31 B.C.) Egypt passed into the condition of a province of Rome, governed always by a Roman governor of the equestrian, not senatorial, rank.

The Egyptians had continued building temples and covering them with hieroglyphic inscriptions as of old; but on the spread of Christianity the older religions lost their sway. Then the Christian catechetical school arose in Alexandria, which produced Clemens and Origen. Monasteries were built all over Egypt; Christian monks took the place of the pagan hermits, and the Bible was translated into Coptic. See EGYPTIAN ARCHAEOLOGY and EXPLORATION; EGYPTIAN ARCHITECTURE; EGYPTIAN ARTS; EGYPTIAN LANGUAGE and WRITING; EGYPTIAN LITERATURE; EGYPTIAN MUSIC; EGYPTIAN RELIGION AND SOCIOLOGY; MOSES; PHARAOH; PTOLEMY; CLEOPATRA.

The

Christian Era.- On the division of the great Roman empire by Theodosius (337 A.D.) into the Western and Eastern empires, Egypt became a province of the latter, and sank deeper and deeper in barbarism and weakness. It then became the prey of the Saracens, 'Amribu-el-asr, their general, under the Caliph Omar, taking Alexandria, the capital, by assault. This happened 641 A.D., when Heraclius was the emperor of the East. As a province of the caliphs it was under the government of the celebrated Abbassides Harun el-Rashid and Al-Mamon and that of the famous Sultan Saladin. last dynasty was, however, overthrown by the Mamelukes (1240), and under those formidable despots the last shadow of former greatness and civilization disappeared. Selim, Sultan of the Turks, eventually (1516-17) conquered the last Mameluke sultan, and Egypt became a Turkish province, governed by a pasha. After this it was the theatre of internal wars by the Mameluke beys against the Turkish dominion, which was several times nearly extinguished. Confusion and civil war between the different factions of the Mamelukes continued to prevail till 1798, when the French invasion under Napoleon Bonaparte united their chiefs in selfdefense; but the Mameluke army was all but annihilated in the battle of the Pyramids. The French then conquered the whole of Egypt and held it till 1801, when they were driven out by the British under Abercromby and Hutchinson.

On the expulsion of the French the Ottoman Porte effectually urged its claim to sovereignty, and the accession of the Albanian soldier Mohammed 'Ali to the pashalic in 1805 imparted a galvanic prosperity to Egypt by the merciless destruction of the turbulent Mamelukes (whom a disastrous British expedition in 1807 vainly sought to restore), the formation of a regular army, the increase of security, the improvement of the irrigation and the introduction of the elements of European civilization. In 1816 Mohammed 'Ali reduced part of Arabia, brought it under his sway by the generalship of his son, Ibrahim; in 1820 he annexed Nubia and part of the Sudan; and from 1821 to 1828

his troops, under Ibrahim, occupied various points in the Morea and Crete, to aid the Turks in their war with the insurgent Greeks. The Egyptian fleet was annihilated at Navarino, and Ibrahim remained in the Morea till forced to evacuate by the French army, under Maison, in 1828. In 1831 Ibrahim began the conquest of Syria, and in the following year totally routed the Ottoman army at Koniya, after which the Porte ceded Syria to Mohammed 'Ali on condition of tribute. War breaking out again, the victory of Nisib in 1839 would perhaps have elevated him to the throne of Constantinople; but the quadruple alliance in 1840, the fall of Saint Jean d'Acre to the British and the consequent evacuation of Syria, compelled him to limit his ambition to the pashalic of Egypt. In 1848 Mohammed 'Ali became imbecile (he died in 1849), and his son Ibrahim sat on his throne for two months, when he died, and 'Abbâs Pasha, Mohammed Ali's grandson, succeeded him, and was succeeded in turn (1854) by Sa'id Pasha, youngest son of Mohammed 'Ali. M. de Lesseps then obtained the co-operation, hitherto withheld, of the Egyptian government in his scheme of the Suez Canal, which was opened in 1869. Sa'id was succeeded (1863) by his nephew, Ismail, son of Ibrahim, who by a firman purchased from the Sultan (1866) the hereditary title of Khedive. He obtained the hereditary title of Khedive to the throne of Egypt, direct from father to son, instead of descending, according to Turkish law, to the eldest male of the family, and in 1872 the Sultan granted to the Khedive the rights (withdrawn in 1879) of concluding treaties and of maintaining an army, and virtually gave him sovereign powers. Thus secure on an hereditary throne, Ismail began a series of vast internal reforms, built roads, bridges, lighthouses, railways and telegraphs, reorganized the postal service, improved the harbors at Suez, Port Sa'id and Alexandria, supported education, and introduced mixed courts of law. Extending his dominions southward, he annexed Dar-Fûr in 1874, and in that and the following year further conquests were made. The condition of the finances led to the establishment of "dual control" by Great Britain and France, and in 1879 Ismail was forced to abdicate under pressure of the British and French governments, and was replaced by his son, Tewfik. His position was threatened by the so-called National party with Arabi Pasha at its head, who aimed at his deposition and at the abolition of European intervention. In May 1882, a rising took place in Alexandria, when many Europeans were killed and their houses pillaged. The Khedive fled from Cairo, where Arabi remained autocrat. The French refusing to interfere, Great Britain determined to act, and on 11 July a British fleet bombarded the forts at Alexandria, causing the rebels to retreat. In August a force under Sir Garnet (afterward Lord) Wolseley landed at Ismailia, and on 13 September Arabi's forces were totally defeated at Tel-el-Kebir and the rebellion crushed, Arabi and his associates being banished. Before this a rebellion against Egyptian rule had broken out in the Sudan under the leadership of Mohammed Ahmed, who professed to be the Mahdi or

soon

divinely-sent Mohammedan conqueror, His

followers soon became numerous, defeated Egyptian troops that opposed them, and threatened the existence of all the Egyptian garrisons in the Sudan. In 1883 they annihilated an Egyptian force under Hicks Pasha near El Obeid in Kordofan, and in 1884 Osman Digna, as representing the Mahdi, defeated another force under Baker Pasha near Suakim. British troops were now dispatched to Suakim, and at El Teb and Tamai severe defeats were inflicted on the Arabs by General Graham. Meantime General Gordon had been sent to Khartum to withdraw the garrisons from the Sudan, but he was shut up in the town for nearly a year, and perished before the relief expedition under Sir Garnet Wolseley could reach him (January 1885). The Sudan was then given up, and the southern boundary of the Egyptian dominions fixed at Wady-Halfa.

In 1892 Tewfik died, and was succeeded by his son, Abbas Hilmi, who is the seventh viceroy and third khedive of Egypt. In 1896 an Anglo-Egyptian expedition for the reconquest of the lost provinces was dispatched under Sir Herbert (afterward Lord) Kitchener. Dongola was soon occupied. Abu Hamed was captured in the following year, and (8 April 1898), the insurgents were defeated in a battle near the confluence of the Atbara. Finally (2 Sept. 1898) the forces of the Khalifa, as the Mahdi's successor was called, were defeated with great slaughter at Omdurman, near Khartum. The territory thus reconquered was placed under a governor-general, and was rapidly organized. A subsequent attempt of France to occupy Fashoda and enforce a claim to the Bahr-elGhazal "Blue River" Valley led to some friction with Great Britain.

Egypt During the European War.- Owing to the entrance of Turkey into the war on the side of the Central Powers, and to the adhesion of the khedive to the king's enemies, a British protectorate was declared and the Khedive Abbas Pasha deposed on 18 Dec. 1914. Prince Hussein Kamil, the eldest living prince of the family of Mohammed 'Ali, a former viceroy of Egypt, was appointed in his stead, under the title of Sultan of Egypt. Two unsuccessful attempts at his assassination have been made (8 April and 9 July 1915). Sir Arthur McMahon was appointed British high commissioner. Turkish armies under German leadership have made successive attempts to attack the Suez Canal as preliminaries to an invasion of Egypt. The most dangerous of these incursions were: (1) On 2 Feb. 1915 the Turks attempted to cross near Toussoum, 35 miles north of Suez; (2) on 23 April 1916 an attempt was made at the Quatia Oasis, 25 miles east of the canal, on the road to El Kastara; (3) the most formidable effort was made on 4 Aug. 1916 when 14,000 Turks attacked the British position near Romani, 22 miles east of Port Said and just north of Katia, on a front of seven or eight miles. The British troops, under the command of Sir Archibald Murray, and composed mainly of Australians and New Zealanders, succeeded by a strategic retirement in involving the Turks in the sand-dunes, and then fell upon their rear, and succeeded in taking 2,500 unwounded Turkish and German prisoners. See WAR, EUROPEAN. See also ALEXANDRIA; CAIRO; CROMER; EMIN PASHA; GORDON,

GEN. C. G.; KHEDIVE; MAD MULLAH; MOHAMMEDANISM; NAPOLEON; SUDAN; SUEZ CANAL; TEWFIK; WADY-HALFA.

Bibliography.- Annuaire Statistique de l'Egypte (Cairo Annual); Arminjon, P., Situation économique et financière de l'Egypte (Paris 1911); Artin, Y. P., 'England in the Soudan (London 1911); Balls, W. L., 'Egypt of the Egyptians (London 1915); Bréhier, L., L'Egypte de 1789 à 1900 (Paris 1901); Colvin, A., The Making of Modern Egypt' (London 1906); Cromer (Earl), Modern Egypt' (London 1908), 'Abbas II (London 1915); Weigall, A. E. P., History of Egypt from 1763 to 1914) (London 1915).

SAMUEL AUGUSTUS BINION, Author of 'Ancient Egypt or Mizraim); Revised by Editorial Staff of the Americana.

EGYPTIAN ARCHEOLOGY AND EXPLORATION. The attention of the world was drawn to Egypt.as a rich field for scientific exploration in the early part of the 19th century. M. Boussard, a French officer under Bonaparte (1799), discovered at Fort Julien, near Rosetta, a large block of black granite, with the remains of three inscriptions, the first in hieroglyphs, the second in demotic characters, the third in Greek. This Rosetta Stone was taken to England after the capitulation of Alexandria (1801), and presented by George III to the British Museum. It contains a decree promulgated at Memphis, in honor of Ptolemy V, Epiphanes, by the priesthood of Egypt in synod assembled, thanking that sovereign for the benefits which he had conferred on them. They ordered it to be sent to all the temples of the first, second and third rank, there to be engraved on stelæ in the three forms of writing then used throughout the land. When found, half of the hieroglyphic portion of the Rosetta copy was wanting, but the demotic and Greek were nearly complete, and the work of decipherment began with them. The French orientalist Silvestre de Sacy made out in the demotic some of the proper names mentioned in the Greek ('Lettre au Citoyen Chaptal sur l'inscription égyptienne du monument du Rosette' Paris 1802); and the Swede Akerblad, following in his steps, assigned phonetic values to most of the signs employed in the proper names ('Lettre sur l'inscription égyptienne de Rosette adressée au Citoyen S. de Sacy,' Paris 1802). In 1814 Thomas Young, the English mathematician, succeeded in isolating a number of groups which express common names, and even in translating some fragments of demotic phrases. Turning to the hieroglyphs he tried to determine the power of the characters, which being enclosed in cartouches or rings, were known to indicate the names of kings. Thus he read the names of Ptolemy and Berenice, but he failed to analyze them exactly; five only of the values which he proposed for the signs turned out to be true. The problem with which Young had such poor success was solved four years later by Jean François Champollion, who had felt attracted to the study of the Oriental languages from his early youth and published at 24 the famous work L'Egypte sous les Pharaons) (2 vols., Paris 1814), on the civilization and history of Egypt. Guided by his thorough knowledge of the Coptic, he

applied himself to the decipherment of the inscriptions, and ascertained very soon that the three kinds of characters found on the monuments, far from representing three independent systems, were three successive developments of one system of writing, of which the hieroglyphs were the prototype, the hieratic and demotic the cursive forms. (De l'écriture hieratique des anciens Egyptiens,' Grenoble 1821). He then dissected the cartouches which had been studied by Young and proved that the hieroglyphs in them were always taken alphabetically, and that the alphabet thus employed for the rendering of the Greek royal names was the same that had been used from the time of the first dynasties, not only for proper names, but for the common parts of the language. He gave a general outline of his system to the Académie des Inscriptions on 22 Sept. 1822, a day famous as marking the foundation of Egyptology. Then he completed his revelations, and explained fully his method in his Précis du système hieroglyphique des anciens Egyptiens' (Paris 1824; 1828). He spent the last eight years of his life in working out the principles which he had established for the resurrection of the old Egyptian world. In 1828-30 he searched Egypt from Alexandria to Wady-Halfa with the help of other French and Italian archæologists. Upon his return he was made professor of Egyptian literature at the Collège de France. He died 4 March 1832, having overtaxed his strength during the journey to Egypt. His rapid success had raised up a host of detractors and opponents. Klaproth criticized his work with a bad faith and virulence which even death did not abate; Spohn and Seyffarth started a rival system, which was rejected in Europe by 1855, but continued to find some degree of acceptance in the United States until about 1880. The general public, however, had received his labors with delight and after his death men of every nation took up his teachings and advanced the work he had so well begun. Nestor Lhôte, Charles Lenormant and Dulaurier in France; Salvolini, Rosellini, Ungarelli, in Italy; Seemans in the Netherlands; Wilkinson, Birch and Osborn in England. Champollion-Figeac devoted himself to the memory of his younger brother and published the most important of his unfinished books, his 'Lettres écrites d'Egypte' (Paris 1833); and his 'Grammaire Egyptienne) (ib. 1836 41); his 'Dictionnaire Egyptien en écriture hieroglyphique' ib. 1841-46); Monuments de l'Egypte et de la Nubie' (ib., 1835-75), completed by Maspero. Since then the story has been a perpetual record of success and discoveries. Lepsius analyzed critically in his 'Lettre à M. Rosellini sur l'alphabet hiéroglyphique' (Rome 1837) the structure of the old language, and elucidated the origin and mechanism of the syllabic characters, the existence of which had only been surmised by Champollion. Lepsius, however, early left philological for historical and archæological researches. From 1837 to 1885 nearly every year was marked by the appearance of some important work from his pen: 'Das Todtenbuch der Ägypter); Über die XII ägyptische Königsdynastie); Einleitung in die Chronologie); Uber den ersten ägyptischen Götterkreis'; 'Königsbuch der alten Ägypter,' etc. Large portions of these have become anti