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AUTHORITILS
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AUTHORITILS .—The See also:standard authority for the Moslem Egyptians is E. W. See also:Lane's See also:Manners and Customs of the See also:Modern Egyptians, first published in 1836. The best edition is that of 186o, edited, with additions, by E. S. See also:Poole. See also B. See also:Saint-See also: See also:Willmore, The Spoken Arabic of Egypt (2nd ed., See also:London,.. 1905); See also:Spitta See also:Bey, Grammatik See also:des arabischen Vulgardialektes von Agypten, Conies arabes modernes (See also:Leiden, 1883). For statistical See also:information consult the reports on the censuses of 1897 and 1907, published by the See also:Ministry of the Interior, See also:Cairo, in 1898 and 19o9. (E. S. P.; S. L.-P.; F. R. C.) See also:Finance. The important See also:part which the See also:financial arrangements have played in the See also:political and social See also:history of Egypt since the See also:accession of See also:Ismail See also:Pasha in 1863 is shown in the See also:section History of this See also:article. Here it is proposed to trace the steps by which Egypt, after having been brought to a See also:state of See also:bankruptcy, passed through a See also:period of See also:great stress, and finally attained prosperity and a large measure of financial See also:autonomy. In 1862 the See also:foreign See also:debt of Egypt stood at £3,292,000. With the accession of Ismail (q.v.) there followed a period of See also:wild extravagance and reckless borrowing accompanied by the See also:extortion of every piastre possible from the fellahin. The real state of affairs was disclosed in the See also:report of Mr See also:Stephen See also:Cave, a well-known banker, who was sent by the See also:British See also:government in See also:December 1875 to inquire into the situation. The Cave report showed that Egypt suffered from " the See also:ignorance, dishonesty, See also:waste and extravagance of the See also:East " and from " the vast expense caused by hasty and inconsiderate endeavours to adopt the See also:civilization of the See also:West." The debtor and creditor See also:account of the state from 1864 to 1875 showed receipts amounting to £148,215,000. Of this sum over£94,000,000 had been obtained from See also:revenue and nearly £4,000,000 by the See also:sale of the See also:khedive's shares in the See also:Suez See also:Canal to Great See also:Britain. The See also:rest was credited to: loans £31,713,000, floating debt £18,243,000. The See also:cash which reached the See also:Egyptian See also:treasury from the loans and floating debt was far less than the nominal amount of such loans, none of which cost the Egyptian government less than 12% per annum. When the See also:expenditure during the same period was examined the extraordinary fact was disclosed that the sum raised by revenue was only three millions less than that spent on See also:administration, See also:tribute and public See also:works, including a sum of £10,500,000, described as " expenses of questionable utility or policy." The whole proceeds of the loans and floating debt had been absorbed in See also:payment of See also:interest and sinking funds, with the exception of £16,000,000 debited to the Suez Canal. In other words, Egypt was burdened with a debt of £91,000,000—funded or floating—for which she had no return, for even from the Suez Canal she derived no revenue, owing to the sale of the khedive's shares.
Soon after Mr Cave's report appeared (See also: The unification scheme was elaborated in a khedivial See also:decree of the 7th of May 1876, but was rendered abortive by the opposition of the British bondholders. Its place was taken by another scheme See also:drawn up by Mr (afterwards See also:Lord) See also:Goschen and M. See also:Joubert, who represented the British and French bondholders respectively. The details of this See also:settlement, promulgated by decree of the 17th of See also:November 1876, need not be given, as it was superseded in 1880. One of the securities devised for the benefit of the See also:bend holders in the abortive scheme of May 1876 was retained in the Goschen-Joubert settlement, and being continued in later settlements See also:grew to be one of the most important institutions in Egypt. This See also:security was the See also:establishment of a Treasury of the Public Debt, known by its French See also:title of Caisse de la Dette, and commonly spoken of simply as 'the Caisse." The See also:duty of this See also:body was to See also:act as receivers of the revenues assigned to the service of the debt. To render their See also:powers effective they were given the right to See also:sue the Egyptian government in the Mixed Tribunals for any See also:breach of engagement to the bondholders. The Goschen-Joubert settlement was accompanied by guar- antees against maladministration by the See also:appointment of an Englishman and a Frenchman to superintend the tion. while a See also:commission was appointed in 1878 to investi- See also:gate the See also:condition of the See also:country. The settlement of 188o was effected on the basis of the proposals made by this commission, and was embodied in the See also:Law of See also:Liquidation of See also:July 188o—after the deposition of Ismail. For the purposes of the new settlement the loans raised by Ismail on his private estates, those known as the Daira (i.e. " administrations ") and Domains loans, were brought into account. By the Law of Liquidation the floating debt was paid off, the whole debt being consolidated into four large loans, upon which the See also:rate of interest was reduced to a figure which it was considered Egypt was able to See also:bear. The Egyptian debt under this See also:composition was: Privileged debt . £22,609,000 Unified debt 58,018,000 Daira Sanieh See also:loan 9,513,000 Domains loan 8,500,000 £98,640,000 The rate of interest was, on the Privileged debt and Domains loan, 5%; on the Unified debt and Daira loan, 4%. Under this settlement the See also:total See also:annual charges on the country amounted to £4,500,000, about See also:half the then revenue of Egypt. These charges included the services of the Privileged and Unified debts, the tribute to See also:Turkey and the interest on the Suez Canal shares held by Great Britain, but excluded the interest on the Daira and Domains loans, expected to be defrayed by the revenues from the estates on which those loans were secured. The See also:general revenue of Egypt was divided between the See also:bond-holders and the government, any surplus on the bondholders' See also:share being devoted to the redemption of the See also:capital. The 188o settlement proved little more lasting than that of 1876. After a brief period of prosperity, the Arabi rising, the riots at See also:Alexandria, and the events generally which led to the British occupation of Egypt in 1882, followed by the losses incurred in the See also:Sudan in the effort to prevent it falling into the hands of the See also:Mandi, brought Egypt once more to the See also:verge of financial disaster. The situation was an anomalous one. While the revenue assigned to the service of the debt was more than sufficient for the payment of interest and the sinking fund was in full operation, the government found that their share of the revenue was altogether inadequate for the expenses of administration, and they were compelled to See also:borrow on See also:short loans at high rate of interest. Moreover, to make See also:good the losses incurred at Alexandria, and to get See also:money to pay the charges arising out of the Sudan See also:War and the Arabi See also:rebellion, a new loan was essential. On the initiative of Great, Britain a See also:conference between the representatives of the great powers and Turkey was held in London, and resulted in the See also:signing of a See also:convention in March 1885. The terms agreed upon in this See also:instrument, known as the London Convention, were embodied in a khedivial decree, which, with some modification in detail, remained for twenty years the organic law under which the finances of Egypt were administered. The principle of dividing the revenue of the country between the Caisse, as representing the bondholders, and the government was maintained by the London Convention. The revenue assigned to the service of the debt, namely, that derived from the railway, telegraphs, See also:port of Alexandria, customs (includingtobacco) and from four of the provinces, remained as before. It was recognized, however, that the non-assigned revenue was insufficient to meet the necessary expenses of govern- provisions ment, and a See also:scale of administrative expenditure was of the drawn up. This was originally fixed at £E.5,237,000,1 London but subsequently other items were allowed, and convention. in 1904, the last See also:year in which the See also:system described existed, it was £E.6,3o0,600. The Caisse was authorized, after payment of the coupons on the debt, to make good out of their See also:balance in See also:hand the difference between the authorized expenditure and the non-assigned revenue. If a surplus remained to the Caisse after making good such deficit the surplus was to be divided equally between the Caisse and the government; the government to be See also:free to spend its share as it pleased, while the Caisse had to devote its share to the reduction of the debt. This See also:limitation of administrative expenditure was the See also:cardinal feature and the leading defect of the convention. Those responsible for this arrangement—the most favourable for Egypt that Great Britain could secure—failed to recognize the See also:complete See also:change likely to result from the British occupation of Egypt, and probably regarded that occupation as temporary. The system devised might have been justifiable as a check on a See also:retrograde government, but was wholly inapplicable to a reforming government and a serious obstacle to the attainment of See also:national prosperity. In practice administrative expenditure always exceeded the amount fixed by the convention. Any excess could, however, only be met out of the half-share of the eventual surplus reached in the manner described. Consequently, in See also:order to meet new expenditure necessitated by the growing wants of a country in See also:process of development, just See also:double the amount of revenue had to be raised. To return to the provisions of the London Convention. The convention See also:left the permanent rate of interest on the 'debt, as fixed by the Law of Liquidation, unchanged, but to afford temporary See also:relief to the Egyptian See also:exchequer a reduction of 5% on the interest of the debt was granted for two years, on condition that if at the end of that period payment, including the arrears of the two years, was not resumed in full, another See also:international commission was to be appointed to examine into the whole financial situation. Lastly, the convention empowered Egypt to raise a loan of nine millions, guaranteed by all the powers, at a rate of interest of 3 %. For the service of this loan—known as the Guaranteed loan—an See also:annuity of £315,000 was provided in the Egyptian See also:budget for interest and sinking fund. The £9,000,000 was sufficient to pay the Alexandria indemnities, to wipe out the deficits of the preceding years, to give the Egyptian treasury a working balance of £E.5oo,000 and thereby avoid the creation of a fresh floating debt, and to provide a million for new See also:irrigation works. To the See also:wise foresight which, at a moment when the country was sinking beneath a See also:weight of debt, did not hesitate to add this million for expenditure on productive works, the See also:present prosperity of Egypt is largely due. The provisions of the London Convention did not exhaust the restrictions placed upon the Egyptian government in respect of financial autonomy. These restrictions were of two categories, (i) those See also:independent of the London Convention, (2) those dependent upon that instrument. In the first See also:category came (a) the See also:prohibition to raise a loan without the consent of the See also:Porte. The right to raise loans had been granted to the khedive Ismail in 1873, but was taken away in 1879 by the See also:firman appointing Tewfik khedive. (b) Next came the inability to See also:levy taxes on foreigners without the consent of their respective governments. This last See also:obligation was, in virtue of the See also:Capitulations, applicable to Egypt as part of the See also:Ottoman See also:empire. The only exception, resulting from the Ottoman law under which foreigners are allowed to acquire and hold real See also:property, is the See also:land tax. (All taxes formerly paid by natives and not by foreigners have been abolished in Egypt, but the See also:immunity described constitutes a most serious obstacle to the redistribution of the See also:burden of See also:taxation in a more equitable manner.) 1 The figures of the debt are always given in £ See also:sterling. The budget figures are in E. (pounds Egyptian), equal to £1, os. 6d. The Law ofrevenue and expenditure—the " Dual See also:Control "; L q i - From the purely Egyptian point of view the most powerful restriction in this first category remains to be named. In 1883 the supervision exercised over the finances by French and British controllers was replaced by that of a British See also:official called the financial adviser. The British government has declared that no financial decision shall be taken without his consent," a See also:declaration never questioned by the Egyptian government. This restriction, therefore, is at the same See also:time the See also:chief safeguard for the purity of Egypt's finances. In the second category of restrictions, namely, those dependent on the London Convention, were the various commissions or boards known as Mixed Administrations and having relations of a quasi-independent See also:character with the ministry of finance. Of these boards by far the most important was the Caisse. As first constituted it consisted of a French, an See also:Austrian, and an See also:Italian member; a British member was added in 1877 and a See also:German and a See also:Russian member in 1885. The revenue assigned to the debt charges was paid See also:direct to the Caisse without passing through the ministry of finance. The assent of the Caisse (as well as that of the See also:sultan) was necessary before any new loan could be issued, and in the course of a few years from its creation this body acquired very extensive powers. Besides the Caisse there was the Railway See also:Board, which administered the See also:railways, telegraphs and port of Alexandria for the benefit of the bondholders, and the Daira and Domains commissions, which administered the estates mortgaged to the holders of those loans. Each of the three boards last named consisted of an Englishman, a Frenchman and an Egyptian. During the two years that followed the signing of the London Convention, the financial policy of the Egyptian government was The See also:race directed to placing the country in a position to resume against full payment of the interest on the debt in 1887, and See also:bank- thereby to avoid the appointment of an international rUPtoy commission. By the exercise of the most rigid See also:economy in all branches this end was attained, though budgetary See also:equilibrium was only secured by a variety of financial expedients, justified by the vital importance of saving Egypt from further international interference. By such means this additional complication was averted, but the struggle to put Egypt in a genuinely solvent position was by no means over. It was not until his report on the financial results of 1888 that See also:Sir See also:Evelyn See also:Baring (afterwards Lord See also:Cromer) was able to inform the British government that the situation was such that " it would take a See also:series of untoward events seriously to endanger the stability of Egyptian finance and the solvency of the Egyptian government." From this moment the corner was turned, and the era of financial prosperity commenced. The results of the labours of the preced-, See also:ing six years began to See also:manifest themselves with a rapidity which surprised the most sanguine observers. The See also:principal feature of the successive Egyptian budgets of 1890-1894 was the fiscal relief afforded to the See also:population. From 1894 onward more See also:attention was paid than had hitherto been possible to the legitimate demands of the spending departments and to the See also:prosecution of public works. Of these the most notable was the construction (1898-1902), of the See also:Assuan See also:dam, which by bringing more land under cultivation permanently increased the resources of the country and widened the See also:area of taxation. With the accumulating proofs of the financial stability of the country various changes were made in connexion with the debt Reserve charges. With the consent of the powers a General funds. Reserve Fund was created by decree of the 12th of July 1888, into which was paid the Caisse's half-share in the eventual surplus of revenue. This fund, primarily intended as a security for the bondholders, might be drawn upon for extra-See also:ordinary expenditure with the consent of the commissioners of the Caisse. Large sums were so advanced for the purposes of drainage and irrigation and other public works, and in relief of taxation. The defect of this arrangement consisted in the See also:necessity of obtaining the consent of the commissioners—a See also:con-sent sometimes withheld on purely political grounds. At the same time it is believed that but for the See also:faculty given by the decree of 1888 to spend the General Reserve Fund on public works, the financial system elaborated by the London Convention wouldhave broken down altogether. Between 1888 and 1904 about £1o,000,000 was devoted from this fund to public works. In See also:June 1890 the assent of the powers was obtained to tilt See also:conversion of the Preference (Privileged), Domains and Daira loans on the following conditions, imposed at the initiative of the French government: 1. The employment of the economies resulting from the conversion was to be the subject of future agreement with the powers. 2. The Daira loan was to be reimbursed at 85%, instead of 8o%, as provided by the Law of Liquidation. 3. The sales of Domains and Daira lands were to be restricted to £E.3oo,000 a year each, thus prolonging the period of liquidation of those estates. The interest on the Preference stock was reduced from 5 to 32 %, and on the Domains from 5 to 41%. As regards the Daira loan, there was no apparent reduction in the rate of interest, which remained at 4%, but the bondholders received £85 of the new stock for every £loo of the old. The capital of the debt was increased by £1,945,000 by these conversions, while the annual economy to the Egyptian government amounted at the time of the conversion to £E.348,000. Further, an engagement was entered into that there should be no reimbursement of the loans till 1905 for the Preference and Daira, and 1908 for the Domains. By an arrangement concluded in June 1898, between the Egyptian government and a See also:syndicate, the unsold balance of the Daira estates was taken over by the syndicate in See also:October 1905, for the amount of the debt remaining, when the Daira loan ceased to exist. The fund formed by the See also:accumulation of the economies resulting from the conversion of the Privileged, Daira and Domains loan was known as the Conversion Economies Fund. The fund could not be used for any purpose without the consent of the powers, and the money paid into it was invested by the Caisse in Egyptian stock. The fund therefore acted as a very expensive sinking fund, the See also:market See also:price of the stock See also:purchased being above See also:par. Up to 1904 the consent of the powers to the employment of this fund for any purpose of public utility was withheld. On the 31st of December of that year the fund amounted to £E.6,o31,000. It may be added that besides the General Reserve Fund and the Conversion Economies Fund, there existed another fund called the See also:Special Reserve Fund. This was constituted in 1886 and was chiefly made up of the See also:net savings of the Egyptian government on its share of the annual surpluses from revenue. Of the three funds this last-named was the only one at the See also:absolute disposal of the government. The whole of the extraordinary expenditure of the Sudan See also:campaigns of 1896-1898, with the exception of £800,000 granted by the British government, was paid out of this fund—a sum amounting in See also:round figures to £1,5oo,000. Notwithstanding all the hampering conditions stated, the prosperity of the country became more manifest each succeeding year. During the four years 1883-1886, both inclusive, the aggregate deficit amounted to £E.2,606,000. In An era of 1887 there was See also:practical equilibrium in the budget, in prosperity, 1888 there was a deficit of £E.53,000. In 1889 there was a surplus of £E.218,000, and from that date onward every year has shown a surplus. In 1895 the surplus exceeded, for the first time, £E.1,00c,000. The growth of revenue was no less marked. " In 1883—the first complete year after the British occupation—the revenue was slightly under 9 millions. This sum was collected with difficulty. The revenue steadily See also:rose until, in 1890, the figure of 10 millions was exceeded. In 1897 a figure of over 11 millions was attained. Continuing to rise with ever-increasing rapidity, a revenue of See also:close on 12 millions was collected in 1901 and 1902, in spite of the fact that during the latter of these two years the See also:Nile See also:flood was one of the lowest on See also:record. In 1903 the revenue amounted to 122 millions, and in 1904 the unprecedented figure of £E.13,906,00o was reached."' Yet during this period the amount of direct taxation remitted reached £E.1,9o0,000 a year. Arrears of land tax to the extent of £E.1,245,000 were cancelled. In indirect taxation the See also:salt tax had been reduced by 40%, the postal, railway and See also:telegraph rates lowered, octro duties and See also:bridge and See also:lock dues abolished. The only increase of taxation had been on See also:tobacco, on which the duty was raised from 1 Egypt, No. 1 (1905), p. 20. P.T. 14 to P.T. 20 per kilogramme. At the same time the See also:house duty, with the consent of the powers, had been imposed on See also:European residents. The fact that during the period under See also:review Egypt suffered very severely from the general fall in the price of commodities makes the prosperity of the country the more remarkable. Had it not been for the great increase of See also:production as the result of improved irrigation and the fiscal relief afforded to landowners, the agricultural depression would have impaired the financial situation. In this connexion it should be stated that during 1899 the reassessment of the land tax, a much-needed reform, was seriously taken in hand. The existing See also:assessment, made before the British occupation, had See also:long been condemned by all competent authorities, but the inherent intricacies and difficulties of the problem had hitherto postponed a See also:solution. After careful study and a preliminary examination of the land, a scheme was passed which has given See also:satisfaction to the landowning community, and which distributes the tax equitably in proportion to the fertility of the See also:soil. The reassessment wascompletedin1907. While the country thus prospered it also suffered greatly from the restrictions imposed by the system of international control. The cost This system produced a great disproportion between of inter- the sums available for capital and those available for national- administrative expenditure. Although the money for public works could be obtained out of grants from the General Reserve Fund, there was no fund from which to provide a sufficient sum to keep those works in order. Moreover, to avoid having to pay half the amount received into the General Reserve Fund the government was compelled to keep certain items of revenue and expenditure out of the accounts altogether —a violation of the principles of See also:sound finance. Then there was the glaring See also:anomaly of allowing the Conversion Economies to accumulate at See also:compound interest in the hands of the commis- sioners of the Caisse, instead of using the money for remunerative purposes. The net result of internationalism was to impose an extra See also:charge of about £1,750,000 a year on the Egyptian treasury. All these cumbersome restrictions were swept away by the khedivial decree of the 28th of November 1904, a decree which received the assent of the powers and was the result Egypt gains of the Anglo-French agreement of See also:April 1904 (see financial § History). The decree did not affect the inability See also:liberty. of Egypt to tax foreigners without their consent nor remove the right of Turkey to See also:veto the issue of new loans, but in other respects the financial changes made by it were of a See also:radical character. The See also:main effect was to give to the Egyptian government a free hand in the disposal of its own resources so long as the punctual payment of interest on the debt was assured. The See also:plan devised by the London Convention of fixing a limit to administrative expenditure was abolished. The consent of the Caisse to the raising of a new loan was no longer required. The Caisse itself remained, but shorn of all political and administrative powers, its functions being strictly limited to receiving the assigned revenues and to ensuring the due payment of the See also:coupon. The nature of the assigned revenue was altered, the land tax being substituted for those previously assigned, that tax being chosen as it had a greater character of stability than any other source of revenue. By this means Egypt gained complete control of its railways, telegraphs, the port of Alexandria and the customs, and as a consequence the mixed administration known as the Railway Board ceased to exist. Moreover, it was provided that when the Caisse had received from the land tax the amount needed for the service of the debt, the balance of the tax was to be paid direct to the Egyptian treasury. The Con-version Economies Fund was also placed at the free disposal of the Egyptian government. The General Reserve Fund ceased to exist, but for the better security of the bondholders a reserve fund of £i,800,000 was constituted and left in the hands of the Caisse to be used in the highly improbable event of the land tax being insufficient to meet the debt charges. Moreover, the Caisse started under the new arrangement with a cash balance of £1,250,000. The interest of the money lying in the hands of the Caisse goes towards See also:meeting the debt charges and thus reduces the amount needed from the land tax. The bondholders gained a further material See also:advantage by the consent of the Egyptian government to delay the conversion of the loans, which under previous arrangements they would have been free to do in 1905. It was agreed that there should be no con-version of the Guaranteed or Privileged debts before 1910 and no conversion of the Unified debt until 1912. Such were the chief provisions of the khedivial decree, and in 1905, for the first time, it was possible to draw up the Egyptian budget in accordance with the needs of the country and on perfectly sound principles. In the system adopted in 1905 and since maintained, recurring and non-recurring expenditure were shown separately, the non-recurring expenditure being termed " special." At the same time a new General Reserve Fund was created, made up chiefly of the surpluses of the old General Reserve, Special Reserve, and Conversion Economies funds. This new fund started with a capital of £13,376,000 and was replenished by the surpluses of subsequent years, by the interest earned by its temporary investment, and by the sums accruing by the liquidation of the Daira and Domains loans. During 1905 and 1906 about £3,000,000 was paid into the fund through the liquidation of the Daira loan. From this fund, which had a balance of over £12,000,000 in 1906, is taken capital expenditure on remunerative public works in Egypt and the Sudan, and while the fund lasts the necessity for any new loan is avoided. The greater freedom of See also:action attained as the result of the Anglo-French declaration of 1904 enabled the Egyptian government to advance simultaneously along the lines of fiscal reform and increased administrative expenditure. Thus in 1906 the salt See also:monopoly was abolished at a cost to the revenue of £175,000, while the reduction of import duties on See also:coal and other fuels, live-stock, &c., involved a further loss of £118,000, and an increase of over £1,000,000 in expenditure was budgeted for. The accounts for 1907 showed a total revenue of £E.16,368,000 and a total expenditure of £E.14,28o,000, a surplus of £E.2,o88,000. The annual growth of revenue for the previous five years averaged over £E.5oo,000. About one-third ofthe annual revenue is derived from the land tax; customs and tobacco duties yield about £3,000,000, and an equal or larger amount is received from railways and other revenue-earning departments. The chief items of ordinary expenditure are tribute and debt charges, the expenses of the See also:civil administration, of the Egyptian See also:army (between £500,000 and £600,000 yearly), of the revenue-earning departments and of See also:pensions. It will be convenient here to summarize the position of the Egyptian debt at the close of 1905, that is at the period immediately following the liquidation of the Daira loan. In a previous table it has been shown that under the Law of Liquidation of 188o the total debt was L98,64o,000. In 1883, the first complete year after the British occupation, the capital of the debt—then exclusively held by the public—was £96,457,00o. In 1885 the Guaranteed loan, the nominal capital of which was f9,424,000, was issued, and in 1891 the debt reached its maximum figure of £106,802,000. At that period the charge for interest and sinking fund was £4,127,000. On the 31st of December 1905 the total capital of the debt was as follows: Guarahteed 3% • £7,849,000 Preference 31% . . 31,128,000 Unified 4% 55 972,E Domains 4i% • 1,535,000 Total . . £96,484,000 The charge on account of interest and sinking fund was £3,709,000• Thus the capital of the debt in 1905 stood at almost the exact figure it did in 1883, although by borrowing and conversion operations nearly £17,000,000 had in the meantime been added to the capital. This reduction was brought about by surplus revenue, and by the operation of the sinking fund in the See also:case of the Guaranteed loan, while £15,729,000 had been wiped out by the sale of Daira and Domains property. These figures do not, however, indicate fully the prosperity of the country, for although the nominal amount of the capital was practically identical in 1883 and 1905, in the latter year the Egyptian government or the Caisse held stock (bought with surplus revenue) to the value of £8,770,000. The amount of debt in the hands of the public was therefore only £87,714,000, that is to say £8,743,000 less than in 1883, while the interest charge to be See also:borne by the taxpayer of Egypt was £3,378,000, being £89o,000 less than in 1883. The charge amounts to about 40 % of the national expenditure. On the other hand, Egypt is not now weighed down with a huge warlike expenditure. There is no See also:navy to support, and the army See also:costs but 7 % of the total expenditure. See also:Correspondence respecting the State Domains of Egypt (1883) ; Statement of the Revenue and Expenditure of Egypt, together with a See also:List of the Egyptian Bonds and the Charges for their Services (1885); Reports on the Finances of Egypt, by the British See also:agent, yearly from 1888; Convention relative to the Finance of Egypt, signed at London, March i8, 1885 ; Khedivial decree of the 28th November 1904 ; Compte general de l' administration des finances, issued yearly at Cairo. Consult also the works of Lord Cromer, Lord See also:Milner, and Sir A. See also:Colvin cited under § History, last section. (E. Go. ; F. R. C.)
The Egyptian Army.
The See also:fellah soldier has been aptly likened to a See also:bicycle, which
although incapable of See also:standing up alone, is very useful while
under the control of a skilful See also:master. It is generally
Pharaohs were due to foreign legions; and from See also:Cambyses to See also: Every See also:man who could not See also:purchase exemption, with the exception of those living in Cairo, Alexandria and Suez, on becoming 19 years old was liable nominally to 12 years' service; but many men were kept for 30 or 40 years, in spite of See also:constant appeals. Nevertheless the experiment succeeded. The docile, yet robust and See also:hardy peasants, under their foreign leaders, gained an unbroken series of successes in the first Syrian War; and after the bloody See also:battle of See also:Konia (1832), where the raw Turkish army was routed and the See also:grand See also:vizier taken prisoner, it was only European intervention which prevented the Egyptian general, See also:Ibrahim Pasha, from marching unopposed to the Bosphorus. The defeat of the Turkish army at Nizib (Nezeeb or Nisib), in the second Syrian War (1839), showed that it was possible to obtain favourable military results with Egyptians'when stiffened by foreigners and well commanded. Ibrahim, the See also:hero of Konia, declared, however, that no native Egyptian ought to rise higher than the See also:rank of sergeant; and in the Syrian campaigns nearly all the officers were Turks or Circassians, as were several non-commissioned officers. In the See also:cavalry and See also:artillery many of the privates were foreigners, See also:numbers of the See also:janissaries who escaped the See also:massacre at Stamboul (1832) having joined Mehemet Ali's army.
In the reign of Abbas, who succeeded Mehemet Ali, the Egyptian troops were driven from See also:Nejd, and the Wahhabi state recovered its See also:independence. The next See also:viceroy, Said, began as an ardent soldier, but took to See also:agriculture, and at his See also:death (1863) 3000 men only were retained under arms. Ismail, on succeeding, immediately added 27,000 men, and in seven years was able to put See also:ioo,000 men, well equipped, in the See also: Ismail had collected 500 field-guns, 200 See also:Arm-strong See also:cannon, and had created factories of warlike and other stores. These latter were conducted extravagantly, and badly administered. In See also:January 1883, See also:Major-General Sir Evelyn See also:Wood, V.C., was given £200,000, and directed to spend it in raising a fellahin force of 6000 men for the See also:defence of Egypt. He was assisted at first by 26 officers, amongst whom were Raorganizatlom two who later became successively sirdars—Colonel F. Grenfell, commanding a See also:brigade, and See also:Lieutenant H. See also:Kitchener, R.E., second in command of the cavalry See also:regiment. There were four batteries, eight battalions, and a See also:camel See also:company. Each See also:battalion of the 1st See also:infantry brigade had three British mounted officers, Turks and Egyptians holding the corresponding positions in the battalions of the 2nd Brigade. The See also:sirdar selected these native officers from those of Arabi's followers who had been the least prominent in the See also:recent See also:mutiny; non-commissioned officers who had been See also:drill-instructors in the old army were recalled temporarily, but all the privates were conscripted from their villages. The earlier merciless practice had been in theory abolished by a decree based on the German system, published in r88o; but owing to defective organization, and See also:internal disturbances induced by Khedive Ismail's follies, the law had not been applied, and the 6000 recruits collected at Cairo in January 1883 represented the biggest and strongest peasants who could not purchase exemption by bribing the officials concerned. The difficulties experienced in applying the r88o decree were great, but the perseverance of British officers gave the oppressed peasants, in 1885, an equitable law, which has been since improved by the decree of 1900. General considerations later caused the sirdar to allow exemption by payment of (Badalia) £20 before See also:ballot. This tax, which is popular amongst the peasantry, produced in 1906 £E.15o,000, and over £250,000 in 1908. This is a marked indication of the increasing prosperity of the fellahin. A portion of the badalia is expended in the See also:betterment of the soldier's position. He is no longer drafted into the See also:police on completing his army service, but goes free at the end of five years with a See also:gift of £E.2o. The sirdar is allowed, moreover, to use £20,000 per annum of the badalia for the improvement of the education of the rank and See also:file. As an experiment the police is now a voluntary service, except in Alexandria and Cairo, for which cities peasants are conscripted for the police under army conditions. The recruiting super-intending See also:committee, travelling through districts, supervise every ballot, and See also:work under stringent rules which render systematic See also:bribery difficult. The recruits who draw unlucky numbers at 19 years of See also:age are seldom called up till they are 23, when they are summoned by name and escorted by a police-man to Cairo. To prevent substitution on the See also:journey each recruit wears a See also:string See also:girdle sealed in See also:lead. The periods of service are: with the See also:colours, 5 years; in the reserve, 5 years, during which time they may be called up for police service, manoeuvres, &c. The pay is £E.3, 14s. per annum for all services, and the liberal scale of rations of See also:meat, See also:bread and See also:rice remains as before in theory, but in practice the value of pay and See also:food received is greatly enhanced. So also with the See also:pension and promotion regulations. They were in 1882 sufficiently liberal on See also:paper, but had never been carried into effect.
See also:early believed that the successes gained in the time of the history.
The efforts of 48 See also:American officers, who under Gen. C. P. See also: - The task undertaken by the small body of British officers was difficult. There was not one point in the former administration of the army acceptable to English gentlemen. That there had been no adequate See also:auxiliary departments, without which an army cannot move or be efficient, was comparatively a See also:minor difficulty. To succeed, it was essential that the fellah should be taught that discipline might be strict without being oppressive, that pay and rations would be fairly distributed, that brutal usage by superiors would be checked, that complaints would be thoroughly investigated, and impartial See also:justice meted out to soldiers of all ranks. An epidemic of See also:cholera in the summer of 1883 gave the British officers their first See also:chance of acquiring the esteem and confidence of their men, and the opportunity was nobly utilized. While the patient fellah, resigned to the decrees of the Almighty, saw the ruling Egyptian class See also:hurry away from Cairo, he saw also those of his comrades who were stricken tenderly nursed, soothed in death's struggles, and in many cases actually washed, laid out and interred by their new self-sacrificing and determined masters. The regeneration of the fellahin army See also:dates from that epidemic. When the Egyptian Army of the See also:Delta was dispersed at Tell el-Kebir, the khedive had 40,000 troops in the Sudan, scattered from See also:Massawa on the Red Sea to 1200 M. towards the west, and from See also:Wadi Halfa, 1500 M. southward to See also:Wadelai, near See also:Albert See also:Nyanza. These were composed of Turks, Albanians, Circassians and some Sudanese. Ten thousand fellahin, collected in March 1883, mainly from Arabi's former forces, set out from Duem, 100 m. See also:south of See also:Khartum, in See also:September 1883, under See also:Hicks Pasha, a dauntless retired See also:Indian Army officer, to vanquish the Mandi. They disappeared in the deserts of See also:Kordofan, where they were destroyed by the Mandists about 50 M. south of El Obeid. In the See also:wave of successful rebellion, except at Khartum, few of the Egyptian garrisons were killed when the posts See also:fell, long See also:residence and See also:local See also:family ties rendering easy their assimilation in the ranks of the Mandists. See also:Baker Pasha, with about 4000 constabulary, who were old soldiers, attempted to relieve Tokar in See also:February 1884. He was attacked by 1200 tribesmen and utterly routed, losing 4 See also:Krupp guns, 2 See also:machine guns and 3000 rifles. Only 1400 Egyptians escaped the slaughter. The sirdar made an attempt to raise a battalion of Albanians, but the few men obtained mutinied when ordered to proceed to the Sudan, and it was deemed advisable, after the ringleaders. had been executed, to abandon the See also:idea, and rely on blacks to stiffen the fellahin. Then the 9th (Sudanese) Battalion was created for service at Suakin, and four others having been successively added, these (with one exception—at Gedaref) have since borne the brunt of all the fighting which has been done by the khedivial troops. The Egyptian troops in the operations near Suakin behaved well; and there were many instances of See also:personal gallantry by individual soldiers. In the autumn of 1884, when a British expedition went up the Nile to endeavour to relieve the heroic See also:Gordon, besieged in Khartum, the Egyptians did remarkably good work on the See also:line of communication from See also:Assiut to Korti, a distance of Boo m., and the training and experience thus gained were of great value in all subsequent operations. The honesty and discipline of the fellah were shown to be undoubtedly of a high order. When the crews of the See also:whale-boats were conveying stores, the forwarding officers tried to keep See also:brandy and such like medical comforts from the European crews, See also:coffee and See also:tea from See also:Canadian voyageurs and See also:sugar from Kroo boys. The only immaculate See also:carrier was the Egyptian. A large sum of specie having failed under British escort to reach See also:Dongola, an See also:equivalent sum was handed to an Egyptian lieutenant of six months' service, with 10 men, and duly reached its destination. Twelve years later the standard of honesty was unimpaired; and the British officers had imparted See also:energy and activity into Egyptians of all ranks. The intelligent professional knowledge of the native officers, taught under British gentlemen, and the constant hard work cheerfully rendered by the fellah soldiers, were the main factors of the success achieved at See also:Omdurman on the and of September 1898. The large depots of stores at Assuan, Halfa and Dongola could only be cursorily supervised by British officers, and yet when the stores were received at the advance See also:depot the losses were infinitesimal. By nature the fellah is unwarlike. See also:Born in the valley of a great See also:river, he resembles in many respects the See also:Bengali, who exists under similar conditions; but the Egyptian Character has proved capable of greater improvement. He is of See also:gyp- stronger in See also:frame, and can undergo greater exertion. tta° Singularly unemotional, he stood steady at Tell el- soldier. Kebir after Arabi Pasha and all his officers, from general to subaltern, had fled, and gave way only when decimated by the British field artillery firing case shot. At El Teb, however, in 1884 he allowed himself to be slaughtered by tribesmen formerly despised, and only about one-See also:fourth of the force under General See also:Valentine Baker escaped. Baker Pasha's force was termed constabulary, yet his men were all old soldiers, though new to their gallant See also:leader and to the small See also:band of their brave but See also:strange British officers. Since that fatal See also:day, however, many of the fellahin have shown they are capable of devoted conduct, and much has been done to. raise in the soldiers a sense of self-respect, and, in spite of centuries of oppression, of veracity. The barrack-square drill was See also:smart under the old system, but there was no See also:fire discipline, and all individuality was crushed. Now both are encouraged, and the men, receiving their full rations, are unsurpassable in endurance at work and in marching. All the troops present in the surprise fight when the See also:Dervish force was destroyed at Firket in June 1896 had covered long distances, and one battalion (the loth Sudanese) accomplished 90 M. within 72 See also:hours, including the march back to railhead immediately after the action. The troops under See also:Colonel See also:Parsons, Royal Artillery, who See also:beat the Dervishes at Gedaref, were so short of British officers that all orders were necessarily given in Arabic and carried to commanders of See also:units by See also:Arabs. While an Egyptian battalion was attacking in line, it was halted to repel a See also:rush from the See also:rear, and front and rear ranks were simultaneously engaged, firing in opposite directions—yet the fellahin were absolutely steady; they shot well and showed no signs of trepidation. On the other hand, neither was there any exultation after their victory. It has been aptly said " the fellah would make an admirable soldier if he only wished to kill some one!" The fellahin furnish three squadrons, five batteries, three See also:garrison artillery companies and nine battalions. The well-educated Egyptian officer, with his natural aptitude for figures, does subordinate regimental routine carefully, and works well when supervised by men of stronger character. The ordinary Egyptian is not self-reliant or energetic by nature, and, like most Eastern See also:people, finds it difficult to be impartial where duty and family or other personal relations are in the balance. The black soldier has, on the other hand, many of the finest fighting qualities. This was observed by British officers, from the time of the preliminary operations about Kosha and at the action near Ginnis in December 1885 down to the brilliant operations in the pursuit of the Mandists on the See also:Blue Nile after the action of Gedaref (subsequent to the battle of Omdurman), and the fighting in Kordofan in 1899, which resulted in the death of the See also:khalifa and his amirs. Black soldiers served in the army of Mehemet Ali, but their fighting value was not then duly appreciated. See also:Prior to the death of the khalifa, many of his soldiers deserted to join their brethren who had been captured by the sirdar's troops, during the See also:gradual advance up the Nile. After 1899 many more enlisted: the greater number were Shilluks and Dinkas coming from the country between See also:Fashoda and the See also:equatorial provinces, but a proportion came from the western borders of the Sudan, and some from See also:Wadai and See also:Bornu. Many were absolute savages, difficult to control, wayward and thoughtless like See also:children. Sudanese are very excitable and See also:apt to get out of hand; unlike the fellahs they are not fond of drill, and are slow to acquire it; but their dash, pugnacious instincts and See also:desire to close with an enemy, are valuable military qualities. The Sudanese, moreover, shoot better than the fellahin, whose eyesight is often defective. The Sudanese See also:captain can seldom read or write, and is therefore in the hands of the Egyptian-born company quartermaster-sergeant as regards pay and clothing accounts. He is slow, and as a rule has little knowledge of drill. Nevertheless he is self-reliant, much respected by his men, and can be trusted in the field to carry out any orders received from his British officer. The most efficient companies in the Sudanese battalions are apparently those in which the captain is a black and the lieu-tenants are Egyptians.
In 1908 the Egyptian army, with a total establishment of 18,000, consisted of three squadrons of cavalry (one composed of Sudanese) each numbering 116 men; four batteries of field artillery and a See also:Maxim See also:battery, horses and mules being used, with a total strength of 1257 of all ranks; the camel See also:corps, 626 of all ranks (fellahin and Sudanese); and nine fellahin and six Sudanese infantry battalions, Io,631 of all ranks. Every battalion receives two additional companies on mobilization and takes the field with six companies.
The armament of the infantry is See also:Martini-See also: There are also veterinary station hospitals. he See also:supply department controls See also:mills at Tura, See also:Haifa and Khartum. The stringent system of selecting British officers, originated by the first sirdar in 1883, is shown by the fact that of the 24 employed in creating the army, 14 rose to be generals. The competition for employment in the army is still severe. In 1908 there were 140 British See also:warrant and non-commissioned officers. Four of the fellahin battalions were officered by Orientals; in the other five, British officers commanded. Seven officers were employed with the artillery, six with the camel corps. Each of the Sudanese battalions had four British officers, and each See also:squadron of cavalry one. Twelve medical and two veterinary officers are also employed departmentally, as well as officers acting as See also:directors of supply, &c. Since the See also:assumption of command by the third sirdar, Colonel (afterwards Lord) Kitchener, the See also:ordnance, supply and engineer services have been separately administered, and a financial secretary is charged with the duty of preparing the budget, making contracts, &c. The total annual expenditure is £500,000. The reorganized military school system under British control, for supplying officers, dates from 1887. The course lasts for about two years, and two See also:hundred students can be accommodated. After the reconquest of the Sudan one-fourth of the cadets in the military school of Cairo were Sudanese. Later, however, the Sudanese cadets were transferred to a See also:branch school at Khartum. The army raised by the first sirdar in January 1883 was highly commended for its work on the line of communication in 1884-1885, and its artillery and camelry distinguished themselves in the action at Kirbekan in February 1885. Colonel Sir See also:Francis Grenfell succeeded General Sir Evelyn Wood in March 1885, and while under his command the army continued to improve, and fought successful actions at Gemaiza, Argin, Toski and 'See also:Dakar. At Toski the Dervish force was nearly annihilated. In March 1892 Colonel Kitchener succeeded General Sir Francis Grenfell, and four years later began his successful reconquest of the Sudan. In June 1896, owing to the indefatigable exertions of Major See also:Wingate, a perfected system of See also:secret intelligence enabled the sirdar to bring an overwhelming force of 6 to 1 against the Dervish outpost at Firket and destroy it. In September 1896 a skirmish at Hafir, with similarly successful See also:tactics, gave the British See also:commander the See also:possession of Dongola. On the 7th of See also:August 1897 Colonel See also:Hunter surprised and annihilated a weak Dervish garrison at See also:Abu Flamed, to which place, by the 31st of October 1897, a railway had been laid across the Nubian See also:desert from Wadi Haifa, a distance of 230 m., the " record " construction of 5300 yds surveyed, embanked and laid in one day having been attained. On the 26th of December 1897 the Italian troops handed over See also:Kassala to Colonel Parsons, R.A. On the 8th of April 1898 a British See also:division, with the Egyptian army, destroyed the Dervish force under the See also:amir Mahmud Ahmed, on the See also:Atbara river. On the 2nd of September the khalifa attacked the British-Egyptian troops at Kerreri (near Omdurman), and being routed, his men dispersed; Khartum was occupied, and on the 19th of September the Egyptian See also:flag was rehoisted at Fashoda. On the 22nd of September 1898 Gedaref was taken from the amir Ahmed Fedil by Colonel Parsons, and on the 26th of December the army of Ahmed Fedil was finally defeated and dispersed, near Roseires. The khalifa's army, reduced to an insignificant number, after several unsuccessful engagements withdrew to the west of the Nile, where it was attacked, on the 24th of November 1899, after a forced march by Colonel Wingate, and annihilated. The khalifa himself was killed; while the See also:victor, who had joined the Egyptian army in 1883 as aide-de-See also:camp to the first sirdar, in December 1899 became the fourth sirdar, as Major-General Sir F. R. Wingate, K.C.B., K.C.M.~., D.S.O., &c. (E. Wo.) II. See also:ANCIENT EGYPT A. Exploration and See also:Research.—Owing to its early development of a high civilization with written records, its See also:wealth, and its preservative See also:climate, Egypt is the country which most amply repays archaeological research. It is especially those long ages during which Egypt was an independent centre of culture and government, before its absorption in the See also:Persian empire in the 6th century B.C., that make the most powerful See also:appeal to the See also:imagination and can often justify this appeal by the splendour of the monuments representing them. Later, however, the history of See also:Hellenism, the provincial history of the See also:Roman empire, the rise of See also:Christianity and the See also:triumph of See also:Islam successively receive brilliant See also:illustration in Egypt. As early as the 17th century travellers began to bring See also:home specimens of ancient Egyptian handiwork: a valuable See also:stele from Sakkara of the beginning of the Old See also:Kingdom was presented to the Ashmolean Museum at See also:Oxford in 1683. In the following century the Englishman R. See also:Pococke (1704-1765), the Dane F. L. See also:Norden (1708-1742), both travelling in 1737, and others later, planned, described or figured Egyptian ruins in a See also:primitive way and identified many of the sites with cities named in classical authors. Napoleon's great military expedition in 1798 was accompanied by a scientific commission including artists and archaeologists, the results of whose labours fill several of the magnificent volumes of the Description de l'Egypte. The antiquities collected by the expedition, including the famous See also:Rosetta stone, were ceded to the British government at the See also:capitulation of Alexandria, in 1801. Thereafter Mehemet Ali threw Egypt freely open to Europeans, and a busy See also:traffic in antiquities began, chiefly through the agency of the consuls of different powers. From the year 1820 onwards the growth of the European collections was rapid, and See also:Champollion's decipherments (see below, § " Language, and Writing ") of the hieroglyphic See also:inscriptions, dating from 1821, added fresh impetus to the fashion of See also:collecting, in spite of doubts as to their See also:trust-worthiness. In 1827 a combined expedition led by Champollion and See also:Rosellini was despatched by the governments of France and See also:Tuscany, and accomplished a great See also:deal of valuable work in copying scenes and inscriptions. But the greatest of such expeditions was that of See also:Lepsius, under the auspices of the Prussian government, in 1842-1845. Its labours embraced not only Egypt and Nubia (as far as Khartum) but also the Egyptian monuments in See also:Sinai and See also:Syria; its immense See also:harvest of material is of the highest value, the new See also:device of taking paper impressions or " squeezes " giving Lepsius a great advantage over his predecessors, similar to that which was later conferred by the photographic See also:camera. A new period was opened in Egyptian exploration in 1858 when See also:Mariette was appointed director of archaeological works in Egypt, his duties being to safeguard the monuments and prevent their exploitation by dealers. As early as 1835 Mehemet Ali had given orders for a museum to be formed; little however, was accomplished before the whole of the resulting collection was given away to the See also:Archduke See also:Maximilian of See also:Austria in 1855. Mariette, who was appointed by the viceroy Said Pasha at the instance of the French government, succeeded in making his See also:office effective and permanent, in spite of political intrigues and the whims of an See also:Oriental ruler; he also secured a See also:building on the See also:island of Bulak (Bulaq) for a viceregal museum in which the results of his explorations could be permanently housed. Supported by the French interest, the established character of this work as a department of the Egyptian government (which also claims the ancient sites) has been fully recognized since the British occupation. The " Service of Antiquities " now boasts a large annual budget and employs a number of European and native officials—a director, curators of the museum, European inspectors and native sub-inspectors of provinces (at See also:Luxor for Upper Egypt and Nubia, at Assiut for Middle Egypt and the See also:Fayum, at See also:Mansura for See also:Lower Egypt, besides a European official in charge of the government excavations at See also:Memphis). The museum, no longer the property of an individual, was removed in 1889 from the small building at Bulak to a disused See also:palace at Giza, and since 1902 has been established at Kasr-en-Nil, Cairo, in a special building, of ample See also:size and safe from fire and flood. In the year 1881 the directorship of the museum was temporarily undertaken by Prof. See also:Maspero, who resumed it in 1899. The admirably conducted Archaeological Survey of the portion of Nubia threatened by the raising of the Assuan dam is in the charge of another department—the Survey department, directed for many years up to 1909 by Captain H. G. See also:Lyons. Non-official agencies (supported by voluntary contributions) for exploration in Egypt comprise the Egypt Exploration Fund, started in London in 1881, with its two branches, viz. the Archaeological Survey (189o) for copying and See also:publishing the monuments above ground, and the Graeco-Roman Branch (1897), well known through the brilliant work in See also:Greek papyri of B. P. Grenfell and A. S. See also:Hunt; and the See also:separate Research Account founded by See also:Professor W. M. See also:Flinders See also:Petrie in London (University See also:College) in 1896, and since 1905 called the British School of See also:Archaeology in Egypt (see especially MEMPHIS). The See also:Mission archeologique francaise au Caire, established as a school by the French government in 1881, was re-organized in 1901 on a lavish scale under the title Institut See also:francais d'archeologie orientate du Caire, and domiciled with See also:printing-See also:press and library in a See also:fine building near the museum. As the result of an excellent bargain, it was afterwards removed to the Munira palace in the south-east part of the See also:city. An archaeologist is attached to the German general consulate to look after the interests of German museums, and is director of the German See also:Institute of Archaeology. The Orient-Gesellschaft (German Orient-Society) has worked in Egypt since 1901 with brilliant results. Excavations and explorations are also con-ducted annually by the agents of See also:universities and museums in England, See also:America and See also:Germany, and by private explorers, concessions being granted generally on the terms that the Egyptian government shall retain half of the antiquities discovered, while the other half remains for the finders. The era of scientific excavation began with Flinders Petrie's work at Tanis in 1883. Previous explorers kept scientific aims in view, but the idea of scientific archaeology was not realized by them. The See also:procedure in scientific excavation is directed to collecting and interpreting all the information that can he obtained from the excavation as to the history and nature ofthe site explored, be it See also:town, See also:temple, house, See also:cemetery or individual See also:grave, wasting no See also:evidence that results from it touching the endless problems which scientific archaeology affords—whether in regard to arts and crafts, manners and customs, language, history or beliefs. This is a totally different thing from See also:mere See also:hunting for inscriptions, statues or other portable See also:objects which will present a greater or less value in themselves even when torn from their context. Such may, of course, form the greater part of the harvest and working material of a scientific excavator; their presence is most welcome to him, but their complete See also:absence need be no See also:bar to his attainment of important See also:historical results. The absence of scientific excavation in Egypt was deplored by the Scottish archaeologist Alexander Henry Rhind (1833-1863), as early as 1862. Since Flinders Petrie began, the general level of research has gradually risen, and, while much is shamefully See also:bad and destructive, there is a certain proportion that fully realizes the requirements of scientific archaeology. Antiquities, Sites, &c.—The remains for archaeological investigation in Egypt may be roughly classified as material and See also:literary: to the latter belong the texts on papyri and the inscriptions, to the former the sites of ancient towns with the temples, fortifications and houses; remains of roads, canals, quarries and other matters falling within the domain of ancient See also:topography; the larger monuments, as obelisks, statues, stelae, &c.; and finally the small antiquities—utensils, clothes, weapons, amulets, &c. Where moisture can reach the antiquities their preservation is no better in Egypt than it would have been in other countries; for this See also:reason all the papyri in the Delta have perished unless they happen to have been charred by fire. A terrible pest is a See also:kind of See also:termite which is locally abundant and has probably visited most parts of Egypt at one time or another, destroying all dead See also:vegetable or See also:animal material in the soil that was not specially protected. In Lower Egypt the cities built of crude See also:brick were very numerous, especially after the 7th century B.C., but owing to the value of stone very few of their monuments have escaped destruction: even the mounds of rubbish which marked their sites furnish a valuable manure for the See also:fields and in consequence are rapidly disappearing. See also:Granite and other hard stones, having but a limited use (for millstones and the like), have the best chance of survival. At See also:Bubastis, Tanis, Behbeit (Iseum) and See also:Heliopolis considerable stone remains have been discovered. In the See also:north of the Delta wherever salt marshes have prevented cultivation in modern times, the mounds, such as those of See also:Pelusium, still stand to their full height, and the more important are covered with ruins of brick structures of See also:Byzantine and Arab date. Middle and Upper Egypt were less busy and prosperous in the later ages than Lower Egypt. There was consequently somewhat less See also:consumption of the old stone-work. Moreover, in many places equally good material could be obtained without much difficulty from the cliffs on both sides of the Nile. Yet even the buried portions of See also:limestone buildings have seldom been permitted to survive on the cultivated land; the Nubian See also:sand-stone of Upper Egypt was of comparatively little value, and, generally speaking, buildings in that material have fallen into decay rather than been destroyed by See also:quarrying. Starting from Cairo and going southward we have first the great See also:pyramid-field, with the See also:necropolis of Memphis as its centre; stretching from Abu Rash on the north to Lisht on the south, it is followed by the pyramid See also:group of Dahshur, the more isolated pyramids of Medum and Illahun, and that of Hawara in the Fayum. On the east bank are the limestone quarries of Turra and Masara opposite Memphis. South of the Fayum on the western border of the desert are the tombs of Deshasha, See also:Meir and Assiut, and on the east bank those of Beni Hasan, the See also:rock-cut temple of Speos Artemidos, the tombs of El Bersha and See also:Sheikh Said, the tombs and stelae of El Amarna with the See also:alabaster quarries of Hanub in the desert behind them, and the tombs of See also:Deir el Gebrawi. Beyond Assiut are the tombs of Dronka and Rifa, the temples of See also:Abydos and See also:Dendera, and the tombs, &c., at See also:Akhmim and Kasr es Saiyad. Farther south are the stupendous ruins of See also:Thebes on both sides of the river, the temple of See also:Esna, the ruins and tombs of El Kai), the temple of See also:Edfu, the quarries of Silsila and the temple of Ombos, followed by the inscribed rocks of the First See also:Cataract, the tombs and quarries of Assuan and the temples of See also:Philae. In Nubia, owing to the poverty of the country and its scanty population, the proportion of monuments surviving is infinitely greater than in Egypt. Here are the temples of Debod, the temple and quarries of Kertassi, the temples of Kalabsha, See also:Bet el Wali, Dendur, Gerf Husen, Dakka, Maharaka, Es-Sebu'a, `Amada and Derr, the grottos of Elles ya, the tombs of Aniba, the temple of Ibrim, the great rock-temples of Abu-Simbel, the temples at See also:Jebel See also:Adda and Wadi Halfa, the forts and temples of Semna, the temples of Amara (Meroitic) and Soleb. Beyond are the Ethiopian temples and pyramids of Jebel Barkal and the other pyramids of Napata at Tangassi, &c., the still later pyramids of Meroe at Begerawia, and the temples of Mesauwarat and Naga reaching to within 50 M. of Khartum. Outside the Nile valley on the west are temples- in the Great and Little Oases and the See also:Oasis of See also:Ammon: on the east quarries and stelae on the Hammamat road to the Red Sea, and mines and other remains at Wadi Maghara and Serabit el Khadim in the Sinai See also:peninsula. In Syria there are tablets of See also:conquest on the rocks at the mouth of the Nahr el Kelb. Of the collections of Egyptian antiquities in public museums, those of the British Museum, Leiden, Berlin, the Louvre, See also:Turin were already very important in the first half of the 19th century, also in a less degree those of See also:Florence, See also:Bologna and the Vatican. Most of these have since been greatly increased and many others have been created. By far the largest collection in the See also:world is that at Cairo. In America the museums and universities of See also:Boston, See also:Chicago, See also:Philadelphia, See also:San Francisco and New See also:York have collections of greater or less interest. Besides these the museums of See also:Edinburgh, See also:Liverpool, See also:Manchester and Oxford are noteworthy in Great Britain for their Egyptian antiquities, as are those of St See also:Petersburg, See also:Vienna, See also:Marseilles, See also:Munich, See also:Copenhagen, See also:Palermo and See also:Athens; there are also collections in most of the British colonies. Private collections are numerous. Literary Records.—In estimating the See also:sources of information regarding pre-See also:Christian Egypt, the native sources, first opened to us by Champollion, are infinitely the most important. With very few exceptions they are contemporary with the events which they record. Of the composition of history and the description of their own manners and customs by the Egyptians for posterity, few traces have reached our day. Consequently the information derived from their monuments, in spite of their great abundance, is of a fortuitous character. For one early See also:papyrus that survives, many millions must have perished. If the See also:journals of accounts, the letters and business documents, had come down to us en masse, they would no doubt have yielded to research the history and life of Egypt day by day; but those that now represent a thousand years of the Old Kingdom and Middle Kingdom together would not half fill an ordinary See also:muniment See also:chest. A larger proportion of the records on stone have survived, but that an event should be inscribed on stone depends on a variety of circumstances and not necessarily on its importance. There may seem to be a great abundance of Egyptian monuments, but they have to See also:cover an enormous space of time, and even in the periods which are best represented, gravestones recording the names of private persons with a See also:prayer or two are scarcely material for history. A scrap of See also:annals has been found extending from the earliest times to the Vth Dynasty, as well as a very fragmentary list of See also:kings reaching nearly to the end of the Middle Kingdom, to help out the scattered data of the other monuments. As to manners and customs, although we possess no systematic descriptions of them from a native source, the native artists and See also:scribes have presented us with exceptionally See also:rich materials in the painted and sculptured scenes of the tombs from the Old and Middle Kingdoms and the New Empire. For the Deltaic dynasties these sources fail absolutely, the scenes being then either purely religious or conventional imitations of the earlier ones. Fortunately the native records are largely supplemented by others: valuable information comes from See also:cuneiform literature, belonging to two widely separated periods. The first group is contemporary with the XVIIIth and XIXth Dynasties and consists in the first place of the Tell el Amarna tablets with others related to them, containing the reports of See also:governors of the Syrian possessions of Egypt, and the correspondence of the kings of See also:Babylon, See also:Assur, Mitanni and Khatti (the See also:Hittites) with the Pharaohs. The sequel to this is furnished by Winckler'$ See also:discovery of documents See also:relating to See also:Rameses II. of the XIXth Dynasty in the Hittite capital at Boghaz Keui (see also HITTITES and See also:PTERIA). The other group comprises the annals and in, scriptions of the See also:Assyrian kings Esarhaddon and Assur-bani-See also:pal, recording their invasions of Egypt under the XXVth Dynasty. There are also a few references to Egypt of later date down to the reign of See also:Darius. In See also:Hebrew literature the See also:Pentateuch, the historical books and the prophets alike contain scanty but See also:precious information regarding Egypt. Aramaic papyri written principally by See also:Jews of the Persian period (5th century B.C.). have been found at Syene and Memphis. Of all the See also:external sources the literary accounts written in Greek are the most valuable. They comprise fragments of the native historian See also:Manetho, the descriptions of Egypt in See also:Herodotus and Diodorus, the See also:geographical accounts of See also:Strabo and See also:Ptolemy, the See also:treatise of See also:Plutarch on See also:Isis and See also:Osiris and other monographs or scattered notices of less importance. Our knowledge of the history of Alexander's conquest, of the Ptolemies and of the Roman occupation is almost entirely derived from Greek sources, and in fact almost the same might be said of the history of Egypt as far back as the beginning of the XXVIth Dynasty. The non-literary Greek remains in papyri and inscriptions which are being found in great abundance throw a flood of See also:light on life in Egypt and the administration of the country from the time of Ptolemy Philadelphus to the Arab conquest. On the other hand, papyri and inscriptions in Latin are of the greatest rarity, and the literary remains in that language are of small importance for Egypt. Arabic literature appears to be entirely barren of See also:authentic information regarding the earlier condition of the country. Two centuries of unchallenged Christianity had broken almost completely the traditions of paganism, even if the Moslems had been willing to consider them, either in their fanciful accounts of the origins of cities, &c., or elsewhere. B. The Country in Ancient Times.—The native name of Egypt was Kemi (KM.T), clearly meaning " the black land," Egypt being so called from the blackness of its alluvial soil (cf. Plut. De Is. et Os. cap. 33) : in poetical inscriptions Kemi is often opposed to Toshri, " the red land," referring to the sandy deserts around, which however, would probably be included in the See also:term Kemi in its widest sense. Egypt is called in Hebrew See also:Mizraim, or- 1p, possibly a dual form describing the country in reference to its two great natural and historical divisions of Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt: but Mizraim (poetically sometimes Mazor) often means Lower Egypt, Upper Egypt being named Pathros, " the south land." In Assyrian the name was Musri, Misri: in Arabic it is Misr, pronounced See also:Mar in the vulgar See also:dialect of Egypt. These names are certainly of Semitic origin and perhaps derive from the Assyrian with the meaning " frontier-land " (see Mizoram). Winckler's theory of a separate Musri immediately south of See also:Palestine is now generally rejected (see, for instance, Ed. See also:Meyer, See also:Die Israeliten and ihre Nachbarstamme, 455). The Greek Aiyvrrros (Aegyptus) occurs as early as See also:Homer; in the Odyssey it is the name of the Nile (masc.) as well as of the country (fem.) : later it was con-fined to the country. Its origin is very obscure (see Pietschmann in Pauly-Wissowa, Realencyclopadie, s.v. " Aigyptos "). See also:Brugsch's derivation from Hakeptah, a name of the See also:northern capital, Memphis, though attractive, is unconfirmed. Egypt normally included the whole of the Nile valley from the First Cataract to the sea; pure Egyptians, however, formed the population of Lower Nubia above the Cataract in prehistoric 4.2 times; at some periods also the land was divided into separate kingdoms, while at others Egypt stretched southward into Nubia, and it generally claimed the neighbouring Libyan deserts and oases on the west and the Arabian deserts on the east to the See also:shore of the Red Sea, with Sinai and the Mediterranean See also:coast as far as Rhinocorura (El Arish). The See also:physical features in ancient times were essentially the same as at the present day. The See also:bed of the .Nile was lower: it appears to have risen by its own deposits at a rate of about 4 in. in a century. In the north of the Delta, however, there was a sinking of the land, in consequence of which the accumulations on some of the ancient sites there extend below the present sea-level. On the other hand at the south end of the Suez canal the land may have risen bodily, since the See also:head of the Gulf of Suez has been cut off by a bank of rock from the See also:Bitter lakes, which were probably joined to it in former days. The See also:banks of the Nile and the islands in it are subject to gradual but constant alteration—indeed, several ancient sites have been much eroded or 'destroyed—and the main See also:volume of the stream may in course of time be diverted into what has previously been a secondary channel. According to the classical writers, the mouths or branches of the Nile in the Delta were five in number (seven including two that were artificial) : now there are only two. In Upper Egypt the main stream tended as now to flow along the eastern edge of the valley, while to the west was a parallel stream corresponding to the See also:Bahr Yusuf. From the latter a canal or branch led to the See also:Lake of See also:Moeris, which, until the 3rd century B.C., filled the deep depression of the Fayuin, but is now represented only by the strongly brackish See also:waters of the Birket el•Kerlin, left in the deepest part. The area of alluvial land has probably not changed greatly in historic times. The principal changes that have occurred are due to the grip which civilization has taken upon the land in the course of thousands of years, often weakening but now firmer than ever. In early days no doubt the soil was cultivated in patches, but gradually a great system of canals was organized under the control of the central government, both for irrigation and for transport. The wild See also:flora of the alluvial valley was probably always restricted and eventually was reduced almost to the " weeds of cultivation," when every See also:acre of soil, at one period of the year under See also:water, and at another roasted under the burning See also:heat of a semi-tropical See also:sun, was carefully tilled. The See also:acacia abounded on the borders of the valley, but the groves were gradually cut down for the use of the See also:carpenter and the See also:charcoal-burner. The desert was full of wild life, the balance of nature being preserved by the carnivorous animals preying on the herbivorous; trees watered by soakage from the Nile protected the under-growth and encouraged occasional rainfall. But this balance was upset by the early introduction of the See also:goat and later of the camel, which destroyed the sapling trees, while the grown ones fell to the See also:axe of the woodcutter. Thus in all See also:probability the Egyptian deserts have become far poorer in animals and trees than they were in primitive times. Much of Lower Egypt was left in a wilder state than Upper Egypt. The marshy lands in the north were the resort of fishermen and fowlers, and the papyrus, the cultivation of which was a See also:regular See also:industry, protected an abundance of wild life. The See also:abandonment of papyrus culture in the 8th century A.D., the neglect of the canals, and the inroads of the sea, have converted much of that country into barren salt See also:marsh, which only years of draining and washing can restore to fertility. The rich alluvial deposits of the Nile which See also:respond so readily to the efforts of the See also:cultivator ensured the wealth of the country. Moulded into brick, without burning, this black See also:clay also supplied the common wants of the builder, and even the palaces of the greatest kings were constructed of crude brick. For more lasting and ambitious work in temples and tombs the materials could be obtained from the rocks and deserts of the Nile valley. The chief of these was limestone of varying degrees of fineness, composing the cliffs which lined the valley from the See also:apex of the Delta to the neighbourhood of El Kab; the best quality was obtained on the east See also:side opposite Memphis from the quarries of Turra{ANTIQUITIES and Masara. From El Kab southward its place was taken by Libyan See also:sandstone, soft and easily worked, but unsuitable for fine See also:sculpture. These two were the ordinary building stones. In the limestone was found the See also:flint or chert used for weapons and See also:instruments in early times. For alabaster the principal See also:quarry was that of Hanub in the desert ro m. behind El Amarna, but it was obtained elsewhere in the limestone region, including a spot near Alexandria. A hard and fine-grained See also:quartzite sandstone was quarried at Jebel Ahmar behind Heliopolis, and See also:basalt was found thence along the eastern edge of the Delta to near the Wadi Tumilat. Red granite was obtained from the First Cataract, See also:breccia and See also:diorite were quarried from very early times in the Wadi Hammamat, on the road from See also:Coptos to the Red Sea, and See also:porphyry was brought, chiefly in Roman times but also in the prehistoric age, from the same region at Jebel Dokhan. Egypt was poor in metals. See also:Gold was obtained chiefly from Nubia: See also:iron was found in small quantities in the country and at one time was worked in the neighbourhood of Assuan. Some See also:copper was obtained in Sinai. Of stones that were accounted precious Sinai produced See also:turquoise and the Egyptian deserts See also:garnet, See also:carnelian and See also:jasper. The native supply of wood for See also:industrial purposes .was exceedingly bad: there was no native wood long enough and straight enough to be used in joiners' work or sculpture without fitting and patching: See also:palm trees were abundant, and if the trees could be spared, their split stems could be used for roofing. For boatbuilding papyrus stems and acacia wood were employed, and for the best work See also:cedar-wood was imported from See also:Lebanon. Egypt was isolated by the deserts and the sea. The Nile valley afforded a passage by See also:ship or on See also:foot into Nubia, where, however, little wealth was to be sought, though gold and rarities from the Sudan, such as See also:ivory and See also:ebony, came that way and an armed See also:raid could yield a good spoil in slaves and See also:cattle. The poverty-stricken and barbarous Nubians were strong and courageous, and gladly served in Egypt as See also:mercenary soldiers and police. Through the oases also ran paths to the Sudan by which the raw merchandise of the See also:southern countries could be brought to Egypt. Eastward, roads led through the Arabian mountains to the Red Sea, whence See also:ships made voyages to the See also:incense-bearing land of Puoni (See also:Punt) on the Somali coast of See also:Africa, rich also in gold and ivory. The mines of Sinai could be reached either by sea or by land along the route of the See also:Exodus. The roads to Syria skirted the east border of the Delta and then followed the coast from near Pelusium through El Arish and See also:Gaza. A secondary road branched off through the Wadi Tumilat, whence the ways ran northwards to Syria and southwards to Sinai. On the Libyan side the oasis of See also:Siwa could be reached from the Lake of Moeris or from Terrana (Terenuthis), or by the coast route which also led to the See also:Cyrenaica. The Egyptians had some traffic on the Mediterranean from very remote times, especially with Byblus in See also:Phoenicia, the port for cedar-wood. Of the populations surrounding Egypt the negroes (Nehsi) in the south (See also:Cush) were the lowest in the scale of civilization: the people of Puoni and of See also:Libya (the Tehen, &c.) wore See also:pale in See also:colour and See also:superior to the negroes, but still show no sign of a high culture. The Syrians and the .Keftiu, the latter now identified with the Cretans and other representatives of the See also:Aegean civilization, are the only peoples who by their elaborate clothing and See also:artistic products reveal themselves upon the ancient Egyptian monuments as the equals in culture of the Egyptian nation. The Egyptians seem to have applied no distinctive name to themselves in early times: they called themselves proudly romi (RMTW), i.e. simply " men," " people," while the despised races around them, collectively U'SWT, " desert-peoples," were distinguished by special appellations. The races of mankind, including the Egyptians, were often called the Nine Archers. Ultimately the Egyptians, when their insularity disappeared under the successive dominations of See also:Ethiopia, See also:Assyria and See also:Persia, described themselves as rem-n-Kemi, " men of Egypt." Whence the population of Egypt as we trace it in prehistoric and historic times came, is not certain. The early civilization
ANTIQUITIES]
of Egypt shows remarkable coincidences with that of Babylonia, the language is of a Semitic type, the See also:religion may well be a compound of a lower See also:African and a higher See also:Asiatic order of ideas. According to the evidence of the mummies, the Egyptians were of slender build, with dark See also:hair and of Caucasian type. Dr See also:Elliott See also: The debt of civilization to Egypt as a See also:pioneer must be considerable, above all perhaps in religious thought. The moral ideals of its nameless teachers were high from an early date: their conception of an after-life was exceedingly vivid: the piety of the Egyptians in the later days was a See also:matter of wonder and scoffing to their contemporaries; it is generally agreed that certain features in the development of Christianity are to be traced to Egypt as their birthplace and nidus. For researches into the ethnography of Egypt and the neighbouring countries, see W. Max Miiller, Asien and See also:Europa nach den alkig. Inschriften (See also:Leipzig, 1893), Egyptological Researches (Washing-ton, 1906); for measurements of Egyptian skulls, See also:Miss See also:Fawcett in Biometrika (1902); A. See also:Thomson and D. See also:Randall-Maclver, The Ancient Races of the Thebaid (Oxford, 1905) (cf. criticisms in Man, 1905; and for comparisons with modern measurements, C. S. See also:Myers, Journ. Anthropological Institute, 1905, 8o). W. Flinders Petrie has collected and discussed a series of facial types shown in prehistoric and early Egyptian sculpture, See also:Journal Anthropological Institute, 1901, 248. For Elliott Smith's results see The Cairo Scientific Journal, No. 30, vol. iii., March 1909. Divisions.—In ancient times Egypt was divided into two regions, representing the kingdoms that existed before See also:Menes. Lower Egypt, comprising the Delta and its borders, formed the " North Land," To-meh, and reached up the valley to include Memphis and its See also:province or " See also:nome," while the See also:remainder of the _l1 Egyptian Nile valley was " the South,' Shema (M'w). The south, if only as the See also:abode of the sun, always had the See also:precedence over the north in Egypt, and the west over the east. Later the two regions were known respectively as P-to-res (Pathros), " the south land," and P-to-meh, " the north land." In practical administration this historic distinction was sometimes observed, at others ignored, but in religious tradition it had a See also:firm hold. In Roman times a different system marked off a third region, namely Middle Egypt, from the point of the Delta southward. Theoretically, as its name Heptanomis implies, this division contained seven nomes, actually from the Hermopolite on the south to the Memphite on the north (excluding the Arsinoite according to the papyri). Some tendency to this existed earlier. Egypt to the south of the Heptanomis was the Thebais, called P-tesh-en-Ne, " the province of Thebes," as early as the XXVItha common badge but distinguished as " nearer " or " further," i.e " northern " or " southern," have simply been split; as they are contiguous: in one case, however, corresponding " eastern " and " western " See also:Harpoon nomes are widely separated on opposite sides of the Delta. In a few cases, such as " the West," " the Beginning of the East," it is obvious that the names are derived solely from their geographical situation. It is quite possible that the divisions are geographical in the main, but it seems likely that there were also religious, tribal and other historical reasons for them. How their boundaries were determined is not certain: in Upper Egypt in many cases a single nome embraced both sides of the river. The number and nomenclature of the nomes were never absolutely fixed. In temples of Ptolemaic and Roman age the full series is figured presenting their tribute to the See also:god, and this series approximately agrees with the scattered data of early monuments. The normal number of the nomes in the sacred lists appears to be 42, of which 22 belonged to Upper Egypt and 20 to Lower Egypt. In reality again these nome-divisions were treated with considerable freedom, being split or reunited and their boundaries readjusted. Each nome had its See also:metropolis, normally the seat of a governor or nomarch and the centre of its religious observances. During the New Empire, except at the beginning, the nomes seem to have been almost entirely ignored: under the Deltaic dynasties (except of course in the traditions of the sacred writing) they were named after the metropolis, as " the province (tosh) of See also:Busiris," " the province of See also:Sais," &c.: hence the Greek names Bouvipirns voµos, &c. The Arsinoite nome was added by the Ptolemies after the draining of the Lake of Moeris (q.v.), and in the later Ptolemaic and the Roman times many changes and additions to the list must have been made. In Christian texts the " provinces " appear to have been very numerous. See H. Brugsch, Geographische Inschriften altdgyptischer Denkmdler (3 vols., Leipzig, 1857-1860), and for the nomes on monuments of the Old Kingdom, N. de G. See also:Davies, See also:Mastaba of Ptahhetep and Akhethetep (London, 1901), p. 24 et sqq.
See also: If Upper and Lower Egypt represented ancient kingdoms, the nomes have been thought to carry on the traditions of tribal settlements. They are found in inscriptions as early as the end of the IIIrd Dynasty, and the very name of See also:Thoth, and that of another very ancient god, are derived from those of two contiguous nomes in Lower Egypt. The names are written by special emblems placed on See also:standards, such as an See also:ibis , a See also:jackal v See also:hare , a feathered See also:crown a See also:sistrum 'SF' "—T' a blade , &c., suggesting tribal badges. Some nomes having Often, especially in the XIIth Dynasty, the king associated his See also:heir on the throne with him to ensure the succession. From time to time feudal conditions prevailed: the great landowners and local princes had establishments of their own on the See also:model of the royal See also:court, and were with difficulty kept in order by the monarch. In rare cases during the Middle Kingdom (inscriptions in the See also:tomb of Ameni at Beni Hasan, graffiti in the quarries of Hanub) documents were dated in the years of reign of these feudatory nobles. Under the Empire all power was again centralized in the hands of the Pharaoh. The See also:apportionment of duties amongst the swarm of officials varied from age to age, as did their titles. Members of the royal family generally held high office. Under the Empire Egypt was administered by a vast bureaucracy, at the head of which, responsible to the king, was the vizier, or sometimes two viziers, one for Upper Egypt, the other for Lower Egypt (in which case the former, stationed at Thebes, had the precedence). The duties of the vizier and the procedure in his court are detailed in a long inscription which is repeated in three tombs of the XVIIIth Dynasty at Thebes (Breasted, Records, ii. § 663 et segq.). The strictest impartiality was enjoined upon him, and he was advised to hold aloof from the people in order to preserve his authority. The office of vizier was by no means a See also:sinecure. All the business of the country was overlooked by him—treasury, taxation, army, law-courts, expeditions of every kind. Egypt was the vast See also:estate of Pharaoh, and the vizier was the steward of it. Army.—The youth of Egypt was liable to be called upon for service in the field under the local chiefs. Their training consisted of gymnastic and warlike exercises which developed strength and discipline that would be as useful in executing public works and in dragging large monuments as in strictly military service. They were armed in separate companies with bows and arrows, spears, daggers and See also:shields, and the officers carried battle-axes and maces. The army, commanded in chief by Una under the Vlth Dynasty for raids in Sinai or Palestine, comprised levies from every part of Egypt and from Nubia, each under its own leader. Under the New Empire, when Egypt was almost a military state, the army was a more specialized institution, the See also:art of war in See also:siege and See also:strategy had developed, divisions were formed with special standards, there were regiments armed with battle-axes and scimitars, and chariots formed an essential part of the See also:host. Egyptian cavalry are not represented upon the monuments, and we hear little of such at any time. Herodotus divides the army into two classes, the Calasiries and the Hermotybies; these names, although he was not aware of it, mean respectively See also:horse- and foot-soldiers, but it is possible that the former name was only traditional and had characterized those who fought from chariots, a mode of warfare that was obsolete in Herodotus's own day: as a matter of fact both classes are said to have served on the warships of See also:Xerxes' See also:fleet. Arms and See also:Armour.—From the contents of See also:graves and other remains, and the sculptured and painted scenes, an approximate idea can be obtained of the weapons of the Egyptians at all periods from the prehistoric age onwards. Only a few points are here noted. Stone See also:mace-heads are found in the earliest cemeteries, together with flint implements that may be the heads of lances, &c., and thin See also:leaf-shaped daggers of See also:bronze. Stone arrow-heads are common on the See also:surface of the desert. Thin bronze arrow-heads appear at an early date; under the Empire they are stouter and furnished with a tang, and later still, towards the Greek period, they are socketed (often three-sided), or, if of iron, still tanged. The wooden See also:club, a somewhat primitive weapon, seems to have been considered characteristic of foreigners from very early times, and, in scenes dating from the Middle Kingdom, belong principally to the levies from the surrounding barbarians. The See also:dagger grew longer and stouter, but the sword made its See also:appearance See also:late, probably first in the hands of the Sherdana (Sardinian?), mercenaries of the time of Rameses II. A See also:peculiar See also:scimitar, khopsh ?, is characteristic of the Empire. Slings are first heard of in Egyptian warfare in the 8th century B.C. The See also:chariot was doubtless introduced with the horse in the See also:Hyksos period; several examples have been discovered in the tombs of the New Kingdom. Shields were covered with ox-hide and furnished with round sighting-holes above the middle. Cuirasses of bronze scales were worn by the kings and other leaders. The See also:linen corslets of the Egyptian soldiery at a later time were famous, and were adopted by the Persian army. According to the paintings of the Middle Kingdom in the tombs of Beni Hasan, the battlements of brick fortresses were attacked and wrenched away with long and massive spears. No siege engines are depicted, even in the time of the Empire,, and the absence of See also:original representations after the XXth Dynasty renders it difficult to See also:judge the advances made in the art of war during the first half of the last See also:millennium B.C. The inscription of Pankhi, however, proves that in the 8th century approaches and towers were raised against the walls of besieged cities. Priesthood.—The priesthood was in a great degree hereditary, though perhaps not essentially so. In each temple the priests were divided into four orders (until Ptolemy Euergetes added a fifth), each of which served in turn for a lunar See also:month under the chief See also:priest or See also:prophet. They received shares of the annual revenues of the temple in kind, consisting of linen, oil, flesh, bread, vegetables, See also:wine, See also:beer, &c. The " divine servants " or " prophets " had residences assigned them in the temple area In late times the priests were always shaven, and paid the greatest attention to cleanliness and ceremonial purity already implied in their ancient name. See also:Fish and beans then were abhorred by them. Among the priests were the most learned men of Egypt, but probably many were illiterate. For the Hellenistic period see W. See also:Otto, Priester and Tempel See also:im hellenistichen Agypten (Leipzig, 1905 See also:foil.). For ancient Egyptian life and civilization in all departments, the principal work is Ad. See also:Erman, Life in Ancient Egypt, translated by H. M. See also:Tirard (London, 1894), (the original Agypten and dgyptisches Leben im Altertum, 2 vols., was published in 1885 at See also:Tubingen) ; G. Maspero, Life in Ancient Egypt and Assyria, translated by A. P. See also:Morton (London, 1892), (Lectures historiques, Paris, 1890); also J. G. See also:Wilkinson, Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians, new ed. by S. See also:Birch (3 vols., London, 1878). The annual Archaeological Reports of the Egypt Exploration Fund contain summaries of the work done each year in the several departments of research. Of the innumerable publications of Egyptian monuments, scenes and inscriptions, C. R. Lepsius, Denkmdler aus Agypten and Athiopien (Berlin, 1849-1859), and See also:Memoirs of the Archaeological Survey of the Egypt Exploration Fund, may be specified. For antiquities in museums there is the sumptuous See also:Catalogue general des antiquites egyptiennes du musee de Caire; for excavations the Memoirs of the Egypt Exploration Fund, of the Research Account, of the British School of Archaeology, of the Liverpool School of Archaeology, of the Deutsche Oricnt-Gesellschaft, of the Hearst Egyptian Expedition, of the See also:Theodore M. See also:Davis excavations (Tombs of the Kings). See also:Trade and Money.—There is little evidence to show how buying and selling were carried on in ancient Egypt. A unique See also:scene in a tomb of the IVth Dynasty, however, shows men and See also:women exchanging commodities against each other—fish, fish-hooks, fans, necklaces, &c. Probably this was a market in the open See also:air such as is held weekly at the present time in every considerable village. Rings of See also:metal, gold, silver and bronze played some part in See also:exchange, and from the Hyksos period onwards formed the usual standards by which articles of all kinds might be valued. In the XVIIIth Dynasty the value of meat, &c., was reckoned in gold; somewhat later copper seems the commonest standard, and under the Deltaic dynasties silver. But See also:barter must have prevailed much longer. The precious metals were kept in the temples under the tutelage of the deities. During the XXVth and XXVIth Dynasties silver of the treasury of Harshafe (at Heracleopolis Magna) was commonly prescribed in contracts, and in the reign of Darius we hear of silver of the treasury of Ptah (at Memphis). Aryandes, See also:satrap of Egypt, is said by Herodotus to have been punished by Darius for coining money of equal fineness with that of the king in Persia: thus coinage had then begun in Egypt. But the early coins that have been found there are mainly Greek, and especially Athenian, and it was not until the introduction of a regular currency in the three metals under the Ptolemies that much use was made of coined money. See also:Corn was the See also:staple produce of Egypt and may have been exported regularly, and especially when there was See also:famine in other countries. In the Tell el-Amarna letters the friendly kings ask Pharaoh for " much gold." Papyrus rolls and fine linen were good merchandise in Phoenicia in the loth century B.C. From the earliest times Egypt was dependent on foreign countries to supply its wants in some degree. Vessels were fashioned in foreign stone as early as the Ist Dynasty. All silver must have been imported, and all copper except a little that the Pharaohs obtained from the mines of Sinai. Cedar wood was brought from the forests of Lebanon, ivory, See also:leopard skins and gold from the south, all kinds of spices and ingredients of incense from See also:Somaliland and Arabia, fine linen and beautifully worked vessels from Syria and the islands. Such supplies might be obtained by forcible raiding or as tribute of conquered countries, or perhaps as the free offerings of See also:simple savages awed by the arrival of ships and civilized well-armed crews, or again by royal See also:missions in which rich gifts on both sides were exchanged, or lastly by private trading. For deciding how large a share was due to trade, there is almost no evidence. But there are records of expeditions sent out by the king to obtain the rarities of different countries, and the hero of the See also:Story of the Shipwrecked Sailor was upon this quest. Egyptian objects of the age of the XVIIIth Dynasty are found in the Greek islands and on the mainland among remains of the Mycenaean See also:epoch, and on the other hand the products of the workshops of Crete and other centres of that culture are found in Egypt and are figured as " tribute of the Keftiu " in the tomb-paintings, though we have no information of any war with or conquest of that people. It must be a case of trade rather than tribute here and in like instances. According to the papyrus of Unamun at the end of the weak XXth Dynastypaymentforcedarwasinsisted on by the king of Byblus from the Egyptian See also:commissioner, and proofs were shown to him of payment having been made even in the more glorious times of Egypt. Trade both internal and external must have been largely in the hands of foreigners. It is impossible to say at what period Phoenician traffic by sea with Egypt began, but it existed as early as the IIIrd Dynasty. In the time of Herodotus much wine was imported from Syria and See also:Greece. See also:Amasis II. (c. 570 B.C.) established See also:Naucratis as the centre of Greek trade in Egypt. Financial transactions by Jews settled at the southern extremity of Egypt, at Assuan, are found as early as the reign of See also:Artaxerxes. Hunting, Fishing, &'c.—In the desert hunting was carried on by hunters with bows and arrows, See also:dogs and nets to check the See also:game. Here in ancient times were found the See also:oryx, See also:addax, See also:ibex, gazelle, bubale, See also:ostrich, See also:hyena and See also:porcupine, more rarely the wild ox and wild See also:sheep (O. tragelaphus). All of these were considered See also:fit for the table. The See also:lion, leopard and jackal were not eaten. Pigeons and other birds were caught in traps, and quails were netted in the fields and on the sea-shore. In the papyrus marshes the See also:hippopotamus was slain with harpoons, the wild See also:boar, too, was probably hunted, and the sportsman brought down wild-See also:fowl with the See also:boomerang, or speared or angled for fish. Enormous quantities of wild-fowl of many sorts were taken in clap-nets, to be preserved in jars with salt. Fish were taken sometimes in hand-nets, but the professional See also:fisher-men with their draw-nets caught them in shoals. The fishing industry was of great importance: the annual catch in the Lake of Moeris and its canal formed an important part of the Egyptian revenue. The fish of the Nile, which were of many kinds (including mullets, &c., which came up from the sea), were split and dried in the sun: others were salted and so preserved. A supply of sea fish would be obtained off the coast of the Delta and at the mouth of the Lake Serbonis. Farming, See also:Horticulture, &'c.—The wealth of Egypt See also:lay in its agriculture. The regular inundations, the ease of irrigating the rich alluvial flats, and the great heat of the sun in a cloudless See also:sky, while limiting the natural flora, gave immense opportunities to the industrious See also:farmer. The normal rise of the Nile wassixteen cubits at the island of Roda, and two cubits more or less caused a failure of the harvest. In the paintings we see gardens irrigated by handbuckets and shadufs; the latter (buckets hung on a See also:lever-See also:pole) were probably the usual means of raising water for the fields in ancient times, and still are common in Egypt and Nubia, although water-wheels have been known since the Ptolemaic age, if not earlier. Probably a certain amount of cultivation was possible all the year round, and there was perhaps a succession of harvests; but there was a pause after the main harvests were gathered in by the end of April, and from then till June was the period in which taxes were collected and loans were repaid. Under the Ptolemaic regime the records show a great variety of crops, See also:wheat and See also:barley being probably the largest (see B. P. Grenfell and A. S. Hunt, Tebtunis Papyri, i. 560; J. P. See also:Mahaffy and J. G. Smyly, Petrie Papyri, iii. p. 205). Earlier the boti, in Greek bXOpa (spelt ? or See also:durra ?) was the main See also:crop, and earlier again inferior varieties of wheat and barley took the lead, with See also:boll apparently in the second place. The bread was mainly made of boti, the beer of barley. There were See also:green crops such as See also:clover, and lentils, peas, beans, radishes, onions, lettuces (as a vegetable and for oil), See also:castor oil and See also:flax were grown. The principal See also:fruit trees were the date palm, useful also for its wood and fibre, the See also:pomegranate, fig and fig-sycamore. The See also:vine was much cultivated in early times, and the vintage is a subject frequently depicted. Later the wine of the Mareotic region near Alexandria was celebrated even amongst Roman epicures. Papyrus, which grew wild in the marshes, was also cultivated, at least in the later ages: its stems were used for See also:boat-building, and according to the classical authors for rope-making, as well as for the famous writing material. About the 8th century A.D. paper drove the latter out of use, and the papyrus plant quickly became See also:extinct. The Indian See also:lotus described by Herodotus is found in deposits of the Roman age. Native lotuses, blue and See also: Petrie, Hawara, Biahmu, and See also:Arsinoe (London, 1889) ; Kahun, Gurob and Hawara (1890) ; V. Loret, La Flare pharaonique (2nd ed., Paris, 1892), and the authorities there cited. Domestic Animals and Birds.—The farmer kept up a large stock of animals: in the houses there were pets and in the temples sacred creatures of many kinds. Goats browsed on the trees and herbage at the edge of the desert. Sheep of a peculiar breed with See also:horizontal See also:twisted horns and hairy coat are figured on the earliest monuments: a more valuable variety, woolly with curved horns, made its appearance in the Middle Kingdom and pushed out the older form: sheep were driven into the ploughed fields to break the clods and trample in the See also:seed. The oxen were long-horned, short-horned and polled. They See also:drew the plough, trampled the corn sheaves round the circular threshing See also:floor, and were sometimes employed to See also:drag heavy weights. The See also:pig is rarely figured and was less and less tolerated as the Egyptians grew in ceremonial purity. A;variety of wild animals caught in the See also:chase were kept alive and fed for slaughter. Geese and ducks of different sorts were bred in countless numbers by the farmers, also pigeons and quails, and in the early ages See also:cranes. The domestic fowl was unknown in Egypt before the Deltaic dynasties, but Diodorus in the first century B.C. describes how its eggs were hatched artificially, as they are at the present day. See also:Bee-keeping, too, must have been a considerable industry, though dates furnished a supply of sweetening material. The See also:farm lands were generally held at a See also:rent from an overlord, who might according to times and circumstances be the king, a feudal prince, or a temple-See also:corporation. The stock also might be similarly held, or might belong to the farmers. The ordinary beast of burden, even in the desert, was the See also:ass. The horse seems to have been introduced with the chariot during the Hyksos period. It is thought that the camel is shown in See also:rude figures of the earliest age, but it is scarcely traceable again before the XXVIth Dynasty. In the Ptolemaic period it was used for desert transport and gradually became common. Strange to say, it is only very rarely that men are depicted See also:riding on animals, and never before the New Kingdom. The See also:dog was of many varieties as early as the XIIth Dynasty, when the greyhound and turnspit and other well-marked forms are seen. The See also:cat was sometimes trained by the sportsman to catch birds. Monkeys were commonly kept as pets. The sacred beasts in the various temples, tame as far as possible, were of almost every conceivable variety, from the See also:vulture to the See also:swallow or the See also:goose, from the lion to the See also:shrew-See also:mouse, from the hippopotamus to the sheep and the See also:monkey, from the See also:crocodile to the See also:tortoise and the cobra, from the See also:carp to the See also:eel; the See also:scorpion and the See also:scarab See also:beetle were perhaps the strangest in this strange company of deities. For agriculture see J. J. See also:Tylor and F. Ll. See also:Griffith, The Tomb of Paheri at El Kab, in the Xlth Memoir of the Egypt Exploration Fund. Together with hunting and fishing 'it is illustrated in many of the Memoirs of the Archaeological Survey of the same society. See also Lortet and M. C. See also:Gaillard, La Faune momifiee de l'ancienne Egypte (Lyons, 1905). Law.—No code of Egyptian See also:laws has come down to us. Diodorus names a series of Egyptian kings who were law-givers, ending with Amasis (Ahmosi II.) and Darius. Frequent reference is made in inscriptions to customs andlaws which were traditional, and perhaps had been codified in the sacred books. From time to time regulations on special points were issued by royal decree: a fragment of such a decree, directed by Horemheb of theXVIIIth Dynasty against oppression of the peasantry by officials and prescribing penalties, is preserved on a stela in the temple of See also:Karnak, and enactments of Ptolemy Philadelphus and Euergetes II. are known from papyri. In the Ptolemaic age matters arising out of native contracts were decided according to native law by )saoKpirai, while travelling courts of Xpfµarurrai representing the king settled litigation on Greek contracts and most other disputes. Affairs were decided in accordance with the code of the country, rfIIs Xwpas voµoy the Greek code, Ir0X6r6Koi voµoy modelled, it would seem, on Athenian law or royal decrees, apovrayµara. " Native " law was still quoted in Roman times, but the significance of the expression remains to be ascertained. In ancient Egypt petitions were sent to the king or the great feudal landowners in whose territory the petitioner or his adversary dwelt or the injury was committed: courts were composed of royal or feudal officials, or in the New Kingdom of officials or responsible citizens. The right of appeal to the king probably existed at all times. The statement of the case and the evidence were frequently ordered to be put in writing. the evidence was supported by See also:oath: in criminal cases, such as the harem See also:conspiracy against Rameses III., See also:torture of the accused was resorted to to See also:extract evidence, the See also:bastinado being applied on the hands and the feet. Penalties in the New Kingdom were death (by See also:starvation or self-inflicted), fines, beating with a certain number of blows so as to open a specified number of wounds on as many different parts of the body (e.g. five wounds, i.e. on hands, feet and back?), also cutting off the See also:nose with banishment to Nubia or the Syrian frontier. In the times of the OldKingdom decapitation was in use, and a decree exists of the Middle Kingdom degrading a nomarch of Coptos and his family for ever from his office and from the priesthood on account of services to a See also:rival pretender. As to legal instruments: contracts agreed to in public or before witnesses and written on papyrus are found as early as the Middle Kingdom and perhaps belong to all historic times, but are very scarce until the XXVth Dynasty. Two See also:wills exist on papyrus of the XIIth Dynasty, but they are isolated, and such are not again found among native documents, though they occur in Greek in the Ptolemaic age. The virtual will of a high priest of Ammon under the XXIInd Dynasty is put in the form of a decree of the god himself. From the time of the XXVth Dynasty there is a great increase in written documents of a legal character, sales, loans, &c., apparently due to a change in law and See also:custom; but after the reign of Darius I. there is again almost a complete cessation until the reign of Alexander, probably only because of the disturbed condition of the country. Under Ptolemy Philadelphus Greek documents begin to be numerous: under Euergetes II. (Physcon) See also:demotic contracts are particularly abundant, but they cease entirely after the first century of Roman rule. Marriage contracts are not found earlier than the XXVIth Dynasty. Women had full powers of inheritance (though not of dealing with their property), and succession through the See also:mother was of importance. In the royal line there are almost certain instances of the marriage of a See also:brother with an heiress-See also:sister in Pharaonic times: this was perhaps helped by the See also:analogy of Osiris and Isis: in the Ptolemaic dynasty it was an established custom, and one of the stories of Khamois, written in the Ptolemaic age, assumes its frequency at a very remote date. It would be no surprise to find examples of the practice in other ranks also at an early period, as it certainly was prevalent in the Hellenistic age, but as yet it is very difficult to prove its occurrence. The native contracts with the wife gave to her See also:child all the See also:husband's property, and See also:divorce or separation was provided for, entailing See also:forfeiture of the See also:dowry. The " native law " of Roman times allowed a man to take his daughter away from her husband if the last quarrelled with him. See also:Slavery is traceable from an early date. Private ownership of slaves, captured in war and given by the king to their captor or otherwise, is certainly seen at the beginning of the XVIIIth Dynasty. Sales of slaves occur in the XXVth Dynasty, and contracts of See also:servitude are found in the XXVIth Dynasty and in the reign of Darius, appearing as if the consent of the slave was then required. Presumably at this late period there were eunuchs in Egypt, though adequate evidence of their existence there is not yet forthcoming. They must have originated among a more cruel people. That See also:circumcision (though perhaps not till See also:puberty) was regularly practised is proved by the mummies (agreeing with the testimony of Herodotus and the indications of the early tomb sculptures) until an See also:edict of See also:Hadrian forbade it: after that, only priests were circumcised. See A. H. See also:Gardiner, The Inscription of See also:Mes (from„Sethe's Untersuchungen zur Geschichte and Altertumskunde Agyptens, iv.) ; J. H. Breasted, Ancient Records, Egypt, passim, esp. i. § 190, 535 et seqq., 773, ii. 54, 671, iii. 45, 367, 1v. 416, 499, 795 ; F. Ll. Griffith, Catalogue of the John See also:Rylands Demotic Papyri; B. P. Grenfell and J. P. Mahaffy, Revenue Laws of Philadelphus (Oxford, 1896); B. P. Grenfell and A. S. Hunt, Tebtunis Papyri, part i. (London, 1902) ; Bouche-Leclercq, Histoire des Lagides, tome iv. (Paris, 1907). See also:Science.—The Egyptians sought little after knowledge for its own See also:sake: they might indulge in religious See also:speculation, but their science was no more than the knowledge of practical methods. Undoubtedly the Egyptians acquired great skillinthe application of simple means to the fulfilment of the most difficult tasks. But the books that have come down to us prove how greatly their written theoretical knowledge fell short of their practical accomplishment. The explanation of the fact may partly be that the See also:mechanical and other discoveries of the most ingenious minds among them, when not in constant requisition by later generations, were misunderstood or forgotten, and even in other cases were preserved only as rules of thumb by the craftsmen and experts, who would jealously hide them as secrets of trade. Men of See also:genius were not wanting in the long history of Egypt; two doctors, Imhotp (Imuthes), the architect of Zoser, in the IIIrd Dynasty, and Amenophis (Amenhotp), son of Hap, the wise See also:scribe under Amenophis III. in the XVIIIth, eventually received the honours of deification; and Hardadf under See also:Cheops of the IVth Dynasty was little behind these two in the estimation of posterity. Such men, who, capable in every field, designed the Great Pyramids and bestowed the highest monumental fame on their masters, must surely have had an insight into scientific principles that would hardly be credited to the Egyptians from the written documents alone. See also:Mathematics.—The Egyptian notation for whole numbers was decimal, each power of to up to too,000 being represented by a different figure, on much the same principle as the Roman numerals. Fractions except * were all See also:primary, i.e. with the numerator unity: in order to See also:express such an idea as 19g- the Egyptians were obliged to reduce it to a series of primary fractions through double fractions T28-+I-2a+12a-+ = 4(i+ inscribed objects in the Berlin Museum; these are a palm branch sl-r-I-1 o a) -h3 = i++ =1 -I-'s+-21&+-h+ ' ; this operation was performed in the head, only the result being written down, and to facilitate it tables were drawn up of the division of 2 by See also:odd numbers. With integers, besides adding and subtracting, it was easy to double and to multiply by ro: multiplying and dividing by 5 and finding the 12 value were also among the fundamental instruments of calculation, and all multiplication proceeded by repetitions of these processes with addition, e.g. 9 X 7 = (9 X 2 X 2)+ (9 X 2) +9. Division was accomplished by multiplying the divisor until the See also:dividend was reached; the See also:answer being the number of times the divisor was so multi-plied. Weights and See also:measures proceeded generally on either a decimal or a doubling system or a See also:combination of the two. Apart from a few calculations and accounts, practically all the materials for our knowledge of Egyptian mathematics before the Hellenistic period date from the Middle Kingdom. The principal See also:text is the Rhind Mathematical Papyrus in the British Museum, written under a Hyksos king c. 160o B.C.; unfortunately it is full of See also:gross errors. Its contents fall roughly into the following scheme, but the main headings are not shown in the original: I. See also:Arithmetic.—A. Tables and rule to facilitate the employment of fractions. (a) Table of the divisions of 2 by odd numbers from 3 to 99 (e.g. 2 =11 = l + ), see above. (b) Conversions of compound fractions (e.g. $ X i = i+A) , with rule for finding fS of a fraction. B. The " bread " calculation—a division by ro of the units 1 to 9. C. Completing " calculations. (a) Adding multiples of a fraction to produce a more convenient fraction (perhaps connected with the use of palms and cubits in decoration in a proportion based on the number 8). (b) Finding the difference between a given fraction and a given whole number. D. Ahe 1 or " mass "-problems (of the form x-I-n =a, to find the ahe x). E. Tooun- problems (tooun, " rising," seems to be the difference between the shares of two sets of persons dividing an amount between them on a lower and a higher scale). II. See also:Geometry.—A. Measurement of volume (amounts of See also:grain in cylindrical and rectangular spaces of different dimensions and See also:vice versa). B. Measurement of area (areas of square, circular, triangular, &c., fields). C. Proportions of pyramids and other monuments with sloping sides. The method of estimating the area of irregular fields and the cubic contents of See also:granaries, &c., is very faulty. It would be interesting to find material of later date, such as See also:Pythagoras is reported to have studied. See A. Eisenlohr, Ein mathematisches Handbuch der See also:alien Agypter (Leipzig, 1877) F. Ll. Griffith, " The Rhind Mathematical Papyrus" in Proceedings of the See also:Soc. of Biblical Archaeology, Nov. 1891, March, May and June 1894. See also:Astronomy.—The brilliant skies of day and See also:night in Egypt favoured the development of astronomy. A papyrus of the Roman period in the British Museum attributes the invention of horoscopes to the Egyptians, but no early instance is known. Professor Petrie has indeed suggested, chiefly on See also:chronological grounds, that a table of stars on the See also:ceiling of the Ramesseum temple and another in the tomb of Rameses VI. (repeated in that of Rameses IX. without alteration) were horoscopes of Rameses II. and VI.; but Mahler's See also:interpretation of the tables on which this would rest appears to be false. Astronomy played a considerable part in religious matters for fixing the dates of festivals and determining the hours of the night. The titles of several temple books are preserved recording the movements and phases of the sun, See also:moon and stars. The rising of Sothis (Sirius) at the beginning of the inundation was a particularly important point to See also:fix in the yearly See also:calendar (see below, § " See also:Chronology ") . The primitive See also:clock 2 of the temple time-keeper (horoscopus), consisting of a wpoXGytov Kai Oolvtxa (Clemens Alex. Strom., vi. 4. 35), has been identified with two ' Formerly transcribed hau or " heap "-problems. 2 Clepsydras inscribed in hieroglyphic are found soon after the Macedonian conquest.with a sight-slit in the broader end, and a short handle from which a plummet line was hung. The former was held close to the eye, the latter in the other hand, perhaps at arm's length. From the above-mentioned tables of See also:culmination in the tombs of Rameses VI. and IX. it seems that for fixing the hours of the I night a man seated on the ground faced the horoscopus in such a position that the line of observation of the Pole-See also:star passed over the middle of his head. On the different days of the year each I See also:hour was determined by a fixed star culminating or nearly culminating in it, and the position of these stars at the time is given in the tables as " in the centre," " on the left eye," " on the right shoulder," &c. According to the texts, in See also:founding or rebuilding temples the north See also:axis was determined by the same apparatus, and we may conclude that it was the usual one for astronomical observations. It is conceivable that in ingenious and careful hands it might give results of .a high degree of accuracy. See L. Borchardt, "Ein altagyptisches astronomisches Instrument " in Zeitschrift See also:fur dgyptische Sprache, See also:xxxvii. (1899), p. 10; Ed. Meyer, Agyptische Chronologie, p. 36. Besides the sun and moon, five See also:planets, See also:thirty-six dekans, and constellations to which animal and other forms are given, appear in the early astronomical texts and paintings. The zodiacal signs were not introduced till the Ptolemaic period. See H. Brugsch, Die Agyptologie (Leipzig, 1891), pp. 315 et seqq., for a full account of all these. See also:Medicine.—Except that splints are sometimes found on the limbs of bodies of all periods, at present nothing is known, from texts or otherwise, of the existence of Egyptian See also:surgery or See also:dentistry. For historical See also:pathology the examination of mummies and skeletons is yielding good results. There is little sign of the existence of See also:gout or of syphilitic diseases until late times (see See also:MUMMY). A number of papyri have been discovered containing medical prescriptions. The earliest are of the XIIth Dynasty from Kahan, one being veterinary, the other gynaecological. The finest non-religious papyrus known, the See also:Ebers Papyrus, is a vast collection of receipts. One section, giving us some of the mysteries of the physician," shows how lamentably crude were his notions of the constitution of the body. It teaches little more than that the See also:pulse is See also:felt in every part of the body, that there are vessels leading from the See also:heart to the eyes, ears, nose and all the other members, and that " the breath entering the nose goes to the heart and the lungs." The prescriptions are for a great variety of ailments and afflictions—diseases of the eye and the See also:stomach, sores and broken bones, to make the hair grow, to keep away See also:snakes, fleas, &c. Purgatives and diuretics are particularly numerous, and the medicines take the form of pillules, See also:draughts, liniments, fumigations, &c. The prescriptions are often fanciful and may thus bear some absurd relation to the disease to be cured, but generally they would be to some extent effective. Their action was assisted by spells, for general use in the preparation or application, or for special diseases. In most cases several ingredients are prescribed together: when the amounts are indicated it is by measure not by weight, and evidently no very potent drugs were employed, for the smallest measure specified is equal to about half of a cubic See also:inch. Little has yet been accomplished in identifying the diseases and the substances named in the medical papyri. See G. A. Reisner, The Hearst Medical Papyrus (Leipzig, 1905), (XVIIIth Dynasty), and for a great magical text of the Roman period (3rd century A.D.) with some prescriptions, F. Ll. Griffith and H. See also:Thompson, The Demotic Magical Papyrus of London and Leiden (London, 1904). Literature.—The vast mass of writing which has come down to us from the ancient Egyptians comprises documents of almost every conceivable kind, business documents and correspondence, legal documents, memorial inscriptions, historical, scientific, didactic, magical and religious literature; also tales and lyrics and other compositions in poetical language. Most of these classes are dealt with in this article under special headings. In addition there should be mentioned the abundant explanatory inscriptions attached to See also:wall-scenes as a secondary See also:element in those compositions. As early as the Middle Kingdom, papyri are found containing classified lists of words, titles, names of cities, &c., and of nomes with their capitals, festivals, deities and sacred things, calendars, &c. To a great extent the standard works in all classes date from an early age, not later than the Middle Kingdom, and subsequent works of religion and learning like the later additions were largely written in the same See also:style. Several books of See also:proverbs or " instructions " were put in circulation during the Middle King-dom. Kagemni and Ptahhotp of the Old Kingdom were nominally or really the instructors in manners: King Amenemhe I. laid down the principles of conduct in government for his son Senwosri I., See also:preaching on the text of beneficence rewarded by treachery; Kheti points out in detail to his schoolboy son Pepi the advantages enjoyed by scribes and the miseries of all other careers. Some of these books are known only in copies of the New Kingdom. The instructions of See also:Ani to his son Khenshotp are of later date. In demotic the most notable of such works is a papyrus of the first century A.D. at Leiden. A number of Egyptian tales are known, dating from the Middle Kingdom and later. Some are so sober and realistic as to make it doubtful whether they are not true See also:biographies and narratives of actual events. Such are the story of Sinuhi, a fugitive to Syria in the reign of See also:Sesostris [Senwosri] I., and perhaps the narrative of Unamun of his expedition in quest of cedar wood for the bark of the Theban Ammon in the XXIst Dynasty. Others are highly imaginative or with miraculous incidents, like the story of the Predestined Prince and the story of the Two See also:Brothers, which begins with a pleasing picture of the industrious farmer, and, in demotic of the Ptolemaic and Roman periods, two stories of the learned Sethon Khamois, son of Rameses II. and high priest of Ptah, with his rather tragical experiences at the hands of magicians. The stories of the Middle Kingdom were in choice diction, large portions of them being rhetorical or poetical compositions attributed to the principal characters. The story of Sinuhi is of this description and was much read during the New Kingdom. Another, of the Eloquent See also:Peasant whose ass had been stolen, was only a framework to the See also:rhetoric of endless petitions. The See also:tale of the Shipwrecked Sailor in the Red Sea was a piece of simpler writing, not unpicturesque, of the marvellous type of a Sindbad story. If all these are deficient in literary merit, they are deeply interesting as revelations of primitive mind and manners. Of New Kingdom tales, the story of the Two Brothers is frankly in the simplest speech of everyday life, while others are more See also:stilted. The demotic stories of Khamois are simple, but the " See also:Rape of Inar6s' See also:Cuirass " (at Vienna) is told in a stiff and high-flown style. In general it may be said of Egyptian literary compositions that apart from their interest as anthropological documents they possess no merit which would entitle them to survive. They are more or less touched by artificiality, but so far as we are able to appreciate them at present they very seldom attain to any degree of literary beauty. Most of the compositions in the literary language, whether old or archaistic, are in a stilted style and often with parallelisms of phrase like those of Hebrew See also:poetry. Simple See also:prose narrative is here quite exceptional. Some few See also:hymns contain stanzas of ten lines, each line with a break in the middle. There is no sign of rhyming in Egyptian poetry, and the See also:rhythm is not yet recognizable owing to our ignorance of the ancient vocalization. In old Egyptian tales the narrative portions are frequently in prose; New Egyptian and demotic contain as a rule little else. Hymns exist in both of these later forms of the language, and a few love songs in Late Egyptian.
See W. M. F. Petrie, Egyptian Tales (2 vols., London, 1895) ; G. Maspero, Les Contes populaires de l'Egypte ancienne (3rd edition, Paris, 1906); W. Max See also: While the youth of Egyptological research is in part responsible for this, the reason lies still more in the nature of the religion itself and the characterof the testimony bearing upon it. For a true appreciation of the chaotic polytheism that reveals itself even in the earliest texts it would be necessary to be able to trace its development, See also:stage by stage, out of a number of naive primitive cults; but the period of growth lies behind recorded history, and we are here reduced to hypotheses and a posteriori reconstructions. The same See also:criticism applies, no doubt, to other religions, like those of Greece and See also:Rome. • In Egypt, however, the difficulty is much aggravated by the poor quality of the evidence. The religious books are textually very corrupt, one-sided in their subject-matter, and distributed over a period of more than two thousand years. The greatest defect of all is their relative silence with regard to the myths. For the story of Isis and Osiris we have indeed the late treatise ascribed to Plutarch, and a few fragments of other myths may be culled from earlier native sources. But in general the tales that passed current about the gods are referred to only in mysterious and recondite allusions; as Herodotus for his own times explicitly testifies, a reticence in such matters seems to have been encouraged by the priests. Thus with regard to Egyptian See also:theology we are very imperfectly informed, and the account that is here given of it must be looked upon as merely provisional. The actual practices of the cult, both funerary and divine, are better known, and we are tolerably See also:familiar with the doctrines as to the future state of the dead. There is good material, too, for the study of Egyptian magic, though this branch has been somewhat neglected hitherto. 2. Main Sources.—(a) The Pyramid texts, a vast collection of incantations inscribed on the inner walls of five royal tombs of the Vth and Vlth Dynasties at Sakkara, discovered and first published by Maspero. Much of these texts is of extreme antiquity; one See also:incantation at least has been proved to belong to an age anterior to the unification of the Northern and Southern kingdoms. Later copies also exist, but possess little independent See also:critical value. The subject-matter is funerary, i.e. it deals with the See also:fate of the dead king in the next life. Some chapters describe the manner in which he passes from See also:earth to See also:heaven and becomes a star in the See also:firmament, others deal with the food and drink necessary for his continued existence after death, and others again with the royal prerogatives which he hopes still to enjoy; many are directed against the bites of snakes and stings of scorpions. It is possible that these incantations were recited as part of the funerary See also:ritual, but there is no doubt that their mere presence in the tombs was supposed to be magically effective for the welfare of the dead. Originally these texts had an application to the king alone, but before the beginning of the XIIth Dynasty private individuals had begun to employ them on their own behalf. They seem to be relatively free from textual corruption, but the vocabulary still occasions much difficulty to the translator. (b) The Book of the Dead is the somewhat inappropriate name applied to a large similar collection of texts of various dates, certain chapters of which show a tendency to become welded together into a book of fixed content and See also:uniform order. A number of chapters contained in the later recensions are already found on the sarcophagi of the Middle Kingdom, together with a host of funereal texts not usually reckoned as belonging to the Book of the Dead; these have been published by Lepsius and Lacau. The above-mentioned See also:nucleus, combined with other chapters of more recent origin, is found in the papyri of the XVIIIth–XXth Dynasties, and forms the so-called Theban recension, which has been edited by Naville inan important work. Here already more or less rigid See also:groups of chapters may be noted, but individual See also:manuscripts differ greatly in what they include and exclude. In the Saite period a sort of standard edition was drawn up, consisting of 165 chapters in a fixed order and with a common title " the book of going forth in the day "; this recension was published by Lepsius in 1842 from a Turin papyrus Like the Pyramid texts, the Book of the Dead served a funerary purpose, but its contents are far more heterogeneous; besides chapters enabling the dead man to assume what shape he will, or to issue triumphant from the last See also:judgment, there are lists of See also:gates to be passed and demons to be encountered in the nether world, formulae such as are inscribed on sepulchral figures and amulets, and even hymns to the sun-god. These texts are for the most part excessively corrupt, and despite the See also:translations of Pierret, See also:Renouf and Budge, much labour must yet be expended upon them before they can rank as a first-rate source. (c) The texts of the Tombs of the Kings at Thebes (XVIIIth–XXth Dyn.) consist of a series of theological books compiled at an uncertain date; they have been edited by Naville and Lefebure. The chief of these, extant in a longer and a shorter version, is called The book of that which is in the Nether World (familiarly known as the Am Dual) and deals with the journey of the sun during the twelve hours of the night. The Book of Gates treats of the same topic from a more theological stand-point. The Litanies of the Sun contain the acclamations with which the sun-god Re was greeted, when at eventide his bark reached the entrance of the nether world. Another treatise relates the destruction of mankind, and the circumstances that led to the creation of the heavens in the form of a cow. (d) Among the later religious books one or two deserve a special mention, such as The Overthrowing of Apophis, the See also:serpent enemy of the sun-god; The See also:Lamentations of Isis and See also:Nephthys over their murdered brother Osiris; The Book of Breathings, a favourite book among the later Theban priests. Several of these books were used in the ritual of feast days, but all have received a secondary funerary employment, and are therefore found buried with the dead in their tombs. (e) T)ie Ritual texts have survived only in copies not earlier than the New Kingdom. The temple ritual employed in the daily cult is illustrated by the scenes depicted on the inner walls of the great temples: the formulae recited during the performance of the ceremonies are recorded at length in the temple of Seti I. (XIXth Dyn.) at Abydos, as well as in some later papyri in Berlin. The whole material has been collected and studied by Moret. The funerary ritual is known from texts in the Theban tombs (XVIIIth–XXth Dyn.) and papyri and sarcophagi of later date; older versions are contained in the Pyramid texts and The Book of the Dead. See also:Schiaparelli has done much towards gathering together this scattered material. The ritual observed during the process of embalmment is preserved in late papyri in Paris and Cairo published by Maspero. (f) The magical documents have been comparatively little studied, in spite of their great interest. They deal for the most part with the See also:hearing of diseases, the bites of snakes and scorpions, &c., but incidentally See also:cast many sidelights on the See also:mythology and superstitious beliefs. The best-known of these books is the Papyrus See also:Harris published by F. J. Chabas, but other papyri of as great or greater importance are to be found in the Leiden, Turin and other collections. A curious book published by A. Erman contains spells to be used by mothers for the See also:protection of their children. A papyrus in London contains a calendar of lucky and unlucky days. A late class of stelae, of which the best specimen has been published by Golenischeff, consists of spells of various kinds originally intended for the use of the living, but later employed for funerary purposes. (g) Under the heading See also:Miscellaneous we must mention a number of sources of great value: the grave-stones, or stelae, especially those from Abydos, which throw much light on funerary beliefs; the great Papyrus Harris, the longest of all papyri, which enumerates the gifts of Rameses III. (XXth Dyn.) to the various temples of Egypt; the hymns to the gods preserved in Cairo and Leiden papyri; and the .inscriptions of the Ptolemaic temples (Dendera, Edfu, &c.), which teem with good religious material. Nor can any attempt here be made to summarize the remaining native Egyptian sources, literary and archaeological, that deserve See also:notice. (h) Among the classical writers, Plutarch in his treatise Concerning Isis and Osiris is the most important. Diodorus also is useful. Herodotus, owing to his religious See also:awe and dread of divulging sacred mysteries, is only a second-rate source. 3. The Gods.—The end of the pre-dynastic period, in whichwe dimly descry a number of independent tribes in constant warfare with one another, was marked by the rise of a united Egyptian state with a single Pharaonic ruler at its head. The era of peace thus inaugurated brought with it a rapid progress in all branches of civilization; and there soon emerged not only a national art and a condition of material prosperity shared by the entire land in common, but also a state religion, which gathered up the ancient tribal cults and floating cosmical conceptions, and combining them as best it could, imposed them on the people as a whole. By the time that the Pyramid texts were put into writing, doubtless long before the Vth Dynasty, this religion had assumed a stereotyped appearance that clung to it for ever afterwards. But the multitude of the deities and the variety of the myths that it strove to incorporate prevented the development of a uniform theological system, and the heterogeneous origin of the religion remained irretrievably stamped upon its See also:face. Written records were few at the time when the See also:pantheon was built up, so that the process of construction cannot be followed historically from .stage to stage; but it is possible by arguing backwards from the later facts .to discern the main tendencies at work, and the principal elementary cults that served as the materials. The gods of the pre-dynastic period may be divided into two chief groups, the tribal or local divinities and the See also:cosmic or explanatory deities. At the beginning each tribe had its own particular god, who in essence was nothing but the articulate expression of the inner cohesion and of the outward independence of the tribe itself, but who outwardly manifested himself in the form of some animal or took up his abode in some fetish of wood or stone. In times of peace this visible See also:emblem of the god's presence was housed in a rude See also:shrine, but in war-time it was taken thence and carried into the battlefield on a standard. We find such divine standards `f often depicted on the earliest monuments, and among the symbols placed upon them may be detected the images of many deities destined to See also:play an important part in the later national pantheon, such as the See also:falcon See also:Horus , the See also:wolf Wepwawet (Ophois) , the goddess See also:Neith ;, symbolized by a See also:shield transfixed with arrows, and the god See also:Min II"-, the nature of whose fetish is obscure. In course of time the tribes became localized in particular districts, under the influence of a growing central authority, and their gods then passed from tribal into local deities. Hence it came about that the provincial districts or nomes, as they were called, often derived their names from the gods of tribes that settled in them, these names being hieroglyphically written with the sign for " See also:district " surmounted by standards of the type above described, .im' "the nome of the dog See also:Anubis," the 17th or Cynopolite nome of Upper Egypt. In this way a large number of deities came to enjoy special reverence in restricted territories, e.g. the See also:ram See also:Khnum in Elephantine, the See also:jerboa or See also:okapi (?) 0A See also:Seth in Ombos, the ibis Thoth in Hermopolis Magna, and of the gods named above, Horus in Hieraconpolis, Wepwawet in Assiut, Neith in Sais, and Min in Coptos. As towns and villages gradually sprang up, they too adopted as their See also:patron some one or other of the original tribal gods, so that these came to have different seats of See also:worship all over Egypt. For this reason it is often hard to tell where the primitive cult-centre of a particular deity is to be sought; thus Horus seems equally at home both at See also:Buto in the Delta and at Hieraconpolis in Upper Egypt, and the earliest worship of Seth appears to have been claimed no less by Tanis in the north than by Ombos in the south. The effect of the localization of gods in many different places was to give them a double aspect; so, for instance, Khnum the god of Elephantine could in one See also:minute be regarded as identical with Ciassiflcation of pee-dynastic gods. 50 Khnum the god of Esna, while in the next minute and without any conscious sense of See also:contradiction the two might be looked upon as entirely separate beings. In order that there might be no See also:ambiguity as to what divinity was meant, it became usual, in speaking of any local deity, to specify the place of which he was " lord." The tendency to create new forms of a god by instituting his worship in new local centres persisted through-out the whole course of Egyptian history, unhindered by the opposite tendency which made national out of local gods. Some of the cosmic gods, like the sun-god Re of Heliopolis and of Hermonthis, early acquired a local in addition to their cosmic aspect. In the innermost principle of their existence, as patrons and protectors of restricted communities, the primitive tribal gods did not differ from one another. But externally they were distinguishable by the various shapes that their worshippers ascribed to them; and there can be little doubt that even in the beginning each had his own special attributes and particular mythical traits. These, however, may have borne little resemblance to the later conceptions of the same gods with which we are made familiar by the Pyramid texts. Thus we have no means of ascertaining what the earliest people of Sais thought about their goddess Neith, though her fetish would seem to point to her warlike nature. Nor are we much wiser in respect of those primitive tribal gods that are represented on the See also:oldest monuments in animal form. For though we may be sure that the shape of an animal was that in which these gods were literally visible to their worshippers, yet it is impossible to tell whether some one living animal was chosen to be the earthly See also:tenement of the, deity, or whether he revealed himself in every individual of a See also:species, or whether merely the cult-See also:image was roughly hewn into the shape of an animal. Not too much weight must be attached to later evidence on this point; for the New Kingdom and still more the Graeco-Roman period witnessed a strange recrudescence of supposed primitive cults, to which they gave a form that may or may not have been historically exact. In some places whole classes of animals came to be deemed sacred. Thus at Bubastis, where the cat-headed Bast (Ubasti) was worshipped, vast cemeteries of mummified See also:cats have been found; and elsewhere similar funerary cults were accorded to crocodiles, lizards, ibises and many other animals. In Elephantine Khnum was supposed to become incarnate in a ram, at whose death the divinity left him and took up his abode in another. So too the See also:bull of See also:Apis (a black animal with white spots) was during its lifetime regarded as a reincarnation of Ptah, the local god of Memphis, and similarly the Mnevis and Bacis bulls were accounted to be " the living souls " of Etom of Heliopolis and of Re of Hermonthis respectively; these latter cults are certainly secondary, for Ptah himself was never, either early or late, depicted otherwise than in human form, as a mummy or as a See also:dwarf; and Etom and Re are but different names of the sun-god. The form of a snake, attributed to many local goddesses, especially in later times (e.g. Meresger of the Theban necropolis), was borrowed from the very ancient deity Outo (Buto); the semblance of a snake became so characteristic of female divinities that even the word " goddess " was written with the hieroglyph of a snake. Other animal shapes particularly affected by goddesses were those of a lioness (See also:Sakhmi, Pakhe) or a cow (See also:Hathor, Isis). The primitive animal gods are not to be confused with the animal forms ascribed to many cosmic deities; thus when the sun-god Re was pictured as a scarabaeus, or dung-beetle, See also:rolling its See also:ball of dung behind it, this was certainly mere poetical imagery. Or else a cosmic god might assume an animal shape through assimilation with some tribal god, as when Re was identified with Horus and therefore depicted as a falcon. With the advance of civilization and the transformation of the tribal gods into national divinities, the beliefs held about them must have become less crude. At a very early date the anthropomorphizing tendency caused the animal deities to be represented with human bodies, though as a rule they retained their animal heads; so in the case of Seth as early as the Ilnd Dynasty. The other gods carry their primitive fetishes in their hands (like[ANCIENT RELIGION Neith, who is depicted holding arrows) or on their heads (so Nefertem [Iphthimis] with his lotus-flowerl. At the same time the gods began to acquire human personalities. In a few instances this may have come about by the emphasizing of a really primitive trait; as when the wolf Ophois, in consonance with the predatory nature of that animal, developed into a god of war. In other cases the transitional steps are shrouded in See also:mystery; we do not know, for example, why the ibis Thoth subsequently became the patron of the fine arts, the inventor of writing, and the scribe of the gods. But the main See also:factor in this evolutionary process was undoubtedly the formation of myths, which brought gods of independent origin into relation with one another, and thus imbued them with human passions and virtues. Here dim historic recollections often determined the features of the story, and in one famous See also:legend that knits together a group of gods all seemingly local in origin we can still faintly trace how the tale arose, was added to, and finally crystallized in a coherent form. Osiris was a wise and beneficent king, who reclaimed the Egyptians from savagery, gave them laws and taught them handicrafts. The prosperous reign of Osiris was brought to a premature close by the machinations of his wicked brother Seth, who with seventy-two See also:fellow-conspirators invited him to a banquet induced him to enter a cunningly-wrought See also:coffin made exactly to his measure, then shut down the lid and cast the chest into the Nile. Isis, the faithful wife of Osiris, set forth in See also:search of her dead husband's body, and after long and See also:adventure-fraught wanderings, succeeded in recovering it and bringing it back to Egypt. Then while she was absent visiting her son Horus in the city of Buto, Seth once more gained possession of the See also:corpse, cut it into fourteen pieces, and scattered them all over Egypt. But Isis collected the fragments, and wherever one was found, buried it with due See also:honour; or, according to a different account, she joined the limbs together by virtue of her magical powers, and the slain Osiris, thus resurrected, henceforth reigned as king of the dead in the nether world. When Horus grew up he set out to avenge his See also:father's See also:murder, and after terrible struggles finally conquered and dispossessed his wicked See also:uncle; or, as another version relates, the combatants were separated by Thoth, and Egypt divided between them, the northern part falling to Horus and the southern to Seth. Such is the story as told by Plutarch, with certain additions and modifications from older native sources. There existed, however, a very ancient tradition according to which Horus and Seth were hostile brothers, not See also:nephew and uncle; and many considerations may be urged in support of the thesis which regards their struggles as reminiscences of See also:wars between two prominent tribes.or confederations of tribes, one of which worshipped the falcon Horus while the other had the okapi (?) Seth as its patron and See also:champion. The Horus-tribes were the victors, and it was from them that the dynastic line sprang; hence the Pharaoh always See also:bore the name of Horus, and represented in his own hallowed See also:person the ancient tribal deity. Of Osiris we can only state that he was originally the local god of Busiris, whatever further characteristics he primitively possessed being quite obscure. Isis was perhaps the local goddess of Buto, a town not far distant from Busiris; this geographical proximity would suffice to explain her connexion with Osiris in the tale. A legend now arose, we know not how or why, which made Seth the brother and murderer of Osiris; and this led to a See also:fusion of the Horus-Seth and the Seth-Isis-Osiris motifs. The relationships had now to be readjusted, and the most popular view recognized Horus as the son and avenger of Osiris. The more ancient account survived, however, in the myth that Osiris, Horus, Seth, Isis and Nephthys (a goddess who plays but a minor part in the Osiris See also:cycle) were all children of the earth-god Keb and the sky-goddess See also:Nut, born on the five consecutive days added on at the end of the year (the so-called epagomenal days). Later generations reconciled these contradictions by assuming the existence of two Horuses, one, the brother of Osiris, Seth and Isis, being named Haroeris, i.e. Horus the See also:elder, while the other, the child of Isis and Osiris. was called See also:Harpocrates, i.e. Horns the child. The second main class of divinities that entered into the composition of the Egyptian pantheon was due to that innate and universal speculative See also:bent which seeks, and never cosmic fails to find, an explanation of the facts of the external deities. world. Behind the great natural phenomena that they perceived all around them, the Egyptians, like other primitive folk, postulated the existence of divine wills not dissimilar in kind to their own, though vastly superior in power. Chief among these cosmic deities was the sun-god Re, whose supremacy seemed predestined under the cloudless sky of Egypt. The oldest conceptions represented Re as sailing across the heavens in a ship called " Manzet," " the bark of the See also:dawn "; at sunset he stepped aboard another See also:vessel named " Mesenktet," " the bark of the dusk," which bore him back from west to east during the night. Later theories symbolized Re in many different ways. For some he was identical with Horus, and then he was falcon-headed and was called See also:Hor-akhti, the Horus of the horizons. Others pictured him to themselves as a tiny See also:infant in the early dawn, as full-grown at See also:noon, and as an infirm old man in the evening. When the sky was imagined as a cow, he was a See also:calf born anew every See also:morning. The moon was a male deity, who likewise fared across the heavens in a boat; hence he was often named See also:Chons, " the sailor." The ibis-god Thoth was early identified with the moon. The stars and planets were likewise gods. Among them the See also:bright star Sirius was held in special esteem; it was a goddess Sothis (Sopde), often identified by the Egyptians with Isis. The constellations that seemed unceasingly to See also:speed across the sky were named " the never-resting ones," and the circumpolar stars, which never sink beneath the See also:horizon, were known as " the imperishables." Concerning earth and sky there were many different opinions. Some thought that the sky was a goddess Nut, whom the god Show held aloof from her husband Keb the earth, on whose back the See also:plants and trees grew. Others believed in a See also:celestial ocean, personified under the name of See also:Nun, over which the heavenly bodies sailed in boats. At a later date 'the sky was held to be a cow (Hathor) whose four feet stood firm upon the soil; or else a vast face, in which the right eye was the sun and the left eye the moon. Alongside these fanciful conceptions there existed a more sober view, according to which the earth was a long See also:oval See also:plain, and the sky an iron roof supported by the tops of Twy Beneath the ground lay a dark and mysterious region, now conceived as an inverse heaven (Nenet), now as a vast series of caverns whose gates were guarded by demons. This nether world was known as the Duat (Dat, Tei), and through it passed the sun on his journey during the hours of night; here too, as many thought, dwelt the dead and their king Osiris. That great natural feature of Egypt, the Nile, was of course one of the gods; his name was Hapi, and as a sign of his fecundity he had long pendulous breasts like a woman. In contradistinction to the tribal gods, it rarely happened that the cosmic deities enjoyed a cult. But there are a few important exceptions: Re in Heliopolis (here identified with a local god Etom) and in Hermonthis; Hathor at Dendera and elsewhere. Certain of the tribal gods early became identified with cosmic divinities, and the latter thus became the objects of a cult; so, for instance, the Horus of Edfu was a sun-god, and Thoth in Hermopolis Magna was held to be the moon. An See also:extension of the principle that created the cosmic gods gave rise to a large number of minor deities and demons. Day Minor and night, the year, the seasons, eternity, and many deities similar conceptions were each represented by a god and or goddess of their own, who nevertheless possessed demons. but a shadowy and doubtful existence. Human attributes like See also:Taste, Knowledge, Joy and so forth were likewise personified, no less than abstract ideas such as Fate, Destiny and others; rather more clearly defined than the rest was Maat, the goddess of Truth and Right, who was fabled to be the daughter of Re and may even have had a cult. Certain gods were purely functional, that is to say, they appeared at special times to perform some appointed task, at the completion of which they vanished. Such were Nepri, the god of the corn-harvest; Meskhonit, the goddess who attended every child-bed; See also:Tait, the goddess of See also:weaving. Numberless semi-divine beings had no other purpose than to fill. out the myths, as, for instance, the chattering apes that greeted the sun-god Re as he rose above the eastern horizon, and the demons who opened the gates of the nether world at the approach of the setting sun. We take this opportunity of mentioning sundry other divinities who were later introduced to swell the already overcrowded ranks of the pantheon. Contact with foreign lands Foreign brought with it several new deities, See also:Baal, Anat and deities. Resheph from Syria, and the misshapen dwarf See also:Bes
from the south; earlier than these, the See also:Astarte of Byblus, whom the Egyptians identified with Hathor. In Thebes Amenophis I. and his See also:spouse Nefertari were worshipped as patron gods of the necropolis many centuries after their death. Two men of exceptional See also:wisdom received divine honours, and had temples of their own in the Ptolemaic period; these were Imouthes, who had lived under Zoser of the IIIrd Dynasty, and Amenophis son of Hapu, a contemporary of the third king of the same name (XVIIIth Dyn.). The See also: Others held the view that he crept from an See also:egg that lay on a hill in the midst of a lake called Desdes; and a third, more barbarous, tale related his obscene act of self-procreation. Re became the father of the pair of gods Show and Tefnut (Tphenis), who emanated from his spittle. They again gave See also:birth to Keb and Nut, from whom in their turn sprang Osiris and Seth, Isis and Nephthys. These nine gods were together known as the great Ennead or cycle of nine. A second series of nine deities, with Horus as its first member, was invented at the same time or not long afterwards, and was called the Lesser Ennead. In later times the theory of the Ennead became very popular and was adopted by most of the local priesthoods, who substituted their own favourite god for Re, sometimes 'retaining and sometimes changing the names of the other eight deities. Thus locally many different gods came to be viewed as the creators of the world. Only in two instances, however, did a local god ever obtain wide See also:acceptance in the capacity of See also:demiurge: Ptah of Memphis, who was famed as 'an artist and master-builder, and Khnum of Elephantine, who was said to have moulded mankind on the See also:potter's See also:wheel. Already in the Pyramid texts the importance of Osiris almost rivals that of Re. His worship does not seem to have been due to Heliopolitan influence, and may possibly have been propagated by active missionary effort. It is apparently through the funeral cult that Osiris so early took a firm hold on the imagination of the people; for at a very ancient date he was identified with every dead king, and it needed but a slight extension of this idea to make him into a king of the dead. In later times the moral aspect of his tale was doubtless the main cause of its continued popularity; Osiris was named Onnophris, " the good Being " par excellence, and Seth was contrasted with him as the author and the See also:root of all evil. Still the Egyptians themselves seem mountains or by four pillars at the cardinal points. to have been somewhat at a loss to account for the great veneration that they paid to Osiris. Successive theories interpreted him as the god of the earth, as the god of the Nile, as a god of vegetation, as a moon-god and as a sun-god; and nearly every one of these theories has been claimed to be the primitive truth by some See also:scholar or another. Nowhere is the conservatism of the Egyptians more clearly displayed than in the tenacity with which they clung to the old forms of the theology, such as we have essayed to describe. Neither the influx of new deities nor the See also:diligence of the priestly authors and commentators availed to break down the cast-iron traditions with which the compilers of the Pyramid texts were already familiar. It is true that with the displacement of the capital town certain local deities attained a degree of power that, superficially regarded, seems to alter the entire See also:perspective of the religion. Thus Ammon, originally the obscure local god of Thebes, was raised by the Theban monarchs of the XIIth and of the XVIIIth to XXIst Dynasties to a predominant position never equalled by any other divinity; and, by similar means, Suchos of the Fayum, Ubasti of Bubastis, and Neith of Sais, each enjoyed for a short space of time a See also:consideration that no other cause would have secured to them. But precisely the example of Ammon proves the hopelessness of any attempt to change .the time-honoured religious creed; his priests identified him with the sun-god Re, whose cult-centre was thus merely transferred a few hundred See also:miles to the South. Nor could even the violent religious revolution of Akhenaton (Amenophis IV.), of which we shall later have occasion to speak, sweep away for ever beliefs that had persisted for so many generations. But if the facts of the religion, broadly viewed, never under-went a change, the interpretation of those facts did so in no small degree. The religious books were for the most part written in.archaic language, which was only imperfectly understood by the priests of later times; and hence great scope was given to them to exercise their ingenuity as commentators. By the time of the XVIIIth Dynasty some early chapters of the Book of the Dead had been provided with a triple commentary. Unfortunately the methods pursued were as little reasonable as those adopted by the See also:medieval Jewish Rabbis; instead of the context being studied as a whole, with a view to the recovery of its literal sense, each single See also:verse was considered separately, and explained as an allusion to some obscure myth or as em-bodying some mystical meaning. Thus so far from simplifying or really elucidating the religion, these priestly labours tended rather to confuse one legend with another and to efface the See also:personality of individual gods. The ease with which one god could be identified with another is perhaps the most striking characteristic of later Egyptian theology. There are but few of the greater deities who were not at some time or another identified with the See also:solar god Re. His fusion with Horus and Etom has already been noted; further we find an Ammon-Re, a Sobk-Re, a Khnum-Re; and Month, See also:Onouris, Show and Osiris are all described as possessing the attributes of the sun. Ptah was early assimilated to the sepulchral gods Sokaris and Osiris. Pairs of deities whose personalities are often blended or interchanged are Hathor and Nut, Sakhmi and Pakhe, Seth and Apophis. So too in Abydos, his later home, Osiris was identified with Khante-Amentiu (Khentamenti, Khentamenthes), " the chief of those who are in the West," a name that was given to a vaguely-conceived but widely-venerated divinity ruler of the dead. Many factors helped in the process of assimilation. The unity of the state was largely influential in bringing about the suppression of local See also:differences of belief. The less important priesthoods were glad to enhance the reputation of the deity they served by identifying him with some more important god. And the mystical bent of the Egyptians found satisfaction in the multiplicity of forms that their gods could assume; among the favourite epithets which the hymns apply to divinities are such as "mysterious of shapes," "multiple of faces." The See also:goal towards which these tendencies verged was mono-See also:theism; and though this goal was only once, and then quite ephemerally, reached, still the monotheistic idea was at mostperiods, so to speak, in the air. Sometimes the qualities common to all the gods were abstracted, and the resultant notion spoken of as "the god." At other times, and especially in the hymns addressed to some divinity, all other gods were momentarily forgotten, and he was eulogized as " the only one," " the supreme," and so forth. Or else several of the chief deities were consciously combined and regarded as different emanations or aspects of a See also:Sole Being; thus a Ramesside hymn begins with the words " Three are all the gods, Ammon, Re and Ptah," and then it is shown how these three gods, each in his own particular way, gave expression and effect to a single divine purpose. For a brief period at the end of the XVIIIth Dynasty a real monotheism, as exclusive as that of Judaism or of Islam, was adopted as the state religion of Egypt. The See also:young Akhena- Pharaoh Amenophis IV. seems to have been fired by ton. genuine fanatical See also:enthusiasm, though political motives, as well as doctrinal considerations, may have prompted him in the planning of his religious revolution (see also § History). The Theban god Ammon-Re was then supreme, and the ever-growing power of his priesthood may well have inflamed the See also:jealousy of their Heliopolitan rivals. Amenophis began his reign in Thebes as an adherent of the traditional faith, but after a few years he abandoned that town and built a new capital for his god Aton 200 M. farther north, at a place now called El Amarna. The new deity was a personification of the sun's disk. The name Re was suppressed, as too intimately associated with that of Ammon; and Ammon, together with all the other gods, was put to the See also:ban. Amenophis even changed his own name, of which the name of Ammon formed an element, to Akhenaton, "the brilliancy of the Aton," and the capital was called Khitaton, " The Horizon of the Aton." The new dogmas were known as " the Teaching," and their tenets, as revealed in the poems composed in honour of the Aton, breathe the purest and most exalted monotheistic spirit. The See also:movement had, no doubt, met with serious opposition from the very start, and the reaction soon set in. The immediate successors of Akhenaton strove to follow in his footsteps, but the conservative nature of Egypt quickly asserted itself. Not sixty years after the accession of Akhenaton, his city was abandoned, its rulers branded as heretics, and the old religion restored in Thebes as completely as if the Aton had never existed. Having thus failed to become rational, Egyptian theology took See also:refuge in learning. The need for a more spiritual and intellectual interpretation of the pantheon still remained, and gave rise to a number of theological sciences. The names of the gods and the places of their worship were catalogued and classified, and manuals were devoted to the topography of mythological regions. Much ingenuity was expended on the development of a history of the gods, the groundwork of which had been laid in much earlier times. Re was not only the creator of the world, but he was also the first king of Egypt. He was followed on the throne by the other eight members of his Ennead, then by the lesser Ennead and by other gods, and finally by the so-called " worshippers of Horus." The latter were not wholly mythical personages, though they were regarded as demigods (Manetho calls them " the dead," vEraer) they have been shown to be none other than the dim rulers of the predynastic age. The Pharaohs of the historic period were thus divine, not only by virtue of their connexion with Horus (see above), but also as descendants of Re; and the king of Egypt was called " the good god " during his lifetime, and " the great god " after his death. The later religious literature is much taken up with the mythical and semi-mythical dynasties of kings, and the priests compiled, with many newly-invented details, the See also:chronicles of the wars they were supposed to have waged. In a similar manner, the ethical and allegorical methods of interpretation came into much greater prominence towards the end of the New Kingdom. The Osirian legend, as we have already seen, was early accepted as symbolizing the conflict between good and evil. So too the victories of Re over the serpent named Apophis were more or less clearly understood as a simile of Mono-theistic tendency. develop- ments. from him, it is said, emanated Horus as " heart " or " mind " and Thoth as " See also:tongue," and through the conjoint action of these two, the mind conceiving the See also:design and the tongue uttering the creative command, all gods and men and beasts obtained their being. Of this kind of speculation much more must have existed than has reached us. It is doubtless such explanations as these that the Greeks had in view when they praised the wisdom of the ancient Egyptians; and in the classical period similar semi-philosophical interpretations altogether supplanted, among the learned at least, the naive literal beliefs of earlier times. Plutarch in his treatise on Isis and Osiris well exemplifies this standpoint: for him every god and every rite is symbolic of some natural or moral truth. . The final stages of the Egyptian religion are marked by a renewed popularity of all its more barbarous dements. Despairing, as it would seem, of discovering the higher wisdom that the more philosophic of the priests supposed that religion to conceal, the simpler-minded sought to work out their own salvation by restoring the worship of the gods to its most primitive forms. Hence came the fanatical revival of animal-worship which led to See also:feud and bloodshed between neighbouring towns—a feature of Egyptian religion that at once amused and scandalized con-temporary Greek and Latin authors (Plut. De Iside, 72; Juv. xv. 33)• Nevertheless Egyptian cults, and particularly those of See also:Serapis and Isis, found welcome acceptance on European soil; and the shrines of Egyptian deities were established in all the great cities of the Roman Empire. Serapis was a god imported by the first Ptolemy from See also:Sinope on the Black Sea, who soon lost his own identity by assimilation with Osiris-Apis, the bull revered in Memphis. Far down into the Roman age the worship of Serapis persisted and flourished, and it was only when the Serapeum of Alexandria was razed to the ground by order of See also:Theodosius the Great (A.D. 391) that the death-See also:blow of the old Egyptian religion was struck. Notes are here added on some divinities who have received in-adequate or no attention in the preceding pages. For information as to Ammon, Anubis, Apis, Bes, Bubastis, Buto, Isis and Thoth, reference must be made to the special articles on these gods. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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