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Egypt
Egypt is one of the most populous countries in
Africa and
Western
Asia. The great majority of its estimated 76 million[3]
live near the banks of the
Nile River, in an area of about 40,000 square kilometers (15,000 sq mi),
where the only
arable
agricultural land is found. The large areas of the
Sahara
Desert are
sparsely inhabited. About half of Egypt's residents live in urban areas, with
the majority spread across the densely-populated centres of greater
Cairo,
Alexandria
and other major cities in the
Nile Delta.
Egypt is famous for its
ancient civilization and some of the world's most famous monuments,
including the
Giza pyramid complex and its
Great Sphinx. The southern city of
Luxor contains
numerous ancient artifacts, such as the
Karnak Temple
and the
Valley of the Kings. Egypt is widely regarded as an important political and
cultural nation of the Middle East.
Egypt possesses one of the most developed economies in the Middle East, with
sectors such as tourism, agriculture, industry and service at almost equal rates
in national production.[citation
needed] Consequently, the Egyptian economy is rapidly developing,
due in part to legislation aimed at luring investments, coupled with both
internal and political stability, along with recent trade and market
liberalization.
Etymology
One of the ancient
Egyptian names of the country, Kemet (km.t),
or "black land", referring to the fertile black soils of the Nile flood plains,
distinct from the deshret (dšṛt),
or "red land" of the desert.[4]
The name is realized as kīmi
and kīmə in the
Coptic stage of the Egyptian language, and appeared in early
Greek as Χημία (Khēmía).[5]
Another name was t3-mry
"land of the riverbank".[6]
The names of
Upper and Lower Egypt were Ta-Sheme'aw (t3-šmˁw)
"sedgeland" and Ta-Mehew (t3
mḥw) "northland", respectively.
Miṣr, the
Arabic and modern official name of Egypt (Egyptian
Arabic:
Maṣr), is of
Semitic
origin, directly
cognate with other Semitic words for Egypt such as the
Hebrew מִצְרַיִם (Mitzráyim),
literally meaning "the two straits" (a reference to the dynastic separation of
upper and lower Egypt).[7]
The word originally connoted "metropolis" or "civilization" and also means
"country", or "frontier-land".
The English name Egypt was borrowed from
Middle French Egypte, from
Latin
Aegyptus, from
ancient Greek Aígyptos (Αἴγυπτος),
from earlier
Linear B a-ku-pi-ti-yo. The adjective aigýpti-, aigýptios was
borrowed into Coptic as gyptios, kyptios, and from there into Arabic as
qubṭī, back formed into
qubṭ, whence English
Copt. The Greek
forms were borrowed from
Late
Egyptian (Amarna) Hikuptah "Memphis", a corruption of the earlier
Egyptian name Hat-ka-Ptah (ḥwt-k3-ptḥ),
meaning "home of the
ka
(soul) of Ptah", the name of a temple to the god
Ptah at
Memphis.[8]
Strabo
attributed the word to a
folk etymology in which Aígyptos (Αἴγυπτος)
evolved as a compound from Aigaiou
huptiōs (Aἰγαίου
ὑπτίως), meaning "below the Aegean".
Geography
At 1,001,450 square kilometers (386,660 sq mi),[9]
Egypt is the world's 38th-largest country. In terms of land area, it is
approximately the same size as all of
Central America,[10]
twice the size of
Spain,[11]
four times the size of the
United Kingdom,[12]
and the combined size of the US states of
Texas and
California.[13]
Nevertheless, due to the aridity of Egypt's climate, population centres are
concentrated along the narrow Nile Valley and Delta, meaning that approximately
99% of the population uses only about 5.5% of the total land area.[14]
The coastline of
Alexandria, Egypt's second largest city
Egypt is bordered by Libya to the west, Sudan to the south, and by the Gaza
Strip and Israel to the east. Egypt's important role in geopolitics stems from
its strategic position: a
transcontinental nation, it possesses a land bridge (the Isthmus of Suez)
between Africa and Asia,
which in turn is traversed by a navigable waterway (the
Suez Canal)
that connects the Mediterranean Sea with the
Indian
Ocean via the Red Sea.
Apart from the Nile Valley, the majority of Egypt's landscape is a desert.
The winds blowing can create
sand dunes more
than 100 feet (30 m) high. Egypt includes parts of the
Sahara Desert and of the
Libyan Desert. These deserts were referred to as the "red land" in ancient
Egypt, and they protected the Kingdom of the Pharaohs from western threats.
Towns and cities include
Alexandria,
one of the greatest ancient cities,
Aswan,
Asyut,
Cairo, the modern
Egyptian capital,
El-Mahalla El-Kubra,
Giza, the site of
the Pyramid of Khufu,
Hurghada,
Luxor,
Kom Ombo,
Port
Safaga,
Port Said,
Sharm el Sheikh,
Suez, where the Suez Canal is located,
Zagazig, and
Al-Minya.
Oases include
Bahariya,
el
Dakhla,
Farafra,
el
Kharga and
Siwa.
Protectorates include Ras Mohamed National Park, Zaranik Protectorate and
Siwa. See
Egyptian Protectorates for more information.
Climate
Egypt does not receive much rainfall except in the winter months.[15]
South of Cairo, rainfall averages only around 2 to 5 mm (0.1 to 0.2 in) per year
and at intervals of many years. On a very thin strip of the northern coast the
rainfall can be as high as 410 mm (16.1 in),[16]
with most of the rainfall between October and March. Snow falls on Sinai's
mountains and some of the north coastal cities such as Damietta, Baltim, Sidi
Barrany, etc. and rarely in Alexandria, frost is also known in mid-Sinai and
mid-Egypt.
Temperatures average between 80 °F (27 °C) and 90 °F (32 °C) in summer, and
up to 109 °F (43 °C) on the Red Sea coast. Temperatures average between 55 °F
(13 °C) and 70 °F (21 °C) in winter. A steady wind from the northwest helps hold
down the temperature near the Mediterranean coast. The
Khamaseen is a wind that blows from the south in Egypt in spring, bringing
sand and dust, and sometimes raises the temperature in the desert to more than
100 °F (38 °C).
Every year, a predictable flooding of the Nile replenishes Egypt's soil. This
gives the country consistent harvest throughout the year. Many know this event
as The Gift of the Nile.
The rise in sea levels due to
global warming threatens Egypt's densely populated coastal strip and could
have grave consequences for the country's economy, agriculture and industry.
Combined with growing demographic pressures, a rise in sea levels could turn
millions of Egyptians into
environmental refugees by the end of the century, according to climate
experts.[17]
History
Ancient Egypt
See also
Population history of Egypt
There is evidence of
rock carvings along the
Nile terraces and
in the desert oases. In the
10th millennium BC, a culture of
hunter-gatherers and
fishers
replaced a grain-grinding
culture.
Climate changes and/or overgrazing around 8000 BC began to desiccate the
pastoral lands of Egypt, forming the Sahara. Early tribal peoples migrated to
the Nile River where they developed a settled agricultural
economy and more centralized
society.[18]
By about 6000 BC the Neolithic culture rooted in the Nile Valley.[19]
During the
Neolithic era, several
predynastic cultures developed independently in
Upper and Lower Egypt. The
Badarian culture and the successor
Naqada series
are generally regarded as precursors to
Dynastic Egyptian civilization. The earliest known Lower Egyptian site,
Merimda, predates the Badarian by about seven hundred years. Contemporaneous
Lower Egyptian communities coexisted with their southern counterparts for more
than two thousand years, remaining somewhat culturally separate, but maintaining
frequent contact through trade. The earliest known evidence of
Egyptian hieroglyphic inscriptions appeared during the predynastic period on
Naqada III
pottery vessels, dated to about 3200 BC.[20]
A unified kingdom was founded circa 3150
BC by King Menes,
giving rise to a
series of dynasties that ruled Egypt for the next three millennia.
Egyptians
subsequently referred to their unified country as tawy, meaning "two
lands", and later kemet (Coptic:
kīmi), the "black land", a reference to the fertile black soil deposited
by the Nile river.
Egyptian culture flourished during this long period and remained
distinctively Egyptian in its
religion,
arts,
language and customs. The
first two ruling dynasties of a unified Egypt set the stage for the
Old
Kingdom period, c.2700−2200 BC., famous for its many
pyramids, most notably the
Third Dynasty
pyramid of Djoser and the
Fourth Dynasty
Giza Pyramids.
The
First Intermediate Period ushered in a time of political upheaval for about
150 years. Stronger Nile floods and stabilization of government, however,
brought back renewed prosperity for the country in the
Middle Kingdom c. 2040 BC, reaching a peak during the reign of
Pharaoh
Amenemhat III. A
second period of disunity heralded the arrival of the first foreign ruling
dynasty in Egypt, that of the
Semitic
Hyksos. The
Hyksos invaders took over much of Lower Egypt around 1650 BC and founded a new
capital at Avaris.
They were driven out by an Upper Egyptian force led by
Ahmose I,
who founded the
Eighteenth Dynasty and relocated the capital from
Memphis to
Thebes.
The
Hanging Church of Cairo, first built in the third or fourth
century AD, is one of the most famous
Coptic Churches in Egypt.
The
New Kingdom (c.1550−1070 BC) began with the Eighteenth Dynasty, marking the
rise of Egypt as an
international power that expanded during its greatest extension to an empire
as far south as
Tombos in Nubia,
and included parts of the
Levant in the
east. This period is noted for some of the most well-known
Pharaohs,
including
Hatshepsut,
Thutmose III,
Akhenaten
and his wife
Nefertiti,
Tutankhamun and
Ramesses
II. The first historically attested expression of
monotheism
came during this period in the form of
Atenism.
Frequent contacts with other nations brought new ideas to the New Kingdom. The
country was later invaded by
Libyans,
Nubians and
Assyrians, but native Egyptians drove them out and regained control of their
country[21].
The
Thirtieth Dynasty was the last native ruling dynasty during the Pharaonic
epoch. It
fell to the Persians in 343 BC after the last native Pharaoh, King
Nectanebo II, was defeated in battle. Later, Egypt fell to the
Greco–Macedonians and
Romans, beginning over two thousand years of foreign rule. The last ruler
from the
Ptolemaic line was
Cleopatra VII, who committed suicide with her lover Marc Antony, after
Caesar Augustus had captured them.
Before Egypt became part of the
Byzantine realm, Christianity had been brought by
Saint Mark the Evangelist in the AD first century.
Diocletian's
reign marked the transition from the
Roman
to the
Byzantine era in Egypt, when a great number of Egyptian Christians were
persecuted. The
New
Testament had by then been translated into Egyptian. After the
Council of Chalcedon in AD 451, a distinct
Egyptian Coptic Church was firmly established.[22]
The Byzantines were able to regain control of the country after a brief
Persian invasion early in the seventh century, until in AD 639, Egypt was
absorbed into the Islamic Empire by the
Muslim
Arabs. When they defeated the Byzantine Armies in Egypt, with the help of
some revolutionary Egyptians, the Arabs brought
Sunni
Islam to the country. Early in this period, Egyptians began to blend their
new faith with indigenous beliefs and practices that had survived through
Coptic Christianity that was expanded in Egypt by the Byzantines, giving
rise to various
Sufi orders that have flourished to this day.[23]
Muslim rulers nominated by the
Islamic
Caliphate remained in
control of Egypt for the next six centuries, with
Cairo as the seat
of the Caliphate under the
Fatimids. With the end of the
Ayyubid dynasty, the
Mamluks, a
Turco-Circassian
military caste, took control about AD 1250. They continued to govern the country
until the
conquest of Egypt by the
Ottoman Turks in 1517, after which it became a province of the
Ottoman Empire. The mid-14th-Century
Black
Death killed about 40% of the country's population.[24]
Modern history
The brief
French invasion of Egypt led by
Napoleon Bonaparte began in 1798. The expulsion of the French in 1801 by
Ottoman, Mamluk, and British forces was followed by four years of anarchy in
which Ottomans, Mamluks, and Albanians who were nominally in the service of the
Ottomans, wrestled for power. Out of this chaos, the commander of the Albanian
regiment,
Muhammad Ali (Kavalali Mehmed Ali Pasha) emerged as a dominant figure and in
1805 was acknowledged by the
Sultan in
Istanbul as
his viceroy
in Egypt; the title implied subordination to the Sultan but this was in fact a
polite fiction: Ottoman power in Egypt was finished and Muhammad Ali, an
ambitious and able leader, established a
dynasty that
was to rule Egypt (at first really and later as British puppets) until the
revolution of 1952. His primary focus was military: he annexed Northern Sudan
(1820–1824), Syria
(1833), and parts of
Arabia and
Anatolia; but in 1841 the European powers, fearful lest he topple Byzantium
itself, checked him: he had to return most of his conquests to the Ottomans, but
he kept the Sudan and his title to Egypt was made hereditary. A more lasting
consequence of his military ambition is that it made him the moderniser of
Egypt. Anxious to learn the military (and therefore industrial) techniques of
the great powers he sent students to the West and invited training missions to
Egypt. He built industries, a system of canals for irrigation and transport, and
reformed the
civil
service. For better or worse, the introduction in 1820 of long-staple
cotton, the
Egyptian variety of which became famous, transformed Egyptian agriculture into a
cash-crop monoculture before the end of the century. The social effects of this
were enormous: it led to the concentration of agriculture in the hands of large
landowners, and, with the additional trigger of high cotton prices caused by the
United States'
civil war production drop, to a large influx of foreigners who began in
earnest the exploitation of Egypt for international commodity production.[25]
Female nationalists demonstrating in
Cairo,
1919.
Muhammad Ali was succeeded briefly by his son
Ibrahim (in September 1848), then by a grandson
Abbas I (in November 1848), then by
Said (in 1854), and
Isma'il (in 1863). Abbas I was cautious. Said and Ismail were ambitious
developers; unfortunately they spent beyond their means. The Suez Canal, built
in partnership with the French, was completed in 1869. The expense of this and
other projects had two effects: it led to enormous debt to European
banks, and caused
popular discontent because of the onerous
taxation it
necessitated. In 1875 Ismail was forced to sell Egypt's share in the canal to
the British government. Within three years this led to the imposition of British
and French
controllers who sat in the Egyptian cabinet, and, "with the financial power
of the bondholders behind them, were the real power in the government."[26]
Local dissatisfaction with Ismail and with European intrusion led to the
formation of the first
nationalist groupings in 1879, with
Ahmad Urabi a prominent figure. In 1882 he became head of a
nationalist-dominated ministry committed to democratic reforms including
parliamentary control of the budget. Fearing a diminishment of their control,
Britain and France intervened militarily, bombarding Alexandria and crushing the
Egyptian army at the
battle of Tel el-Kebir.[27]
They reinstalled Ismail's son
Tewfik
as figurehead of a de facto British protectorate.[28]
In 1914 the Protectorate was made official, and the title of the head of state,
which had changed from pasha to khedive in 1867, was changed to
sultan, to repudiate the vestigial suzerainty of the Ottoman sultan, who was
backing the
Central powers in World War I.
Abbas II was deposed as khedive and replaced by his uncle,
Husayn
Kamil, as sultan.[29]
In 1906, the
Dinshaway Incident prompted many neutral Egyptians to join the nationalist
movement. After the First World War,
Saad Zaghlul and the
Wafd Party
led the Egyptian nationalist movement, gaining a majority at the local
Legislative Assembly. When the British exiled Zaghlul and his associates to
Malta on 8 March
1919, the country arose in its
first modern revolution. Constant revolting by the Egyptian people
throughout the country led Great Britain to issue a unilateral declaration of
Egypt's independence on 22 February 1922.[30]
The
Kingdom of Egypt lasted from 1922 to its dissolution in 1953.
The Revolution
The new Egyptian government drafted and implemented a new
constitution in 1923 based on a
parliamentary representative system. Saad Zaghlul was popularly-elected as
Prime Minister of Egypt in 1924. In 1936 the
Anglo-Egyptian Treaty was concluded. Continued instability in the government
due to remaining British control and increasing political involvement by the
king led to the ousting of the monarchy and the dissolution of the parliament in
a military
coup
d'état known as the
1952 Revolution. The officers, known as the
Free Officers Movement, forced King
Farouk to abdicate in support of his son
Fuad.
On 18 June 1953, the Egyptian Republic was declared, with General
Muhammad Naguib as the first President of the Republic. Naguib was forced to
resign in 1954 by
Gamal Abdel Nasser – the real architect of the 1952 movement – and was later
put under
house
arrest. Nasser assumed
power as President and declared the full independence of Egypt from the
United Kingdom on 18 June 1956. His
nationalization of the Suez Canal on 26 July 1956 prompted the 1956
Suez
Crisis.
View of Cairo, the largest city in Africa and the Middle East. The
Cairo Opera House (bottom-right) is the main performing arts
venue in the Egyptian capital.
Three years after the 1967
Six Day War, during which Israel had invaded and occupied
Sinai, Nasser died and was succeeded by
Anwar Sadat. Sadat switched Egypt's
Cold War
allegiance from the Soviet Union to the United States, expelling Soviet advisors
in 1972. He launched the
Infitah
economic reform policy, while violently clamping down on religious and secular
opposition alike.
In 1973, Egypt, along with Syria, launched the
October War, a surprise attack against the Israeli forces occupying the
Sinai Peninsula and the
Golan
Heights. It was an attempt to liberate the territory Israel had captured 6
years earlier. Both the US and the USSR intervened and a
cease-fire
was reached. Despite not being a complete military success, most historians
agree that the
October War presented Sadat with a political victory that later allowed him
to regain the Sinai in return for peace with Israel.
Sadat made a historic visit to Israel in 1977, which led to the 1979
peace treaty in exchange for the complete Israeli withdrawal from Sinai.
Sadat's initiative sparked enormous controversy in the
Arab world and led to Egypt's expulsion from the Arab League, but it was
supported by the vast majority of Egyptians.[31]
A fundamentalist military soldier assassinated Sadat in Cairo in 1981. He was
succeeded by the incumbent
Hosni
Mubarak. In 2003, the
Egyptian Movement
for Change, popularly known as Kefaya, was launched to seek a return
to democracy
and greater
civil liberties.
Identity
The Nile Valley was home to one of the
oldest cultures in the world, spanning three thousand years of continuous
history. When Egypt fell under a
series of foreign occupations after 343 BC, each left an indelible mark on
the country's
cultural landscape. Egyptian identity evolved in the span of this long
period of occupation to accommodate, in principle, two new religions,
Islam and
Christianity; and a new language,
Arabic, and its spoken descendant,
Egyptian Arabic.[32]
The degree to which Egyptians identify with each layer of Egypt's history in
articulating a sense of
collective identity can vary. Questions of identity came to fore in the last
century as Egypt sought to free itself from foreign occupation for the first
time in two thousand years. Three chief ideologies came to head:
ethno-territorial Egyptian nationalism, secular
Arab nationalism and
pan-Arabism, and
Islamism.
Egyptian nationalism predates its Arab counterpart by many decades, having roots
in the nineteenth century and becoming the dominant mode of expression of
Egyptian anti-colonial activists and intellectuals until the early 20th century.[33]
Arab nationalism reached a peak under
Nasser but was once again relegated under
Sadat; meanwhile, the ideology espoused by
Islamists
such as the
Muslim Brotherhood is present in small segments of the lower-middle strata
of Egyptian society.[34]
Politics
National
Egypt has been a republic since 18 June 1953. President
Mohamed Hosni Mubarak has been the
President of the Republic since 14 October 1981, following the assassination
of former-President
Mohammed Anwar El-Sadat. Mubarak is currently serving his fifth term in
office (28 years). He is the leader of the ruling
National Democratic Party.
Prime Minister Dr.
Ahmed
Nazif was sworn in as Prime Minister on 9 July 2004, following the
resignation of Dr.
Atef Ebeid
from his office.
Although power is ostensibly organized under a
multi-party
semi-presidential system, whereby the executive power is theoretically
divided between the President and the
Prime Minister, in practice it rests almost solely with the President who
traditionally has been elected in single-candidate elections for more than fifty
years. Egypt also holds regular multi-party parliamentary elections. The last
presidential election, in which Mubarak won a fifth consecutive term,
was held in September 2005.
In late February 2005, President Mubarak announced in a surprise television
broadcast that he had ordered the reform of the country's presidential election
law, paving the way for multi-candidate polls in the upcoming presidential
election. For the first time since the
1952 movement, the Egyptian people had an apparent chance to elect a leader
from a list of various candidates. The President said his initiative came "out
of my full conviction of the need to consolidate efforts for more freedom and
democracy."[35]
However, the new law placed draconian restrictions on the filing for
presidential candidacies, designed to prevent well-known candidates such as
Ayman Nour
from standing against Mubarak, and paved the road for his easy re-election
victory.[36]
Concerns were once again expressed after the 2005 presidential elections about
government interference in the election process through fraud and vote-rigging,
in addition to police brutality and violence by pro-Mubarak supporters against
opposition demonstrators.[37]
After the election, Egypt imprisoned Nour, and the U.S. Government stated the
"conviction of Mr. Nour, the runner-up in Egypt's 2005 presidential elections,
calls into question Egypt's commitment to democracy, freedom, and the rule of
law."[38]
As a result, most Egyptians are skeptical about the process of
democratization and the role of the elections. Less than 25 percent of the
country's 32 million registered voters (out of a population of more than 72
million) turned out for the 2005 elections.[39]
A proposed change to the constitution would limit the president to two
seven-year terms in office.[40]
Thirty-four constitutional changes voted on by parliament on 19 March 2007
prohibit parties from using religion as a basis for political activity; allow
the drafting of a new anti-terrorism law to replace the emergency legislation in
place since 1981, giving police wide powers of arrest and surveillance; give the
president power to dissolve parliament; and end judicial monitoring of election.[41]
As opposition members of parliament withdrew from voting on the proposed
changes, it was expected that the referendum would be boycotted by a great
number of Egyptians in protest of what has been considered a breach of
democratic practices. Eventually it was reported that only 27% of the registered
voters went to the polling stations under heavy police presence and tight
political control of the ruling National Democratic Party. It was officially
announced on 27 March 2007 that 75.9% of those who participated in the
referendum approved of the
constitutional amendments introduced by President Mubarak and was endorsed
by opposition free parliament, thus allowing the introduction of laws that curb
the activity of certain opposition elements, particularly Islamists.
The CIA World Factbook states that the legal system is based on Islamic and
civil law (particularly Napoleonic codes); and that the judicial review takes
place by a Supreme Court, which accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction only with
reservations.
Human rights
Several local and international human rights organizations, including
Amnesty International and
Human Rights Watch, have for many years criticized Egypt's human rights
record as poor. In 2005, President
Hosni
Mubarak faced unprecedented public criticism when he clamped down on
democracy activists
challenging his rule. Some of the most serious human rights violations,
according to HRW's 2006 report on Egypt, are routine torture, arbitrary
detentions and trials before military and state security courts.[42]
Discriminatory personal status laws governing marriage, custody and
inheritance which put women at a disadvantage have also been cited. Laws
concerning Coptic
Christians
which place restrictions on church building and open worship have been recently
eased, but major construction still requires governmental approval, while
sporadic attacks on Christians and churches continue.[43]
Intolerance of
Bahá'ís
and unorthodox Muslim sects, such as
Sufis and
Shi'a,
also remains a problem.[42]
The Egyptian legal system only recognizes three religions:
Islam,
Christianity and
Judaism. When
the government moved to computerize identification cards, members of religious
minorities, such as Bahá'ís, could
not obtain identification documents.[44]
An Egyptian court ruled in early 2008 that members of other faiths can obtain
identity cards without listing their faiths, and without becoming officially
recognized.[45]
(For more on the status of religious minorities, see the
Religion
section.)
In 2005, the
Freedom House rated
political rights in Egypt as "6" (1 representing the most free and 7 the
least free rating),
civil liberties as "5" and gave it the freedom rating of "Not Free."[46]
It however noted that "Egypt witnessed its most transparent and competitive
presidential and legislative elections in more than half a century and an
increasingly unbridled public debate on the country's political future in 2005."[47]
For
freedom of the press, Egypt was deemed "Partly Free" in 2008, ranking 124
out of the 196 countries surveyed.[48]
In 2007, human rights group
Amnesty International released a report criticizing Egypt for
torture and
illegal detention. The report alleges that Egypt has become an international
center for torture, where other nations send suspects for interrogation, often
as part of the
War on Terror. The report calls on Egypt to bring its
anti-terrorism laws into accordance with international human rights statutes
and on other nations to stop sending their detainees to Egypt.[49]
Egypt's foreign ministry quickly issued a rebuttal to this report, claiming that
it was inaccurate and unfair, as well as causing deep offense to the Egyptian
government.[50]
The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights (EOHR) is one of the
longest-standing bodies for the defence of
human rights in Egypt.[51]
In 2003, the government established the National Council for Human Rights,
headquartered in Cairo and headed by former
UN Secretary-General
Boutros Boutros-Ghali who directly reports to the president.[52]
The council has come under heavy criticism by local NGO activists, who contend
it undermines human rights work in Egypt by serving as a propaganda tool for the
government to excuse its violations[53]
and to provide legitimacy to repressive laws such as the recently renewed
Emergency Law.[54]
Egypt had announced in 2006 that it was in the process of abolishing the
Emergency Law,[40]
but in March 2007 President Mubarak approved several constitutional amendments
to include "an anti-terrorism clause that appears to enshrine sweeping police
powers of arrest and surveillance", suggesting that the Emergency Law is here to
stay for the long haul.[55]
Foreign relations
Egypt's foreign policy operates along moderate lines. Factors such as
population size, historical events, military strength, diplomatic expertise
and a strategic geographical position give Egypt extensive political influence
in Africa and the Middle East. Cairo has been a crossroads of regional commerce
and culture for centuries, and its intellectual and Islamic institutions are at
the center of the region's social and
cultural development.
The permanent
Headquarters of the Arab League are located in Cairo and the Secretary
General of the Arab League has traditionally been an Egyptian. Former Egyptian
Foreign Minister
Amr Moussa
is the current Secretary General. The Arab League briefly moved from Egypt to
Tunis in 1978, as a protest to the signing by Egypt of a peace treaty with
Israel, but returned in 1989.
Egypt was the first Arab state to establish diplomatic relations with Israel,
with the signing of the
Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty in 1979. Egypt has a major influence amongst other
Arab states, and has historically played an important role as a mediator in
resolving disputes between various Arab states, and in the
Israeli-Palestinian dispute.
Former Egyptian
Deputy Prime Minister
Boutros Boutros-Ghali served as
Secretary-General of the United Nations from 1991 to 1996.
In the twenty-first century, Egypt has encountered a major problem with
immigration, as millions of Africans attempt to enter Egypt fleeing poverty and
war. Border control methods can be "harsh, sometimes lethal."[56]
Economy
Cairo's
city centre is a busy economic hub
Egypt's economy depends mainly on agriculture, media, petroleum exports, and
tourism; there are also more than three million Egyptians working abroad, mainly
in
Saudi Arabia, the
Persian
Gulf and Europe. The completion of the
Aswan High Dam in 1970 and the resultant
Lake
Nasser have altered the time-honored place of the Nile River in the
agriculture and ecology of Egypt. A rapidly-growing population, limited
arable
land, and dependence on the Nile all continue to overtax resources and
stress the economy.[57]
The government has struggled to prepare the economy for the new millennium
through economic reform and massive investments in communications and physical
infrastructure. Egypt has been receiving U.S.
foreign aid (since 1979, an average of $2.2 billion per year) and is the
third-largest recipient of such funds from the United States following the Iraq
war. Its main revenues however come from tourism as well as traffic that goes
through the Suez Canal.
Egypt has a developed energy market based on coal, oil,
natural
gas, and
hydro power.
Substantial coal deposits are in the north-east Sinai, and are mined at the rate
of about 600,000 tonnes
(590,000 LT;
660,000 ST)
per year. Oil and gas are produced in the western desert regions, the
Gulf of
Suez, and the Nile Delta. Egypt has huge reserves of gas, estimated at 1,940
cubic kilometres, and LNG is exported to many countries.
Economic conditions have started to improve considerably after a period of
stagnation from the adoption of more liberal economic policies by the
government, as well as increased revenues from tourism and a booming
stock
market. In its annual report, the
IMF
has rated Egypt as one of the top countries in the world undertaking economic
reforms.[citation
needed] Some major economic reforms taken by the new government
since 2003 include a dramatic slashing of customs and tariffs. A new
taxation law
implemented in 2005 decreased corporate taxes from 40% to the current 20%,
resulting in a stated 100% increase in
tax
revenue by the year 2006.
Tourists ride in traditional Nile boat.
FDI (Foreign
Direct Investment) into Egypt has increased considerably in the past few
years due to the recent
economic liberalization measures taken by minister of investment Mahmoud
Mohieddin, exceeding $6 billion in 2006.
Although one of the main obstacles still facing the Egyptian economy is the
trickle down of the wealth to the average population, many Egyptians criticize
their government for higher prices of basic goods while their
standards of living or purchasing power remains relatively stagnant. Often
corruption is blamed by Egyptians as the main impediment to feeling the benefits
of the newly attained wealth.[58][59][60]
Major reconstruction of the country's infrastructure is promised by the
government, with a large portion of the sum paid for the newly acquired 3rd
mobile license ($3 billion) by Etisalat.[61]
The best known examples of Egyptian companies that have expanded regionally
and globally are the
Orascom Group and Raya. The IT sector has been expanding rapidly in the past
few years, with many new start-ups conducting outsourcing business to North
America and Europe, operating with companies such as Microsoft, Oracle and other
major corporations, as well as numerous SME's. Some of these companies are the
Xceed Contact Center, Raya Contact Center, E Group Connections and C3 along with
other start ups in that country. The sector has been stimulated by new Egyptian
entrepreneurs trying to capitalize on their country's huge potential in the
sector, as well as constant government encouragement.
Demographics
Egypt is the most populated country in the Middle East and the third most
populous on the
African continent, with an estimated 83 million people (as of April 2009).
The last 40 years have seen a rapid increase in population due to
medical advances and massive increase in agricultural productivity,[62]
made by the
Green Revolution.[63]
Egypt's population was estimated at only 3 million when
Napoleon invaded the country in
1798.[64]
Almost all the population is concentrated along the banks of the Nile (notably
Cairo and Alexandria), in the Delta and near the Suez Canal. Approximately 90%
of the population adheres to
Islam and most of the remainder to Christianity, primarily the
Coptic Orthodox denomination.[65]
Apart from religious affiliation, Egyptians can be divided demographically into
those who live in the major urban centers and the
fellahin or
farmers of rural villages.
Egyptians
are by far the largest ethnic group in Egypt at 98% of the total population.[65]
Ethnic minorities include the
Bedouin Arab
tribes living in the eastern deserts and the
Sinai Peninsula, the
Berber-speaking
Siwis (Amazigh)
of the Siwa
Oasis, and the ancient
Nubian communities clustered along the Nile. There are also tribal
communities of
Beja
concentrated in the south-eastern-most corner of the country, and a number of
Dom
clans mostly in the Nile Delta and
Faiyum who are
progressively becoming assimilated as urbanization increases.
Egypt also hosts an unknown number of
refugees and asylum seekers, but they are estimated to be between 500,000
and 3 million.[66]
There are some 70,000
Palestinian refugees,[66]
and about 150,000 recently arrived
Iraqi refugees,[67]
but the number of the largest group, the
Sudanese, is contested.[68]
The once-vibrant
Greek and
Jewish communities in Egypt have virtually
disappeared, with only a small number remaining in the country, but many
Egyptian Jews visit on religious occasions and for tourism. Several important
Jewish archaeological and historical sites are found in Cairo, Alexandria and
other cities.
Media
Egyptian
media are highly influential both in Egypt and the
Arab World,
attributed to large audiences and increasing freedom from government control.[69][70]
Freedom of the media is guaranteed in the constitution; however, many laws still
restrict this right.[69][71]
After the
Egyptian presidential election of 2005, Ahmed Selim, office director for
Information Minister Anas al-Fiqi, declared an era of a "free, transparent and
independent Egyptian media."[70]
Religion
Cairo's unique cityscape with its ancient
mosques.
Since 640 AD, many mosques have been built throughout Egypt, thus
Cairo has acquired the nickname of "city of a thousand minarets"
Religion in Egypt controls many aspects of social life and is endorsed
by law. Egypt is predominantly Muslim, with Muslims comprising between 80% and
90% of a population of around 80 million Egyptians[72][73][74][75][76][77][78]
Almost the entirety of Egypt's Muslims are
Sunni.[72]
A significant number of Muslim Egyptians also follow native
Sufi
orders,[79]
and there is a minority of
Shi'a.
Most of the non-Muslims in Egypt are
Christians. Christians represent around 10% of the population[72][74][75]
and are the largest Christian community in the
Middle
East.[80][81][82][83][84][85][86]
Over 90% of Egyptian Christians belong to the native
Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria.[74][75][87]
Other native Egyptian Christians are adherents of the
Coptic Catholic Church, the
Evangelical Church of Egypt and various other
Protestant denominations. Non-native
Christian
communities are largely found in the urban regions of
Cairo and
Alexandria.
There is also a small, but nonetheless historically significant,
non-immigrant
Bahá'í
population of around 2000,[88]
and an even smaller community of Jews of about 200,[88][89]
then a tiny number of Egyptians who identify as
atheist and
agnostic. The non-Sunni, non-Coptic communities range in size from several
hundreds to a few thousand. The original
Ancient Egyptian religion has all but disappeared.
According to the
constitution of Egypt, any new legislation must at least implicitly agree
with Islamic law;
however, the constitution bans political parties with a religious agenda.[90]
Egypt hosts two major religious institutions.
Al-Azhar University, founded in 970
A.D
by the
Fatimids as the first Islamic University in Egypt and the main Egyptian
Church the
Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria established in the middle of the 1st
century by
Saint Mark.
In Egypt,
Muslims and
Christians live as neighbors, sharing a common history and
national identity. They also share the same
ethnicity,
race, culture,
and language.[88]
Al-Azhar Mosque founded in AD 970 by the Fatimids as the first
Islamic University in Egypt
Religion plays a central role in most Egyptians' lives, The
Adhan (Islamic
call to prayer) that is heard five times a day has the informal effect of
regulating the pace of everything from business to media and entertainment.
Cairo is famous for its numerous
mosque
minarets and
is justifiably dubbed "the city of 1,000 minarets",[91]
with a significant number of
church towers. This religious landscape has been marred by a history of
religious extremism,[44]
recently witnessing a 2006 judgement of Egypt's
Supreme Administrative Court, which made a clear legal distinction between
"recognized religions" (i.e., Islam, Christianity, and Judaism) and all other
religious beliefs. This ruling effectively delegitimizes and forbids practice of
all but the three
Abrahamic religions.[92]
This judgment had made it necessary for non-Abrahamic religious communities to
either commit perjury or be denied Egyptian identification cards (see
Egyptian identification card controversy), until a 2008 Cairo court case
ruled that unrecognized religious minorities may obtain birth certificates and
identification documents, so long as they omit their religion on court
documents.[45]
[93]
In 2002, under the
Mubarak government, Coptic
Christmas
(January the 7th) was recognized as an official holiday,[94]
though Copts
complain of being minimally represented in law enforcement, state security and
public office, and of being discriminated against in the workforce on the basis
of their religion.[42]
The Coptic community, as well as several human rights activists and
intellectuals, maintain that the number of Christians occupying government posts
is not proportional to the number of Copts in Egypt.
Culture
Egyptian culture has six thousand years of
recorded history.
Ancient Egypt was among the earliest
civilizations and for millennia, Egypt maintained a strikingly complex and
stable culture that influenced later cultures of Europe, the Middle East and
other African countries. After the Pharaonic era, Egypt itself came under the
influence of
Hellenism, Christianity, and Islamic culture. Today, many aspects of Egypt's
ancient culture exist in interaction with newer elements, including the
influence of modern
Western culture, itself with roots in ancient Egypt.
Egypt's capital city, Cairo, is Africa's largest city and has been renowned
for centuries as a center of learning, culture and commerce. Egypt has the
highest number of
Nobel Laureates in Africa and the Arab World. Some Egyptian born politicians
were or are currently at the helm of major international organizations like
Boutros Boutros-Ghali of the
United Nations and
Mohamed ElBaradei of the
IAEA.
Renaissance
The work of early nineteenth-century scholar Rifa'a et-Tahtawi gave rise to
the Egyptian Renaissance, marking the transition from
Medieval to
Early Modern Egypt. His work renewed interest in
Egyptian antiquity and exposed Egyptian society to
Enlightenment principles. Tahtawi co-founded with education reformer
Ali Mubarak a native
Egyptology
school that looked for inspiration to medieval Egyptian scholars, such as
Suyuti and
Maqrizi, who themselves studied the
history,
language and
antiquities of Egypt.[95]
Egypt's renaissance peaked in the late 19th and early 20th centuries through the
work of people like
Muhammad Abduh,
Ahmed Lutfi el-Sayed,
Muhammad Loutfi Goumah,
Tawfiq el-Hakim,
Louis Awad,
Qasim Amin,
Salama Moussa,
Taha
Hussein and
Mahmoud Mokhtar. They forged a
liberal
path for Egypt expressed as a commitment to individual freedom,
secularism
and faith in science to bring progress.[96]
Art and architecture
The Egyptians were one of the first major civilizations to codify design
elements in art and architecture. The wall paintings done in the service of the
Pharaohs
followed a rigid code of visual rules and meanings. Egyptian civilization is
renowned for its colossal pyramids,
colonnades
and monumental tombs. Well-known examples are the
Pyramid of Djoser designed by ancient architect and engineer
Imhotep, the
Sphinx, and the
temple of
Abu Simbel. Modern and contemporary Egyptian art can be as diverse as any
works in the world art scene, from the vernacular architecture of
Hassan
Fathy and
Ramses Wissa Wassef, to
Mahmoud Mokhtar's famous sculptures, to the distinctive
Coptic
iconography of
Isaac
Fanous.
The
Cairo Opera House serves as the main performing arts venue in the Egyptian
capital. Egypt's media and arts industry has flourished since the late
nineteenth century, today with more than thirty satellite channels and over one
hundred motion pictures produced each year. Cairo has long been known as the
"Hollywood of the Middle East;" its annual film festival, the
Cairo International Film Festival, has been rated as one of 11 festivals
with a top class rating worldwide by the International Federation of Film
Producers' Associations.[97]
To bolster its media industry further, especially with the keen competition from
the
Persian Gulf Arab States and
Lebanon, a
large media city was built. Some Egyptian-born actors, like
Omar
Sharif, have achieved worldwide fame.
Literature
Literature constitutes an important cultural element in the life of Egypt.
Egyptian novelists and poets were among the first to experiment with modern
styles of
Arabic literature, and the forms they developed have been widely imitated
throughout the Middle East.[98]
The first modern Egyptian novel
Zaynab by
Muhammad Husayn Haykal was published in 1913 in the
Egyptian vernacular.[99]
Egyptian novelist
Naguib Mahfouz was the first Arabic-language writer to win the
Nobel Prize in Literature. Egyptian women writers include
Nawal El Saadawi, well known for her
feminist
activism,
and
Alifa Rifaat who also writes about women and tradition. Vernacular poetry is
perhaps the most popular
literary genre amongst Egyptians, represented by the works of
Ahmed Fouad Negm (Fagumi),
Salah Jaheen and
Abdel Rahman el-AbnudiIn their belief, boats were used by the dead to
accompany the sun around the world, as Heaven was referred to as “Upper Waters”.
In Egyptian mythology, every night the serpentine god Apophis would attack the
Sun Boat as it brought the sun (and as such order )back to the Kingdom in the
morning. It is referred to as the “Boat of Millions” as all of the gods and all
of the souls of the blessed dead may at one point or another be needed to defend
or operate it.
Music
Upper Egyptian folk musicians from
Kom
Ombo.
Egyptian music is a rich mixture of indigenous, Mediterranean, African and
Western elements. In
antiquity, Egyptians were playing harps and flutes, including two indigenous
instruments: the ney
and the oud.
Percussion and vocal music also became an important part of the local music
tradition ever since. Contemporary Egyptian music traces its beginnings to the
creative work of people such as Abdu-l Hamuli, Almaz and Mahmud Osman, who
influenced the later work of Egyptian music giants such as
Amr Diab,Mohamed
Mounir,
Sayed
Darwish,
Umm
Kulthum,
Mohammed Abdel Wahab and
Abdel Halim Hafez. From the 1970s onwards, Egyptian pop music has become
increasingly important in Egyptian culture, while Egyptian folk music continues
to be played during weddings and other festivities.
Festivals
Egypt is famous for its many festivals and religious carnivals, also known as
mulid. They are usually associated with a particular Coptic or Sufi
saint, but are often celebrated by all Egyptians irrespective of creed or
religion. Ramadan
has a special flavor in Egypt, celebrated with sounds, lights (local lanterns
known as fawanees) and much flare that many Muslim tourists from the
region flock to Egypt during Ramadan to witness the spectacle. The ancient
spring festival of
Sham en Nisim (Coptic:
Ϭⲱⲙ‘ⲛⲛⲓⲥⲓⲙ shom en nisim) has been celebrated by Egyptians for
thousands of years, typically between the
Egyptian months of
Paremoude
(April) and
Pashons (May), following
Easter Sunday.
Egypt is one of the boldest countries in the middle east in the music
industry. The next generation of the Egyptian music is considered to be the
rise, as the music was disrupted by some foreign influences, bad admixing, and
abused oriental styles. The new arising talents starting from the late 90's are
taking over the rein now as they play many diffenet genres of many different
cultures. Rock And Metal music are prevailing widely in Egypt now,as much as the
oriental jazz and folk music are becoming well-known now to the Egyptian and
non-Egyptian fans
Sports
Football is the Popular
National Sport of Egypt. Egyptian Soccer clubs
El Ahly,
El Zamalek,
Ismaily,
El-Ittihad El-Iskandary and
El Masry are the most popular teams and enjoy the reputation of long-time
regional champions. The great rivalries keep the streets of Egypt energized as
people fill the streets when their favorite team wins. The
Cairo Derby is one of the fiercest derbies in Africa nd the world, the BBC
even picked it as one of the toughest 7 derbies in the world [[5]].
Egypt is rich in soccer history as soccer has been around for over 100 years.
The country is home to many African championships such as the
Africa Cup of Nations. While,
Egypt's national team has not qualified for the
FIFA World Cup since 1990, the Egyptian team won the Africa Cup Of Nations
an unprecedented six times, including two times in a row in 1957 and 1959 and
again in 2006 and 2008, setting a world record.
Squash and
tennis are other popular sports in Egypt. The Egyptian squash team has been
known for its fierce competition in international championships since the 1930s.
Amr
Shabana is Egypt's best player and the winner of the world open three times
and the best player of 2006.
The Egyptian Handball team also holds another record; throughout the 34 times
the
African Handball Nations Championship was held, Egypt won first place five
times (including 2008), five times second place, four times third place, and
came in fourth place twice. The team won 6th and 7th places in 1995, 1997 at the
World Men's Handball Championship, and twice won 6th place at the 1996 and 2000
Olympics.
In 2007,
Omar Samra joined Ben Stephens (England), Victoria James (Wales) and Greg
Maud (South Africa) in putting together an expedition to climb Mount Everest
from its South side. The Everest expedition began on 25 March 2007 and lasted
for just over 9 weeks. On the 17th of May at precisely 9:49 am Nepal time, Omar
became the first and youngest Egyptian to climb 8,850m Mount Everest. He also
became the first Egyptian to climb Everest from its South face, the same route
taken by Sir Edmund Hilary and Sherpa Tenzing in 1953.
Egypt has a long history of
participation at the Summer Olympics since 1912.
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