Amenhotep IV (Akhenaten)

Reign: 1350 - 1334 BC

(18) Dynasty of Egypt & Religious Revolution

Amenhotep IV changed his name to Akhenaten, meaning "the Servant of Aten" (a sun God) early in his reign. Whereas his father, Amenhotep III, had sought to reduce the increasing power of the priesthood, Akhenaton practically dismantled it. Akhenaten started his reign as most Egyptian kings. But fairly early in his reign he introduced a monotheistic worship of Aten, the Sun God. At first he attempted to place temples for next to temples for other gods. Eventually he closed all the other temples and took their revenues.

Akhenaten

 In the process of this religious revolution, Akhenaten placed himself as the intermediary between Aten and the people. This helped eliminate the need for the priesthood. As the only one with access to the god, Akhenaten established himself as a god-king and became the first king to be called Pharaoh.

New Capital at el-Amarna

In a move to further distance he created a new capital at Akhenaton now known as el-Amarna. This sacred city had never been occupied prior to Akhenaten's moving his capital nor did it outlast Akhenaton's reign. After Akhenaten's death the backlash forced his son, Tutankhamen to reverse the move to monotheism and return to the worship of many gods. During his reign it appears likely that only the nobles embraced the Aten cult but even much of that may have been just to stay in favor with the king. Even without their temples the common people apparently maintained their old worship practices.

 Changes in Art

This period of change during Akhenaten's reign has become known as "The Amarna Revolution" or "The Amarna Interlude". Besides the changes involving the king's position and title, the religious movements and the capital there was a new artistic style used as well. Bek, Akhenaten's "Chief Sculptor and Master" proclaims in a stele that the king told the artists to create "what they saw". This led to the development of a more realistic style in the official art that in many cases continued on after Akhenaten's time.

Akhenaton's Physiognomy

When the first portraits of Akhenaten and his wife Nefertiti was uncovered they were thought to represent two women because of Akhenaton's body style. Akhenaton's sculptures usually show him with an elongated neck, protruding belly and a lower body form more closely related to the way women were depicted. For a while it was thought that Akhenaton was actually a woman. Today there is a theory that Akhenaten may have developed a condition known as Frolich's Syndrome late in life. This tumor of the pituitary gland can result in body deformations very similar to Akhenaton's depiction.

10 FACTS ON ANCIENT EGYPT’S MONOTHEIST PHARAOH

#1 HIS FATHER IS KNOWN AS AMENHOTEP THE MAGNIFICENT.

Born Amenhotep, Akhenaten was the son of Amenhotep III and Tiye. Amenhotep III, also known as Amenhotep the Magnificent, was the ninth pharaoh of the Eighteenth dynasty of Ancient Egypt and had a long and prosperous reign. Tiye was Amenhotep III’s Great Royal Wife, the title given to the principal wife of the pharaoh. Their eldest son Crown Prince Thutmose died before Amenhotep III thus making Akhenaten next in line for the throne.

#2 HE RULED OVER ANCIENT EGYPT FOR SEVENTEEN YEARS.

Akhenaten ruled as Amenhotep IV for the first few years of his reign. Amenhotep IV was crowned in Thebes. The date of his succession to the throne is not known with certainty and varies between 1370 BC and 1358 BC. His reign lasted for seventeen years till his death in 1336 BC or 1334 BC. Amenhotep IV was pharaoh of the Eighteenth dynasty of Ancient Egypt.

#3 AMENHOTEP IV WAS THE HUSBAND OF THE FAMOUS NEFERTITI.

Amenhotep IV married Nefertiti at the beginning of his reign. From inscriptions it can be deduced that Nefertiti and Akhenaten had at least six daughters. Though Nefertiti was not his only wife, Akhenaten is shown openly displaying love for Nefertiti and their daughter in depictions. Most probably, the couple had a genuine romantic relationship. Nefertiti became an icon of feminine beauty after the rediscovery of her bust in 1912.

#4 AMENHOTEP IV INSTITUTED THE FIRST MONOTHEISTIC RELIGION IN HISTORY.

When Amenhotep IV came to the throne, many gods were worshipped in Egypt with Amun being the King of Gods. Initially he allowed worship of Egypt’s traditional deities but soon he took steps to establish sun god Aten as the supreme god of Egypt. By year 9 of his reign Akhenaten declared that Aten was not merely the supreme god, but the only god. This was a radical step and the first instance of monotheism in all history.

 #5 HE TOOK THE NAME AKHENATEN IN YEAR FIVE OF HIS REIGN.

In year 5 of his reign that Amenhotep IV disbanded priesthoods of all the other gods, rejected the primary god Amun as superstition and replaced the traditional image of falcon as the symbol of deity with the sun disk. To show his loyalty to Aten, he changed his name from Amenhotep, which meant ‘Amun is content’, to Akhenaten, meaning ‘Living Spirit of Aten’.

#6 AKHENATEN ORDERED THE ERADICATION OF ALL OF EGYPT’S TRADITIONAL GODS.

In year 9 of his reign, Akhenaten ordered the eradication of all of Egypt’s traditional gods. He ordered the defacing of Amun’s temples throughout Egypt and imposed a ban on images except the ones which referred to Aten. By these measures he tried to instil in people that Aten was the one true god. He also declared that he was the only intermediary between Aten and the people of Egypt thus eliminating the priests.

#7 HE IS THE FOUNDER OF THE CITY OF AMARNA.

In year 5 of his reign Akhenaten ordered the construction of his new capital which was named Akhetaten or ‘Horizon of Aten’. Akhenaten was dedicated to his new religion of worship to the Aten. The temples built there were roofless so that rays of the sun would fall on the worshipers. The site today is known as Amarna. It is one of the most important historical sites in Egypt and exploration of the city continues to this day.

#8 ART WAS REVOLUTIONIZED DURING THE REIGN OF AKHENATEN.

Akhenaten presided over one of the wealthiest period of ancient Egypt. Numerous structures were constructed during his reign, the most famous being the Temple of Amenhotep IV. Art was revolutionized during his reign with more realistic artistic portrayals. It was radical for its time as it focused on ordinary activities and domestic scenes. Also royal women became more prominent in portrayals of the period.

#9 AKHENATEN AND ATENISM WERE ERASED FROM RECORDS AFTER HIS DEATH.

After the death of Akhenaten, his monotheistic religion was discarded and traditional religious practices were gradually restored. He was referred to as the ‘heretic king’ and all traces to him and Atenism were erased. His name doesn’t appear in any of the king lists compiled by later Pharaohs and it was only after the discovery of the site of Amarna in the nineteenth century that the world came to know about Akhenaten

#10 AKHENATEN WAS THE FATHER OF KING TUT.

Tutankhamun

One of Akhenaten’s sons was Tutankhamun. Tutankhamun went on to become pharaoh and took the name Tutankhamun. He became famous when his nearly intact tomb was discovered in 1922 and is now popularly known as King Tut. Previously it was not certain that King Tut was the son of Akhenaten but DNA tests in 2010 established this fact. It is also now known that King Tut’s mother was a biological sister of Akhenaten and one of his wives.

AN INTERESTING THEORY

Since Akhenaten was the first monotheist, there is a theory that after his death his followers were forced to leave Egypt and were led by an Atenist priest who was the biblical Moses. That Akhenaten’s monotheism religion later went on to become Judaism cannot be definitely established. However there are several points that support this theory including the fact that three principal Judaic terms for God have a connection to Aten.

Information and Pictures from Internet

Cairo the city

Cairo’s official name is al-Qāhirah, which means literally: “Place or Camp of Mars“, in reference to the fact that the planet was rising at the time of the city’s foundation as well as, “the Vanquisher“; “the Conqueror“; “the Victorious” or, “the Strong” (al-Qahira) in reference to the much awaited Caliph Al-Mu’izz li-Din Allah who arrived from the old Fatimid capital of Mahdia in 973 AD to the city.

 Cairo / القاهرة‎, is the capital and largest city of Egypt. The Cairo metropolitan area, with a population of 21.3 million,is the largest metropolitan area in the Arab world, the second largest in Africa, and the sixth largest in the world.

The area around present-day Cairo, especially Memphis, which was the old capital of Pharaonic Egypt, had long been a focal point of Ancient Egypt due to its strategic location just upstream from the Nile Delta. However, the origins of the modern city are generally traced back to a series of settlements in the first millennium. Around the turn of the 4th century, as Memphis was continuing to decline in importance, the Romans established a fortress town along the east bank of the Nile. This fortress, known as Babylon, was the nucleus of the Roman and then the Byzantine city and is the oldest structure in the city today.

It is also situated at the nucleus of the Coptic Orthodox community, which separated from the Roman and Byzantine churches in the late 4th century. Many of Cairo's oldest Coptic churches, including the Hanging Church,  are located along the fortress walls in a section of the city known as Coptic Cairo. 

                                                          

Coptic Hanging Church

Ruins of Babylon Fortress 

Following the Muslim conquest in AD 640, the conqueror Amr Ibn El-As settled to the north of the Babylon in an area that became known as El-Fustat.

Originally a tented camp (Fustat signifies "Tents") Fustat became a permanent settlement and the first capital of Islamic Egypt.

 In 750, following the overthrow of the Umayyad caliphate by the Abbasids, the new rulers created their own settlement to the northeast of Fustat which became their capital. This was known as al-Askar (the city of sections, or cantonments) as it was laid out like a military camp.

 A rebellion in 869 by Ahmad Ebn Tulum led to the abandonment of Al Askar and the building of another settlement, which became the seat of government.

This was El-Qatta'i ("the Quarters"), to the north of Fustat and closer to the river. El Qatta'i was centered around a palace and ceremonial mosque, now known as the Mosque of Ibn Tulum.

 

In 905, the Abbasids re-asserted control of the country and their governor returned to Fustat, razing al-Qatta'i to the ground.

In 969, the Fatimid empire ruled over Egypt with an army of Kutamas, and under the rule of Jawhar Al Saqili, a new fortified city northeast of Fustat was established. It took four years to build the city, initially known as El-Manṣūriyyah, which was to serve as the new capital of the caliphate. During that time, the construction of the El-Azhar Mosque was commissioned by order of the Caliph, which developed into the third-oldest university in the world.

    Al-Azhar University & Mosque

Cairo would eventually become a centre of learning, with the library of Cairo containing hundreds of thousands of books. When Caliph El-Mu'izz li Din Allah arrived from the old Fatimid capital of Mahdia in Tunisia in 973, he gave the city its present name, Qāhirat al-Mu'izz ("The Vanquisher of El-Mu'izz").

For nearly 200 years after Cairo was established, the administrative centre of Egypt remained in Fustat. However, in 1168 the Fatimid vizier Shawar set fire to Fustat to prevent its capture by Amalric, the Crusader king of Jerusalem. Egypt's capital was permanently moved to Cairo, which was eventually expanded to include the ruins of Fustat and the previous capitals of al-Askar and al-Qatta'i. As al Qahira expanded these earlier settlements were encompassed, and have since become part of the city of Cairo as it expanded and spread; they are now collectively known as "Old Cairo".

While the Fustat fire successfully protected the city of Cairo, a continuing power struggle between Shawar, King Amalric I of Jerusalem, and the Zengid general Shirkuh led to the downfall of the Fatimid establishment.

In 1169, Saladin was appointed as the new vizier of Egypt by the Fatimids and two years later he seized power from the family of the last Fatimid caliph, al-'Āḍid. As the first Sultan of Egypt, Saladin established the Ayyubid dynasty, based in Cairo, and aligned Egypt with the Abbasids, who were based in Baghdad. During his reign, Saladin constructed the Cairo Citadel, which served as the seat of the Egyptian government until the mid-19th century.

A multi-domed mosque dominates the walled Citadel, with ruined tombs and a lone minaret in front.

The Cairo Citadel, seen above in the late 19th century, was commissioned by Saladin between 1176 and 1183.

The Cairo Citadel today.

In 1250, slave soldiers, known as the Mamluks, seized control of Egypt and like many of their predecessors established Cairo as the capital of their new dynasty. Continuing a practice started by the Ayyubids, much of the land occupied by former Fatimid palaces was sold and replaced by newer buildings. Construction projects initiated by the Mamluks pushed the city outward while also bringing new infrastructure to the centre of the city. Meanwhile, Cairo flourished as a centre of Islamic scholarship and a crossroads on the spice trade route among the civilizations in Afro-Eurasia. By 1340, Cairo had a population of close to half a million, making it the largest city west of China.

When the traveler Ibn Battuta first came to Cairo in 1326, he described it as the principal district of Egypt. When he passed through the area again on his return journey in 1348 the Black Death was ravaging most major cities. He cited reports of thousands of deaths per day in Cairo.

 

                                             Muhammad Ali's seizure of power

Although Cairo avoided Europe's stagnation during the Late Middle Ages, it could not escape the Black Death, which struck the city more than fifty times between 1348 and 1517. During its initial, and most deadly waves, approximately 200,000 people were killed by the plague, and, by the 15th century, Cairo's population had been reduced to between 150,000 and 300,000.

The city's status was further diminished after Vasco da Gama discovered a sea route around the Cape of Good Hope between 1497 and 1499, thereby allowing spice traders to avoid Cairo. Cairo's political influence diminished significantly after the Ottomans supplanted Mamluk power over Egypt in 1517. Ruling from Constantinople, Sultan Selim I relegated Egypt to a province, with Cairo as its capital. For this reason, the history of Cairo during Ottoman times is often described as inconsequential, especially in comparison to other time periods.

However, during the 16th and 17th centuries, Cairo remained an important economic and cultural centre. Although no longer on the spice route, the city facilitated the transportation of Yemeni coffee and Indian textiles, primarily to Anatolia, North Africa, and the Balkans. Cairo merchants were instrumental in bringing goods to the barren Hejaz, especially during the annual hajj to Mecca. It was during this same period that El-Azhar University reached the predominance among Islamic schools that it continues to hold today; pilgrims on their way to hajj often attested to the superiority of the institution, which had become associated with Egypt's body of Islamic scholars.

By the 16th century, Cairo also had high-rise apartment buildings where the two lower floors were for commercial and storage purposes and the multiple stories above them were rented out to tenants.

 

Under the Ottomans, Cairo expanded south and west from its nucleus around the Citadel. The city was the second-largest in the empire, behind Constantinople, and, although migration was not the primary source of Cairo's growth, twenty percent of its population at the end of the 18th century consisted of religious minorities and foreigners from around the Mediterranean. Still, when Napoleon arrived in Cairo in 1798, the city's population was less than 300,000, forty percent lower than it was at the height of Mameluke influence in the mid-14th century.

Bab Zouela

The French occupation was short-lived as British and Ottoman forces, including a sizeable Albanian contingent, recaptured the country in 1801.

A British and Ottoman force culminating with the French surrender on 22 June 1801 besieged Cairo itself. The British vacated Egypt two years later, leaving the Ottomans, the Albanians, and the weakened Mamluk jostling for control of the country. Continued civil war allowed an Albanian named Muhammad Ali Pasha to ascend to the role of commander and appointed himself the ottoman “Wali” governor of Egypt and eventually, with the approval of the religious establishment, he became viceroy of Egypt in 1805.

Mohamed Ali is regarded as the father and founder of modern Egypt due to the extensive reforms to the economic, military, and cultural aspects of Egypt. He used his leadership skills, political intelligence, and cunning to bring peace, prosperity, law, and order to Egypt that was transformed into a true superpower and great influences all over the world at the time.

Al Moezz Street

He used his support of the general public and the religious establishment to work on taking more control and charger of the country and to eliminate the Mamluks who controlled Egypt for more than 600 years. On the First of March in 1181, the Mamluks gathered in the Cairo citadel and Muhammad Ali’s troops began killing all the sixty-four Mamluks, including twenty-four commanders, he then dispatched his troops through Egypt to destroy any remaining traces of the Mamluk forces. He had a dream of creating his own dynasty and his own kingdom away from the decaying Ottoman Empire, that’s why he transformed Egypt into a regional power and declared himself the rightful successor. His dynasty ruled Egypt from its date of foundation in 1805 until 1952 AD following the Egyptian Revolution.

He developed a strategy based on agriculture as he planted crops for the sole purpose of exportation like rice, sugarcane, and especially cotton. All the income from agricultural production and export was used to develop public work and national projects like irrigation, canals, dams, and barrages. He also disbanded his foreign army and created a fleet and an army of pure Egyptians who was commanded by the Turks and trained by French commanders in the art of warfare. He also started an educational revolution as he constructed Western-style schools and universities to produce doctors, engineers, veterinarians, and other specialists. He sent educational expeditions to Europeans who were trained in modern techniques to complete his bureaucrats.

Bulak before draining              

Muhammad Ali and his successors figured out how to drain the swamp, using technology that was introduced by the French and improved on by them. They drained the Nile Delta, turning it into farmland, and drained the land west of the medieval city of Cairo. Building a new city along the Nile that would serve as a business center, with factories and warehouses and ports so that the new Egypt would be able to manufacture its own products. He named the city Bulaq. A French name given to the then the lake “Beau Lac”

He launched an industrial age in Egypt as he built factories to produce sugar, glass, and textile that competed with the European product, and build ships, weapons for the new army, and navy. There was also a dark side to his master plan as he added excessive taxation to pay for all his expensive projects which led him to lose a great deal of his public support. His over control on agriculture expanded his monopolization of world trade, which led to a bad relationship with Britain, which saw Egypt as a threat to their economical influence. .

                    Ismailia / Tahrir square

Mohammed Ali's successor, Ismail drained the area to the south of Bulaq. The new land was turned into a European style city with wide boulevards and public squares and parks and gardens. They also figured out how to fix the borders of the Nile by reinforcing the riverbed, and they built floodgates to keep the city from flooding every year. They built two vast squares in the new city: Midan Sulayman Pasha, or Sulayman Pasha Square, which was the center the new residential area, and Midan Ismailia, or "Ismail's Square" that was the center of the new business area. Just south of Midan Ismailia and the Nile, the Egyptians built a great army barracks called the Qasr el-Nil (Palace of the Nile). Some of the administrative offices of these barracks are now the main buildings of the American University in Cairo.

Ismail Pasha Palace / now Marriott Zamalek

In the late 1800s more squares were added throughout the city to reflect the new "European-ness" of the city. And in the early 1900s, Cairo jumped the river to two small islands in the Nile. Two upper class neighborhoods were built - Manial on Roda, and Zamalek on Gezira - so that the wealthy of Cairo could escape the crowded city. Also in the early 1900s, Europeans built the first satellite city around Cairo - called Heliopolis.

Also built for the wealthy citizens of Cairo, Heliopolis was built in the desert to the northeast of the city, and connected to Cairo by tram. A spa was built at the springs of Helwan to the south of the city, also connected by tram to the city center.

 

The village of Helwan, once an elegant spa of “Sulfuric  Waters” nearly twenty miles distant from the city center at the southern end of Cairo, has now become a center of heavy industry in Egypt.

Helouan Sulfuric Source

Pictures and articles collected from Internet

 

 

 

Les Libanais et Syriens d'Égypte

Les Libanais et Syriens d'Égypte, précurseurs de la « Nahda » arabe aux XIXe et XXe siècles

La grande émigration Syro-libanaise vers l'Égypte, commencée au XVIIe siècle, a pris son essor entre la seconde moitié du XIXe siècle et le début du XXe siècle, particulièrement après les massacres commis en 1860 dans la montagne libanaise ainsi qu'à Damas, ce qui entraîne également une très large émigration syrienne.

Au XIXe siècle, l'Égypte devenait plus attirante économiquement, vu les réformes sociales et culturelles effectuées par Mohammad Ali puis Ismaïl Pacha, ainsi que d'autres khédives ou vice-rois, qui voulaient faire de l'Égypte un « coin » d'Europe en Afrique. Alexandrie est devenue à la seconde moitié du XIXe siècle une ville méditerranéenne, européenne, arabe et islamo judéo-chrétienne, concurrente de Marseille et Istanbul, et son port recevait des navires de toutes les parties du monde, garantissant 60 % de l'activité économique égyptienne.

Beirut

 Des centaines de paysans montagnards et de propriétaires terriens libanais, et syriens venus souvent à pied, à dos d'âne ou à bord de petites embarcations, suivis de grandes familles bourgeoises, à majorité chrétienne melkite, puis orthodoxe et maronite, de Saïda, Tyr et Zahlé, Alep, Damas, et Homs, s'installèrent à Alexandrie, à Damiette, à Mansourah, à Tanta et au Caire, travaillant dans l'agriculture et le commerce.

Ces Libanais émigrants possédant d'autres langues que l'arabe furent embauchés dans les grandes sociétés et banques étrangères et développèrent, avec les Égyptiens, les secteurs économiques privés.

Ils réussirent dans les professions libérales, comme comptables, magistrats, avocats, médecins, ingénieurs, entrepreneurs, etc, et certains occupèrent d'importants postes au gouvernement, allant même jusqu'à influencer la politique locale. Le nombre de

Libanais et de syriens d'Égypte, à la fin du XIXe siècle, dépassait les cent mille personnes. 

Le Caire 1950

Les syro-libanais émigrant en Égypte avec des capitaux se sont bien établis et ont investi dans les petites industries de l'huile, de la savonnerie, du tabac, des pâtisseries. D'autres ont fondé de grandes sociétés et industries de sel, de sodium, de textile, de parfum, de bois, de la soie. En 1905, ils furent les pionniers des industries chimiques et du coton en Égypte.

Ils travaillèrent aussi dans le secteur du transport (train et autobus) dans le delta du Nil, établissant des liaisons régulières pour les gens et les marchandises à partir des ports jusqu'aux villages les plus éloignés du désert. 

Dans les villes, ils ouvrirent de grands magasins de nouveautés (prêt-à-porter, produits de beauté.). Certains firent rapidement fortune et construisirent des palais qu'ils habitèrent. Ce succès rapide entraîna, à son apogée, l'ouverture d'églises, d'écoles, de clubs et d'associations de bienfaisance, appuyant les nouveaux émigrants syro-libanais et envoyant des aides au Liban, et en Syrie tout en contribuant au développement de l'Égypte.

Citons parmi ces familles les Athié, Achbaa, Akl, Assouad, Ayrouth, Bakhos, Baz, Béhna, Bitar, Boulad, Boulos, Boustany, Cassir, Chalhoub, Chamy, Chaoul, Chahine, Chedid, Chéhfé, Corm, Dahan, Daher, Debbané, Eid, Eddé, Emad, Farah, Farès, Freige, Gemayel, Gargourra, Habachi, Hachem, Haddad, Haggar, Haïmari, Hakim, Hanneya, Homsi, Hawawini, Hindi, Karam, Khlat, Khouri, Maalouf, Lakkah, Mitri, Mirchak, Motran, Nasser, Naggar, Nouh, Orfali, Pharaon, Tathl, Rohayem, Sakakini, Saab, Sabeth, Sobhani, Sarrouf, Sammanne, Sayegh, Sednaoui, Sursock, Chéhadé, Tadros, Takla, Tagher, Toutounji, Younès, Zananiri, Zeidan, Zein, Zogheb,.

La « Nahda »

À la même époque, le Liban et la Syrie connaissaient une activité intellectuelle intense qui fut à l'origine de la Renaissance de l'arabe, la      « Nahda », basée sur la liberté, la patrie et la langue arabe, dans une perspective de conception de l'arabité suivant des objectifs nationalistes, laïcs et non religieux.

Les écrits des syro-libanais dans les domaines littéraire, culturel, scientifique, pédagogique et philosophique ont été à l'origine de la «Nahda » et un des « maîtres » libanais de toutes ces disciplines a été sans doute Boutros Al-Boustani, né à Debbiyeh dans le Chouf (1819-1883), qui ne quitta jamais le Liban.

La censure ottomane tentant d'étouffer ce nouvel essor, de nombreux intellectuels libanais et syriens prirent le chemin de l'Égypte, où la Renaissance arabe a effectivement vu le jour, avec de grands esprits comme les Égyptiens Taha Hussein (1889-1973), Saad Zaghloul (1859-1927) et son frère Fathi Zaghloul, qui, à travers ses traductions en langue arabe, a introduit la pensée politique et la sociologie occidentales en Orient.

Le Caire 1943

Les syro-libanais d'Égypte ont contribué au développement des courants de la pensée libérale et scientifique avec, notamment : Farah Antoun (1874-1922), intellectuel originaire de Tripoli, fondateur de la revue al-Jamiah (L'université) et auteur de plusieurs livres ; Yacoub Sarrouf (1852-1927), directeur de la revue scientifique al-Muqtataf (Sélection), fondée à Beyrouth en 1876 et transférée au Caire en 1883; Gergi Zeidane (1861-1914), écrivain réformiste de nouvelles et de romans historiques sous forme de feuilletons, fondateur de la revue al-Hilal (Le croissant) en 1892, qui a contribué à l'éducation de plusieurs générations, non seulement en Égypte, mais dans tout l'Orient arabe.

La presse et l'art

Le XIXe siècle fut celui du développement de la presse en Orient, qui avait eu sa première imprimerie en 1697 au Liban, suivi par l'Égypte en

1820. Avec l'imprimerie, la presse révolutionna la société arabe dont l'éveil culturel permit aux élites de débattre de nouvelles idées en approfondissant leur connaissance de l'Europe. Le premier journal officiel en arabe et turc fut el-Waqa'i el-Masria (Les événements égyptiens), apparu en 1828 en Égypte.

El-Rihani

Au Liban, Khalil el-Khoury fonda le premier périodique indépendant arabe, Hadiqat el-Akhbar (Le jardin des nouvelles) en 1858, et Abdel Kader Kabbani Samarat al-Founoun (La production artistique) en 1875, qui seront suivis de plus de cent autres journaux. À la même période, les frères Béchara et Salim Taqla fondèrent (1875) à Alexandrie le célèbre journal al-Ahram (Les Pyramides), transféré au Caire en 1899. Ce journal, conçu de façon moderne, se développa rapidement au niveau régional et international, devenant aujourd'hui l'un des plus grands du monde arabe, avec des versions hebdomadaires française (al-Ahram Hebdo) et anglaise (al Ahram Weekly).

Dans le domaine de l'art, les Libanais et les syriens ont également été prolixes, notamment au théâtre.

La première pièce écrite et jouée en Orient fut al-Bakhil (l'Avare), adaptée de Molière et présentée en 1848, près de la place des Canons à Beyrouth, par le Libanais Maroun al-Naccache, qui devint ainsi le père du théâtre arabe.

Vu les difficultés rencontrées au Liban en raison de l'occupation Ottomane, les Libanais développèrent le théâtre en Égypte, où Georges Abyad, fondateur du théâtre égyptien moderne, créa en 1912 la première troupe arabe professionnelle.

Sans oublier la science de la calligraphie arabe, avec son chantre le professeur Naguib Bey Hawawini, scribe du khédive Fouad 1er, et professeur d'écriture arabe, qui fera le voyage d'Ankhara et participera entre 1920 et 1923 à la traduction de l'écriture arabo-turc en caractère latin, sous la volonté et l'impulsion de modernisation et d'occidentalisation de la Turquie moderne de Kamal Attaturk.

 

Avenue Fouad

La révolution de 1952 en Égypte fit tomber la monarchie, ce qui entraîne un choc au sein de la colonie libanaise, très affectée par ce changement brusque, principalement après 1956. En effet, à cette date-là, la nationalisation nassérienne toucha la classe bourgeoise dans son ensemble, musulmans comme chrétiens.

Des centaines de familles perdirent du jour au lendemain leurs biens personnels, industries, magasins et autres propriétés, saisis par le nouveau gouvernement. Cela provoque une nouvelle grande vague d'émigration vers le Nouveau Monde et l'Australie.

Beaucoup sont cependant restés en Égypte, préservant jusqu'à ce jour les relations égypto-syro-libanaises, plusieurs fois millénaires.

Ces personnes sont très engagées dans la société égyptienne, comme il existe un grand nombre d'Égyptiens et de Syro-Libano-Égyptiens au Liban mais bien peu en Syrie, qui font le pont entre les 3 pays dans les domaines culturels, économiques et politiques.

Article reçu par Internet - Auteur inconnu ...

 

 

 

 

 

 

How Precious Metals Were Used in Ancient Egypt

Precious metals have been valuable resources for centuries, going back to ancient civilizations specially the Egyptian one. 

If you’ve frequented museums, it’s likely that you’ve seen golden jewelry and sarcophagi on display. These and other artifacts were crafted by hand all those years ago with a variety of precious metals and gemstones. In fact, the ancient Egyptians mastered mining and metallurgy, creating the foundation for modern metal smiting.

Extracting metals from ores was an expensive process since the tools were barely harder than rock and transportation was cumbersome. Therefore due to the cost of new material, many metal objects were melted down for a new purpose once they were no longer useful.

Gold Pharaonic Mask

Today’s surviving artifacts are mostly objects that were deliberately buried within tombs, as opposed to everyday items of the time period.

Egyptians found many uses for a variety of metals. Here is how these metals were used back then.

Copper

Copper was the first metal used by ancient Egyptians. They mined the metal up to 5,000 years ago and, in fact, the oldest Egyptian artifacts made of copper consist of beads and small tools. Copper was rarely found in a pure state, often containing small amounts of zinc, iron, or arsenic. Eventually, the Egyptian people began deliberately mixing tin with copper to make bronze, a much stronger alloy.

Copper objects of the era were often cast, which was a difficult process due to bubble formation during the pouring of the metal. The Egyptians with time learned that hammering copper increased its hardness, but could lead to the metal becoming more brittle. They combated the brittleness by annealing or tempering, which involved heating the metal to soften it slightly. These techniques were used to make weapons, tools, vessels, statues, and ornaments out of copper.

Gold

Gold nuggets

Gold was commonly used to make jewelry and ornaments for two main reasons: the first is that the Egyptians believed gold to be the flesh of the sun god Ra and the second because gold was plentiful in the region. 

Artisans made amulets, death masks, diadems, ornamental weapons, vessels, and funeral art out of gold to adorn the tombs of pharaohs. Some of these objects were decorative, meant to shower the fallen leaders with wealth and beauty. Other objects were created as good luck charms that were believed to ensure a safe journey to the afterlife. 

Royals and the wealthy largely controlled the gold market, however non-royal Egyptians were also known to own gold jewelry.

Goldsmiths shaped the yellow metal by casting and hammering, while adding embellishments with techniques like embossing and engraving. Precious stones and glass were often set into decorative gold pieces. Gold was also pounded into thin plates, which could be glued or riveted onto other materials. This technique was used in the making of columns, obelisks, furniture, coffins, death masks, and jewelry. Artisans also created gold leaf, which could be applied to surfaces using type of gesso.

Ancient Egyptians frequently used a naturally occurring alloy known as electrum, which consisted of gold, silver, and a small amount of copper. It was pale amber in color. Electrum was used to make chariots, columns, thrones, offering tables, statues, amulets, and jewelry.

War Chariot

Silver

Silver was far scarcer than gold in ancient Egypt, which made it a highly valuable commodity. The white metal was treated much like gold and electrum, used to meet a variety of needs. One unique use for silver was that artisans would beat it into sheets to plate mirror surfaces. When used for ornamental purposes, silver could be stained black using sulfur. The top of the great pyramid of giza was apparently cover with electrum to be seen from far.

Bronze

Though techniques for working with bronze resembled those of copper, bronze allowed for a big improvement in the creation of tools and weapons. Egyptians produced the bronze alloy by mixing a small amount of tin with copper during the smelting process. Bronze was harder than copper and melted at a lower temperature, which made is easier to cast.

Some historians believe that bronze was discovered when artisans accidentally mixed tin and copper ores. Egyptians then deliberately began producing bronze and copper-arsenic alloys, and also imported bronze from neighboring lands. Artisans used bronze to create not only tools and weapons, but also ornamental doors for temples and shrines, vessels, offering tables, statues, and jewelry.

Tin

The tin used to produce bronze was likely imported from western Asia. Despite its use in bronze production, tin was rarely used by itself. Some small pieces of tin jewelry from the era have been found, but tin finds are scarce. However, tin oxide was added to glass to make it opaque.

Iron

Iron was known as the “metal of heaven” because the only known sources of it came from meteoric sources until 500 BC. Most of the iron used by ancient Egyptians to make tools and weapons was imported. Iron was the most utilitarian metal at the time (most often used to make knives), but it was used ornamentally as well. Various iron compounds were also used as coloring agents for decorative items like amulets and beads.

Metals in History

While we do have a decent understanding of how the ancient Egyptians used a variety of precious metals and other materials, plenty of information has been lost to history. Many metal objects were melted down long ago, and many tombs and other sites have been looted over the years. The remaining artifacts tell a skewed history, since we don’t have all the facts.

Yet, there’s a lot we have learned from what remains. And history shows us that precious metals were just as important and coveted to ancient Egyptians as they still are to people in today’s society.

Article: published by PROVIDENT METALS 

Edited and mise en page for this blog

All Copyright preserved.