Egypt's population is more than 77 million people, and this country has no demographic problems: the birth rate exceeds the death rate by almost five times. True, this is not the merit of a perfect healthcare system (it is formally free, but it is better to be treated in commercial clinics; in government surgeons, for example, they received the nickname “butchers”) and certainly not the high income of Egyptians, the secret lies in the usual Arab countries large families. However, in fairness, it should be noted that the average life expectancy is quite high: 68 years for men and 73 for women.
Some veneer of influence international culture, and, perhaps, the colonial past is noticeable in the clothing of employees.
Probably, ties and jackets are required for various types of office workers, as well as employees travel companies, due to the nature of their service, encountering foreigners. However, this rule usually does not apply to bus drivers or tour guides.
Ordinary residents of large cities, if we talk about representatives of the stronger sex, generally dress as usual Western eyes: jeans, shirts, jackets, light jackets...
By the way, really big cities With a population of more than a million people, there are only three in Egypt: the capital Cairo, El Giza, which is closely adjacent to it, and Alexandria, which also has the unofficial status of the cultural capital.
School education is free, although parents who have this opportunity try to place their children in paid educational establishments. System higher education differs from what we are used to, training at universities takes on average three to four years, although for doctors, if I’m not confusing anything, it takes longer.
The pride of modern Egyptians is their pedigree; on occasion they like to emphasize that they descend from the great builders of grandiose pyramids and majestic temples, whose state reached its dawn long before the first cities appeared in Europe. In fact, of course, direct descendants (as far as this term is generally permissible in the correct cauldron of many nationalities) of the inhabitants Ancient Egypt There are only a few Copts, who make up only a small proportion of the country’s total population. The ancestors of the rest are the Arab conquerors who poured into Egypt in the 7th century. In fairness, it should be noted that the Byzantine emperors in the previous fight against the Arian heresy turned out to be so zealous that the Mediterranean coast of Africa was fairly depopulated; thereby creating the most favorable conditions for an invasion from Arabia.
National minorities now also include Bedouins, Berbers, Nubians and Circassians, whose total number does not exceed 2% of the country's population. As far as I know, there are no clashes on this basis in Egypt; if anyone is causing problems, it is the radical Islamists.
The fact that Egypt is a Muslim state (Sunni Islam is professed) and not entirely secular (although the legislation is based on much more from the Napoleonic Code, Sharia norms are also incorporated into it) is immediately evident, if only by the fact that the overwhelming majority of women They wear hijabs - light headscarves.
One of the guides gave a whole speech about the advantages of the fair sex in Egypt. Like, there is no emancipation, women are groomed and cherished, literally carried in their arms. Well, if some person suddenly does not want to live according to Sharia laws, she is always free to take off her hijab and start living according to secular laws. At the same time, the guide listed the names of women holding prominent positions in the Egyptian government apparatus, and even turned out to be so savvy that he named Russian ministers of the fairer sex. The comparison, of course, turned out to be in favor Islamic country.
Very young people also wear headscarves, with the exception of little girls.
According to existing canons, it is required not only to wear a hijab, but also to cover your shoulders, arms and, of course, legs. I don't think it's very comfortable in hot weather. However, Egyptian men, as can be seen in the photographs, do not wear shorts.
However, youth and flirtatiousness take their toll - girls try to dress fashionably. Nowadays, it seems to me, slightly flared jeans are popular, over which long sweaters or short dresses are worn.
School trip. These are just kids, and the girls don’t wear headscarves yet.
While lightly dressed Europeans and Russians were photographing the Sphinx and the pyramids, these high school girls were sometimes secretly, and sometimes quite openly, photographing tourists as much more exotic.
And this is the veil - so to speak, a radical form of Islamic women's clothing. The guide mentioned above, by the way, spoke sharply negatively about this phenomenon, emphasizing that a woman who is truly firm in her faith will not dress like that only if she is carried away by the false currents of Islam.
By the way, in Cairo or Giza I came across such pictures relatively rarely; for example, I took this picture in Luxor.
By the absence of a veil and the crosses on their chests, the elderly woman and girl standing on the left are unmistakably identified as Christians. The share of Orthodox Christians among the country's population is about 5% (there are still a few Catholics). In general, I rarely saw women without headscarves in Egypt.
The guides discussed the topic of population income very reluctantly. Their answers boiled down mainly to the formula that sounded like a spell: “Egypt is a rich country, only our rulers are thieves.” By God, the analogies here speak for themselves. :)
The most patriotic guide (Mahmud-Aziz, whom I already talked about in the album about) preferred to talk about how good life is for scientists here: a salary of three thousand dollars a month, and a lot of benefits, including an annual week-long vacation at the resorts of Hurghada or Sharm el-Sheikh. Another guide reluctantly admitted that many people earn less than a hundred dollars a month, especially among residents rural areas and small towns.
Frankly speaking, I got the impression that for many, the announced hundred-dollar bar is more than desirable. However, I have never seen reliable statistics on this matter.
It is curious that all the guides spoke very contemptuously about the fellah peasants, who often come to the cities to work and wear archaic-looking national long shirts (galabei).
I even mistook this street vendor for a European. And although his skin color is unusually light, his facial features are rather local. As I was told, this is most likely an albino.
In the Egyptian province, many men wear galabayas, not necessarily only peasants.
Often similar robes are used as uniforms by minor servants such as watchmen at excursion sites. At the same time, they often try to earn extra money by offering tourists to photograph themselves for money against the backdrop of old temples or tombs. They probably flatter themselves with the hope that they can well replace the ancient Egyptians in the surroundings.
Bedouins who are not allowed into the territory Orthodox monastery St. Catherine is near, through the fence they are trying to sell guidebooks and some souvenirs to tourists.
The vast majority of Egyptians live in the Nile Valley, where the population density exceeds 1,700 people per square kilometer.
At the same time, covering most The country's deserts are home to no more than 2% of Egypt's population, and there is less than one person per square kilometer.
Veranda cafe on the west bank of the Nile near Luxor. In general, I would not call the Egyptians a people of idleness (many are forced to work in several places), but the fact that they do not like to work hard is a fact. And most of all, in my opinion, they are hampered by inattention to detail, which manifests itself in literally everything: clothes, houses, quality of work...
However, even poor fellaheen make full use of mobile phones.
Egypt's main sources of government income are revenues from shipping in the Suez Canal, sales of raw materials abroad (mainly oil) and tourism. However, agriculture still plays a role in the country's economy. huge role, and there is a serious struggle for possession of fertile land.
Innocent children's fun on a village street.
Let Egypt import wheat; on the contrary, it exports vegetables and fruits. Prices for local agricultural products, even in tourist places, are quite low. Let's say a kilogram of good strawberries costs 10 pounds, that is, less than two dollars. At the same time, prices in stores for all kinds of chocolates, sweets and other little things can amaze even a foreigner, and we are not talking about the shops of Sharm el-Sheikh or Hurghada, where all shame has long been forgotten, but about minimarkets at gas stations along the main highways of the country. I suspect that the price tags there are in a hurry to meet effective demand, since fellahs do not travel between cities in private cars.
Meanwhile, in the outback and in stores only for the local population, I’m sure everything is very cheap. Egypt is an expensive country only for tourists, and then only in crowded places.
Racks: on the roof of a car, on a woman’s head... However, for the spine, a vertical axial load is probably preferable to an asymmetric one.
Street seller of flatbreads. Crispy, they looked so tempting that I could hardly resist buying them. The main thing that stopped me was not thoughts about unsanitary conditions, but the almost one hundred percent probability that the merchant, upon seeing a tourist, would increase the price tenfold.
Souvenir seller. You have to keep a sharp eye on these comrades, because they like to deceive here, in particular, selling costume jewelry, etc., under the guise of silver jewelry. In general, the abundance of tourist clients, it seems to me, spoils representatives of any nation. Even in China, the further from the border with Russia, the better attitude to the Russians (take the same one near Khabarovsk - a very indicative example). In the tourist areas of Egypt, tourists are perceived solely as wallets on legs. This phenomenon is so widespread that it arouses in many foreigners an acute hostility towards the entire local population indiscriminately.
Meanwhile, I have heard that in the Egyptian outback people are completely different: much more friendly, and their friendliness is usually devoid of the selfish component that has become part of tourist folklore. There they can give the traveler a free ride and even feed them lunch, satisfied with the very fact of meeting a foreigner.
I had the opportunity to observe similar altruism in Sharm el-Sheikh, when a gardener (by the way, an intelligent-looking young man with glasses) gave beautiful girl flower (at first she even refused, believing that this was an attempt to get money).
By the way, it is easy to communicate in Egypt without knowing Arabic in light of the colonial past mentioned above. Common in educated circles French, more more people, and from different walks of life, speak English to one degree or another. It seems that both of these languages are even included in the compulsory school curriculum. In tourist places it is easy to meet Egyptians speaking Russian: they have long ago learned the laws of competition and the strange reluctance of many tourists from Russia to master foreign dialects.
Street cleaner. However, I’ll better talk about the situation with garbage on the streets of Egyptian cities and about the environment another time, when I show Cairo and El Giza. In about the Egyptians, I will mainly touch on issues of transport, including public transport, and law enforcement.
Egypt's territory extends across the Arabian and Libyan deserts. The concentration of settlements and tourism is on the Nile floodplain and coastal strip.
Egypt is a colorful country. Antiquity combines with modern technologies, camels and donkeys make their way through rows of luxury cars. Everywhere you can feel the imprint of the past, and for little money you can relax in comfortable hotels and try rich oriental cuisine.
Sunnis - Muslims - make up 90% of the population.
A Muslim is considered to be one who follows the 5 commandments:
1. Honors the one God Allah with the Prophet Muhammad.
2. He prays five times a day (5 a.m., 12 p.m., 3 p.m., 6 p.m., and 9 p.m.). The direction of the face of the worshipers is always turned towards Mecca. All mosques have a mihrab - a wall with an indentation towards Mecca. Muslims travel with a compass so that they always know the direction for prayer. Only men enter the mosque. There is a separate room for women.
3. It is necessary to give alms - God gave it to you, help someone in need.
4. Ramadan is celebrated every 9 months - you cannot eat, drink or smoke until sunset. Drinking alcohol is generally prohibited by the Koran. In Karim (generous), the poor eat food in the streets.
5. A true Muslim must make a pilgrimage to Mecca at least once. Such a trip from Egypt costs 4 thousand dollars. Wealthy Muslims can afford this more often.
Muslim men do not wear gold. By the degree of closedness of a woman’s face, one can determine religiosity. Strong believers leave only their eyes open. Everything is hidden from the eyes of strangers: figure, legs, arms, hair, face. Egyptians wear a galabiya, a long shirt. A headscarf is required for women.
Christians, who make up 10% of the population, dress more democratically. Coptic men have right hand cross tattoo.
Smoking and drinking alcohol are also prohibited for Muslims. In times of crisis, the government first raises prices on cigarettes. Alcohol is sold strictly in selected restaurants.
There is no lunch break at work. Shops on busy streets are open from 12 to 24 hours. Sellers go out onto the road and invite tourists in every possible way. They may offer you a product for $1, ask you to come in for a cup of tea or coffee, or even promise to give you a souvenir. But behind this lies the desire to sell the goods at any price. In the absence of a fixed price in Egypt, it is customary to inflate the price several times. If you immediately reduce the price by 2, 5, or even 10 times, you can not only bring home gifts at a good price, but also enjoy communication and learn interesting things about a topic that worries you. By the way, knowledge of Russian, English, German, Italian languages are a sales guarantee. Therefore, the majority of sellers on the streets can boast of their polyglot knowledge.
There are a lot of cars on the roads. Accidents are also common. Sewage trucks ply around the cities, the drivers of which receive 200 pounds ($40). This is a very small monthly salary for Egypt. Drivers are afraid conflict situations with these giants - with their drivers and the demand for wages.
Traffic lights appeared several years ago. Pedestrians should beware of passing cars - temperament southern country It also affects driving a car. The taxi business is considered profitable. One license costs the owner 10 thousand dollars. The cost of travel should be negotiated first, since the owner, like sellers of goods, is not averse to making good money.
In Egypt, it is not enough just to have a great rest and get acquainted with the way of life of Africans, without visiting the pyramids and without sharing the sacraments of the burial of the pharaohs.
A total of 3,100 burial pyramids were built. Currently, only 70 of them have survived. The most famous, of course, are the Pyramids of Giza. The peace of the pyramids may be disturbed by the growing suburb of the Egyptian capital Giza. From the windows of the five-story buildings one can see the peaks of three of them rushing into oblivion: Cheops, Khafre and Mikerin.
And, once at the foot of the pyramids, you feel like a participant historical events, changing century after century, ruler after ruler. Only when you are on a stone plateau rising 40 meters above the city level and looking up at a 138-meter-high mass of 2.5 tons of stones do you think about the greatness and role of man in this world. The mystery of knowledge, the power of thought and the greatness of actions are revealed to you. You feel that you are strong and unique, regardless of your age or place of residence.
And I also felt, being at the base of the first Wonder of the World, that all people on Earth are connected to each other by invisible threads and must honor each other forever!
Egypt is not only one of the most favorite holiday destinations for Russians, but also the cradle of world civilization.
Did you know that this country is the ancestor of most household items: from dishes and tools to personal hygiene items.
1. Cosmetics were first invented in Egypt. But unlike modern woman, who uses it to look more attractive, Egyptian women used cosmetics to protect themselves from active sun rays.
2. The production of earthenware, glass and even cement is an innovation of Ancient Egypt.
3. The Egyptians were among the first to write. It was the people of Egypt who came up with the idea of writing letters using paper and ink.
4. Although France is considered a trendsetter in alcoholic drinks, in particular wine, few people know that the first wine cellar was found in Egypt. In addition, it was there that the first beer on the planet was brewed.
5. Pharaoh Pepi II is the longest-reigning ruler in the world. He ascended the throne at the age of 6, and resigned due to his death at the age of 94.
6. It is also interesting that the Egyptians used to sleep on pillows not made of down and feathers, as modern people, but from stones.
7. Antibiotic treatment is believed to have been discovered in late XIX century, but it is known for certain that the ancient Egyptians treated infected patients with bread mold. Therefore, it can be assumed that Egypt is also the founder of antibacterial medicine.
8. For the first time, carrier pigeons were used to transmit letters in Egypt.
9. One of the famous attractions of this country is the figure of the Sphinx. Anyone who has been to Egypt has probably seen that the Sphinx is missing a nose. This sculpture was lost in 1798 when soldiers of Napoleon's army used it as a target for target practice.
10. Residents of Egypt never celebrate their birthday. The reason for this is still not clear.
11. Even in unbearable heat, men wear white clothes, and the women are black. It is believed that this way the woman will return home faster.
12. Egyptian pyramids are a wonder of the world. Great Pyramid Cheops was built about 3000 years ago. 2,300,000 huge stone blocks were spent on its construction, the total mass of which is 7,000,000 tons.
13. It turns out that this African country receives a large share of its income not from tourism, but from duties levied on ships passing through the Suez Canal. In second place is oil production, and tourism is given only third position.
14. Property taxes in Egypt are very high. Therefore, to avoid it, local residents They don’t put roofs on their houses. So the house is considered unfinished, and therefore there is no need to pay tax.
15. The Suez Canal is the largest in the world. It was built in 1869 and connected the Mediterranean and Red Seas. Shipping stopped here only in the period 1967-1975 during the war with Israel. No less famous, the Panama Canal is exactly two times shorter than the Suez Canal.
16. The Aswan Dam, built to protect fields from Nile floods, is the most massive building in the world. In terms of the amount of material spent on construction, it was 17 times greater than Great Pyramid Cheops. After the construction of the Aswan Dam, Lake Nasser arose - the largest man-made reservoir in the world. And although during the construction of the dam all issues between Egypt and Sudan were agreed upon, it very often causes conflicts between these countries. IN individual years, when the Nile is very full, Egypt refuses to artificially lower the water level in Lake Nasser and spare Sudan from destruction.
18. Dying, Alexander the Great bequeathed to his commander Ptolemy Lagus to bury himself in the oasis of Siwa in Egypt. However, his grave has not yet been found. It is assumed that the commander broke the promise of Alexander the Great and buried him near Alexandria, a city built by the Great himself.
19. Almost the entire territory of the country is desert (95%), so it is not surprising that the entire population of Egypt lives on the remaining five percent of the land.
20. The ancient Egyptians used honey instead of gold to pay taxes.
21. B old times killing a cat was considered a terrible crime.
22. In 1974, Egyptologists discovered that the mummy of Pharaoh Ramses II was rapidly deteriorating. It was decided to immediately fly it to France for examination, for which the mummies were issued a modern Egyptian passport, and in the “occupation” column they wrote “king (deceased).” In Paris, the mummy was greeted with all the military honors due to kings.
23. Wedding rings we also owe it to the Egyptians. It was there that the tradition arose when newlyweds got married to put a ring on their ring finger.
24., one of the resorts in Egypt, is completely covered with water. Outwardly, El Gouna resembles Venice. As in Venice, in El Gouna you need to get around by boat.
25. Among the rocks is archaeological site history, consisting of two rock temples (Abu Simbel). These temples were completely moved in 1960 due to the threat of flooding from Lake Nesser. The Abu Simbel Temple was saved by carefully cutting the entire rock into blocks and moving it 200 m horizontally and 65 m upward.
26. The Red Sea got its name because of the sand, which, if you look closely, has a reddish tint.
27. There are black and white deserts in Egypt.
28. The Red Sea is the most favorite diving spot for divers all over the world, thanks to its diverse fauna.
First analysis of a complete genome extracted from Egyptian mummies, showed that the ancient Egyptians were more closely related to other ancient peoples from the Levant region, while modern Egyptians genetically closer to sub-Saharan Africans.
Study
The findings, recently published in the journal Nature Communications, could pave the way for similar genetic studies of mummies in the near future.
Egypt and other nations
Situated at the junction of two continents and thriving for thousands of years, Egypt is a melting pot of neighboring cultures, ideas, languages and nationalities.
Egypt maintained its cultural, scientific and historical significance as neighboring Arab, European and African empires changed, collapsed and rebuilt.
Scientists wanted to test whether the Roman conquest, the conquest of Alexander the Great or other foreign powers left a genetic imprint on the indigenous population of ancient Egypt.
Questions
To find answers to these questions, scientists extracted the mitochondrial genome from 90 mummies and, for the first time in history, genetic research, were able to extract the complete genome from three different mummies.
Having collected enough genetic material to conduct the study, the scientists compared the genomes of the ancient Egyptians with the genomes of other peoples neighboring Egypt in ancient times, as well as with the genome of modern Egyptians, to check how different the descendants were from their ancestors.
Answers
The results turned out to be very interesting. The researchers found that for 1,300 years, the period that covered the genetic material of the mummies, the genetic ancestry of the ancient Egyptians did not undergo any significant changes.
It turns out that despite successive invasions and migrations into Egypt large quantity people from all over Europe, the Middle East and Africa, the genetic characteristics of the local population remained surprisingly stable.
Perhaps the genomes of mummies - the highest "caste" of Egypt - are not able to reflect the genetic changes of the entire Egyptian population. However, the results obtained do not lose their significance for science.
Comparison with modern Egyptians
When scientists compared the genetic changes that occurred between ancient times and today, they found significant differences.
It turns out that modern Egyptians share a genetic ancestry with sub-Saharan Africans, while their distant ancestors show closer genetic similarities to the ancient peoples of the Middle East and the Levant.
These results suggest that during the past fifteen hundred years Egypt experienced an influx of people from southern regions Africa. The reasons for this influx could be migration along the Nile or the intensive slave trade that began approximately 1,300 years ago.
Significance of the study
One of the most significant results of the study is the simple fact that geneticists have finally been able to extract the complete genome of an ancient Egyptian.
Factors such as the hot Egyptian climate, high level The humidity in many graves and the chemicals used in mummification actively promote DNA degradation and make long-term survival in mummies virtually impossible.
However, the researchers were able to extract enough material to conduct a full genetic analysis, and this could open the door to interesting new discoveries.
When the last pharaoh of Egypt fell and the country began to be torn apart by continuous attacks from aggressive neighboring countries, where did the local population disappear to? Perhaps it completely disappeared during the period from the Roman conquests to the annexation of Egypt to the Muslim empires?
Copts are indigenous people Egypt and direct descendants of the Egyptians. They are among the first Christians in the world and representatives of one of the most ancient branches of Christianity. This is precisely the population of Egypt that, over the course of several thousand years, created a great civilization.
Now the Copts are an excellent example of how Christianity and Islam can coexist in a close environment. The Copts, despite constant attempts at assimilation, are still similar to the ancient Egyptians and are still Christians. They observe not only faith, but also the purity of blood. A Coptic girl will never marry a non-Coptic. And Coptic boys do not marry Arab girls. And only occasionally do they marry European Christian women.
...SHOWED BY YEARS OF DNA RESEARCH
Calling an Egyptian an Arab is tantamount to a grave insult. “We are the descendants of the pharaohs and have nothing to do with the Arabs,” retort the residents of the Land of the Pyramids. However, they turned out to be almost right, and this was confirmed by many years scientific research, writes the Egypt Independent, citing data from a published study by the National Geographic Genographic Project.
For more than 10 years, National Geographic scientists have worked to determine the genetic profile of every country in the world to determine racial and ethnic origin humanity. DNA analysis of hundreds of indigenous Egyptians revealed that the descendants of the pharaohs are only 17% related to the Arabs. 68% of the Egyptians are original Africans, more precisely, North Africans, whose blood was diluted over time by Jews (4%), people from East Africa(3%), Asians (3%) and residents Southern Europe (3%).
According to experts, " ancient population migrated from Africa, and their path ran through northeast Africa then on to southwest Asia." The northeastern and Arab components in Egypt appeared as a result of those migration flows, scientists are sure, just as later migrants returned back to Africa with the spread of agriculture 10 thousand years ago, and already in the 7th century, with the spread of Islam, Arabs from the Arabian Peninsula came here.
East African components in Egyptian genetics were a reflection of internal flows of movement towards the fertile Nile, and the appearance of southern European and Asian elements was due to the role that Egypt played in its time in the economic and cultural development Mediterranean region.
According to the results of the study, in to the greatest extent Kuwaitis are Arabs: their DNA is 84% Arab, 7% Asian, 4% North African, and 3% East African. “Middle Eastern blood,” experts note, was also formed as a result of population migration from Africa to Asia, when some people decided to stay and, thus, laid the foundation for the genetic fund of the Arabs. Meanwhile, a small part of African blood, experts believe, could have been the result of the slave trade in the 8th-19th centuries.
As for the Lebanese, only half of them can be considered Arabs (44%), 14% of Jewish blood flows in them, 11% of North African blood, and another 10% was added to them by Asian ancestors along with Europeans (5%) and immigrants from the East. Africa (2%). To the least extent - only 4% - Tunisians can be called Arabs, in whose veins 88% of North African blood flows. It was diluted by 5% by people from Western Europe and 2% - residents of West and Central Africa.
A little history
It can be considered a mistake that the acquaintance of the Egyptians with the Arabs occurred during Arab conquest Egypt in the seventh century. The cultural influence of Egypt on the culture of Arabia is beyond doubt. In turn, from a very early time, the appearance in the Egyptian language of words borrowed from the inhabitants of the eastern deserts has been noted. The main route that connected Egypt with Arabia was through the Wadi al-Hammamat River, which began near Thebes and reached the Red Sea at Al-Quseira. The Egyptians established contacts with the Bedouin tribes on the Sinai Peninsula in pre-dynastic times, when they acquired copper and turquoise from them. The pharaohs of the first dynasty already exploited the mines in Sinai themselves, subjugated the Bedouins living there, or simply negotiated with them.
The Arabian Peninsula was surrounded by steppes and deserts, turning it into a natural fortress inaccessible to conquerors. No wonder the Arabs call it the Arabian Island. Limited living resources forced the population to migrate to neighboring countries. About once every millennium, the migration of Bedouin tribes took place mass character. The settlers headed either east to Mesopotamia, or to the regions of Syria and the Sinai Peninsula, beyond which lay the richest Nile Valley.
In 24 BC, by order of the Roman Emperor Augustus, the prefect of Egypt, Aelius Gall, equipped a military expedition to conquer Arabia. It included 10 thousand soldiers of Egypt, both the Egyptians themselves and the Romans and Greeks living in the country. The expedition also included allies: 10 thousand Nabataeans and 500 Jews. This was the first and last try European state to seize Inner Arabia. The grueling campaign did not bring any results, and after a few months ended with a return to Egypt.
In 269-270, the victorious troops of Zenobia, queen of Palmyra, captured Egypt. According to historians, in order to win the sympathy of the Egyptians, Queen Zenobia spread rumors about her Egyptian origin. In any case, all historians agree that she was fluent in the Egyptian language.
Another short episode from the history of the relationship between Arabs and Egyptians:
After the troops of Emperor Aurelian managed to defeat the Palmyrans, anti-Roman uprisings occurred almost simultaneously in Palmyra and Alexandria. This speaks to the common interests of Egyptians and Arabs in the fight against foreign invaders.
It was not uncommon for Arabs to live among Egyptians and vice versa. Arab historians report that the Egyptian Bakum, even before the advent of Islam, restored the Kaaba temple in Mecca, destroyed by a strong mudflow, and Jabr ben Abdallah al Qibty (i.e. Copt), one of the closest companions of the Prophet Muhammad, was an Egyptian. The relationship between the Arabs and the Egyptians was influenced by the Prophet Muhammad himself. According to legend, he wished well to the Copts when his Coptic wife Maria gave birth to a son, who was named Ibrahim.
The leader of the Arab army, Amr ibn al-As, who conquered Egypt, was previously a merchant and repeatedly came to this country with his goods. He said: The population of Egypt is nobler than all non-Arabs, more generous and closest to kinship with the Arabs.
From all this it follows that the entry into Egypt under the banner of Islam of the Arab army in 640 was not an invasion of a hostile people. Since ancient times, the Arabs knew the Egyptians, and the Egyptians knew the Arabs. There were armed clashes between them, and long periods of peaceful trade, cultural and religious ties.
The conquest itself took place peacefully. The head of the Coptic Church, which was subjected to severe persecution by the Byzantines, called on all Egyptians not to resist the new conquerors, whose number did not exceed 12 thousand (after several decades there were already more than 80 thousand Arab warriors in Egypt). Each governor appointed by the caliph to Egypt brought with him an army of several thousand people. Many warriors married Coptic women and remained forever in the Nile Valley. The Arabs were especially willing to settle in Upper Egypt, where they were attracted by the hot, dry climate and, of course, the fertility of the land.
After conquering Egypt, the Arabs did not settle in pre-existing cities. Life there was unusual for them. They set up their military camp al-Fustat, near the fortress of Babylon. Gradually the camp turned into a capital. The camp remained the capital until 969. After the Fatimids, Cairo was founded.
The first step in the Egyptianization of the Arabs and the Arabization of the Egyptians is the annual spring dispatch of Arab military detachments to various parts of the country to herd horses. A certain detachment was sent to a certain area, and this led to the establishment of strong ties with the local population. The warriors took root in these areas and gradually mixed with the local population. Interesting fact: An Arab sometimes married an Egyptian woman, but the opposite did not happen.
The mixing of Arabs and Coptic Egyptians was also facilitated by the fact that most government positions (except the highest ones occupied by Arabs) were occupied by Egyptians. The Arab tribes, having settled in Egypt, switched to a sedentary lifestyle and adopted their life experiences, customs and habits from the indigenous inhabitants.
After several centuries, the majority of Egyptians accepted Islam and forgot their ancient language, and adopted Arabic. Currently, only part of the services in the church are performed in the Coptic language (which has long been incomprehensible to Copts), but Arabic predominates here too. Copts, who make up a population of several million, are not national minority in the country that sometimes they talk about them. IN ethnically they belong to the Egyptian people, differing from the rest of the Egyptians only in religion.
Copts are Monophysites, that is, they believe that Christ had a single, divine essence, denying the fullness of the human nature of the Savior. The Coptic Church belongs to the Eastern, Orthodox branch of Christianity, and in this sense the Copts are very close to traditional Orthodoxy. But there are many differences between Orthodoxy and Egyptian Christianity - both in theology and in traditions.
