makes it about the size of Texas and New Mexico
combined. Egypt is said to be “the gift of the
Nile,” the great African river that bisects the coun-
try from south to north. The Nile drains into the
Mediterranean Sea via the delta, which fans out
northward from cairo. Egypt shares borders with
sUdan to the south, libya to the west, and israel
and Gaza to the northeast. Its eastern limits are
defined by the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aqaba.
Modern Egypt’s government is based in the
capital city of Cairo and consists of a very strong
presidency, a parliament made up of a more impor-
tant lower people’s assembly and a less significant
advisory council, as well as a fairly independent
judicial system. Islam, according to the constitu-
tion amended in 1980, is the official religion of
the state, and Islamic law (sharia) is proclaimed
to be “the principle source of legislation” (Article
2). Egypt’s economy is heavily reliant on agricul-
ture, most of which goes to the domestic market.
The major earners of hard currency are tourism,
remittances from Egyptians working abroad, and
oil exports.
In ancient times, Egypt was one of several
cradles of world civilization and one of the major
world powers. Egypt was part of the Roman
Empire, ruled from Constantinople, when it was
conquered by the Muslim armies in 641–642. For
the first several centuries, Egypt’s prime impor-
tance for the Islamicate empire, with its capital in
medina, damascUs, or baghdad, was as a source
of grain and of surplus wealth to be extracted in
taxes. By the 10th century, however, the Abbasid
Empire was weakening, and Egypt was becoming
more independent. The foreign Fatimid dynasty
of Ismaili Shiite persuasion, conquered Egypt in
969, founded Cairo in 970, and made Egypt the
center of a caliphate to rival that of Baghdad. Two
dynasties followed, the Ayyubids (1171–1250)
and the mamlUks (1250–1517), both contributing
greatly to making Egypt a great center of learning,
culture, and power. al-azhar, originally founded
by the Fatimids as the center of their missionary
efforts, eventually came to be the foremost center
of Sunni learning. The first Ayyubid ruler, sala-
din (d. 1193), was responsible for defeating the
crusaders and retaking JerUsalem. The Mamluks
saved Egypt and Syria from the onslaught of the
Mongols, who had already destroyed Baghdad
and many of the cities in eastern Islamicate lands.
In 1517, however, Egypt came under the control
of the Ottomans, the last universal Islamicate
empire.
Napoleon wrested Egypt from the largely
nominal rule of the Ottomans in 1798. His domin-
ion lasted only three years, but the shock of the
massive defeat suffered by the Ottoman troopsDowntown Cairo and the Nile River, as seen from the
Jazira Tower, looking southward. The Cairo Opera is in
the foreground. ( Juan E. Campo)Egypt 211 J