CONQUERED BY ALEXANDER THE GREAT
AND PASSES UNDER GREEK RULE
In 332 B. C., Egypt was conquered by Alexander the Great; and its new capital, the great Alexandria, destined to a lasting literary and commercial renown, was founded. Subsequently it passed under Greek rule, and the language of the government, and the administration and philosophy, became essentially Greek. The court of the Ptolemies became the center of learning and philosophy; and Ptolemy Philadelphus, successful in his external wars, built the Museum, founded the library of Alexandria. He purchased the most valuable manuscripts, engaged the most celebrated professors, and had the Septuagint translation made of the Hebrew Scriptures, and the Egyptian history of Manetho drawn up. His successor, Euergetes, pushed the southern limits of his empire to Axum. Philopator (221-204 B. C.) warred with Antiochus, persecuted the Jews, and encouraged learning. Epphanes, (204-180 B. C.) encountered repeated rebellions and was succeeded by Philometor (180-145 B. C.) and Euergetes II. (145-116 B. C.), by Soter II. and Cleopatra till 106 B. C., and by Alexander (87 B. C.), under whom Thebes rebelled; then by Cleopatra, Berenice, Alexander II. (80 B. C.), and Neos Dionysus (51 B. C.) and finally by the famous Cleopatra who maintained her power only through her personal influence with Julius Cæsar and Mark Antony.
EGYPT BECOMES A
ROMAN PROVINCE
On the defeat of Mark Antony by Augustus, B. C. 30, Egypt became a province of Rome. It was still a Greek state, and Alexandria was the chief seat of Greek learning and science. On the spread of Christianity the old Egyptian doctrines lost their sway. Now arose in Alexandria the Christian catechetical school, which produced Clemens and Origen. The sects of Gnostics united astrology and magic with religion. The school of Alexandrian Platonics produced Plotinus and Proclus. Monasteries were built all over Egypt; Christian monks took [348] the place of the pagan hermits, and the Bible was translated into Coptic.
PASSES UNDER MOHAMMEDAN
RULE
On the division of the great Roman Empire (A. D. 395), in the time of Theodosius, into the Western and Eastern Empires, Egypt became a province of the latter, and sank deeper and deeper in barbarism and weakness. It was conquered in 640 A. D. by the Saracens under Caliph Omar. As a province of the caliphs it was under the government of the celebrated Abbasides—Haroun-al-Rashid and Al-Mamun—and that of the heroic Sultan Saladin. The last dynasty was, however, overthrown by the Mamelukes (1250); and the Mamelukes in their turn were conquered by the Turks (1516-17). The Mamelukes made repeated attempts to cast off the Turkish yoke, and had virtually done so by the end of the eighteenth century, when the French conquered Egypt and held it till 1801, when they were driven out by the British.
BECOMES A PAWN OF TURKEY,
FRANCE AND ENGLAND
On the expulsion of the French a Turkish force under Mehemet Ali Bey took possession of the country. Mehemet Ali was made pasha, and being a man of great ability, administered the country vigorously and greatly extended the Egyptian territories. At length he broke with the Porte, and after gaining a decisive victory over the Ottoman troops in Syria in 1839 he was acknowledged by the sultan as viceroy of Egypt, with the right of succession in his family.
By the Anglo-French agreement of 1904 France formally recognized the predominant position of Great Britain, and agreed in no way to obstruct British action in the government of Egypt. The European War of 1914-1916 has again thrown Egypt into the balance, and its political future seems to be entirely a matter of the fortunes of war and diplomacy.