Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 06.djvu/798

* EGYPT. 69£ EGYPT. training-school was established at Siut in ISOii. arious Koman Catholic organizations, such as the Christian JJrotliers, Sisters of Charity, and I'oor Clairs, are doing much in the way of chari- liible and benevolent work. Edi'Catiox. Education among the natives is in a very low state. In 1897 only 5.8 per cent, of the native Egyptian population were able lo read and write, wliilc the |)r(iportion among the Coptic male inliabitants was 50 per cent., and among foreign inhabitants 74 per cent. Elemen- tary education among the Mohammedans is main- Jy in the hands of private teachers or is provided for by schools attaclied to the mosques. At the head of the Mohammedan educational system is the great theological seminary at the Mosque of El-Azhar, the oldest and greatest university in the Moslem world. ( See C.iKO. ) The stibjects on which instruction is given here are the old traditional branches of the ilohammedan creed; and the system of [jcdagogj' is as antiquated as the studies which are pursued. An attempt to institute a system of public schools, made by Mehemet Ali, succeeded only in part. In 1898 there were about 10.000 elementary schools in the country, with 17,000 teachers and 228,000 pupils. Of these about 12,000 pupils were en- rolled in the Government schools, primary, sec- ondary, and professional, and 20,000 attended the mission schools supported by the various creeds — Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox, the I'nited Presbrterians of America, and others. I'nder the direct supervision of the Government there were in 1898 only SO primary schools, 36 institutions of a higher grade. 3 secondary schools, 2 girls' academies, 9 institutions for higher or professional instruction, including the School of Law, the School of Medicine and Pharmacy, the School of Agriculture, the Poly- technic, 2 seminary schools, and 2 technical schools. The vast mass of students of all grades, therefore, still receive instruction at the liands of Mohammedan religious instructors. ANCIENT EGYPT. The L. d. To the ancients, Egypt was that portion of the Xile Valley extending from the First Cataract (latitude 24°), near Syene, on the south, to the Mediterranean on the north. On either side the land is shut in by rocky ridges, which extend on the east to the Arabian, on the west to the Li'Dvan Desert. Somewhat to the north of latitude 30°, these ridges open out to the northeast and northwest respectively, bounding a district which, from the resemblance of its outline to the fourth character in the Greek alphabet, was called the Delta. Through the Delta the Xile flowed into the sea by separate mouths. Ancient writers enumerate seven such mouths, but the course of the river has shifted re- peatedly into new channels, and at present there are but two mouths, situated at Damictta and at Rosetta. The Egyptians called their land Qcmet, "the black land,' from the contrast between the dark alluvial soil and the red sand of the ad- jacent deserts. The origin of the Greek name AfvnrTos (whence Latin I'tiiiptux and oir Eqiipt) is obscure. The land was divided into Upper Eg>-pt, called 'the south.' Qema'. or 'the south country,' Ta-res (later Pa-ta-rex, whence the biblical Pathrna) .anil Lower Eg>'pt, including the Delta {Ta-mch). In the earliest historical peri- od Upper Egypt contained many marshy tracts, later tilled up by alluvial deposits, and the Delta, which even now has a thin soil, was one vast marsh, though it alVorded good pasturage for cattle, and was a favorite resort for hunting wild fowl. In the course of time the constant deposits of alluvial matter considerably increased the area of arable land both in the north and in the south, but, from the lirsl, the conditions were more favorable for agriculture in Upper than in Lower Egypt, and in tlie time of the old Empire the Delta was far tiehind the southeni part of the country in civilization. Upper Egypt was early divided into some twenty provinces or counties, called nomes ( mfwl ) by the Greeks, and later, in obvious imitation of this division, a similar number of nomes is found in Loijer Egypt as well. At times the number of the nomes varied, but in general it was from forty to forty-two. The capitals of the nomes were each the seat of a particular divinity or group of divinities. Ethnology. The ancient Egyptians believed themselves to be an indigenous people, free from all foreign admixture, and all the known facts tend to favor their contention. Both their lan- guage and their physical characteristics show that they belonged to the Hamitic branch of the Caucasian race, the white inhabitants of north- ern Africa. They represent this race very pure- ly; the admixture of Semitic and negro blood is not considerable. Their relatives are the Berbers of northern Africa and the Bisharis. Gallas, and Somalis, of eastern Africa. The evident rela- tionship subsisting between Egjptian and the Semitic languages has given rise to several theories. Some scholars (for example. Wiede- mann and de Morgan! believe that the Egj'ptians and the kindred Hamitic races migrated in pre- historic times from Asia into Africa. Erman holds that at some remote period the Xile Valley was invaded by Semites, who. though few in number, were able to conquer the country and to impose their language on the conquered people. According to this theory the Egyptians were, to use Erman's own expression. 'Semitized Nubians." Other scholars (as Palgrave, Brinton. and Kcane) hold that the ancestors of both Semites and llamites originally dwelt together in north- ern Africa, whence the former emigrated at a very remote period into .Arabia. A very clear summary of the whole argument is to be found in Barton. .1 f^krtch of Semitic Oririiiis (New York. 1902). The weight of evidence seems to be rather in favor of the last hypothesis. The Hyksos invasion led. apparently, to little inter- mingling of races, but under the New Empire there was some infusion of Semite blood, espe- cially from the slaves captured in the Asiatic wars. Under the Twenty-second Dynasty the Libyans contributed an important element to the population. and the Ethiopians (Dynasty Twenty-five) probably added some Nubian ele- ments. The Assyrian rule was of a very tem- porary character, and neither this nor the Persian dominion afTected the jiopulation appre- ciably, lender the Ptolemies there was a con- siderable influx of Greeks, especially into the Delta and the Fayum, and many .Tews settled in the comniereial cities. The Mohammedan con- quest in the seventh century A.u. brought a large I