Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 06.djvu/799

* EGYPT. «y3 EGYPT. Arab population into Egypt, which later received additions from the Tatar Turks? In spite, how- ever, ol' all this, the old type maintained itself with considerable purity, and the Egyptian fellali of the present day is the true descendant of his forefathers under the early Pharaohs. GovEBXME.XT AXD Admi.mstb.tion. It has been conjectured that the nonies ur provinces of ancient Egypt represent the remains of a number of independent States which, in courst> of time, were brought together under a central authority. It is not improbable that such a condition actually existed, liut. if so, it must have been at a very remote period of antiquity. Long Iwfore the be- ginning of the historical period Egyjjt had ad- vanced to another stage of political development, and consisted of two kingdoms, the Delta and the South, with their frontier not far from Memphis. These two kingdoms were united into a single monarchy before the time of the earliest monu- ments; but the memory of the union was pre- served in the titles of the Egyptian kings down to the period of Roman dominion. As in other Oriental countries, the Government of Egjpt was, in tlieory at least, an absolute despotism; the will of the King was law. But in practice this was modified by various circumstances. At times, for example, the great nobles became al- most independent of the Crown, and the central power was correspondingly abridged; and later the ecclesiastical power encroached upon the royal prerogative until it finally usurped the whole authority. Under the Old Empire the Government of Egypt was organized on the basis of a great bureaucracy. The various governmental depart- ments, at the head of which stood that of the Treasury, were systematically arranged and there was a regular gradation of officials, each in- trusted with specific duties, and each directly responsible to his immediate superior. The Homes, however, occupied a somewhat peculiar position. Each nome had, to a large extent, its own internal admistration, and formed a copy in miniature of the State. It had its own treasury, its own courts of justice, and its own militia. The nomarehs, or rulers of nonics, were the heads of ancient noble families possessing large landed estates and numerous special privileges. In the troubled period which followed the close of the Old Empire they took advantage of the weakness of the central power to make themselves prac- tically independent princes. In this way there arose a feudal system similar to that which pre- vaileil in nicdi;rval Europe. The nomarehs of the Middle Empire acknowledged the King as their suzerain, hut they were no longer his ser- vants. Amenemhat I., the foun<ler of the Twelfth Dynasty, was partl.v successful in his effort to curb the power of these haughty nobles: but he was never able to bring them into complete sub- jection, and they maintained their power and their privileges down to the time of the Hyksos War. But though the bureaucratic State of the Old Empire gave way to the feudal State of the Middle Empire, there was little change in the ex- ternal form of the Government, and' the Treasury Department, at least, with its numerous and varied administrative functions, remained un- changed. The Eighteenth Dynasty established a new- order of things. The old turbulent nobility had been swept away in the Hyksos wars, their es- tates had fallen into the hands of the Crown, and the uomes were administered by royal governors. The feudal system of the iliddle Emi)ire gave way to a highly centralized military government. At the same time there was another important feature. Under the New Empire the ])riestly class rose greatly in importance. The inuncnse booty derived from tlie .siatie wars was lavished upon the temples, which at the same time ac- (juircd extensive landed estates. This was nota- bly- the ease with priests of the god Animon of Thebes, and the great wealth thus accunuilated gave the Theban hierarchy so overwhelming an influence that they were at last able to overllirow the royal authority, and to establish a priestly dynasty (the Twenty-first), ruling upon theo- cratic principles. In the meantime, the army, largely composed of mercenary troops, had gained in power and importance. JIany of the chief offices of the State fell into the hands of mili- tary officials, and finally the Libyan mercenaries under Sheshonk drove out the priest-kings, and established Dynasty Twenty-two. From a very early period the system of laws was highly developed, and the administration of justice played an important part in the State. Diodorus states that the Egyptians possessed sacred books of laws the composition of which they ascribed to the god Thotli, and that other laws were enacted by various monarehs. No col- lections of law* have been preserved, though a number of papyri give information as to legal procedure in particular cases, both civil and criminal. Each nome had its own court over which the nomarch presided. There were also under the Old Empire six courts of wider juris- diction, known as the 'Six Great Houses,' com- posed of high nobles with the Vizier at their head as chief justice. Under the New Empire, the Vizier was still the chief justice by virtue of his office, but the institution of the 'Six Great Houses' no longer existed. There were, however, district courts throughout the land. They were composed of certain high officials, and the Gov- ernor of the district usually presided. From the decision of these courts there was an appeal to the King. The judges were at all periods under the special protection of Ma't, the goddess of truth and right ; they wore her image when on the bench, and many, if not all of them, were her priests. Langu.vge. Egyptian belonged to the Hamitic family of speech, of which the principal modern representatives are the Galla, Somali, and Bishari of eastern Africa, and the Berber lan- guages of northern Africa. Egyptian itself shows an undeniable relation.ship to the Semitic languages, though it is not yet determined whether this relationship depends upon an earlv conquest of the Nile Valley by Semites, or upon a primitive kinship between the peoples of the Hamitic and Semitic stocks. The oldest monii- ments of the Egyptian language go back to about n.c. 4000, and it did not die out as a spoken language until about three centuries ago. In the course of its long history it naturally underwent many changes. The language of the Old Empire, for example, was no more intelligible to an Egyp- tian of the Nineteenth Dvnastv than Latin would