Mesopotamia is the name used to refer to the region that is now occupied by modern Iraq, eastern Syria, and southern Turkey. The name comes from the Greek words μέσος (between) and πόταμος (river)—referring to the area between the Tigris and the Euphrates. The fertile area watered by these two rivers is known as the "Cradle of Civilization," and it was here that the first literate societies developed. It should be realized that there has never been a political entity called Mesopotamia, nor does the region have any definite boundaries; the name is simply a convenient one invented by Greek historians to refer to a broad geographical area.
History of ancient Mesopotamia
Main article: History of Ancient Mesopotamia
Overview map of ancient MesopotamiaMesopotamia has been home to some of the major ancient civilizations, including the Sumerians, Akkadians, Babylonians, and Assyrians. It was also home to major prehistoric cultures such as the Ubiad and Jemdat Nasr, as well as the city Jarmo. Some of the important Mesopotamian leaders were Gilgamesh, Sargon, and Hammurabi.
The region then came under the rule of the Persian Achaemenid Empire, apparently as two satrapies, Babylonia in the south and Athura (from Assyria) in the north. During this time, 500-330 BC, Persia, an Indo-European language-speaking nation, became the pre-eminent power of the world.
After the conquest of all Persia by the Hellenizing Macedonian king Alexander the Great, the satrapies were part of the major diadochy, the Seleucid Empire, almost until its elimination by Greater Armenia in 42 BC.
Most of Mesopotamia then became part of the Parthian Empire of Persia, which lasted until 224 AD. Ctesiphon was made to be the capital of the Parthian Empire. However, part in the northwest became Roman. Under the Tetrarchy, this was divided into two provinces, called Osrhoene (around Edessa; roughly the modern-day border between Turkey and Syria) and Mesopotamia (a bit more northeast).
During the time of the Persian Empire of Sassanids, their much larger share of Mesopotamia was called Del-e Iranshahr meaning "Iran's Heart" and the metropol Ctesiphon (facing ancient Seleukia across the Tigris), the capital of Persia, was situated in Mesopotamia.
In the early 7th century AD, the caliphs of the Arab Empire came to power in Damascus and annexed all of the Sassanid Empire. Consequently, Mesopotamia was reunited under the Arabs, but governed as two provinces: northern, with Mosul (also known as Nineveh) as its capital, and southern, with Baghdad as its capital, which also later became the caliphal capital. Baghdad became the seat of the Arab Empire until 1258.
From 1508-1534 AD, the Persian Safavids briefly took control of Mesopotamia.
In 1535 AD, Ottoman Turks took control of Baghdad. During the reign of the Ottoman Empire, Mesopotamia was ruled as three separate vilayats, or territories: Mosul, Baghdad, and Basra, which included the territory that is now present-day Kuwait.
At the end of World War I, Mesopotamia was briefly occupied by the British, who set up the government of what is now present day Syria and Iraq under one Hashemite ruler.
In, 1920 the nation-state of Iraq was created by the British, with its present-day borders and including the territory that is now known as Kuwait. Kuwait, which had originally been a part of the Basra province under Ottoman rule, declared its independence from Iraq in 1961.
Language and writing
The earliest language written in Mesopotamia was Sumerian, a language isolate. Later a Semitic language, Akkadian, came to be the dominant language, although Sumerian was retained for administrative, religious, literary, and scientific purposes. Different varieties of Akkadian were used until the end of the Neo-Babalonian period. Then Aramaic, which had already become common in Mesopotamia, became the official language of the Achaemenid Persian Empire, and Akkadian fell into disuse, although both it and Sumerian were still used in temples for some centuries.
Development of writing
Mesopotamia was one of the first, if not the first, place in the world where writing was developed. The earliest form of writing was pictograms, pictures that stood for objects or ideas. In the late 4th millennium BC, this system became more simplified and abstract, and developed into cuneiform, a syllabary writing system. This way of writing eventually spread across much of the Near East. Akkadians, Elamites, Hittites and Assyrians all wrote with this system. Cuneiform was written on clay tablets with a reed stylus, which produced the characteristic wedge shape of cuneiform writing.
Royal libraries and museums
One of the largest collections of cuneiform writing comes from the archives of Ashurbanipal, the leader of Assyria. At about 650 BC, he decided to create a library in Nineveh. All temples in Babylonia had libraries, so he sent his scribes to collect tablets. If a temple was unwilling to give away a tablet, the scribes had to make a copy. Soon the royal library in Nivenah was the largest in Assyria. Much of what we know about ancient Mesopotamia today comes from this library.
The Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II founded a museum, where important statues, objects and some tablets were. This is an example of Babylonian literature.
Science and technology
Mesopotamian people developed many technologies, among them metalwork, glassmaking, textiles, food control, water storage and irrigation. They were also one of the first Bronze age people in the world. Early on they used copper, bronze and gold, and later they used iron. Palaces were decorated with hundreds of kilograms of these very expensive materials. Also, copper, bronze, and iron were used for different weapons like swords, daggers, and spears, and for armor. They also made weapons from gold, but these they mostly used only for decoration.
Mathematics
Main article: Babylonian mathematics
The Mesopotamians used a sexagesimal (base 60) numeral system. This is the source of the current sixty minute hours and 24 hour days, as well as 360 degree circles. The Sumerian calendar also measured weeks of seven days each.
Astronomy
The Babylonian astronomers were very interested in studying the stars and sky, and most could already predict eclipses and solstices. People thought that everything had some purpose in astronomy. Most of these related to religion and omens.
In ancient Mesopotamia eclipses were considered as bad omens, but only the ones that were seen counted. However if an eclipse was not seen in the royal city, it meant that the omen had nothing to do with the king or his country.
Constellations that we still use, such as Leo, Taurus, Scorpius, Auriga, Gemini, Capricorn and Sagittarius were discovered by Sumerian and Babylonian astronomers. But besides beliefs, the constellations were useful for Mesopotamian people, to know when to harvest their crops, planting and even to calculate time.
Mesopotamians also have the dubious distinction of producing astrology. However, most of what we now think of as astrology developed during the decline of the civilization.
Medicine
The doctors in Mesopotamia did not know much about medicine and the human body, but they observed their illnesses. From these observations, hundreds of years later modern medicine was created.
Religion
Mesopotamian religion is the oldest religion that we have records of. They believed that the world was a flat disc, which was surrounded by a huge, holed space, and above that, heaven. They also believed that water was everywhere, the top, bottom and sides, and that the universe was born from this enormous sea. People also believed in many gods.
Although the beliefs above were common in whole Mesopotamia, different parts of the land had different beliefs. The Sumerian word for universe is an-ki, which refers to the god An and the goddess Ki. Their son was Enlil, the air god. It was believed that he was the most powerful god. He was their main god, as the Greeks had Zeus, and the Romans had Jupiter. The Sumerians also had many questions with no answers, such as: Who are we?, Where are we?, How did we get here?. They tried answering these questions, by explanations of their gods.
If someone was sick they prayed to the gods, so that they would recover. As mentioned before, the Mesopotamian doctors were not very good in medication, so instead people asked help from the gods.
Gods
An was the Sumerian god of sky, later known as Anu. He was married to Ki, but in some other Mesopotamian religions he has a wife called Uraš.
Marduk, the principal god of Babylon. The people glorified him, for Babylon to rise into a great empire from a small state.
Gula, or in other places Ninishina, the goddess of healing. When somebody was sick, she was one of the gods they prayed to.
Nanna (some places called Suen, Nanna-Suen or Sin), the moon god. He was one of the sons of Enlil.
Utu (Šamaš or Sahamash), the sun god in Mesopotamia.
Ishtar, the goddess of love and of sex in Sumer, Babylonia and Assyria.
Enlil, considered the most powerful god in Mesopotamian religion. His wife was Ninlil, and his children were Inanna, Iškur, Nanna-Suen, Nergal, Ninurta, Pabilsag, Nushu, Utu, Uraš Zababa and Ennugi.
Nabu, the Mesopotamian god of writing. He was considered very wise, and was praised for the ability of writing. In some places he was believed to being in control of heaven and earth.
Iškur (Adad), the god of storms in Mesopotamian religion.
Ninurta, the Sumerian god of war. He was also considered as the god of heros.
Inanna, the Sumerian goddess of war, the wife of Ninurta.
Pazazu/Zu, an evil god, who stole the tablets of Enlil’s destiny, and is killed because of this. He also brought diseases to people, which had no cure.
Demons
The belief in demons was also a large part of ancient Mesopotamian religion. People were afraid of bad souls, like demons, so they set up many statues and painted pictures to scare away these unwanted ghosts. As gods, there were different demons, with their own names, which did different types of evil things.
Burials
Archeologists found hundreds of graves in some parts of Mesopotamia. These graves told us many things about Mesopotamian burial habits. In the city of Ur, most people were buried into family graves under their houses. Children were put into big jars, and were taken into the family chapel. Other people were just buried into common city graveyards. Some people were wrapped into mats and carpets. In most graves some belongings of the people were with them, but there were 17 graves with very precious objects in them, and it is assumed that these were royal graves.
Ziggurats
Ziggurats were huge temples built to worship the Gods. They were built from clay and mud, with three or four parts. They were very high, so that at times of flood they would stay dry. Many workers were required to build a ziggurat. There had to be enough people to dig clay, make bricks, and carry those bricks and put them together.
Culture
Music
Music was a large part of Mesopotamian amusement life. Kings listened to it, and some music was written for the gods. Although music was a high amusement for kings and rulers; it was also amusement for ordinary people. They liked to sing, dance in their homes or just in the marketplaces. Some songs were sung to their children, who passed it on to their children. Most of these songs were about important happenings, which were passed on through many generations, until someone wrote them down. These were highly important for history to pass on to us.
Games
Games were also much of amusement, especially for royalties. The other people did not have any games, or did not have time for them. A beautiful board game was found in one of the royal graves of Ur. Nobody knows for sure how to play it, because the rules were not found. There are only suggestions of playing it.
Family life
Life was very hard for ordinary people in ancient Mesopotamia, partly because many babies died of incurable diseases. Most boys had to go to work with their fathers, and got their own part of the work. Girls had to stay home with their mothers, to learn how to do the housekeeping, cooking and looking after younger children. Some boys from richer families got to go to school. Women had rights, which was a new thing in history. They could own property and, if they had a good reason, could get a divorce.
Agriculture
Food supply in Mesopotamia was quite rich due to the providence of the two rivers from which its name is derived, Tigris and Euphrates. Although land nearer to the rivers was fertile and good for crops, portions of land further from the water were dry and largely uninhabitable. This is why the development of irrigation was very important for settlers of Mesopotamia. Other developments considered new for their eras include the control of water by dams and the use of aqueducts. Early settlers of fertile land in Mesopotamia used wooden plows to soften the soil before planting crops such as barley. onions, grapes, turnips, and apples. Settlers of Mesopotamia were some of the first people to make beer, and wine was also popular. The unpredictable weather of Mesopotamia was often a disadvantage for farmers; crops were often ruined, so backup sources of food such as cows and lambs were also kept.
Tigris and Euphrates
The two rivers surrounding ancient Mesopotamia were the Tigris and Euphrates. These two rivers made the dry land fertile. Most ordinary people were quite poor and so these two rivers were very important for them. Rainfall was very small per year, so the two rivers was their only water supply. People had to irrigate their lands; otherwise their crops would dry out. But they also had to control the water with dams, to collect the water. If a dam was put down somewhere higher up, the water did not go further down. This caused a problem for the lower cities. This brought many wars in that river region.
Government
Kings
Most kings in Ancient Mesopotamia were thought to be chosen by a god, a son of a god, or a god himself. They were helping the gods by running the state. Most kings named themselves “king of the universe” or “great king” or another common name was “shepherd”, because he had to look after their people. Nebuchadnezzar was the most powerful king in Babylonia. He was thought to be the son of the god Nabu. He married the daughter of Cyaxeres, so the Median and the Babylonian dynasties were combined. Nebuchadnezzar’s name means: Nabo, protect the crown! Belshedezzar was the last king of Babylonia. He was the son of Nabonidus, whose wife was Nictoris, the daughter of Nebuchadnezzar. The first king of the first dynasty of Ur (at around 2560) was Mesanepada. He made Ur Sumer’s main city.
First Dynasty of Ur c. 2563-2387 B.C.
2563-2524: Mesannepadda
2523-2484: A'annepadda
2483-2448: Meskiagnunna
2447-2423: Elulu
2422-2387: Balulu
Dynasty of Lagash c. 2494-2342 B.C.
2494-2465: Ur-Nanshe
2464-2455: Akurgal
2454-2425: Ennatum
2424-2405: Enannatum I
2402-2375: Entemena
2374-2365: Enannatum II
2364-2359: Enentarzi
2358-2352: Lugal-anda
2351-2342: Uru-inim-gina
Dynasty of Uruk c. 2340-2316 B.C.
2340-2316: Lugal-zaggesi
Dynasty of Akkad c. 2334-2154 B.C.
2334-2279: Sargon
2278-2270: Rimush
Power
When Assyria grew into an empire, it was divided into smaller parts, called provinces. Each of these were named after their main cities, like Nivenah, Samaria, Damascus and Arpad. They all had their own governor, who had to make sure everyone paid their taxes; he had to call up soldiers to war, and supply workers when a temple was built. He was also responsible for the laws to be respected. In this way it was easier to keep control of an empire such as Assyria. Although Babylon was quite a small state in the Sumerian, it grew tremendously throughout the time of Hammurabi’s rule. He was known as “the law maker”, and soon Babylon became one of the main cities in Mesopotamia. It was later called Babylonia, which meant, the gateway of the gods. It also became one of the greatest centers of learning.
Warfare
The civilizations- and within them city-states of Mesopotamia had many wars, amongst each other for land and power. They also fought for the rivers’ control, transportation, irrigation, and for places they could get timber, stone and metal. When empires were created, they went to war more with foreign countries. King Sargon, for example conquered all the cities of Sumer, some cities in Mari, and then went to war with northern Syria. Many Babylonian palace walls were decorated with the pictures of the successful fights and the enemy, whether desperately escaping, or hiding amongst reeds. A king in Sumer, Gilgamesh, was thought two-thirds god and only one third human. There were legendary stories and poems about him, which were passed on for many generations, because he had many adventures that were believed very important, and he won lots of wars and battles.
Laws
King Hammurabi, as mentioned above, was famous for his laws. He had about three hundred laws, which were quite strict. Some of these were:
If one accuses another, but cannot prove it, the accuser will be killed.
If one accuses another, and can prove it, he shall be rewarded with money.
If a judge decides in a case, and later it turns out that he was wrong, he will have to pay twelve times as much as he set for the accused, and will never be allowed to judge anymore.
If one steals the son of another, he will be killed.
If one finds a slave who has run away, and he brings the slave back to his owner, the owner will pay two shekels.
If a robber is caught while stealing, he will be killed.
If one does not take good enough care of a dam, and the dam breaks, he shall be sold for money, which will replace the corn ruined due to the over-flooding of the crops.
If one over-floods a neighbor’s crops, then he shall pay the loss.
If one gives his garden to a gardener to take care of, and the gardener has done his job well for four years, on the fifth year the owner will have to take part in the gardening.
If the gardener did not do his job well, and the plants go bad, he shall pay the loss of the bad years according to the neighbor's plant product.
If one is in debt, and cannot pay, he can sell himself, his wife, his son and his daughter to work; after three years they shall be set free.
If the one in debt sells a slave to pay his debt, and the slave is good enough, there can be no objection.
If one marries a woman, but has no relationship with her, it is not considered as a marriage.
If a wife has a relationship with another man, both shall be tied and thrown into water, but the wife can be pardoned by her husband and given to the king as a slave.
If a man uses violence on another man’s wife to sleep with her, the man shall be killed, but the wife shall be blameless.
If a man is captured in war, and the wife leaves the house, even though there is enough food, she shall be thrown into water.
If a man is captured in war, and there is no food, the wife is blameless if she leaves the house.
If a husband runs away from home, the wife goes to another house, and the husband subsequently returns, the wife does not have to go back.
If a man wants to separate from a woman who has given birth to his children, a part of land and money has to be given to her by the husband. When the children grow up, the wife can remarry.
If a man wants to separate from a woman, with no children, he shall have to give back her dowry and the money she has brought from her father’s house.
If a man adopts a son and he grows up in the adopter’s house, the original parents can not demand his return.
If anyone strikes a man whose rank is higher than his, the man shall be whipped sixty times with an ox-whip in public.
If someone strikes another man equally ranked, he shall pay one gold mina.
If a slave strikes a free man, his ear will be cut off.
If a man strikes a pregnant woman, and she therefore loses her child, he shall pay ten shekels for her.
If a builder builds a house, and constructs it well, the owner will pay two shekels for each surface of the house.
If, however, he does not succeed, and the house falls in, killing the owner, the builder will be killed.
If the son of the owner dies, the son of the builder shall be killed.
Architecture
Houses
The houses of rich people were very big. They had two or three floors, with a roof, (which could also be used as a place to live). They had a large courtyard around the house. In the house there were a few bedrooms, a reception room, a chapel, a kitchen, a lavatory and a tomb under the house. The houses of ordinary people were much simpler, with only a couple of rooms in it.
The Palace
The palaces of the kings in Mesopotamia were huge buildings, which were beautifully decorated. Most walls had pictures carved into ivory, about great victories of the Mesopotamians. They also had large sculptures at entrances, to protect the king from demons and other evil spirits. Most furniture was also made from ivory, because it was easy to decorate and carve into shape. Their palaces contained large amount of metals as well. Bronze and gold was used the most for decorations on the walls, the rooms, the sculptures and the throne. Palaces were also the main centers of the government.
Economy
There was a large difference in money and wealth matters between rich and ordinary people. Ordinary people highly depended on their crops, because they had very little money. Rich people had many slaves and usually lots of money.
1 talent
= 60 mina = 3600 shekel 30 kg of silver
1 mina = 60 shekel 500 grams silver
1 shekel 8.333 grams silver
1 shekel = 2 divisions
1 shekel = 8 slices
1 shekel = 12 grains
1 shekel = 24 carats
1 shekel = 24 chickpeas
1 shekel = 180 barleycorns
Silver coins were not pure silver. About 87% of the coin was silver.
Travel
Most people in Mesopotamia traveled by water rather than by foot, because it was much more convenient. They made boats from reeds, and it was easy to get through swampy areas, too. Later, when the use of wheels was invented, chariots were used, especially rich people, to look around the city with the pull of a couple of horses. Most people did not like to walk, but some could not afford to pay for a boat, and definitely not a chariot.
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Egypt
officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a Middle Eastern country in North Africa. While the country is geographically situated in Africa, the Sinai Peninsula, east of the Suez Canal, is a land bridge to Asia.
Covering an area of about 1,001,450 square kilometres (386,560 mi²), Egypt borders Libya to the west, Sudan to the south, and Israel and the Gaza Strip to the northeast; on the north and the east are the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea, respectively.
Egypt is the fifteenth most populous country in the world. The vast majority of its 78.8 million population (2006) live near the banks of the Nile River (about 40,000 km² or 15,450 mi²), where the only arable agricultural land is found. Large areas of land are part of the Sahara Desert and are sparsely inhabited. About half of the Egyptian people today are urban, living in the densely populated centers of greater Cairo, the largest city in Africa and the Middle East, and Alexandria.
Egypt is famous for its ancient civilization and some of the world's most ancient and important monuments, including the Giza Pyramids, the Karnak Temple, the Valley of the Kings and the Great Sphinx of Giza; the southern city of Luxor contains a particularly large number of ancient artifacts. Today, Egypt is widely regarded as the main political and cultural centre of the Arab and Middle Eastern regions.
Miṣr, the Arabic and official name for modern Egypt, is of Semitic origin directly cognate with the Hebrew מִצְרַיִם (Mitzráyim), meaning "the two straits", and possibly means "a country" or "a state". The ancient name for the country, kemet, or "black land," is derived from the fertile black soils deposited by the Nile floods, distinct from the 'red land' (deshret) of the desert. This name became keme in a later stage of Coptic. The English name "Egypt" came via the Latin word Aegyptus derived from the ancient Greek word Αίγυπτος (Aiguptos). This word may in turn be derived from the ancient Egyptian phrase ḥwt-k3-ptḥ ("Hwt ka Ptah") meaning "home of the Ka (part of the soul) of Ptah," the name of a temple of the god Ptah at Memphis.
History
The regularity and richness of the annual Nile River flood, coupled with semi-isolation provided by deserts to the east and west, allowed for the development of one of the world's great civilizations. A unified kingdom was founded circa 3200 BC by King Narmer, and a series of dynasties ruled in Egypt for the next three millennia. The last native dynasty, known as the Thirtieth Dynasty, fell to the Persians in 343 BC who dug the predecessor of the Suez canal and connected the Red Sea to the Mediterranean. Later, Egypt fell to the Greeks, Romans, Byzantines and Persians again.
It was the Muslim Arabs who introduced Islam and the Arabic language in the seventh century to the Egyptians, who gradually adopted both. Muslim rulers nominated by the Islamic Caliphate remained in control of Egypt for the next six centuries. A local military caste, the Mamluks took control about 1250 and continued to govern even after the conquest of Egypt by the Ottoman Turks in 1517.
Following the completion of the Suez Canal in 1869, Egypt became an important world transportation hub; however, the country also fell heavily into debt. Ostensibly to protect its investments, the United Kingdom seized control of Egypt's government in 1882, but nominal allegiance to the Ottoman Empire continued until 1914.
Almost fully independent from the UK since 1922, the Egyptian Parliament drafted and implemented a new constitution in 1923 under the leadership of the popular revolutionary Saad Zaghlul. Between 1924-1936, there existed a short-lived but successful attempt to model Egypt's constitutional government after the European style of government; known as Egypt's Liberal Experiment. The British, however, retained a degree of control which led to continued instability in the government. In 1952, a military coup d'état forced King Farouk I, a constitutional monarch, to abdicate in support of his son King Ahmed Fouad II.
Egypt's capital Cairo is the largest city in Africa and the Middle EastFinally, the Egyptian Republic was declared on 18 June 1953 with General Muhammad Naguib as the first President of the Republic. After Naguib was also forced to resign in 1954 by Gamal Abdel Nasser, the real architect of the 1952 movement, the latter assumed power as President and nationalized the Suez Canal leading to the 1956 Suez Crisis. Nasser came out of the war an Arab hero, and Nasserism won widespread influence in the region though was met with mixed reactions amongst Egyptians, many of whom had previously been indifferent to Arab nationalism.
Between 1958 and 1961, Nasser undertook to form a union between Egypt and Syria known as the United Arab Republic. This attempt too was met with mixed reactions, and it was clear that many Egyptians resented finding that the name of their country, which had endured for thousands of years, was suddenly eliminated. Three years after the 1967 Six Day War, in which Egypt lost the Sinai to Israel, Nasser died and was succeeded by Anwar Sadat, who presented his takeover in terms of a Corrective Revolution. Sadat switched Egypt's Cold War allegiance from the Soviet Union to the United States, expelling Soviet advisors in 1972, and launched the Infitah economic reform, while violently clamping down on religious and secular opposition alike. Egypt's name was also restored.
In 1973, Egypt, along with Syria, launched a surprise attack on Israel in the October War (known also as the Yom Kippur War), which, despite not being a complete military success, was by most accounts a political victory. Both the United States and the USSR intervened, and a cease-fire was reached between Egypt and Israel. In 1979, Sadat made peace with Israel in exchange for the Sinai, a move that sparked enormous controversy in the Arab world and led to Egypt's expulsion from the Arab League (it was readmitted in 1989). Sadat was murdered by a religious fundamentalist in 1981, and succeeded by Hosni Mubarak.
Egypt has been a republic since 18 June 1953. President Mohamed Hosni Mubarak has been the President of the Republic since October 14, 1981, following the assassination of former-President Mohammed Anwar El-Sadat. Mubarak is currently serving his fifth term in office. He is the leader of the ruling National Democratic Party. Prime Minister Dr. Ahmed Nazif was sworn in as Prime Minister on 9 July 2004, following the resignation of Dr. Atef Ebeid from his office.
Egypt is regarded by many as being ruled by a military dictatorship. Although power is ostensibly organised under a multi-party semi-presidential system, whereby the executive power is theoretically divided between the President and the Prime Minister, in practice it rests almost solely with the President who traditionally has been elected in single-candidate elections for more than fifty years. Egypt also holds regular multi-party parliamentary elections. The last presidential election, in which Mubarak won a fifth consecutive term, was held in September 2005 (see below).
In late-February 2005, Mubarak announced in a surprise television broadcast that he had ordered the reform of the country's presidential election law, paving the way for multi-candidate polls in the upcoming presidential election. For the first time since the 1952 movement, the Egyptian people had an apparent chance to elect a leader from a list of various candidates. The President said his initiative came "out of my full conviction of the need to consolidate efforts for more freedom and democracy." However, the new law placed draconian restrictions on the filing for presidential candidacies, designed to prevent well-known candidates such as Ayman Nour from standing against Mubarak, and paved the road for his easy re-election victory.
The Egyptian Parliament.Concerns were once again expressed after the 2005 elections about government interference in the election process through fraud and vote-rigging. In addition, violence by pro-Mubarak supporters against opposition demonstrators and police brutality were evident during the elections. This poses major questions about the government's purported commitment to democracy.
As a result, most Egyptians are skeptical about the process of democratisation and the role of the elections. A very small proportion of those eligible to vote actually turned out for the 2005 elections. Newspapers, however, have exhibited an increasing degree of freedom in criticizing the president, and the results of the recent parliamentary elections, which saw Islamist parties such as the banned Muslim Brotherhood winning many seats, genuinely indicate that a change of some sorts is underway.
International
The permanent headquarters for the League of Arab States (The Arab League) is located in Cairo.The Secretary General of the League has traditionally been an Egyptian. Former Egyptian Foreign Minister Amr Moussa is the present Secretary General of the Arab League. The Arab League briefly moved out of Egypt to Tunis in 1978 as a protest at the peace treaty with Israel, but returned in 1989.
Egypt was the first Arab state to establish diplomatic relations with the state of Israel, after the signing of the Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty at the Camp David Accords. Egypt has a major influence amongst other Arab states, and has historically played an important role as a mediator in resolving disputes between various Arab nations, and in the Israeli-Palestinian dispute. Most Arab nations still give credence to Egypt playing that role, though its effects are often limited.
Former Egyptian Deputy Prime Minister Boutros Boutros-Ghali served as Secretary General of the United Nations from 1991 to 1996.
A territorial dispute with Sudan over an area known as the Hala'ib Triangle, has meant that diplomatic relations between the two remain strained.
Military
The Egyptian military is perhaps the strongest military power on the African continent, and amongst the largest in the Middle East. The Egyptian Armed forces have also had more battle-field experience than most armies in the region. The Egyptian Armed forces has a combined troop strength of around 450,000 active personnel.
The Supreme Commander is the President, currently Hosni Mubarak, who is also wartime Field Marshal of the army, Admiral of the navy, Chief Air Marshal (Colonel General) of the Air Forces and Air Defence Forces. During peacetime, the title of Supreme Commander is ceremonial.
Conscription is compulsory for Egyptian men of 19 years of age. Full-time students may defer their service until the age of 28. The length of the service depends on the level of education achieved by the conscripted.
Military cooperation between the United States and Egypt is strong, and covers a number of strategic areas, including cooperation in the ongoing process of modernising Egyptian armaments and training the Egyptian armed forces.
Egypt takes part regularly in military exercises with the US and other European and Arab allies, including the manoeuvres that take place in Egypt every two years.
Egypt continues to contribute regularly to United Nations peacekeeping missions, most recently in East Timor, Sierra Leone, and Liberia.
Governorates of Egypt
Map of EgyptEgypt is divided into 26 governorates (Muhafazat; singular – Muhafazah) and the city of Al Uqsur (Luxor), which is classified as a city rather than a governorate.
Aswan
Asyut
Al-Bahr Al-Ahmar (Red Sea)
Bani Suwayf
El-Beheirah
Bur Sa'id (Port Said)
Ad-Daqahliyah
Dumyat
Al-Fayyum
Al-Gharbiyah
Al-Iskandariyah (Alexandria)
Al-Isma'iliyah
Ganub Sina (South Sinai)
El Gizah (Giza)
Kafr El Shaykh
Matruh
Al-Monufiyah
Al-Minya
Al Qahirah (Cairo)
Al Qalyubiyah
Qina
Shamal Sina' (North Sinai)
Al Sharqiyah
Suhaj
Al-Suways (Suez)
El Wadi El-Gedid (New Valley)
Al Uqsur (Luxor)
(Al Sharki-ya))
Economy of Egypt
Modern CairoEgypt's economy depends mainly on agriculture, media, petroleum exports, and tourism; there are also more than 5 million Egyptians working abroad, mainly in Saudi Arabia, the Gulf area like UAE, and Europe. The United States as well has a large population of Egyptian immigrants.
The completion of the Aswan High Dam in 1971 and the resultant Lake Nasser have altered the time-honored place of the Nile River in the agriculture and ecology of Egypt. A rapidly-growing population (the largest in the Arab world), limited arable land, and dependence on the Nile all continue to overtax resources and stress the economy.
The government has struggled to prepare the economy for the new millennium through economic reform and massive investments in communications and physical infrastructure, much financed from U.S. foreign aid (since 1979, an average of $2.2 billion per year). Egypt is the third-largest recipient of such funds from the United States following the Iraq war. Economic conditions are starting to improve considerably after a period of stagnation due to the adoption of more liberal economic policies by the government, as well as increased revenues from tourism and a booming stock market. In its annual report, the IMF has rated Egypt as one of the top countries in the world undertaking economic reforms.
Demographics of Egypt
Egyptian farmEgypt is the second most populous country in Africa, at nearly 79 million people. Almost all the population is concentrated along the banks of the Nile (notably Alexandria and Cairo) and in the Delta and near the Suez Canal. Approximately 90% of the population adheres to Islam and most of the remainder to Christianity (primarily the Coptic Orthodox denomination). Apart from religious affiliation, Egyptians can be divided demographically into those who live in the major urban centers and the fellahin or farmers of rural villages.
Since ancient times, particularly before the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt, North African and Eastern Mediterranean influences have come to predominate in the north, while Egyptians in the south are also related to Nubians and Ethiopians. Despite these differences, the bulk of modern Egyptians are more closely related to one another and are descended from ancient Egyptian society, which has always been rural and quite populous compared to neighboring regions.[1] [2]. The Egyptian people have spoken only languages from the Afro-Asiatic family throughout their history starting with Old Egyptian to modern Egyptian Arabic.
The Arabization of Egypt was a cultural process that began with the introduction of Islam and the Arabic language following the Arab Muslim conquest in the 7th century AD. In the centuries to follow, a social hierarchy was created whereby Egyptians who converted to Islam acquired the status of mawali or "clients" to the ruling Arab elite, while those who remained Christian, the Copts, became dhimmis. The privilege enjoyed by the Arab minority continued in a modified form into the modern period in the countryside, where remnants of Bedouin Arab tribes lived alongside Egyptian farmers. One author describes the social demographics of rural Upper Egypt as follows:
Upper Egypt comprises the country's eight southernmost governorates. ... the region's history is one of isolated removal from the center of national life. The local relationships resulting from this centuries-old condition gave Upper Egypt an identity of its own within the modern Egyptian state. Alongside the even more ancient presence of Copts, tribal groupings dating from the Arab conquest combined to form a hierarchical order that placed two [minority] groups, the ashraf and the arab, in dominating positions. These were followed by lesser tribes, with the [Egyptian] fellah at the bottom of the social scale(28) [...] Religion was central to the development of Upper Egyptian society. The ashraf claimed direct descent from the Prophet, while the Arabs traced their lineage to a group of tribes from Arabia. On the other hand, the status of the fellahin rested on the belief that they descended from Egypt's pre-Islamic community and had converted to Islam, a history that placed them inescapably beneath both the ashraf and Arabs. [...] In Muslim as well as Christian communities, and particularly at the lower socio-economic levels, religious practices are strongly imbued with non-orthodox folk elements, some of pharaonic origin.[3]
Egyptian fellahFellah means "tiller", "farmer" or "peasant" in English, and it is the Arabic appellation by which the indigenous rural peoples of the lands conquered by Arabs came to be known. Comprising 60 percent of the Egyptian population [1], the fellahin lead humble lives and continue to live in mud-brick houses like their ancient ancestors. Their percentage was much higher in the early 20th century, before the large influx of fellahin into urban towns and cities. In 1927, anthropologist Winifred Blackman, author of The Fellahin of Upper Egypt, conducted ethnographic research on the life of Upper Egyptian farmers and concluded that there were observable continuities between the cultural and religious beliefs and practices of the fellahin and those of ancient Egyptians.[4]
Ethnic minorities in Egypt include the small number of Bedouin Arab tribes living in the eastern and western deserts and the Sinai Peninsula, the Berber-speaking Siwis of the Siwa Oasis, and the ancient Nubian communities clustered along the Nile in the southernmost part of Egypt. Egypt also hosts some 90,000 refugees and asylum seekers, made up mostly of 70,000 Palestinian refugees and 20,000 Sudanese refugees. The once-vibrant Jewish community in Egypt has virtually disappeared, with only a small number remaining in Egypt and those who visit on religious occasions. Several important Jewish archaeological and historical sites also remain.
Religion in Egypt
Over seven million Egyptians follow the Christian faith as members of the Coptic ChurchAccording to the constitution, any new legislation must implicitly agree with Islamic (Arabic: الإسلام) laws. Egypt is predominantly Muslim, at approximately 90% of the population, with the majority being adherents of the Sunni branch of Islam [2]. Christians represent about 10% of the population, with the largest being the Coptic denomination at 9%, while the remaining 1% include Catholics, Greek Orthodox, Syriac Orthodox, and Armenian Orthodox, largely found in Alexandria and Cairo.
There also remains a small Jewish community, of an estimated three hundred Egyptians.
There are Egyptians who identify as atheist and agnostic, but their numbers are largely unknown as openly advocating such positions risks legal sanction. In 2000, an openly atheist Egyptian writer, who called for the establishment of a local association for atheists, was tried on charges of insulting Islam and its prophet in four of his books.[5]
The mainstream Hanafi school of Sunni Islam is largely organised by the state, through Wizaret Al-Awkaf (Ministry of Religious Affairs). Al-Awkaf controls all mosques and overviews Muslim clerics. Imams are trained in Imam vocational schools and at Al-Azhar University. The department supports Sunni Islam and has commissions authorised to give Fatwa judgements on Islamic issues.
Egypt hosts two major religious institutions. Al-Azhar University (Arabic: جامعة الأزهر) is the oldest Islamic institution of higher studies (founded around 970 A.D). Egypt also has a strong Christian heritage as evidenced by the existence of the Coptic Orthodox Church headed by the Patriarch of Alexandria, which has a following of approximately 50 million Christians worldwide (one of the famous Coptic Orthodox Churches is Saint Takla Haimanot Church in Alexandria).[6]
Bahá'ís in Egypt, whose population ranges between several hundred and a few thousand, have their institutions and community activities banned; they are also not allowed to hold identity cards. In April 2006 a court case recognized the Bahá'í Faith, but the government has decided to appeal the court decision. One member of parliament, Gamal Akl of the opposition Muslim Brotherhood, said the Bahá'ís were infidels who should be killed on the grounds that they had changed their religion.[7] The judgement of 6 April recognizing the Bahá'í Faith was suspended on 15 May.[8]
Geography of Egypt
Egyptian countryside, south of Cairo.Egypt is bordered by Libya on the west, Sudan on the south, and on Israel on the northeast. Egypt's important role in geopolitics stems from its strategic position: a transcontinental nation, it possesses a land bridge (the Isthmus of Suez) between Africa and Asia, which in turn is traversed by a navigable waterway (the Suez Canal) that connects the Mediterranean Sea with the Indian Ocean via the Red Sea.
Towns and cities include Alexandria, one of the great ancient cities, Aswan, Asyut, Cairo, the modern Egyptian capital, El-Mahalla El-Kubra, Giza, the site of the Pyramid of Khufu, Hurghada, Luxor, Kom Ombo, Port Safaga, Port Said, Sharm el Sheikh, Shubra-El-Khema, Suez, where the Suez Canal is located, Zagazig, and Al-Minya.
Deserts: Egypt includes parts of the Sahara Desert and of the Libyan Desert. These deserts were referred to as the "red land" in ancient Egypt, and they protected the Kingdom of the Pharaohs from western threats.
Oases include: Bahariya Oasis, Dakhleh Oasis, Farafra Oasis, Kharga Oasis, Siwa Oasis. An oasis is a fertile or green area in the midst of a desert.
Culture of Egypt
Egyptian folk musiciansEgypt's capital city, Cairo, is Africa's largest city and has been renowned for centuries as a center of learning, culture and commerce. The Egyptian Academy of the Arabic Language is responsible for regulating the Arabic Language (Arabic:اللغة العربية ) throughout the world.
Egypt has had a thriving media and arts industry since the late 19th century, today with more than 30 satellite channels and over 100 motion pictures produced each year. Cairo in fact has long been known as the "Hollywood of the East." To bolster its media industry further, especially with the keen competition from the Persian Gulf Arab States and Lebanon, a large media city was built. Egypt is also the only Arab country with an opera house.
Some famous Egyptians include:
Saad Zaghlul (leader of first modern Egyptian revolution)
Gamal Abdel Nasser (former president)
Anwar Sadat (former president and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize)
Boutros Boutros-Ghali (former Secretary General of the United Nations)
Naguib Mahfouz (Nobel Prize-winning novelist)
Umm Kulthum (singer)
Omar Sharif (actor)
Ahmed Zewail (Nobel Prize-winning chemist)
Mohamed ElBaradei (Head of the International Atomic Energy Agency; 2005 Nobel Peace Prize Winner)
For more famous Egyptians, see List of Egyptians
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Phoenicia was an ancient civilization in the north of ancient Canaan, with its heartland along the coastal plains of what are now Lebanon and Syria. Phoenician civilization was an enterprising maritime trading culture that spread right across the Mediterranean during the first millennium BC. Though ancient boundaries of such city-centered cultures fluctuated, the city of Tyre seems to have been the southernmost. Sarepta between Sidon and Tyre, is the most thoroughly excavated city of the Phoenician homeland. Although the people of the region called themselves the Canaani or Kenaani, the name Phoenicia became common thanks to the Greeks who called them the Phoiniki - Φοινίκη (Phoiníkē; see also List of traditional Greek place names); the Greek word for Phoenician was synonymous with the colour purple/red or crimson, φοῖνιξ (phoinix), through its close association with the famous dye Tyrian purple (cf also Phoenix). The dye was used in ancient textile trade, and highly desired. The Phoenicians became known as the 'Purple People'. The Phoenicians often traded by means of a galley, which is a man-powered ship.
The Phoenicians, most likely a Semitic people, spoke the Phoenician language. In addition to their many inscriptions, the Phoenicians, contrary to some reports, wrote many books that have not survived. Evangelical Preparation by Eusebius of Caesarea quotes extensively from Philo of Byblos and Sanchuniathon. Furthermore, the Phoenician Punic colonies of North Africa continued to be a source of knowledge about the Phoenicians. Saint Augustine knew at least a smattering of Punic and occasionally uses it to explain cognate words found in Hebrew. The name of his mother, Saint Monica, is said to be of Punic origin as well.
Herodotus's account (written c. 440 BC) refers to a faint memory from 1000 years earlier, and so may be subject to question (History, I:1):
"According to the Persians best informed in history, the Phoenicians began to quarrel. This people, who had formerly reached the shores of the Erythraean Sea, having migrated to the Mediterranean from an unknown origin and settled in the parts which they now inhabit, began at once, they say, to adventure on long voyages, freighting their vessels with the wares of Egypt and Assyria..."
But this is merely a legendary introduction to Herodotus' brief retelling of some mythic Hellene-Phoenician interactions: he follows directly with succinct accounts of the abduction of Io from Pylos, and the retaliatory abduction of Europa by the Cretans. "The Cretans say that it was not they who did this act, but, rather, Zeus, enamored of the fair Europa, who disguised himself as a bull, gained the maiden's affections, and thence carried her off to Crete, where she bore three sons by Zeus: Sarpedon, Rhadamanthys, and Minos, later king of all Crete." Few modern archaeologists would confuse this myth with history.
In terms of archaeology, language, and religion, there is little to set the Phoenicians apart as markedly different from other local cultures of Canaan. However, they are unique in their remarkable seafaring achievements. Indeed, in the Amarna tablets of the 14th century BC they call themselves Kenaani or Kinaani (Canaanites); and even much later in the 6th century BC, Hecataeus writes that Phoenicia was formerly called χνα, a name Philo of Byblos later adopted into his mythology as his eponym for the Phoenicians: "Khna who was afterwards called Phoinix".
To many archaeologists therefore, the Phoenicians are simply indistinguishable from the descendants of coastal-dwelling Canaanites, who over the centuries developed a particular seagoing culture and skills. But others believe equally firmly, like Herodotus, that the Phoenician culture must have been inspired from an external source. All manner of suggestions have been made: that the Phoenicians were sea-traders from the Land of Punt who co-opted the Canaanite population; or that they were connected with the Minoans; or the Sea Peoples or the Philistines further south; or on the other side of the fence, that they represent the activities of supposed coastal maritime Israelite tribes like Dan.
While the Semitic language of the Phoenicians, and some evidence of invasion at the site of Byblos, suggest origins in the wave of Semitic migration that hit the Fertile Crescent between 2300 and 2100 BC, many scholars, including Sabatino Moscati believe that the Phoenicians evolved from a prior non-Semitic people of the area, suggesting a mixture between the two populations. Historian Gerhard Herm further asserts that, because the Phoenicians' legendary sailing abilities are not well attested before the invasions of the Sea Peoples around 1200 BC, that these Sea Peoples would have merged with the local population to produce the Phoenicians, who seemingly gained these abilities rather suddenly at that time. This idea is backed up by archaeological evidence that the Philistines, often thought of as related to the Sea Peoples, were culturally linked to Mycenaean Greeks, who were also known to be great sailors even in this period.
And so the debate has persisted. Professional archaeologists have now been at work on the origins of the Phoenicians for generations, basing their analysis in the mainstream of excavated sites, the remains of material culture, contemporary texts set into contemporary contexts, and the even more slippery slopes of linguistics. Modern cultural agendas, both personal and national, have been brought to bear. But ultimately, the origins of the Phoenicians are still unknown: where they came from and just when (or if) they arrived, and under what circumstances, are all still energetically disputed.
Some Lebanese, Syrians, Maltese, Tunisians, Algerians and a small percentage of Somalis, along with certain other island folk in the Mediterranean, still consider themselves descendants of Phoenicians.
The cultural and economic "empire"
Fernand Braudel remarked (in The Perspective of the World) that Phoenicia was an early example of a "world-economy" surrounded by empires. The high point of Phoenician culture and seapower is usually placed ca 1200 – 800 BC.
Many of the most important Phoenician settlements had been established long before this: Byblos, Tyre, Sidon, Simyra, Aradus and Berytus all appear in the Amarna tablets; and indeed, the first appearance in archaeology of cultural elements clearly identifiable with the Phoenician zenith is sometimes dated as early as the third millennium BC.
This league of independent city-state ports, with others on the islands and along other coasts of the Mediterranean Sea, was ideally suited for trade between the Levant area, rich in natural resources, and the rest of the ancient world. Suddenly, during the early Iron Age, in around 1200 BC, an unknown event occurred, historically associated with the appearance of the Sea Peoples. The powers that had previously dominated the area, notably the Egyptians and the Hittites, became weakened or destroyed; and in the resulting power vacuum a number of Phoenician cities established themselves as significant maritime powers.
Authority seems to have stabilized because it derived from three power-bases: the king; the temple and its priests; and councils of elders. Byblos soon became the predominant centre from where they proceeded to dominate the Mediterranean and Erythraean (Red) Sea routes. However, Byblos was attacked by successive invaders, and by around 1000 BC Tyre and Sidon had taken its place. The collection of city-kingdoms constituting Phoenicia came to be characterized by outsiders and the Phoenicians themselves as Sidonia or Tyria, and Phoenicians and Canaanites alike came to be called Zidonians or Tyrians, as one Phoenician conquest came to prominence after another.
Phoenician trade
In the centuries following 1200 BC, the Phoenicians formed the major naval and trading power of the region. Perhaps it was through these merchants that the Hebrew word kena'ani ('Canaanite') came to have the secondary, and apt, meaning of "merchant". The Greek term "Tyrian purple" describes the dye they were especially famous for, and their port town Tyre. The Phoenicians also traded cedar for making ships and other things. Phoenician trade was founded on this violet-purple dye derived from the Murex sea-snail's shell, once profusely available in coastal waters but exploited to local extinction. James B. Pritchard's excavations at Sarepta in Lebanon revealed crushed Murex shells and pottery containers stained with the dye that was being produced at the site. Brilliant textiles were a part of Phoenician wealth. Phoenician glass was another export ware. Phoenicians seem to have first discovered the technique of producing transparent glass. Phoenicians also shipped tall Lebanon cedars to Egypt, a civilization that consumed more wood than it could produce. Indeed, the Amarna tablets suggest that in this manner the Phoenicians paid tribute to Egypt in the 14th century BC.
From elsewhere they got many other materials, perhaps the most important being tin and silver from Spain and possibly even Cornwall on Great Britain, that together with copper (from Cyprus) was used to make bronze. Trade routes from Asia converged on the Phoenician coast as well, enabling the Phoenicians to govern trade between Mesopotamia on the one side, and Egypt and Arabia on the other.
The Phoenicians established commercial outposts throughout the Mediterranean, the most strategically important ones being Carthage in North Africa, and directly across the narrow straits in Sicily — carefully selected with the design of monopolizing the Mediterranean trade beyond that point and keeping their rivals from passing through. Other colonies were planted in Cyprus, Corsica, Sardinia, the Iberian Peninsula, and elsewhere. They also founded innumerable small outposts a day's sail away from each other all along the North African coast on the route to Spain's mineral wealth. (The name Spain comes from the Phoenician word I-Shaphan, meaning, thanks to an early double misidentification, 'island of hyraxes'.)
The date when many of these cities were founded has been very controversial. Greek sources put the foundation of many cities very early. Gades (Cadiz) in Spain was traditionally founded in 1110 BC, while Utica in Africa was supposedly founded in 1101 BC. However, no archaeological remains have been dated to such a remote era. The traditional dates may reflect the establishment of rudimentary way stations that left little archaeological trace, and only grew into full cities centuries later. (The World of the Phoenicians, Sabatino Moscati, 1965). Alternatively, the early dates may reflect Greek historians' belief that the legends of Troy (mentioning these cities) were historically reliable.
Phoenician ships used to ply the coast of southern Spain and along the coast of present-day Portugal. The fishermen of Nazaré and Aveiro in Portugal are traditionally of Phoenician descent. This can be seen today in the unusual and ancient design of their boats which have soaring pointed bows and are painted with mystical symbols. It is often mentioned that Phoenicians ventured north into the Atlantic ocean as far as Great Britain, where the tin mines in what is now Cornwall provided them with important materials, although no archaeological evidence supports this belief. They also sailed south along the coast of Africa. A Carthaginian expedition led by Hanno the Navigator explored and colonized the Atlantic coast of Africa as far as the Gulf of Guinea; and according to Herodotus, a Phoenician expedition sent down the Red Sea by pharaoh Necho II of Egypt (c. 600 BC) even circumnavigated Africa and returned through the Pillars of Hercules in three years.
The Phoenicians were not an agricultural people, because most of the land was not arable; therefore, they focused on commerce and trading instead. They did, however, raise sheep and sell them and their wool.
The Phoenicians exerted considerable influence on the other groups around the Mediterranean, notably the Greeks, who later became their main commercial rivals. They appear in Greek mythology. Traditionally, the city of Thebes was founded by a Phoenician prince named Cadmus when he set out to look for his sister Europa, who had been kidnapped by Zeus.
In the Bible, king Hiram I of Tyre is mentioned as co-operating with Solomon in mounting an expedition on the Red Sea and on building the temple. The Temple of Solomon is considered to be built according to Phoenician design, and its description is considered the best description of what a Phoenician temple looked like. Phoenicians from Syria were also called Syrophenicians.
The Phoenician alphabet was developed around 1200 BC from an earlier Semitic prototype that also gave rise to the Ugaritic alphabet. It was used mainly for commercial notes. The Greek alphabet, that forms the basis of all European alphabets, was derived from the Phoenician one. The alphabets of the Middle East and India are also thought to derive, directly or indirectly, from the Phoenician alphabet. Ironically, the Phoenicians themselves are mostly silent on their own history, possibly because they wrote on perishable materials, papyrus or skins. Other than the stone inscriptions, Phoenician writing has largely perished. There are a very few writers such as Sanchunathion quoted only in later works, and the Phoenicians were described by Sallust and Augustine as having possessed an extensive literature, but of this, only a single work survives, in Latin translation: Mago's Agriculture. What we know of them comes mainly from their neighbors, the Greeks and Hebrews.
With the rise of Assyria, the Phoenician cities one by one lost their independence; however the city of Tyre, situated just off the mainland and protected by powerful fleets, proved impossible to take for the Assyrians, and many others after them. The Phoenician cities were later dominated by Babylonia, then Persia. They remained very important, however, and provided these powers with their main source of naval strength. The stacked warships, such as triremes and quinqueremes, were probably Phoenician inventions, though eagerly adopted by the Greeks.
Decline
Cyrus the Great conquered Phoenicia in 538 BC. Phoenicia accepted rule by the Persians, and Phoenician influence declined after this. It is also reasonable to suppose that much of the Phoenician population migrated to Carthage and other colonies following the Persian conquest, as it is roughly then (under King Hanno) that we first hear of Carthage as a powerful maritime entity.
Later, the rise of Hellenistic Greece eventually ousted the remnants of Phoenicia's former dominance over the Eastern Mediterranean trade routes, and Phoenician culture disappeared entirely in the motherland. However, its North African offspring, Carthage, continued to flourish, mining iron and precious metals from Iberia, and using its considerable naval power and mercenary armies to protect its commercial interests until it was finally destroyed by Rome ca. 149 BC at the end of the Punic Wars.
Persian and Hellenistic Phoenicia
Information on Phoenician cities and their hinterlands under the Achaemenid Persians is sparse. The famous event is the revolt of Sidon against Achaemenid rule in 345 BC and its destruction, dramatically (perhaps too dramatically) described by Diodorus Siculus. The arrival of Alexander the Great in 333 – 332 BC is the main turning point, for Hellenistic Phoenicia lost its influential mercantile role, and the distinctive culture of its cities was Hellenized under Alexander and his Macedonian successors. The responses of the individual Phoenician cities to Alexander's conquest of Persia varied: the ruler of Aradus submitted; the king of Sidon was overthrown (perhaps by internal plotters who valued the city more than their king). Tyre resisted with the most energy. It was captured after a prolonged siege, one of the most famous sieges in Antiquity (see Siege of Tyre), and Alexander was exceptionally harsh. He executed 2000 of the leading citizens, but maintained the king in power. A popular king who owed everything to Alexander, made for a more secure city than a deeply-rooted local oligarchy. If Tyre was meant to set an example, it was effective: the Phoenician resistance was utterly broken, and no Phoenician city thereafter seems to have resisted occupation. In the following decades, shifting frontiers between Ptolemaic armies, and Antigonid or Seleucid forces, required some flexible diplomacy and alacrity in accepting a new alliance. This is the period when the cult of Tyche, goddess of Fortune, reached a prominence it had never enjoyed before.
In 287 – 225 BC, after decades of meaningless violence and small empty victories that simply ravaged the countryside, the Ptolemies regained some stabilized control of the cities (except for Aradus), and the last of the old Phoenician city-kings disappeared. In their new forms, the cities were scarcely different from the Greek cities interspersed along the coastal plain - all nominal republics with a very limited suffrage, and autonomy that was formal and local, while they were ruled from a distance by a great king at Alexandria. The center of Phoenician power had shifted westward to the Tyrian colony of Carthage, that had not merely gained its independence, but had become a major power in the Western Mediterranean in its own right. At the beginning of the 2nd century BC, the Seleucid monarchy had finally reasserted its primacy on the former Phoenician coast, but the last Seleucid kings' local power was increasingly a fiction, as the cities, now thoroughly Hellenistic, regained local independence.
Important Phoenician cities and colonies
From the 10th century BC, their expansive culture established cities and colonies throughout the Mediterranean. Canaanite deities like Baal and Astarte were being worshipped from Cyprus to Sardinia, Malta, Sicily, and most notably at Carthage in modern Tunisia.
In the Phoenician homeland:
Arka
Arwad (Classical Aradus)
Batroun
Berut (Greek Βηρυτός; Latin Berytus; Arabic بيروت [bayrut]; English Beirut)
Byblos
Safita
Sidon
Tripoli
Tyre
Ugarit
Zemar (Sumur)
Phoenician colonies including some unimportant ones (this list may be incomplete):
Tunisia
Qart Hadašt (Greek Καρχηδόνα; Latin Carthago; English Carthage)
three cities dependent on Carthage, known by their later Hellenic and Roman names:
Oea
Sabratha
Leptis Magna
Hadrumetum (modern Sousse)
Thapsus
Utica
Libya
Tripoli
Algeria
Hippo Regius (modern Annaba)
Iol (I as in i)
Morocco
Acra
Arambys
Caricus Murus
Gytta
Lixus (modern Larache)
Tingis (modern Tangier)
Mauritania
Cerne
Italy
Coastal Sardinia
Genoa
Karalis (modern Cagliari)
Lilybeaum (Sicily)
Motya (Sicily)
Olbia
Panormous (modern Palermo)
Tharros
Toscanos
Spain
Abdera (modern Adra)
Abyla (modern Ceuta)
Gadir (modern Cadiz)
Qart Hadašt (Greek Νέα Καρχηδόνα; Latin Carthago Nova; Spanish Cartagena)
Ibossim (modern Iviza)
Malaca (moder