EGYPT AND RULERS
Cleopatra was not Egyptian.
While Cleopatra was born in Egypt, she traced her family origins to Macedonian Greece and Ptolemy I Soter, one of Alexander the Great’s generals. Ptolemy took the reigns of Egypt after Alexander’s death in 323 B.C., and he launched a dynasty of Greek-speaking rulers that lasted for nearly three centuries.
She was the product of incest.
Like many royal houses, members of the Ptolemaic dynasty often married within the family to preserve the purity of their bloodline. More than a dozen of Cleopatra’s ancestors tied the knot with cousins or siblings, and it’s likely that her own parents were brother and sister. In keeping with this custom, Cleopatra eventually married both of her adolescent brothers, each of whom served as her ceremonial spouse and co-regent
Cleopatra’s beauty wasn’t her biggest asset.
she may have been more renowned for her intellect than her appearance. She spoke as many as a dozen languages and was educated in mathematics, philosophy, oratory and astronomy, and Egyptian sources later described her as a ruler “who elevated the ranks of scholars and enjoyed their company.” Coins with her portrait show her with manly features and a large, hooked nose,
She had a hand in the deaths of three of her siblings.
Power grabs and murder plots were as much a Ptolemaic tradition as family marriage, and Cleopatra and her brothers and sisters were no different. Her first sibling-husband, Ptolemy XIII, ran her out of Egypt after she tried to take sole possession of the throne, and the pair later faced off in a civil war. Cleopatra regained by teaming with Julius Caesar, , Ptolemy drowned in Nile . Following the war, Cleopatra remarried to her younger brother Ptolemy XIV, but she is believed to have had him murdered . In 41 B.C., she also engineered the execution of her sister, Arsinoe, who she considered a rival to throne
Cleopatra knew how to make an entrance.
Cleopatra believed herself to be a living goddess, ISIS when Julius Caesar arrived in Alexandria during her feud with her brother Ptolemy XIII. , Cleopatra had herself wrapped in a carpet smuggled into his personal quarters. Caesar was dazzled by the sight of the young queen in her royal garb, Cleopatra had been made up to look like the goddess Aphrodite, and she sat beneath a gilded canopy while attendants dressed as cupids
living in Rome at the time of Caesar’s assassination.
Cleopatra joined Julius Caesar in Rome beginning in 46 B.C., Caesar didn’t hide that she was his mistress—she even came to the city with their lovechild, Caesarion, in tow—and many Romans were scandalized when he erected a gilded statue of her in the temple of Venus Genetrix. Cleopatra was forced to flee Rome after Caesar was stabbed to death in the Roman senate in 44 B.C., . Her exotic hairstyle and pearl jewelry became a fashion trend,
Cleopatra and Mark Antony formed their own drinking club.
Cleopatra first began her legendary love affair with Mark Antony in 41 B.C. to protect her crown and Egypt’s independence, but they were also famously fond of each other’s company. they spent the winter of 41-40 B.C. living a life of leisure and excess in Egypt, and even formed their own drinking society “Inimitable Livers.” The group engaged in nightly feasts and wine-binges, took part in elaborate games and contests. One of Antony and Cleopatra’s favorite activities involved wandering the streets of Alexandria and playing pranks on its residents
She led a fleet in a naval battle.
Cleopatra eventually married Mark Antony and had three children with him, but their relationship also spawned a massive scandal in Rome. Antony’s rival Octavian used propaganda to portray him as a traitor under the sway of a scheming seductress, and in 32 B.C., the Roman Senate declared war on Cleopatra. The conflict reached its climax . Cleopatra personally led several dozen Egyptian warships but they were no match for Octavian’s navy.
Cleopatra may not have died from an asp bite.
Cleopatra and Antony famously took their own lives in 30 B.C., after Octavian’s forces pursued them to Alexandria. While Antony is said to have fatally stabbed himself in the stomach, Cleopatra’s method of suicide is less certain.
A 1963 film about her was one of the most expensive movies of all time.
The Queen of the Nile has been portrayed on the silver screen by the likes of Claudette Colbert and Sophia Loren, but she was most famously played by Elizabeth Taylor in the 1963 sword-and-sandal epic “Cleopatra.” d its budget eventually soared from $2 million to $44 million—including some $200,000 just to cover the cost of Taylor’s costumes. It was the most expensive movie ever made at the time of its release, and nearly bankrupted its studio despite raking in a fortune at the box office. “Cleopatra” remains one of the priciest movies in history even today.
a new short-lived province for ten years known as Sasanian Egypt, until 639–42, when Egypt was invaded and conquered by the Islamic Empire by the Muslim Arabs
In 639 an army of some 4,000 men were sent against Egypt by the second caliph, Umar, under the command of Amr ibn al-As. This army was joined by another 5,000 men in 640 and defeated a Byzantine army at the battle of Heliopolis. Amr next proceeded in the direction of Alexandria, which was surrendered to him by a treaty signed on November 8, 641. Alexandria was regained for the Byzantine Empire in 645 but was retaken by Amr in 646. In 654 an invasion fleet sent by Constans II was repulsed.
Abbasid period
The Ibn Tulun Mosque in Cairo, of Ahmad Ibn Tulun
The Abbasid period was marked by new taxations, and the Copts revolted again in the fourth year of Abbasid rule. At the beginning of the 9th century the practice of ruling Egypt through a governor was resumed under Abdallah ibn Tahir, who decided to reside at Baghdad, sending a deputy to Egypt to govern for him
Caliphate remained in control of Egypt
Muslim rulers nominated by the Caliphate remained in control of Egypt for the next six centuries, with Cairo as the seat of the Fatimid Caliphate. With the end of the Kurdish Ayyubid dynasty, the Mamluks, a Turco-Circassian military caste, took control about 1250.
Early modern: Ottoman Egypt (1517–1867)
Egypt was conquered by the Ottoman Turks in 1517, after which it became a province of the Ottoman Empire. The defensive militarisation damaged its civil society and economic institutions.[37] The weakening of the economic system combined with the effects of plague left Egypt vulnerable to foreign invasion. Portuguese traders took over their trade.[37] Between 1687 and 1731, Egypt experienced six famines.[39] The 1784 famine cost it roughly one-sixth of its population
Napoleon defeated the Mamluk troops in the Battle of the Pyramids, 21 July 1798, painted by Lejeune.
Egypt remained semi-autonomous under the Mamluks until it was invaded by the French forces of Napoleon Bonaparte 1798 .After the French were expelled, power was seized in 1805 by Muhammad Ali Pasha, an Albanian military commander of the Ottoman army in Egypt.
Muhammad Ali massacred the Mamluks and established a dynasty that was to rule Egypt until the revolution
Muhammad Ali annexed Northern Sudan (1820–1824), Syria (1833), and parts of Arabia and Anatolia; but in 1841 the European powers, fearful lest he topple the Ottoman Empire itself, forced him to return most of his conquests to the Ottomans.
Education and training of the new soldiers was not an option; the new concepts were furthermore enforced by isolation.
The battle of Tel el-Kebir in 1882 during the Anglo-Egyptian War
Egypt under the Muhammad Ali dynasty remained nominally an Ottoman province. It was granted the status of an autonomous vassal state or Khedivate in 1867, a legal status which was to remain in place until 1914 although the Ottomans had no power or presence.
The European intrusion (1867–1914)
Egypt under the Muhammad Ali dynasty remained nominally an Ottoman province. It was granted the status of an autonomous vassal state or Khedivate in 1867, a legal status which was to remain in place until 1914 although the Ottomans had no power or presence
In later years, the dynasty became a British puppet.[41] Isma'il and Tewfik Pasha governed Egypt as a quasi-independent state under Ottoman suzerainty until the British occupation of 1882.
Female nationalists demonstrating in Cairo, 1919
Local dissatisfaction with Ismail and with European intrusion led to the formation of the first nationalist groupings in 1879,
After World War I, Saad Zaghlul and the Wafd Party led the Egyptian nationalist movement to a majority at the local Legislative Assembly. When the British exiled Zaghlul and his associates[dubious – discuss] to Malta on 8 March 1919, the country arose in its first modern revolution. The revolt led the UK government to issue a unilateral declaration of Egypt's independence on 22 February 1922.[51]
British infantry near El Alamein, 17 July 1942
The new government drafted and implemented a constitution in 1923 based on a parliamentary system. Saad Zaghlul was popularly elected as Prime Minister of Egypt in 1924. In 1936, the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty was concluded. Continued instability due to remaining British influence and increasing political involvement by the king led to the dissolution of the parliament in a military coup d'état known as the 1952 Revolution. The Free Officers Movement forced King Farouk to abdicate in support of his son Fuad. British military presence in Egypt lasted until 1954
