Egyptians are an ethnic group native to the Nile Valley in Egypt. Egyptian identity is closely tied to geography. The population is concentrated in the Nile Valley, a small strip of cultivable land stretching from the First Cataract to the Mediterranean and enclosed by desert both to the east and to the west. This unique geography has been the basis of the development of Egyptian society since antiquity.
The daily language of the Egyptians is a continuum of the local varieties of Arabic; the most famous dialect is known as Egyptian Arabic or Masri. Additionally, a sizable minority of Egyptians living in Upper Egypt speak Sa'idi Arabic. Egyptians are predominantly Muslims, who are in turn majority Sunni with a small Shia minority and a significant proportion who follow native Sufi orders.Hoffman, Valerie J. Sufism, Mystics, and Saints in Modern Egypt. University of South Carolina Press, 1995. A considerable minority of Egyptians are Christians who belong to the Coptic Orthodox Church, whose liturgical language, Coptic, is the most recent stage of the ancient Egyptian language and is still used in prayers along with Egyptian Arabic.
Terminology Egyptians have received several names:
𓂋𓍿𓀂𓁐𓏥𓈖𓆎𓅓𓏏𓊖 rmṯ n Km.t, the native Egyptian name and description of the Black Soil of the Nile Valley. In antiquity The name is vocalized as "" in the late Bohairic stage of the language during the Greco-Roman era. ("" with the plural definite article, Black Lands). Egyptians, from Greek "", , from "", "". Prominent Ancient Greek Geographer, Strabo, provided a folk etymology stating that "" had evolved as a compound from "" , meaning "Below the Aegean [sea]". In English, the noun Egyptian appears in 1398, in a translation by John Trevisa. Copts (قبط, ), also a derivative of the Greek word , Aiguptios (""), that appeared under Muslim rule when it overtook Roman rule in Egypt. Coptic was the language of the Christian church and people,Coptic Language, Spoken :: Claremont Coptic Encyclopedia . Cdm15831.contentdm.oclc.org. Retrieved on 2 June 2020. but lost its popularity to Arabic after the Muslim conquest. Islam became the dominant religion centuries after the Muslim conquest in Egypt. This is due to centuries of conversion from Christianity to Islam. The modern term then became exclusively associated with Egyptian Christianity and Coptic Christians who are members of the Coptic Orthodox Church or Coptic Catholic Church. References to native Muslims as Copts are attested until the Mamluk period.C. Petry. "Copts in Late Medieval Egypt." Coptic Encyclopaedia. 2:618 (1991). Masryeen (), the modern Egyptian Arabic name, which comes from the ancient Afroasiatic and Semitic name for Egypt. The term originally connoted "Civilization" or "Metropolis". Classical Arabic (Egyptian Arabic ) is directly cognate with the Biblical Hebrew Mitsráyīm (מִצְרַיִם / מִצְרָיִם), meaning "the two straits", a reference to the predynastic separation of Upper and Lower Egypt. Also mentioned in several Semitic languages as Mesru, Misir, and Masar. The term "Misr" in Arabic refers to Egypt, but sometimes also to the Cairo area,An Account of the Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians, LONDON & TORONTO PUBLISHED BY J·M·DENT &SONS IN NEW YORK BY E·P ·DUTTON & CO. P4 |quote=The modem Egyptian metropolis, to the inhabitants of which most of the contents of the following pages relate, is now called " Masr", more properly, "Misr" but was formerly named " El-Kahireh;" whence Europeans have formed the name of Cairo as a consequence, and because of the habit of identifying people with cities rather than countries (i.e. Tunis (capital of Tunisia), Tunsi). The term Masreyeen originally referred only to the native inhabitants of Cairo or "City of Misr" before its meaning expanded to encompass all Egyptians. Edward William Lane, writing in the 1820s, said that the native Muslim inhabitants of Cairo commonly call themselves , (lit. Children of Masr), and (lit. The People of Masr).An Account of the Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians, P 27.LONDON & TORONTO PUBLISHED BY J·M·DENT &SONS IN NEW YORK BY E·P ·DUTTON & CO. |quote=""The native Muslim inhabitants of Cairo commonly call themselves " El-Masreeyeen," "Owlad-Maasr " (or " Ahl Masr "), and "Owlad-el-Beled, which signify People of Masr, Children of. Masr, and Children of the Town : the singular forms of these appellations are "Maasree, "Ibn-Masr," and "Ibn-el-Beled." Of these three terms, the last is most common in the town itself. The country people are called "El-Fellaheen" (or the agriculturists), in the singular" Fellah. P4 |quote=The modern Egyptian metropolis, to the inhabitants of which most of the contents of the following pages relate, is now called " Masr", more properly, "Misr" but was formerly named " El-Kahireh;" whence Europeans have formed the name of Cairo" He also added that the Ottoman rulers of the region "stigmatized" the people of Egypt with the name or the 'People of the Pharaoh'.Lane, Edward William. An Account of the Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians. Cairo: American University in Cairo, 2003. Rep. of 5th ed, 1860. pp. 26–27.
Demographics
There are an estimated 105.3 million Egyptians. Most are native to Egypt, where Egyptians constitute around 99.6% of the population.
Approximately 84–90% of the population of Egypt are Muslim adherents and 10–15% are Christian adherents (10–15% Coptic Christian, 1% other Christian Sects (mainly Greek Orthodox)) according to estimates.Egypt. The CIA World Factbook . 2006. Most of Egypt's people live along the banks of the Nile River, and more than two-fifths of the population lives in urban areas. Along the Nile, the population density is one of the highest in the world, in excess of in a number of riverine governorates. The rapidly growing population is young, with roughly one-third of the total under age 15 and about three-fifths under 30. In response to the strain put on Egypt's economy by the country's burgeoning population, a national family planning program was initiated in 1964, and by the 1990s it had succeeded in lowering the birth rate. Improvements in health care also brought the infant mortality rate well below the world average by the turn of the 21st century. Life expectancy averages about 72 years for men and 74 years for women. Egyptians also form smaller minorities in neighboring countries, North America, Europe and Australia.
Egyptians also tend to be provincial, meaning their attachment extends not only to Egypt but to the specific provinces, towns and villages from which they hail. Therefore, return migrants, such as temporary workers abroad, come back to their region of origin in Egypt. According to the International Organization for Migration, an estimated 2.7 million Egyptians live abroad and contribute actively to the development of their country through remittances (US$7.8 billion in 2009), circulation of human and social capital, as well as investment. Approximately 70% of Egyptian migrants live in Arab countries (923,600 in Saudi Arabia, 332,600 in Libya, 226,850 in Jordan, 190,550 in Kuwait with the rest elsewhere in the region) and the remaining 30% are living mostly in Europe and North America (318,000 in the United States, 110,000 in Canada and 90,000 in Italy).
A sizable Egyptian diaspora did not begin to form until well into the 1980s, when political and economic conditions began driving Egyptians out of the country in significant numbers. Today, the diaspora numbers nearly 4 million (2006 est).of which c. 4 million in the Egyptian diaspora. Newsreel. Egyptians count . 2007, Ahram Weekly. 5–11 April Generally, those who emigrate to the United States and western European countries tend to do so permanently, with 93% and 55.5% of Egyptians (respectively) settling in the new country. On the other hand, Egyptians migrating to Arab countries almost always only go there with the intention of returning to Egypt; virtually none settle in the new country on a permanent basis.Talani, Leila S. Out of Egypt. University of California, Los Angeles. 2005.
Prior to 1974, only few Egyptian professionals had left the country in search for employment. Political, demographic and economic pressures led to the first wave of emigration after 1952. Later more Egyptians left their homeland first after the 1973 boom in oil prices and again in 1979, but it was only in the second half of the 1980s that Egyptian migration became prominent.
Egyptian emigration today is motivated by even higher rates of unemployment, population growth and increasing prices. Political repression and human rights violations by Egypt's ruling régime are other contributing factors (see ). Egyptians have also been impacted by the wars between Egypt and Israel, particularly after the Six-Day War in 1967, when migration rates began to rise. In August 2006, Egyptians made headlines when 11 students from Mansoura University failed to show up at their American host institutions for a cultural exchange program in the hope of finding employment.Mitchell, Josh. . Baltimore Sun. 13 August 2006.
Egyptians in neighboring countries face additional challenges. Over the years, abuse, exploitation and/or ill-treatment of Egyptian workers and professionals in the Arab states of the Persian Gulf, Iraq and Libya have been reported by the Egyptian Human Rights OrganizationEHRO. Migrant workers in SAUDI ARABIA. March 2003. and different media outlets.IRIN. EGYPT: Migrant workers face abuse. 7 March 2006. Evans, Brian. Plight of Foreign Workers in Saudi Arabia. Arab nationals have in the past expressed fear over an "'Egyptianization' of the local dialects and culture that were believed to have resulted from the predominance of Egyptians in the field of education"Kapiszewski, Andrzej. United Nations Report on International Migration and Development. 22 May 2006. (see also Egyptian Arabic – Geographics).
A Newsweek article in 2008 featured Egyptian citizens objecting to a prudish "Saudization" of their culture due to Saudi Arabian petrodollar-flush investment in the Egyptian entertainment industry. On two occasions, Libya was on the brink of war with Egypt due to mistreatment of Egyptian workers and after the signing of the peace treaty with Israel.AfricaNet. Libya. When the Gulf War ended, Egyptian workers in Iraq were subjected to harsh measures and expulsion by the Iraqi government and to violent attacks by Iraqis returning from the war to fill the workforce.Vatikiotis, P.J. The History of Modern Egypt. 4th edition. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University, 1992, p. 432
History
Ancient Egypt
Ancient Egypt saw a succession of thirty dynasties spanning three millennia. During this period, Egyptian culture underwent significant development in terms of religion, arts, language, and customs.
Egypt fell under Hyksos rule in the Middle Bronze Age. The native nobility managed to expel the conquerors by the Late Bronze Age, thereby initiating the New Kingdom. During this period, the Egyptian civilization rose to the status of an empire under Pharaoh Thutmose III of the 18th Dynasty. It remained a super-regional power throughout the Amarna Period as well as during the 19th and 20th dynasties (the Ramesside Period), lasting into the Early Iron Age.
The Bronze Age collapse that had afflicted the Mesopotamian empires reached Egypt with some delay, and it was only in the 11th century BC that the Empire declined, falling into the comparative obscurity of the Third Intermediate Period of Egypt. The 25th Dynasty of Nubian rulers was again briefly replaced by native nobility in the 7th century BC, and in 525 BC, Egypt fell under Persian rule.