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  The history of Egypt after the ancient period is one of violence, treachery and intrigue coupled with the growth of a civilising influence in Islam and increasing foreign control, culminating in nearly 80 years of de facto British rule until final real independence in 1956.

  The first Islamic invasion of Egypt happened in 639 CE and by 641 CE Islam was firmly rooted in Egypt.  The Muslim army, sent by the Umayyad Caliph Omar and under the command of its general Amr-ibn-al-Aas, had captured Bab-al-Yun, a major Roman fortress, and also Alexandria itself which surrendered on November 8^th 641 CE.

  Initially the local Coptic Christians seemed to welcome the Arabs and worked with them in some degree of harmony because the invaders were less harsh and more accepting of local custom and religion than the Byzantines had been.

  A series of revolts through the Umayyad and Abbasid periods was driven by resentment of ever increasing taxation and Arabisation with the 8^th, 9^th and much of the 10^th Centuries CE being subject to internal warfare, revolution and invasion.  The first Fatimid invasion, coming in 914 CE, ended in 969 CE with Jauhar’s final defeat of the Egyptians and the transfer of the country from the Eastern to the Western Caliphate.

  Modern Cairo grew up from the Fatimid settlement of Al-Mansureya, in the years after 972 CE, which was renamed Al-Qahirah by their then leader Al-Muez Ledin-Ellah.

  This was another turbulent and violent time for Egypt and the whole region with political power shifting constantly, the arrival of the Seljuk Turks, the beginnings of the Crusades and Frankish invasion.  Possessions were won, lost & regained and kingdoms grew and were dashed apart.  The whole region was ablaze with intrigue and terror.

  In 1174 Salah-al-Din Ayyubi, well known also in Europe as Saladin, having finally deposed the Fatimids became Sultan. Damascus was his main capital at the time, with Egypt being governed mostly by his deputy Karaksh.  The Ayyubids ruled in Egypt until the mid-13^th century when they were finally overthrown by the Mamluks.

  The Mamluks were slave soldiers, converted to Islam, and serving the Caliphs and Ottoman Emperors. After training they were technically no longer slaves but nonetheless were obliged to serve the Emperor or Caliph.  They became a major political force in their own right eventually forming the ruling powers in Egypt, Syria, Iraq & parts of India.

  This period was characterised by a series of short lived Sultanates who despite the shakiness of their individual power managed to consolidate the power and enhance the prestige of Egypt greatly and Cairo became the central city of the Islamic world.

  Eventually the Ottoman Sultan, Selim I, defeated them and captured Cairo in 1517 and the centre of power moved to Istanbul.  But the Mamluks remained the ruling class in Egypt itself though they were technically vassals of the Ottoman Emperor.  This situation persisted to greater or lesser extent through to the 1798 invasion by France under the command of Napoleon Bonaparte.

  French rule lasted only until 1801. It was Napoleon who brought archaeologists and other scientists to Egypt to examine and document all the many wonders of the ancient Egyptian Civilisations.  Among so many important discoveries the Rosetta stone, which today rests in the British Museum, stands out as a genuine wonder. It gave us the key to decipher the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs helping turn Egyptology into a real science.

  However, the French conquest of Egypt did not last long and after Nelson defeated the French fleet in the Battle of the Nile, Ottoman rule was restored. 

  Muhammad Ali's seizure of power was the result of a long, debilitating three way civil war between the Ottoman Turks, Egyptian Mamluks, and Albanian mercenaries. It lasted from 1803 to 1807 with the Albanian Mohammed Ali taking control of Egypt in 1805, when the Ottoman Sultan finally acknowledged the reality of his position. Thereafter, Muhammad Ali was undisputed master of Egypt and his efforts henceforth were directed primarily to the maintenance of his practical independence.  Muhammad Ali died in 1849.  He had done great work in Egypt; the most permanent being the weakening of the ties binding the country to Turkey, the starting of the great cotton industry and the conquest of the Sudan.

  The grandson of Muhammad Ali, Ismail Pasha in 1886, nearly made the country bankrupt.  In 1869 the Suez Canal had opened.  This enormous undertaking had taken 11 yeas to complete and involve the use 1.5 million forced labourers, some 125,000 of whom died, largely through starvation and cholera.   Forced labour was eventually stopped by the Khedive under pressure from the British – though for anti-French political reasons more than simple humanity.  Eventually, in 1875 the debt ridden Khedive sold his shares to the British, giving them majority control of the Suez Canal Company at the time.  It remains the world’s longest canal without locks, a possibility misread by Napoleon’s engineers or he would have started the project nearly 60 years earlier.

  The state of Egyptian finances became so bad and corruption so rife that the French and the British intervened directly to protect their own interests in Egypt.  Internal resentment of the European influence over Egypt led to an 1882 revolt by Ahmad ibn al-Arabi, leader of a group of Egyptians who were determined to shake themselves free from the yoke of foreign dominance. General Wolseley eventually suppressed this revolt at Tel al-Kabeer leaving the British effectively in control of the country with Lord Cromer in charge.  This ‘temporary’ measure lasted until 1956 although Egypt technically became independent in 1922.

  During Cromer’s period, large irrigation schemes were planned for Egypt to harness the waters of the Nile for more productive agricultural of the Nile delta.

  In 1914, at the beginning of World War I, with the declaration of War against the Ottoman Empire, Britain declared Egypt a Protectorate, bringing Turkish rule to an abrupt end.  Increasing internal unrest and popular support led to Britain declaring the independence of Egypt in 1922 though her troops remained for another 34 years until the 1956 resolution of the ‘Suez Crisis’.

  Egypt was in the centre of action during the Second World War (1939-45).  Italian invasion and defeat in North Africa was followed by the British being pushed back into Egypt, which remained, technically, a neutral country.  During the war Egyptian Nationalists looking for ways to oust the British had worked with the Germans who had promised help in their removal.  After the British success at El Alamein, the conspirators were arrested and saw out the war in jail.  Their leader Anwar Sadat would later rise once more to prominence.

  British troops were withdrawn to the Suez Canal zone in 1947 but nationalist, anti-British feelings continued to grow. On July 22–23, 1952, a group of disaffected army officers, the Free Officers, led by Lt Col Gamal Abdel Nasser overthrew King Farouk, whom the military blamed for Egypt's poor performance in the 1948 war with Israel. Popular expectations for immediate reforms led to the workers' riots in Kafr Dawar on August 12, 1952, which resulted in two death sentences. Following a brief experiment with civilian rule, the Free Officers abrogated the 1953 constitution and declared Egypt a republic on June 18, 1953. Nasser evolved into a charismatic, if autocratic leader, not only of Egypt but of the Arab world, promoting and implementing "Arab socialism." 

  Nasser needed finance aid to fund the Aswan Dam Project and this was initially offered by the US and the World Bank but they withdrew this offer in mid-1956 and Nasser retaliated by nationalising the Suez Canal. His decision brought a concerted military action by Britain, France, and Israel in 1956 to protect their interests in the Suez Canal. The tripartite aggression against Egypt failed thanks to the political intervention of the USA and Soviet Union.

  In 1967 the Israelis started carrying out military movements on the Syrian border. Nasser ordered a part of Egyptian armed forces to move into Syria. On June 6, 1967, Israel launched an attack on Egypt which took them completely by surprise, eliminating, with the first attack, the entire Egyptian air force.  Egyptian tanks, without the required air cover, were completely at the mercy of the Israeli forces and Egyptian infantry, without air or tank support, started dying like flies in the desert of Sinai. The Six-Day War with Israel changed the political map of Egypt and brought about huge population transfers all over the Arab world.

  Nasser’s health had steadily deteriorated and he suffered a fatal heart attack on September 28, 1970.  Anwar Sadat, who was leader of the anti-British plot in the Second World War and Nasser’s close associate, succeeded him.

  On October 6, 1973, he shot into the world spotlight with the launch of the Yom Kippur war, which made it possible for the Arabs to think about challenging the might of Israel. Israel was pulled back from the brink of defeat with the timely intervention of the USA resulting in a military stalemate.

  The  war paved the way for Egypt’s recovery of the Sinai Peninsular through the diplomatic process which eventually yielded the Camp David Agreement and the Sinai Disengagement Plan.

  On October 6, 1981 militants, who opposed the Camp David peace agreement with Israel, assassinated Anwar Sadat during a military parade in Cairo and he was succeeded by his Vice-President Hosni Mubarak who has maintained a strong hold over the Presidency of Egypt until today.