Egypt And The Eastern Mediterranean World

Maps Egypt's political, economic and cultural connections throughout the Mediterranean and beyond between 500 and 1000 CE.

Major scholars in North America, Europe, and the Middle East provide a variety of fresh studies on the history, literature, religion, and art of Egypt, Israel, Phoenicia, and the rest of the ancient Mediterranean world. The first part of the book features chapters on ancient Egyptian inscriptions, art, history, and religion. The second part deals with biblical studies, the histories of ancient Israel, Canaan, and the relations among societies in the ancient Near East. The periods covered in the volume range from Old Kingdom Egypt to the late antique era. Most of the art historical and archaeological essays on ancient Egypt, Israel, and Canaan deal with previously unpublished finds. Many of the essays dealing with literary and historical issues explore the relations among ancient cultures, explaining the development of and interest in international trade, warfare, and travel. The book is amply illustrated with photos, drawings, graphs, and tables. "Egypt, Israel, and the Ancient Mediterranean World is a rich and wide-ranging collection of papers that well honors the distinguished scholar to whom it was dedicated. It also has much to offer all scholars interested in political and cultural interactions in the ancient eastern Mediterranean basin." Stanley M. Burstein, California State University, Los Angeles

The Eastern Mediterranean in the Age of Ramesses II offers a transnational perspective on the age of King Ramesses II of Egypt during the centuries of 1500 to 1200 BC. Shows how powerful states - stretching from western Iran to Greece and from Turkey to Sudan - jointly shaped the history, society, and culture of this region through both peaceful and military means Offers a straightforward narrative, current research, and rich illustrations Utilizes historical data from ancient Egyptians, Babylonians, Hittites, Mycenaeans, Canaanites, and others Considers all members of these ancient societies, from commoners to royalty - exploring everything from people’s eating habits to royal negotiations over diplomatic marriages

In his long academic career, historian André Raymond has been one of the foremost scholars of urban history in the Arab world, and in particular of Cairo during the Ottoman period. His work was instrumental in changing orientalist views on the decline and stagnation of this region prior to the modern period, and has inspired researchers across the academic spectrum. This diverse collection of studies by leading scholars in Egypt, the United States, and Europe offers a wide selection of recent research in Ottoman-era Egypt and the Middle East, and serves as a fitting tribute to Raymond's own work. A main theme of this volume is the urban society and economy in Egypt and the eastern Mediterranean of the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries, suggesting new ways through which the history of this period can be understood. Topics include a comparison of Egypt's experiences with Italy's in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and an investigation of European attitudes toward the Orient through the travel accounts of Russian pilgrims to the Levant. Contributors: Husam Muhammad Abd al-Muati, Sabri al-Adl, Magdi Guirguis, Pascale Ghazaleh, Peter Gran, Svetlana Kirillina, Afaf Lutfi al-Sayyid Marsot, Nicolas Michel, Abdul Karim Rafeq, Amira Sonbol.

During the period 500–1000 CE Egypt was successively part of the Byzantine, Persian and Islamic empires. All kinds of events, developments and processes occurred that would greatly affect its history and that of the eastern Mediterranean in general. This is the first volume to map Egypt's position in the Mediterranean during this period. Drawing on a wide range of disciplines, the individual chapters detail its connections with imperial and scholarly centres, its role in cross-regional trade networks, and its participation in Mediterranean and Near Eastern cultural developments, including their impact on its own literary and material production. With unparalleled detail, the book tracks the mechanisms and structures through which Egypt connected politically, economically and culturally to the world surrounding it.

This study presents a revised view of Egyptian foreign relations in the eastern Mediterranean during the Old Kingdom (3rd-6th Dynasties) based on an extensive analysis of old and new archaeological data, and its relationship to the well-known textual sources. The material demonstrates that while Egypt's most important relationships were with Byblos and the Lebanese coast generally, it was an active participant in the geo-political and economic affairs of the Levant throughout much of the third millennium BCE. The archaeological data shows that the foundation of these relationships was established at the beginning of the Early Dynastic Period and essentially continued until the end of the 6th Dynasty with ebbs, flows and changes of geographical and political emphasis. It is argued that, despite the paucity of textual data, the 4th Dynasty represents the apogee of Egypt's engagement in the region, a time when the centralised state was at the height of its power and control of human and economic capital. More broadly, this study shows that Egyptian interaction in the eastern Mediterranean fits the pattern of state-to-state contact between ruling elites which was underpinned by official expeditions engaged in gift and commodity exchange, diplomatic endeavours and military incursions.