69 million page views

Egyptians and their history

Reader comment on item: Destroy Egypt's Antiquities?
in response to reader comment: this is not the only face of Egypt

Submitted by dhimmi no more (United States), Dec 11, 2009 at 16:52

Our dear Hend wrote

>I prepared a historical dissertation tackled the relation between the Egyptians & cultural treasure.

Interesting topic

For the readers: There was no interest in the history of Egypt by modern Egyptians before sheik Tahtawi's realization, after his trip to France, that Egyptians should know more about their great history and should be proud of their civilization and that there was indeed glorious history before the Arab invasion of Egypt in 642CE

>Egypt was under the British imperialism for a about 8 decades

One can also say that Egypt has been under Arabian imperialism since 642CE right our dear Hend?

>whose effect on the cultural components were deeply bad.

I can also say that the Arabs and Arabian imperialism and their invasion of Egypt led to the fact that Egyptians abandoned speaking their language the Egyptian language that is and now they speak not Arabic but Egyptian Arabic (al-lugha al-3amiyya) which is a language and most of them became followers of the religion of the Arabs.

>They refused to teach the Egyptians any values.

What values? So did the Arabs teach you values? really? Your values are Egyptian or were they imported by some ignorant Arabs?

oh I see you are blaming others for why Egyptians have no values? are you for real? and did you pass your dissertation? let me guess: you did not right?

>except being in bad financial conditions and selling the antiquities was the only outlet during these days.

This is far from the truth. Egyptians never learned about their own history and regarded all the monuments around them as fact but such monuments really did not have any value as it was all "antiqa" and without non Egyptians we would not have known much about the history of Egypt and the Egyptian language the language of your ancestors would not have been deciphered and the great history of classical Egypt would not have been re-written and without Europeans and Americans we would not have the knowledge we know now about the history of Egypt in the late antique period and Greco Roman Egypt and the treasures in towns in upper Egypt inculding the likes of the Nag Hammadi library and now we have scholars reading and studying these great books the likes of the gnostic "gospel of Thomas" and you know what? what a shame most Egyptians including you would have no clue about this great discovery. And a more recent discovery was the "Gospel of Judas" which was bought and sold by shady Egyptians until it came to the attention of scholars in the west and not in Egypt and they were able to restore this treasure and translate it from Egyptian written in the Coptic script to English

And what is even more is that islamic reasures the likes of the early papyri in arabic (circa 642CE) were found and preserved not by egyptians but by scholars from the west and many fragments of the earliest Qur'ans in egypt were collected not by al-Azhar but by a Greek collector who resided in Egypt and he gave all of them as far as I know to the islamic museum in Cairo

Sorry Hend but without the west Egyptian history and treasures would have been lost for ever just go and see the race in Alexandria to preserve the great treasures that are being destroyed by the urban sprawl and those taking care of this are not Egyptians but Europeans

>They didnot care about their antiquities 100% because the Egyptian dignity was in worse position .

What does dignity have to do with anything? You see Hend both Muslims and Christians in Egypt had no regard for their own ancestors (after all Allah had no like for your Egyptian ancestors al-fara3ina) and looked up to these violent Semitic religions be islam or be it Christianity for guidance. And if you read the diatribes of the likes of Shenouda (not the present Coptic pope but he was one of the founders of the coptic church and lived in the 4th century) against his own people and their 'paganism" and if you read Sheikh Kishk diatribes against the Copts of Egypt you will realize that nothing has changed and how many Egyptians like you know about the great female philosopher and pagan and proud Egyptian woman Hypatia who was killed in Alexandria by Christian mobs? Let me guess: you had no clue and this is not any different from muslim mobs in today's Alexnadria attacking Copts.

You see hend if we do not learn from history it just happens again and again

>when this dignity was preserved well in 1924

It was 1922 so sobhanallah dignity was preserved so what?

> with the discovery of Tut Ankh Amun tomb the Egyptians refused to allow the export of any piece from the tomb without the need to any law support.

This is not true as Egytpians cared less otherwise we would have had the likes of the bust of Queen Nefertiti or the thousands of papyri that were found at the site of the city of Oxyrynchus still in egypt

And without western scholars we would not have known about the towns of let us say Karanis in al-Fayyum and the town of jeme at the site of Ramses the 3rd temple and to this day Egyptians care less about their own glorious history and write drivel like yours

>In the beginning, they believed in the magical strength of these antiquities but they were cautious because the ancient Egyptian religion depended on the multitude gods and goddesses

So what is wrong with that ya ayuha al-falyasoffa al-kabeer? Oh islamic delusions right?

>but the Islam which prevailed Egypt in the Renessance age mainly depends on the belief in one god without any partner.

Islamic nonsense it is islam that left Egypt in the dark ages from the time they invaded Egypt until Muhammad Ali becoming al-khidiwee. Egypt was a cultural and educational desert and islam ruined the great city of Alexandria of the late antique period the city of Hypatia and the city of learning and when the Arabs invaded Egypt in 642CE the population of Egypt was about 5M and Egypt was prosperous and by the 1800 and when Muhammad Ali dragged Egypt out of the middle ages the popualtion was only 2M and Egyptians were starving and poor and education just did not exist beyond al-kuttabs

>They feared to spoil their new believes by the interest in antiquities but in the same time they created magnificent architectural mosques with fabulous decorations still be visited up till now by any tourist visit Egypt.

gobbledygook Islamic nonsense

>So please before blaming the Egyptians for being careless about their antiquities in the past, blame the advanced nations which governed Egypt and prevented any cultural advance from reaching to it.

Typical Muslim that blames others for their own Islamic ignorance

Submitting....

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".

Submit a comment on this item

<< Previous Comment      Next Comment >>

Reader comments (24) on this item

Title Commenter Date Thread
4In Memory of Taha Hussein [278 words]dhimmi no moreMar 3, 2013 08:19203986
3Egypt: Combining Iran and Haiti [77 words]DaveFeb 24, 2013 17:29203829
3Humanity gone crazy [200 words]PrashantDec 24, 2012 06:00201822
5Ancient Egypt and modern day Terrorists [107 words]Lujack SkylarkDec 15, 2012 05:02201468
2OK by me [19 words]Sigmund DermanNov 16, 2012 17:08200704
1001 Nights [43 words]MalcolmNov 14, 2012 20:40200622
9Go and see the pyramids before they are destroyed by the salafists! [437 words]dhimmi no moreNov 13, 2012 17:47200538
Islam is good [97 words]MadeleineDec 11, 2012 13:20200538
4Delusions [272 words]dhimmi no moreDec 18, 2012 09:51200538
2I am not surprised [248 words]AlexandrosNov 13, 2012 07:07200511
Impending danger [181 words]aktNov 14, 2012 09:54200511
6the statues and art works are history, hence knowledge, ...islamists don't much care for knowledge [113 words]Phil GreendMay 9, 2010 14:37172470
this is not the only face of Egypt [226 words]HendMay 20, 2009 05:18155836
10Egyptians and their history [1152 words]dhimmi no moreDec 11, 2009 16:52155836
respect to egyptian history [143 words]ahmedSep 26, 2006 17:3757731
4Eternal Egypt [73 words]dhimmi no moreDec 19, 2012 10:3557731
2In Respose to article Destroy Egypt's Antiquities [124 words]LisaJun 23, 2006 09:1148087
International safe harbor for antiquities [155 words]Farid H.Apr 16, 2006 10:1643296
Pure manipulation [16 words]E.BeskaApr 16, 2006 05:2243282
2For: F. Beska and the Muslim brotherhood [4 words]dhimmi no moreJun 21, 2006 10:4243282
Egyptian ancient history [50 words]Rafik ElhamyApr 15, 2006 06:2843233
2Egypt and its history [48 words]dhimmi no moreDec 18, 2012 09:5643233
6Who control the Islamic world [132 words]F. ShakkiApr 14, 2006 22:5143212
1Re: Egyptian Antiquities and Academic Exchanges [341 words]Raymond StockApr 14, 2006 10:4943174

Follow Daniel Pipes

Facebook   Twitter   RSS   Join Mailing List

All materials by Daniel Pipes on this site: © 1968-2024 Daniel Pipes. daniel.pipes@gmail.com and @DanielPipes

Support Daniel Pipes' work with a tax-deductible donation to the Middle East Forum.Daniel J. Pipes

(The MEF is a publicly supported, nonprofit organization under section 501(c)3 of the Internal Revenue Code.

Contributions are tax deductible to the full extent allowed by law. Tax-ID 23-774-9796, approved Apr. 27, 1998.

For more information, view our IRS letter of determination.)