ancient egypt legacy on egyptian muslims

The image is one of a culture that was truly distinctive although not unconnected to surrounding cultures. The overwhelming impression is that the traditional culture of Egypt was largely displaced by Greek colonisation and that it is Graeco-Egyptian or Hellenistic culture drawn from Egypt that had most influence on Western culture until the nineteenth century.Ĭhapters review Egyptian calendars and chronology, mathematics and astronomy, the 'canonical' tradition in art, technology and material culture, hieroglyphs, language and writing and the law, often in ways only true specialists are going to understand or rather make the effort to understand. Three and a half thousand years of history (until the country was thoroughly Arabised) are not easy to evaluate in well under 500 pages, especially as two purposes are only variably served - to tell the story of the civilisation and to recount its influence on later civilisations. Some chapters (each by a different academic) have too much of the air of the professor looking down from a lectern at rows of eager students who will all by now be moving into their seventies yet there are still things to be learned and appreciated. Although half a century old (and so very much out of date in the detail), 'The Legacy of Egypt', part of a series of such books published by Oxford (Clarendon Press) on the later influence of many of the ancient civilisations, remains a useful summary of the contribution of Egypt to Western culture.

Ancient egypt legacy on egyptian muslims