title: Egyptians

text: Throughout the Pharaonic epoch (viz., from 2920 BC to 525 BC in conventional Egyptian chronology), divine kingship was the glue which held Egyptian society together. It was especially pronounced in the Old Kingdom and Middle Kingdom and continued until the Roman conquest. The societal structure created by this system of government remained virtually unchanged up to modern times.


title: Egyptians

text: The role of the king was considerably weakened after the 20th Dynasty. The king in his role as Son of Ra was entrusted to maintain Ma'at, the principle of truth, justice, and order, and to enhance the country's agricultural economy by ensuring regular Nile floods. Ascendancy to the Egyptian throne reflected the myth of Horus who assumed kingship after he buried his murdered father Osiris. The king of Egypt, as a living personification of Horus, could claim the throne after burying his predecessor, who was typically his father. When the role of the king waned, the country became more susceptible to foreign influence and invasion.


title: Egyptians

text: The attention paid to the dead, and the veneration with which they were held, were one of the hallmarks of ancient Egyptian society. Egyptians built tombs for their dead that were meant to last for eternity. This was most prominently expressed by the Great Pyramids. The ancient Egyptian word for tomb "" means 'House of Eternity'. The Egyptians also celebrated life, as is shown by tomb reliefs and inscriptions, papyri and other sources depicting Egyptians farming, conducting trade expeditions, hunting, holding festivals, attending parties and receptions with their pet dogs, cats and monkeys, dancing and singing, enjoying food and drink, and playing games. The ancient Egyptians were also known for their engaging sense of humor, much like their modern descendants.


title: Egyptians

text: Another important continuity during this period is the Egyptian attitude toward foreigners—those they considered not fortunate enough to be part of the community of "rmṯ" or "the people" (i.e., Egyptians.) This attitude was facilitated by the Egyptians' more frequent contact with other peoples during the New Kingdom when Egypt expanded to an empire that also encompassed Nubia through Jebel Barkal and parts of the Levant.


title: Egyptians

text: The Egyptian sense of superiority was given religious validation, as foreigners in the land of "Ta-Meri" (Egypt) were anathema to the maintenance of Maat—a view most clearly expressed by the admonitions of Ipuwer in reaction to the chaotic events of the Second Intermediate Period. Foreigners in Egyptian texts were described in derogatory terms, e.g., 'wretched Asiatics' (Semites), 'vile Kushites' (Nubians), and 'Ionian dogs' (Greeks). Egyptian beliefs remained unchallenged when Egypt fell to the Hyksos, Assyrians, Libyans, Persians and Greeks—their rulers assumed the role of the Egyptian Pharaoh and were often depicted praying to Egyptian gods.


title: Egyptians

text: The ancient Egyptians used a solar calendar that divided the year into 12 months of 30 days each, with five extra days added. The calendar revolved around the annual Nile Inundation ("akh.t"), the first of three seasons into which the year was divided. The other two were Winter and Summer, each lasting for four months. The modern Egyptian "fellahin" calculate the agricultural seasons, with the months still bearing their ancient names, in much the same manner.


title: Egyptians

text: The importance of the Nile in Egyptian life, ancient and modern, cannot be overemphasized. The rich alluvium carried by the Nile inundation was the basis of Egypt's formation as a society and a state. Regular inundations were a cause for celebration; low waters often meant famine and starvation. The ancient Egyptians personified the river flood as the god Hapy and dedicated a "Hymn to the Nile" to celebrate it. "km.t", the Black Land, was as Herodotus observed, "the gift of the river."


title: Egyptians

text: When Alexander died, a story began to circulate that Nectanebo II was Alexander's father. This made Alexander in the eyes of the Egyptians a legitimate heir to the native pharaohs. The new Ptolemaic rulers, however, exploited Egypt for their own benefit and a great social divide was created between Egyptians and Greeks. The local priesthood continued to wield power as they had during the Dynastic age. Egyptians continued to practice their religion undisturbed and largely maintained their own separate communities from their foreign conquerors. The language of administration became Greek, but the mass of the Egyptian population was Egyptian-speaking and concentrated in the countryside, while most Greeks lived in Alexandria and only few had any knowledge of Egyptian.


title: Egyptians

text: The Ptolemaic rulers all retained their Greek names and titles, but projected a public image of being Egyptian pharaohs. Much of this period's vernacular literature was composed in the demotic phase and script of the Egyptian language. It was focused on earlier stages of Egyptian history when Egyptians were independent and ruled by great native pharaohs such as Ramesses II. Prophetic writings circulated among Egyptians promising expulsion of the Greeks, and frequent revolts by the Egyptians took place throughout the Ptolemaic period. A revival in animal cults, the hallmark of the Predyanstic and Early Dyanstic periods, is said to have come about to fill a spiritual void as Egyptians became increasingly disillusioned and weary due to successive waves of foreign invasions.


title: Egyptians

text: When the Romans annexed Egypt in 30 BC, the social structure created by the Greeks was largely retained, though the power of the Egyptian priesthood diminished. The Roman emperors lived abroad and did not perform the ceremonial functions of Egyptian kingship as the Ptolemies had. The art of mummy portraiture flourished, but Egypt became further stratified with Romans at the apex of the social pyramid, Greeks and Jews occupied the middle stratum, while Egyptians, who constituted the vast majority, were at the bottom. Egyptians paid a poll tax at full rate, Greeks paid at half-rate and Roman citizens were exempt.


title: Egyptians

text: The Roman emperor Caracalla advocated the expulsion of all ethnic Egyptians from the city of Alexandria, saying "genuine Egyptians can easily be recognized among the linen-weavers by their speech." This attitude lasted until AD 212 when Roman citizenship was finally granted to all the inhabitants of Egypt, though ethnic divisions remained largely entrenched. The Romans, like the Ptolemies, treated Egypt like their own private property, a land exploited for the benefit of a small foreign elite. The Egyptian peasants, pressed for maximum production to meet Roman quotas, suffered and fled to the desert.


title: Egyptians

text: The cult of Isis, like those of Osiris and Serapis, had been popular in Egypt and throughout the Roman Empire at the coming of Christianity, and continued to be the main competitor with Christianity in its early years. The main temple of Isis remained a major center of worship in Egypt until the reign of the Byzantine emperor Justinian I in the 6th century, when it was finally closed down. Egyptians, disaffected and weary after a series of foreign occupations, identified the story of the mother-goddess Isis protecting her child Horus with that of the Virgin Mary and her son Jesus escaping the emperor Herod.


title: Egyptians

text: Consequently, many sites believed to have been the resting places of the holy family during their sojourn in Egypt became sacred to the Egyptians. The visit of the holy family later circulated among Egyptian Christians as fulfillment of the Biblical prophecy "When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt" (Hosea 11:1). The feast of the coming of the Lord of Egypt on June 1 became an important part of Christian Egyptian tradition. According to tradition, Christianity was brought to Egypt by Saint Mark the Evangelist in the early 40s of the 1st century, under the reign of the Roman emperor Nero. The earliest converts were Jews residing in Alexandria, a city which had by then become a center of culture and learning in the entire Mediterranean "oikoumene".


title: Egyptians

text: St. Mark is said to have founded the Holy Apostolic See of Alexandria and to have become its first Patriarch. Within 50 years of St. Mark's arrival in Alexandria, a fragment of New Testament writings appeared in Oxyrhynchus (Bahnasa), which suggests that Christianity already began to spread south of Alexandria at an early date. By the mid-third century, a sizable number of Egyptians were persecuted by the Romans on account of having adopted the new Christian faith, beginning with the Edict of Decius. Christianity was tolerated in the Roman Empire until AD 284, when the Emperor Diocletian persecuted and put to death a great number of Christian Egyptians.


title: Egyptians

text: This event became a watershed in the history of Egyptian Christianity, marking the beginning of a distinct Egyptian or Coptic Church. It became known as the 'Era of the Martyrs' and is commemorated in the Coptic calendar in which dating of the years began with the start of Diocletian's reign. When Egyptians were persecuted by Diocletian, many retreated to the desert to seek relief. The practice precipitated the rise of monasticism, for which the Egyptians, namely St. Antony, St. Bakhum, St. Shenouda and St. Amun, are credited as pioneers. By the end of the 4th century, it is estimated that the mass of the Egyptians had either embraced Christianity or were nominally Christian.


title: Egyptians

text: The Catachetical School of Alexandria was founded in the 3rd century by Pantaenus, becoming a major school of Christian learning as well as science, mathematics and the humanities. The Psalms and part of the New Testament were translated at the school from Greek to Egyptian, which had already begun to be written in Greek letters with the addition of a number of demotic characters. This stage of the Egyptian language would later come to be known as Coptic along with its alphabet. The third theologian to head the Catachetical School was a native Egyptian by the name of Origen. Origen was an outstanding theologian and one of the most influential Church Fathers. He traveled extensively to lecture in various churches around the world and has many important texts to his credit including the "Hexapla", an exegesis of various translations of the Hebrew Bible.


title: Egyptians

text: At the threshold of the Byzantine period, the New Testament had been entirely translated into Coptic. But while Christianity continued to thrive in Egypt, the old pagan beliefs which had survived the test of time were facing mounting pressure. The Byzantine period was particularly brutal in its zeal to erase any traces of ancient Egyptian religion. Under emperor Theodosius I, Christianity had already been proclaimed the religion of the Empire and all pagan cults were forbidden. When Egypt fell under the jurisdiction of Constantinople after the split of the Roman Empire, many ancient Egyptian temples were either destroyed or converted into monasteries.


title: Egyptians

text: One of the defining moments in the history of the Church in Egypt is a controversy that ensued over the nature of Jesus Christ which culminated in the final split of the Coptic Church from both the Byzantine and Roman Catholic Churches. The Council of Chalcedon convened in AD 451, signaling the Byzantine Empire's determination to assert its hegemony over Egypt. When it declared that Jesus Christ was of two natures embodied in Christ's person, the Egyptian reaction was swift, rejecting the decrees of the Council as incompatible with the Miaphysite doctrine of Coptic Orthodoxy. The Copts' upholding of the Miaphysite doctrine against the pro-Chalcedonian Greek Melkites had both theological and national implications. As Coptologist Jill Kamil notes, the position taken by the Egyptians "paved [the way] for the Coptic church to establish itself as a separate entity...No longer even spiritually linked with Constantinople, theologians began to write more in Coptic and less in Greek. Coptic art developed its own national character, and the Copts stood united against the imperial power."


title: Egyptians

text: Before the Muslim conquest of Egypt, the Byzantine Emperor Heraclius was able to reclaim the country after a brief Persian invasion in AD 616, and subsequently appointed Cyrus of Alexandria, a Chalcedonian, as Patriarch. Cyrus was determined to convert the Egyptian Miaphysites by any means. He expelled Coptic monks and bishops from their monasteries and sees. Many died in the chaos, and the resentment of the Egyptians against their Byzantine conquerors reached a peak.


title: Egyptians

text: Meanwhile, the new religion of Islam was making headway in Arabia, culminating in the Muslim conquests that took place following Muhammad's death. In AD 639, the Arab general 'Amr ibn al-'As marched into Egypt, facing off with the Byzantines in the Battle of Heliopolis that ended with the Byzantines' defeat. The relationship between the Greek Melkites and the Egyptian Copts had grown so bitter that most Egyptians did not put up heavy resistance against the Arabs.


title: Egyptians

text: The new Muslim rulers moved the capital to Fustat and, through the 7th century, retained the existing Byzantine administrative structure with Greek as its language. Native Egyptians filled administrative ranks and continued to worship freely so long as they paid the jizya poll tax, in addition to a land tax that all Egyptians irrespective of religion also had to pay. The authority of the Miaphysite doctrine of the Coptic Church was for the first time nationally recognized.


title: Egyptians

text: According to al-Ya'qubi, repeated revolts by Egyptian Christians against the Muslim Arabs took place in the 8th and 9th centuries under the reign of the Umayyads and Abbasids. The greatest was one in which disaffected Muslim Egyptians joined their Christian compatriots around AD 830 in an unsuccessful attempt to repel the Arabs. The Egyptian Muslim historian Ibn Abd al-Hakam spoke harshly of the Abbasids—a reaction that according to Egyptologist Okasha El-Daly can be seen "within the context of the struggle between proud native Egyptians and the central Abbasid caliphate in Iraq."


title: Egyptians

text: The form of Islam that eventually took hold in Egypt was Sunni, though very early in this period Egyptians began to blend their new faith with indigenous beliefs and practices that had survived through Coptic Christianity. Just as Egyptians had been pioneers in early monasticism so they were in the development of the mystical form of Islam, Sufism. Various Sufi orders were founded in the 8th century and flourished until the present day. One of the earliest Egyptian Sufis was Dhul-Nun al-Misri (i.e., Dhul-Nun the Egyptian). He was born in Akhmim in AD 796 and achieved political and social leadership over the Egyptian people.


title: Egyptians

text: Dhul-Nun was regarded as the Patron Saint of the Physicians and is credited with having introduced the concept of Gnosis into Islam, as well as of being able to decipher a number of hieroglyphic characters due to his knowledge of Coptic. He was keenly interested in ancient Egyptian sciences, and claimed to have received his knowledge of alchemy from Egyptian sources.


title: Egyptians

text: In the years to follow the Arab occupation of Egypt, a social hierarchy was created whereby Egyptians who converted to Islam acquired the status of mawali or "clients" to the ruling Arab elite, while those who remained Christian, the Copts, became dhimmis, but the Egyptians who converted to Islam were also called Copts until the Mamluk period. In time the power of the Arabs waned throughout the Islamic Empire so that in the 10th century, the Turkish Ikhshids were able to take control of Egypt and made it an independent political unit from the rest of the empire.


title: Egyptians

text: Egyptians continued to live socially and politically separate from their foreign conquerors, but their rulers like the Ptolemies before them were able to stabilize the country and bring renewed economic prosperity. It was under the Shiite Fatimids from the 10th to the 12th centuries that Muslim Egyptian institutions began to take form along with the Egyptian dialect of Arabic, which was to eventually slowly supplant native Egyptian or Coptic as the spoken language.


title: Egyptians

text: Al-Azhar was founded in AD 970 in the new capital Cairo, not very far from its ancient predecessor in Memphis. It became the preeminent Muslim center of learning in Egypt and by the Ayyubid period it had acquired a Sunni orientation. The Fatimids with some exceptions were known for their religious tolerance and their observance of local Muslim, Coptic and indigenous Egyptian festivals and customs. Under the Ayyubids, the country for the most part continued to prosper.


title: Egyptians

text: The Mamluks of Egypt (AD 1258–1517) as a whole were, some of the most enlightened rulers of Egypt, not only in the arts and in providing for the welfare of their subjects, but also in many other ways, such as efficient organisation of law and order and postal services, and the building of canals, roads, bridges and aqueducts. Though turbulent, often treacherous and brutal in their feuds, and politically and economically inept, the later Mameluks maintained the splendour and artistic traditions of their predecessors. The reign of Kait Bey (1468-1496) was one of high achievement in architecture, showing great refinement of taste in the building of elegant tombs, mosques and palaces. It was a period in which learning flourished.


title: Egyptians

text: By the 15th century most Egyptians had already been converted to Islam, while Coptic Christians were reduced to a minority. The Mamluks were mainly ethnic Circassians and Turks who had been captured as slaves then recruited into the army fighting on behalf of the Islamic empire. Native Egyptians were not allowed to serve in the army until the reign of Mohamed Ali. Historian James Jankwoski writes:


title: Egyptians

text: Egyptians under the Ottoman Turks from the 16th to the 18th centuries lived within a social hierarchy similar to that of the Mamluks, Arabs, Romans, Greeks and Persians before them. Native Egyptians applied the term "atrak" (Turks) indiscriminately to the Ottomans and Mamluks, who were at the top of the social pyramid, while Egyptians, most of whom were farmers, were at the bottom. Frequent revolts by the Egyptian peasantry against the Ottoman-Mamluk Beys took place throughout the 18th century, particularly in Upper Egypt where the peasants at one point wrested control of the region and declared a separatist government.


title: Egyptians

text: The only segment of Egyptian society which appears to have retained a degree of power during this period were the Muslim "'ulama" or religious scholars, who directed the religious and social affairs of the native Egyptian population and interceded on their behalf when dealing with the Turko-Circassian elite. It is also believed that during the late periods of the Ottoman era of Egypt, native Egyptians were allowed and required to join the army for the first time since the Roman period of Egypt, including Coptic Christians who were civil servants at the time of Mohammed Ali Pasha.


title: Egyptians

text: Modern Egyptian history is generally believed to begin with the French expedition in Egypt led by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1798. The French defeated a Mamluk era army at the Battle of the Pyramids, and soon they were able to seize control of the country.


title: Egyptians

text: The French occupation was short-lived, ending when British troops drove out the French in 1801. Its impact on the social and cultural fabric of Egyptian society, however, was tremendous. The Egyptians were deeply hostile to the French, whom they viewed as yet another foreign occupation to be resisted. At the same time, the French expedition introduced Egyptians to the ideals of the French Revolution which were to have a significant influence on their own self-perception and realization of modern independence.


title: Egyptians

text: When Napoleon invited the Egyptian "ulama" to head a French-supervised government in Egypt, for some, it awakened a sense of nationalism and a patriotic desire for national independence from the Ottomans. In addition, the French introduced the printing press in Egypt and published its first newspaper. The monumental catalogue of Egypt's ecology, society and economy, "Description de l'Égypte", was written by scholars and scientists who accompanied the French army on their expedition.


title: Egyptians

text: The withdrawal of French forces from Egypt left a power vacuum that was filled after a period of political turmoil by Mohammed Ali, an Ottoman officer of Albanian ethnicity. He rallied support among the Egyptians until he was elected by the native Muslim "ulama" as governor of Egypt. Mohammed Ali is credited for having undertaken a massive campaign of public works, including irrigation projects, agricultural reforms and the cultivation of cash crops (notably cotton, rice and sugar-cane), increased industrialization, and a new educational system—the results of which are felt to this day.


title: Egyptians

text: In order to consolidate his power in Egypt, Mohammed Ali worked to eliminate the Turko-Circassian domination of administrative and army posts. For the first time since the Roman period, native Egyptians filled the junior ranks of the country's army. The army would later conduct military expeditions in the Levant, Sudan, and against the Wahabis in Arabia. Many Egyptians student missions were sent to Europe in the early 19th century to study at European universities and acquire technical skills such as printing, shipbuilding, and modern military techniques. One of these students, whose name was Rifa'a et-Tahtawi (1801–1873), was the first in a long line of Egyptian intellectuals that started the modern Egyptian Renaissance.


title: Egyptians

text: The period between 1860–1940 was characterized by an Egyptian "nahda", renaissance or rebirth. It is best known for the renewed interest in Egyptian antiquity and the cultural achievements that were inspired by it. Along with this interest came an indigenous, Egypt-centered orientation, particularly among the Egyptian intelligentsia that would affect Egypt's autonomous development as a sovereign and independent nation-state.


title: Egyptians

text: The first Egyptian renaissance intellectual was Rifa'a el-Tahtawi, who was born in the village of Tahta in upper Egypt. In 1831, Tahtawi undertook a career in journalism, education and translation. Three of his published volumes were works of political and moral philosophy. In them he introduces his students to Enlightenment ideas such as secular authority and political rights and liberty; his ideas regarding how a modern civilized society ought to be and what constituted by extension a civilized or "good Egyptian"; and his ideas on public interest and public good.


title: Egyptians

text: Tahtawi was instrumental in sparking indigenous interest in Egypt's ancient heritage. He composed a number of poems in praise of Egypt and wrote two other general histories of the country. He also co-founded with his contemporary Ali Mubarak, the architect of the modern Egyptian school system, a native Egyptology school that looked for inspiration to medieval Egyptian scholars like Suyuti and Maqrizi, who studied ancient Egyptian history, language and antiquities. Tahtawi encouraged his compatriots to invite Europeans to come and teach the modern sciences in Egypt, drawing on the example of Pharaoh Psamtek I who had enlisted the Greeks' help in organizing the Egyptian army.


title: Egyptians

text: Among Mohammed Ali's successors, the most influential was Isma'il Pasha who became khedive in 1863. Ismail's reign witnessed the growth of the army, major education reforms, the founding of the Egyptian Museum and the Royal Opera House, the rise of an independent political press, a flourishing of the arts, and the inauguration of the Suez Canal. In 1866, the Assembly of Delegates was founded to serve as an advisory body for the government. Its members were elected from across Egypt, including villages, which meant that native Egyptians came to exert increasing political and economic influence over their country. Several generations of Egyptians exposed to the ideas of constitutionalism made up the emerging intellectual and political milieu that slowly filled the ranks of the government, the army and institutions which had long been dominated by an aristocracy of Turks, Greeks, Circassians and Armenians.


title: Egyptians

text: Ismail's massive modernization campaign, however, left Egypt indebted to European powers, leading to increased European meddling in local affairs. This led to the formation of secret groups made up of Egyptian notables, ministers, journalists and army officers organized across the country to oppose the increasing European influence.


title: Egyptians

text: When the British deposed Ismail and installed his son Tawfik, the now Egyptian-dominated army reacted violently, staging a revolt led by Minister of War Ahmed Orabi, who was a rural Egyptian born in a village in Zagazig, self-styled el-Masri ('the Egyptian'), against the Khedive, the Turko-Circassian elite, and the European stronghold. The revolt was a military failure and British forces occupied Egypt in 1882. Technically, Egypt was still part of the Ottoman Empire with the Mohammed Ali family ruling the country, though now with British supervision and according to British directives. The Egyptian army was disbanded and a smaller army commanded by British officers was installed in its place.


title: Egyptians

text: Egyptian self-government, education, and the continued plight of Egypt's peasant majority deteriorated most significantly under British occupation. Slowly, an organized national movement for independence began to form. In its beginnings, it took the form of an Azhar-led religious reform movement that was more concerned with the social conditions of Egyptian society. It gathered momentum between 1882 and 1906, ultimately leading to a resentment against European occupation.


title: Egyptians

text: Sheikh Muhammad Abduh, the son of a Delta farmer who was briefly exiled for his participation in the Orabi revolt and a future Azhar Mufti, was its most notable advocate. Abduh called for a reform of Egyptian Muslim society and formulated the modernist interpretations of Islam that took hold among younger generations of Egyptians. Among these were Mustafa Kamil and Ahmed Lutfi el-Sayed, the architects of modern Egyptian nationalism. Mustafa Kamil had been a student activist in the 1890s involved in the creation of a secret nationalist society that called for British evacuation from Egypt. He was famous for coining the popular expression, "If I had not been an Egyptian, I would have wished to become one."


title: Egyptians

text: Egyptian nationalist sentiment reached a high point after the 1906 Dinshaway Incident, when following an altercation between a group of British soldiers and Egyptian farmers, four of the farmers were hanged while others were condemned to public flogging. Dinshaway, a watershed in the history of Egyptian anti-colonial resistance, galvanized Egyptian opposition against the British, culminating in the founding of the first two political parties in Egypt: the secular, liberal "Umma" (the Nation, 1907) headed by Ahmed Lutfi el-Sayed, and the more radical, pro-Islamic "Watani" Party (National Party, 1908) headed by Mustafa Kamil. Lutfi was born to a family of farmers in a village in the Delta province of Daqahliya in 1872. He was educated at al-Azhar where he attended lectures by Mohammed Abduh. Abduh came to have a profound influence on Lutfi's reformist thinking in later years. In 1907, he founded the Umma Party newspaper, el-Garida, whose statement of purpose read: "El-Garida is a purely Egyptian party which aims to defend Egyptian interests of all kinds."


title: Egyptians

text: Both the People and National parties came to dominate Egyptian politics until World War I, but the new leaders of the national movement for independence following four arduous years of war (in which Great Britain declared Egypt a British protectorate) were closer to the secular, liberal principles of Ahmed Lutfi el-Sayed and the People's Party. Prominent among these was Saad Zaghloul who led the new movement through the Wafd Party. Saad Zaghloul was born in a small Egyptian village, he held several ministerial positions before he was elected to the Legislative Assembly and organized a mass movement demanding an end to the British Protectorate. He garnered such massive popularity among the Egyptian people that he came to be known as 'Father of the Egyptians'. When on March 8, 1919 the British arrested Zaghloul and his associates and exiled them to Malta, the Egyptian people staged their first modern revolution. Demonstrations and strikes across Egypt became such a daily occurrence that normal life was brought to a halt.


title: Egyptians

text: The Wafd Party drafted a new Constitution in 1923 based on a parliamentary representative system. Saad Zaghloul became the first popularly elected Prime Minister of Egypt in 1924. Egyptian independence at this stage was provisional, as British forces continued to be physically present on Egyptian soil. In 1936, the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty was concluded. New forces that came to prominence were the Muslim Brotherhood and the radical Young Egypt Party. In 1920, Banque Misr (Bank of Egypt) was founded by Talaat Pasha Harb as "an Egyptian bank for Egyptians only", which restricted shareholding to native Egyptians and helped finance various new Egyptian-owned businesses.


title: Egyptians

text: Under the parliamentary monarchy, Egypt reached the peak of its modern intellectual Renaissance that was started by Rifa'a el-Tahtawi nearly a century earlier. Among those who set the intellectual tone of a newly independent Egypt, in addition to Muhammad Abduh and Ahmed Lutfi el-Sayed, were Qasim Amin, Muhammad Husayn Haykal, Taha Hussein, Abbas el-'Akkad, Tawfiq el-Hakeem, and Salama Moussa. They delineated a liberal outlook for their country expressed as a commitment to individual freedom, secularism, an evolutionary view of the world and faith in science to bring progress to human society.


title: Egyptians

text: When Egyptian novelist and Nobel Prize laureate Naguib Mahfouz died in 2006, many Egyptians felt that perhaps the last of the Greats of Egypt's golden age had died. In his dialogues with close associate and journalist Mohamed Salmawy, published as "Mon Égypte", Mahfouz had this to say:


title: Egyptians

text: Increased involvement by King Farouk in parliamentary affairs, government corruption, and the widening gap between the country's rich and poor led to the eventual toppling of the monarchy and the dissolution of the parliament through a "coup d'état" by a group of army officers in 1952. The Egyptian Republic was declared on June 18, 1953 with General Muhammad Naguib as the first President of the Republic. After Naguib was forced to resign in 1954 and later put under house arrest by Gamal Abdel Nasser, the real architect of the 1952 movement, mass protests by Egyptians erupted against the forced resignation of what became a popular symbol of the new regime.


title: Egyptians

text: Nasser assumed power as President and began a nationalization process that initially had profound effects on the socioeconomic strata of Egyptian society. According to one historian, "Egypt had, for the first time since 343 BC, been ruled not by a Macedonian Greek, nor a Roman, nor an Arab, nor a Turk, but by an Egyptian."


title: Egyptians

text: Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal leading to the 1956 Suez Crisis. Egypt became increasingly involved in regional affairs until three years after the 1967 Six-Day War, in which Egypt lost the Sinai to Israel, Nasser died and was succeeded by Anwar Sadat. Sadat revived an "Egypt Above All" orientation, switched Egypt's Cold War allegiance from the Soviet Union to the United States, expelling Soviet advisors in 1972, and launched the Infitah economic reform policy. Like his predecessor, he also clamped down on religious and leftist opposition alike.


title: Egyptians

text: Egyptians fought one last time in the 1973 October War in an attempt to liberate Egyptian territories captured by Israel six years earlier. The October War presented Sadat with a political victory that later allowed him to regain the Sinai. In 1977, Sadat made a historic visit to Israel leading to the signing of the 1978 peace treaty, which was supported by the vast majority of Egyptians, in exchange for the complete Israeli withdrawal from Sinai. Sadat was assassinated in Cairo by members of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad in 1981, and was succeeded by Hosni Mubarak.


title: Egyptians

text: Hosni Mubarak was the president from 14 October 1981 to 11 February 2011, when he resigned under pressure of popular protest. Although power was ostensibly organized under a multi-party semi-presidential system, in practice it rested almost solely with the president. In late February 2005, for the first time since the 1952 coup d'état, the Egyptian people had an apparent chance to elect a leader from a list of various candidates, most prominently Ayman Nour. Most Egyptians were skeptical about the process of democratization and feared that power might ultimately be transferred to the president's first son, Gamal Mubarak.


title: Egyptians

text: After the resignation of Hosni Mubarak presidential powers were transferred to the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, who relinquished power on 30 June 2012 when Islamist candidate Mohamed Morsi became the first democratically elected head of state in Egyptian history. After mass protests, he was deposed by a military coup a year after he came to power, and subsequently arrested and sentenced to death (later overturned), and died in prison six years later. The Muslim Brotherhood (officially listed as a terrorist group by Egypt after the coup) claimed that his death was due to being "prevented medicine and poor food." Morsi was also charged with leading an outlawed group, detention and torture of anti-government protesters, and committing treason by leaking state secrets.


title: Egyptians

text: In the 26–28 May 2014 Egyptian presidential election, former General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi won in a landslide, capturing 97% of the vote according to the government. Some regarded the election as undemocratic claiming that several political opponents were being detained or banned from running, but: "The European Union's Election Observation Mission (EOM) released a preliminary statement on Thursday after voting commenced, stating that 'the Presidential Elections Commission (PEC) administered the election professionally and overall in line with the law'." In 2018 el-Sisi was re-elected with 97% of the vote, in an election denounced by human rights groups as unfair and "farcical". A BBC article mentioned that "Three potential candidates dropped out of the race, while a fourth - a former military chief - was arrested and accused of running for office without permission."


title: Egyptians

text: In the Early Dynastic Period, Nile Valley Egyptians spoke the Archaic Egyptian language. In antiquity, Egyptians spoke the Egyptian language. It constitutes its own branch of the Afroasiatic family. The Coptic language is the last form of the Egyptian language, written in Coptic alphabet which is based on the Greek alphabet. It is worth noting that other languages, such as Nubian, Arabic, and other Libyan languages also existed in Egypt outside of the Nile valley and in the mountains surrounding it since at least the time of Herodotus, with Arabic being used mainly in the Eastern Desert and Sinai, Nubian (referred to as Ethiopian By Herodotus) South of the first cataract of the Nile, and other Libyan Languages in the Libyan Desert


title: Egyptians

text: Although Arabic was spoken in parts of Egypt in the pre-islamic era such as the Eastern Desert and Sinai, Coptic was the Language of the majority of Egyptians residing in the Nile Valley. Arabic was adopted by the rulers of Egypt after the Islamic invasion as an official language. Gradually, Egyptian Arabic came to replace Coptic as the spoken language. Spoken Coptic was mostly extinct by the 17th century but may have survived in isolated pockets in Upper Egypt as late as the 19th century.


title: Egyptians

text: The official language of Egypt today is Arabic, but it is not a spoken language. The spoken vernaculars are Egyptian Arabic, Saʽidi Arabic, and their variants; and also Bedawi Arabic in the Sinai, and Western Egyptian Arabic in the Western desert. The most prestigious and widely spread vernacular is known as Cairene Arabic, being spoken by about 50% of the population, and the second, less prestigious, being Saidi Arabic, spoken by about 35-40% of the population. Modern Standard Arabic is reserved only for official documents, written educational material, and more formal contexts, and is not a naturally spoken language.


title: Egyptians

text: The recorded history of Egyptian Arabic as a dialect begins in Ottoman Egypt with a document by the 17th-century Moroccan author Yusuf Al-Maghribi during after his travels to Egypt writing about the peculiarities of the speech of the Egyptian people "دفع الإصر عن كلام أهل مصر" "" (lit. "The Removal of the Burden from the Language of the People of Egypt") This suggests the language that by then was spoken in the majority of Miṣr (Egypt/Cairo). It's also worth noting that the Egyptians commonly referred to the modern day area of Greater Cairo (Cairo, Fustat, Giza, and their surroundings) by the name of "Miṣr", which was also the name used to refer to the entire land of Egypt. As a consequence, and because of the Egyptian habit of identifying people in the capital with the entire country's name, the word Miṣriyeen (Egyptian Arabic: Masreyeen) which is derived from the Quranic term "Miṣr", the Hebrew Bible term Mitzrayim, and the Ancient Amarna tablets term "Misri" (lit. Land of Egypt) and Assyrian records called Egypt "Mu-ṣur.", commonly referred to the people of Egypt's Capital City, the greater Cairo area. It is represented in a body of vernacular literature comprising novels, plays and poetry published over the course of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Classical Arabic is also significant in Egyptian literary works, as Egyptian novelists and poets were among the first to experiment with modern styles of Arabic literature, and the forms they developed have been widely imitated.


title: Egyptians

text: While Egyptian Arabic is considered derived from the formal Arabic language, it has also been influenced by many other languages such as French, Turkish, and Italian. This is widely thought to be the effects of being the victim of several invasions, including that of the Ottoman Empire as well as the French invasion. As each invasion came and went, the Egyptians kept the few words and phrases that made the language seem easier. Egyptian Arabic is also influenced by Greek, and its grammar structure is influenced by the Coptic stage of the ancient Egyptian language.


title: Egyptians

text: It is also noteworthy that the Egyptian dialect is the most understood throughout the Arabic-speaking countries. This is because Egyptian movies and Egyptian music have been the most influential in the region and are therefore the most widespread, and also because of the political and cultural influence Egypt has on the region. As a result, most of the countries in the region have grown up listening to Egyptian Arabic and therefore have no trouble understanding it, even though they actually speak their own, but they tend to adopt many elements of Egyptian Arabic. This situation is not reciprocal, however, meaning that the Egyptians do not understand any of the dialects of the region.


title: Egyptians

text: Originally the Egyptians wrote in hieroglyphics. At first the meaning of the hieroglyphics was unknown, until in the year 1799 Napoleón Bonaparte's soldiers dug up the Rosetta stone. The Rosetta Stone was found broken and incomplete. It features 14 lines in the hieroglyphic script, 32 lines in Demotic, and 53 lines in Ancient Greek. Its decipherment lead to the understanding of the ancient Egyptian language.


title: Egyptians

text: The categorization of people as "Egyptians", "Asiatics", "Libyans" and "Nubians" occurred in Egyptian documents of state ideology and were contingent on Social and Cultural factors among the ancient populations themselves.


title: Egyptians

text: Even though Egypt is mostly located in North Africa, Egypt and the Egyptian people do not generally assert an African identity. In 2017, the National Geographic Genographic Project published a 10 years study on several nations where it revealed that Egypt is indeed a North African population, but African identity is not that common in Egypt and not many identify as African.


title: Egyptians

text: Before the birth of Contemporary Egyptian Nationalism, which emerged in the period between 1860-1940, and throughout the Ottoman rule, Arabic-speaking nations under Ottoman rule were all referred to by Ottomans and Europeans as "Arabs", whether Egyptians, Sudanese, ..etc. During her stay in Upper Egypt, Lady Duff Gordon mentions the opinion of an Upper Egyptian man on the Ahmad Al Tayeb Uprising that happened during her stay. She puts what he said thus: "Truly in all the world none are miserable like us Arabs. The Turks beat us, and the Europeans hate us and say quite right. By God, we had better lay down our heads in the dust (die) and let the strangers take our land and grow cotton for themselves". However, as mentioned, there was a tendency in most European writings of that period to indiscriminately refer to Egyptians, Sudanese, and all Arabic-speaking nations, especially Muslims, as "Arabs", which is prevalent throughout the Letters of Lady Duff Gorden in which she reported the above, so it should be of note that this is her own translation of whatever the man said.


title: Egyptians

text: After Muhammed Ali Pasha took control of Egypt, along with Sudan and, briefly, parts of Arabia and the Levant, he enforced mandatory military service. The Egyptians were discriminated against in the military where they weren't allowed to hold any important positions. Throughout the Ottoman Empire, all Arabic speakers, especially Muslims, were called "Arabs". As a consequence, being called "Arab", as used by Ottomans and Europeans, was equivalent to being called Egyptian, Sudanese, ..etc, in modern day. In an attempt to prove to his soldiers that he is one of them, Ibrahim Pasha, the son of Mohammed Ali Pasha, who was an Albanian, told one of his soldiers after criticizing Turks: "I am not a Turk, I came to Egypt when I was a child, and since that time, its sun has changed my blood, and I became fully Arab".


title: Egyptians

text: Beginning 1860, the state started making efforts to shape a collective Egyptian Identity and Egyptian nationalism in face of the British rule. However, the revolution of Ahmed Orabi is considered to be a turning point in Egyptian History, as it fought for the Egyptian identity, where Egyptians rejected any other identity, and identified only as Egyptians (Masreyeen). It is worth noting that in the past, Egyptians sometimes also used to refer to the area of Greater Cairo by the name of "Masr", which was also the name used to refer to the entire land of Egypt. As a consequence, and because of the Egyptian habit of identifying people with their city names, the word Misreyeen/Masreyeen sometimes referred to the people of the greater Cairo area. The Orabi movement in the 1870s and 1880s was the first major Egyptian nationalist movement that demanded an end to the alleged despotism of the Muhammad Ali family and demanded curbing the growth of European influence in Egypt, it campaigned under the nationalist slogan of ""Egypt for Egyptians"". The Orabi revolt is referred to in Egypt as the revolt of the fellahin (rural Egyptians), Ahmed Orabi himself was a rural Egyptian from a village in Zagazig.


title: Egyptians

text: Following the French campaign in Egypt, western ideas started becoming prevalent among Egyptian intellectuals , which continued after the British occupation of Egypt. Among the western ideas, the French Enlightenment notion of reviving Pre-Christian civilizations and cultures found a special place among Egyptian Nationalists , who sought to revive the Pharaonic culture as the main pre-Islamic/pre-Christian civilization of Egypt. Questions of identity came to fore in the late 19th century and in the 20th century as Egyptians sought to free themselves from British occupation, leading to the rise of ethno-territorial secular Egyptian nationalism (also known as "Pharaonism"). After Egyptians gained their independence from Great Britain, other political ideologies that were rejected earlier by the Egyptians, such as pan-Arabism, were adopted by the political leadership, there was also a rise of Islamism.


title: Egyptians

text: "Pharaonism" rose to political prominence in the 1920s and 1930s as an Egyptian movement resisting the British occupation, as Egypt developed separately from the Arab world. A segment of Egyptian intellectuals argued that Egypt was part of a Mediterranean civilization. This ideology largely developed out of the country's lengthy pre-Islamic pre-Arabism history, the relative isolation of the Nile Valley and the mostly homogeneous indigenous non-Arab genetic ancestry/ethnicity of the inhabitants, regardless of current religious identity. One of Pharaonism's most notable advocates was Taha Hussein who remarked:


title: Egyptians

text: Pharaonism became the dominant mode of expression of Egyptian anti-colonial activists of the pre-war and inter-war periods. In 1931, following a visit to Egypt, Syrian Arab nationalist Sati' al-Husri remarked that:


title: Egyptians

text: The later 1930s would become a formative period for Arab nationalism without the involvement of Egypt. Arab nationalism developed as a regional nationalism initially based on the efforts of Syrian, Palestinian, and Lebanese political intellectuals.


title: Egyptians

text: Arab-Islamic political sentiment was fueled by the solidarity felt between, on the one hand, Egyptians struggling for independence from Britain and, on the other hand, those across the Arab world engaged in similar anti-imperialist struggles. In particular, the growth of Zionism in neighboring Palestine was seen as a threat by many Egyptians, and the cause of resistance there was adopted by rising Islamic movements such as the Muslim Brotherhood as well as the political leadership including King Faruq I and the Egyptian Prime Minister Mustafa el-Nahhas.


title: Egyptians

text: Until the 1940s, Egypt was more in favour of territorial Egyptian nationalism and distant from the pan-Arabism ideology. Egyptians generally did not identify themselves as Arabs, and it is revealing that when the Egyptian nationalist leader Saad Zaghloul met the Arab delegates at Versailles in 1918, he insisted that their struggles for statehood were not connected, maintaining that the problem of Egypt was an Egyptian problem and not an Arab one.


title: Egyptians

text: It was not until the Nasser era more than a decade later that Arab nationalism, and by extension Arab socialism, became a state policy and a means with which to define Egypt's position in the Middle East and the world, usually articulated vis-à-vis Zionism in the neighboring new state of Israel. Nasser's politics was shaped by his conviction that all the Arab states were contending with anti-imperialist struggles and thus solidarity between them was imperative for independence. He viewed the earlier Egyptian nationalism of Saad Zaghloul as too inward-looking and saw no conflict between Egyptian patriotism ("wataniyya") and Arab nationalism ("qawmiyya").


title: Egyptians

text: For a while Egypt and Syria formed the United Arab Republic (UAR), which lasted for about 3 years. When the union was dissolved, Egypt continued to be known as the UAR until 1971, when Egypt adopted the current official name, the Arab Republic of Egypt. The Egyptians' attachment to Arabism was particularly questioned after the 1967 Six-Day War. Thousands of Egyptians had lost their lives, and the country became disillusioned with Arab politics. Although the Arabism instilled in the country by Nasser was not deeply embedded in society, a certain kinship with the rest of the Arab world was firmly established and Egypt saw itself as the leader of this larger cultural entity. Nasser's version of pan-Arabism stressed Egyptian sovereignty and leadership of Arab unity instead of the eastern Arab states.


title: Egyptians

text: Nasser's successor Anwar el-Sadat, both through public policy and his peace initiative with Israel, revived an uncontested Egyptian orientation, unequivocally asserting that only Egypt and Egyptians were his responsibility. According to Dawisha, the terms "Arab", "Arabism" and "Arab unity", save for the new official name, became conspicuously absent. (See also Liberal age and Republic sections.) However, despite Sadat's systematic attempts to root out Arab sentiment, Arab nationalism in Egypt remained a potent force.


title: Egyptians

text: During this era, in 1978, Egyptian-American sociologist Saad Eddin Ibrahim studied the national discourse between 17 Egyptian intellectuals relating to Egypt's identity and peace with Israel. He noted that in 18 articles Arab identity was acknowledged and neutrality in the conflict opposed, while in eight articles Arab identity was acknowledged and neutrality supported and only in three articles written by author Louis Awad was Arab identity rejected and neutrality supported. Egyptian scholar Gamal Hamdan stressed that Egyptian identity was unique, but that Egypt was the center and "cultural hub" of the Arab world, arguing that "Egypt in the Arab world is like Cairo in Egypt." Hamdan further contended "We do not see the Egyptian personality, no matter how distinct it may be, as anything other than a part of the personality of the greater Arab homeland."


title: Egyptians

text: Many Egyptians today feel that Egyptian and Arab identities are inextricably linked, and emphasize the central role that Egypt plays in the Arab world. Others continue to believe that Egypt and Egyptians are simply not Arab, emphasizing indigenous Egyptian heritage, culture and independent polity, pointing to the perceived failures of Arab and pan-Arab nationalist policies. Egyptian anthropologist Laila el-Hamamsy illustrates the modern-day relationship between the two trends, stating: "in light of their history, Egyptians ... should be conscious of their national identity and consider themselves, above all, Egyptians. How is the Egyptian, with this strong sense of Egyptian identity, able to look himself as an Arab too?" Her explanation is that Egyptianization translated as Arabization with the result being "an increased tempo of Arabization, for facility in the Arabic language opened the windows into the rich legacy of Arabic culture. ... Thus in seeking a cultural identity, Egypt has revived its Arab cultural heritage."


title: Egyptians

text: Egyptian culture boasts five millennia of recorded history. Ancient Egypt was among the earliest and greatest civilizations during which the Egyptians maintained a strikingly complex and stable culture that influenced later cultures of Europe, the Near East and Africa. After the Pharaonic era, the Egyptians themselves came under the influence of Hellenism, Christianity and Islamic culture. Today, many aspects of ancient Egyptian culture exist in interaction with newer elements, including the influence of modern Western culture, itself influenced by Ancient Egypt.


title: Egyptians

text: Today, Egyptians carry names that have Ancient Egyptian, Arabic, Turkish, Greek and Western meanings (especially Coptic ones) among others. The concept of a surname is lacking in Egypt. Rather, Egyptians tend to carry their father's name as their first middle name, and stop at the 2nd or 3rd first name, which thus becomes one's surname. In this manner, surnames continuously change with generations, as first names of 4th or 5th generations get dropped.


title: Egyptians

text: Some Egyptians tend to have Surnames based on their cities, like "Monoufi" (from Monufia), "Banhawy" (from Benha), "Aswany" (from Aswan), "Tahtawy" (from Tahta), "Fayoumi" (from Fayoum), "Eskandarani / Eskandar" (from Alexandria) and so on.


title: Egyptians

text: As a result of the Islamic history of Egypt, and as a result of the subsequent Arabization, some Egyptians adopted historical Berber, Arabic, and Iranian names. For example, the surname "Al Juhaini", from the Arabic Juhainah, which is very rare, except from a few instances in North Egypt, the surname "Al Hawary", from the Berber Hawara. The concept of surname, however, is extremely rare in Egypt, and the mentioned surnames are extremely rare. Historical Arabic names in general are most likely just historically adopted as status names, which is something that happened with Greek names as well in Greek-Roman times where Egyptians would adopt Greek names as status names.


title: Egyptians

text: Some Egyptians have their family names based on their traditional crafts, like "El Nagar" (Carpenter), "El Fawal" (the one who sells Foul), "El Hadad" (Blacksmith), "El Khayat" (Tailor), and so on.


title: Egyptians

text: The majority of Egyptians, however, have last names that are their great-grandparents' first names, this habit is especially dominant among the fellahin (rural Egyptians), where the concept of surnames isn't really a strong tradition. For example, if a person named "Khaled Emad Salama Ali" has a son named "Ashraf", his son's full name may become "Ashraf Khaled Emad Salama". Thus, a son may have a last name that is different from his father's last name.


title: Egyptians

text: However, it is not unusual for many Egyptian families to adopt Ancient Egyptian based names (especially Coptic ones) and have their first names or surnames beginning with the Ancient Egyptian masculine possessive pronoun "pa" (generally "ba" in Arabic, which lost the phoneme in the course of developing from Proto-Semitic, but the Egyptians still have the phoneme /p/ in their spoken language). For example, Bashandy ( "the one of acacia"), Bakhoum ( "the one of eagle"), Bekhit ( "the one of the north"), Bahur ( "the one of Horus") and Banoub ( "the one of Anubis").


title: Egyptians

text: The name Shenouda (), which is very common among Copts, means "child of God". Hence, names and many toponyms may end with "-nouda", "-noudi" or "-nuti", which means "Of God" in Egyptian and Coptic. In addition, Egyptian families often derive their name from places in Egypt, such as Minyawi from Minya and Suyuti from Asyut; or from one of the local Sufi orders such as el-Shazli and el-Sawy. More examples of prominent surnames are Qozman and Habib.


title: Egyptians

text: With the adoption of Christianity and eventually Islam, Egyptians began to take on names associated with these religions. Many Egyptian surnames also became Hellenized and Arabized, meaning they were altered to sound Greek or Arabic. This was done by the addition of the Greek suffix "-ios" to Egyptian names such as, for example, Pakhom to Pakhomios; or by adding the Egyptian Arabic definite article "el" to Egyptian names such as, for example, Bayoumi to el-Bayoumi; Bayoumi, without the article, is even more common.


title: Egyptians

text: Names starting with the Ancient Egyptian affix "pu" ("of the place of") were sometimes Arabized to "abu" ("father of"); for example, Busiri ("of the place of Osiris") occasionally became Abusir and el-Busiri. Few people might also have surnames like el-Shamy ("the Levantine"), suggesting a possible Levantine origin, or, in the upper classes, Dewidar, suggesting a possible Ottoman-Mamluk remnant, but these names are very rare and could also be just historically adopted as status names. Conversely, some Levantines might carry the surname el-Masri ("the Egyptian") suggesting a possible Egyptian extraction.


title: Egyptians

text: The Egyptian peasantry, the fellahin (rural Egyptians), are more likely to retain indigenous names given their relative isolation throughout the Egyptian people's history.


title: Egyptians

text: With French influence, names like Mounier, Pierre, and many others became common, more so in the Christian community.


title: Egyptians

text: Beginning in the predynastic period, some differences between the populations of Upper and Lower Egypt were ascertained through their skeletal remains, suggesting a gradual clinal pattern north to south.


title: Egyptians

text: When Lower and Upper Egypt were unified "c". 3200 BC, the distinction began to blur, resulting in a more homogeneous population in Egypt, though the distinction remains true to some degree to this day. Some biological anthropologists such as Shomarka Keita believe the range of variability to be primarily indigenous and not necessarily the result of significant intermingling of widely divergent peoples.


title: Egyptians

text: Keita describes the northern and southern patterns of the early predynastic period as "northern-Egyptian-Maghreb" and "tropical African variant" (overlapping with Nubia/Kush) respectively. He shows that a progressive change in Upper Egypt toward the northern Egyptian pattern takes place through the predynastic period. The southern pattern continues to predominate in Abydos, Upper Egypt by the First Dynasty, but "lower Egyptian, North African, and European patterns are observed also, thus making for great diversity." A group of noted physical anthropologists conducted craniofacial studies of Egyptian skeletal remains and concluded similarly that "the Egyptians have been in place since back in the Pleistocene and have been largely unaffected by either invasions or migrations. As others have noted, Egyptians are Egyptians, and they were so in the past as well."Genetic analysis of modern Egyptians reveals that they have paternal lineages common to indigenous North-East African populations primarily and to Near Eastern peoples to a lesser extent—these lineages would have spread during the Neolithic and were maintained by the predynastic period. University of Chicago Egyptologist Frank Yurco suggested a historical, regional and ethnolinguistic continuity, asserting that "the mummies and skeletons of ancient Egyptians indicate they were similar to the modern Egyptians and other people of the Afro-Asiatic ethnic grouping".


title: Egyptians

text: Another study found that the average Egyptian male has 85% Native North African ancestry, Both Egyptian Christians and Muslim were found to be closely related and stem from the same grandparents according to a 2020 study by Forensic science international 313, adding a quote ""Therefore, from these results we conclude that Egyptian Muslims and Egyptian Christians genetically originate from the same ancestors""A 2006 bioarchaeological study on the dental morphology of ancient Egyptians by Prof. Joel Irish shows dental traits characteristic of indigenous North Africans and to a lesser extent Southwest Asian and European populations. Among the samples included in the study is skeletal material from the , which clustered very closely with the Badarian series of the predynastic period. All the samples, particularly those of the Dynastic period, were significantly divergent from a neolithic West Saharan sample from Lower Nubia. Biological continuity was also found intact from the dynastic to the post-pharaonic periods. According to Irish:


title: Egyptians

text: [The Egyptian] samples [996 mummies] exhibit morphologically simple, mass-reduced dentitions that are similar to those in populations from greater North Africa (Irish, 1993, 1998a–c, 2000) and, to a lesser extent, western Asia and Europe (Turner, 1985a; Turner and Markowitz, 1990; Roler, 1992; Lipschultz, 1996; Irish, 1998a). Similar craniofacial measurements among samples from these regions were reported as well (Brace et al., 1993)... an inspection of MMD values reveals no evidence of increasing phenetic distance between samples from the first and second halves of this almost 3,000-year-long period. For example, phenetic distances between First-Second Dynasty Abydos and samples from Fourth Dynasty Saqqara (MMD ¼ 0.050), 11–12th Dynasty Thebes (0.000), 12th Dynasty Lisht (0.072), 19th Dynasty Qurneh (0.053), and 26th–30th Dynasty Giza (0.027) do not exhibit a directional increase through time... Thus, despite increasing foreign influence after the Second Intermediate Period, not only did Egyptian culture remain intact (Lloyd, 2000a), but the people themselves, as represented by the dental samples, appear biologically constant as well... Gebel Ramlah [Neolithic Nubian/Western Desert sample] is, in fact, significantly different from Badari based on the 22-trait MMD (Table 4). For that matter, the Neolithic Western Desert sample is significantly different from all others [but] is closest to predynastic and early dynastic samples.


title: Egyptians

text: A study by Schuenemann et al. (2017) described the extraction and analysis of DNA from 151 mummified ancient Egyptian individuals, whose remains were recovered from Abusir el-Meleq in Middle Egypt. The specimens were living in a period stretching from the late New Kingdom to the Roman era (1388 BCE–426 CE). Complete mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequences were obtained for 90 of the mummies and were compared with each other and with several other ancient and modern datasets. The scientists found that the ancient Egyptian individuals in their own dataset possessed highly similar mitochondrial profiles throughout the examined period. Modern Egyptians generally shared this maternal haplogroup pattern. The study was able to measure the mitochondrial DNA of 90 individuals, and it showed that the mitochondrial DNA composition of Egyptian mummies has shown a high level of affinity with the DNA of the populations of the Near East and North African populations and had significantly more affinity with south-eastern Europeans than with sub-Saharan Africans. Genome-wide data could only be successfully extracted from three of these individuals. Of these three, the Y-chromosome haplogroups of two individuals could be assigned to the Middle-Eastern haplogroup J, and one to haplogroup E1b1b1 common in North Africa. The absolute estimates of sub-Saharan African ancestry in these three individuals ranged from 6 to 15%, which is slightly less than the level of sub-Saharan African ancestry in modern Egyptians (the modern Egyptian samples were taken from Cairo and the Bahariya Oasis), which ranged from 14 to 21%. The ranges depend on the method and choice of reference populations. The study's authors cautioned that the mummies may not be representative of the ancient Egyptian population as a whole, since they were recovered from the northern part of middle Egypt.


title: Egyptians

text: Professor Stephen Quirke, an Egyptologist at University College London, expressed caution about the paper by Schuenemann et al. (2017), saying that “There has been this very strong attempt throughout the history of Egyptology to disassociate ancient Egyptians from the modern [Egyptian] population.” He added that he was “particularly suspicious of any statement that may have the unintended consequences of asserting—yet again from a Northern European or North American perspective—that there’s a discontinuity there [between ancient and modern Egyptians]". Gourdine et al criticised the methodology of the Scheunemann et al study and argued that the Sub-Saharan "genetic affinities" may be attributed to "early settlers" and "the relevant Sub-Saharan genetic markers" do not correspond with the geography of known trade routes".


title: Egyptians

text: In 2022, Danielle Candelora noted several limitations with the 2017 Scheunemann et al study such as its “untested sampling methods, small sample size and problematic comparative data” which she argued had been misused to legitimise racist conceptions of Ancient Egypt with “scientific evidence”.


title: Egyptians

text: In 2022, S.O.Y. Keita commented, based on an analysis of 8 Short Tandem loci (STR) data on disease and virus alleles published by Hawass et al. 2010;2012 on Rameses III and the Amarna royal mummies which included Tutankhamun showed “a majority to have an affinity with “Sub-Saharan” Africans in one affinity analysis”. Although, he cautioned that this does not mean that the royal mummies “lacked other affiliations” which he argued had been obscured in typological thinking. Keita further added that different “data and algorithms might give different results” which reflected the complexity of biological heritage and the associated interpretation.


title: UEFA Intertoto Cup

text: The UEFA Intertoto Cup (from , 'between' + , 'betting pool'), often abbreviated and more known in the German-speaking world as UI Cup and originally called the International Football Cup, was a summer football competition. The competition was discontinued after the 2008 tournament. Teams who originally would have entered the Intertoto Cup now directly enter the qualifying stages of the UEFA Europa League from this point.


title: UEFA Intertoto Cup

text: The tournament was founded in 1961–62, but was only taken over by UEFA in 1995. Initially, the tournament ended with a single champion, who received the Intertoto Cup. Starting in 1967, the tournament ended with a number of group winners (7 to 14 winners, see below), who received cash prizes. When UEFA took on the tournament, it became a qualifier for the UEFA Cup, with 2 to 11 Intertoto winners (see below) advancing to the Second qualifying round of the UEFA Cup.


title: UEFA Intertoto Cup

text: Any club who wished to participate had to apply for entry, with the highest placed clubs (by league position in their domestic league) at the end of the season entering the competition. The club did not have to be ranked directly below the clubs which had qualified for another UEFA competition; if the club which was in that position did not apply, they would not be eligible to compete, with the place instead going to the club which did apply.


title: UEFA Intertoto Cup

text: The cup billed itself as providing both an opportunity for clubs who otherwise would not get the chance to enter the UEFA Cup and as an opportunity for sports lotteries (or pools) to continue during the summer.


title: UEFA Intertoto Cup

text: This reflects its background, which was as a tournament solely for football pools. In 1995, the tournament came under official UEFA sanctioning and UEFA Cup qualification places were granted. Initially, two were provided; this was increased to three after one year; but in 2006, it was again increased to the final total of 11.


title: UEFA Intertoto Cup

text: The Intertoto Cup was the idea of Malmö FF chairman Eric Persson and the later FIFA vice-president and founder of the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, Ernst B. Thommen, and the Austrian coach Karl Rappan, who coached the Switzerland national team at the 1938 FIFA World Cup and at the 1954 World Cup. The "Cup for the Cupless" was also heavily promoted by the Swiss newspaper "Sport". It derived its name from "Toto", the German term for football pools.


title: UEFA Intertoto Cup

text: Thommen, who had set up football betting pools in Switzerland in 1932, had a major interest in having purposeful matches played in the summer break. UEFA were initially disinclined to support the tournament, finding its betting background distasteful; nevertheless they permitted the new tournament but refrained from getting officially involved. Clubs which qualified for one of the official continental competitions, such as the European Champions Cups and Cup Winners Cup, were not allowed to participate.


title: UEFA Intertoto Cup

text: The first tournament was held in 1961 as the International Football Cup (IFC). Initially the Cup had a group stage, which led to knock-out matches culminating in a final. By 1967, it had become difficult to organize the games, and so the knock-out rounds and the final were scrapped, leaving the tournament without a single winner. Instead, group winners received prizes of CHF10,000-15,000.


title: UEFA Intertoto Cup

text: By 1995, UEFA had reconsidered their opinion, took official control of the tournament and changed its format. Initially, two winners were given a place in the UEFA Cup. The success of one of the first winners, Bordeaux, in reaching the final of the 1995–96 UEFA Cup encouraged UEFA to add a third UEFA Cup place in 1996.


title: UEFA Intertoto Cup

text: Many clubs disliked the competition and saw it as disruptive in the preparation for the new season. As a consequence, they did not nominate themselves for participation even if entitled. In particular, following its 1995 relaunch, clubs in England were sceptical about the competition; after initially being offered three places in the cup, all English top division teams rejected the chance to take part. Following the threat of bans of English teams from all UEFA competitions, the situation was eventually resolved with three English clubs entering weakened teams, and none of them qualified.


title: UEFA Intertoto Cup

text: In following years, UEFA made it possible for nations to forfeit Intertoto places. For example, in 1998, Scotland, San Marino and Moldova forfeited their places, and England, Portugal, and Greece forfeited one of their two, Crystal Palace being the sole English entrant despite finishing bottom of the Premier League. Other clubs have built upon their success in the UI Cup, following it up with great campaigns in the UEFA Cup. Furthermore, UEFA rejected this assertion that the tournament is disruptive. They point out that in the 2004–05 season, two of the three 2004 Intertoto Cup winners went on to qualify directly for the Champions League, whilst the 3rd one qualified by winning its 3rd qualifying round tie (Schalke and Lille directly, Villarreal by winning their 3rd qualifying round tie).


title: UEFA Intertoto Cup

text: In December 2007, following the election of new UEFA president Michel Platini, it was announced that the Intertoto Cup would be abolished as of 2009. This was a part of a range of changes that were to be made to the UEFA Cup/Champions League System. Instead of teams qualifying for the Intertoto Cup, they would now qualify directly for the qualifying stages of the UEFA Europa League, which was expanded to four rounds to accommodate them. The UEFA Europa Conference League was introduced in 2021 as a third-tier European tournament.


title: UEFA Intertoto Cup

text: When the competition was taken over by UEFA in 1995, the format was both a group stage and a knock-out stage; 60 teams were split into 12 groups of five with the 16 best teams then contesting the knock-out stage with two-legged ties at each stage, the two winning finalists qualifying for the UEFA Cup. In 1996 and 1997, just the 12 group winners entered the knock-out round, with now three finalists advancing. Nations were allocated places according to their UEFA coefficients, much as with other UEFA tournaments.


title: UEFA Intertoto Cup

text: The group stage was scrapped for the 1998 tournament, which became a straight knock-out tournament, with clubs from more successful nations entering at a later stage. This arrangement lasted until 2005.


title: UEFA Intertoto Cup

text: From the 2006 tournament, the format for the Cup changed. There were three rounds instead of the previous five, and the 11 winning teams from the third round went through to the second qualifying round of the UEFA Cup. The clubs which were furthest in the UEFA Cup would each be awarded with a trophy. The first club that received that trophy (a plaque) was Newcastle United.


title: UEFA Intertoto Cup

text: Only one team from each national association was allowed to enter. However, if one or more nations did not take up their place, the possibility was left open for nations to have a second entrant. Seedings and entry were determined by each association. Teams from the weakest federations entered at the first round stage, while those from mid-level federations entered in the second round, and those from the strongest federations entered in the third round.


title: UEFA Intertoto Cup

text: During this time there were no competition winners, as only group stages were contested. The outright winners (determined by their best champions) are marked in bold.


title: UEFA Intertoto Cup

text: "The results shown are the aggregate total over two legs. "Listed are each year's three teams (two in 1995) that won the final matches, qualifying them for the UEFA Cup.


title: UEFA Intertoto Cup

text: Listed are all 11 teams that won the Intertoto Cup, qualifying for the UEFA Cup. The outright winners (determined by the best performance in the UEFA Cup) are marked in bold.


title: UEFA Intertoto Cup

text: From 2006 onwards, the final round was no longer termed as the "Final", but instead simply as the "Third Round". In addition, there were 11 winners, compared to three under the old system. The clubs which progressed furthest in the UEFA Cup were awarded with a trophy (plaque).


title: Bulgari

text: Bulgari (, ; stylized as BVLGARI) is an Italian luxury fashion house founded in 1884 and known for its jewellery, watches, fragrances, accessories, and leather goods.


title: Bulgari

text: While the majority of design, production and marketing is overseen and executed by Bulgari, the company does, at times, partner with other entities. For example, Bulgari eyewear is produced through a licensing agreement with Luxottica, and Bulgari formed a joint venture with Marriott International in 2001 to launch its hotel brand, Bulgari Hotels & Resorts, a collection of properties and resort destinations around the world.


title: Bulgari

text: Currently part of the LVMH Group, Bulgari was founded in the region of Epirus, Greece, in 1884 by the silversmith Sotirios Boulgaris (Greek: Σωτήριος Βούλγαρης, Italian: Sotirio Bulgari) as a single jewellery shop that has, over the years, become an international brand. The company has evolved into a player in the luxury market, with an established and growing network of stores.


title: Bulgari

text: The trademark is usually written BVLGARI in the classical Latin alphabet, and it is derived from the surname of the company's founder, Sotirios Voulgaris (, ; 1857–1932). Voulgaris is a Greek surname with a loose translation meaning "Bulgarian".


title: Bulgari

text: The BVLGARI logo was used for the first time in 1934, when its gilded brass letters graced the central doorway of the Via Condotti flagship store. In reference to ancient Rome, the "U" was replaced with the letter "V". Since then, the trademark is stylized BVLGARI in the classical Latin alphabet.


title: Bulgari

text: The Voulgaris were a silversmithing family from the Epirus region of Greece. Whether or not the Voulgaris family of Corfu and the Voulgaris family of the Italian jewelers Bulgari from Epirus share the same paternal line is unclear, but Count Stefanos Voulgaris denied that the Bulgari family of the Italian jewelers family is genealogically related to the Voulgaris family of Corfu. According to chronicles of the Voulgaris family written in Venetian Corfu, the "Voulgaris family of Saint Spyridon of Corfu" descend from the royal figures of "barbarian" peoples, as Greeks used to call everybody who is not Christianized, from the Volga river, who "finally settled in Moesia near the Balkan – Haemus mountains, located in Bulgaria", so the founding father of this family was described as a descendant of Prince Stefan Lazarević in the 16th century testament of the family, becoming such by taking refugee in the Venetian island Corfu.


title: Bulgari

text: The founder of the Bulgari brand is Sotirios Voulgaris (), who was born in March 1857 and came from the Epirus Village of Paramythia, the largest Vlachophone center of silversmithing in the Balkans. He was one of eleven children of his father Georgios Voulgaris (1823–1889) and his Vlachophone Greek mother Eleni Strouggari. In 1881, Sotirios Bulgari moved to Rome and, in 1884, opened his first store on via Sistina 85. In 1888, he married Aromanian Eleni Basio with whom he had six children: Constantine-Georgios (1889–1973), Leonidas-Georgios (1890–1966), Maria-Athena (1891–1976), Sofia (1893–1908), Alexandra (1895–1984) and Spyridon (1897–1932); Leonidas-Georgios is the father of the current chairman of the company, Paolo Bulgari. In 1905, he unveiled the Via Condotti shop that would become the company's flagship. In its early years, Bulgari was known for silver pieces that borrowed elements from Byzantine and Islamic art, combining them with floral motifs. At the time, Paris was the apex of fashion and creativity, and its trends influenced Sotirio's designs for decades: jewels of the early 20s were characterised by platinum Art Deco settings while those of the 30s featured geometric diamond motifs—sometimes set in combination with coloured gemstones. Convertible jewels were also popular during the time, and one of Bulgari's major piece was the "Trombino", a small trumpet-shaped ring.


title: Bulgari

text: In 1932 Sotirio died, leaving the business to his two sons, Giorgio (1890–1966) and Costantino (1889–1973), who each had a keen interest in precious stones and jewels. During the Second World War, most new jewellery was crafted out of gold, as gems were scarce, and designs became more natural feeling. As the 1940s came to a close, Bulgari introduced "Serpenti" bracelet-watches.


title: Bulgari

text: In the 1950s, some of Bulgari best-known clients included Elizabeth Taylor, Anna Magnani, Ingrid Bergman and Gina Lollobrigida as Rome earned a reputation as "Hollywood on the Tiber" with the Cinecittà studios.


title: Bulgari

text: At the same time, Bulgari went to a new style. The post-war boom saw a return to precious materials, particularly white metals covered in diamonds. In the 1950s, Bulgari launched its first floral brooches—called "en tremblant" because of their trembling diamond corollas. At the end of the 1950s, Bulgari began to establish its motifs, introducing structured, symmetrical shapes in yellow gold set with brilliant gems—chosen for their colour rather than intrinsic value. Among these multi-hued jewels, cabochon cuts were another innovation. These new pieces were a significant departure from classical Parisian design.


title: Bulgari

text: After Giorgio's death in 1966, his son Gianni led the company as co-chief executive with his cousin Marina.


title: Bulgari

text: During the 1970s, Bulgari stores opened in New York, Geneva, Monte Carlo and Paris. This era marks the beginning of the Group's international expansion, with Gianni as chairman and CEO. A number of new motifs made their debut as well—jewels became recognisable for their angular forms, strong colours, oval elements with cabochons, chains and maxi sautoirs, whilst the predominant use of yellow gold made precious pieces feel all the more wearable, and became known as a Bulgari trademark. In 1977, Bulgari entered the world of horlogerie with the launch of the "BVLGARI BVLGARI" watch. At the time, Gianni led a complete overhaul of the company, focusing on product design.


title: Bulgari

text: In the early 1980s, to oversee all production of Bulgari watches, Bulgari Time was founded in Switzerland. In 1984, Paolo and Nicola Bulgari, Giorgio's sons, became chairman and vice-chairman, respectively, while their nephew, Francesco Trapani, became chief executive officer. In 1985, Gianni resigned as CEO and in 1987, he left the family business after selling his one-third stake in the company to his brothers Nicola and Paolo.


title: Bulgari

text: Bulgari diversified its brand in 1993 with the launch of its first fragrance, "Eau Parfumée au" "The Vert" and the founding of Bulgari Parfums in Switzerland to oversee the creation and production of all perfumes. In 1995, Bulgari pushed ahead with an aggressive programme for growth, becoming listed on the Milan Stock Exchange for the first time. In 1996, the brand launched its first accessories collection, beginning with silk scarves before developing a range of leather accessories and eyewear. In 1999, the brand launched the B.zero1 ring.


title: Bulgari

text: The company has seen 150% revenue growth between 1997 and 2003. Bvlgari continues to build up many brands which has made them one of the most profitable luxury brands in the jewelry industry.


title: Bulgari

text: The year 2000 was the beginning of an increasingly aggressive period of verticalization for Bulgari, with the acquisition of the luxury watchmaking brands Daniel Roth and Gérald Genta, followed by the takeover of the jewellery firm Crova and of other companies that specialised in leather goods and watchmaking. The opening of the first Bulgari Hotel in Milan in 2004 further confirmed the expansion strategy of the brand, and was the result of a joint venture with Luxury Group, a division of Marriott International. In 2009, Bulgari celebrated its 125th anniversary with a retrospective of the brand's history, held in Rome at Palazzo delle Esposizioni. That same year, the snake—a motif that appeared in Bulgari collections from the 1960s—re-emerged as the emblem of the "Serpenti" collection.


title: Bulgari

text: In 2011, Bulgari signed a strategic alliance with LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA, the world's leading luxury group. The agreement was based on a stock transfer of the Bulgari family's shares in Bulgari S.p.A. to LVMH, an all-share deal for €4.3 billion ($6.0 billion), higher than LVMH had offered for any other company. Under the deal, the Bulgari family sold their 50.4 per cent controlling stake in exchange for 3 per cent of LVMH, thereby becoming the second-biggest family shareholder behind the Arnaults in LVMH. The takeover doubled the size of LVMH's watches and jewellery unit, which at the time of the acquisition included Tag Heuer timepieces and De Beers diamond necklaces. The acquisition concluded on 4 October 2011 as Bulgari was delisted from the Borsa Italiana.


title: Bulgari

text: In 2014, Bulgari celebrated the 130th anniversary of the brand. To mark the occasion, the shop at Via Condotti 10 was "reimagined" by the architect Peter Marino, and reopened. On the same day, the brand donated €1.5 million to the city of Rome for the restoration of the Spanish Steps. A few months after the Grand Opening, the DOMVS was inaugurated in the redesigned Bulgari boutique, creating a gallery space to house of Bulgari's Heritage Collection.


title: Bulgari

text: In 2017, Bulgari opened a new jewellery manufacturing headquarters in Valenza. The largest in Europe, with a total area of , the Manufacture has been given a Gold LEED (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design) certification for sustainability in its design. The facility was built over the former home of the first goldsmith in Valenza, Francesco Caramora. The buildings follow the model of a Roman domus, and are built around a central courtyard.


title: Bulgari

text: Bulgari's jewellery collections include "B.zero1", "Divas' Dream", "Serpenti", "BVLGARI BVLGARI", "Parentesi", and a bridal line.


title: Bulgari

text: Bulgari's watches collections include "Octo", "BVLGARI BVLGARI", "Diagono" and "Haute Horlogerie" creations for men, and "LVCEA", "Serpenti", "Divas' Dream", "BVLGARI BVLGARI", "B.zero1" and High Jewellery timepieces for women. It mixes Italian design and Swiss watchmaking. The company's Swiss subsidiary, Bulgari Haute Horlogerie SA, is responsible for Bulgari's watch production. It was founded in 1980 and is headquartered in Neuchâtel. Bulgari Haute Horlogerie SA employs about 500 people.


title: Bulgari

text: Fragrances include "Goldea", "Splendida" and "Omnia" for women, "BVLGARI Man", "Aqua", "the Classics", and "Blv Pour Homme" for men, whilst "BVLGARI Le Gemme" and "Eau Parfumée".


title: Bulgari

text: The creation of Bulgari accessories and leather goods is handled in the Bulgari atelier in Florence, and twice a year presents its collections at Milan Fashion Week.


title: Bulgari

text: In 2001, Bulgari formed a joint venture with The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, a hotel brand owned by Marriott International, to launch Bulgari Hotels & Resorts, a collection of hotels and resort destinations around the world.


title: Bulgari

text: Their distinctive settings and Italian design by the architectural firm Antonio Citterio-Patricia Viel characterise the properties of Bulgari Hotel Group. These are Milan (opened in 2004), Bali (2006), London (2012), Beijing (2017), Dubai (2017), Shanghai (2018) and Paris (2021). Hotels in Moscow, Rome, Tokyo, Miami Beach and Los Angeles are due to open between 2022 and 2025.


title: Bulgari

text: Bulgari has about 300 stores. The largest is the 10-storey Bulgari Ginza Tower in Tokyo, of retail floor space, including a restaurant and lounge bar.


title: Bulgari

text: North American Bulgari boutiques (41 in the US) and distributors are found in Bal Harbour, Beverly Hills, Cabo San Lucas, Chicago, Costa Mesa, Honolulu, Houston, King of Prussia, Las Vegas (4 stores), Los Angeles, New York, Mexico City, Montreal, Orlando, Palm Beach, San Antonio, San Francisco, Westfield Valley Fair, San Jose, California, San Juan, The Mall at Short Hills, Scottsdale, Toronto, Vail and Washington D.C.


title: Bulgari

text: South American Bulgari distributors are found in Bogotá, Lima, Margarita Island, Quito and São Paulo.


title: Bulgari

text: In 2009, Bulgari began a partnership with Save the Children, including a co-branded jewellery collection, of which a portion of the proceeds goes to the charity. As of 2018, Bulgari's contribution has totalled $80 million.


title: Bulgari

text: The Bulgari Art Award is an annual art award in partnership with the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia. Sponsored by Bulgari, the $50,000 acquisitive cash award plus $30,000 residency in Italy is presented to mid-career Australian artists.


title: Nicholas Colasanto

text: Nicholas Colasanto (January 19, 1924 – February 12, 1985) was an American actor and television director who is best known for his role as "Coach" Ernie Pantusso in the American television sitcom "Cheers". He served in the United States Navy during World War II and later attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in the 1950s.


title: Nicholas Colasanto

text: Colasanto attended Bryant University (now located in Smithfield, Rhode Island) and was a decorated veteran of World War II, during which he served as a coxswain in the United States Navy. Around 1954, he intended to work as an accountant for a company in Saudi Arabia. Instead, he attended American Academy of Dramatic Arts. He was of Italian descent.


title: Nicholas Colasanto

text: Colasanto is best known for his role as Coach Ernie Pantusso, a character in the television sitcom "Cheers"; he also directed episodes of many television series, including "Hawaii Five-O", "Starsky & Hutch", "Bonanza", "Columbo", and "CHiPs". He also appeared in feature films, including "The Counterfeit Killer" (1968), "Fat City" (1972), and Alfred Hitchcock's "Family Plot" (1976).


title: Nicholas Colasanto

text: Colasanto was in demand as an actor and director but in the mid-1970s he was diagnosed with heart disease, which was exacerbated by his alcoholism. After twenty years of alcoholism, he became an active member of Alcoholics Anonymous from March 31, 1976, and became sober in the same year. In the late 1970s, he began having difficulty securing directing jobs as his health was declining. His last major film role was as mob boss Tommy Como in "Raging Bull" (1980).


title: Nicholas Colasanto

text: Colasanto was preparing to retire when the role of Coach Ernie Pantusso was offered to him on "Cheers". Coach would become his best known role. By the third season of "Cheers", Colasanto's health had seriously deteriorated. His fellow cast members noticed his weight loss, but Colasanto kept the severity of his illness secret. Shortly after the Christmas holiday in 1984, he was admitted to a local hospital for water in his lungs. Co-star Ted Danson later said Colasanto had difficulty remembering his lines during production of the season.


title: Nicholas Colasanto

text: When Colasanto was released from the hospital in the week of January 28 – February 3, 1985, after a two-week stay, his doctor recommended he should not return to work. Although he appeared in the cold opening of the third-season finale episode "Rescue Me" (1985), Colasanto's last full episode was "Cheerio Cheers" (1985), which was filmed in late November 1984.


title: Nicholas Colasanto

text: Colasanto died of a heart attack at his home on February 12, 1985, at the age of 61. A memorial service was held in North Hollywood, Los Angeles, and attended by the full staff and cast of "Cheers". In addition, over three hundred mourners, including castmate John Ratzenberger, attended the February 16 funeral Mass at Holy Cross Church in Providence. Colasanto is buried in Saint Ann Cemetery in Cranston, Rhode Island.


title: Nicholas Colasanto

text: On April 19, 1985, Colasanto was posthumously awarded the Best Supporting Actor by Viewers for Quality Television, a non-profit organization that determined what was considered high-quality on television.


title: Nicholas Colasanto

text: Colasanto's character was written out of the show as also having died. The fourth-season premiere episode, "Birth, Death, Love and Rice" (1985), deals with Coach's death and introduces Colasanto's successor Woody Harrelson, who played Woody Boyd. Colasanto had hung a picture of Geronimo in his dressing room; after his death it was placed on the wall in the bar of the "Cheers" production set in his memory. Near the end of the final episode of "Cheers" in 1993, eight years after Colasanto's death, bar owner Sam Malone (Ted Danson) walks over to the picture and straightens it.


title: Dogging (sexual slang)

text: Dogging is a British English slang term for engaging in sexual acts in a public or semi-public place or watching others doing so. There may be more than two participants; both group sex and gang banging can be included. As observation is encouraged, voyeurism and exhibitionism are closely associated with dogging. The two sets of people involved often meet either randomly or (increasingly) arrange to meet up beforehand over the Internet.


title: Dogging (sexual slang)

text: In September 2003 BBC News reported on the "new" dogging craze. They cited the Internet and text messaging as common ways of organising meetings. The original definition of dogging—and which is still a closely related activity—is spying on couples having sex in a car or other public place, and the term had been in use on Britain's railways for many years. It would have been well-known at least as far back as 1951.


title: Dogging (sexual slang)

text: There is some evidence on the Internet that the "craze" has begun to spread to other countries, such as the United States, Canada, Australia, Barbados, Brazil, Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, and Sweden.


title: Dogging (sexual slang)

text: In Great Britain, dogging comes under laws related to voyeurism, exhibitionism, or public displays of sexual behaviour. Prosecution is possible for a number of offences such as section 5 of the Public Order Act 1986, exposure under section 66 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003, or for the common law offence of outraging public decency. Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) policy was that arrests are a last resort and a more gradual approach should be taken in such circumstances. As such public sex in some areas of the UK sits in a slightly grey area legally: "…Public sex is a popular—and quasi-legal—activity in Britain, according to the authorities and to the large number of Web sites that promote it. (It is treated as a crime only if someone witnesses it, is offended and is willing to make a formal complaint.) And the police tend to tread lightly in public sex environments, in part because of the bitter legacy of the time when gay sex was illegal and closeted men having anonymous sex in places like public bathrooms were routinely arrested and humiliated."


title: Dogging (sexual slang)

text: The "Sunday Herald" of Scotland wrote in 2003, "The term dogging originated in the early 1970s to describe men who spied on couples having sex outdoors—these men would 'dog' the couples' every move and watch them." An alternative etymology posits dog walking as the origin of the term; audience members, and indeed participants, could use the ordinary exercise of their pets as cover for their sexual assignations.


title: Red Riding Hood (2011 film)

text: Red Riding Hood is a 2011 American romantic horror film directed by Catherine Hardwicke, and produced by Leonardo DiCaprio, from a screenplay by David Leslie Johnson. The film is very loosely based on the folk tale "Little Red Riding Hood" collected by both Charles Perrault under the name "Le Petit Chaperon Rouge" ("Little Red Riding Hood") and several decades later by the Brothers Grimm as "Rotkäppchen" ("Little Red Cap"). It stars Amanda Seyfried as the title role, with Gary Oldman, Billy Burke, Shiloh Fernandez, Max Irons, Virginia Madsen, Lukas Haas and Julie Christie in supporting roles.


title: Red Riding Hood (2011 film)

text: "Red Riding Hood" had its world premiere at Hollywood on March 7, 2011, and was theatrically released on March 11, 2011, by Warner Bros. Pictures. The film received generally negative reviews from critics, with praise for Seyfried's performance but criticism for its plot. It grossed over $89 million worldwide against a $42 million budget.


title: Red Riding Hood (2011 film)

text: Valerie lives with her parents, Cesaire and Suzette, and older sister Lucie in the village of Daggerhorn, on the edge of a forest plagued by a werewolf. She is in love with the woodcutter and childhood friend Peter, but her parents arrange for her to marry Henry, son of the wealthy blacksmith Adrien Lazar. Valerie and Peter plan to elope, only to learn the Wolf has broken its truce not to prey on the townspeople and murdered Lucie.


title: Red Riding Hood (2011 film)

text: The preacher Father Auguste calls upon the famous witch hunter Father Solomon for help, but the townspeople decide to venture into the Wolf's lair. As the village celebrates, Father Solomon declares that the slain animal is a common grey wolf, as the true werewolf would have reverted to human form. Father Solomon's men isolate Daggerhorn and investigate the villagers to find out the Wolf's identity. That night, the Wolf attacks, and the townspeople shelter in the church while Valerie and her friend Roxanne search for Roxanne's autistic brother, Claude. Cornered by the beast, Valerie discovers she is able to understand the Wolf, who threatens to kill Roxanne and destroy the village if Valerie does not leave with him. The Wolf escapes, vowing to return for Valerie's decision.


title: Red Riding Hood (2011 film)

text: The next day, Claude is captured and killed by Father Solomon's men for supposedly practicing black magic. Roxanne reveals that Valerie is able to communicate with the Wolf. Believing Valerie is also a witch, Father Solomon displays her in the town square to lure the Wolf. Henry and Peter help Valerie escape. Henry brings Valerie to the church, where the Wolf bites off Father Solomon's hand with silver-coated fingernails. The villagers shield Valerie from the Wolf, who is again forced to flee after burning its right paw on the church's holy ground. Since Father Solomon has been bitten by the Wolf, the Captain has no choice but to kill him.


title: Red Riding Hood (2011 film)

text: Valerie dreams that the Wolf is her grandmother, and rushes to her nearby cabin, where she finds her grandmother dead and discovers that her father, Cesaire, is the Wolf. He reveals the curse was passed to him by his own father and he intended to leave the village with his children, having killed Lucie after realizing she could not understand him in wolf form and realizing Suzette had conceived her through an affair with Adrien. He asks Valerie to accept the curse, but she refuses. Peter appears and Cesaire bites him and throws him aside. Peter throws an axe into Cesaire's back, allowing Valerie to kill her father. Valerie and Peter fill Cesaire's body with rocks and dump him in the lake in order to protect the secret from the villagers. Peter departs, vowing to return when he has learned to control the curse. Valerie says she will wait for him, and watches him depart.


title: Red Riding Hood (2011 film)

text: In the next few years, Daggerhorn returns to normal; despite Cesaire's death, the people continue to sacrifice livestock to the werewolf, fearful of its return and not knowing it has been killed, while Suzette realizes Cesaire is never coming back, though she remains unaware that Valerie killed him. Henry becomes the next witch hunter, succeeding Father Solomon and becoming a highly honorable man, while Valerie chooses to live in the forest on her own, having become disillusioned with living in Daggerhorn. Finally, one night, Valerie hears something in the woods outside her grandmother's former house that she has moved into. She is then greeted by Peter, transformed into a werewolf and in full control of his abilities, when he returns to be with her. In the ending of the alternate cut, when Valerie sees Peter upon his return, she is holding their baby.


title: Red Riding Hood (2011 film)

text: Under Appian Way Productions, Leonardo DiCaprio, Michael Ireland, Jennifer Davisson Killoran, Alex Mace, and Julie Yorn produced the film. Early into production, the film was originally titled "The Girl with the Red Riding Hood". Due to the fact that Seyfried did not like Fernandez based on a previous encounter at a dinner party, director Catherine Hardwicke had to persuade the actress to give the actor a chance. Principal photography took place in Vancouver from July 21 to September 16, 2010.


title: Red Riding Hood (2011 film)

text: The original release date, set for April 22, 2011, was moved to March 11, 2011. "Red Riding Hood" grossed $14,005,335 in ticket sales over the opening weekend, placing at number #3, behind "" and "Rango". At the end of its run in 2011, the film grossed $37,662,162 in the United States and Canada, and grossed $51,500,000 internationally for a worldwide total of $89,162,162.