Egyptology: The Missing Millennium. Ancient Egypt In Medieval Arabic Writings

by Okasha El-Daly

The Missing Millennium brings together for the first time the disciplines of Egyptology and Islamic Studies, seeking to overturn the conventional opinion of Western scholars that Moslims/Arabs had no interest in pre-Islamic cultures. This book examines a neglected period of a thousand years in the history of Egyptology, from the Moslem annexation of Egypt in the seventh century CE until the Ottoman conquest in the 16th century. Concentrating on Moslem writers, as it is usually Islam which incurs blame for cutting Egyptians off from their ancient heritage, the author shows not only the existence of a large body of Arabic sources on Ancient Egypt, but also their usefulness to Egyptology today. Using sources as diverse as the accounts of travelers and treasure hunters to books on alchemy, the author shows that the interest in ancient Egyptian scripts continued beyond classical writers, and describes attempts by medieval Arab scholars, mainly alchemists, to decipher the hieroglyph script. He further explores medieval Arab interest in Ancient Egypt, discussing the interpretations of the intact temples, as well as the Arab concept of Egyptian kingship and state administration―including a case study of Queen Cleopatra that shows how the Arabic romance of this queen differs significantly from Western views. This book will be of great interest to academics and students of archaeology, Islamic studies and Egyptology, as well as anyone with a general interest in Egyptian history.

Genres: Egypt, History, Nonfiction, Egyptology

258 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

Reviews

[Yossef Ismail · Rating 5 out of 5]

A groundbreaking new stance in the field of Egyptology, the author brilliantly debunks the current view of medieval Arab scholars in regards to their interest with ancient Egypt and unravels many great forgotten scholars and their profound works. This book is an outstanding research that is presented in an easily digestible conversational tone that could be understood by normal history enthusiasts

[DAJ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Egyptology as we know it was created by Europeans in the early 19th century, and Egyptians were shut out of it for far too long. Partly for that reason, and partly because pre-modern Arabic texts are often very hard to obtain, Arabic writers' works on ancient Egypt are largely ignored. At the same time, the efforts of Europeans like Athanasius Kircher to understand ancient Egypt are treated as precursors to true Egyptology, albeit very awkward ones. El-Daly rightly tries to remedy the lack of attention given to Arabic authors, but he ends up overstating his case and crediting those authors with more success than they actually had.

El-Daly does prove that Arab scholars' interest in ancient Egypt has been underestimated, and he has laid the groundwork for future study of their work. His appendices, with a catalogue of Arabic authors and short biographies of the most important ones, will no doubt be useful for that purpose. His general treatment of Arab attitudes toward Egypt is also helpful. He corrects the notion that Muslims were necessarily prejudiced against ancient Egypt because of the mentions of the pharaoh of the Exodus in the Quran. They recognized that the pharaoh of the Exodus was one ruler among many, and the Quran's negative portrayal of him did not prevent Muslim authors from saying complimentary things about other Egyptian kings.

El-Daly also shows that Arab writers had some awareness of Egyptian history, but it was mostly limited to the Late and Ptolemaic periods—the eras that they could draw upon classical authors to understand. In his chapter on Arab understanding of Egyptian science, he devotes a lot of attention to the perception of Cleopatra as a wise scholar, instead of the seductress that modern Western culture often treats her as. But that perception was largely created by alchemical works that used her name, and it bore no more relation to the real Cleopatra than the Western caricature does. Overall, El-Daly cannot avoid showing that the Arab image of ancient Egypt was heavily colored by alchemical and Hermetic folklore, even if there were large elements of truth in it.

Possibly the most slanted section of the book is about efforts to decipher hieroglyphs. Several of the plates at the end of the book show pages from Arabic texts containing hieroglyphs, and some of those pages are tables that attempt to relate hieroglyphs to Arabic letters or to specific meanings. It's difficult to compare what El-Daly says in the chapter on hieroglyphs to these plates, but in the text he seems to be straining to find correct interpretations of glyphs. It's an inescapable conclusion that the Arabic authors were fumbling in the dark, and they were little closer to deciphering hieroglyphs than Athanasius Kircher was. However, they did realize that the language of the hieroglyphs was related to Coptic and that some glyphs had phonetic values.

For now, this is the best single source for Arabic perceptions of ancient Egypt, but readers should evaluate its conclusions carefully.

[Bella Pickford · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very fascinating book I did read it for the chapter on Cleopatra for my dissertation but still had very interesting insights and made me think.