traverses the whole city. It is said to have been founded A. D. 973, by one of the generals of Moez, the first of the Fatimite califs, but about two centuries afterwards it was enlarged by Saladin, who surrounded it with walls, when it became the capital of Egypt, and the centre of it's commerce. At the beginning of the 15th century, in consequence of the Saracens having despised and neglected Alexandria, Cairo became the richest and most flourishing city in the whole country, and was not thought to be surpassed by any other city in the world: it was the common storehouse of Asiatic and European commerce, prior to the circumnavigation of the Cape of Good Hope, and it's traffic with other nations extended from the Strait of Gibraltar to the farthest limits of India. Cairo is about eight miles in circuit: the streets are extremely narrow, crooked, dirty, and without pavements, and the widest of them, though it traverses the whole city, would be considered only a lane in Europe. The houses of the poor are nothing but huts, built of mud and unburnt bricks, those of the better sort are of soft stone, two or three stories high, having all flat roofs with terraces of stone or tile. The architectural ornament of the city has been chiefly bestowed upon the mosques, and the tombs of the Mamelukes, some of which are very elegant and magnificent: the castle or citadel is finely situated on a rock of considerable elevation, and is nearly a mile in circuit, but the greater part of it is in a very ruinous condition. Cairo is reckoned the first city in the Ottoman Empire after Constantinople; it contains about 230,000 inhabitants, though there are not wanting accounts which increase it's population to three or four times this number. About two miles to the S. of Cairo stands the town of Old Cairo, now a place of very little consequence, being chiefly inhabited by the Copts who reside in this part of Egypt, and by a few Jews: it was formerly called Fostat, i. e. the tent, from the troops of the Calif Omar having encamped here, in the seventh century, during their conquest of the country. About 64 miles to the Eastward of Grand Cairo, stands Suez, at the head of the Western arm of the Red Sea, called the Sea of Suez, and at the Southern extremity of the Isthmus to which it has communicated it's name, and which forms the connecting boundary between the two continents of Asia and Africa. It was formerly a very flourishing place, being at once the emporium of the trade with India, and the rendezvous of the numberless pilgrims, who, from various parts of the Turkish Empire, resorted to Mecca; hence, though the stationary population was never large, Suez has frequently appeared to contain even more inhabitants than Cairo. It is now a miserable and ruinous place, without walls, and with but few inhabitants; the surrounding country is a complete desert, which makes the town entirely dependent upon Cairo for it's provisions, and it's situation upon the Red Sea is such, that vessels cannot approach it nearer than two miles and a half. 40. Above the Delta, the valuable part of Egypt consists merely of a narrow belt of land, extending on both sides of the Nile, enclosed between two ridges of mountains, and not exceeding fifteen miles in breadth, whilst in some places it does not amount to a tenth part of this extent. The oasis of Faioum, situated to the left or West of the river, forms the only great exception to this: it consists of a valley nearly envi. roned by hills, and containing a lake of some extent, known as the Birket el Keroun, or Quorn, i.e. the Lake of the Horn. This little territory, which was once cultivated like a garden, owed it's exuberant fertility to the waters of the Nile being conducted over it by means of several artificial canals, but these, under the oppressive and tumultuous despotism of the Crescent, have been sadly neglected, and hence much of this once fertile province is rendered totally unproductive. The chief town of the district, also called Faioum, or Medinet el Faioum, is a place of some little importance, though it's ancient wealth and grandeur have entirely disappeared. Es-Siout is situated on the left or Western bank of the Nile, in the midst of a very productive country, and not far from the centre of Egypt. It is a large manufacturing town, but derives most of it's importance from it's being the rendezvous of the caravans which proceed Southwards into the interior of Africa, to Darfur and the Negro kingdoms on the banks of the Nigir. Ghouft, Copht, Keft, or Kuft, as the name is variously written, stands on the Eastern bank of the Nile, at that part of it's course where it approaches nearest to the Red Sea. It was anciently called Coptos, and was the great point of communication between the river and the Arabian Gulf, goods being landed and shipped at the port of Berenice upon the shores of the latter it has now, however, fallen into decay and comparative insignificance, most of the commerce with the Red Sea having been transferred to the neighbouring town of Gheneh. In the early times of Christianity, this city became famous as the great resort of the new converts in times of persecution, but it is said that they were compelled to retire to the grottoes of the neighbouring mountains, to avoid the remorseless fury of the savage Diocletian. Cosseir the great port on the Red Sea, by means of which the communica tion is kept up between Egypt and the continent of Asia, lies to the Eastward of Ghoft, at a distance of about 70 miles: it is an inconvenient and neglected place, deriving what little consequence it possesses from the constant transit of passengers and merchandize, and is situated in such a barren country, that it's inhabitants obtain many of the means of life from the opposite coast of Arabia. The border town of Egypt towards Nubia is Es-Souan, the ancient Syene: it stands on the right or Eastern bank of the Nile, a little below the Cataractes Minor, now called Es Shellaale, and is an inconsiderable place, possessing much less strength and fewer means of defence, than it's situation on the frontiers appears to demand. CHAPTER XXIX. ETHIOPIA, ET LIBYA INTERIOR. 1. Ethiops was the term used by the Greeks to denote every thing which excessive heat had rendered of a very dark colour; and hence they applied the appellation to black men, calling them Æthiopes, and their country Ethiopia, precisely in the same way that we name them Negroes, and their country Negro-land, or Nigritia. The name of Ethiopes became therefore a common one for all the people South of Mauretania, Numidia, Africa, and Egypt, those towards the Atlantic being distinguished as so situated, or as the Hesperii Æthiopes, whilst those to the S. of Egypt caused their territory to be named Æthiopia sub Egypto. The country inhabited by the Western Ethiopians was in general called Libya Interior; and though it never altogether lost it's ethnic appellation, yet this was more especially applied in the later ages to the Southernmost part of the continent known to the ancients, and which they called Æthiopia Interior. 2. The Greeks were acquainted at a very early period with the existence of Æthiopians or Black men2; they are mentioned by Homer in several places, and The Toraμòç Aidio is explained by Schutz, and other commentators, as the Nigir See also Notes 10 and 15, infra. 3 Ζεὺς γὰρ ἐπ' Ὠκεανὸν μετ ̓ ἀμύμονας Αἰθιοπῆας IL. A. 423. Κιτριν appear to have been frequently met with by their colonists of Asia Minor, not only in Egypt, but in Phoenicia, and this may be partly the reason why some have called the latter country Ethiopia: it must however be recollected that they found Ethiopians in various parts of the world, as in the contiguous parts of Persia and India. Hence the name of Cush is sometimes rendered in our translation of the Bible by Æthiopia, alluding to the Asiatic Ethiopia, or parts of Arabia and Persia, and not to the country we are describing. The colour of the Ethiopians was imagined by the ancients to be caused by the excessive heat of a vertical sun, or by it's rising and setting immediately in their neighbourhood; and as they were unable to imagine ordinary men capable of bearing such a heat without being destroyed by it, they gave full play to the fancies of their mythology, and placed here the regions of the happy Macrobii. They maintained the Ethiopians to have been the first inhabitants of the earth, and to have been a far nobler and juster race than the rest of mankind; it was amongst them that the gods lived prior to their mounting to higher and happier regions, and they were the first to pay worship to the deities: it was for this reason that their country was supposed never to have been invaded by an enemy, and they themselves to be annually honoured by the gods descending from Heaven to feast among them". Their lives were protracted to a very late period, whilst their size and strength were equal to the other great qualities with which they were endowed. And though many of these fables lost much of their wonder, as the countries to which they related became gradually known, yet they were not altogether thrown aside; the power which the priests maintained in Egyptian Ethiopia, contributed not a little to the connection which was supposed to exist between them and the deities of Olympus, and they carefully preserved the tradition, which had been recorded of the gods coming to feast amongst them, by preparing a nightly banquet for them near the Altar of the Sun, and setting it out with all the pomp and parade with which magistracy could adorn it. It was in this manner that the ancients connected the fables of their mythology with actual experience, until they were compelled to remove their happy Macrobii farther Southwards into unknown regions: but the attention which had been drawn to this country remained fixed, so that whenever Æthiopia is spoken of, it may generally be referred to that portion of it which lies to the S. of Egypt, and the capital of which, owing to the great power of the priests there, was affirmed to be Meroe. 3. Sesostris, king of Egypt, is said to have invaded Ethiopia about 300 years before the Trojan war, and, after having completely reduced it under his dominion, and erected a monument commemorating his victories, to have sailed down the Arabian Gulf into the Erythræan Sea, and prosecuted his conquests along the Southern coasts of Africa, till the dangers of the ocean compelled him to return. Some centuries after this, the Ethiopians in their turn invaded Egypt under the conduct of their prince Sabacus, and kept possession of it for 50 years, but they at last returned peaceably to their own country. In the course of time the ancients found that Æthiopia contained two kingdoms, namely, Meroe and Auxumis, now Sennaar and Abyssinia, besides the independent Nuba or Nubians towards the frontiers of Egypt; and that sometimes the one, sometimes the other, of these two great powers was the ruling one, until the fall of Meroe in the first century, after Κύπρον, Φοινίκην τε καὶ Αἰγυπτίους ἐπαληθεὶς, Καὶ Λιβύην, ἵνα τ' ἄρνες ἄφαρ κεραοὶ τελέθουσι. Οd. Δ 84. In which last passage Homer carefully distinguishes the Æthiopians from the other Libyans. See also Note 1. 4 Nec si, cùm moriens altâ liber aret in ulmo, Virg. Ecl. X. 68. Lucan. III. 253. Æthiopumque solum, quod non premeretur ab ulla * See quotation from Homer, Il. A. 423, in Note 3, supra. which they looked upon Auxume as the only capital of the country. In the same manner that the Nile during it's course through Egypt was considered for a long time as forming the boundary between Asia and Libya, it also divided Ethiopia into Libyan on the West side, and Arabian on the East: this division arose partly from the same cause which obtained in Egypt, namely, the occupation of the country by two distinct races of people. The Arab tribes were found there, as they are now, inhabiting most of the districts between the Red Sea and the Nile, whilst to the W. of this great river the Libyan people, properly so called, were first met with. 4. ETHIOPIA SUB EGYPTO was bounded on the N. by Egypt, on the E. by the Arabian Gulf and Erythræan Sea, on the S. by the Terra Incognita, and on the W. by the deserts of Libya Interior: it corresponded with the modern divisions of Nubia, Sennaar, and Abyssinia, together with parts of Kordofan and Darfur. Immediately to the S. of Egypt commenced the great kingdom of MEROE, extending Southwards to the frontiers of the Axomitæ, or Abyssinians, Eastward to the Red Sea, and Westward to the Libyan Desert, thus comprehending a tract of country far larger than that of Egypt: it's greatest length was about 750 miles, and it included the modern states of Nubia and Sennaar. 5. Nothing is known with any certainty concerning the origin of this powerful and remarkable kingdom, for it's reputed foundation by Cambyses, king of Persia, who is said to have named the city after his mother, or sister, Meroe, is known to be erroneous: neither he nor his troops were able to proceed farther than a fifth part of the distance towards the metropolis, letting alone the grand object of his expedition being the subjection of this already powerful kingdom. It had been flourishing for many centuries before this, and it's foundation may be carried back to an exceedingly remote period, since the oracle of Jupiter Ammon in the Libyan Desert was founded there by the priests of Thebes in union with those of Meroe. Hence it may be fairly inferred that the latter city possessed even in this early age (about 1800 years B. c.), considerable influence and very high cultivation, for it's priests to be associated in such an undertaking with those of the great metropolis of Egypt. The same circumstance tends also to show, that the inhabitants of Meroe and the Egyptians were probably only one race of people; this is farther proved by their worshipping the same deities, adopting the same laws and customs, excelling same arts and sciences, using the same written language (viz. that of the hierogly phics, which were otherwise intelligible only to the Egyptian priests), and erecting the same massive temples, obelisks, palaces, and colossal figures, with which the lower course of the Nile is so wonderfully and singularly adorned. Indeed, it seems by no means improbable, from the connection which existed between Thebes and Meroe, that the latter might have derived all it's importance, if not it's origin, from the Egyptian capital. The early expedition of Sesostris into Ethiopia may possibly have some allusion to this circumstance; and the subsequent power obtained over the whole of Egypt by the Ethiopian prince Sabacus, may likewise refer to the intimate connection existing between the two states, without which it seems difficult to account for his so easily making himself master of such a powerful the Late tibi gurgite rupto Ambitur nigris Meroe fecunda colonis, Claudian de III. Cons. Honor. 21. Lucan. X. 303 country, ruling it in so excellent a manner, and finally voluntarily retiring from it into his own territory. 6. A college of priests dedicated to the service of the gods, whose assistance they received by means of an oracle, ordered and governed every thing in Meroe: the king of the country was always chosen from amongst them, but whilst he possessed the sovereign power, and could punish the guilty with death, his own authority could be withdrawn from him at the command of the gods, and he himself deprived of his life. The government otherwise was by no means tyrannical. The superiority which the learning of the priests gave them over their own immediate subjects, and which the latter from their progress in the arts and in civilization possessed over other nations, was not displayed in any acts of cruelty or oppression: the gentle, but strong and effectual sway which they held over the neighbouring Nomadic tribes was not disputed, and the simple barbarians readily submitted to the yoke, which seemed imposed on them by the highest powers of the universe, and which brought with it so many enjoyments hitherto unknown to them. It was thus that the priests of Meroe maintained a power almost unlimited over all the surrounding people, and obtained by their situation on the great road leading from the interior of the continent to Egypt, considerable commercial importance. In time of war they were able to bring 250,000 armed men into the field, and the extent of their wealth may be traced in the enormous masses of architecture, with which they adorned their country, and the ruins of which, even after the lapse of so many ages, time has not yet been able to destroy. They appear to have preserved the most friendly relations with Egypt, from which country they subsequently borrowed many of their arts and institutions, and which they are (though untruly) said to have again repaid by first teaching mankind the sciences of astronomy and astrology. After the Persians had reduced Egypt under their dominion, they endeavoured, but in vain, to extend their conquests to Ethiopia; they subdued a small portion of the territory of Meroe, which through all succeeding ages was considered as an appendage to Egypt, but proceeded no farther in their expedition than Premnis Parva: it was owing to it's remaining under the Persian dominion, that the Ethiopians of this district followed the army of Xerxes in his grand attack on the liberties of Greece. From this time all friendly intercourse ceased between Egypt and Meroe until the time of the first Ptolemies, when it was again renewed with mutual ardour, and brought on at length the ruin of the latter power. For Ergamenes, one of it's kings, learning from the Greeks during the reign of Ptolemy Philadelphus, that the princes of other countries governed their subjects with absolute authority, entirely uncontrouled by the ministers of the temple, fell suddenly upon the whole college of priests in the Golden Temple of Meroe, and having murdered them all, became henceforward unfettered in his will and in the execution of the laws. From this period the accounts concerning Meroe are few and imperfect. It's connection with Egypt was at once irrecoverably destroyed by the insidious stratagem of its murderous monarch; and the country, now unsustained by that power which had at first called it into life, and afterwards preserved it through all it's strength and glory, was distracted by a series of revolutions, to which it finally fell a prey, from which time it disappeared from the notice of history. The Ptolemies became acquainted with the Axomitæ from the voyages which they made to the Red Sea, and obtained from them most of that merchandize with which the people of Meroe had hitherto supplied them. 7. The whole territory of Meroe became once more inhabited by a number of wan dering tribes, each governed by it's own head, though occasionally acknowledging the supremacy of a queen; these tribes formed the collective nation of the Nuba, some of whom had never been subject to the sceptre of that great kingdom, upon the ruins of which they now raised their own barbarous power. The Nubæ have given 7 His simul, inmitem testantes corpore solem, Sil. Ital. III. 269. |