332 BCAlexander the Great, of ancient Macedonia, conquers Egypt, founds Alexandria. A Macedonian dynasty rules until 31 BC.31 BC- Egypt comes under Roman rule; Queen Cleopatra commits suicide after Octavian's army defeats her forces.33 AD- Christianity comes to Egypt, and by 4th century has largely displaced Egyptian religion.642- Arab conquest of Egypt.969- Cairo established as capital.1250-1517- Mameluke (slave soldier) rule, characterised by great prosperity and well-ordered civic institutions.1517- Egypt absorbed into the Turkish Ottoman empire.During the initial Islamic invasion in 639 AD, Egypt was ruled at first by governors acting in the name of the Patriarchal Caliphs (632-661) and the Righteous Caliphs, and then by the Ummayad Caliphs in Damascus. After the Ummayads were overthrown in 747, the power of the Arabs in Egypt slowly began to weaken.

While Egypt remained under the nominal control of the Abbasid Caliphate in Baghdad, local rulers in Alexandria and Cairo were able to establish quasi-independent dynasties, the prominent being the Ismaili Shi'a Fatimid dynasty from Tunisia, which conquered Egypt in 969 and established its capital at Cairo. This dynasty lasted until 1174, when Egypt came under the rule of Saladin, whose dynasty, the Ayyubids, lasted until 1252.

The Ayyubites were overthrown by their Turkish bodyguards, known as the Mamluks, who ruled in Cairo under the protection of the Abbasid Caliphs until 1517, when Egypt was seized by the Turkish army of the Ottoman Sultan Selim I and became part of the Ottoman Empire.

Yet Egypt proved a difficult province for the Ottoman Sultans to control and remained dominated by the semi-autonomous Mamluks under Ottoman suzerainty until 1789, when the French army under Napoleon swept through the region and conquered Egypt.

Storia dellEgitto MameluccoAlla morte dell'ultimosultanoayyubide,al-Slih Ayyb, ucciso dai suoi stessiMamelucchi, il capo di questi ultimi,Al-Muizz Izz ad-Dn Aybak, assunse il potere, prima comeatabeg(tutore) dell'eredeal-Mu'azzam Turnshhancora impubere, poi direttamente attraverso il matrimonio con lavedovaShajar al-Durr, instaurando cos una nuova epoca nel governo dell'Egitto.Il sultanato mamelucco inizi presto un conflitto con laSiria, ma dovettero presto assistere alla crescente minaccia costituita daiMongoli:Baybarse il sultanoQutuzriuscirono a sconfiggere nel1260l'armata delKhanHulagunellabattaglia di Ayn Jlt, conquistando l'intera Siria, ad esclusione dei residui degliStati crociati. La distruzione diBaghdadda parte dei Mongoli, inoltre, consent ai Mamelucchi di mettere le mani sulcaliffato abbaside: da quel momento, infatti, i califfi, rifugiatisi al Cairo, rimasero sotto il controllo dei Sultani d'Egitto, conferendo a questi ultimi un enorme prestigio nel mondo islamico.Nel1291KhalilpreseAcri, l'ultima delle citt crociate, mentre sotto il sultanato della dinastiaBahriIl Cairosi trasformava da misera cittadina in una delle maggioricapitalidel mondo islamico.Nel1347, tuttavia, l'incredibile sviluppo economico e politico venne bruscamente arrestato dal diffondersi in Egitto dellaMorte Nera.Nel1377, poi una rivolta partita dalla Siria port al potere la dinastiacircassadelBurji, che presero definitivamente Il Cairo nel1390.I nuovi signori dell'Egitto passarono quindi a scontrarsi con il potente impero diTamerlano, procedendo poi nella conquista diCipro.Le epidemie dipeste bubbonicacontinuarono tuttavia a piagare a ondate l'Egitto sino agli inizi delCinquecento, minandone le capacit, definitivamente colpite sul finire delQuattrocentodalla crisi dei commerci provocata dalla scoperta delle nuove rotte circumafricane aperte daiportoghesiche, intercettando direttamente inIndiaedArabiale preziosespezieeseteorientali, inaridirono gli empori mediterranei ed in particolareAlessandria d'Egitto, con gravi ripercussioni sui commerci con lerepubbliche marinareitaliane.Il 20 gennaio1517gliOttomanidiSelim Isconfissero i Mamelucchi, conquistando e sottomettendo Il Cairo e l'Egitto ed assumendo il califfato.Tuttavia i Mamelucchi rimasero la classe dirigente dell'Egitto anche sotto i nuovi dominatori, rimanendo al potere in qualit divassallidell'Impero Ottomano.Origin[edit]Al-Salih Ayyub (124049), the last of the Ayyubid sultans, imported a vast number of slave boys from Central Asia and Caucasus, those who became known as Mamluks.[11]Mamluks, the title which translates to "owned slaves" distinguished this group fromgaryaandghulam, which referred to household slaves. After thorough training in various fields such as martial arts, court etiquette and Islamic sciences, these slaves were freed. However, they were still expected to remain loyal to their master and serve his household. The Mamluks, who continued to be called freedmen, were equipped with the most advance Eastern military technology. Such technology included stirrups and the Turkish re-curved composite bow, which were used to defeat lumbering crusader knights.[11]Rise to power[edit] Mamluk regiments constituted the backbone of the Egyptian military under theAyyubid Dynasty. Eachsultan, and high-rankingemirhad his private corps, and the Sultanas-Salih Ayyub(r. 12401249) had especially relied on this means to maintaining power. His mamluks, numbering between 800 and 1,000 horsemen, were called the Bahris, after the Arabic wordbahr(), meaning sea or large river, because their barracks were located on the island of Rawda in the Nile. They were mostly drawn from among theCumans-Kipchakswho controlled the steppes north of theBlack Sea,[12]andCircassiansandGeorgiansof theCaucasusregion. Mamluks in the empire retained a particularly strong sense of Cuman identity, to the degree that the biography of SultanBaibarsfocused on his birth and early years in Desht-i-Kipchak ("Steppe of the Kipchaks"/Cumania). The historian Dimitri Korobeinikov relates how Baibars story sums up the tragic fate of many Cumans after theBattle of Kalka Riverand theMongol invasion of Europe. Roman Kovalev states that this story can further be seen as a mechanism for the preservation of a collective memory broadly reflecting a sense of Cuman identity in theMamluk Sultanate.[13]In 1249Louis IX of Franceled acrusadeon an invasion of Egypt, capturingDamiettaand then proceeding slowly southward. As they advanced, as-Salih Ayyub died and was succeeded by his sonal-Muazzam Turanshah, but before Turanshah could arrive at the front, the Bahri mamluks defeated the crusaders at theBattle of Al Mansurahand captured Louis, effectively ending the crusade. Turanshah proceeded to place his own entourage and especially his own mamluks, called Mu`azzamis, in positions of authority to the detriment of Bahri interests. Four weeks after Louis' capture, on May 2, 1250, a group of Bahris assassinated Turanshah.[14]Wars with Mongols and Crusaders[edit]Main article:Mongol invasions of SyriaFollowing the death of Turanshah a ten-year period of political instability in Egypt and Syria ensued as various factions competed for control. In 1254, when a rival faction under the leadership ofQutuzbecame powerful, most of the Bahris fled Cairo and took service with Ayyubidamirsin Syria. Meanwhile, theMongolsunder the command ofHulaguinvaded the Middle East in force. They sackedBaghdadin 1258 and proceeded westward, capturingAleppo, andDamascus. Qutuz and the Bahris agreed to put aside their differences to face the common threat. They met a contingent of Mongols at theBattle of Ain Jalutand defeated them. With the Mongol threat temporarily over, rivalries among the mamluks revived, andBaibars, a leading Bahri, assassinated Qutuz and claimed the sultanate.Change in regime[edit]Main article:Burji dynastyBy the late fourteenth century,Circassiansfrom theNorth Caucasusregion had become the majority in the Mamluk ranks.[15]In 1377 a revolt broke out in Syria which spread to Egypt, and the government was taken over by the CircassiansBarakahandBarquq; In 1382 the last Bahri SultanAl-Salih Hajjiwas dethroned, thus ending the Bahri dynasty, and Barquq was proclaimed sultan. Barquq was expelled in 1389 but recaptured Cairo in 1390. Permanently in power he founded what came to be called the Burji dynasty.[16]

Military organization[edit]On a general level, the military during the Bahri dynasty can be divided into several aspects1.Mamluks: the core of both the political and military base, these slave soldiers were further divided into Khassaki (comparable to imperial guards), Royal Mamluks ( Mamluks directly under the command of the Sultan) and regular Mamluks (usually assigned to localAmirs).2.Al-Halqa: the primarily free born professional forces, they are also directly under the sultan's command.3.Wafidiyya: These are Turks and Mongols that migrated to the dynasty's border after the Mongol invasion, typically given land grants in exchange for military service, they are well regarded forces.4.Other levies: PrimarilyBedouintribes, but also on different occasions also different groups ofTurkomansand other settled Arabs.Medieval Cairon 1250 slave soldiers, known as theMamluks, seized control of Egypt and like many of their predecessors established Cairo as the capital oftheir new dynasty. Continuing a practice started by the Ayyubids, much of the land occupied by former Fatimid palaces was sold and replaced by newer buildings.[24]Construction projects initiated by the Mamluks pushed the city outward while also bringing new infrastructure to the centre of the city.[25]Meanwhile, Cairo flourished as a centre ofIslamic scholarshipand a crossroads on thespice traderoute among the civilisations inAfro-Eurasia. By 1340, Cairo had a population of close to half a million, making it the largest city west ofChina.[26]Equipment[edit]Turkish Bow[edit]TheTurkish bowis arecurvedcompositebowused in theOttoman Empire. The construction is similar to that of other classic Asiaticcomposite bows, with a wooden core (maple was most desirable), animal horn on the belly (the side facing the archer), and sinew on the front, with the layers secured together withAnimal glue. However, several features of the Turkish bow are distinct. The curvature tends to be more extreme when the bow is unstrung, with the limbs curling forward into the shape of the letter "C". With some bows, the rigid tips of the limbs ("kasan") even touch. The grip area is not recessed like other Asianic bows and is fairly flat on the belly, while the front of the grip bulges outwards.The dramatic curvature of the bows makes stringing them very different from straighter bows found in Europe. There is an old saying in Turkey that there are "120 ways to string a bow," though the most common methods involve sitting on ground with one's feet pressed against the grip. Heavier bows usually require the use of a long, looped strap called a "kemend" to pull the limbs back and hold them while the string is seated.[3]For many years the excellence of Turkish bows could be seen from historical records. In 1910 an archery contest was held on the beach atLe Touquet, France, whereIngo Simonwas able to shoot an arrow 434 m using an old Turkish composite bow requiring a force of 440N or 99lb.[4]Zihgir[edit]Main article:Thumb ringZihgiris the Turkish word for thethumb ringused todraw the bowin the Ottoman Empire. Turkish thumb rings were made of wood, metal, ivory, bone, horn or leather. These rings signified that the person wearing them was a warrior. In time they became a symbol of prestige in Ottoman society, and some later examples have so much ornamentation on the surface from which the bowstring slides that they could not be used to shoot with. Surviving examples are often made of precious metals and richly decorated. Some are carved from precious stones.Siper and Majra[edit]Thesiperandmajraare devices used to draw arrows past the bow's front limb where the arrow would normally rest. The siper is a type of shelf strapped to the archer's bow hand, which allows the archer to pull the bow back to extreme lengths in order to get the maximum amount of force behind the arrow. They are most commonly used for Flight Archery, to achieve the greatest distance. The Majra is a thin piece of wood with a channel cut in it and small loop for the archer's draw hand. The device allows the archer to pull back arrows that are much shorter than were intended for the bow. There is some debate among historians if this device was designed to shoot arrows that were too short for the enemy to pick up and shoot back, or if it was a way to reuse bolts fired by Chinese crossbowmen. In modern times they are primarily used in Flight Archery to shoot shorter arrows to cut down on weight.Technique[edit]Like many other Eastern archery styles, Turkish archery uses a "thumb draw," employing a type of grip called "mandal." This grip prevents the arrow from moving if the archer is on a horse and/or firing at an unusual angle. The draw itself is relatively short, usually under the chin or by the cheek, compared to archery styles in China or Japan where the nock is pulled past the head. When the arrow is released, the draw arm is kept relatively steady rather than allowing the arm to swing backwards.Turkish archers developed several unique techniques to aid in combat. One was the practice of holding several arrows in between the fingers of the draw hand, allowing fast repeat shots. Another was "Jarmakee" which involves drawing the bow with the draw arm going behind the head so as the fire at a steep downward angle. This was used to fire from atop walls down at enemy troops.

TheCoptic Orthodox Church of Alexandriais the official name for the largestChristianchurch inEgyptand the Middle East.[1]According to tradition, the church was established bySaint Mark, anapostleandevangelist, in the middle of the 1st century (approximately AD 42).[2]The head of the church and theSeeof Alexandria is thePatriarch of Alexandria on the Holy See of Saint Mark. The See of Alexandria is titular and nowadays the Coptic Pope seat isSaint Mark's Coptic Orthodox Cathedralin theAbbassiaDistrict inCairo.The Church belongs to theOriental Orthodoxfamily of churches, which has been a distinct church body since theschismfollowing theCouncil of Chalcedonin AD 451, when it took a different position overChristologicaltheology from that of theEastern Orthodox Church. The precise differences in theology that caused the split with the Coptic Christians are still disputed, highly technical, and mainly concerned with thenature of Christ. The foundational roots of the Church are based in Egypt, but it has a worldwide following.Administrative divisions of the Coptic Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria[edit] 7Metropolises, out of which 5Metropolisesare inEgypt, 1Metropolisin theNear Eastand 1Metropolisesin Europe; served by 3Metropolitan Archbishopsand 4Metropolitan Bishops; out of the 7 Hierarchs, 1Metropolitan Archbishopis in theNear East, 1Metropolitan ArchbishopinEgyptand 1Metropolitan Archbishopis inThe United Kingdom, while all 4Metropolitan Bishopsare inEgypt. 69Dioceseswith 49Diocesan Bishopsare inEgypt, 10Diocesan Bishopsare in Europe, 4Diocesan Bishopsare in North America, 2Diocesan Bishopsare in South America, 2Diocesan Bishopsare inSudanand 2Diocesan Bishopsare in Australia. 4Suffragan Dioceses, with 2Suffragan Bishopin Europe and 2Suffragan Bishopin North America. 3Auxiliary Bishopsfor 3DiocesesinEgypt. 11Assistant BishopsinEgyptfor 11Suffragan Dioceseswithin anArchdioceseunder the Pope's jurisdiction; 10Patriarchal Exarchates, with 2Patriarchal Exarchsin Africa, 1Patriarchal Exarchsin North America, 3Patriarchal Exarchsin Europe and 4Patriarchal Exarchsin Egypt. 14Bishop Abbotsfor 12 Patriarchal Monasteries inEgypt, 1 Patriarchal Monastery in Australia and 1 Patriarchal Monastery in Germany 2General Bishops, Patriarchal Emissary at large inEgyptand abroad. 4General Bishops, Administrators ofPatriarchal InstitutionsinEgypt. 1Hegumenin the capacity ofGrand Economos,Patriarchal VicarforAlexandria. 1HegumenasAdministrative Patriarchal VicarforCairo.

IpaziaEpimaco di Pelusio

S Giovanni ElemosinarioDeath and grave[edit]He died inCyprussomewhere between 616 and 620, and his body was moved toConstantinople, then in 1249 toVenice. Another relic of him was sent by SultanBayezid IIin 1489 to KingMatthias Corvinusof Hungary. It was placed in the privateRoyal ChapelinBuda Castlewhich was dedicated to him. Now his body lies in theSt. John the Merciful Chapelin theSt. Martin's CathedralinBratislava,Slovakia.A biography was written by his contemporaryLeontios of Neapolis. There is a church dedicated to him inVenice, theChiesa di San Giovanni Elemosinario, but his relics are preserved in another church,San Giovanni in Bragorain a separate chapel. A church inCospicua, Malta is also dedicated to him, and one of the bastions of theSanta Margherita Linesin the same city is also named after him.[3]ParabolaniHistory[edit]Theparabalanihad neither orders nor vows, but were enumerated among the clergy and enjoyed clerical privileges and immunities. In addition to performing works of mercy they constituted a bodyguard for the bishop. Their presence at public gatherings or in the theatres was forbidden by law. At times they took a very active part in ecclesiastical controversies, as at theSecond Council of Ephesus. They received their name from the fact that they were hospital attendants, although the alternate nameparabolanialso became current, because they risked their lives ( , parabllesthai tn zn) in exposing themselves to contagious diseases.It has been asserted, though without sufficient proof, that the brotherhood was first organized during the great plague inAlexandriain the episcopate ofPope Dionysius of Alexandria(second half of the 3rd century). Though they were chosen by the bishop and always remained under his control, theCodex Theodosianusplaced them under the supervision of the governor of Egypt (thepraefectus augustalis).Theparabalaniwere believed to have had a share in the murder of the Alexandrian philosopher and scientistHypatiain 415.[2]Because their fanaticism resulted in riots, successive laws limited their numbers:[1]thus a law issued in 416 restricted the enrollment inAlexandriato 500, a number increased two years later to 600.[3]InConstantinoplethe number was reduced from 1100 to 950.[4]Theparabolaniare not mentioned afterJustinian's time.[citation needed]

Circa 3 giorni