to the Mamluke rule Egypt had been in the hands of the Syrian and
Arabian dynasty founded by Saladdin. The Fatimides, a North African
dynasty, governed the country before the advent of Saladdin, this family
having entered Egypt under their general, Jauhar, who was of Greek
origin. In the ninth century Ahmed ibn Tulun, a Turk, governed the land
with the aid of a foreign garrison, his rule being succeeded by the
Ikhshidi dynasty of foreigners. Ahmed had captured Egypt from the
Byzantines who had held it since the days of the Roman occupation.
Previous to the Romans the Ptolemies, a Greek family, had governed the
Nile Valley with the help of foreign troops. The Ptolemies had followed
close upon the Greek occupation, the Greeks having replaced the Persians
as rulers of Egypt. The Persian occupation had been preceded by an
Egyptian dynasty which had been kept on the throne by Greek and other
foreign garrisons. Previous to this there had been a Persian occupation,
which had followed a short period of native rule under foreign
influence. We then come back to the Assyrian conquest which had followed
the Ethiopian rule. Libyan kings had held the country before the
Ethiopian conquest. The XXIst and XXth Dynasties preceded the Libyans,
and here, in a disgraceful period of corrupt government, a series of
so-called native kings are met with. Foreigners, however, swarmed in the
country at the time, foreign troops were constantly used, and the
Pharaohs themselves were of semi-foreign origin. One now comes back to
the early XIXth and XVIIIth Dynasties which, although largely tinged
with foreign blood, may be said to have been Egyptian families. Before
the rise of the XVIIIth Dynasty the country was in foreign hands for the
long period which had followed the fall of the XIIth Dynasty, the
classical period of Egyptian history (about the twentieth century B.C.),
when there were no rivals to be feared. Thus the Egyptians may be said
to have been subject to foreign occupation for nearly four thousand
years, with the exception of the strong native rule of the XVIIIth