Ancient Egypt

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Joseph Manning, Beyond the Pharaohs. Wall Street Journal, Mar 19, 2011.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704893604576200393350126576.html?mod=WSJ_Books_LS_Books_8
(book review on Toby Wilkinson, The Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt; The History of a civilization from 3000BC to Cleopatra. London: Bloomsbury (2010) and Manhattan: Random House (2011))

Quote:

"Known as the Saite period (ca. 650-525 B.C.) because the Egyptian capital was located at Sais in the western Nile Delta, this period saw the first Greek merchants and soldiers arrive in Egypt, the introduction of coinage and (as Herodotus tells us) the circumnavigation of Africa.

"After the death of Cleopatra, Egypt would not be the center of empire again until the Fatimids in the 10th century A.D., when Cairo became a leading light of the Islamic world.


Note:
(a) Rosetta Stone
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosetta_Stone
(inscribed with a decree issued at Memphis, Egypt in 196 BC on behalf of King Ptolemy V; in three scripts: hieroglyphs, demotic script, and Ancient Greek; rediscovered there in 1799 by a soldier of the French expedition to Egypt;  British defeated French in Egypt in 1801 and borught the Stone to British Museum)
(b) Sneferu
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sneferu
(a reign from around 2613 BC to 2589 BC,[4] a reign of 24 years?)
(c) Hyksos. Encyclopedia Britannica.
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/279251/Hyksos
(a series of Hyksos kings ruled northern Egypt as the 15th dynasty (c. 1630–1523 BCE); Hyksos was in fact probably an Egyptian term for '"rulers of foreign lands"; The Hyksos introduced the horse and chariot, the compound bow, improved battle axes, and advanced fortification techniques into Egypt)

(i) For "fl," see List of Latin abbreviations
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Latin_abbreviations
(fl. or flor. (floruit) means the period of time during which a person, school, movement or even species was active or flourishing (literally, "he/she/it flourished"))

* flourish (vi; Latin florēre, from flor-, flos flower)

All English definitions are from www.m-w.com.
(ii) dynast (n; Latin dynastes, from Greek dynastēs, from dynasthai to be able, have power):
"RULER"

(d) Battle of Kadesh
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Kadesh
(took place between the forces of the Egyptian Empire under Ramesses II and the Hittite Empire under Muwatalli II at the city of Kadesh on the Orontes River, in what is now the Syrian Arab Republic; probably the largest chariot battle ever fought, involving perhaps 5,000–6,000 chariots;
Result The Egyptian pharaoh claimed victory; tactical: Pyrrhic Egyptian victory)
(e) mail (n; Middle English maille metal link, mail, from Anglo-French, from Latin macula spot, mesh): "armor made of metal links or sometimes plates"
(f) conflate (vt; Latin conflare to blow together, fuse, from com- + flare to blow):
"to bring together : FUSE"
(g) Chartres Cathedral
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chartres_Cathedral
(a Catholic cathedral located in Chartres, about 80 kilometres (50 mi) southwest of Paris; considered one of the finest examples of the French High Gothic style; The current cathedral, mostly constructed between 1193 and 1250)
(h) Fatimid Caliphate
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatimid_Caliphate
(Capital Mahdia (909-969), Cairo (969-1171); Religion Shia Islam)

* caliph (n: Arabic khalīfa successor): "a successor of Muhammad as temporal and spiritual head of Islam —used as a title"
* Fāṭimid Dynasty. Encyclopedia Britannica.
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/202580/Fatimid-Dynasty
(It took its name from Fāṭimah, the daughter of the Prophet Muḥammad, from whom the Fāṭimids claimed descent)

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