Rivard 1

While the societies of Ancient Egypt and the Ottoman Turks were similar in creating many new things such as building new inventions like the ramp or creating schools, they were different because their societies went in different ways like the Ottomans focused on expanding their empire and the Egyptians focused more on being intellectual.

Their society consisted of three kingdoms (Old, Middle, and New) and about thirty- four different dynasties. The Egyptians were ruled by kings or pharaohs. The earlier rulers were called “Horus-kings”. There were many rulers over the time due to disease, illness, etc. The Egyptians had only the pharaoh to tell what to do and to deal with the people’s problems. Unlike the Egyptians the Ottomans didn’t have as many kings or dynasties. Ottoman had about thirty-six kings over the course of the empire. The sultans ruled for about twenty years. Few sultans ruled twice. Between both civilizations the rulers ruled until their death, some of them did t step down for another ruler to take rule.

Although the people living in Egypt had houses, pets, crops, and jewelry nothing was theirs, the government or the pharaoh owned everything. Bing the pharaoh and a descendant of the god the pharaoh owned everything and practically owned all of ancient Egypt. The pharaoh had many helpers to ensure the empire was well and to ensure that everything was getting done how he wanted it done. To help him was his vizier; the vizier was his right hand man. Everything went to the vizier and was decided by him before it even went to the pharaoh. Both civilizations had very stable government during the time of their empires.

They have similar supreme ruler whether it’s a pharaoh or a supreme ruler. The sultan was the empire’s regent and idea of government, even though complete control wasn’t always exercised. Besides the sultan the imperial harem was on of the most important powers in court. The Ottomans believed that Islam should play a vital role in the government. “Islamic law and ideas formed the basis of society, law, and government (Alkhateeb 10).” With Islam Rivard 2 being a vital role they also believed the sultan could also be known as the caliph which was the highest title in Islam.

“The ancient Egyptian military, like all armies, was a product of the society that created it. Although it was not militarily innovative itself, Egyptian society could be very conservative; and the Egyptian military readily adapted enemy weapons and technologies becoming a powerhouse of the ancient world and one of the great military forces of history

(Goggles1).” They had an ideal position, defended naturally by the geography and their people being cultural and ethnically united; the deserts from all around, Mediterranean from the north, Nile from the south with five cataracts protecting the southern border. Egyptian cities did not even need to have defensive walls. The Egyptians overtime used manly spears, and bows. In the earlier dynasties they used stone maces, copper tipped spears, and bow with flint or obsidian arrows; as secondary weapons they used sticks. As the years went by the

Egyptians reinvented their weapons. They made their bow more compact, used different kind of spears, and started using more metals to make their weapons such as bronze and copper.

When the Hyksos took over Egypt in the Middle Kingdom they used horse drawn chariots which was perceived as the grates military advancement over Egypt. The Hyksos ruled for quite a while during that time the Egyptians learned new military styles from them. “The

Egyptians had learned much from the Hyskos and they reformed their military into that of a first rate power (Goggles1). “ They created a class of Charioteers who shot powerful composite bow from the chariot; spears were used for close combat. Newer swords were being used. Instead of just being a firm organization they were made into professional soldiers. At the end of the Empire the Egyptian army was no match for the Assyrians,

Persians, and the Romans. “The Egyptian military would never again be a great force in the ancient world (Goggles1).” Rivard 3

The Egyptian social structure was simple; the social status was organized like a pyramid with the god-king at the top and the slaves at the end. Below the pharaoh was the upper class of nobles and priests; merchants, tax collectors, scribes, and artisans made up the third highest class. Egyptians were able to move up in classes, but the Ottomans were stuck in the same class because of the skills and the work they did. The Ottoman had four different social classes. The first and highest are the Men of Pen which were highly educated; scientist, lawyers, judges, and doctors. Second, are the Men of Sword, who are the military personnel.

Then, came the Men of Negotiation which were the merchants, artisans and tax collectors.

The lowest are the Men of Husbandry, were the farmers and herders who provided all the food. The similarities of both of these civilizations were that the merchants, artisans, and tax collectors were in the same level in both of the social classes of Ancient Egypt and the

Ottoman Empire.

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Egyptians were very smart people. They were known for creating many things and having various inventions that were never done before. They say that one of the greatest achievements was building the pyramids. The pyramids were built to be dedicated to the dead and some were used to house some of the greatest deceased pharaohs like King Khufu. “The

Egyptians invented and used many basic machines, such as the ramp and the lever, to aid construction processes (Crystal 1).” They mined gold, copper, iron and used them for different things. Egyptians knew how to make glass which was useful for making beads, jars, and rods. They worked with alchemy and metallurgy. They learned how to use plants as medicine and how to create various remedies for various injuries or illness. The mummification process was used to keep their dead from rotting. The Ottomans on the other hand didn’t really create much, but what they did was create madrasas which were colleges. Rivard 4

Education of religion and law was important to the Ottomans. Later, they added medical and astronomy schools. They attempted successful flying attempt with artificial wings.

The Egyptians were a polytheistic religion. Their religion was influenced by tradition.

They believed in as many as seven hundred gods. Pharaoh was considered a descendant from the gods. The four main religions were Heliopolis, Memphis, Hermopolis, and Theban theology. “The Egyptians did have an aberrant period of some form of monotheism during the New Kingdom, in which the pharaoh Akhenaten abolished the official worship of other gods in favor of the sun-disk Aten (Crystalinks 6). “ Atenism was first introduced by

Amenhotep IV. Akhenaten banned idols from. He declared that Aten was the only god to be worshiped and celebrated. There were elaborate beliefs about death and the afterlife. There was belief about a life force humans possessed. They used mythology to tell stories about the gods’ actions and roles.

The Ottomans were a Muslim based empire. They believed in a monotheistic religion.

Although their main religion was Islam they did ensure protection for other religions in the empire. To keep things simple they created the millet system. The millet system is a system where Non-Muslims communities were organized into little nations under the Ottomans rule.

As part of being protected under the millet system, the devshirme system in some part of the empire required to hand over some children as tax. The children were converted to Islam and were served as slaves. Even though it seems traumatic and horrid some considered it to be very privileged.

The Ottoman economy was made of partly trading. They used caravans and ships to carry silk, teas, spices, and porcelain. Russia and the Black Sea came with furs, grain, and amber.

Europe traded mirrors and drugs. Ottomans had inherited Seljuk caravan stops to help protect the caravan trade. They had state supervision to make sure there was no cheating; the kadi Rivard 5 patrolled the markets for cheating. There was a tax on almost every transaction. The government was informed of everything; for example, when an employee left a company they were notified. Their main exports were leather, skins and wool. Many men were engaged in some sort of trade, even the sultan learned one. The Egyptian had many aspects on the economy that made their lives successful. They used trading for their money. The people collected grew or raised things to be sold in the markets. Egyptians trade was made up of trading gold and wheat. The children grew up learning the trade of their family.