The Civilizations of Egypt and Mesopotamia - Essay Example

THE CIVILIZATIONS OF EGYPT AND MESOPOTAMIA INTRODUCTION: Mesopotamia is known as the cradle of civilization. It has achieved a reputation as the birthplace of many of the attributes of western civilization. Mesopotamia was the first home of the biblical Abraham, the land of some of the earliest cities and states in the world; it is famous for the law codes of its kings, for agriculture and for the invention of writing. Its name is derived from a Greek word meaning “the land between the rivers”: which are the alluvial plains of the Tigris and the Euphrates, including large parts of the modern countries of Iraq and Syria. Like Mesopotamia, Egypt was also dominated by a major river: the Nile, which was central to its life (Pollock, 1999). DISCUSSION: Political Outlook of the Civilizations of Egypt and Mesopotamia: According to Trigger (2003), city-states in Mesopotamia, after successfully resisting incoporation into larger political systems for more than fifteen hundred years, were not transformed into territorial states, but absorbed into regional kingdoms. Unlike a hegemonic city-state system, the “Inka” empire was organized as a series of provinces ruled by the Inka upper class. Governorships were not allowed to become hereditary. Provinces were governed from administrative centres which were new foundations. Local rulers who in the central highlands were mostly descended from the hereditary chiefs, administered largely rural populations. Their executive powers were subject to the approval of the provincial governor. To reduce the power of conquered groups, they were sent as colonists to far-off regions of the Inka state, and replaced by reliable settlers from older parts of the kingdom (Patterson, 1987). In contrast to the situation in Mesopotamia, where urban development played a prominent role in shaping the civilization, most people in ancient Egypt continued to live in small, largely self-sufficient villages. Although the reasons for this are complex and include fundamental differences in political organization (Trigger, 2003), the greater uniformity and stability of natural resources and correspondingly lower risks associated with agriculture in Egypt were significant (Wenke, 1989). In Mesopotamia, political entities were most often small-scale competitive polities rather than centralized regional states (Pollock, 1999). Politically centralized territorial entities were the exception rather than the rule, and most were of short duration. Contrastingly, in Egypt, after the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt around the end of the fourth millennium, it remained a politically centralized state comprising of a great geographical area, for most of its history, states Wenke (1989). Economic and political changes, whether sudden or gradual, caused profound impact on the everyday lives of the citizens, observes Pollock (1999). Dekmejian (1971: 81) states that “the Egyptians are confirmed simplifiers and unifiers of history, without tolerance for complicated, diverse or pluralistic interpretations of the subject”. The ideological compulsion and commitment to the pan-Arab state of the future, shapes present actions and recasts the past. Fahmy (2002 :65) observes that the inherent contradictions embodied in the constitution highlight the weakness of the Egyptian political system and accentuate the gap between theoretical ideals and practical realities. It is observed that a study of the three branches of Egyptian political system: the executive, the legislative and the judicial and their inter-relationships also shows up contradictions in the system. In Mesopotamia, the local systems of power and authority coexisted with and often resisted centralized governments, as observed by the organization of the great estates of temples and palaces. As political fortunes changed over time, social institutions were permeable and individuals played varied and multiple roles, reducing risks, cooperating and competing. Within a Mesopotamian cultural sphere, there was interaction of autonomous city states (Yoffee, 1995). Intellectual Outlook of the Civilizations of Egypt and Mesopotamia: Speiser (1969) states that the oldest known historic civilizations evolved in Egypt and Mesopotamia. Intellectual and social progress in these two centers kept pace with material developments. The dynamic character of both civilizations and the consequent exchange of vital innovations and inventions between them is noteworthy. Available evidence focuses on Mesopotamia as the oldest center of scientific observation permanently recorded. This activity includes diverse fields such as education and language study, jurisprudence, and the mathematical and natural sciences. The interrelating common factor is a concept of society where the powers of the state are restricted and the rights of the individual receive emphasis. It is significant that under the opposed order of authoritarian Egypt, early scientific development differed in scope as well as in degree, although notable in fields such as medicine and engineering. It lacked the balanced expansion that was observed in contemporary Mesopotamia. In early Mesopotamia there were forces which tended to promote intellectual progress. The results constituted the first recorded evidence of scientific performance known to us today. Significant Mesopotamian inventions include the early forms of engineering, architecture and geometry. The scientific notations on the earliest tablets from Lower Mesopotamia, the ancient Sumer, constitute not only the first evidence of intellectual activity in Sumer, but also the oldest recorded effort of this type from anywhere in the world (Speiser, 1969). These contain lists of related entries, which are destined to be copied repeatedly, and in more than one country. Actual samples of such copies have been found in Mesopotamia and Susa by archaeologists. According to Speiser (1969), the immediate ancestor of Mesopotamian writing was the cylinder seal, the Sumerian’s mark of ownership. This gives a clear indication of a strongly developed sense of private property and of individual rights and initiative. The astounding achievements in Mathematics and Linguistics by Mesopotamia has no adequate counterpart in Egypt. This is attributed to the advancement in Mesopotamian writing, though Egyptian writing was of an equally high level. Kemp (1991) observes that an appreciation of the Egyptian mode of thinking is essential to the correct evaluation of texts which are records of history. The abstracting powers of the Egyptian mind created an ordered and harmonious myth world from common and probably rather humble experience. The result which was full of familiar names of places, etc, belonged to a higher plane and hovered between reality and abstraction. Ancient texts and scenes reflect an intellectual aesthetic; and symbolic geography was the product of an imaginative people, and cannot be used for historical reconstruction. Influence of Geography on the Religious Outlooks of Mesopotamia and Egypt: It is observed that since Mesopotamia and Egypt are situated on either side of Saudi Arabia, their geographical location has influenced the prevalence of Islam as the main religion in both these places, though other religions such as Christianity are also exist in these places. There is considerable similarity of Islam with Christianity; for instance, Moses was an ancient Egyptian (Assmann, 1997). The interrelatedness and diffusion of religions is clear from similar religious stories such as the event of the flood given in the Bible, which occurs in Egyptian mythology in a different form. According to Johnston (2004), in polytheistic religions such as in Egypt the spheres of cult and justice are carefully separated: justice is for humans and cult is for the Gods and the dead. On the other hand, according to the Bible, they are emphatically connected. God does not want sacrifice, but justice, which becomes the most promising way of fulfilling the will of God. This led to the still wide-spread conviction that justice and morals were brought into the world only by monotheism, and could not be maintained without it. The sun-gods (Shamash in Mesopotamia, Re in Egypt), watched over the keeping of the laws and acted as judges. No god other than Allah ever acted as legislator. The idea of justice is divine but the formulation and promulgation of specific laws is the task of the king. In Egypt the laws were never codified, and Mesopotamia had law books but no law codes. Every new king was free to promulgate his own laws and was not bound to an existing legislation. According to Bottero (1995), in contrast to ancient Egypt, the indirect but geneological connections of the ancient Mesopotanian civilization with the current times, is observed. The religion had a structure that was coherent and logical and a system that integrated with the local civilization. CONCLUSION: A study of the political, intellectual and religious outlooks of Egypt and Mesopotamia highlights the similarities in the two civilizations, as well as the significant disparities. These ancient societies which formed the foundation of present-day society, are vital for understanding the origins of intellectual development, political planning and religious beliefs and practices. REFERENCES Assmann, Jan. (1997). Moses the Egyptian: The Memory of Egypt in Western Monotheism. The United States of America: Harvard University Press. Bottero, Jean. (1995). Mesopotamia: Writing, Reasoning and the Gods. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Dekmejian, Hrair. (1971). Egypt Under Nasir: A Study in Political Dynamics. New York: Suny Press. Fahmy, Ninette S. (2002). The Politics of Egypt: State Society Relationship. The United States of America: RoutledgeCurzon. Johnston, Sarah Iles. (2004). Religions of the Ancient World: A Guide. The United States of America: Harvard University Press. Kemp, Barry John. (1991). Ancient Egypt: Anatomy of a Civilization. The United States of America: Routledge. Patterson, T.C. (1987). “Tribes, Chiefdoms and Kingdoms in the Inca Empire” in Patterson, T.C. and Gailey, C.W. (Eds.), 1987, Power Relations and State Formation. Washington, DC: Publication of the Archaelogy Section, American Anthropological Association. Pollock, Susan. (1999). Ancient Mesopotamia: the eden that never was. New York: Cambridge University Press. Speiser, E.A. (1969). “Some Sources of Intellectual and Social Progress in the Ancient Near East” in Leland, Waldo Gifford’s Studies in the History of Culture: The Disciplines of the Humanities. The United States of America: Ayer Publishing. Trigger, Bruce G. (2003). Understanding Early Civilizations: A Comparative Study. United States of America: Cambridge University Press. Wenke, Robert. (1989). “Egypt: Origins of Complex Societies”. Annual Review of Anthropology, 1989, Vol.18: pp.129-155. Yoffee, Norman. (1995). “Political Economy in Early Mesopotamian States”. Annual Review of Anthropology, 1995: pp.281-311. Read More