Editing Alexandria (section)

==History==
{{Main|History of Alexandria}}
{{For timeline}}

===Ancient era===
[[Radiocarbon dating]] of seashell fragments and lead contamination show human activity at the location during the period of the [[Old Kingdom (Egypt)|Old Kingdom]] (27th–21st centuries BC) and again in the period 1000–800 BC, followed by the absence of activity after that.<ref name="VéronGoiran2006">{{cite journal |last1=Véron |first1=A. |last2=Goiran |first2=J. P. |last3=Morhange |first3=C. |last4=Marriner |first4=N. |last5=Empereur |first5=J. Y. |title=Pollutant lead reveals the pre-Hellenistic occupation and ancient growth of Alexandria, Egypt |journal=Geophysical Research Letters |volume=33 |issue=6 |year=2006 |issn=0094-8276 |doi=10.1029/2006GL025824 |bibcode=2006GeoRL..33.6409V |s2cid=131190587 |url=https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-02116119/file/ark%20_67375_WNG-VLGZ1B8Q-W.pdf |access-date=16 October 2021 |archive-date=18 July 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210718101056/https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-02116119/file/ark%20_67375_WNG-VLGZ1B8Q-W.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> From ancient sources it is known there existed a trading post at this location during the time of [[Rameses the Great]] for trade with [[Crete]], but it had long been lost by the time of Alexander's arrival.<ref name="PollardReid2007"/> A small Egyptian fishing village named [[Rhacotis|Rhakotis]] ([[Egyptian language|Egyptian]]: {{transliteration|egy|rꜥ-qdy.t}}, 'That which is built up') existed since the 13th century BC in the vicinity and eventually grew into the Egyptian quarter of the city.<ref name="PollardReid2007"/> Just east of Alexandria (where [[Abu Qir Bay]] is now), there were in ancient times marshland and several islands. As early as the 7th century BC, there existed important port cities of [[Canopus, Egypt|Canopus]] and [[Heracleion]]. The latter was recently rediscovered underwater.
Alexandria was founded by [[Alexander the Great]] in April 331 BC as {{lang|grc|Ἀλεξάνδρεια}} ({{transliteration|grc|Alexandreia}}), as [[List of cities founded by Alexander the Great|one of his many city foundations]]. After he captured the [[Thirty-first Dynasty of Egypt|Egyptian Satrapy]] from the [[Achaemenid Empire|Persians]], Alexander wanted to build a [[Polis|large Greek city]] on Egypt's coast that would bear his name. He chose the site of Alexandria, envisioning the building of a causeway to the nearby island of [[Pharos]] that would generate two great natural harbours.<ref name="PollardReid2007"/> Alexandria was intended to supersede the older [[Colonies in antiquity|Greek colony]] of [[Naucratis]] as a [[Hellenistic civilization|Hellenistic]] center in Egypt and to be the link between Greece and the rich [[Nile]] valley. A few months after the foundation, Alexander left Egypt and never returned to the city during his life.[[File:Plan of Alexandria c 30 BC Otto Puchstein 1890s EN.svg|thumb|Plan of Alexandria ({{circa|30&nbsp;BC}})|left]]

After Alexander's departure, his [[viceroy]] [[Cleomenes of Naucratis|Cleomenes]] continued the expansion. The architect [[Dinocrates of Rhodes]] designed the city, using a [[Hippodamian]] [[grid plan]]. Following Alexander's death in 323 BC, his general [[Ptolemy I Soter|Ptolemy Lagides]] took possession of Egypt and brought Alexander's body to Egypt with him.<ref>O'Connor, Lauren (2009) "The Remains of Alexander the Great: The God, The King, The Symbol", ''Constructing the Past'': Vol. 10: Iss. 1, Article 8</ref> Ptolemy at first ruled from the old Egyptian capital of [[Memphis, Egypt|Memphis]]. In 322/321 BC he had Cleomenes executed. Finally, in 305 BC, Ptolemy declared himself [[Pharaoh]] as Ptolemy I Soter ("Savior") and moved his capital to Alexandria.

Although Cleomenes was mainly in charge of overseeing Alexandria's early development, the {{transliteration|grc|[[Heptastadion]]}} and the mainland quarters seem to have been primarily [[Ptolemaic dynasty|Ptolemaic]] work. Inheriting the trade of ruined [[Tyre, Lebanon|Tyre]] and becoming the centre of the new commerce between Europe and the [[Arabian Peninsula|Arabian]] and Indian East, the city grew in less than a generation to be larger than [[Carthage]]. In one century, Alexandria had become the largest city in the world and, for some centuries more, was second only to Rome. It became Egypt's main Greek city, with [[Greeks|Greek people]] from diverse backgrounds.<ref>{{cite journal |first=Andrew |last=Erskine |journal=Culture and Power in Ptolemaic Egypt: The Museum and Library of Alexandria |title=Greece & Rome, 2nd Ser. |volume=42 |issue=1 |date=April 1995 |pages=38–48 [42] |quote=One effect of the newly created Hellenistic kingdoms was the imposition of Greek cities occupied by Greeks on an alien landscape. In Egypt, there was a native Egyptian population with its own culture, history, and traditions. The Greeks who came to Egypt, to the court or to live in Alexandria, were separated from their original cultures. Alexandria was the main Greek city of Egypt and within it, there was an extraordinary mix of Greeks from many cities and backgrounds.}}</ref>

The [[Septuagint]], a Greek version of the [[Tanakh]], was produced there. The early Ptolemies kept the city in order and fostered the development of its museum into the leading Hellenistic centre of learning ([[Library of Alexandria]], which faced destruction during [[Julius Caesar|Caesar]]'s [[Siege of Alexandria (47 BC)|siege of Alexandria]] in 47 BC), but were careful to maintain the distinction of its population's three largest ethnicities: Greek, [[Egyptians|Egyptian]] and Jewish.<ref name="Culture and Power in [[Ptolemaic Egypt]] p. 42-43">{{cite journal |first=Andrew |last=Erskine |title=Culture and Power in Ptolemaic Egypt: the Museum and Library of Alexandria |journal=Greece & Rome |volume=42 |issue=1 |date=April 1995 |pages=38–48 |doi=10.1017/S0017383500025213 |s2cid=162578339 |url=https://www.research.ed.ac.uk/en/publications/0250d217-8139-4aca-8a8e-8a701b81b9a2 |quote=The Ptolemaic emphasis on Greek culture establishes the Greeks of Egypt with an identity for themselves. [...] But the emphasis on Greek culture does even more than this – these are Greeks ruling in a foreign land. The more Greeks can indulge in their own culture, the more they can exclude non-Greeks, in other words Egyptians, the subjects whose land has been taken over. The assertion of Greek culture serves to enforce Egyptian subjection. So the presence in Alexandria of two institutions devoted to the preservation and study of Greek culture acts as a powerful symbol of Egyptian exclusion and subjection. Texts from other cultures could be kept in the library, but only once they had been translated, that is to say Hellenized.{{pb}}[...] A reading of Alexandrian poetry might easily give the impression that Egyptians did not exist at all; indeed Egypt itself is hardly mentioned except for the Nile and the Nile flood, [...] This omission of the Egypt and Egyptians from poetry masks a fundamental insecurity. It is no coincidence that one of the few poetic references to Egyptians presents them as muggers. |access-date=16 October 2021 |archive-date=10 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220510035202/https://www.research.ed.ac.uk/en/publications/culture-and-power-in-ptolemaic-egypt-the-museum-and-library-of-al |url-status=live |hdl=20.500.11820/0250d217-8139-4aca-8a8e-8a701b81b9a2 |hdl-access=free }}</ref> By the time of [[Augustus]], the city grid encompassed an area of {{cvt|10|km2}},<ref>Hanson and Ortman, A systematic method for estimating the populations of Greek and Roman settlements November 2017, Journal of Roman Archaeology 30(1):301-324</ref> and the total population during the Roman [[principate]] was around 500,000–600,000, which would wax and wane in the course of the next four centuries under Roman rule.<ref>{{Cite journal |jstor=284172 |title=The Population of Roman Alexandria |journal=[[Transactions of the American Philological Association]] |volume=118 |pages=275–292 |last1=Delia |first1=Diana |year=1988 |doi=10.2307/284172}}</ref>

According to [[Philo of Alexandria]], in the year 38 AD, disturbances erupted between Jews and Greek citizens of Alexandria during a visit paid by King [[Agrippa I]] to Alexandria, principally over the respect paid by the Herodian nation to the [[Roman emperor]], which quickly escalated to open affronts and violence between the two ethnic groups and the desecration of Alexandrian synagogues. This event has been called the [[Alexandrian riots (38)|Alexandrian pogroms]]. The violence was quelled after [[Caligula]] intervened and had the Roman governor, Flaccus, removed from the city.<ref>Philo of Alexandria, [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Philo/in_Flaccum*.html Against Flaccus] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220510035154/https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Philo/in_Flaccum%2A.html |date=10 May 2022 }}.</ref>

[[File:PhareAlexandrie.jpg|thumb|The [[Lighthouse of Alexandria]] on coins minted in Alexandria in the second century (1: reverse of a coin of [[Antoninus Pius]], and 2: reverse of a coin of [[Commodus]])]]In 115 AD, large parts of Alexandria were destroyed during the [[Diaspora revolt]], which gave [[Hadrian]] and his architect, [[Decriannus]], an opportunity to rebuild it. In 215 AD, the emperor [[Caracalla]] visited the city and, because of some insulting [[satire]]s that the inhabitants had directed at him, abruptly commanded his troops to put to death all youths capable of bearing arms. On 21 July 365 AD, Alexandria was devastated by a [[tsunami]] ([[365 Crete earthquake]]),<ref name="Ammianus Marcellinus, 26.10.15-19">[[Ammianus Marcellinus]], [http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/ammianus_26_book26.htm#C10 "Res Gestae", 26.10.15–19] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080317083507/http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/ammianus_26_book26.htm#C10|date=17 March 2008 }}</ref> an event annually commemorated years later as a "day of horror".<ref>Stiros, Stathis C.: "The AD 365 Crete earthquake and possible seismic clustering during the fourth to sixth centuries AD in the Eastern Mediterranean: a review of historical and archaeological data", ''Journal of Structural Geology'', Vol. 23 (2001), pp. 545–562 (549 & 557)</ref>

===Islamic era===
In 619, Alexandria [[Sassanid conquest of Egypt|fell]] to the [[Sassanid Empire|Sassanid Persians]]. The city was mostly uninjured by the conquest and a new palace called ''Tarawus'' was erected in the eastern part of the city, later known as Qasr Faris, "fort of the Persians".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Butler |first=Alfred J. |url=http://archive.org/details/arabconquestofeg029678mbp |title=The Arab Conquest Of Egypt |date=1902 |publisher=Oxford At The Clarendon Press. |others=Osmania University, Digital Library Of India}}</ref> Although the [[List of Byzantine emperors|Byzantine emperor]] [[Heraclius]] recovered it in 629, in 641 the Arabs under the general [['Amr ibn al-'As]] invaded it during the [[Muslim conquest of Egypt]], after a [[Siege of Alexandria (641)|siege]] that lasted 14 months. The first Arab governor of Egypt recorded to have visited Alexandria was [[Utba ibn Abi Sufyan]], who strengthened the Arab presence and built a governor's palace in the city in 664–665.<ref>{{cite book |last=Kennedy |first=Hugh |author-link=Hugh N. Kennedy |title=Cambridge History of Egypt, Volume One: Islamic Egypt, 640–1517 |chapter=Egypt as a Province in the Islamic Caliphate, 641–868 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |editor-last=Petry |editor-first=Carl F. |location=Cambridge |year=1998 |isbn=0-521-47137-0 |pages=62–85 [69] |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=y3FtXpB_tqMC&pg=PA62 |access-date=11 May 2019 |archive-date=18 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210418011516/https://books.google.com/books?id=y3FtXpB_tqMC&pg=PA62 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Bruning |first1=Jelle |title=The Rise of a Capital: Al-Fusṭāṭ and Its Hinterland, 18-132/639-750 |date=2018 |publisher=Brill |location=Leiden and Boston |isbn=978-90-04-36635-0 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cGdjDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA50 |pages=50–52 |access-date=11 May 2019 |archive-date=4 February 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200204111251/https://books.google.com/books?id=cGdjDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA50 |url-status=live }}</ref>

In reference to Alexandria, [[Ibn Battuta]] speaks of a number of [[Muslim saints]] that resided in the city. One such saint was Imam Borhan Oddin El Aaraj, who was said to perform miracles. Another notable figure was Yaqut al-'Arshi, a disciple of [[Abu al-Abbas al-Mursi|Abu Abbas El Mursi]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |author=Ibn Batuta |title=The travels of Ibn Battuta in the Near East, Asia and Africa 1304–1377 |date=2009 |publisher=Cosimo |isbn=9781605206219 |location=New York |translator=Lee, Samuel |oclc=502998972}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=McGregor |first=Richard J. A. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rxTfHzlVrX0C&pg=PA33 |title=Sanctity and Mysticism in Medieval Egypt: The Wafāʼ Sufi Order and the Legacy of Ibn al-ʿArabī |publisher=State University of New York Press |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-7914-6011-5 |pages=33 |language=en}}</ref> Ibn Battuta also writes about Abu 'Abdallah al-Murshidi, a saint that lived in the Minyat of Ibn Murshed. Although al-Murshidi lived in seclusion, Ibn Battuta writes that he was regularly visited by crowds, high state officials, and even by the Sultan of Egypt at the time, [[al-Nasir Muhammad]].<ref name=":0" /> Ibn Battuta also visited the Pharos lighthouse on two occasions: in 1326 he found it to be partly in ruins and in 1349 it had deteriorated to the point that it was no longer possible to enter.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Clayton |first1=Peter A. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IQSBAAAAQBAJ&q=Ibn+battuta+pharos&pg=PA155 |title=The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World |last2=Price |first2=Martin |date=21 August 2013 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=9781136748103 |access-date=8 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210302191906/https://books.google.com/books?id=IQSBAAAAQBAJ&q=Ibn+battuta+pharos&pg=PA155 |archive-date=2 March 2021 |url-status=live |via=Google Books}}</ref>[[File:Alexandrie et phare.jpg|thumb|Alexandria in the late 18th century, by [[Luigi Mayer]]]]During the [[Middle Ages]], the [[Mamluk Sultanate]] provided amenities for European merchants to stay in the port cities of Alexandria and [[Damietta]], so [[hotel]]s were built and placed at the merchants' disposal so that they could live according to the pattern they were accustomed to in their country. Alexandria lost much of its importance in international trade after [[Portugal|Portuguese]] navigators discovered a new sea route to [[India]] in the late 15th century. This reduced the amount of goods that needed to be transported through the Alexandrian port, as well as the Mamluks' political power.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://en.unesco.org/silkroad/content/alexandria |title=Silk Roads Programme: Alexandria |publisher=[[UNESCO]] |access-date=August 9, 2023 }}</ref> After the [[Battle of Ridaniya]] in 1517, the city was conquered by the [[Ottoman Turks]] and remained under [[Egypt Eyalet|Ottoman rule]] until 1798. Alexandria lost much of its former importance to the Egyptian port city of [[Rosetta]] during the 9th to 18th centuries, and it only regained its former prominence with the construction of the [[Mahmoudiyah Canal]] in 1820.{{Citation needed|date=June 2023}}[[File:Louis-François Cassas, Alexandrie, nommée par les Arabes, Eskanderyeh.jpg|thumb|left|Map of the city in the 1780s, by [[Louis-François Cassas]]]]

Alexandria figured prominently in the military operations of [[Napoleon]]'s [[French Campaign in Egypt and Syria|expedition to Egypt]] in 1798. French troops stormed the city on 2 July 1798, and it remained in their hands until the arrival of a British expedition in 1801. The British won a considerable victory over the French at the [[Battle of Alexandria (1801)|Battle of Alexandria]] on 21 March 1801, following which they [[Siege of Alexandria (1801)|besieged the city]], which fell to them on 2 September 1801. [[Muhammad Ali of Egypt|Muhammad Ali]], the Ottoman governor of Egypt, began rebuilding and redevelopment around 1810 and, by 1850, Alexandria had returned to something akin to its former glory.<ref>"Modern"{{cite web |url=http://library.thinkquest.org/C0111760/modern.htm |title=The History of Alexandria|url-status=dead|access-date=24 May 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130524173744/http://library.thinkquest.org/C0111760/modern.htm|archive-date=24 May 2013}}</ref> Egypt turned to Europe in their effort to modernise the country. Greeks, followed by other Europeans and others, began moving to the city. In the early 20th century, the city became a home for novelists and poets.<ref name="FPAl"/>[[File:Bombardamento Alessandria 1882.jpg|thumb|Bombardment of Alexandria by [[Royal Navy|British naval forces]] (1882)]]In July 1882, the city came under [[Bombardment of Alexandria|bombardment]] from British naval forces and was occupied.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://digitalcollections.aucegypt.edu/cdm/landingpage/collection/p15795coll9 |title=Bombardment of Alexandria|access-date=11 September 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121113130102/http://digitalcollections.aucegypt.edu/cdm/landingpage/collection/p15795coll9|archive-date=13 November 2012|url-status=live}}</ref>

In July 1954, the city was a target of an Israeli bombing campaign that later became known as the [[Lavon Affair]]. On 26 October 1954, Alexandria's Mansheya Square was the site of a failed assassination attempt on [[Gamal Abdel Nasser]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.nmhtthornton.com/mehistorydatabase/nasser_assassination_attempt.php|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100105055521/http://www.nmhtthornton.com/mehistorydatabase/nasser_assassination_attempt.php|archive-date=5 January 2010 |title=Nasser Assassination Attempt, October 26, 1954|url-status=dead|access-date=24 May 2013 |first=Ted |last=Thornton |website=Middle East History Database}}</ref>

Europeans began leaving Alexandria following the 1956 [[Suez Crisis]] that led to an outburst of [[Arab nationalism]]. The nationalisation of property by Nasser, which reached its highest point in 1961, drove out nearly all the rest.<ref name="FPAl" />