Egyptian Greeks

Herodotus visited ancient Egypt in the 5th century BC and claimed that the Greeks were one of the first groups of foreigners that ever lived there.

154), King Psammetichus I (664–610 BC) established a garrison of foreign mercenaries at Daphnae, mostly Carians and Ionian Greeks.

From the time of Psammetichus I onwards, Greek mercenary armies played an important role in some of the Egyptian wars.

[8] The initial objective of Ptolemy's reign was to establish firm and broad boundaries to his newly acquired kingdom.

The last Pharaoh was a Greek princess, Cleopatra VII, who took her own life in 30 BC, a year after the battle of Actium.

[11] Faiyum's earliest Greek inhabitants were soldier-veterans and cleruchs (elite military officials) who were settled by the Ptolemaic kings on reclaimed lands.

[12][13] Native Egyptians also came to settle in Faiyum from all over the country, notably the Nile Delta, Upper Egypt, Oxyrhynchus and Memphis, to undertake the labor involved in the land reclamation process, as attested by personal names, local cults and recovered papyri.

[22][23] Victor J. Katz notes that "research in papyri dating from the early centuries of the common era demonstrates that a significant amount of intermarriage took place between the Greek and Egyptian communities".

At the end of the 18th century, Ottoman Egypt was home to a small community of Egyptian Greeks who numbered from under a thousand to 5000 people.

[28] Many Greek Muslims from Crete (often confusingly called Cretan Turks) were resettled in Egypt, Libya, Lebanon, and Syria by Sultan Abdul Hamid II after the Greco-Turkish War of 1897 that resulted in the autonomy of Crete (see the example of al-Hamidiyah, a largely Cretan Greek Muslim village in Syria).

Notable families in tobacco commerce were the Salvagos (Σαλβάγκος), Benakis (Μπενάκης), Rodochanakis (Ροδοχανάκης) and Zervoudachis (Ζερβουδάκης).

Other areas of interest for the Greeks in Egypt were foods, wine, soap, wood crafts, printing.

Major Greek newspapers were Ta grammata (Τα Γράμματα), Tachydromos (Ταχυδρόμος), and Nea Zoe (Νέα Ζωή).

During the Balkan Wars, the Greek communities of Egypt sent volunteers, funded hospitals, and accommodated families of the soldiers.

[34] The emergence of a Greek aristocracy of rich industrialists, merchants and bankers created the legacy of Greek-Egyptian philanthropism.

These benefactors donated large amounts for the building of schools, academies, hospitals and institutions in both Egypt and Greece.

With the establishment of the new sovereign regime of Gamal Abdel Nasser, rise of Pan-Arab nationalism, and the subsequent nationalisation of many industries in 1961 and 1963, thousands of Greek employees decided to emigrate.

Many Greek schools, churches, small communities and institutions subsequently closed, but many continue to function to this day.

The Nasser regime saw a big exodus of the Greeks from Egypt, but most of the minority left the country either before or after the period 1952–1970.

The Arab-Israeli wars of 1956 and 1967 contributed to the uprooting of the sizeable Greek community in the Suez Canal cities, especially Port Said.

Saint Nicholas church in Cairo and several other buildings in Alexandria have been recently renovated by the Greek Government and the Alexander S. Onassis Foundation.

During the last decade, there has been a new interest from the Egyptian government for a diplomatic rapprochement with Greece and this has positively affected the Greek Diaspora.

As of 2010, Egypt has received major Greek investments in banking, tourism, paper, the oil industry, & many others.

In 2009, a five-year cooperation-memorandum was signed among the NCSR Demokritos Institute in Agia Paraskevi, Athens and the University of Alexandria, regarding Archeometry research and contextual sectors.