The Nile, The Sahara, Lower Egypt
The Capsian culture is often identified by historical linguists as having brought the ancestor of the modern Berber languages to North Africa. From around 1000 B.C. to c.730 BC when the Nubian king Piye conquered (Upper) Egypt, this area was ruled by the High Priests of Amun. There were a number of differences between Upper and Lower Egyptians in the ancient world. They spoke different dialects, and had different customs, needs and interests. Many people who lived in Upper Egypt lived close to the Nile because of their low amounts of rain.
Two of the first human civilizations began in the Mediterranean area. The northernmost part of the Rift forms the Beqaa Valley in Lebanon separating the Lebanon Mountains and Anti-Lebanon Mountains. Hellenic civilization acquired placenames signifying east-west probably in lieu of the Nile River Valley first and as far as Magna Graecia. The Nile ends in a large delta that empties into the Mediterranean Sea.
The inhabitants of North Africa are generally divided in a manner roughly corresponding to the principal geographic regions of North Africa: the Maghreb (north of the Sahara Desert and west of the Nile), the Nile Valley, and the Sahara (second largest desert after Antarctica). The northern section of the Nile river flows almost entirely through desert, from Sudan into Egypt, a country whose civilization has depended on the river since ancient times.
The NILE VALLEY through northern Sudan traces its origins to the ancient civilizations of Egypt and Kush centered in the region of Nubia. The first developed societies showed up in Nubia before the time of the Kurgan culture and the First dynasty of Egypt (3100-2890 BCE). Around 2500 BCE, Egyptians began moving south. Expansion was halted by the fall of the Middle Kingdom of Egypt til about 1500 BCE and the region became a colony of Egypt under the control of Thutmose I, whose army ruled from a number of sturdy fortresses. A second period of urbanization, known as the Ganges civilization, began about 1500 BC. In the eleventh century BCE internal disputes in Egypt caused colonial rule to collapse and an independent kingdom arose based at Napata in Nubia.
KUSH kingdom was ruled by locals who overthrew the colonial regime; a kingdom was united by Alara in the period of around 780-755 BCE. When the Assyrians invaded in 671 BCE, Kush became, once again, an independent state. The last Kushite king to attempt to regain control over Egypt was Tantamani who was firmly defeated by Assyria in 664 BCE. After the fall of the Armenian kingdom in 428 CE, most of Armenia was incorporated as a marzpanate within the Sassanid Empire. In the 6th century BCE, the inhabitants of Guilan (such as the Gil Gilanshah and Daylam) allied with Cyrus the Great and overthrew the Medes.
The name given this civilization comes from the Old Testament where Cush was one of the sons of Ham who settled in Northeast Africa. The Bible attributes the name to Canaan, the son of Ham and the grandson of Noah. In the Bible and archaically a large region covering northern Sudan, southern Egypt, and parts of Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Somalia were known as Cush.
The Egyptians over the centuries have shifted their language from Egyptian to modern Egyptian Arabic (both Afro-Asiatic) which originated in the Nile Delta in Lower Egypt around the capital Cairo, while retaining a sense of national identity that has historically set them apart from other people in the region. Most Egyptians are Sunni Muslim and a significant minority adheres to Coptic Christianity which has strong historical ties to the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. In Nubia, straddling Egypt and Sudan, a significant population retains the ancient Nubian language but has adopted Islam. The northern part of the Sudan is home to the, largely, Arab Muslim population, but further down the Nile Valley, the culturally distinct world of the largely non-Muslim Nilotic and Nuba peoples begins. Sudan is the largest and most diverse of all North African countries.
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The diverse peoples of the SAHARA are usually categorized along ethno-linguistic lines. In the Maghreb, where Arab and Berber identities are often integrated. The people of the Maghreb and the Sahara speak various dialects of Berber and Arabic, and almost exclusively follow Islam. The Arabic and Berber groups of languages are distantly related, both being members of the Afro-Asiatic family. Arabic-speaking Northwest Africans, regardless of ethnic background, often identify with Arab history and culture and may share a common vision with other Arabs. Berber political and cultural activists for their part, often referred to as Berberists, may view all Northwest Africans as principally Berber. The Arabs and Islam arrived in North Africa in 640 A.D. By 670, most of North Africa had fallen to Arab rule. The Berbers subsequently started to form their own kingdoms in response to this threat in places such as Fez, Morocco, and Sijilimasa.
Over the years, Berber peoples have been influenced by other cultures of the Peninsula with which they came in contact: Nubians, Greeks, Phoenicians, Egyptians, Ethiopians, Romans, Vandals, Arabs, and lately Europeans. The cultures of the Maghreb and the Sahara therefore combine indigenous Berber, Arab and elements from neighboring parts of Africa and beyond. In the Sahara, the distinction between sedentary oasis inhabitants and nomadic Bedouin and Tuareg is particularly marked. North Africa formerly had a large Jewish population, many of whom emigrated to France or Israel when the North African nations gained independence. A smaller number went to Canada.