Military Leaders From Egypt

"When his majesty saw them, he was enraged against them, like his father, Montu, lord of Thebes. He seized the adornments of battle, and arrayed himself in his coat of mail. He was like Baal in his hour. Then he betook himself to his horses, and led quickly on, being alone by himself. He charged into the foes of the vanquished chief of Kheta, and the numerous countries which were with him. His majesty was like Sutekh, the great in strength, smiting and slaying among them; his majesty hurled them headlong, one upon another into the water of the Orontes."

"This king, said the priests, set out with a fleet of long ships​ from the Arabian Gulf and subdued all the dwellers by the Red Sea, till as he sailed on he came to a sea which was too shallow for his vessels. After returning thence back to Egypt, he gathered a great army (according to the story of the priests) and marched over the mainland, subduing every nation to which he came. When those that he met were valiant men and strove hard for freedom, he set up pillars in their land whereon the inscription showed his own name and his country's, and how he had overcome them with his own power; but when the cities had made no resistance and been easily taken, then he put an inscription on the pillars even as he had done where the nations were brave; but he drew also on them the privy parts of a woman, wishing to show clearly that the people were cowardly."

"I charged all countries, while I was alone, my infantry and my chariotry having forsaken me. Not one among them stood to turn about. I swear, as Re loves me, as my father, Atum, favors me, that, as for every matter which his majesty has stated, I did it in truth, in the presence of my infantry and my chariotry."

"Ten stades from the first tombs, he says, in which, according to tradition, are buried the concubines of Zeus, stands a monument of the king known as Osymandyas.​ At its entrance there is a pylon, constructed of variegated stone, two plethra in breadth and forty-five cubits high; passing through this one enters a rectangular peristyle, built of stone, four plethra long on each side; it is supported, in place of pillars, by monolithic figures sixteen cubits high, wrought in the ancient manner as to shape; and the entire ceiling, which is two fathoms wide, consists of a single stone, which is highly decorated with stars on a blue field. Beyond this peristyle there is yet another entrance and pylon, in every respect like the one mentioned before, save that it is more richly wrought with every manner of relief; beside the entrance are three statues, each of a single block of black stone from Syene, of which one, that is seated, is the largest of any in Egypt,​ the foot measuring over seven cubits, while the other two at the knees of this, the one on the right and the other on the left, daughter and mother respectively, are smaller than the one first mentioned. And it is not merely for its size that this work merits approbation, but it is also marvellous by reason of its artistic quality and excellent because of the nature of the stone, since in a block of so great a size there is not a single crack or blemish to be seen. The inscription upon it runs: "King of Kings am I, Osymandyas. If anyone would know how great I am and where I lie, let him surpass one of my works." There is also another statue of his mother standing alone, a monolith twenty cubits high, and it has three diadems on its head, signifying that she was both daughter and wife and mother of a king."

"This king also (they said) divided the country among all the Egyptians by giving each an equal parcel of land, and made this his source of revenue, assessing the payment of a yearly tax. And any man who was robbed by the river of part of his land could come to Sesostris and declare what had happened; then the king would send men to look into it and calculate the part by which the land was diminished, so that thereafter it should pay in proportion to the tax originally imposed. From this, in my opinion, the Greeks learned the art of measuring land; ..."

"Sesostris was the only Egyptian king who also ruled Ethiopia. To commemorate his name, he set before the temple of Hephaestus two stone statues of himself and his wife, each thirty cubits high, and statues of his four sons, each of twenty cubits. Long afterwards Darius the Persian would have set up his statue before these; but the priest of Hephaestus forbade him, saying that he had achieved nothing equal to the deeds of Sesostris the Egyptian; for Sesostris (he said) had subdued the Scythians, besides as many other nations as Darius had conquered, and Darius had not been able to overcome the Scythians; therefore it was not just that Darius should set his statue before the statues of Sesostris, whose achievements he had not equalled. Darius, it is said, let the priest have his way."

"In Egypt’s sandy silence, all alone, Stands a gigantic Leg, which far off throws The only shadow that the Desert knows:— “I am great OZYMANDIAS,” saith the stone, “The King of Kings; this mighty City shows The wonders of my hand.”—The City’s gone,— Naught but the Leg remaining to disclose The site of this forgotten Babylon. We wonder,—and some Hunter may express Wonder like ours, when thro’ the wilderness Where London stood, holding the Wolf in chace, He meets some fragment huge, and stops to guess What powerful but unrecorded race Once dwelt in that annihilated place."

"Ramses II; he made (it) as his monument for his father, Amon-Re, making for him a great and august broad-hall of fine white sandstone, its nave of great flower-columns, surrounded by bud-columns: a place of rest for the lord of gods at his beautiful "Feast of the Valley"; that he might, through him, be given life ——— shaping his sacred barque like the horizon-god, founding daily offerings, doing the things which please his father, causing that his house should be for him like Thebes, supplied with every good thing, granaries reaching heaven, an august treasury containing silver, gold, royal linen, every real costly stone, which King Ramses II brought for him."

"Lo, while his majesty sat talking with the princes, the vanquished chief of Kheta came and the numerous countries, which were with him. They crossed over the channel on the south of Kadesh, and charged into the army of his majesty while they were marching, and not expecting it. Then the infantry and chariotry of his majesty retreated before them, northward to the place where his majesty was. Lo, the foes of the vanquished chief of Kheta surrounded the bodyguard of his majesty, who were by his side."

"I met a traveller from an antique land Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone Stand in the desert . . . near them, on the sand, Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown, And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command, Tell that its sculptor well those passions read Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things, The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed; And on the pedestal these words appear: ‘My name is Ozymandias, king of kings; Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!’ Nothing beside remains. Round the decay Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare The lone and level sands stretch far away."

"Now when this Egyptian Sesostris (so the priests said) reached Daphnae of Pelusium on his way home, leading many captives from the peoples whose lands he had subjugated, his brother, whom he had left in charge in Egypt, invited him and his sons to a banquet and then piled wood around the house and set it on fire. When Sesostris was aware of this, he at once consulted his wife, whom (it was said) he had with him; and she advised him to lay two of his six sons on the fire and make a bridge over the burning so that they could walk over the bodies of the two and escape. This Sesostris did; two of his sons were thus burnt but the rest escaped alive with their father."

"On the temples there are a few sparse hairs, but at the poll the hair is quite thick, forming smooth, straight locks about five centimeters in length. White at the time of death, and possibly auburn during life, they have been dyed a light red by the spices (henna) used in embalming ... the moustache and beard are thin. ... The hairs are white, like those of the head and eyebrows ... the skin is of earthy brown, splotched with black ... the face of the mummy gives a fair idea of the face of the living king."

"He marched over the country doing this until he had crossed over from Asia to Europe and defeated the Scythians and Thracians. Thus far and no farther, I think, the Egyptian army went; for the pillars can be seen standing in their country, but in none beyond it. From there, he turned around and went back home; and when he came to the Phasis river, that King, Sesostris, may have detached some part of his army and left it there to live in the country (for I cannot speak with exact knowledge), or it may be that some of his soldiers grew weary of his wanderings, and stayed by the Phasis."

"The United States in general conducts very strict security measures for everyone who wishes to visit it, which has been in place for quite a few years. It’s also important to know that during election campaigns many statements are made and many things are said, however afterwards governing the country would be something different, and will be subject to many factors."

"I have several times found some people say that there were abusing drawings of Islam or Prophet Muhammad and people get angry and hurt inside. I was just thinking whether we also do insult Prophet Muhammad? In our behaviors and our practices do we insult Islam or not? I mean, we got hurt by those people who draw abusing drawings or making abusing movies of Prophet Muhammad, So what have we done? We also insult Prophet Muhammad! At the end, what we have introduced about our religion is what made people attack us and insult us."

"He took control of Egypt. And he really took control of it."

"Political parties in the United States would not allow candidates to reach that level unless they are qualified to lead a country the size of the United States of America. I believe that that statement was not made after our most recent meeting between myself and Mrs. Clinton. But also in Egypt there will not be a chance for any dictatorship because in Egypt there is a constitution, there is law, and there the will of the people which will refuse to allow any leader to stay in his position for any period longer than his term which is four years."

"Under a Trump administration, the United States of America will be a loyal friend, not simply an ally, that Egypt can count on in the days and years ahead."

"There must be tough security measures. You guys isolate that and you deal with it from a human rights perspective only. We are responsible for the Egyptian people, whom I consider my own family. How could I be comfortable knowing that there could be a human rights violation against these people."

"Is al-Sisi a party (to a ceasefire)? Sisi is a tyrant himself. He is not different from the others."

"I don't sit at the same table with people like Sisi. They invited us to a dinner at the same table at the UN General Assembly. I did not attend that dinner. Next day, they did the same, I did not attend again. Why? Because that picture would be a black stain for me in the history books. It is impossible for me to sit at the same table with a coup leader. The world knows our attitude on the issue."

"There is no way a military commander like el-Sisi who has no political background should be expected to believe in democracy as we see it in the West. El-Sisi, rightly or wrongly, is a reflection of the mood on the street, which has discovered that the cost of democracy is way too high."

"al-Sisi has nothing to do with democracy, and that he’s killed thousands of his own people."

"We as Muslims, We have to be honest. Islam has talked about trustiness, Are we known as truthful? Islam has talked about perfecting the work, are we known with that? Islam talked about tolerance, are we known as tolerants?"

"I will talk to my sister, my daughter and my mother, the women, in July 24, when I asked you to gave me the mandate and the order to combat possible terrorism, The Egyptian woman with all her plainness, took her husband, her children, her food during Ramadan and took the streets. and the world watched her. take them again and let the world see you again."

"We as officers, soldiers and our brothers from the police are responsible for the safety of Egyptians during the vote, before it and after. It's impossible for someone to stop you from voting or harm you in voting stations, or outside."

"O Egyptians, In January 25, 2011, when you wanted to change the world, you did. When you want something, you always do it."

"Mothers always sacrifice and wastes her life for their children. that's why I ask her to participate even more than youth."

"Don't let any of the incidents happening now affect the will of Egyptians."

"The negative efforts that had been done for the past three years that aims to toppling the state, by virtue of Allah and yours, has achieved nothing. and it won't."

"The Egyptians won't forget those who stood with them, or against them."

"The Egyptian Army is like that pyramid, it cannot be broken."

"We are committed, in front of God, to the Egyptian and Arab people that we will protect Egypt, the Egyptians and their free will."

"Don't ever think that there someone who could undermine Egypt."

"We would die before you would feel pain."

"Don’t you know that you are the light of our eyes?"

"Egypt is the mother of the world and will be as great as the world."

"Simply, all what we did is that we avoided the country a big crisis and a battle between Egyptians. Beware, instead of Egyptians fighting each other, no, you can fight us, and we protect all. how many would fight us? but Egyptians fighting each other would be a big war we couldn't have had the ability to deal with."

"Would we be existent O men, while people are frightened at home? what kind of manhood is this? what would we say to God in the judge day as we are responsible for the security of people? no we would better go and die."

"The nobility of securing the people's will, is more important to me than Egypt's rule."

"We know God well, we don't fear dying but we fear only standing in front of God. but as we are sure we are on the right way, there is no problem."

"We can bear that. for the sake of our country, are you blaming us for loving our country or what?"

"Simply, all what we did is that we avoided the country a big crisis and a battle between Egyptians. Beware, instead of Egyptians fighting each other, no, you can fight us, and we protect all. how many would fight us? but Egyptians fighting each other would be a big war, thousands may die, and maybe miliions."

"Anyone harms you will be wiped from the face of Earth."

"You left the Egyptians. You turned your back on the Egyptians, and they won’t forget that.'"

"For a year we dealt with the ex-president with an ultimate nobility. we were honest in everything. we had delivered our estimates of the situation we has reached to the president. that isn't something new to us, we were seeing all this. we warned him, we said that we would reach a fighting under the name of religion. the fighting would turn from a political one into a religious one. No! Stop! Is the Islam, yours only?"

"We are noble people, consider what am saying carefully, we don't know neither treachery nor treason nor guile nor Intrigues. We don't do such things. I am reminding you and myself. we don't betray, we don't plot. We are noble patriotic establishment."

"I swear again, I had been told that they came to rule for 500 years. but how? you would rule as long as the people are satisfied with your rule, as long as they want you only."

"I want to tell you that, when the army of Egypt came down the streets, came to protect you, and stayed for 18 months, none of the soldiers harmed you, Our hands must be cut if they would harm you. I am repeating this for you to know, during those 18 months, there were 150,000 soldier in the streets. it means for 500 days with 150,000 soldier in the street there were 7.5 million possibilities, we were struggling not to harm any Egyptian!"

"The Egyptian Army is a great patriotic army, The Egyptian Army is a very noble and tough army, and it's toughness comes from it's nobility."