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All Things Ancient Egypt
All Things Ancient Egypt
An Encyclopedia of the Ancient
Egyptian World

VOLUME 1: A–K
Lisa K. Sabbahy, Editor

All Things
Copyright © 2019 by ABC-CLIO, LLC

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or
transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or
otherwise, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review, without prior permission in
writing from the publisher.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Sabbahy, Lisa, editor.
Title: All things ancient Egypt : an encyclopedia of the ancient Egyptian
world / Lisa K. Sabbahy, editor.
Description: Santa Barbara, California : Greenwood, An Imprint of ABC-CLIO, LLC,
2019. | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018039678| ISBN 9781440855122 (set : alk. paper) | ISBN
9781440869839 (volume 1 : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781440869846 (volume 2 :
alk. paper) | ISBN 9781440855139 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Egypt—Civilization—To 332 B.C.—Encyclopedias.
Classification: LCC DT61 .A49875 2019 | DDC 932/.0103—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018039678

ISBN: 978-1-4408-5512-2 (set)

978-1-4408-6983-9 (vol. 1)
978-1-4408-6984-6 (vol. 2)
978-1-4408-5513-9 (ebook)

23 22 21 20 19   1 2 3 4 5
This book is also available as an eBook.
Greenwood
An Imprint of ABC-CLIO, LLC
ABC-CLIO, LLC
147 Castilian Drive
Santa Barbara, California 93117
www.abc-clio.com
This book is printed on acid-free paper
Manufactured in the United States of America
Contents

VOLUME 1
Guide to Related Topics xiii
Preface xvii
Acknowledgments xix
Introduction xxi
Timeline of Ancient Egyptian History xxix

Entries A–K
Abu Ghurab 1
Abu Simbel 2
Abusir 3
Abydos 6
Administration 10
Afterlife 13
Agriculture 17
Amulets 19
Amun 23
Animals 27
Animals, Sacred and Mummies 29
Army 33
Art 35
Astronomy 38
Aten 43
vi Contents

Autobiographical Inscriptions 45
Primary Document—Excerpt from the Autobiography of Ankhtify 47
Primary Document—Excerpt from the Inscription of Intef 48
Barque, Sacred 49
Basketry and Cordage 52
Beads 54
Beer 56
Beni Hasan 58
Birds 60
Book of the Dead 64
Bread 66
Bubastis 69
Calendar 71
Canopic Jar and Box 73
Chariot 77
Childbirth 80
Cities and Villages 84
Clothing 86
Coffin Texts 87
Primary Document—Excerpt from CT 335, a Coffin Text Spell 91
Coffins and Sarcophagi 92
Color Symbolism 97
Colossi of Memnon 98
Cosmetics and Toiletries 99
Cosmology 102
Crime and Punishment 106
Primary Document—Account of the Trial of Tomb Robbers
from the Amherst Papyrus 108
Crowns 109
Cult Ritual, Temple 113
Dahshur 117
 Contents vii

Dance 119
Decipherment 123
Deification 126
Deir el-Medina 128
Demons 131
Dendera 133
Dental Health 135
Deserts 136
Diplomacy 138
Primary Document—Excerpt from an Egyptian Treaty with the Hittites 141
Disease 141
Edfu 145
Education 147
Elephantine 151
Ethics 154
Ethnicity 157
Faience 161
Families 162
Felines 165
Female Figurines 169
Fish 172
Flowers 174
Food 177
Footwear 179
Foreign Relations and Treaties 182
Foreigners 185
Forts and Fortifications 188
Foundation Deposits 193
Funerary Books, Royal 194
Furniture and Woodworking 197
Gardens 203
viii Contents

Gebel Barkal 204

Gender and Sex 207
Giza 210
Glass 213
Goddesses, Minor 216
Gods, Minor 220
God’s Wife of Amun 224
Gold 227
Graffiti 230
Hair and Wigs 233
Harem 237
Primary Document—Interrogation of Prince Pentawer Regarding His
Involvement in a Harem Conspiracy 239
Primary Document—Marriage of Queen Tiye and Amenhotep III 239
Hathor 240
Hawara 242
Headrests 244
Heliopolis 246
Hierakonpolis 248
Horus 250
Houses 253
Human Sacrifice 257
Hunting 260
Iron 265
Isis 266
Jewelry 269
Kadesh, Battle of (ca. 1274 BCE) 273
Primary Document—Description of a Hittite Attack during
the Battle of Kadesh 275
Karnak 276
Kerma 280
 Contents ix

King Lists 282

Kingship 284
Kingship Myths 288
Kush 290

VOLUME 2
Guide to Related Topics xiii

Entries L–Z
Labor 295
Lahun 296
Language and Script 299
Law 303
Leather 304
Libraries 307
Lisht 311
Literacy and Orality 312
Literature, Fiction 315
Primary Document—Excerpt from the Tale of the Shipwrecked Sailor 319
Lower Egypt 320
Maat 323
Magic 325
Marriage and Divorce 329
Mathematics 331
Medicine and Doctors 334
Megiddo, Battle of (ca. 1457 BCE) 337
Primary Document—Account of the Battle of Megiddo 340
Meidum 340
Memphis 342
Mining 344
Mummies, Royal 348
x Contents

Mummification 351
Music and Musical Instruments 355
Myth 358
Myths, Creation 363
Nile River 367
Primary Document—Thutmose III Returns from a Campaign 368
Nomes and Provincial Administration 368
Nubia 372
Primary Document—Senusret III’s Conquest of Nubia 375
Obelisk 377
Primary Document—Text from Obelisk of Hatshepsut 378
Primary Document—Text from Stela at Mortuary Temple of Amenhotep III 379
Primary Document—Text from Obelisk of Senusret 379
Offerings, Votive 379
Officials 383
Opening of the Mouth 385
Opet Festival 387
Oracles 390
Osiris 391
Palaces 397
Personal Names 401
Philae Island 403
Police 405
Pottery 406
Predynastic Period (ca. 5300–3000 BCE) 411
Priestesses 414
Priests 415
Ptah 418
Ptolemaic Egypt (305–30 BCE) 420
Punt 422
Pyramid Construction 425
 Contents xi

Pyramid Texts 427

Pyramids 431
Quarrying 437
Queens 441
Primary Document—Hatshepsut Becomes Regent for Thutmose III 443
Ra 445
Religion, Personal 447
Roman Egypt (30 BCE–395 CE) 451
Royal Regalia 454
Royal Titulary 457
Sakkara 461
Scarab 463
Scribes and Scribal Equipment 465
Primary Document—Excerpt from a Text Encouraging Scribes in Their
Work 468
Sculpture and Sculptors 469
Sea Peoples 473
Primary Document—Account of the Sea Peoples’ Attack on Egypt 476
Seals and Sealing 476
Sed Festival 479
Seth 481
Ships and Shipping 484
Silver 489
Sledge 490
Sphinx, Great 492
Sports and Games 493
State Formation 496
Sticks and Staves 500
Tanis 503
Tattoos 504
Taxation 507
xii Contents

Tell el-Amarna 509

Primary Document—Akhenaten’s Oath from the Boundary Stelae at
Tell el-Amarna 513
Tell el-Dab’a 514
Temples, Mortuary 517
Temples, Ptolemaic-Roman 520
Temples, State 523
Thebes, East and West 527
Thoth 530
Tomb Models 532
Tomb of Tutankhamun 535
Tomb Robbery 538
Primary Document—Confessions of Eight Tomb Robbers 541
Tombs, Private 541
Transportation 547
Upper Egypt 551
Valley of the Kings 555
Valley of the Queens 558
Vizier 561
Weapons and Armor 565
Weaving and Looms 569
Weighing of the Heart 572
Wine 574
Wisdom Literature 577
Primary Document—Excerpt from the Instruction of Ptahhotep 580
Primary Document—Excerpt from the Words of Neferti 581
Women 581

Bibliography 587
About the Editor and Contributors 591
Index 597
Guide to Related Topics

BEFORE AND AFTER PHARAONIC EGYPT

Predynastic Period (ca. 5300–3000 Ptolemaic Egypt (305–30 BCE)
BCE) Roman Egypt (30 BCE–395 CE)

BEYOND THE BORDERS

Ethnicity Kerma
Foreign Relations and Treaties Kush
Foreigners Nubia
Gebel Barkal Punt

CITIES AND SITES

Abu Ghurab Heliopolis
Abusir Hierakonpolis
Abydos Lahun
Beni Hasan Lisht
Bubastis Meidum
Cities and Villages Memphis
Dahshur Philae Island
Deir el-Medina Sakkara
Dendera Tanis
Edfu Tell el-Amarna
Elephantine Tell el-Dab’a
Giza Thebes, East and West
Hawara
xiv Guide to Related Topics

FAMILY AND COMMUNITY

Childbirth Marriage and Divorce
Dance Music and Musical Instruments
Ethics Sports and Games
Families Women
Houses

FUNERARY PRACTICES
Book of the Dead Mummification
Canopic Jar and Box Tomb Models
Coffin Texts Tombs, Private
Coffins and Sarcophagi Weighing of the Heart
Mummies, Royal

JOBS, SKILLS, AND MATERIALS

Art Mining
Basketry and Cordage Pottery
Beads Pyramid Construction
Color Symbolism Quarrying
Faience Sculpture and Sculptors
Furniture and Woodworking Ships and Shipping
Glass Silver
Gold Sledge
Iron Transportation
Labor Weaving and Looms
Leather

LEARNING AND THE SCIENCES

Astronomy Language and Script
Calendar Mathematics
Education

MONUMENTS
Abu Simbel Obelisk
Colossi of Memnon Pyramids
 Guide to Related Topics xv

Sphinx, Great Valley of the Kings

Tomb of Tutankhamun Valley of the Queens

NATURE AND THE ENVIRONMENT

Animals Gardens
Birds Hunting
Deserts Lower Egypt
Felines Nile River
Fish Upper Egypt
Flowers

PERSONAL BELONGINGS
Clothing Headrests
Cosmetics and Toiletries Personal Names
Footwear Sticks and Staves
Hair and Wigs Tattoos

POLITICS AND WAR

Army Kadesh, Battle of
Chariot Megiddo, Battle of
Diplomacy Sea Peoples
Forts and Fortifications Weapons and Armor

RELIGION, PRACTICES, AND EXPRESSIONS

Afterlife Female Figurines
Amulets Foundation Deposits
Amun Funerary Books, Royal
Animals, Sacred and Mummies Goddesses, Minor
Aten Gods, Minor
Barque, Sacred God’s Wife of Amun
Cosmology Hathor
Cult Ritual, Temple Horus
Deification Human Sacrifice
Demons Isis
xvi Guide to Related Topics

Karnak Priests
Magic Ptah
Myth Ra
Myths, Creation Religion, Personal
Offerings, Votive Scarab
Opening of the Mouth Temples, Mortuary
Oracles Temples, Ptolemaic-Roman
Osiris Temples, State
Priestesses Thoth

THE STATE
Administration Palaces
Crime and Punishment Police
Crowns Queens
Harem Royal Regalia
King Lists Royal Titulary
Kingship Sed Festival
Kingship Myths Seth
Law State Formation
Nomes and Provincial Administration Taxation
Officials Tomb Robbery
Opet Festival Vizier

STUFF OF LIFE
Agriculture Food
Beer Gender and Sex
Bread Jewelry
Dental Health Medicine and Doctors
Disease Wine

THE WRITTEN WORD

Autobiographical Inscriptions Literature, Fiction
Decipherment Scribes and Scribal Equipment
Graffiti Seals and Sealing
Libraries Wisdom Literature
Literacy and Orality
Preface

All Things Ancient Egypt: An Encyclopedia of the Ancient Egyptian World is a

two-volume reference source for students at the high school or undergraduate uni-
versity levels as well as interested readers from the general public. This work
provides basic information about ancient Egyptian civilization with an emphasis
on material culture—that is, the “stuff” of ancient Egyptian life—and the institu-
tions and religious and societal standards and beliefs that molded ancient Egyptian
life. This encyclopedia presents a wide scope of topics and information, and it
presents sources and references that will direct readers to go further and examine
specific interests in more detail.
The introduction first presents the reader with an understanding of the environ-
ment of ancient Egypt and how all the natural resources in the land of Egypt made
its extraordinary ancient culture possible. For example, how would Egypt have
had pyramids without extensive rock beds that could be quarried? The second
goal of the introduction is to present a short but adequate history of ancient Egypt.
This gives the reader an overview of 3,000 years of ancient Egyptian civilization.
Readers can then go to entries and read about specific topics, but the background
to it all is laid out in the introduction.
Following the introduction is a timeline that allows the reader to see the dynas-
ties and periods in a more linear way. The terms of ancient Egyptian history can
be rather confusing at first, especially remembering what dynasties go with what
periods. The names of the historical periods and the numbers of the dynasties are
all modern distinctions. The numbers after a king’s name, for example, Ramses II,
are also modern convention. That means Ramses II is the second king with that
name, but the ancient Egyptians did not use that number because Ramses,
the name we use going back to Greek histories of ancient Egypt, is the king’s birth
name. To the ancient Egyptians, the most important name is the crown name,
the name the king took when he became king. Crown names were never reused,
and so each king had his own. While modern people use the name Ramses II, the
ancient Egyptians would have recognized the king by the name Usermaatra-
Setepenra. Also, some Greek forms of Egyptian royal names are very familiar to
readers, such as Cheops, the builder of the Great Pyramid. This encyclopedia
always tries to use Egyptian names, and so the reader will find the name Khufu,
instead of Sesostris, Senusret, and so on.
xviii Preface

As an encyclopedia, All Things Ancient Egypt is organized with almost 200

alphabetically arranged entries. There is also a separate list of entries by category,
a “Guide to Related Topics,” that can be consulted as well to find relevant entries
with a similar focus. Each entry presents a basic discussion of a particular topic,
refers the reader to other entries for related topics, and gives a short bibliography
of relevant print and electronic sources for the topic. As much as possible, these
sources have been kept to those in English and those that would not be difficult to
locate in a community or university library or online.
Many of the entries are augmented by sidebars that present a brief discussion of
a particular term used by Egyptologists, give a description of a specific ancient
Egyptian object or architectural detail, or present more information about a
famous ancient Egyptian king. There are also relevant short translations from
ancient Egyptian documents that have been added to some of the entries. These
translations have been done just for this book by either the author of the entry or
the editor, and they present the reader with a glimpse of the kind of written infor-
mation we have from the ancient Egyptians and how they expressed themselves.
The illustrations in the book have been picked to further explain the material in
the entries.
There has been a purposeful attempt to keep the entries focused around the
three great periods of pharaonic civilization—the Old Kingdom, the Middle King-
dom, and the New Kingdom—although important developments or events in other
time periods are included if necessary. The introduction to the book covers the
entire span of ancient Egyptian time, from 5300 BCE to 30 BCE, when Egypt
becomes part of the Roman Empire, and this span of time is also covered by the
timeline, which follows the introduction and lists all the historical periods, all the
dynasties, and important events, such as the construction of important monu-
ments, battles, and reigns of famous kings. The chronology followed in this book
is the widely accepted one put forth in Ian Shaw’s The Oxford History of Ancient
Egypt (Oxford University Press 2000).
At the end of the book is a bibliography of recommended reading. It is limited
to books and presents a list of approximately 100 books that are the best and most
helpful that one could read about ancient Egypt. It is a mix of classic and still very
important books and new books that have come out, up to summer 2018. Egyptol-
ogy is a field that is constantly changing. Excavations are ongoing at many ancient
Egyptian sites, and the evidence produced by these is constantly changing our
knowledge and understanding of this fascinating ancient culture. A subject index
is also included to help readers access important names and terms in the entries.
Finally, readers should note that the ancient Egyptian language did not write
vowels. When ancient Egyptian words are spelled in modern languages such as
English, any one of several vowels could be used, such as Ra and Re or Amun and
Amen. This explains the frequent differences in spelling of names and terms.
Spelling may also differ because scholars come from different countries, so some-
one from Germany or France may write different vowels than an American
scholar.
Acknowledgments

Thanks to my good friend Lesley Lababidi, who started all this by sending me a
link,
Author/Editor wanted for All Things Ancient Egyptian,
although there were times when I wished she had not. Many thanks also to Lori
Hobkirk, John Wagner, and Barbara Patterson for their unfailing help and patience.
Introduction

It is fitting to begin a study of ancient Egypt with a short description of the Nile
River, for it has often been said, quoting the ancient Greek historian Herodotus,
that Egypt is a gift of the Nile. This river flows the entire length of the land of
Egypt, and its lush, fertile valley made the development of ancient Egyptian civ-
ilization possible. The river created two distinct parts of Egypt: the long, narrow
valley in the south, called Upper Egypt, and the Nile Delta in the north, called
Lower Egypt. The terms upper and lower refer to upstream and downstream,
respectively. The terrain of these two parts of Egypt is quite different. In Upper
Egypt, arable land is limited to narrow strips along the river, bounded by the cliffs
of the desert plateaus on each side. The Nile Delta, on the other hand, is wide, flat,
and lush and has always been richer in agriculture and pasturage.
By around 25,000 BCE, the Blue Nile, which rises in the Ethiopian highlands,
and the White Nile, which springs from the waters of Lake Victoria, joined, bring-
ing about the pattern of annual flooding that carries water and silt to Egypt. The
Nile began to rise in the early summer, swollen by African rains from the south
and the east. In August and September, when the flood was the highest, water
spilled through channels in the natural silt levees on both sides of the river, cov-
ering the adjacent low-lying lands with as much as two meters of water. For about
two months, the land was covered with water, and it soaked down into the clay
beds below the soil, which retained the water for months. The water also deposited
nutrient silt, which was a natural fertilizer. The dark, rich soil was the reason the
ancient Egyptians called their land Kemet, “the Black Land,” as opposed to the
dry, parched desert, Desheret, “the Red Land.”
The ancient land of Egypt was essentially the Nile valley, and the ancient Egyp-
tians were valley dwellers. They ventured beyond their valley when necessary, but
for the most part, life in ancient Egypt revolved around the river and the cultivable
land on each side. Just as the terrain of Egypt served to define and confine Egyp-
tian life to the valley, with vast deserts to the east and west, so it also served to
keep large numbers of other people out of Egypt. Physical isolation was one aspect
that helped give stability and consistency to ancient Egyptian culture; until rather
late in Egyptian history, foreign influence was minimal.
To fully understand the physical environment of Egypt, and its natural isola-
tion, it is necessary to understand the geologic forces that formed the Nile val-
ley. Geology also explains another gift to Egypt: its stunning natural resources
xxiv Introduction

of stones, minerals, and metals that made possible its monuments and material
culture. Underlying most of Africa is a basement complex of metamorphic rock,
principally granite. At the very southern end of Egypt, this rock layer has been
exposed by an upward tilting of the land, combined with the river’s wearing down
through the less resistant rocks overlying the granite. The resulting outcroppings
are the cataracts that break up the Nile. In ancient times, the First Cataract, located
at modern Aswan, was the southern boundary of Egypt. The hard granite blocked
the river, forming a natural barrier to river travel. This pink granite was quarried
by the ancient Egyptians for building and statuary; in particular, it was used for
obelisks.
A large sandstone formation, Nubian sandstone, overlies the granite of the
northeast corner of the African continent; in Egypt, this formation extends to the
area of Gebel el-Silsila, just north of Aswan. Here, the Egyptians carried out large-
scale sandstone quarrying, particularly for the stone used to construct the temples
of Thebes. From Gebel el-Silsila north to the beginning of the delta, the river is
bordered by limestone outcroppings deposited by the Tertiary period sea, which
covered most of Egypt 65–70 million years ago. Prominent limestone formations
can still be seen on the West Bank of Luxor and at Tura and Mokattam, near
modern Cairo. Alabaster, another sedimentary rock widely used by the Egyptians,
comes from Hatnub, in Middle Egypt.
The Western Desert extends to the west of the Nile valley, broken by a chain of
wind-eroded oases running north to south: Bahriya, Dakhla, and Kharga. Much
farther to the west is the oasis of Siwa. The Eastern Desert, on the other hand, is
formed by rugged mountains running parallel to the Red Sea. These mountains
were created by both crust and rift movement, which has exposed the underlying
metamorphic rock layers. These layers are rich in mineral deposits, and all the
semiprecious stones used by the Egyptians in jewelry were mined here: agate,
carnelian, garnet, jasper, and turquoise. Copper was also mined in the Eastern
Desert, as well as in the mountainous region of the southern Sinai. The Egyptians
also mined turquoise in the southern Sinai. Lapis lazuli, another blue stone highly
prized by the ancient Egyptians, had to be acquired through overland trade from
Afghanistan. The ancient Egyptians also found gold, which they used extensively
for jewelry and religious objects, in the Eastern Desert and in Nubia.
The history of ancient Egypt is divided into 31 dynasties, or ruling families or
groups. Modern scholars have also assigned these dynasties to periods, known
as kingdoms and intermediate periods. To understand Egyptian history and its
historical eras and rulers, the following is a greatly abbreviated introduction to
3,000 years of ancient Egyptian history. Readers are urged to also look at the
timeline, which presents these dynasties and periods in a schematic form. It is
handy to remember that “kingdoms” are the long, unbroken rule of a dynasty of
kings over a single united country, and the “intermediate periods” indicate times
when Egypt was divided up, with different rulers in different locations.
The First and Second Dynasties are grouped together and called the Early
Dynastic Period, although older books may refer to it as the Archaic Period. At the
beginning of the First Dynasty, Memphis was founded as the capital of Egypt, and
the kings of the Early Dynastic Period ruled from Memphis. Their tombs were at
 Introduction xxv

Abydos, however, the area from which these kings originated. Only three kings
in the early Second Dynasty chose to be buried at Sakkara, the main cemetery
for the city of Memphis. Now scholars know that Egypt was a united country
with one king ruling earlier than the traditionally accepted list of Egyptian kings
beginning with First Dynasty. This early period of about 300 years is referred to
as Dynasty 0. The tombs of the Dynasty 0 kings were also at Abydos, and one of
the tombs, known as Tomb U-j, contained small labels with the earliest known
hieroglyphic writing. The Early Dynastic royal tombs at Abydos were divided into
two parts, with the burial under a mastaba, or rectangular superstructure, back in
a desert wadi called the Umm el-Ga’ab, and a separate large mudbrick enclosure,
usually referred to as a funerary fort and used for royal rituals, was built near the
edge of cultivation. The best preserved of these enclosures is the last one, that of
King Khasekhemuwy of the Second Dynasty.
The Third Dynasty begins the period called the Old Kingdom, composed of
Dynasties Three to Six, which is often referred to as the Pyramid Age, as the
kings of this time were buried in pyramids. A pyramid is a solar symbol: the sun
god, in the form of a great gray heron, was thought to have alighted upon a hill,
or high mound, of land and created the other gods and all life. The earliest pyr-
amid in Egypt was a stepped pyramid, constructed at Sakkara for King Djoser,
also known as King Netjerykhet. Around the step pyramid was an enclosure like
a funerary fort and buildings for the king’s soul, or ka, to celebrate royal rituals,
such as the Sed festival to renew the reign of the king. True, or straight-sided,
pyramids were built at the beginning of the next dynasty, the Fourth Dynasty, at
the sites of Meidum, Dahshur, and Giza. The largest and most famous of these
pyramids is the Great Pyramid of King Khufu at Giza. The complex associated
with a true pyramid was very different from that of a step pyramid; it consisted of
a valley temple, at the edge of a canal to the Nile, and then a causeway leading up
to a mortuary temple against the east face of the pyramid. These structures were
aligned on an east-west axis following the course of the rising and setting of the
sun. By the Fifth Dynasty, kings not only built pyramid complexes, but sun temple
complexes as well.
The Old Kingdom was basically a stable, peaceful period of ancient Egyptian
history. The king ruled as a god; he was not only the offspring and agent of Ra, the
sun god, but he was Horus, the son of Osiris, and granted kingship by the gods of
Heliopolis. The king was at the tip of a bureaucratic hierarchy, and directly under
him was an official known as the vizier, who in the early Old Kingdom was always
the king’s son. The land of Egypt was broken into administrative units called
nomes, which were ruled by a governor, known as a nomarch. By the later part
of the Sixth Dynasty, some of these nomarchs in Upper Egypt had grown very
powerful.
Although the downfall of the Old Kingdom is often attributed to the growing
power of high officials in Upper Egypt, it was probably ultimately brought about
by climate change. Over a period of about 200 years, the “Neolithic Wet Phase”
came to an end, and, more importantly, Nile levels lowered and became erratic.
The effect on agriculture would have been dramatic. Texts of this time, the First
Intermediate Period, mention drought and famine. Local officials in Upper Egypt
xxvi Introduction

took control to protect their nomes, and civil war broke out. By the later First
Intermediate Period, there were rulers at Herakleopolis, south of the area of the
Fayum, who are known as the Tenth Dynasty. They were challenged by a line of
rulers at Thebes, who ruled as the Eleventh Dynasty. After fierce fighting and
negotiation, the Theban king Nebhepetre Mentuhotep III reunited Egypt, begin-
ning the Middle Kingdom.
The bulk of the Middle Kingdom is made up of the kings of the Twelfth
Dynasty, who established a new royal residence at Itja-tawy, near Lisht, just north-
east of the Fayum area. There was a resurgence of art and literature. Today, when
students begin the study of hieroglyphs, they learn Middle Egyptian, the dialect
of the Middle Kingdom. The kings of the Middle Kingdom also erected pyramids;
they can be found at Lisht and Dahshur and at Hawara and Lahun, in the Fayum.
The first king of the Twelfth Dynasty, Amenemhat I, was assassinated, one of two
Egyptian kings who were known to have been killed. Perhaps in response to this,
the kings of the Twelfth Dynasty used the institution of coregency, whereby the
king makes his son and heir king to rule alongside him, so there is no power vac-
uum if the king dies. The Twelfth Dynasty also had to deal with a growing power
to the south, the kingdom of Kerma, above the Third Cataract in the Sudan. The
Twelfth Dynasty kings built a chain of forts in lower Nubia that extended to the
end of the Second Cataract, and they carefully watched anyone who came north
to go into Egypt. Another pressure from foreigners was the constant migration of
Asiatics, that is, people from Syro-Palestine, who were entering into Egypt, espe-
cially in the eastern delta.
The Thirteenth Dynasty that followed slowly lost control over the country. The
Hyksos, rulers of the Asiatics who had been entering into Egypt, took control of
the delta, ruling Lower Egypt and part of Middle Egypt from a capital at Avaris
in the eastern delta. The Hyksos took on the trappings of pharaoh and ruled
through the Egyptian administration, which they left in place. The names of
six Hyksos kings are known, and they ruled as the Fifteenth Dynasty of Egypt.
The Hyksos brought new technology into Egypt, most importantly the horse and
chariot, which would become very important in the ancient Egyptian military,
once Egypt was reunited and free of the Hyksos. Eventually, the Egyptian kings of
the Thirteenth Dynasty, which was the end of the Middle Kingdom, reemerged in
Upper Egypt as the Seventeenth Dynasty and ruled in Thebes. By the end of the
Seventeenth Dynasty, there was open resistance to the Hyksos when the Egyptians
realized the Hyksos were allied with the rulers of Kerma in the Sudan and that
Upper Egypt might be attacked from both the north and south. Finally, the Theban
ruler Ahmose drove the Hyksos out of Egypt, reuniting the country and beginning
the Eighteenth Dynasty of the New Kingdom. The New Kingdom is composed of
three dynasties: the Eighteenth, Nineteenth, and Twentieth. The Nineteenth and
Twentieth Dynasties are commonly called the Ramesside period because virtually
all the kings carried the birth name Ramses.
Thutmose I, the father of Queen Hatshepsut, established the borders of an
Egyptian empire from northern Syria in the Levant to the Fifth Cataract of the
Nile in the south. The pharaohs of Egypt chose to expand their power and grip
beyond their traditional boundaries in response to having been invaded. The
 Introduction xxvii

pharaohs now saw themselves as military heroes, and their divine father, the god
Amun-Ra, was behind their victories. Thutmose I expanded and built the core of
the New Kingdom temple of Amun-Ra at Karnak, in eastern Thebes, and on the
West Bank of Thebes, he cut his tomb in the Valley of the Kings. Throughout the
New Kingdom, Thebes would remain the religious center of Egypt, and the kings
were all buried in the Valley of the Kings. The only exception to this was the reign
of Akhenaten and his rule from the city of Akhet-taten, or modern Tell el-Am-
arna, where he and his family were buried.
The Eighteenth Dynasty was a time of great imperial power. Thutmose III,
the grandson of Thutmose I, went on a series of military expeditions and set an
administrative structure in place to rule the empire efficiently. By the time of
Amenhotep III, in the later Eighteenth Dynasty, Egypt was at peace and pros-
perous. The introspective reign of his son, Akhenaten, allowed the power of the
Hittites in Anatolia to threaten Egypt’s empire to the north, and from the reign of
Tutankhamun to that of Ramses II in the Nineteenth Dynasty, Egypt was sending
military campaigns to northern Syria. Egypt’s northern empire was finally lost
when the Sea Peoples invaded the Mediterranean area, but they were stopped at
the edges of Egypt by Ramses III. After the reign of Ramses III, Egypt experi-
enced economic and civil unrest that culminated in a division between Upper and
Lower Egypt and the end of the New Kingdom.
The Third Intermediate Period that followed was a time when Egypt was split
between the High Priests of Amun, based at Thebes, who ruled Upper Egypt and
the king in the delta who ruled Lower Egypt. Libyans had begun to infiltrate into
Egypt from the west in the Nineteenth Dynasty, and the kings of the Third Inter-
mediate Period were almost all of Libyan origin. The struggle for control over
Egypt came to a head when the Kushite king Piye came forth from Napata, near
the Fourth Cataract, to defeat the Libyans ruling from Bubastis, Leotopolis, and
Sais, in the delta, reuniting Egypt. The Twenty-Fifth Kushite Dynasty is later
chased south by the Assyrians who have invaded Egypt, and in 664 BCE, the
Assyrians sack Thebes. From this time until the coming of the Greeks and then
the Romans, Egypt has periods of independence under the rule of Egyptian kings,
but it also has two dynasties when the Persians ruled over Egypt. When Alexander
the Great takes Egypt in 332 BCE, he ends pharaonic Egypt.
Timeline of Ancient
Egyptian History

This timeline contains selected kings and events in the history of Ancient Egypt.
5300 BCE—Predynastic Period
Neolithic cultures in Upper and Lower Egypt: settlements and agriculture
3200 BCE—Dynasty 0
Earliest hieroglyphic writing, Egypt is a unified state under one king, Narmer
Palette carved
3000 BCE—Early Dynastic Period
First Dynasty: royal tombs at Abydos
2890 BCE
Second Dynasty
2686 BCE—Old Kingdom
Third Dynasty: King Djoser, first stepped pyramid
2613 BCE
Fourth Dynasty: Kings Sneferu and Khufu, first true pyramids, King Khafra,
Sphinx at Giza
2494 BCE
Fifth Dynasty: building of sun temples
2345 BCE
Sixth Dynasty
2160 BCE—First Intermediate Period
Nine and Tenth Dynasties: rulers at Heracleopolis
2125 BCE
Eleventh Dynasty: rulers at Thebes
2055 BCE—Middle Kingdom
Eleventh Dynasty: King Mentuhotep II reunites Egypt
Twelfth Dynasty: royal residence at Itja-tawy
Thirteenth Dynasty
xxx Timeline of Ancient Egyptian History

1650 BCE—Second Intermediate Period

Fourteenth Dynasty
Fifteenth Dynasty: Hyksos kings rule from Avaris in the delta
Sixteenth Dynasty
1580 BCE
Seventeenth Dynasty: kings rule at Thebes, offer resistance to Hyksos
1550 BCE—New Kingdom
Eighteenth Dynasty: King Ahmose drives out Hyksos, Thutmose I and Thutmose
III establish empire to the north and south, Battle of Megiddo, Amarna Period,
hostility with Hittites begins
1295 BCE
Nineteenth Dynasty: Battle of Kadesh
1186 BCE
Twentieth Dynasty: battle against Sea Peoples, Ramses III assassinated
1069 BCE—Third Intermediate Period
Twenty-First Dynasty: king rules from delta, High Priest of Amun rules from
Thebes
945 BCE
Twenty-Second Dynasty
818 BCE
Twenty-Third Dynasty
727 BCE
Twenty-Fourth Dynasty
747 BCE
Twenty-Fifth Dynasty: Line of Kushite kings who begin their rule in the Sudan
and then by 715 BCE have defeated the Twenty-fourth and Twenty-third dynasties
and rule Egypt, Assyrians sack Thebes in 664 BCE
664 BCE—Late Period
Twenty-Sixth Dynasty
525 BCE
Twenty-Seventh Dynasty: Persians rule Egypt
404 BCE
Twenty-Eighth Dynasty
399 BCE
Twenty-Ninth Dynasty
380 BCE
Thirtieth Dynasty
 Timeline of Ancient Egyptian History xxxi

343 BCE
Thirty-First Dynasty: Persians rule Egypt again
332 BCE—Ptolemaic Period
Alexander the Great takes Egypt
305 BCE
Ptolemy I Soter I rules from Alexandria, Cleopatra VII is the last Ptolemaic ruler
30 CE—Roman Period Begins
Egypt belongs to the Roman Empire, Cleopatra VII dies

Source: Based on Ian Shaw, ed. 2000. The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt.
Oxford: Oxford University Press.
A
Abu Ghurab
The site of Abu Ghurab is south of Giza and just to the north of Abusir, where
most of the pyramids of the Fifth Dynasty (2494–2345 BCE) were built. Each
Fifth Dynasty king seems to have built two complexes: a pyramid complex and a
sun temple complex at Abu Ghurab. There is textual evidence for the names of six
sun temples built at Abu Ghurab, but only two of these temples have been found
by archaeologists: the sun temple of King Userkaf (2494–2487 BCE), the first
king of the Fifth Dynasty, who built his pyramid at Sakkara, and that of King
Niuserra (2445–2421 BCE), who had his pyramid at Abusir. King Menkauhor, the
seventh king of the Fifth Dynasty, built the last known sun temple.
King Userkaf’s temple is so damaged that only a rough plan of the building can
be discerned, but King Niuserra’s temple, excavated by German archaeologists in
the early 1910s, is well enough preserved to reconstruct its plan and parts. The
plan of a sun temple complex seems to have been closely related to that of a pyra-
mid complex. It was entered through a small temple set on the east side, with a
causeway leading up to a second temple that served as the entranceway. The com-
plex itself was rectangular and ran east to west. In the back part sat a large, squat
obelisk, or benben, symbolic of the mound of creation upon which the sun god
first appeared and created the world. In front of the benben, to the east, was a huge
alabaster altar on which offerings of food and drink would be placed. A closed
hallway led along the interior southern side of the wall to a stairway that went up
into the benben. This corridor contained carvings and painted scenes of the sea-
sons and the abundance of plants and animals that belonged to each. On the oppos­
ite side of the complex, there was an area for slaughtering animals for offering
with large alabaster cauldrons set in the floor to catch liquids.
The sun temple and the pyramid were clearly linked; the priests for one com-
plex also held titles as priests for the other complex. These buildings seemed to
have expressed the two forms of the king, the king as Osiris and the king as Ra;
the pyramid complex was dedicated to the former and the sun temple to the latter.
An archive of papyri found in the pyramid complex of King Neferirkara supplies
evidence of the close economic tie between the sun temple and pyramid, as they
record produce from the king’s storehouses being sent first to the sun temple and
then, from there, being distributed to the pyramid complex.
Lisa K. Sabbahy
See also: Abusir; Osiris; Pyramids; Ra
2 Abu Simbel

Further Reading
Quirke, Stephen. 2001. The Cult of Ra: Sun-Worship in Ancient Egypt. London: Thames
and Hudson.
Verner, Miroslav. 2014. Sons of the Sun: Rise and Decline of the Fifth Dynasty. Prague:
Charles University in Prague.
Vymazalová, Hana. 2011. “The Economic Connection between the Royal Cult in the Pyr-
amid Temples and the Sun Temples in Abusir.” In Nigel Strudwick and Helen
Strudwick, eds. Old Kingdom, New Perspectives: Egyptian Art and Archaeology
2750–2150 BC. Oxford and Oakville: Oxbow Books, pp. 295–303.

Abu Simbel
Abu Simbel is a site in southern Egypt, near the modern border with Sudan. In
ancient times, this was a region of Nubia called Meha. It is primarily known for
the two Nineteenth Dynasty temples that the pharaoh Ramses II (1279–1213 BCE)
cut into the cliffs on the west bank of the Nile. The Great Temple was dedicated to
the gods Amun-Ra, Ra-Horakhty, Ptah, and the deified Ramses II. The Small
Temple was jointly dedicated to Queen Nefertari, Ramses II’s most prominent
wife, and the goddess Hathor of Ibshek. Both temples were begun early in Ramses
II’s reign and completed by his 25th regnal year (Kitchen 1982, 99). In the 1960s,
the temples were dismantled and reconstructed on higher ground by UNESCO
when the Aswan High Dam raised the Nile’s water levels.
The Great Temple is fronted by four seated colossi of Ramses II, each 67 feet
high and surrounded by smaller standing statues of the king’s family. The temple
has a hypostyle hall supported by eight pillars with engaged statues of Ramses II

Four colossal seated figures of Ramses II form the facade of his rock-cut temple at Abu
Simbel in Nubia. The king deified himself as the sun god in this temple, and the figure
of the sun god Ra above the door holds hieroglyphic symbols spelling the king’s name,
indicating that they are one and the same. (Eduardo Sánchez Gatell)
 Abusir 3

that connects to storage rooms; a second, smaller pillared hall; and an offering ves-
tibule that leads to three rear sanctuaries, the central containing rock-cut statues of
the temple’s four main gods: Ra, Amun, Ramses II, and Ptah. The hypostyle hall’s
wall scenes depict Ramses II and his army defeating foreign enemies, the Hittites at
the Battle of Kadesh as well as Libyans, Nubians, and Syrians. The rest of the tem-
ple is adorned with offering scenes. The temple is oriented so that sunlight illumin-
ates the statues in the central sanctuary every year on February 21 and October 21.
The Small Temple’s facade is adorned with six 33-foot-high standing colossi,
four representing Ramses II and two Nefertari. Two small statues of the royal
couple’s children flank each of the colossi: Nefertari’s colossi are flanked by their
daughters and Ramses II’s by their sons. The temple’s plan comprises a hypostyle
hall with six pillars, a vestibule with two side chambers, and a rear sanctuary con-
taining a rock-cut statue of the goddess Hathor, in cow form, protecting the king.
The decorative program primarily depicts Nefertari, sometimes with Ramses II,
offering to the gods. There are also two scenes showing the king, accompanied by
Nefertari, smiting foreigners on the hypostyle hall’s entry wall and scenes depict-
ing the gods Horus and Seth crowning Ramses II and the goddesses Isis and
Hathor crowning Nefertari.
Heather Lee McCarthy
See also: Amun; Kadesh, Battle of; Nubia; Queens; Ra
Further Reading
Desroches-Noblecourt, Christiane, and Christophe Kuentz. 1968. Le Petit Temple D’Abou
Simbel. Vols. 1 & 2. Cairo: Centre de documentation et d’étude sur l’ancienne
Égypte.
Fischer, Marjorie. 2012. “Abu Simbel.” In Majorie Fischer, et al., eds. Ancient Nubia: Afri-
can Kingdom on the Nile. Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, pp. 356–360.
Kitchen, Kenneth. 1982. Pharaoh Triumphant: The Life and Times of Ramesses II, King
of Egypt. Warminster, UK: Aris and Phillips.
McCarthy, Heather Lee. 2003. “The Function of ‘Emblematic’ Scenes of the King’s
Domination of Foreign Enemies and Narrative Battle Scenes in Ramesses II’s
Nubian Temples.” Journal of the Society for the Study of Egyptian Antiquities 30:
59–90.

Abusir
Abusir is an archaeological site just north of Sakkara. Four pyramid complexes
were built there in the Fifth Dynasty (2494–2345 BCE) as well as contemporary
elite mastabas. Abusir became important again in the Late Period, particularly in
the Twenty-Seventh Dynasty, when some large private tombs were constructed
there. The sun temple site of Abu Ghurab begins just north of Abusir, and the two
sites are sometimes considered to be one. Abusir is not as well known as the other
Old Kingdom pyramid sites, as it has never been opened to the public.
Ludwig Borchardt of the Berlin Museum excavated at the site from 1900 to
1908, during which time the royal pyramids were uncovered. The first pyramid
was built at Abusir by King Sahura (2487–2475 BCE) at the northern end of the
4 Abusir

View of the mortuary temple and pyramid of King Sahura of the Fifth Dynasty.
Although the pyramids at this time were small, a great deal of work was lavished on
the temple, which had granite palm columns, a dark basalt floor, and granite lintel
blocks with inset copper. The interior walls would have been lined with carved and
painted limestone. (Reinhard Dirscherl/ullstein bild via Getty Images)

site. His pyramid complex is still quite well preserved: the plan of the valley temple
can be seen, and the causeway can be walked up, although the walls are gone. The
damage done to the mortuary temple and the pyramid is the result of the limestone
being taken away to burn for lime. The pyramid is much smaller than those of the
Fourth Dynasty, and the core is built of local limestone from the area west of the
pyramid. The casing, which was Tura limestone, has all been taken away.
The emphasis in the complex is on decoration. At the entrance into the mortuary
temple are 2 palm tree–topped columns of pink granite, and 16 more stood around
the large open court with dark basalt floor. The walls would have been Tura lime-
stone covered with scenes of the king. The blocks at the top of the wall were also
pink granite, and the titulary of the king was inscribed on them in copper.
Some blocks with scenes were found in the mortuary temple by the German
excavations and are in the Berlin Museum’s collection. One famous fragmen-
tary block shows bears being brought from Syria (Berlin Museum 21828). Sev-
eral other blocks are from a hunting scene of Sahura striding and shooting
arrows at antelope and hyenas (Berlin 21783). Blocks from the secondary south-
ern entrance into the mortuary temple depict rows of personifications of the
king’s estates and fecundity figures walking into the temple carrying offering
tables (Berlin 21784).
Of the other pyramids, none are as well preserved as that of Sahura. A cache of
papyri was found in the mortuary temple of Neferirkara. Known as the Abusir
 Abusir 5

Papyri, they are documents from the temple archives, with lists of priests and their
rotations, cult objects in the temples and their condition, and inventories of pro-
duce for the king’s cult, his sun temple, and for the priests. The information in
these texts offers a look into the economy of the king’s mortuary cult as well as the
priests themselves and their responsibilities. A second cache of papyri was found
in the mortuary temple of the unfinished pyramid of Raneferef. This king appar-
ently died while the pyramid was being built, so the underground burial chamber
was finished and the pyramid closed and “topped off” like a square mound. The
mortuary temple was finished, and the king’s mortuary cult functioned.
Ptahshepses, the vizier of King Niuserra (2445–2421 BCE), built his mastaba
in three different stages to the northeast of his king’s pyramid. In the final stage,
with at least 40 rooms, it is the largest private tomb of the Old Kingdom. Ptah-
shepses started out as the king’s hairdresser. The he married the king’s daughter,
Princess Kamerernebty, and eventually became the vizier, the most important
official under the king.
After the reign of Niuserra, the rest of the kings of the Old Kingdom built their
pyramids at Sakkara and South Sakkara. The cults of the kings at Abusir seem to
have continued through the Sixth Dynasty, to about 2181 BCE, but perhaps not
much beyond that. There is evidence of a renewal of the royal cults in the Middle
Kingdom (2055–1650 BCE) and a resurgence of interest in the late Eighteenth
Dynasty, when the royal residence was once again at Memphis, and a cult of the
goddess Sakhmet seems to have been established in the mortuary temple of King
Sahura. However, at the end of the Eighteenth Dynasty and again at the end of the
Nineteenth Dynasty, the limestone at the site began to be cut up and taken away.
More destruction was carried out in the Twenty-Sixth and Twenty-Seventh Dynas-
ties, when the large shaft tombs were cut. There was more destruction under the
Romans that continued into medieval times (see Bareš 2000).
In the late Twenty-Sixth to early Twenty-Seventh Dynasties, Abusir became an
important cemetery once again when very large shaft tombs of important officials
were constructed in southern Abusir. One such tomb, belonging to the overseer of
the palaces, Iufaa, was discovered intact in 1999. A large shaft descends 66 feet to
a limestone tomb chamber, where the walls are covered with Pyramid Texts, Book
of the Dead spells, and portions of New Kingdom royal funerary books.
Lisa K. Sabbahy
See also: Abu Ghurab; Pyramid Construction; Pyramids

Further Reading
Bareš, Ladislav. 2000. “The Destruction of the Monuments at the Necropolis of Abusir.”
In M. Barta and J. Krejčí, eds. Abusir and Saqqara in the Year 2000. Prague:
Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Oriental Institute, pp. 1–16.
Krejčí, Jaromir. 2010. Abusir XVIII: The Royal Necropolis in Abusir. Prague: Charles
University in Prague.
Verner, Miroslav. 1994. Forgotten Pharaohs, Lost Pyramids: Abusir. Prague: Academia
Škodaexport.
Verner, Miroslav. 2014. Sons of the Sun: Rise and Decline of the Fifth Dynasty. Prague:
Charles University in Prague.
6 Abydos

Abydos
Abydos, known to the ancient Egyptians as Abdju, is a major archaeological site
about three square miles in area and is located approximately 340 miles south of
Cairo in southern Egypt. In ancient times, Abydos was an important regional cen-
ter despite being far from the traditional capital region of Memphis. Archaeologi-
cal remains reflect activity from virtually every period of ancient Egyptian
history. Its early importance stemmed at least partially from its relationship with
Thinis, the capital of the Eighth Nome, or governmental administrative district, of
Upper Egypt, for which it may have functioned as a major burial ground. Later,
association with the god Osiris brought Abydos status as a sacred site. Egyptians
wished to be buried there or, alternatively, to at least visit to set up symbolic
tombs, known as cenotaphs, or other small monuments that could function as
stand-ins for themselves during important local religious events.
Significant early settlement and burial activity at Abydos coincided with major
population growth in the region through Predynastic times (5300–3000 BCE).
With unification of the whole country under one ruler around 3000 BCE, endur-
ing prominence for Abydos was signaled by the choice of the site for the Egyptian
state’s earliest royal cemeteries. In addition to influential figures from the period
of unification (e.g., King Narmer), several kings of the First and Second Dynasties
(3000–2686 BCE) were interred near the Western Desert cliffs at Abydos. This
necropolis would become a major religious focal point through the millennia that
followed. Today, it is known as Umm el-Gaab, Arabic for “Mother of Pots.” The
origin of this name is evident from a visit to the area, which has long been charac-
terized by a massive scatter of broken pottery across the surface, remnants from
centuries of offerings.
Many of these early royal tombs had separate corresponding buildings closer to
the Nile Valley at North Abydos. These huge, rectangular mudbrick structures
likely accommodated funeral rites and royal-offering cults. Known as “funerary
enclosures,” each one was dismantled down to its foundation once it had served its
purpose or when it was time to build the next one. To date, 10 enclosures have
been identified, curiously including not 1 but 3 for King Aha of the First Dynasty.
The largest, which belonged to King Khasekhemuwy of the Second Dynasty, still
stands at a height of about 36 feet and encompasses two and a half acres. Along-
side it to the northeast is a row of 14 large ceremonial boat burials. It is uncertain
whether the pairing of a royal tomb with a separate funerary enclosure and boat
burials foreshadows later royal pyramid complexes of the Old Kingdom, but the
possibility has been explored.
The main ancient town and local god’s temple also lay at North Abydos. The
core settlement area once survived to an imposing height, but it has been cut down
over the years by modern farming and building practices. This sector is visually
obstructed from much of Abydos’s archaeological landscape by its lower elevation
and by a still massive mudbrick enclosure wall that dates to the New Kingdom and
later periods. Association of the early Abydos town with a god’s cult temple dates
to the Early Dynastic Period. This temple was dedicated to an ancestral god of
Abydos named Khentyamentiu. His name is ancient Egyptian for “Foremost of
 Abydos 7

The enormous “funerary fort” of King Khasekhemuwy of the Second Dynasty at

Abydos, built out of mudbrick. It would have been used for ceremonies celebrating the
rule of the king and his power. (American Research Center in Egypt)

Westerners,” “westerners” referring to the dead who have been properly buried,
ideally in the desert on the western side of the Nile. He is depicted as either a
jackal or a man with a jackal’s head. A direct relationship between this temple and
the early royal cemeteries and funerary enclosures has been speculated. A cere-
monial route may have crossed the desert to link the temple and town with the
tombs out by the desert cliffs, perhaps for funeral processions or for use by temple
priests.
Abydos continued to enjoy royal favor during the Old Kingdom (2686–2160
BCE), even as northern sites in the Memphite region were chosen for construction
of royal pyramid complexes. Several kings expressed devotion by building small,
temple-like buildings known as ka-chapels in the vicinity of Khentyamentiu’s
temple. Along with this attention came exemptions from tax obligations and labor
requirements for temple institutions and personnel. Not far to the south, the expan-
sive Middle Cemetery area of Abydos developed as a zone of elite tombs, includ-
ing some for prominent dignitaries of the Old Kingdom state government. By the
later Old Kingdom, Abydos had become affiliated with the increasingly promin-
ent god Osiris. Religious tradition merged him with Khentyamentiu as a particu-
lar manifestation of Osiris, aptly named Osiris-Khentyamentiu, or “Osiris,
Foremost of Westerners.” After the Old Kingdom ended with political breakdown,
royal interest in Abydos seems not to have been lost to the civil strife and conflict
of the First Intermediate Period (2160–2055 BE). With the reconstitution of the
country thereafter, the royal practice of dedicating a small monument was adopted
8 Abydos

by Nebhepetre Mentuhotep (2055–2004 BCE), who successfully reunited the coun-

try under singular rule and initiated the Middle Kingdom. However, his small
temple was located farther eastward than his predecessors’ chapels.
By the Middle Kingdom, the establishment of Osiris as the primary mortuary
deity and king of the underworld/afterlife was well underway. Osiris experienced a
truly massive surge in popularity during the Middle Kingdom. His mythology por-
trayed him as a deceased king from mythical-historical times, and the Egyptians
eventually identified the tomb of King Djer (Dynasty 1) at Umm el-Gaab as the
burial site of Osiris himself. This was all within the larger context of a shift in
emphasis in Egyptian religion. Egyptians of all backgrounds envisioned an afterlife
as “an Osiris,” mirroring a mythological episode in which he is killed but later resur-
rected. The transition to the afterlife increasingly became conceptualized as a ter-
restrial journey through an Osirian underworld, not just through the skyward solar
realm of the sun god Ra, on whom state religion especially had focused in earlier
times. A series of tomb inscriptions known as the “Abydos Formula” standardized
Egyptians’ wishes for burial, a successful afterlife, and a pilgrimage to Abydos.
This postmortem pilgrimage parallels actual events at Abydos. An annual festi-
val celebrated Osiris through reenactments of his mythology and a formal proces-
sion from his temple to his supposed tomb. During visits, which Egyptians aspired
to make in their lifetimes if at all possible, pilgrims deposited offerings and set up
their own small monuments near the temple precinct of Osiris-Khentyamentiu at
North Abydos. These practices became so widespread that a Thirteenth Dynasty
king had to issue a formal edict to forbid placement of any new monuments too
close to the processional route itself. This whole area at North Abydos is equated
with a place called the “Terrace of the Great God” in written accounts of the Osiris
festivals. Now known as the “cenotaph zone” or “votive zone,” its importance as
sacred space continued centuries after the Middle Kingdom.
Late in the Twelfth Dynasty of the Middle Kingdom, King Senusret III
(1870–1831 BCE) expanded the footprint of the site to South Abydos. He made the
unusual move of building full-scale funerary complexes for himself at two dis-
tantly separated locations: a traditional pyramid complex at the site of Dahshur, in
the northern capital region, plus a subterranean tomb at South Abydos that may
have introduced features of later royal tombs in the Valley of the Kings. The
tomb’s mortuary temple was built across the desert, closer to the cultivation, along
with a state-sponsored town that housed the personnel who oversaw the king’s
funerary cult. Only in very recent years has the latest phase of the Middle King-
dom into the Second Intermediate Period (1650–1550 BCE) become more than a
relative dark age for Abydos. The existence of a line of kings known as the “Aby-
dos Dynasty” was once just a theory, but it has recently been confirmed with the
archaeological discovery of their burial sites in the vicinity of Senusret III’s tomb
at South Abydos. Their claim to kingship may have been largely self-proclaimed.
Their removal and reuse of architectural materials from other local tombs to con-
struct their own small (by royal standards) burial places suggest that their political
and economic power was not vast. Excavations and new discoveries in this necrop-
olis are ongoing at the time of this writing.
 Abydos 9

During the New Kingdom (1550–1069 BCE), part of the earlier town at South
Abydos experienced further occupation. Although the nature and extent of contin-
ued occupation during the interim are vague, it appears that a post–Middle King-
dom resurgence corresponds with building activities of the first king of the
Eighteenth Dynasty. King Ahmose (1550–1525 BCE) is credited as the unifier of
the country through forceful expulsion of a foreign power known as the Hyksos
that had controlled Lower Egypt through much of the Second Intermediate Period.
Although Ahmose’s monument now looks like a large mound of sand, it was ori-
ginally a pyramid. Carved relief decoration recovered from his pyramid complex
includes depictions of his battles with the Hyksos and the earliest Egyptian repre-
sentation of the horse and chariot. Accompanying his monument were shrines to
Queen Ahmose-Nefertari (Ahmose’s wife and sister) and Tetisheri (his grand-
mother) and scant remnants of a terraced temple against the desert cliffs east of
Senusret III’s tomb. The revival of the already-ancient monumental pyramid as a
royal tomb was brief—Ahmose’s is the last known royal pyramid in Egypt.
Royal investments at Abydos continued during the Eighteenth and Nineteenth
Dynasties. Thutmose III (1479–1425 BCE) of the Eighteenth Dynasty installed a
small but unique temple in the votive zone at North Abydos, a new variation on
the traditional royal construction there. King Ramses II (1213–1203 BCE) of the
Nineteenth Dynasty followed suit some two centuries later, and in the process,
many earlier Middle Kingdom nonroyal structures at the “Terrace of the Great
God” were covered over. However, two temples at Abydos have long been the
site’s main attractions for modern tourists because they preserve some of the most
beautiful surviving painted relief decoration in Egypt. King Seti I (1294–1279
BCE) initiated construction of a large temple of unusual design that, upon his
death, was completed by his son and successor, King Ramses II. The latter king
also erected another smaller temple not far to the northwest, in which he com-
memorated his battle against the Hittites at Kadesh, in Syria. Seti’s temple was
unique in being furnished with seven sanctuaries. Six were dedicated to major
deities—Ptah, Ra-Horakhty, Amun-Ra, Osiris, Isis, and Horus—and one for the
deified Seti I.
Along with traditional temple rituals, there was a ceremonial focus on the
deceased pharaoh as Osiris in his role as king of the dead; hence, an extra complex
of rooms is connected to the Osiris sanctuary. Royal history is itself highlighted in
an inner corridor of the temple, on the walls of which are inscribed the “Abydos
King List,” a selective recording of past pharaohs. The structure just behind the
temple, known as the Osireion, is also unique. Essentially begun as a cenotaph for
Seti I and brought to its current (likely unfinished) state by his grandson, King
Merneptah, the Osireion bears some similarities to burial chambers in the Valley
of the Kings. However, notable departures from those designs—such as its par-
tially submerged stone platform that is the centerpiece of the main chamber—
have prompted considerations that it may have been modeled on a mythical
concept of Osiris’s tomb.
The sacred core area of Abydos—composed of the main Osiris temple precinct,
the Seti temple, and the votive zone—saw the majority of royal activity through the
10 Administration

Third Intermediate Period (1069–664 BCE), the Late Period (664–332 BCE), and
into Ptolemaic-Roman times (332 BCE–395 CE). Most was not in the form of large-
scale construction, but rather renovations and minor additions to temple architec-
ture, along with smaller monuments. Pharaohs of both native and foreign dynasties
continued to support Abydos’s temple institutions. King Nectanebo I, first pharaoh
of the last native Egyptian dynasty, the Thirtieth Dynasty, rebuilt the Osiris temple.
His work does not appear to have been eclipsed later by new Ptolemaic or Roman
versions, as was the case at some other sites, and the cult of Osiris persisted at Aby-
dos, in one form or another, until the Christianization of Egypt.
Nicholas Picardo
See also: King Lists; Osiris; Religion, Personal; Temples, State
Further Reading
Bestock, Laurel. 2011. “The First Kings of Egypt: The Abydos Evidence.” In E. Teeter, ed.
Before the Pyramids: The Origins of Egyptian Civilization. Chicago: Oriental
Institute of the University of Chicago, pp. 137–144.
David, Rosalie. 2016. Temple Ritual at Abydos. London: Egypt Exploration Society.
Harvey, Stephen. 1994. “Monuments of Ahmose at Abydos.” Egyptian Archaeology 4:
3–5.
McCormack, Dawn. 2017. “The 13th Dynasty at Abydos: A Royal Tomb and Its Context.”
In G. Rossati and M. C. Guidotti, eds. Proceedings of the XI International Con-
gress of Egyptologists, Florence Egyptian Museum, Florence, 23–30 August 2015.
Oxford: Archaeopress, pp. 399–404.
O’Connor, David. 2009. Abydos: Egypt’s First Pharaohs and the Cult of Osiris. London
and New York: Thames & Hudson.
Wegner, Josef. 1998. “Excavations at the Town of Enduring-Are-the-Places-of-Khajaure-
Maa-Kheru in-Abydos.” Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt 35:
1–44.
Wegner, Josef. 2009. “The Tomb of Senwosret III at Abydos: Considerations on the Ori-
gin and Development of the Royal Amduat-Tomb.” In D. Silverman, W. K. Simp-
son, and J. Wegner, eds. Archaism and Innovation: Studies in the Culture of
Middle Kingdom Egypt. New Haven, CT: Yale University, University of Pennsyl-
vania Museum, pp. 103–168.

Administration
The head of state was the king. He enacted laws, appointed government officials,
and was the general of the army and the leading judge. He was also the head priest
in charge of all cultic activity, the mediator between gods and humanity. The king
had many subjects, however, and a vast territory to govern, so practicality required
that he delegate many of his administrative and religious roles.
There were two levels of administration: national and local. The national
administration issued royal decrees; set taxes; decided when and where to send
military, mining, and quarrying expeditions; coordinated separate local authori-
ties; and conducted diplomatic correspondence. It also governed the palace, where
its offices were located. Papyrus Boulaq 18, a Thirteenth Dynasty (1773–1650
 Administration 11

BCE) accountancy text of a royal palace, sheds light on its inner workings, orga-
nization, and staff. It also reveals that senior officials occupied the palace as well,
albeit in a different sector than the royal family. According to another text, the
Duties of the Vizier, which dates to the Eighteenth Dynasty (1550–1295 BCE), or
perhaps earlier, the royal treasury was in the palace.
“Vizier” is the conventional translation for tjaty, the highest-ranking govern-
ment official, the king’s representative and primary executive. The Duties of the
Vizier is the main source for understanding his responsibilities. From the Old
Kingdom (2686–2160 BCE) onward, there was one vizier, but there were two for
most of the New Kingdom (1550–1069 BCE), one in Upper Egypt and the other in
Lower Egypt.
The vizier directed all royal building projects in the Old and Middle Kingdoms.
In the Nineteenth and Twentieth Dynasties of the New Kingdom, the workmen in
the village of Deir el-Medina, who worked on the royal tombs in the Valley of the
Kings, were under his direct authority, but temple construction was the respon-
sibility of the “overseer of works.”
As for irrigation projects, it is believed that central administration was involved
on a local level, but largely only on state-owned lands. This, along with matters
such as taxation, required that land registers be kept, but whether they covered all
private lands is unknown. An inscription in the tomb of Mose, a scribe who lived
under Ramses II (1279–1213 BCE), relates a lawsuit about landownership that con-
cerned fields that had originally belonged to the state, having been given to Mose’s
ancestor. It reveals that official records, kept in the royal treasury and royal gra-
nary in Piramesse, the capital at the time, were consulted in the legal proceedings.
The treasurer seems to have been the leading official after the vizier. He was
responsible for the state’s expenses and revenues. Revenues included taxes and
more sporadic income, such as tribute from foreign lands and the valuable prod-
ucts collected from these, such as precious metals and ivory, and were stored in
the treasury. The treasurer features prominently in the Duties of the Vizier, where
he is shown to work closely with the vizier.
In the absence of coinage, grains, the most common crops, were the equivalent
of a currency, the oldest attestation for which dates to the end of the Late Period.
Taxes and rent for agricultural land were generally paid with a proportion of the
harvested crop. Taxation was based on production, and a land’s productivity was
at least partly assessed based on its size, the measuring of which was among the
responsibilities of the “overseer of fields.” Grain was also used to pay wages. Pal-
aces, other royal estates, and temples had granaries that acted as banks that were
overseen by the “overseer of granaries,” a title borne by the vizier in the Old and
New Kingdoms.
Egypt was divided into administrative units, called “nomes” (sepat in Egyp-
tian), from the Greek nomos (“law”) used by Herodotus in his Histories. Each was
headed by a nome supervisor, or “nomarch,” who was under the authority of the
vizier. Nomarchs collected taxes; recruited workers for state projects (corvée
labor), itself also a form of taxation; controlled the central government’s lands and
resources in his territory; and recorded its economic resources.
12 Administration

Little is known about nomes in Lower Egypt. Upper Egyptian nomarchs gradu-
ally became more powerful, and the Fifth Dynasty (2494–2345 BCE) position of
“overseer of Upper Egypt” may have been created in response. They became
autonomous during the First Intermediate Period (2160–2055 BCE) and in certain
cases even controlled several nomes. The Twelfth Dynasty (1985–1773 BCE) con-
solidated central power by instituting a new provincial administrative position
based on a smaller unit: the city. The title of its incumbent, haty-a, is therefore
commonly rendered “mayor,” but he headed more than just an urban settlement,
governing its surrounding areas as well.
In combination with his participation in religious festivals in various cities, the
inspection and administration of state-owned property required kings to be on the
move. In the Early Dynastic Period (Dynasties 1 and 2, 3000–2686 BCE), during
the biennial “Following of Horus,” the king and his principal officials traveled
along the Nile, conducting a cattle census and cataloguing other wealth, such as
agricultural lands and valuable materials like gold. These royal tours would have
also provided a visual reminder of national unity and the king’s power.
During times of prosperity, foreign lands were brought under Egyptian control.
The New Kingdom was particularly successful in this regard. Before this time, the
army was not a separate institution; it was essentially an expeditionary force that
was also used for mining, quarrying, and trading purposes. In response to increas-
ing external political competition, a permanent and efficiently organized military
was created that was led by generals, “the overseers of the army.” The armed
forces were also differentiated, with the chariotry forming a separate elite unit
under the control of the “overseer of horses.”
Egypt’s newly acquired territories required administration. Levantine native
rulers were kept in place, and their loyalty was ensured through oaths of alle-
giance to the king, regular contact with the central administration through mes-
sengers, and, in certain cases, by posting garrisons. Under Thutmose III
(1479–1425 BCE), the rulers’ sons were brought to Egypt, presumably to instill
loyalty and to “Egyptianize” them, but also to be held as hostages. When the ruler
died, his son was sent to take his place. In contrast, Nubia was directly governed
through an Egyptian official, the “King’s Son of Kush” (who was not actually a
son of the king), rendered “the viceroy of Kush.” His was one of the highest ranks
in the New Kingdom. He had two deputies, in the northern and southern halves of
Nubia, and answered directly to the king.
Whenever there was a new king, the central administration sent out letters to
notify administrators outside the capital. One such letter, copied onto a stone stela,
survives. In it, Thutmose I (1504–1492 BCE) informs the viceroy of Kush that he
has acceded to the throne and apprises him of his titulary so that oaths and offer-
ings can be made in his name.
There was no independent judiciary until the Late Period: any official could
take on the role of judge over his subordinates. Neither did a courthouse as such
exist until then. There were, however, judicial councils (djadjat in the Old King-
dom and qenbet since the Middle Kingdom). During the New Kingdom, before
which these are poorly understood, it seems that a qenbet could be formed ad hoc,
 Afterlife 13

generally composed of various local officials. The most important court cases
were brought to the “great qenbet.” These appear to have been instituted by
Horemheb (1323–1295 BCE), the last king of the Eighteenth Dynasty, and were
composed of the highest-ranking functionaries. There were two, one in Heliopolis
and another in Thebes, chaired by the viziers of the north and south, respectively.
Most surviving royal decrees relate to temples. Their subjects include their
foundation, such as Senusret I’s decree to build a temple to Atum (a solar creator
god) in Heliopolis; restoration, such as Tutankhamun’s (1336–1327 BCE) decree
for temples throughout the country after the reign of Akhenaten; or immunity
from taxation and the exemption of its personnel from corvée labor, such as those
from the Sixth Dynasty (2345–2181 BCE) for the temple of Min in Coptos. The
earliest attested compilation of Egyptian law, the Legal Manual of Hermopolis,
dates to the Ptolemaic Period (323–317 BCE), but arguments have been put for-
ward for its earlier origins. There are also potential references to written law in
older sources, such as the Duties of the Vizier. Greek law was introduced to Egypt
during the Ptolemaic Period, but it was only applicable to Greeks.
Arto Belekdanian
See also: Labor; Nomes and Provincial Administration; Nubia; Officials; Taxation; Vizier
Further Reading
Boorn, G. P. F. van den. 1988. The Duties of the Vizier: Civil Administration in the Early
New Kingdom. London and New York: Kegan Paul International.
Haring, Ben. 2010. “Administration and Law: Pharaonic.” In Alan B. Lloyd, ed. Compan-
ion to Ancient Egypt. Chichester, UK: Wiley-Blackwell, pp. 218–236.
Kemp, Barry. 2006. Ancient Egypt: Anatomy of a Civilization. 2nd ed. London:
Routledge.
Moreno García, Juan Carlos. 2013. Ancient Egyptian Administration. Leiden: Brill.

Afterlife
The ancient Egyptians loved life and strove to achieve eternal life after death.
Their Nile valley environment molded their concept of the afterlife into a perfect
bucolic, eternal existence in the Field of Rushes, called the Sekhet Iaru in ancient
Egyptian. The Sekhet Iaru was a perfect copy of the Nile valley, where people
worked in fields that grew tall, lush stalks of wheat and flax, surrounded by trees
loaded with fruit and beautiful flowers. The afterlife was a reflection of their life
on earth, but without toil or trouble. It was similar to how modern people think
about retiring to a farm or a quiet place in the countryside.
The oldest reference to the Sekhet Iaru is in a Pyramid Text of the Old King-
dom that tells the king that the doors of heaven have opened so that he may ferry
to the Sekhet Iaru and “till the barley and reap the emmer.” Later, in the New
Kingdom Book of the Dead, Spell 110 is illustrated with a depiction of the Sekhet
Iaru, a rectangular area surrounded and divided by waterways. Right in the mid-
dle, the deceased is depicted plowing and reaping while divinities and mythical
creatures appear in the top and bottom rows. An especially beautiful painted
14 Afterlife

Shabti

A shabti, also ushabti, is a small figurine put in the tomb to “work” for the deceased, if
they are required to do any labor in the afterlife. In the New Kingdom (1550–1069 BCE),
when shabtis are most common, they carry Spell 6 of the Book of the Dead on them,
which says that if the deceased is called to do any work in the fields or to clean out a canal
or to carry any sand, the shabti will answer the call and do the job for them.
The first known shabtis are from the late Middle Kingdom, roughly 1850 BCE. These
early shabtis do not always have an inscription, but if they do, it is an offering formula. It is
not clear, however, what the shabti originated from. Some scholars think they developed
out of servant figures on tomb models; others think a shabti could have been a tiny model
of the mummy of the deceased. Shabtis were made out of wood, stone, or faience.
New Kingdom and later shabtis have their arms crossed on their chests with a hoe in
each hand for the work. Also, tombs began to have more than one shabti; in some cases,
there was one shabti for each day of the year. There could also be “overseer” shabtis, who
held whips, rather than hoes, in their hands. These large groups of shabtis had special
shabti boxes in which they were kept in the tomb.
Lisa K. Sabbahy

depiction of the Sekhet Iaru is in the Nineteenth Dynasty tomb of Senedjem at

Deir el-Medineh, on the West Bank of Luxor. Senedjem and his wife, Iyneferti,
are shown harvesting wheat, pulling up flax, and plowing.
Belief in this idyllic existence after death, however, did not alter the ancient
Egyptian’s dread of dying. A common funerary inscription carved on the tomb
facade for passersby to read begins, “O, you who love life and hate death.” It then
goes on to implore the person to recite an offering spell that will provide suste-
nance for the deceased. A wisdom text from the Old Kingdom advises people to
provide well for their tomb so that “the house of death may be for life.”
Death put an end to mortal life, but it led to an existence in the afterlife. What
the ancient Egyptians feared most was not completing the passage into the after-
life and not being able to live again. Failing to do so was called the “second death,”
and that was final. If any of the physical or spiritual aspects of the deceased
became damaged or separated during the passage to the afterlife, the afterlife
would not be reached, and the deceased could not live again. The deceased had to
be intact, so to speak, whole and complete, like he or she was in life.
The body had to be treated and protected in certain ways, the tomb had to con-
tain particular objects, and specific funeral rituals had to be carried out. Not only
would all these things ensure that the deceased would complete the passage to the
afterlife, but he or she would also be able to fully function again upon reaching it.
The most treacherous time for the deceased was the first twelve hours of night, the
first night after the burial. The deceased was thought to descend into the west,
into darkness, like the setting sun. If the deceased successfully completed the
night hours, he or she would rise in the morning, reborn with the sun. If success-
ful, the deceased became identified with the god Osiris, lord of the underworld,
 Afterlife 15

who had died and then lived

again after death. Born again
like Ra, the deceased lived again
like Osiris; indeed, the deceased
became an Osiris.
It was not only important to
have the physical body but all
the other aspects of being as
well. The deceased had to have
their ka, ba, name, shadow, and
corpse. An individual had all of
these when alive and so also
needed them to live again. Both
the ka and the ba make up what
modern people might think of as
the soul. The ka was created at
birth, like a twin, and was insep-
arable from the person until their
death. Then the ka dwelled in
the tomb and had to be nour-
ished and taken care of. This
is why the tomb was furnished
with the same things that
the deceased had on earth: food,
clothing, cosmetic objects, and Carved image of the ka, or soul, of the tomb
even games, musical instru- owner, Idu, emerges from the false door of his
ments, and furniture. tomb to accept the offerings that preserve his
Along with building a tomb, existence in the afterlife. This mastaba tomb is at
which was done in stone to serve Giza and dates from the Sixth Dynasty. (Werner
as a house for eternity, the tomb Forman/Universal Images Group/Getty Images)
owner signed a contact with a
ka-priest, arranging a supply of food for the ka that would be offered on a daily
basis in the chapel of the tomb. When the soul of the deceased was done partaking
of the food, the ka-priest took it home as his pay. Theoretically, the descendants of
the priest would inherit his job, and so the ka of the deceased would be fed
eternally.
The offerings were placed in front of a false door, a symbolic stone door that
the ka could pass through. Some tombs had an enclosed room, known as a serdab,
behind the false door in which a ka-statue was placed. The ka was thought to
inhabit the statue. An offering formula was also recited for the ka, and this for-
mula was inscribed on the false door and could magically feed the ka, if neces-
sary, the word becoming the deed, so to speak. Scenes of daily life were depicted
on the tombs walls that showed workers on the tomb owner’s estate engaged in
agriculture, animal husbandry, and the production of food. All of these depictions
could also serve to symbolically feed the ka.
16 Afterlife

Ka

The word soul probably comes closest to what the ancient Egyptians thought of as the
ka. The god Khnum fashioned each person and their ka on a potter’s wheel when they
were born. Throughout a person’s life, they were one with their ka. But after death, the
person was the corpse, and the ka lived in the tomb with the corpse and needed to be
taken care of and fed. A ka statue of the deceased was placed in the tomb, usually in a
small, enclosed room called a serdab, which was often placed behind a false door, where
the offerings were made. Sometimes small slits, or eyeholes, were cut in the wall of the
serdab so that the ka could hear the recitations of the priest as well as smell and see the
offerings.
Lisa K. Sabbahy

The ba was another important aspect of a person’s being. The ba was always
depicted as a bird. It would leave the body during the day and fly up and out of the
tomb to soak up sunlight and life. Then the ba would return to the tomb at night to
enliven the deceased with sunlight and life. In Spell 17 of the Book of the Dead, the
ba of the deceased is shown adoring the sun on the facade of the tomb. A small gold
amulet of a ba-bird with spread wings was sometimes inserted into the mummy
wrappings over the chest of the deceased, symbolizing the magical reunion of the
ba with the corpse and ensuring that the ba would not fail to come back to the body.
It was essential that the body be preserved and that it appeared lifelike and rec-
ognizable. The earliest burials in the Predynastic Period were in the sand, which
was a perfect way to become mummified. Hot sand desiccated the body and per-
fectly preserved it. When tombs began to be built and bodies put into coffins, they
were removed from the hot, dry sand, and the Egyptians began to experiment with
various ways of artificially preserving the body. They learned to quickly remove
the parts of the body that decayed rapidly, and they dried out the corpse with
natron, a kind of salt. The body was covered with natron and sometimes had pack-
ets of natron put inside. After that, the mummy was washed and wrapped and then
the burial took place.
Lisa K. Sabbahy
See also: Book of the Dead; Coffin Texts; Mummification; Pyramid Texts; Tombs,
Private
Further Reading
D’Auria, Sue, Peter Lacovara, and Catherine Roehrig. 1988. Mummies and Magic: The
Funerary Arts of Ancient Egypt. Boston: Museum of Fine Arts.
Hornung, Erik. 1992. Idea into Image: Essays on Ancient Egyptian Thought. New York:
Timken Publishers.
Quirke, Stephen. 2015. Exploring Religion in Ancient Egypt. Chicester, UK: Wiley
Blackwell.
Spencer, A. J. 1982. Death in Ancient Egypt. London: Penguin Books.
Teeter, Emily. 2011. Religion and Ritual in Ancient Egypt. Cambridge: Cambridge Uni-
versity Press.
 Agriculture 17

Agriculture
The Nile River played an extremely important part of ancient Egyptian life, and
all agricultural activities depended on it. The fertility of the agricultural land in
Egypt did not come from rain but from the annual flood, or inundation, of the Nile
River. The Nile water deposited enriched sediment it had brought down from the
hills of Ethiopia and fertilized and watered the land, allowing the cultivation of
fields, orchards, and gardens with a great variety of plants, vegetables, and fruit
trees.
The Egyptian landscape is one of the world’s most extraordinary. The Nile
flows through Egypt from south to north to reach the Mediterranean Sea. A rela-
tively narrow strip of fertile valley spreads out into the delta in the north, and to
the south, it cuts through the endless expanse of the Sahara. The While Nile from
Central Africa meets the Blue Nile from Ethiopia at Khartoum, the capital of
Sudan, and the Nile water ends a little more than 4,000 miles farther north in the
Mediterranean Sea.
The sediment-bearing water of the Blue Nile, coming from the Ethiopian moun-
tains, caused the annual flood of the Nile. Both the Blue Nile and the Atbara
River, a tributary that flows into the Nile in the north of Khartoum, receive a huge
water flow from the summer monsoon of the Ethiopian Highlands that increased
the level of the Nile from July to October on its way through Egypt. Another 14
percent of the water was contributed by the White Nile.
The ancient Egyptians divided their land into the Black Land (Kemet), the fer-
tile land for cultivation, and the Red Land (Desheret), the desert. The Red Land,
which brought destructive sandy winds (now with the Arabic name khamsin), was
desolate and dangerous. In Egypt, the water level of the Nile reached its lowest
point from April to June. The flood started in July and increased quickly in
August; the highest point was in mid-August in Upper Egypt and around mid-
October in the delta. The sediment deposited by the water was a dense, rich, and
humid mud that accumulated year after year, creating levees along the sides of the
river and spreading out more thinly over the land of the basins between the levees
and the desert plateaus.
The annual measurements of the height of the Nile flood were made by nilom-
eters, with a graduated wall or stairs leading down to the Nile. Nilometers all over
Egypt indicated the agricultural production to be expected, based on the height of
the inundation, and were used to calculate the income taxes that the farmers would
have to pay. A low water level would have meant famine, while a high water level
may have caused the loss of crops. Once the water had receded, soaking into the
ground and draining into the Mediterranean, and the ground was firm enough to
walk over, the soil was ready for sowing. The vizier, through his officials in every
town, would give the order to start sowing the fields. The scribe in charge of gra-
naries would measure the quantity of grain assigned to each farmer and keep writ-
ten records.
According to Egyptian religious beliefs, the flood of the Nile would bring a
period of fertility and renovation, a symbol of the eternity of Osiris, the god of
the dead, life, afterlife, and resurrection. This involved rituals in which the
Another Random Scribd Document
with Unrelated Content
historical researches. His account is brief, but accurate and authentic,
and much may be read between the lines. His Hebrew style is flowing,
and not altogether wanting in poetic coloring.
A still more erudite, comprehensive, and profound mind was that of
Abraham ben Meïr Ibn-Ezra of Toledo (born about 1088, died 1167). He
was a man of remarkable ability, conquering with equal skill the greatest
and the smallest things in science; he was energetic, ingenious, full of
wit, but lacking in warmth of feeling. His extensive reading in all
branches of divine and human knowledge was astonishing; he was also
thoroughly acquainted with the literature of the Karaites. His, however,
was not a symmetrically developed, strong personality, but was full of
contradictions, and given to frivolity; at one time he fought against the
Karaites, at another, he made great concessions to them. His polemical
method was merciless, and he aimed less at discovering the truth than
at dealing a sharp blow to an antagonist. His was a spirit of negation,
and he forms the completest contrast to Jehuda Halevi, to whom he is
said to have been closely related. Ibn-Ezra (as he is called) combined in
his person irreconcilable contrasts. His clear vision, his sharp, analytical
perception, his bold research, which was so far advanced as almost to
bring him to Pantheism, existed side by side with a veneration for
authority, which led him, with fanatical ardor, to accuse independent
thinkers of heresy. His temperate mind, which examined into the origin
of every phenomenon, did not prevent him from wandering in the
twilight of mysticism. Though filled with trust in God, into whose hands
he quietly resigned his lot, he believed in the influence of the stars, from
which no man could possibly withdraw. Thus Ibn-Ezra was at once an
inexorable critic and a slave of the letter of the Law, a rationalist and a
mystic, a deeply religious man, and an astrologer. These contradictions
did not mark successive stages in his life, but they controlled the whole
course of his existence. In his youth he toyed with the muses, sang the
praises of distinguished persons, and feasted with Moses Ibn-Ezra. He
was likewise acquainted with Jehuda Halevi; they often conversed
brilliantly upon philosophical problems, and it is clear that they did not
agree in their methods of thought.
Although Ibn-Ezra was acquainted with the artistic forms of Arabic
and neo-Hebraic poetry, he was, nevertheless, no poet. His verses are
artificial, pedantic, uninteresting, and devoid of feeling. His liturgical
poetry, produced at all periods of his life, bears the same impress of
sober contemplation. It consists of wise maxims or censorious
admonitions; there is no outpouring of religious feelings which absorb
the soul, and which characterize fervent prayer. In the religious poetry of
Ibn-Ezra there is lacking what is so manifest in the compositions of Ibn-
Gebirol and Jehuda Halevi; the spirit of sublime joyousness which
expresses itself in inspired hymns, the exalted majesty which aspires to
the highest, and attains it. He was, however, inimitable in wit and
pointed epigrams, in riddles and satire. His prose is, moreover,
exemplary, and it may even be said that he created it. He abstains from
over-embellishment and empty phraseology.
Though Ibn-Ezra holds no high place in poetry, he is entitled to the
first rank as a thorough expositor of the Holy Scriptures. As such, he
displayed great tact, since he was guided by the strictly grammatical
construing of the text. He was a born exegetist. He was able to bring to
bear his wide knowledge and brilliant ideas upon the verses of Holy Writ
without being compelled to connect them logically. His restless,
inconstant mind was not capable of creating a complete and systematic
whole. He had not the power of methodizing Hebrew philology, and of
synoptically arranging his material. In Biblical exegesis, however, he was
thoroughly original. He raised it to the degree of a science, with fixed
principles, so that he was for a long time without a rival in this
department of learning. It is worthy of remark, that he never felt called
upon to cultivate the field of Biblical interpretation whilst at home,
although he possessed most remarkable talent for this work. As long as
he remained in Spain he was only known as a clever mathematician and
astronomer, not as an exegete. In general, he produced nothing of a
literary character in his native land, except perhaps some Hebrew poems
of a religious or satirical character.
Ibn-Ezra was induced by straitened circumstances to leave the war-
stricken and impoverished city of Toledo. He was never possessed of
much wealth. In his epigrammatic way, he made merry over his
misfortunes, which condemned him to poverty: "I strive to become
wealthy, but the stars are opposed to me. If I were to engage in shroud-
making, men would cease dying; or if I made candles, the sun would
never set unto the hour of my death."
 As he was unable to earn his livelihood at home, he started on his
travels (about 1138–1139) accompanied by his adult son Isaac. He
visited Africa, Egypt, and Palestine, and communed with the learned
men of Tiberias, who prided themselves on the possession of carefully
written copies of the Torah. As he could find no rest anywhere, he
journeyed further, towards Babylonia, visiting the city of Bagdad, where
a Prince of the Captivity, with the consent of the Caliph, again exercised
a sort of supremacy over all Eastern congregations. During the course of
this extensive journey, Ibn-Ezra made many careful observations, and
enriched the vast stores of his mind.
It is difficult to understand why, on his turning homewards from the
East, he did not again visit his native land. In Rome, he at length found
the long-desired rest (1140). His appearance in Italy marks an epoch in
the development of culture among the Italian Jews. Although they
enjoyed freedom to such a degree that the Roman community was not
bound to pay any taxes, the Jews of Italy still remained in a low
condition of culture. They studied the Talmud in a mechanical, lifeless
manner. They had no knowledge of Biblical exegesis, and neo-Hebraic
poetry for them consisted of wretched rhymes. Their model of poetry
was the clumsy verse of Eleazar Kalir, which they considered inimitable.
Their sluggish minds were prone to all the superstition of the Middle
Ages. What a contrast to them did the Spanish traveler present, with his
refined taste for art, his healthy ideas, and his philosophical education!
The time of his arrival in Rome was favorable to the revival of the higher
culture. Just at this time there arose a bold priest, Arnold of Brescia,
who asserted that the popes did not rule according to the spirit of the
Gospel: that they ought not to hold temporal sovereignty, but should live
as true servants of the Church, and act with proper humility.
An earnest spirit of inquiry and a striving after freedom arose in the
home of the papacy. The people listened eagerly to the inspired words
of the young reformer, threw off their allegiance to the papacy, and
declared their state a republic (1139–1143). Just at this time, Ibn-Ezra
lived at Rome. It is most probable that youths and men gathered in
large numbers in order to hear the great traveler, the deeply learned
Spanish scholar, who knew well how to enchant them by his terse, lively,
striking, and witty conversation.
 In Rome the first production of Ibn-Ezra, who had now reached his
fiftieth year, appeared, an exposition of the Five Megilloth. His exegetical
principles were made evident in his earliest efforts. Everything that was
obscure disappeared before his clear vision, unless he purposely shut his
eyes so that he might not see what was right, or else pretended not to
see at all. Was it the doubt that was agitating his mind, or was it his
weakness of character which made him shrink from rudely dispelling the
dreams of the multitude? It cannot be gainsaid that Ibn-Ezra often
denies the truth, or conceals it in such a manner that it is recognizable
only by men of equal intellect.
Great as were Ibn-Ezra's exegetical talents, they did not enable him
to comprehend and thoroughly to analyze doubtful Biblical passages so
as to bring them into some sort of connection as an organic whole, or as
a beautifully constructed work of art. His mind was more directed to
individual, detached questions, his restless thought was never
concentrated on one thing, but always had a tendency to digress to
other subjects only slightly connected with the original matter. Ibn-Ezra
was the first to convey to the Roman Jews a conception of the
importance of Hebrew grammar, of which they were completely
ignorant. He translated the grammatical works of Chayuj, from Arabic
into Hebrew, and wrote a work under the title of "The Balance"
(Moznaim), the only interesting part of which is the well-written
historical introduction reviewing the labors of his predecessors in the
sphere of Hebrew philology.
In the summer of 1145 he was at Mantua, and here he composed a
new grammatical work upon the niceties of the Hebrew style (Zachot).
In this book he charged those with heresy who deviated from the
Massoretic authorities. This conduct appears the more incongruous,
since he himself, though secretly, took still greater liberties with the text
of the Bible. He remarks of the grammatical works of Ibn-Janach, that
they ought to be thrown into the fire, because the author suggests that
more than a hundred words in the Bible ought to be read or understood
in another than the accepted manner. His condemnatory judgment was
of such effect that the important productions of Ibn-Janach remained
unknown to the following generations, and inquirers were compelled to
quench their thirst at broken cisterns.
 He does not appear to have stayed long in Mantua, but to have
betaken himself thence to Lucca, where he dwelt for several years, and
gathered a circle of disciples about him. Here he occupied himself very
much with the study of astronomy, drew up astronomical tables, and
paid great attention also to the pseudo-science of astrology, which was
diligently studied by Mahometans and Christians. He wrote many books
under different titles on this subject (1148).
After recovering from a severe illness, he determined to write a
commentary on the Pentateuch, a self-appointed task from which he
shrank on account of its great difficulty. He was now in the sixty-fourth
year of his age (1152–1153). But there are no signs of old age to be
found in the work, which bears the stamp of freshness and youthful
vigor. The exposition of the Pentateuch by Ibn-Ezra is an artistic piece of
work, both in contents and in form. The language is vigorous, flowing
and witty, the interpretation profound, temperate, and bearing the
impress of devoted work. His rich store of knowledge, his extensive
reading and experience enabled him to make the Book of books more
intelligible, and to scatter the misty clouds in which ignorance and
prejudice had enshrouded it.
In his introduction he describes in a very striking and clever manner
the four customary and unsuitable methods of interpretation which he
desires to avoid. Confident of success, he puts himself above his
predecessors, and completes the task which he had set himself, to fix
the natural meaning of the text. Ibn-Ezra, by means of his commentary
to the Pentateuch, became the leader of the school of temperate,
careful, and scientific expositors of the Bible, and held the first place
among the few enlightened minds opposed to the obscurity of Agadic
explanation, of which Rashi was the leading exponent. For although he
denounced as heretical every interpretation that differed from the
Massora, yet rationalists considered him their leading authority, and
even unbelief looked to him for support. In fact, Ibn-Ezra gives us
abundant reason for reckoning him among such men as Chivi Albalchi,
Yitzchaki, and others, who called the authority of the Pentateuch into
question. In a vague and mysterious way, he suggested that several
verses in the Torah had been added by a later hand, and that whole
passages belonged to a later period. It is difficult to know whether he
was in earnest in his scepticism or in his firm belief. In Lucca, Ibn-Ezra
wrote his brilliant commentary on Isaiah (1154–1155), and other less
important works. After the completion of his commentary on the
Pentateuch (1155), Ibn-Ezra left Italy, and went to the south of France,
which, on account of its connection with Catalonia, possessed more of
the Spanish-Jewish culture than the north of France, Italy, or Germany.
In Jewish history Provence forms the dividing line between two
methods, the strictly Talmudical, and the scientific and artistic. The
Jewish Provençals worked actively according to both methods, but did
not attain any degree of excellence in either, merely remaining admirers
and imitators. Ibn-Ezra introduced a new element into this circle. In the
town of Rhodez he lived several years (1155–1157), and wrote his
commentaries to the book of Daniel, the Psalms, and the Twelve
Prophets. His fame became wide-spread, and attracted admirers. The
greatest rabbinical authority of the time, Jacob Tam, sent him a poem of
homage. Ibn-Ezra was very much surprised, and replied with an
epigram, half complimentary, half insulting. His love of travel led him,
now in his seventieth year, to foggy London, where he found a liberal
Mæcenas, who treated him with affection. Here he composed a kind of
philosophy of religion, written, however, with such extreme carelessness
and haste, that it is absolutely impossible to follow his train of thought.
On the whole, Ibn-Ezra accomplished as little in this branch of learning
as in general philosophy.
After this work on the philosophy of religion, while still in London, he
wrote a defense of the Sabbath, which is interesting on account of its
introduction. He begins by telling a dream which he had had, and in
which the Sabbath in person handed him a letter. Herein the Sabbath
complains that a disciple of Ibn-Ezra had brought writings into his house
in which the Biblical day was said to begin in the morning, and that
consequently the evening before the Sabbath possessed no sanctity. The
apparition thereupon commanded him to take up the defense of the
Sabbath. He awoke from his dream, and by the light of the moon read
the impious writings which had been brought to him, and, in truth,
found therein an assertion that the Biblical day began in the morning
and not in the evening. This unorthodox doctrine, which, it may be
remarked, was propounded by the grandson of Rashi, the pious Samuel
ben Meïr, aroused Ibn-Ezra; and he felt himself in duty bound to
controvert it with all his might, "lest Israel be led into error." In pious
wrath he writes, "May the hand of him who wrote this wither, and may
his eyes be darkened." The defense, which consists of the interpretation
of Biblical verses and of astronomical explanations, bears the name of
"The Sabbath Epistle." Although he was in prosperous circumstances
whilst in London, and had many pupils, he left that city after a short
stay. In the autumn of 1160 he visited Narbonne, and later on (1165 or
1166) he was again at Rhodez, where in his old age he revised his
commentary to the Pentateuch, and abridged it, retaining the most
essential portions, and finally composed his last book, a grammatical
work (Safah Berurah). His vigor and freshness of intellect, which he
retained even to the end of his life, are wonderful; his last productions,
like his first, bear the imprint of vivacity, confidence, and youthful power.
Besides his exegetical, grammatical, astronomical, and astrological
writings, he was also the author of several works on mathematics. It
appears that in his closing years Ibn-Ezra longed to return to his native
land, and began his homeward journey. When, however, he reached
Calahorra, on the borders of Navarre and Aragon, he died, and it is said
that on his death-bed he wittily applied a Bible verse to himself:
"Abraham was 78 years old when he escaped from the curse of this
world." He died on Monday, 1st Adar (22d January), 1167. He left many
pupils and a talented son, who, however, did not add glory to his name.
The Jewish community in France at this time also possessed a highly
gifted man, who not only concentrated within himself the chief
characteristics of the French school, and thus became an authority for
several centuries, but who also partook of the spirit of the Jewish-
Spanish school. Jacob Tam of Rameru (born about 1100, died 1171) was
the most distinguished disciple of the school of Rashi. Being the
youngest of the three learned grandchildren of the great teacher of
Troyes, Tam could not have acquired anything from his grandfather,
whom he knew only in the early years of his childhood. However, he
attained so high a degree of excellence in the study of the Talmud that
he outshone his contemporaries, and even his elder brothers, Isaac and
Samuel (Rashbam). The interminable paths and the winding roads of the
Talmudical labyrinth were familiar to him, and he had a rare knowledge
of the whole region. He united clearness of intellect with acuteness in
reasoning, and was the chief founder of the school of the Tossafists.
None of his predecessors had revealed such profound knowledge and so
marvelous a dialectical ingenuity in the sphere of the Talmud. Although
not in office, and engaged in business, he was esteemed the most
famous rabbi of his time, and his renown traveled as far as Spain and
Italy. Questions upon difficult points were sent to him exclusively, not
only from his own land, but also from southern France and Germany;
and all the rabbinical authorities of the period bowed to him with the
deepest reverence. In his youth he was surrounded by pupils who
regarded him with veneration as their ideal. He was so overwhelmed
with the task of answering questions sent to him that he sometimes
succumbed. The fanatics of the second crusade, who almost deprived
him of life, robbed him of all his possessions, and left him nothing more
than his life and his library. Nevertheless, he composed his commentary
to the Talmud just at this troubled period. He was a man of thoroughly
firm religious and moral character, in which there was only one blemish:
he took usury from Christians. Indeed, he, to a certain extent,
disregarded the rigid Talmudic laws on usury, in contravention of the
practice of his grandfather.
Jacob Tam is almost the only member of the school of northern
France who overcame the partiality for Talmudical study, and displayed
great taste for the diversified studies of the Spanish Jews. He studied
their art of Hebrew versification, and wrote liturgical prayers and secular
poems in a metrical form. He corresponded with Ibn-Ezra, the
representative of Jewish-Spanish culture, and, as related above,
exchanged poems with him. Poetry led Tam, who did nothing
superficially, to a thorough course of inquiry into the Hebrew language,
and he became so far advanced in the knowledge of grammar that he
was able to act as arbiter in the grammatical controversy between
Menachem ben Saruk and his opponent Dunash.
The large numbers of learned rabbis in northern France and in
Germany, and the universally acknowledged authority of Tam, brought
about a new departure, which for the first time made its appearance in
the post-Talmudical period. Under the presidency of the Rabbi of
Rameru, the first rabbinical synod assembled for the purpose of deciding
important questions of the day. Probably the councils which had been
convened in France by the fugitive popes, Pascal, Innocent II, Calixtus,
and Alexander III, gave this suggestion to the rabbis. The rabbinical
synods were not attended with that pomp which transformed such
councils into theaters in which vanity and ambition are fostered. Those
who took part in the proceedings met at some appointed place
frequented by Jews, such as Troyes and Rheims, without any splendor
or ceremony, and without ulterior motives or political intrigue. The
decisions of the rabbinical synods included not only religious and
communal matters, but also questions of civil laws, as the Jews still
possessed their own jurisdiction.
It is most probable that it was at one of these synods of the rabbis,
in whose minds the persecution of the second crusade was still fresh,
that it was decreed that no Jew should purchase a crucifix, church
appurtenances, vestments of the mass, church ornaments or missals,
because such an act might involve the whole community of Jews in
great danger. At a great synod, in which took part one hundred and fifty
rabbis from Troyes, Auxerre, Rheims, Paris, Sens, Drome, Lyons,
Carpentras, from Normandy, Aquitania, Anjou, Poitou, and Lorraine,
headed by the brothers Samuel and Tam, and by Menachem ben Perez
of Joigny, Eleazer ben Nathan of Mayence, and Eleazer ben Samson of
Cologne, the following resolutions were passed: (1) That no Jew should
summon one of his co-religionists before the courts of the country
unless both parties agreed to it, or unless the accused refused to appear
before a Jewish court of law. (2) Any damages which might accrue to
the defendant through this ex parte litigation at a non-Jewish court of
law should be paid by the complainant, according to the assessment of
seven elders of the congregation. (3) That no person should apply to the
secular authorities for the office of president or provost, or obtain the
office by stealth, but that the president shall be elected in an open
manner by the majority of the members of the congregation. A ban of
excommunication was pronounced against all who transgressed these
and other decisions of the synod; no Jew should hold intercourse with
such transgressors, nor partake of their food, nor use their books or
utensils, and not even accept alms from them. The edict of
excommunication against informers and traitors was also revived at this
synod.
At a synod held in Troyes, over which Tam presided, all those were
threatened with excommunication who dared find fault with any bill of
divorce after it had been delivered to the wife. Hyper-critical or wicked
men often criticised a bill of divorce after it had been granted, causing
the divorced parties much annoyance. Other decisions were made by the
synods, and these possessed the force of law among the French and
German Jews. Thus it was decided that the ordinance of Gershom for
the prevention of polygamy could only be abrogated by a hundred rabbis
from three different provinces, such as Francia, Normandy, and Anjou,
and only for the most weighty motives. The rabbis did not, like the
Catholic prelates, use this power of the synod against the people, but in
accordance with the feeling of the nation and for the welfare of the
community. Hence their decisions once made did not require frequent
renewal.
In his old age, Tam witnessed a bloody persecution of the Jews in
his vicinity, in Blois, which is memorable not only on account of the
severity with which the martyrs were treated, but especially for the lying
accusation, then for the first time brought against them, that they used
the blood of Christians at the Passover. It was a base intrigue which
kindled the fire at the stake for the innocent.
A Jew of Blois was riding at dusk towards the Loire in order to water
his horse. He there met a Christian groom, whose horse shied at a white
fleece which the Jew wore beneath his cloak, and growing restive,
refused to go to the water. The servant, who was well aware of the Jew-
hating character of his master, the mayor of the town, concocted a story
which served as ground for an accusation. He asserted that he had seen
the Jewish horseman throw a murdered Christian child into the water.
The mayor bore a grudge against an influential Jewish woman named
Pulcelina, who was a favorite of his lord, Count Theobald, of Chartres,
and took this opportunity of revenging himself. He repeated the lie about
the murder of a Christian child, and the charge read: "The Jews crucified
it for the Passover, and then threw it into the Loire." Count Theobald
thereupon commanded that all the Jews should be put into chains, and
thrown into prison. Pulcelina alone, for whom Theobald entertained a
particular affection, remained unharmed. Relying upon this, she quieted
the fears of her suffering co-religionists with the assurance that she
would prevail on the Count to release them. But soon the imprisoned
Jews learned that there was no hope of human aid.
Pulcelina, on account of the affection shown for her, had incurred
the bitter enmity of Isabelle, the wife of the Count, and she planned the
destruction of the Jews. She had a watch set over Pulcelina, and
prevented her from meeting the Count. The Jews had but one glimmer
of hope: an appeal to the notorious avarice of the Count. He had sent a
Jew of Chartres to ask what sum they were willing to pay in order to be
acquitted of this charge of murder. Thereupon they consulted with
friendly Christians, and it was arranged that one hundred pounds of
ready money, and one hundred and eighty pounds of outstanding debts
—probably the whole wealth of the small community—would be
sufficient. At this point, however, a priest took part in the proceedings,
and addressing the Count with warmth, besought him not to treat the
matter lightly, but to punish the Jews severely in case the accusation
against them was well founded. But how could any one ascertain the
truth, seeing that the whole charge rested merely upon the statement of
the groom, who could be said to have seen no more than a body thrown
into the river? In the Middle Ages such doubts were readily solved. The
water test was applied. The servant was conveyed to the river in a boat
filled with water, and as he did not sink, the Count and the whole of the
Christian population were firmly convinced that his statements were
really true. Count Theobald issued an order condemning the entire
Jewish congregation at Blois to death by fire. When they were brought
out to a wooden tower, and the fagots around them were about to be
kindled, the priest begged them to acknowledge Christianity, and thus
preserve their lives. They nevertheless remained steadfast to their faith,
and were first tortured, and then dragged to the stake. Thirty-four men
and seventeen women died amid the flames whilst chanting the prayer
which contains the confession of faith in One God (Wednesday, 20 Sivan
—26 May, 1171), Pulcelina dying with them. A few Jews only, through
fear of death, accepted Christianity. The Christians, relying on the water
test, were firmly convinced that the Jews had rightly deserved death at
the stake, and the chronicle narrates in terse fashion: "Theobald, Count
of Chartres, caused several Jews of Blois to be burnt, because they had
crucified a Christian child at the celebration of their Passover, and had
thrown its body into the Loire."
When the news of the martyrdom of the Jews reached Tam, he
decreed that the day should be observed as a strict fast and a day of
mourning. The congregations of France, Anjou, and the Rhine country,
to whom the great teacher sent letters of request, willingly obeyed his
decrees. This fast day, in memory of the martyrs of Blois, at the same
time commemorates the beginning of the utterly false and groundless
fabrication that the Jews use blood on their Passover, which in the
course of half a century was the cause of the death of hecatombs of
victims. This decree was the last public act of Tam, for a few days
afterwards he died (Wednesday, 4th Tamuz—9th June). One of his
pupils, Chayim Cohen, remarked that if he had been at the burial, he
would have assisted in the final disposition of the body in spite of the
law that a descendant of Aaron may not touch a corpse, because for so
holy a man the sanctity of a priest may be laid aside. Rabbi Tam
concludes the series of creative minds of the French school, just as Ibn-
Ezra marks the end of the original element in the Spanish school. There
now arose a personage who completely reconciled both schools, and
with whom a clearly marked transformation in Jewish history
commenced.
 CHAPTER XIII.
SURVEY OF THE EPOCH OF MAIMUNI
(MAIMONIDES).

The Jews of Toledo—Ibn-Shoshan, Ibn-Alfachar—The Poet

Charisi—Sheshet Benveniste—Benjamin of Tudela—The
Jews of Provence—The Kimchis—The Communities of
Béziers, Montpellier, Lünel, and Toulouse—Persecutions
of Jews in Northern France—The Jews of England—
Richard I—The Jews of York—The Jews of Germany—
Ephraim ben Jacob—Süsskind—Petachya the Traveler—
The Jews of Italy and of the Byzantine Empire—
Communities in Syria and Palestine—The Jews of Bagdad
—Mosul—The Pseudo-Messiah, David Alroy—The Jews of
India—Conversion to Judaism of Tartars—The Jews of
Egypt.
1171–1205 C. E.

Before the thick clouds of deadly hatred had begun to gather

from all sides over the house of Jacob, darkening the horizon
without leaving even one span of the blue heaven; before the
elements, pregnant with destruction, had been let loose on the head
of the community of Israel, crushing it to the earth; before evil in the
name of the Deity roused princes and nations, freemen and slaves,
great and small, against the weak sons of Judah, and urged men
with all the weapons of murder and the stings of scorn against
them, to destroy this small body of men; before the haughty Popes,
seated on the throne of God as judges over the living and the dead,
fastened a badge of scorn upon the garments of Jewish men and
women, and exposed them to persecution and mockery from all who
encountered them; before fanaticism prepared instruments of
torture for the most innocent of men, who were accused of crimes at
which they shuddered more than their accusers, the charges being
mere pretexts for torture and ill-treatment; before the gross lies
about murdered children, poisoned wells, and witchcraft, became
generally accepted; before all the nations of Christian Europe
excelled the savage Mongolians in barbarity towards the Jews;
before their thousandfold sufferings drove the blood from their
hearts, the marrow from their bones, and the spirit from their brains,
enfeebling them and dragging down their aspirations to grovel upon
the earth; in short, before that life of hell began for the Jews, which,
in the days of Pope Innocent III, reached its climax under Ferdinand
the Catholic of Spain, it is well to glance around upon the circle of
scattered Jewish congregations on the face of the globe, and to note
their condition in different countries, in order to see what they still
possessed, and of what this devilish fanaticism afterwards robbed
them. The cruelty which, in the names of two religions, was
preached against the Jews, had not yet succeeded in stamping them
altogether as outcasts. Whilst in one place they were despised and
hated and execrated, in another they were looked upon with respect
as citizens and men; whilst in one country they were servants of the
imperial chamber, in another they were appointed by princes and
municipalities to important offices; whilst in one place they were
reduced to the miserable position of bondmen, in another they still
wielded the sword, and fought for their independence.
The number of Jews in Asia far exceeded that in Europe, but the
general standard of the latter made them superior, so that Europe
must be regarded as the chief seat of Judaism. Here true self-
consciousness was aroused; here Jewish thinkers strove to solve the
difficult problem connected with the position of Judaism and the
Jews among the other religions and nations, and of the task allotted
to each member of a community. The heart of Judaism still beat in
the Pyrenean peninsula. Jewish Spain still held the highest rank, as
the intellect had here reached its fullest development. Jews lived in
all the five Christian kingdoms which had been formed in this
prosperous peninsula, in Castile, Leon, Aragon, Portugal, and
Navarre. Only in southern Spain, in Mahometan Andalusia, since its
conquest by the intolerant Almohades, there were no Jews, at least
none who openly professed their religion. The former seats of Jewish
learning, Cordova, Seville, Granada, and Lucena had been
devastated; Toledo, the capital of Castile and of the whole country,
had taken their place. The Toledo congregation at this time led the
van; it numbered more than twelve thousand Jews. The town,
resplendent with magnificent buildings, possessed also many
splendid synagogues, "with whose beauty none other could
compare." Among the Jews of Toledo there were wealthy and
cultured men and brave warriors, who were skilled in the use of
weapons. Jewish youths practised the art of war, that they might
become distinguished knights. Under Alfonso VIII called the Noble
(1166–1214), many talented Jews obtained high positions, were
appointed officers of state, and worked for the greatness of their
beloved fatherland. Joseph ben Solomon Ibn-Shoshan, called "the
Prince," was a distinguished personage at the court of Alfonso (born
about 1135, died 1204–1205). Learned, pious, wealthy and
charitable, Ibn-Shoshan enjoyed the favor of the king, and was
probably active in affairs of state. "Favor was bestowed upon him,
and goodwill manifested towards him by the king and the grandees."
With great liberality he encouraged the study of the Talmud, and
erected, in princely magnificence, a new synagogue in Toledo. His
son Solomon equaled him in many virtues.
Another highly honored man at Alfonso's court was Abraham
Ibn-Alfachar (born about 1160, died after 1223), "crowned with
noble qualities and magnanimous deeds. He was exalted in word
and deed, an ornament to the king, and the pride of princes."
Thoroughly proficient in the Arabic language, Ibn-Alfachar wrote
choice prose, and composed well-sounding verses, whose high merit
induced an Arab author to make a collection of them; amongst them
was a panegyric upon King Alfonso. This noble king once despatched
Ibn-Alfachar on an embassy to the court of Morocco, where ruled
the Prince of the Faithful, Abu Jacob Yussuff Almostansir. Although
this prince of the Almohades continued the intolerant policy of his
predecessors, did not permit any Jew to dwell in his kingdom, and
even desired to distinguish the Jews who had embraced Islam from
the native Mahometans by a prescribed dress, he was obliged to
receive the Jewish ambassador of Alfonso with friendliness. When
Ibn-Alfachar presented himself for an audience before the vizir of
Almostansir, in order to present his credentials, he was conducted
through the charming gardens of the palace, the splendor and
fragrancy of which delighted the senses. The gardener was,
however, as ugly as the gardens were beautiful. To the inquiry of the
vizir, how the garden pleased him, Ibn-Alfachar replied, "I would
positively have thought it to be Paradise, were it not that I know
that Paradise is guarded by a beautiful angel (Redvan), whilst this
has as its guardian an ugly demon (Malek), showing the way to the
gates of hell." The vizir laughed at this witty comparison, and
thought it worthy of being imparted to Almostansir. The latter
remarked to the Jewish ambassador, "The ugly doorkeeper was
intentionally chosen, in order to facilitate the entrance of a Jew into
this Paradise, because a Redvan would certainly never have admitted
an infidel."
A kinsman of this favorite of Alfonso, named Juda ben Joseph
Ibn-Alfachar, also bore the title of "Prince."
Although the two patrons of Toledo at this period, Ibn-Shoshan
and Ibn-Alfachar, were themselves proficient in the Talmud, and
encouraged Talmudical learning, yet this study did not flourish in the
Spanish capital to the same degree as with Alfassi, his disciples, and
in the school of Rashi. Toledo produced no Talmudists of renown.
The congregation was compelled for several centuries to obtain its
rabbis elsewhere. The Toledans had a greater inclination for science
and poetry. They preferred philosophy, meditated deeply upon
religion, and defended their belief against doubt. They were the
most enlightened of the Spanish Jews.
 The aged historian and religious philosopher, Abraham Ibn-Daud,
was still alive, and was an ornament to the congregation of Toledo.
At length in the year 1180 he fell a martyr in a riot against the Jews,
the origin and extent of which are not quite ascertained. It is
possible that the very warm friendship displayed by King Alfonso
towards the Jews had caused the riot. This prince, who had married
an English princess, had an open liaison with a beautiful Jewish
maiden, Rachel, who on account of her beauty was called Formosa.
This intimacy was not a passing fancy, but lasted for seven years.
Concerning this love, a poet sang:

"For her the king forgot his queen,

His kingdom and his people."

A band of conspirators attacked the fair Jewess on her richly

decorated dais, and, in the presence of the king, slew both her and
her companions, probably at the instigation of the queen and the
clergy. On this occasion, a riot may have broken out against the
Jews, in which Abraham Ibn-Daud met his death.
This did not prevent the Jews of Toledo, however, from giving
great assistance to Alfonso in his wars against the Moors. When he
assembled his immense army in order to subdue the great power of
the Almohades, who under Jacob Almansur were again trying to
penetrate into the heart of Spain, the Jews poured forth their riches
into the coffers of the impoverished monarch so as to enable him to
equip his forces. In the battle of Alarcos (19th July, 1195) he was
defeated, and the flower of Christian chivalry lay upon the battle-
field. The Almohades ravaged fair Castile, and Alfonso was
compelled to shut himself up in his capital, where the Jews fought
with the other inhabitants, in order to repel the onslaughts of the
enemy. They rendered material assistance in compelling the retreat
of the foe. The Jews of Castile had a special interest in opposing the
Almohades in their attempts to gain possession of the capital, lest
they should become subjected to the fanaticism of Islam. They
witnessed with joy the withdrawal of the Almohades before the kings
of Castile and Aragon, who had entered into a confederacy against
them. Through this union, however, the Jews of the kingdom of Leon
suffered severely, when the allied forces, ravaging the land, marched
through their territory. In this campaign, the oldest Hebrew copy of
the Bible in Spain, which had hitherto, under the name Hillali, served
as a model for copyists (said to have been written in about the year
600) fell into the hands of the enemy (9 Ab, 1197).
In Aragon, of which Catalonia was a part since the time of
Ramon Berengar IV, the Jews lived under favorable conditions, and
were able to develop their minds. Alfonso II (1162–1196), a
promoter and patron of the Provençal poetry, favored men gifted
with word and thought, and amongst such the Jews at this time took
a foremost place. Although Saragossa was the capital of Aragon, and
since ancient times had a Jewish congregation, yet at this time the
city of Barcelona was considered the center of northern Spain, owing
to its favorable position by the sea, and the flourishing state of its
commerce. Barcelona was pompously termed by the poet Charisi
"the congregation of princes and nobles." At its head stood Sheshet
Benveniste, philosopher, physician, diplomatist, Talmudist, and poet
(b. 1131, d. about 1210). Well acquainted with the Arabic language,
he was employed by the king of Aragon in diplomatic services,
obtained honors and wealth, and like Samuel Ibn-Nagrela, owed his
prosperity to his pen. Like this Jewish prince, Sheshet Benveniste
supported men of science and students of the Talmud. The poets
laud his noble mind and his liberality in excessive terms. Sheshet
Benveniste himself, when in his seventy-second year, composed a
song of praise of one hundred and forty-two verses in honor of
Joseph Ibn-Shoshan of Toledo.
Next to him in importance in Barcelona stood Samuel ben
Abraham Ibn-Chasdaï Halevi (1165–1216), "the fountain of wisdom
and the sea of thought," as the poet Charisi extravagantly calls him.
He had five learned sons, among whom was Abraham Ibn-Chasdaï,
who as the author of a moral romance, "The Prince and the
Dervish," and as a translator of philosophical writings, has made a
name in the history of literature.
 The community of Tudela, a small town on the Ebro, which was
the bone of contention between the kings of Aragon and Navarre,
had on two occasions courageously fought for equal privileges with
the Christian and Mahometan inhabitants, and won them. They
possessed a castle of their own for their security. Tudela produced a
learned traveler, Benjamin ben Jonah, to whom, not alone Jewish
history, but also general history, is indebted for his interesting and
authentic information. He traveled through a great portion of
southern Europe, Asia and Africa (1165–1173). The object of this
journey is not quite known. He was either an itinerant merchant, or
a pious man of an inquiring turn of mind in search of traces of a
Messianic redemption. He made observations on the peculiarities of
each town he visited, and his record of observations has been
translated into many modern languages.
Serachya Halevi Gerundi was born (1125, died 1186) in the little
town of Gerona in Catalonia. He appears to have possessed
considerable knowledge of philosophy, and was probably one of the
first in his country to occupy himself with this subject. He devoted
himself especially to the Talmud, and being acquainted with the
labors of the French and Spanish schools, he united in himself the
methods of Alfassi, Rashi, Joseph Ibn-Migash, and Tam. He was a
thorough and critical scholar, his mind being at once analytic and
synthetic. In his youth, at the age of nineteen, he composed
Talmudical works, and annotated the commentaries of Alfassi.
Serachya Gerundi appears to have suffered persecution at the hands
of the community of Gerona, for which he avenged himself by a
satire. He left Gerona, and settled in Lünel, where he possessed
many friends, and where he was maintained by a patron of learning.
Here he composed various writings against a Talmudical authority of
the south of France—Abraham ben David—and here also, at an
advanced age, he finished his acute annotations of Alfassi's work on
the greater part of the Talmud. These he published under the name
of Maor. In this critical work, Serachya displayed his independence of
spirit, and everywhere he insists upon a thorough understanding of
the Talmud. But this very independence was displeasing to his
contemporaries, who were accustomed to hedge themselves in with
the decisions of the old authorities. Serachya was far in advance of
his age in his view of the Talmud, and accordingly his conclusions
were strenuously opposed. Of his life and position nothing further is
known.
In the district on the other side of the Pyrenees, in Languedoc or
in Provence, the Jews towards the end of the twelfth century lived
most happily. Southern France partook of the northern Spanish
character in respect of culture and morals. The country was divided
into a number of small states, a circumstance which brought out the
versatility of its genius, and produced a period of literary excellence,
which it never afterwards surpassed. The province belonged at first
partly to the French crown and partly it was a fief of the German
empire; then it belonged to the King of Aragon as Count of
Provence, and later to the Count of Toulouse and St. Gilles; and,
lastly, to different vassals, counts, viscounts, and barons.
These were nearly all actuated by broad views of life; they were
patrons of the flourishing Provençal poetry, they encouraged
learning, and were not bigoted servants of the Church. Besides the
nobility, a free and wealthy middle class had arisen, which guarded
its independence as its dearest treasure. The intimate relations
between the inhabitants and the Moslems and Jews had weakened
western prejudices against the Orientals. The breadth of mind of the
Provençals, which prompted them to resist the Catholic Church, to
disregard papal bulls, to condemn the arrogant clergy, to apply the
scourge to the vices of the Roman court, and which gave rise to the
sect of the Albigenses, also rendered them capable of appreciating
Judaism, and the adherents of that religion. Among the Provençal
free-thinkers whom the stern, unbending Catholic Church branded as
heretics, there were many who secretly and openly acknowledged
that the law of the Jews was better than that of the Christians. Many
of the great and minor lords of southern France appointed Jewish
officers, and entrusted them with the high office of Chief Bailiff
(Bailli), with which, in the absence of the regent, were united the
police and judicial powers. The Jews of this country, which was so
highly blessed by nature, felt themselves favored, carried their heads
high, took the most lively interest in the welfare of the country, and
exerted themselves in spiritual concerns with untiring zeal. As the
Christians showed themselves ready to adopt innovations, so the
Jews of southern France did not accept all tradition with
unquestioning faith, but sought to comprehend its import, and test it
before the judgment-seat of reason. Although the Jews of Provence
manifested great interest in science, they cannot be considered as
independent thinkers, able to strike out into new lines of thought
within the limits of Judaism. Jewish Provence did not produce a
single original mind, not one profound thinker, not one genuine poet,
not one distinguished scholar in any branch of knowledge. The
Jewish Provençals were faithful disciples of foreign masters, whose
conclusions they appropriated, and steadfastly maintained; they
were humble workers in science, translators and propagators of
foreign intellectual productions. Judaism they loved with all their
hearts, although ready to pursue the free investigation of truth.
Jewish virtues flourished among them, their houses were hospitably
opened to all strangers; they secretly assisted the needy, and
practised beneficence at all times. The rich assisted the children of
poor parents to receive higher instruction, and gave them books,
which were at that time very costly. Especially noteworthy is the
loyalty with which the congregations stood by one another, and
interested themselves in one another's most intimate concerns.
When danger threatened any particular congregation, the others
immediately took measures to assist, and avert the impending
danger. Their general prosperity was attained partly by agriculture
and partly by commerce, which at that time was carried on with
Spain, Italy, England, Egypt, and the East, and was in a most
flourishing condition.
The principal congregation of southern France was Narbonne; at
that time it contained 300 members. Under the rule of the sensible
and masculine Princess Ermengarde, the head of the congregation
was Kalonymos ben Todros, of an old family, whose ancestor, Machir,
was said to have immigrated in the time of Charlemagne. Kalonymos
possessed many estates, which were secured to him by absolute
grants. At the head of the college was Abraham ben Isaac, who was
recognized as an authority, and bore the title of Chief Justice (Ab-
beth-din, died, autumn, 1172). He was a man of strictly Talmudical
pursuits, and was scarcely affected by general culture. His
Talmudical learning, moreover, was wide rather than deep; his
disciples, Serachya and Abraham ben David, excelled him even in his
lifetime. In Narbonne there lived at this time the Kimchi family,
whose achievements cannot be said to correspond to their fame, but
who, directly for Narbonne and indirectly for posterity, effected more
than the greatest masters. The founder of the family, Joseph ben
Isaac Kimchi (flourished 1150–1170), had emigrated from southern
Spain to Narbonne, probably on account of the religious persecution
of the Almohades. Having a knowledge of Arabic, he translated
Bachya's work on moral philosophy, and many others, into pure,
fluent Hebrew; composed a Hebrew grammar; wrote a commentary
on Holy Writ, the nature of the extant fragments of which precludes
regret for the loss of the rest, and composed many liturgical poems,
artistic in form, according to the models of neo-Hebraic poetry, then
brought to perfection in Spain, but of little poetic value. Joseph
Kimchi's merit consists solely in the fact that he introduced the
Jewish culture of Spain into southern France, and permanently
established the results of Ibn-Ezra's fugitive activity. A polemical
work against Christianity, in the form of a dialogue between a
believer and an apostate, is also ascribed to him. Whether this work
be genuine or not, in any case it belongs to this time and country,
and throws a favorable light on the state of morality among the Jews
as contrasted with that of the Christian population. The believer
maintains that the true religion of the Jews is attested by the
morality of its adherents. The Ten Commandments, at least, are
observed with the utmost conscientiousness. They adore no being
but God, and they take no false oaths. Among them are no
murderers, adulterers, nor robbers; whilst Christian highwaymen
often rob the weak, hang, or blind them. Jewish children are brought
up in purity and fear of God, and no improper word is allowed to
escape them. Jewish girls sit modestly at home, while Christians are
careless of their self-respect. A Jew practises hospitality towards his
brother Jew, ransoms prisoners, clothes the naked, and feeds the
hungry. All these virtues of the Jews the Christian antagonist admits
as generally known, and only blames the Jews for taking exorbitant
interest from Christians. This offense the Jewish speaker palliates by
pointing out that Christians also take usury even from their co-
religionists, whilst Jews lend to the members of their race without
interest.
Joseph's two sons, Moses and David Kimchi, followed in the
footsteps of their father. The first, who flourished 1170–1190, was
still more mediocre than his father, and this character of
insignificance is borne out by his grammatical and exegetical works.
The younger brother, David Kimchi (born 1160, died about 1235),
was, in truth, the teacher of the Hebrew language to the Jews and
Christians of Europe; but if any value is to be set on his grammatical,
lexicographical and exegetical works, we must ignore the fact that
Ibn-Janach, Moses Ibn-G'ikatilia and Ibn-Ezra lived before him, for
with these he cannot bear comparison. David Kimchi did not
establish one original point of view. In the introduction to his
grammatical work (Michlol) he is honest enough to confess that he
only sought to arrange the manifold and detailed results of the
labors of his predecessors. At most, it can be said in his favor that
he discovered the difference between the long and the short vowels,
and thereby threw light on the vowel changes, and, finally, that he
preserved in Jewish circles a faint recollection of a simple, sober,
literal exegesis in opposition to the extravagant, Agadic, pseudo-
philosophical method of exposition.
The old community of Béziers, which had received Ibn-Ezra so
honorably, was at this time, under Viscount Raymond Trencaval and
his son Roger, in a still more fortunate condition than that of
Narbonne. The Jews and Christians of this city did homage to the
spirit of free thought. Many of the citizens were Albigenses, and
renounced their allegiance to the Pope and the Catholic Church.
Nevertheless, following the old custom, the bishop, on Palm Sunday,
incited the parishioners against the Jews as murderers of God, and
the people, armed with stones, attacked the Jewish houses. But as
the Jews, who lived together in one quarter, surrounded by a wall,
always took precautions to defend themselves, there was usually a
number of broken heads. The chiefs of the Jewish community now
moved to abolish this custom, more discreditable to Christianity than
to Judaism, and received the consent of the viscount. Bishop
William, who was ashamed of so brutal a practice, also agreed that it
should be discontinued. On May 2d, 1160, an agreement was
concluded according to which every priest who stirred up the people
against the Jews should be excommunicated. The Jews in return
pledged themselves to pay four pounds of silver every year on Palm
Sunday. The assassination of Raymond Trencaval by several
conspirators in church on Sunday (5th Oct., 1167), involved the Jews
of Béziers in trouble, probably on account of their known attachment
to the viscount. Certain citizens preferred accusations against them,
and the directors of the congregation were arrested. Not long after,
terrible retribution overtook the murderers of the viscount and the
accusers of the Jews. Roger procured auxiliary troops from Alfonso,
the king of Aragon. These troops suddenly fell upon the citizens, put
the men to death, and hanged the ringleaders. Roger spared the
Jews on account of their faithful adherence to his father, and besides
them only the women and children (Feb. 1170). The viscount Roger,
who favored the Albigenses, had Jewish sheriffs, Moses de Cavarite
and Nathan. Through this partiality towards the heretics and the
Jews, he provoked the anger of the clergy and the Pope, and in
consequence suffered a tragic end.
An important Provençal congregation existed in the flourishing
commercial city Montpellier, which was the capital of southern
France; it had very rich members whose beneficence was much
extolled. Like their co-religionists in Béziers, they had a predilection
for learning, fostered by the existence of a medical academy in the
town and the prevailing freedom of education. The lords of this city
were by no means so friendly to the Jews as their neighbors of
Béziers. William VIII and his son expressly enjoined in their wills that
no Jew should be admitted to the office of sheriff (1178–1201),
although the latter owed a Jew, Bonet, a large sum of money. It is
not known who was then at the head of the congregation of
Montpellier, which produced no men of celebrity, although it
possessed learned Talmudists in such plentiful abundance, that
people compared its rabbinical school with the Synhedrion of the
Temple-Mount (Har).
What is now the little town of Lünel, not far from Montpellier,
was, under the lords De Gaucelin, an important city, and the Jewish
congregation, consisting of nearly three hundred members, was
considered, together with Narbonne, the most important outpost of
Jewish Provence. Its Talmudical school, which rivaled that in
Narbonne, educated numerous foreign students, who, if needy, were
provided with all necessaries by the congregation. At the head of the
congregation stood a man who was extravagantly praised by his
contemporaries, Meshullam ben Jacob (died 1170), a scholar and
wealthy man, whose opinion was held to be decisive in all matters of
learning and law. To win his approval was an incentive to an author.
"His soul adhered to the religion of his God; wisdom was his
inheritance. He illumined our darkness, and showed us the right
path." Thus, and still more extravagantly does an independent
contemporary describe him. Meshullam encouraged learned men to
turn their attention to various branches, especially to translating
Arabic works of Jewish authors into Hebrew. He was the first to
awaken, among the Jews of Provence, a taste for learning. He
occupied the same influential position in southern France that
Chasdaï Ibn-Shaprut had occupied in Spain. Meshullam had five
learned sons, who illustrated within a small circle the two currents
which were to meet in the next generation in keen conflict. One of
the sons, Aaron, who flourished from 1170 to 1210, although
conversant with the Talmud, had a special predilection for viewing
Judaism from its philosophical side; two others, Jacob and Asher, on
the other hand, paid homage to that teaching which abhorred the
light of reason. Jacob, although rich, led an ascetic life, drank no
wine, and on that account received the name of Nazarite. He is
described as the first promoter of the new Kabbala. His brother,
Asher of Lünel, lived, if possible, a life even more austere, and
although equally affluent, he fasted much, and ate no meat.
On the whole, the scientific tendency prevailed in the community
of Lünel. It was represented by two men, who have made
themselves famous in the history of Jewish literature, viz., the
founder of the family of Tibbon, and Jonathan of Lünel. The latter
was an important Talmudical authority, who wrote a commentary on
Alfassi's Talmudical work. He was none the less fond of science, and
was one of the first who insisted that it should take a high place in
Jewish studies. Judah ben Saul Ibn-Tibbon (born about 1120, died
about 1190) originally came from Granada, and had emigrated to
southern France on account of the persecution of the Jews by the
Almohades. In Lünel he pursued the profession of physician, and in
that capacity made himself so popular, that his services were sought
by princes, knights, and bishops, and he was even sent for from
across the sea. He knew Arabic thoroughly, and he studied Hebrew
with enthusiasm. His learning, however, made him a pedant, he
carefully measured every step, and cogitated deeply whether he
should take it or abandon it. At regular intervals he examined his
important collection of books, which he kept in most perfect order,
and was unhappy if he noticed any confusion in them. He set great
value upon elegant handwriting and other unessential matters. Ibn-
Tibbon was thus, as it were, created for translating. At the
instigation of friends, particularly Meshullam of Lünel—with whom,
as with Serachya of Gerona and Abraham ben David, he lived on
friendly terms—he translated in succession from Arabic into Hebrew,
Bachya's "Duties of the Heart," Ibn-Gebirol's "Ethics" and "Necklace
of Pearls," Jehuda Halevi's religious philosophical work, Ibn-Janach's
important grammatical and lexicographical work, and, lastly,
Saadiah's "Religious Philosophy" (1161-1186). His translations,
however, show his pedantic character; they are absolutely literal and
clumsy; they slavishly follow the Arabic original, and do violence to
the Hebrew language. Jehuda Ibn-Tibbon, who knew perfectly well
that a conscientious translator must thoroughly understand both
languages, as well as the subject-matter of the work, pleaded as an
excuse for the stiffness of his translation, the poverty of the Hebrew
language.
The second Tibbonid, Samuel, son of Judah (1160–1239),
formed a strong contrast to the character of his father; though more
gifted than the latter, he was thoughtless, prodigal, and of
phlegmatic nonchalance. His father had spent the utmost care on his
education, had himself instructed him, and put him under highly-
salaried masters. Thus Samuel Ibn-Tibbon studied medicine, the
Arabic language, the Talmud, and other cognate departments of
knowledge. His fond father also provided him at an early age with a
wife, and tried to subject his son to his guardianship and to the rule
of his pedantic nature. The latter revolted against his father's
despotic rule, cast his exhortations and teachings to the winds, and
having asserted his independence, became estranged from his
father. He made foolhardy business speculations instead of applying
himself to his profession, losing all his money, so that he was finally
obliged to appeal to his father for means to keep himself and his
family from starvation. His father thought that he was ruined, but
Samuel quietly finished his education, and ultimately excelled his
father both in skill of translating and in philosophical grasp. He
rendered into Hebrew not only works of Jewish authors, but also
some of the works of Aristotle; he also wrote a philosophical
exposition of Ecclesiastes and a treatise on portions of Genesis.
Generally speaking, the chief claim of the Tibbonides to distinction
rests on their skill as translators, as that of the Kimchis on their
grammatical acumen.
Not far from Lünel, in Posquières, there existed at that time a
congregation of forty members. Here was born one of the greatest
Talmudists, Abraham ben David (about 1125, died 1198), son-in-law
of Abraham ben Isaac of Narbonne. Having been educated under
excellent teachers, and being very rich, Abraham (Rabed II)
supported a college of his own, which attracted many students from
far and near. He provided for the material as well as the intellectual
needs of his disciples. Whilst still a youth, he composed Talmudical
works of great importance, and at the instigation of Meshullam ben
Jacob he wrote a commentary on a part of the Mishna. By nature
inconsiderate, and having little respect for the rules of courtesy, he
treated those whose writings he refuted in a contemptuous manner.
He was a dangerous antagonist. Of the sciences he had no
knowledge, nor did he seem capable of grasping the higher
conception of Judaism; he even boasted of his ignorance of such
things; it was quite sufficient in his eyes for one to be thoroughly
conversant with the Talmud. Abraham ben David and Serachya
Halevi were the profoundest Talmudists since the death of Tam.
Bourg de St. Gilles, the second capital of Duke Raymond V of
Toulouse, had a congregation of a hundred members. This
congregation, as well as the others under Count Raymond, whom
the troubadours called the Good Duke, lived under most happy
conditions, and were promoted to offices of state. Abba-Mari ben
Isaac, of St. Gilles, better known through his learned son, was the
sheriff of the town. This son, Isaac ben Abba-Mari, who was
probably a pupil of Tam, had acquired, from the celebrated master of
Rameru, a thorough rather than an ingenious method of studying
the Talmud. In his seventeenth year he composed, at the instance of
his father, a compendium of certain ritual laws, and later in life
summed up all the results of his investigations in the Talmud in a
work, entitled "Ittur," upon the rabbinical civil laws and rites.
Raymond VI of Toulouse favored the Jews even more than his
father, and promoted them to offices (1192–1222). On this account,
and for other like sins, he was virulently persecuted by Pope
Innocent III, and ultimately had to take a solemn oath that he would
deprive the Jews of their offices, and that he would never appoint
any Jews, nor favor them in any way.
Beaucaire (Belcaire), which belonged to the county of Toulouse,
also had a large congregation, at the head of which stood
Kalonymos, "the Prince." In the flourishing commercial town of
Marseilles, which at that time formed an independent state, there
lived three hundred Jewish families belonging to two congregations.
The minor congregation, the members of which dwelt near the
harbor, and probably carried on navigation, or at least engaged in
foreign business, had at their head a noble man, Jacob Perpignano
(died 1170). The larger congregation had a Talmudical college, over
which Simon ben Anatolio presided. In Marseilles also, the Jews
were admitted to offices.
The beginning of the last two decades of the twelfth century
constituted the boundary line between fortune and misfortune for
the Jews of northern France, who were partly subject to the king
and partly to the more or less dependent barons. As long as the
friendly king, Louis VII, lived, they continued in their happy
condition, and were protected from the malevolent attacks of the
clergy. Louis would not enforce the resolution of the Lateran Council,
that no Jew should keep any Christian nurses or domestics. He
asked the Pope, at the request of the Jews, whether this resolution
must be strictly construed, and whether the Jews might be allowed
to build synagogues. In spite of the papal decision, he exercised so
little energy in enforcing this canonical law, that even his son Philip
Augustus, in whose favor he abdicated (1169) on account of
feebleness, did not feel bound by it. When the Archbishop of Sens
insisted on its enforcement, and endeavored to bring into effect
several other decisions of the Church, which encroached on the
prerogatives of the crown, the young king sent him into banishment.
By and by, however, other considerations, not different influences,
gained the ascendancy over the not very noble nature of Philip
Augustus, at that time only twenty-five years old, prompting him to
change his mind about the Jews, and transforming him into one of
the greatest Jew-hating kings in history.
Although lord of the whole of France, and feudal suzerain of the
mighty king of England, the French king at that time had little land
of his own. The small tract of land, Isle de France, with a few
scattered provinces, constituted his only inheritance, and the rest of
the land was under the dominion of powerful barons. The policy of
Philip Augustus aimed at enriching the French crown by the
acquisition of landed estates, and by transforming the ostensible
vassalage of the barons into a reality. To accomplish this he needed
money, above all things, in order to raise troops and to support
them. The wealth of the French Jews appeared to him a ready
resource, and prompted him to devise a scheme to appropriate it.
He had no need for lengthy consideration, for he had only to give
ear to the prejudice that prevailed against them, in order to obtain
the right to plunder and oppress them. Although the Jews of France
were not the only persons who practised usury—for Christians also,
in spite of canonical prohibitions, took exorbitant interest—and
although it was perhaps only the rich Jews of that country that were
usurers, Philip Augustus nevertheless made the Jews one and all
responsible for the impoverishment of reckless debtors; and
although personally he did not believe that monstrous lie which
somehow arose in the twelfth century—whence and on what ground
we know not—that the Jews slaughtered Christian children on the
Passover festival, and drank their blood, he nevertheless acted as if
they were incarnate murderers, so as to have a convenient pretext
for exacting and extorting money from them. Even before the death
of the old king, Philip Augustus caused all the Jews living on his
estates to be seized whilst they were praying in their synagogues,
and cast into prison (19th January, 1180). He calculated that the
Jews would offer a large ransom for their liberation. When they had
collected fifteen hundred marks of silver they were set at liberty.
This extortion was only a prelude to further demands. Before the
end of the year 1180, the king declared all claims of Jews against
Christians to be null and void; but, nevertheless, took care to
appropriate a fifth part of the debts of the Christians to the
exchequer. A hermit of Vincennes encouraged him, by explaining to
him that it was godly work to rob the Jews of their wealth. Philip
Augustus was not yet satisfied that he had made the rich Jews
beggars, and shortly afterwards published an edict commanding all
the Jews in his province to leave it between April and St. John's Day
(1181). They were allowed to sell their movable property. Their
fields, vineyards, barns and wine-presses, which must have yielded a
fine revenue, escheated to the king, and the deserted synagogues
were used as churches. That it is untrue that the Jews of France
were hated by the people on account of their usury, alleged child-
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