Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Émil Brugsch-Bey.
The second, who was named Siphtah-Mînephtah, ascended “the throne of his father” thanks to the devotion of his minister Baî,* but in a greater degree to his marriage with a certain princess called Tausirît. He maintained himself in this position for at least six years, during which he made an expedition into Ethiopia, and received in audience at Thebes messengers from all foreign nations. He kept up so zealously the appearance of universal dominion, that to judge from his inscriptions he must have been the equal of the most powerful of his predecessors at Thebes.
Egypt, nevertheless, was proceeding at a quick pace towards its downfall. No sooner had this monarch disappeared than it began to break up.** There were no doubt many claimants for the crown, but none of them succeeded in disposing of the claims of his rivals, and anarchy reigned supreme from one end of the Nile valley to the other. The land of Qîmît began to drift away, and the people within it had no longer a sovereign, and this, too, for many years, until other times came; for “the land of Qîmît was in the hands of the princes ruling over the nomes, and they put each other to death, both great and small.
* Baî has left two inscriptions behind him, one at Silsilis
and the other at Sehêl, and the titles he assumes on both
monuments show the position he occupied at the Theban court
during the reign of Siphtah-Mînephtah. Chabas thought that
Baî had succeeded in maintaining his rights to the crown
against the claims of Amenmesis.
** The little that we know about this period of anarchy has
been obtained from the Harris Papyrus.
Other times came afterwards, during years of nothingness, in which Arisu, a Syrian,* was chief among them, and the whole country paid tribute before him; every one plotted with his neighbour to steal the goods of others, and it was the same with regard to the gods as with regard to men, offerings were no longer made in the temples.”
* The name of this individual was deciphered by Chabas;
Lauth, and after him Krall, were inclined to read it as Ket,
Ketesh, in order to identify it with the Ketes of Diodorus
Siculus. A form of the name Arisai in the Bible may be its
original, or that of Arish which is found in Phoenician,
especially Punic, inscriptions.
This was in truth the revenge of the feudal system upon Pharaoh. The barons, kept in check by Ahmosis and Amenôthes I., restricted by the successors of these sovereigns to the position of simple officers of the king, profited by the general laxity to recover as many as possible of their ancient privileges. For half a century and more, fortune had given them as masters only aged princes, not capable of maintaining continuous vigilance and firmness. The invasions of the peoples of the sea, the rivalry of the claimants to the throne, and the intrigues of ministers had, one after the other, served to break the bonds which fettered them, and in one generation they were able to regain that liberty of action of which they had been deprived for centuries. To this state of things Egypt had been drifting from the earliest times. Unity could be maintained only by a continuous effort, and once this became relaxed, the ties which bound the whole country together were soon broken. There was another danger threatening the country beside that arising from the weakening of the hands of the sovereign, and the turbulence of the barons. For some three centuries the Theban Pharaohs were accustomed to bring into the country after each victorious campaign many thousands of captives. The number of foreigners around them had, therefore, increased in a striking manner. The majority of these strangers either died without issue, or their posterity became assimilated to the indigenous inhabitants. In many places, however, they had accumulated in such proportions that they were able to retain among themselves the remembrance of their origin, their religion, and their customs, and with these the natural desire to leave the country of their exile for their former fatherland. As long as a strict watch was kept over them they remained peaceful subjects, but as soon as this vigilance was relaxed rebellion was likely to break out, especially amongst those who worked in the quarries. Traditions of the Greek period contain certain romantic episodes in the history of these captives. Some Babylonian prisoners brought back by Sesostris, these traditions tell us, unable to endure any longer the fatiguing work to which they were condemned, broke out into open revolt.
