Reginald Stuart Poole

“ Was Egypt already engaged in a struggle with foreign invaders, or did the labyrinth really mean political innovation, which led to domestic dissension? These questions cannot yet be answered: all we know is that in course of time the later Theban kingdom, whose sovereigns were ephemeral in their reigns, came to an end, and that then or before, scarcely later, a great catastrophe occurred which, though the chief calamity of ancient Egypt, ended in the establishment of the empire. This was the invasion and conquest of Egypt by the Shepherds. ”

“ The result was of the greatest consequence to Egypt, for it firmly planted there a strong Shemite population, which was vigorous enough in quality, although assimilated to the nation in manners, to give back to the Egyptians, as a kind of return for the evils of conquest, a new element of thought and language. For a time after the subjugation of the Shepherds we have no trace of them; probably the early pharaohs of the empire, those of the eighteenth dynasty, repressed the strangers from a natural fear of their reasserting their power. ”

“ We now know the race of the Shepherds and their place in Egyptian history, not that chronological place which students are still looking for in vain, but the place in the series of influences which form the true history of each country. ”

“ Later we find undoubted Ethiopians of the Somálee country, and perhaps also Arabia Felix, as tributaries of Egypt.
It is characteristic of this bright period that its monuments show an advance in architectural taste. With the abandonment of the massive structures of the pyramid age there arose an instinctive desire for beauty in art. It is now that we first find, at Benee-Hasan, the elegant many-sided columns which have reasonably been called proto-Doric. The general impression all the works of art of the dynasty give us is that of refined elegance. ”

“ The story in the papyrus would seem to show that the Shepherds, having adopted Egyptian civilization, selected Set the god of Lower Egypt, who was also supposed by the Egyptians to be the special protector of their eastern enemies, and thus identified with Baal. This was, however, accompanied by an innovation, the attempt to exclude all other worship at the chief temple, perhaps in all Egypt, as though Set had been selected to represent the Baal worshipped by the Shepherd tribe. The institution of new festivals is a proof how thorough the innovation was. ”

“ We cannot yet conjecture the details of the history of the Shepherds in Egypt, or the duration of their dominion, for it is not until about its last century that we have a basis of fact. It is probable that the first conquest and early rule was marked by the violence of which Manetho speaks. There is in this period an absence of monuments which is strong negative evidence of an age of suffering. The dislike with which the Egyptians speak of the Shepherds cannot, however, he said to prove anything. ”

“ It was the real cause of the empire. A national war of independence formed the military qualities that, when the country was free, could no longer resist the desire to carry the national arms into the enemy's land. The Egypt of the empire is no longer the Egypt of the old Memphite and Theban kings: extension of territory is desired, not only for purposes of commerce, but also for the gratification of ambition. A material aid to these designs was afforded by the introduction of the horse and the war-chariot. Both are unknown in Egypt before the eighteenth dynasty ”

“ No race has been more literary but less monumental than the Shemite. The most destructive criticism must allow a great antiquity to Hebrew literature. The Arabs must have cultivated poetry for ages before they wrote out their intricately measured odes. If the Shepherds in Egypt had this true Shemite faculty, the problem before us receives its solution. ”

“ It is probable that the Shepherds ruled all Egypt until a national rising caused the war of independence, which, after many years, ended in the expulsion of the foreigners by Aahmes, or Amosis, the head of the eighteenth dynasty. Manetho's statement as to the extent of the foreign rule and its termination in consequence of a revolt led by a king of the Thebaïs, is confirmed and illustrated by a most interesting Egyptian fragment contained in a papyrus, which probably told how that conflict arose. ”

“ If there were any doubt that the Shepherds were Shemites, it would be removed by the numerous Semitic geographical names to be found in the east of Lower Egypt, and by the circumstance that under the nineteenth dynasty, between two and three centuries after the expulsion of the foreigners, the Semitic element in Egypt was so strong that it became the fashion not only to use Semitic words in place of Egyptian, but even to give Egyptian words Semitic forms. ”

“ The welfare of Egypt depends on the annual inundation of the Nile. A very low inundation causes famine, a very high one is a disastrous flood, and it is not seldom that the utmost level of the river little exceeds that which portends famine, or falls little short of the scarcely less fatal flood-height. There are, moreover, many tracts in Egypt which the inundation never reaches, unless the water is raised by artificial means, and by such means the inundated lands may again be irrigated so as to produce a second and third harvest. ”

“ Much we have now to unlearn, many old theories to discard, but at length there is a sure base on which discovery and inquiry are building up a solid and lasting structure.
The story of the conquest and rule of Egypt by the Shepherds, the great convulsion which overthrew the old kingdom, and by stirring national feeling brought the empire into light, is told in a large fragment of Manetho's history given by Josephus. ”

“ The proper mode of dealing with this difficult but most interesting period of Egyptian history, the age, as far as we know, of the first great war, the first inroads of the Easterns into Egypt, is that of M. Chabas, who has collected all the native documentary evidence. His main results may here be given with such additional evidence as may be gleaned from M. Mariette's discoveries. M. Chabas's paper is an admirable criticism of the written data: he does not, however, deal with the not less valuable evidence of art. ”

“ The state of society is very much that of the pyramid age, with a greater degree of luxury, and we have a hint of the foreign relations of Egypt in the representation of a band of Shemite settlers coming before the nomarch, a subject which illustrates, though it certainly does not represent, the settlement of the Israelites in Egypt. ”

“ But if we remember the evident concentration of the whole forces of the nation in the vast sepulchre of each monarch of the fourth dynasty, and the many records that show the diffused activity of the later line, we begin to form a fairer judgment. ”

“ It is easy to speculate on a dynastic change which may have caused a migration to Egypt, or to suggest conditions pointing to the possibility of a regular invasion by a powerful Asiatic state, but these are mere conjectures which can produce no trustworthy results. ”

“ The type on the Shepherd monuments is distinctly Shemite, of a character distinguished from that of the Assyrians, as seen on their monuments, by a more marked cast of features. It represents the same vigorous, muscular race, a race with far less refinement but much more energy than the Egyptians. ”

“ He accordingly sent a message, evidently on the subject of this religious innovation, to Sekenen-ra, prince of Upper Egypt, a Theban dynast, not here designated by the usual titles of the pharaohs. It appears that the foreign chief conceded the admission of the worship of Amen-ra in his new temple. The deliberations caused the greatest anxiety to the tributary Egyptian prince. It may be that much more is meant than the local worship of the territory occupied by the Shepherds, but of this we cannot be certain. The story breaks off, the ancient scribe having begun to copy another document. ”