Book Review of When Egypt Ruled the East

1998-03-17

Here is a book review and brief summary of Steindorff and Seele’s book. I have included it because of its relevance to the study of the ancient Near East, and the book is well worth reading.

George Steindorff’s and Keith C. Seele’s When Egypt Ruled the East is a tapestry that portrays the entire lineage of the thirty dynasties of ancient Egypt combined with Egyptian culture and their interaction with other lands. By delving deeply into the history of an empire that lived fully for millennia, this work touches on all sides of the life of Egypt from its rise as a world power to its downfall. This book also discusses in great detail the Egyptians’ language and their enigmatic religion, to their value in art and architecture, especially in their burial grounds. By combining the aforementioned cultural characteristics of Ancient Egypt and their illustrious history, When Egypt Ruled the East is literature that strives as an archive of one of the greatest empires of all time.

What makes the deciphering of the Egyptian history possible was the discovery of the Rosetta Stone, which had both hieroglyphic and demotic script, as well as Greek engraved upon it. What is so impressive about this stone is that it served as a trilingual dictionary that opened the doors of the Ancient Egyptian history that would be otherwise lost. Through this translation, the discovery of Ancient Egyptian history became possible.

The fist important detail to be shared is that Manetho, a priest that lived in the third century B.C., spoke how the Egyptian royal lineage was divided into thirty dynasties, beginning with the king Menes in the first dynasty, to the Greek conqueror, Alexander the Great. The third through sixth dynasties were referred to as the Old Kingdom, the seventh through the eleventh, the First Intermediate Period, the twelfth, the Middle Kingdom, the thirteenth through the seventeenth, the Second Intermediate Period, and the eighteenth through the twentieth, the New Kingdom (page 7). As many civilizations existed near water, Egypt was no exception. Egypt surrounded the Nile River, as it was a necessity, since Egypt exists in the desert of northeastern Africa (page 8). Egypt was divided into two entities: Upper Egypt, in the south, and Lower Egypt, in the north. The monarch of the south would don a white crown, and the monarch of the north, a red crown. A double crown would be worn by a king of the united kingdom.

Menes was the first king of the first dynasty, as he is thought to be the descendant of Narmer (page 13). He ruled a united Egypt, and was the founder of the city Memphis. King Djoser of the third dynasty set a model for future rulers by having his burial place designed and built. His vizier, Imhotep, designed and built a step-pyramid in Saqqara. This idea was adopted for a royal tomb, especially by the rulers of the fourth dynasty: Khufu, Khafre, and Menakaure. By the end of the fifth and sixth dynasties, there existed in Egypt great inner-tension (page 18). Much of the national treasury was used to finance the building of pyramids, which made the common folk displeased- a call for new order.

The eleventh and twelfth dynasties restored order to the preceding chaos, especially Amenemhet I of the twelfth dynasty. The only drawback to his reorganization is the more or less feudal law he established. Central law re-evolved later in the twelfth dynasty. Also during this time, trade increased not only by land, but also by sea (page 22). There were also wars with Nubia, the land to the south of Egypt, which frequently happened throughout history. This territory was annexed to the remainder of Egypt after the victory of the battle.

During the thirteenth dynasty, an Asiatic people known as the Hyksos set up a kingdom at Avaris, on the Nile delta. They were also known as the king-shepherds, or the rulers of foreign lands, depending on which etymology one follows (page 24). Wielding horse-drawn carriages, the Hyksos captured Memphis and set up their own rule for Egypt. The Egyptians still had their Thebian rulers, and the national religion was not disrupted, but rather adopted by the foreign rulers. Strangely, much of the status quo was maintained. Despite this, the Thebian kings were not pleased with foreigners as their governors. It was the violent death of the Thebian king Sekenenre that angered the Egyptians as much that they took action (page 29).

Sekenenre’s successor was the angry Kamose, who began to wage war on the dominant Hyksos leaders, and did so successfully until his death (page 32). His brother Ahmose completed Kamose’s goals by defeating the final Hyksos stronghold by besieging them at Avaris. He had successfully driven the Hyksos out of Egypt. He also defeated a Nubian uprising in Upper Egypt. After this, Ahmose was crowned, after winning back his homeland.

Upon the death of Ahmose, Amenhotep I succeeded him, and immediately had to pacify unrest in Nubia. Following this, he defeated the Libyan threat on the western border of Egypt (page 33). His brother-in-law Thutmose followed Amenhotep; Thutmose again prepared to leave for Nubia, and thwarted once again an uprising there. He also “expanded Egypt’s Nubian possessions” (page 35). Thutmose expanded across the land with victories as far east as the Euphrates River.

Thutmose II followed Thutmose I’s reign, and then Thutmose III, who was the son of Thutmose II by a secondary wife (page 40). Though Thutmose III was to be king, he was dominated by Hatshepsut, who became Egypt’s first female ruler. She wore the same beard taped upon her chin as the kings of the past had. Some of her greatest accomplishments were her own tomb design in the Valley of Kings and the erection of obelisks.

Thutmose III attained full power at the age of thirty. He had a threat to the north of his kingdom- a confederation in Palestine. The Egyptian ruler immediately took to the road with his troops to wage war on this threat. Taking a big risk, Thutmose overruled his commanders and lead his army through a narrow mountain pass and attacked his targeted enemy at Megiddo, which resulted in a siege of the city (page 54-55). He defeated them, collected a large amount of booty, and returned home in victory. Other rulers from other lands recognized his victories formally. The conquering king had many other defeats, such as the harbor in Joppa among many others, as Thutmose’s goal was to take all of Syria.

Amenhotep II, the successor of Thutmose III spent time suppressing uprisings in the conquered cities of his father (page 69). He also brought new cities under his control. Amenhotep II is the pharaoh of the Exodus; to read more about this, read the article here. The following rulers, Thutmose IV and Amenhotep III, primarily had more peaceful reigns.

Amenhotep IV was to follow, and he primarily introduced a new faith to all of Egypt. He broke the status quo of a polytheistic Egypt and spoke of one true god, Aton, despite the opposition of many priests. He claimed that he “lived on the truth” and Egyptians, Nubians, and Asiatics were to worship this one god (page 206). The worship of old gods, such as Amun, became forbidden. Amenhotep’s name was changed to Akhnaton, which means “He Who Is Beneficial To Aton” (page 206). To conform with his beliefs, Akhnaton changed the capital from Thebes to Akhetaton, and constructed an open-air temple for Aton (page 210). No person was considered divine, and the act of magic also tended to vanish (page 216).

Tutankhaton followed Akhnaton, and was a boy of eight or nine years old. Little knowledge has been acquired from his reign which lasted about a decade, but the wealth of his tomb is a vestige of Tutankhaton’s reign (page 226). The priests of Tutankhaton’s day gave the king much pressure into accepting the religion from the pre-Akhnaton era, so the paradigm shift was successful, and the suffix of Tutankhaton’s name was changed to make Tutankhamun. Tutankhamun died young, leaving his vizier Eye as king, who also had a short reign. Harmhab succeeded him, another counselor of Tutankhamun, and immediately destroyed the vestige of the old “heretic rulers”, and bought the priests’ approval (page 244-45).

In the dawn of the nineteenth dynasty, Ramesses I came to power, but died not too far into his reign. Sethi I came to power, and fought a campaign against the Hittites and to renew the Egyptian conquest in Asia (page 248). Ramesses II, who followed in rule, went to attack the Hittites, but was caught by surprise and forced to retreat. Records, however, tell otherwise, for Ramesses boasted of a great defeat in the historical records that were found. Ramesses III set Ramesses II as his role model (page 253). The Libyan Meshwesh was stationed on the western boundary, and Ramesses intervened before them and defeated them. Beyond Ramesses’ reign begins the downfall of the empire’s greatness. In Egypt’s dying moments under the latter of the Ramessids, the “power and prestige of Amun and his priesthood expanded proportionately” (page 269). Hrihor, a junior officer, worked his way to vizier, and finally to priest-king, and Egypt was a model theocracy.

Centuries after was an economical, political, and cultural decline of Egypt (page 270). Nubia had gained independence. The Ethiopians passed into the north and took the city of Thebes, and later the Assyrians overthrew them. The Assyrians eventually withdrew on their own, and the rise of the twenty-sixth dynasty gave one last short season of peace and prosperity (page 271). However, the Persians came through, and the Greeks under Alexander the Great after them. When the Romans came through on their conquest, the permanent end to the Egyptian empire came.

Egyptian hieroglyphs was one of the greatest intellectual achievements of the Egyptian people (page 116). First, the written language evolved throughout the entire Egyptian era. In the beginning, there were pictographs, or pictures that resembled the objects they referred to. Next came the alphabetic signs where words became letters of the alphabet. There was a development of two classes of phonograms: the first class was the actual letters, as the second class consisted of symbols for consonant clusters (page 120). No vowels were ever represented in the Egyptian written language. A hieratic evolved, which was for quick, everyday use, where hieroglyphs were the older, more formal form of writing (page 121).

The Egyptian religion was polytheistic, and each town had their own god that served as a protector. There were also national gods, where the sun god was often the king of the gods. Pharaohs were of divine origin, and considered immortal. Temples and monuments were often built to please and win favor of the gods. In later times, some animals were considered sacred and inviolable, and citizens were penalized if they harmed a particular animal (page 139). Gods were created in the image of the people’s experience; that is, gods were of human form and wearing the same type of clothing as the Egyptian people did. Life after death was also an important matter, though often disagreed upon (page 145). When Egypt Ruled the East is very precise with all information known about the chronology of the Egyptian history, though it is a bit outdated. In the decades since the second publishing of this book, more things have been discovered, and some hypotheses proven wrong.

When Egypt Ruled the East is about how Egypt was one of the greatest empires of all time. It presents this by showing how Egypt advances culturally, and by the numerous Egyptian conquests and necropolis structures. By going step by step on the Egyptian timeline, When Egypt Ruled the East is an excellent primer for this mysterious and impressive empire.

Source

Steindorff, George and Seele, Keith C. When Egypt Ruled the East. Chicago: The University of Chicago, 1957.