Concepciones y modelo de enseñanza de las ciencias naturales del estudiante P3

The attempts to understand the nature of ancient Egyptian kingship beyond the stereotype of pharaoh/tyrant, are clear in the writings of native Egyptian historians such as Ibn Zahirah (Mahasin: 12If.) and Al-Suyuti IHusn: 1: 44f.) who portray the kings of pharaonic Egypt as models of efficiency and kindness, dedicated to the well­ being of their people. This Moslem/Arab image of the pharaohs is supported by the ancient Egyptian sources (Badawy 1967). So the perceived image of the pharaoh as the archetype of tyranny is not founded on either Qur’anic portrayal of Egyptian kingship nor on a common medieval Moslem view but on a narrow interpretation of the Qur’anic story of a single king. This is frirther complicated by the continued willingness on the part of some researchers to give in to old prejudices that see Egyptian kings through the prism of oriental despotism. If such tyranny had been the norm in Ancient Egypt, then the pharaohs would not have stressed continually that their kingship was based on Ma’t, the goddess of Justice and that the king’s mouth was indeed her temple (El-Saaddy 1999: 136). Nor would a king such as Horemheb have said that he was awake at all times working for the good of Egypt and studying

cases of injustice throughout the land (Labib and Abu Talib 1972: 40; Kruchten 1981:21).

The Moslem/Arab fascination with the pharaohs of Ancient Egypt is also displayed in various Arabic stories relating to pharaohs, illustrating their private as well as their public lives. This fascination led to the assimilation of narratives of Arab epics, such as that of the pre-Islamic Yemeni king Saif Ibn Dhi Yazan, which encompassed most of the motifs known in Arab epics (Yaqtin 1994: 8-9). This ancient Yemeni king travelled throughout pharaonic Egypt observing the styles of its architecture and religious rituals, and throughout the tale we find descriptions of ancient Egyptian motifs such as searching for the Book of the Nile (Lyons 1995 1: 11, 2: 24If), and words and names such as that of the sky goddess Nut (Sirat Saif Ibn Dhi Yazan e.g. 3: 117ff, 153ff, 207ff, 319ff; 4: 4f, 96f. ; 4: 276).

In the sources the most common epithet for an Egyptian pharaoh is “Lord of the Pillars” (Dhu Al-AwtadI following the Qur’anic use of this epithet for the pharaoh of Moses (Q 38: 12; 89: 10). This recalls the ancient Egyptian epithet of some pharaohs, for example Amenhotep II, Tutankamon and Ramsis III as hqS iwnw, the Lord of Iwnw, the city of Heliopolis, which is written with the sign for pillar, also called iwnw. in plural (Faulkner 1962: 13). The wife of the pharaoh of Moses was held in high regard in Moslem/Arab sources and was named “Asia” (likely to be the ancient Egyptian 3 st/3 sa i.e Isis). Her tomb was said to be near the Ibn Tulun Mosque in Cairo and was one of the holy sites sought out by visitors to Cairo (Al-Sakhawi Tuhfat: 115). This district has been a rich source for the study of reused pharaonic antiquities including the sarcophagus of Hepmin now in the British Museum EA 23 (Cf. Jakeman 1993 2: 165). An ancient building, known locally as Mastabat Fir^n, which has not survived, but is described as being built of massive mud brick walls almost identical to ancient Egyptian temple walls (e.g. at Dendara), may have been the remains of pharaonic buildings (For this building and other pharaonic remains in the area see Salmon 1902: 70-95 and plates II: 1,2 there; Sayyid 1988: 307f). It is worth noting that the local name of this whole area, QaFat Al-Kabsh, meaning Fort/House of the Ram’ was thought to originate in a Medieval Arab tradition according to which an ancient Egyptian priestess had a statue of a ram erected on top of a pillar in the area in order to protect Egypt (Salmon 1902: 78). This may indicate either that the area had been in Pharaonic times a part of an avenue of rams leading to Heliopolis, the main cult centre of the sun god whose symbol was the ram, or that

there was a local chapel for his worship in this area which ensured its continued sanctity down the ages.

Medieval Moslem/Arab stories of pharaohs in Persia and elsewhere are also common and may have some historical foundation as the writers may well have seen Persian royal figures with Egyptian motifs, such as that of King Darius I standing on a typical Egyptian pedestal inscribed with hieroglyphs (Plates 17, 20). This Persian reverence for Egyptian tradition (Mysliwiec 2000: 154) must have spread the fame of the pharaohs throughout the Persian Empire including their Arab subjects.

One of the most important roles of the pharaoh in medieval Moslem/Arab sources, is that of the pharaoh as a magician who employs the science of magic for the well being of his people as well as for the destruction of his enemies. There are various sources for such imagery in Demotic/Coptic and in Greco-Roman literature where memories of Egyptian kings of older times survived (Depauw and Clarysse 2002).

Demotic romances of ancient Egyptian rulers such as Zoser, Inaros (on the latter see Lichtheim 1980: ISlff; Kitchen 1986: 455ff; Ryholt 1998) and Nectanebu (Perry 1966) also became popular in the medieval Arabic sources which show them as heroes, with their names and deeds well recognised by the writers. Other pharaohs are perceived in Arabic sources not only as protectors of their own people but also as protectors of foreigners fleeing atrocities. One example is found in Ibn ^Abd Al- Hakam (Futuh: 31) who gives an account of a pharaoh whom he called Qumis Ibn Luqlis, a contemporary of the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar [II]. After the latter had destroyed Bayt Al-Maqds (Jerusalem) in March 597 BCE, many of its inhabitants were said to have escaped to Egypt where they were welcomed by pharaoh Qumis who refused to turn them over to the Babylonian king in spite of his threats and his eventual conquest and destruction of Egypt and enslavement of its people for forty years according, for example, to Ibn “Abd Al-Hakam (Cf. Kitchen 1986: 407 §369 with note 969).

The image of a godly pharaoh with deep spirituality was also known in medieval Arabic sources. For example the writer of Akhbar Al-Zaman portrays an Egyptian king whom he called Budshir:

It was found in some of their symbols and holy books of their priests that King Budshir bin Qfitwim exhausted himself in the worship of the

Supreme Luminous (bodies) and realised that their spirits entered him. He became infatuated with them, and starved himself; his body gave up food and drink. When he became ecstatic, the Supreme Luminous desired him as he desired them, so they raised him up to their place and purified him of all the painful evils of earth and made him a Luminous, floating within their luminosity and he could do as they could.

rAkhbar Al-Zaman: 166).

So fascinated were medieval Arab epic narrators and writers by the ancient Egyptian rulers that their deeds were incorporated into new epics of the heroic deeds of contemporary rulers, as illustrated by the Sirat Al-Sultan Baybars I which was and still one of the most popular epics (Lyons 1995).

8.3 State administration

Some of the medieval Moslem/Arab writers I have used as sources were themselves senior officials in various administration departments, for example Ibn Fadl Allah, Al-Qalqashandi and Al-Maqrizi, and it was only natural that they would devote some of their writings to the subject of state administration under the pharaohs.

But earlier than these, writers such as the author of Akhbar Al-Zaman (125), attributes to one Egyptian king the organisation of the state into seven classes, indicating the high status of the priests in the Egyptian hierarchy. At the top of this social system was;

the king, his son, the one in charge of Justice, the High Priest, the Grand Vizier, the Seal Bearer of the king and his Treasurer

The account, which best sums up the medieval Arabic knowledge of ancient Egyptian administration, is that of Ibn Zahirah (Mahasin: 121-125). He quoted Ibn Zulaq and Al-Maqrizi and unnamed others saying that the pharaoh collected taxes which amounted to 90 [sic] million dinars. This revenue was divided into four as follows:

- Ten million for the upkeep of the people. - Ten million for governors, soldiers and scribes. - Ten million for the upkeep of the royal household.

- Fifty million reserved for pharaoh.

This amount of some 80 million dinars was calculated by Toussoun (1931: 8) as equivalent to 162 million LE (i.e. Egyptian pounds) in his own time. When the pharaoh wished to increase the revenue, he ordered the construction of housing, the repair of dykes and increased land reclamation.

Ibn Zahirah (Mahasin: 122) quoting unnamed sources gave a slightly different division of revenue according to which it was divided into four quarters as follows:

- One for the royal household.

- One for the government, viziers, noblemen, solders and scribes. One saved for future needs of people.

- One to dig canals and build dykes and whatever else the land needed.

The revenue savings became vital for the years of famine. In one famine, said by Ibn Zahirah {Ibid) to have lasted for three years, the king was able to waive all taxes and use the savings to keep government going. He made up for this later by collecting double taxes when the famine had ended and life had returned to normal. This was the custom of the pharaohs who according to Ibn Zahirah “filled the land and built it with justice and generosity”.

The pharaoh was also said by Ibn Zahirah to send every year two of his administrators, one to Upper Egypt and the other to Lower Egypt, carrying grain seeds. They were to inspect the agricultural land and if any was found lying fallow the king would order the local official in charge to be executed and his wealth and that of his family to be confiscated.

Another thing admired by Ibn Zahirah was that the pharaohs left estates in the hands of their owners for a set rent which was reviewed only every four years, taking into account the state of the land, so some who had problems would pay less and others would pay more, without there being an undue burden on anyone.

This picture portraying the kings of Egypt in charge of an overall administrative system and working tirelessly for a fair distribution of the country’s wealth may be based on folktales current among contemporary Egyptians, but it seems to reflect some ancient Egyptian reality as detected in royal decrees such as that of Horemheb cited above. The contemporary view may have also been sourced in some of the classical writings, such as that of Diodorus (I: 64; Murphy 1990: 81), in which a pharaoh “aspired to a life free from blame and dedicated to the good of his people”.

It should be noted that the ancient Egyptian expression Aw./ translated as “His Majesty” could also be used for “slave/servant” (Homung 1990b; 286) which suggests an understanding of the role of the king within society as being to give service, reflecting a well known Arabic proverb “Savd Al-Oawm Khadimahum” meaning “The master of a community is [also] its servant”. The designation ^ . f also came to be used by non-royals from the time of the transition period between the Old and Middle Kingdoms, and thereafter (Hofmann 2001).

It may be also the case that in the face of some tyrannical contemporary rulers, medieval writers sought to inflate the good qualities of the ancient pharaohs by way of drawing these to the attention of their own rulers, thereby encouraging them to aspire to emulate the model mlers of the past.