DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5066#0135
106 TRADITIONS CONCERNING THE IIYKSOS ch. vi.
expression for those princes, who for several centuries
had regarded themselves as the legitimate kings of
Egypt.
A tradition of the Middle Ages furnishes a contribu-
tion to the proofs of the Arab origin of the foreigners,
for a legend tells of a certain Sheddad (' a mighty
man'), the son of Ad, who conquered Egypt, and
extended his victorious campaign as far as the Straits
of Gibraltar. He and his descendants, the founders of
the Amalekite dynasty, are said to have maintained
themselves for more than two hundred years in Lower
Egypt, where they made the town of Avaris their royal
residence.
According to Julius Africanus (who epitomised the
work of Manetho), the Hyksos kings are said to have
been Phoenicians, who took possession of Memphis and
made Avaris, in the Sethro'ite nome, their chief fortress.
This tradition is not without a certain appearance of
truth. The ancient seats of the Shasu-Arabs and of the
Phoenicians extend westwards to the city of Zor-Tanis;
consequently the two races must have come into the
closest contact. That amidst such a mixture of
nations the cultivated Khar would obtain the foremost
place scarcely needs a proof, but whether they or the
Shasu were the originators of the movement against the
native kings is a question which scientific research has
hitherto been unable to answer. The inscriptions on
the monuments designate that foreign people who once
ruled in Egypt by the name of Men or Menti. On the
walls of the temple of Edfu it is stated that ' the
inhabitants of the land of Asher are called Menti.' By
the help of the demotic translation of the trilingual1
inscription on the great stone of Tanis, known as the
' Decree of Canopus' (Ptolemaic times), we can establish
1 The inscription is in Hieroglyphs, Demotic, and Greek. The stone is at Gizeh.
expression for those princes, who for several centuries
had regarded themselves as the legitimate kings of
Egypt.
A tradition of the Middle Ages furnishes a contribu-
tion to the proofs of the Arab origin of the foreigners,
for a legend tells of a certain Sheddad (' a mighty
man'), the son of Ad, who conquered Egypt, and
extended his victorious campaign as far as the Straits
of Gibraltar. He and his descendants, the founders of
the Amalekite dynasty, are said to have maintained
themselves for more than two hundred years in Lower
Egypt, where they made the town of Avaris their royal
residence.
According to Julius Africanus (who epitomised the
work of Manetho), the Hyksos kings are said to have
been Phoenicians, who took possession of Memphis and
made Avaris, in the Sethro'ite nome, their chief fortress.
This tradition is not without a certain appearance of
truth. The ancient seats of the Shasu-Arabs and of the
Phoenicians extend westwards to the city of Zor-Tanis;
consequently the two races must have come into the
closest contact. That amidst such a mixture of
nations the cultivated Khar would obtain the foremost
place scarcely needs a proof, but whether they or the
Shasu were the originators of the movement against the
native kings is a question which scientific research has
hitherto been unable to answer. The inscriptions on
the monuments designate that foreign people who once
ruled in Egypt by the name of Men or Menti. On the
walls of the temple of Edfu it is stated that ' the
inhabitants of the land of Asher are called Menti.' By
the help of the demotic translation of the trilingual1
inscription on the great stone of Tanis, known as the
' Decree of Canopus' (Ptolemaic times), we can establish
1 The inscription is in Hieroglyphs, Demotic, and Greek. The stone is at Gizeh.