DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.22370#0021
THE LIFE AND FAMILY
HISTOEY OF REKHMARA
17
In the inscription of the stela
which gives Ptekhmara's address
to posterity he calls himself " a
noble second only to the king,"1
and his numerous titles prove
that this was not an empty boast
of the autobiographer. Of the
many important civil offices which
he held, one stands out promin-
ently before all the rest—he was
the zat or Prime Minister of
the king. This title2 I have
throughout the present volume
translated by the Eastern word
Vezir, which means " the chief
Minister of State tinder a prince."
The history of the Egyptian title
is interesting. The word itself is
derived from zau, " a man," and
seems originally to have meant
"the man par excellence" in con-
tradistinction to the sovereign,
who was the neter or god. From
the earliest period of Egyptian
history the office of Vezir was
the most popular and perhaps the
most coveted position that a
commoner could hold. In the Map of Upper Egypt at the Time of Rekhmara.
Kum Mereh
KInpli
u
°«
Fourth Dynasty relationship with the king
generally led to the choice, just as in Old
Japan the Emperor's son was usually chosen
Prime Minister. In somewhat later times the
zat was selected from the reJch seten, " king's
friends," and in times of great national emer-
gency any man celebrated for wisdom and
discretion, no matter to what rank he belonged,
was generally appointed. Several instances are
recorded of Egyptian sovereigns marrying their
Vezirs' sisters or daughters, and there is reason to
believe that on more than one occasion the f ound-
1 Vide pi. vi., 1. 3.
2 I have prepared an exhaustive study of the title zat;
which will appear in a future number of the Proceedings
of the Society of Biblical Archaeology.
ers of dynasties were Vezirs who had succeeded
in usurping the throne of their lawful ruler.
Up to the time of Thothmes III. there
appears to have been but one Vezir appointed
to look after the administration of the whole
country from the cataract of Assuan to
the Mediterranean. Early in that reign, how-
ever, the government was decentralized,3 and
8 I have not been able to find any evidence of two Vezirs
holding office at the same time prior to this reign, and a
comparison of the titles of officers under the earlier Kings
of the Eighteenth Dynasty with those of officers of the
latter half of the reign of Thothmes III. has led me to the
above conclusion. At the end of the Eighteenth Dynasty
there are several references to the two Vezirs. (Cf. Tomb
of Neferhetep at Thebes, also A.Z., xxxiii., 24, and for a
later period Two Hieroglyphic Papyri, xiii., fragment 45.
b
HISTOEY OF REKHMARA
17
In the inscription of the stela
which gives Ptekhmara's address
to posterity he calls himself " a
noble second only to the king,"1
and his numerous titles prove
that this was not an empty boast
of the autobiographer. Of the
many important civil offices which
he held, one stands out promin-
ently before all the rest—he was
the zat or Prime Minister of
the king. This title2 I have
throughout the present volume
translated by the Eastern word
Vezir, which means " the chief
Minister of State tinder a prince."
The history of the Egyptian title
is interesting. The word itself is
derived from zau, " a man," and
seems originally to have meant
"the man par excellence" in con-
tradistinction to the sovereign,
who was the neter or god. From
the earliest period of Egyptian
history the office of Vezir was
the most popular and perhaps the
most coveted position that a
commoner could hold. In the Map of Upper Egypt at the Time of Rekhmara.
Kum Mereh
KInpli
u
°«
Fourth Dynasty relationship with the king
generally led to the choice, just as in Old
Japan the Emperor's son was usually chosen
Prime Minister. In somewhat later times the
zat was selected from the reJch seten, " king's
friends," and in times of great national emer-
gency any man celebrated for wisdom and
discretion, no matter to what rank he belonged,
was generally appointed. Several instances are
recorded of Egyptian sovereigns marrying their
Vezirs' sisters or daughters, and there is reason to
believe that on more than one occasion the f ound-
1 Vide pi. vi., 1. 3.
2 I have prepared an exhaustive study of the title zat;
which will appear in a future number of the Proceedings
of the Society of Biblical Archaeology.
ers of dynasties were Vezirs who had succeeded
in usurping the throne of their lawful ruler.
Up to the time of Thothmes III. there
appears to have been but one Vezir appointed
to look after the administration of the whole
country from the cataract of Assuan to
the Mediterranean. Early in that reign, how-
ever, the government was decentralized,3 and
8 I have not been able to find any evidence of two Vezirs
holding office at the same time prior to this reign, and a
comparison of the titles of officers under the earlier Kings
of the Eighteenth Dynasty with those of officers of the
latter half of the reign of Thothmes III. has led me to the
above conclusion. At the end of the Eighteenth Dynasty
there are several references to the two Vezirs. (Cf. Tomb
of Neferhetep at Thebes, also A.Z., xxxiii., 24, and for a
later period Two Hieroglyphic Papyri, xiii., fragment 45.
b