Hyksos

The term Hicsos (Egyptian heqa khaseshet 'foreign rulers'; Greek ὑκσώς hyksós) designates a human group from the Near East (in Manetho's Greek text, pros anatolên) who took control of Lower Egypt in the mid-17th century BC. C. This is how Flavio Josefo quotes it:

During the reign of Tutimeos, the wrath of God fell upon us; and in a strange way, from the regions to the East, an unknown race of invaders set in motion against our country, sure of victory. Having defeated the rulers of the country, our cities were ruthlessly burned. They finally chose one of them as king, named Salitis, who placed his capital in Menfis, demanding tribute to the High and Lower Egypt...

Flavio Josefo. Against Apocalypse.

The Ancient, Middle and the Hicsos Empires.

Etymology

Hyksos is the Hellenized term for the Egyptian name heqa chasut (hḳȝ ḫȝs w t), meaning 'rulers of foreign countries,' literally 'rulers of mountainous countries& #39;.

The origin of the Hyksos

Continuous immigration of peoples from Canaan culminated in the Hyksos invaders, who arrived in Egypt around the 7th century. XVIII BC C., in a time of internal crisis, conquering the city of Avaris. Later they took Memphis and founded the 15th and 16th dynasties. They introduced the horse and chariot to Egypt. Long before this time there was already a considerable Asian presence in the Nile delta, caused by gradual waves of migration.

Egyptologists estimate that the duration of their rule over Egypt was more than a hundred years (some even speak of an occupation of five centuries). The capital of the kingdom was in the city of Avaris in the delta of the Nile, actual Tell el-Daba; However, they did not dominate the entire Egyptian territory, since several southern nomes (regions) did not come to be fully under their control, including Thebes.

In Manetho's epitome texts, the Hyksos kings appear as the 15th and 16th dynasties. In the Royal Canon of Turin their names were in the headings X.14 to X.30, although unfortunately this part is badly damaged, fragments are missing and some texts are illegible. The best known, and with whom the Hyksos kingdom reached its apogee, is Apophis I, who ruled in the 16th century BC. C., and from which a beautiful alabaster jar with his name and title has been found in Almuñécar, in southern Spain.

The fall of the Middle Kingdom of Egypt

The appearance of the Hyksos poses one of the greatest dilemmas in Egyptian history. Its origin, meaning and permanence are still the object of study and investigation. If it began as a gradual migration, it was transformed over time into a military conquest of Egyptian territory. This was achieved by technological advances that gave the foreign invaders decisive tactical advantages; namely: the introduction of the compound bow, bronze scale armor, curved bronze daggers and swords, the use of the horse and war chariots (at the end of his reign), unknown to the Egyptians, and the intensive use of bronze that gave the Hyksos a decisive military advantage.

The Egyptian military force consisted essentially of infantry, armed with axes, maces, spears, and shields. The Egyptian people, until this stage of their evolution, was a population that was essentially dedicated to agriculture, where armies were gathered temporarily for specific purposes during limited periods of time. Until then, there was no permanently armed body.

The Hyksos as flourishing merchants

This appreciation of the Hyksos as flourishing merchants, provided by scholars such as Teresa Bedman, fundamentally sustains: that after a period of uncertainty and disorganization during the 13th dynasty Egypt suffered a partition, establishing two kingdoms, one in Upper Egypt with capital in Thebes and another in Lower Egypt with its capital in Xois. Peace and prosperity came again with the influx of various peoples who confederated, forming new dynasties in the Nile delta (the Hyksan dynasties XV and XVI), although at the time an independent kingdom of Egyptian rulers continued to exist with its capital in Thebes, in Upper Egypt, the 17th dynasty.

There is no single ethnic origin for the Hyksos: they were made up primarily of immigrants from the Canaan and Syrian regions, also Hurrians, at least in their traditions. During this period the new sovereigns did not interrupt Egyptian customs, and in many cases they took them as their own, copying texts that collected ancient traditions on papyri, and this can only happen in moments of peace and economic flourishing.

The Hyksos should not be considered a warlike and devastating people, even though there were military castes among them. Most were traders emigrated by the collapse of the traditional markets of Byblos and Megiddo; Its great territorial expansion was not due to a military conquest, but to commercial reasons, and its presence in points as far away as Knossos, Bogazkoy, Baghdad, Canaan, Gebelein, Kush and the south of the Iberian Peninsula, is due to commercial reasons. and economic, not to the existence of a great Hyksos empire.

End of the Hyksos Kings

At the beginning of the XVI century B.C. C. the so-called dynasty XVII ruled in Thebes. The members of this family, the kings Senajtenra Ahmose, Seqenenra Taa, Kamose and Amosis I, launched the war that ended with the expulsion of the Hyksos from Egyptian territory. In this situation, the queens (Tetisheri, Ahhotep and Ahmés Nefertari) also played an important role recruiting troops, obtaining resources and as advisers.

The war was very difficult, and several of these kings (Seqenenra Taa for sure, and probably Kamose) died from wounds inflicted in combat. Finally, Ahmosis I managed to take the capital, Avaris, and definitively expel the Hyksos from Egypt, around 1550 BC. C. (the chronology is doubtful). Ahmosis continued the fight entering Asian territory, which makes him the founder of the New Kingdom of Egypt. That is why he deserved to be considered the initiator of a new dynasty, the Eighteenth Dynasty, the most brilliant in Egyptian history, although there was no lineage break with the Seventeenth Dynasty.

Theories about the origin of the Hyksos

Those who wrote about the Hyksos determined their origin many times without conclusive evidence. Maybe everyone is partly right and that the term Hyksos refers to the heterogeneous group of foreigners who arrived in Egypt, coming from many regions. Its origins can be:

1. Phoenician, at least the kings –Manetón, centuryIIIa. C. – Sixth African July, centuryIIId. C.
2. Preisraelitashabiru o Hebrews), pre-Exodus –Flavio Josefo (Contra Part I, 14), century I-Waddell 1940, 89
3. Newton 1728 –Illig 1992
4. The invention of a narrator – Uhlemann 1858
5. Hititas –Procksch 1914 –Pieper 1925
6. Indoarios or Indoeuropeos –Meyker 1928
7. Hurritas –Watzinger 1933 –Wolfgang Helck 1971
8. Biblical Amalekites of the CenturyXVa. C. –Velikovsky 1952
9. Love or old Babylonians – Van Seters 1966
10. Micenics –Dayton 1978
11. Syrian-Palestinian (Cananeos) –Weinstein 1981 –Kempinsky 1985 –Dever 1985 –Mazar 1990
12. United Kingdom of Israel, from Saul to Solomon –Sieff 1988 –Chetwynd 1991
13. Invading Bedouin Arabs –various authors.

The most accepted theory is that of the Hyksos as Syro-Palestinian or Canaanite peoples.