The chronographers have preserved the names of several of the Hyksos
kings, recording them as follows:--Silites (or Salatis), Beon,
Apachnas, Tannas (or Tanras), Asseth, and Apophis (in Egyptian,
Apepi). Mariette, in his very successful excavations at Tanis, found
the name of Apepi written on the arm of a statue, although the statue
was of older date. Mr Naville has found, at Tell Basta, a colossal
statue which he takes to be the statue of Apepi. It is now in the
British Museum. This is particularly interesting, because Syncellus
relates that Apepi was the king in whose reign Joseph rose to the
high position described in Genesis. One remarkable object found at
Tell Basta is part of a seated statue, upon which the royal name reads
“Ian-Ra,” or “Ra-Ian.” The name is new to us, but when Mr Naville
went over to Boulak, where the Museum of Antiquities then was, and
showed a copy to Ahmed Kemal-ed-Deen Effendi, the learned Mohammedan
official, he exclaimed at once--“You have found the Pharaoh of Joseph.
All our Arab books call him Reiyan, the son of El Welid.” European
scholars do not place absolute reliance on Arab chronicles, which
are often fanciful; yet it is remarkable that the statue of Ian-Ra,
Joseph’s king, according to the Arabs, should be found at Tell Basta,
in close proximity to the statue of Apepi, Joseph’s king, according
to Syncellus. Mr Naville distinguishes Ian-Ra from Apepi, and thinks
he is the same as Ianias or Annas, mentioned by Josephus as the fifth
king out of six. Mr Naville has also found at Tell Basta the names
of twenty-five Pharaohs who were known already, including Cheops and
Chephren, the builders of the pyramids, about 3700 B.C.
That Joseph served a Hyksos king has long been accepted by the majority
of Egyptologists as a very probable hypothesis, both chronologically
and from the internal evidence of the Biblical narrative. The Arab
writers represent the Hyksos as Amalekites of Midian. Mr Naville agrees
with those who think they came from Mesopotamia, and already possessed
a high degree of civilisation and culture.
Bubastis seems to have been a favourite place of residence with the
Shepherd Kings; and thus Joseph would be but a short distance from his
brethren in the land of Goshen, where they looked after the king’s
herds of cattle.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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