History of Egypt, Chaldæa, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, Volume 4 (of 12)Maspero, G. (Gaston)
History
History of Egypt, Chaldæa, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, Volume 4 (of 12)
Maspero, G. (Gaston)
Civilization, Ancient; Egypt -- History -- To 640 A.D.; History, Ancient; Middle East -- History
* Naville, who reads the name Rayan or Yanra, thinks that
this prince must be the Annas or Iannas mentioned by Manetho
as being one of the six shepherd-kings of the XVth dynasty.
Mr. Petrie proposed to read Khian, Khiani, and the fragment
discovered at Gebelein confirms this reading, as well as a
certain number of cylinders and scarabs. Mr. Petrie prefers
to place this Pharaoh in the VIIIth dynasty, and makes him
one of the leaders in the foreign occupation to which he
supposes Egypt to have submitted at that time; but it is
almost certain that he ought to be placed among the Hyksos
of the XVIth dynasty. The name Khiani, more correctly
Khiyani or Kheyani, is connected by Tomkins, and Hilprecht
with that of a certain Khayanu or Khayan, son of Gabbar, who
reigned in Amanos in the time of Salmanasar II., King of
Assyria.
[Illustration: 084.jpg BROKEN STATUE OF KHIANI]
Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Naville.
It is heavy in form, and the muzzle in no way recalls the fine profile
of the lions executed by the sculptors of earlier times. The pursuit
of science and the culture of learning appear to have been more
successfully perpetuated than the fine arts; a treatise on mathematics,
of which a copy has come down to us, would seem to have been recopied,
if not remodelled, in the twenty-second year of Apophis IL Ausirri. If
we only possessed more monuments or documents treating of this period,
we should doubtless perceive that their sojourn on the banks of the
Nile was instrumental in causing a speedy change in the appearance and
character of the Hyksos. The strangers retained to a certain extent
their coarse countenances and rude manners: they showed no aptitude for
tilling the soil or sowing grain, but delighted in the marshy expanses
of the Delta, where they gave themselves up to a semi-savage life
of hunting and of tending cattle. The nobles among them, clothed and
schooled after the Egyptian fashion, and holding fiefs, or positions at
court, differed but little from the native feudal chiefs. We see here a
case of what generally happens when a horde of barbarians settles down
in a highly organised country which by a stroke of fortune they may have
conquered; as soon as the Hyksos had taken complete possession of Egypt,
Egypt in her turn took possession of them, and those who survived the
enervating effect of her civilization were all but transformed into
Egyptians.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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