The historians' history of the world in twenty-five volumes, volume 01 : $b Prolegomena; Egypt, Mesopotamia
History
The historians' history of the world in twenty-five volumes, volume 01 : $b Prolegomena; Egypt, Mesopotamia
World history
The triumph of the return was dimmed by disquieting news from the
North. The remains of the Hyksos race had taken advantage of Aahmes’
absence in the South to break out in rebellion. There seem to have been
two outbursts. One by the Aata, probably a branch of the Hyksos, which
marched southward and was destroyed by Aahmes at Tentoa, the other by a
powerful faction under a certain Teta-an. Aahmes-si-Abana tells of his
fate:
“Then came that enemy named Teta-an; he had brought wicked rebels
together. But his Majesty slaughtered him and his slaves even to
extinction.”[b]
Thus was stamped out the last spark of Asiatic resistance. There are
no more records of expeditions undertaken in this Pharaoh’s reign--at
least none in which he took part.
From the crushing of Teta-an, about the sixth year, to the
twenty-second, the monuments are silent; and when again they speak
we find a peaceful and not a warlike monarch. It is a law of human
progress that an age of military success is followed by a revival of
art and building activity. At the end of Aahmes’ reign--he ruled about
twenty-five years--this condition prevailed throughout the kingdom.
The principal temples of the land were restored or rebuilt. The reward
of the gods for their divine aid in the deliverance of Egypt was thus
bestowed. A tenth of all the booty of victory was devoted to the needs
of the religious cult. Sculptors and painters, for whom there had been
centuries of little or no employment, recovered their skill in the
revived demand for their services, and, indeed, a new school, with
new ideas and methods, came into existence under the great impetus to
culture. In the twenty-second year the quarries of Turah were reopened
that building stone might be obtained for the temples of Ptah at
Memphis and Amen at Thebes, although nothing was done to the latter
until a later reign.
[Sidenote: [_ca._ 1610-1590 B.C.]]
Aahmes died when he was between fifty and sixty. They buried the great
Pharaoh in a modest place he had prepared for himself in the necropolis
of Drah-abu’l-Neggah. His worship continued for nearly a thousand
years, and of him--and still more of Queen Nefert-ari--there exist more
instances of adoration than of any other ruler.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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