| At the beginning of the XXII dynasty the throne in Egypt was occupied by a Libyan king “Sheshonq I, exactly that pharaoh who had asked Psusennes II the permit to create in Abydos a funeral cult for his dead father. Actually this sovereign wasn’t really “a foreigner”: his family had been in Egypt for six generations and- as all the Libyans present in the land of the Nile was perfectly integrated in the society. Sheshonq I was in fact general of the army and had the important position as the king’s councilor. Besides blood ties joined him to Psusennes’s I royal family. Sheshonq I was Osorkon’s the Old nephew and descended by “The head of the Ma” (Mashwash) named Buyuwawa, who had lived in an oasis in the Libyan desert at the end of the Ramses epoch. There are no documents that can give the precise origin of the Mashwash people: they wore a feather in their hair and according to some, the Mashwash could come from the Berberi, who had settled in Libya. These Libyans were the same who had tried to invade the delta in Ramses’s III time and were defeated by the pharaoh’s troops twice. After these clamorous defeats the Mashwash decided to settle in the pharaoh’s reign peacefully. But the best part of them couldn’t choose: in fact the prisoners were sent to the oasis to repopulate them. Some of them offered there mercenary services to the pharaoh and joined the Egyptian army. For these favors the pharaohs gave the Libyans various territories that contributed to create those military colonies that gained a great importance at the end of the XXI dynasty. Each colony was guided by a chief Libyan who called himself “Great chief of the Ma”, where Ma is the short for Mashwash. The Libyan soon adopted the Egyptian customs and habits but kept their own names. They didn’t loose the habit of wearing a double feather in their hair and for this custom they were called by the Egyptians “People who wore the double feather”. The pharaoh Sheshonq’s I father very probably had the role of “Great Chief of the Ma” in the colony in Heracleopolis, but according to the historian manetone the new generation of sovereigns came from Bubastis, the city in the Delta that in the XXII dynasty became the capital of the reign and from which the dynasty got its name “bubastide”. When Sheshonq I became king of Egypt, after honoring his predecessor’s memory, to legitimize his ascent to the throne let his own son, the future Osorkon I marry, one of Psusennes’s II daughters, Maatkare. Sheshonq’s I ascent to the throne happened in a completely calm climate. At the end of the XXI dynasty, around the 945 BC, Egypt was weak and divided among the pharaoh’s royal family’s power and the teban clergy. The new sovereign only had to enclose in himself the power left at the tanita sovereign’s death. But the teban clergy didn’t approve the Libyan king’s ascent to the throne. The priests didn’t want to immediately recognize the foreign sovereign’s role and a part of the clergy preferred to retire in Upper Nubia, maybe in Napata, where a new independent reign was being formed. With Sheshonq I Egypt lived a period of splendor and was finally able to get back a part of the credibility it had lost during the pharaoh’s weak reigns that preceded the foreign king. For first thing Sheshonq I gave a remarkable impulse to the politic of expansion of the country demonstrating a great interest for the asian cities. The king desired that his empire should re-conquer over the people in the east the supremacy it once had and the occasion wasn’t late to come. They were in fact times we know well from the Bible: in Israeli, Salomone reigned. At his death Palestine was divided. Geroboamo (a name that means “May the people grow”) Nebat’s son, had rebelled against Salomone who tried to kill him.The young man took refuge in Sheshonq and married one of his daughters, awaiting for his revenge; this arrived at Salomone’s death when Roboamo, his son and successor, convoked a council of the tribes, where even Geroboamo went. At the end of the dispute the reign of Israeli was formed, that under Geroboamo’s guide comprehended ten of the twelve remaining tribes that formed the Jewish people. Roboamo instead formed Giuda’s reign with the two remaining tribes. The king Sheshonq I took advantage of this delicate moment of political division to finally satisfy his aims of expansion on the Asian territories. The pharaoh in fact guided his troops in Giuda’s reign and after forcing his rivals to surrender, he ordered that the treasure of the reign of Jerusalem should be given to him. To this victory another one followed. After he conquered Giuda’s reign, Sheshonq I cared for Israeli’s one. The Egyptian army went toward north and won Geroboamo’s troops, who was captured .Later the king continued to go ahead up to Megiddo, where he left a commemorative stele. The campaign in Palestine guided by Sheshonq I was immortalized by the royal subjects on the sides of the southern wall in the temple in karnak. The Libyan sovereign ordered to engrave a long list of the cities he had conquered in his victorious expedition in Asia. The list must have had one-hundred and fifty (according to some one-hundred and eighty) names but unfortunately today only half of them remain. The one of Jerusalem was probably lost, but we find a place called “Abraham’s field”: this quotation is very important because it’s the first time that the name of a Jewish progenitor appears on a historical document. During the two military campaigns Egypt was able to get great treasures. The kings David and Salomone had amassed great riches that passed into the Egyptians hands and for almost two centuries the pharaohs’ reign could live in prosperity thanks to the booty obtained from the war in Palestine. Egypt was so respected again by the princes of the asian city-states and the pharaoh’s people took up again the very ancient and important frienship with the Phoenix guided by the king in Byblos, Zirbarbaal. Concerning the relations with the clergy in Tebe, Sheshonq I decided to appoint as god Amon’s great priest, his own son Iuput, trying to form the base of a safe politic of equilibrium of the powers. His successors followed his example. With the relationships it was tried to bond the temporal powers to the spiritual one, to guarantee stability and peace inside the country. Sheshonq I put other sons in other strategic positions. The king in fact put another son beside Iuput and elected other two as Amon’s prophets in Karnak, while his son Nimlot was appointed as the head of the troops in Heracleopolis. At this point history begins to lack information and the exposure has to be limited to an arid list. Even Osorkon I, who inherited the power from his father Sheshonq I in 924 BC, put on the pontifical throne in Tebe his son Sheshonq. This high priest had a brilliant career until he became Osorkon’s I correggente but he died before his father and could never be a pharaoh. Takelot I succeeded him, who was Osorkon’s I and secondary bride’s younger son. In the meantime the pontifical throne in Tebe was occupied by Takelot’s brother, Iuwelot. When Osorkon II ascended to the throne in Tebe, Sheshonq’s son, Harsiesi reigned, but at the priest’s death, in 860 BC, Osorkon II put at the head of the Teban clergy his own son Nimlot. Under Osorkon’s II reign, the XXII dynasty- and so the whole country- still lived its last years of splendor. The sovereign embellished some temples among which the beautiful and gigantic one, in granite- dedicated to the goddess Bastet in Bubastis city, where the royal sculptors decorated the hypostyle chamber, while the workers built a chamber for the celebrations. The king also celebrated a jubilee that was represented on the portico of the temple. Osorkon II continued his building activity in Leontopolis, in Menfi, in Tanis and in Tebe. During his reign, the reign in Assiria acquired an always greater power. The assiro king contemporary to Osorkon II was Salmanassar iII, son of that Assurnasirpal II, famous for his extraordinary cruelty, who conquered Mesopotamia and middle Eufrate, reaching Syria and Oronte up to the Amerru coast. Salmanassar III continued his father’s wars and tried to conquer Northern Syria but a coalition formed by the armies in Syria, Palestine and Egypt blocked its advance in the battle in Qarqar in Oronte. In the meantime at Osorkon’s II death the Egyptian crown passed to the king’s younger son, the prince who became the pharaoh Takelot II. In Tebe the king’s half-brother, Nimlot, was Amon’s high priest. Nimlot’s daughter, Karomama, married King Takelot II and from this union Osorkon was born. But at Nimlot’s death there was a civil war. The king Takelot II in fact appointed as Amon’s high priest, the heir apparent Osorkon, but the choice was refused by Tebe. In Amon’s city, in fact, the supreme priest Harsiesi’s homonymous nephew claimed the same right. Tumults followed, provoked by Harsiesi himself, that led to long disputes between the royal family and the people in Tebe. Only ten years later a truce was established but at Takelot’s II death there were new disorders. The scepter passed to one of Osorkon’s brothers, king Sheshonq III, but inside the royal family there was a scission that-as we will later see- led to the founding of the XXIII dynasty, contemporary to the one founded in 945 BC by Sheshonq I. |
