Meshwesh

Meshwesh (mšwš.w) in hieroglyphs

The Meshwesh (often abbreviated in ancient Egyptian as Ma) were an ancient Libyan (i.e., Berber) tribe from Cyrenaica. During the 19th and 20th Dynasties the Meshwesh were in almost constant conflict with the Egyptian state, ultimately taking control of the country during the late 21st Dynasty under king Osochor. After an interregnum of 33 years during which the native Egyptian kings Siamun and Psusennes II assumed the throne, they came to rule Egypt throughout the 22nd and 23rd Dynasties, their reign only coming to an end with the invasion of the Napatan 25th Dynasty. That the Meshwesh were of Libyan origin is explicitly stated in a genealogy contained on the stela of Pasenhor (dated to the reign of Shoshenq V, where the Great Chiefs of the Meshwesh (including the kings of the 22nd Dynasty) are stated to be the descendants of "Buyuwawa the Libyan." The Libyco-Berber origin of the Meshwesh is also indicated in their personal names(such as Osorkon, Takelot, Nimlot, Shoshenq, etc) and a handful of non-Egyptian titles used by these people that are related to both ancient and modern Berber languages.

History

The Meshwesh are known from ancient Egyptian texts as early as the 18th Dynasty, where they are mentioned as a source of cattle provided to king Amenhotep III's palace at Malkata. This indicates there may have been some trade relations between the Meshwesh and the Egyptains at the time. At the very least, it can be said that the Egyptians were familiar with the Meshwesh. For the remainder of the 18th Dynasty, information about Meshwesh or Libyans in general is sketchy. There are, however, representations of Libyans (perhaps Meshwesh) from the reign of Akhenaten, including a remarkable papyrus depicting a group of Libyans slaying an Egyptian. However, the papyrus is fragmentary, so it is not known what the historical context was.

The relations between the Libyans and the Egyptians during the Ramesside Period were typically one of constant conflict. Battle reliefs at Karnak from the reign of Seti I depict the king in combat with Libyan masses; however the text only describes the Libyans as being Tjehenu, one of the generic terms for "Libyan" in the Egyptian language, rather than a specific tribal designation. During the following reign, that of Ramesses II, the Egyptians constructed a series of coastal fortresses running west to the region of Marsa Matruh, including at al-Alamayn and Zawayat Umm al-Rakham. These presence of these fortresses indicate a serious threat from the west, and Ramesses does claim to have overthrown Libyans in various rhetorical texts. However, as with Seti I, he does not specify if Meshwesh were involved or not.

During the reign of Merneptah it seems that the early warning system from his father time had fallen into disrepair as there was an unexpected Libyan invasion into the Nile Delta and the Western Oases in Year 5 of his reign. Unlike his predecessors, Merenptah states in his battle reliefs at Karnak that it was primarily the Libu tribe who led the conflict, but that Meshwesh and Sea People allies were also involved. Indeed, Merenptah claims that "9,100 swords of the Meshwesh" were captured. (This conflict is also described on the Merneptah Stele, also known as the Israel Stele).

About twenty-five years later, during the reign of Ramesses III, the growing conflict between the Egyptians and Libyans came to a head. This time, it was the Meshwesh who instigated the conflict, though other Libyan tribes and their Sea People allies were involved in fighting two major campaigns against the Egyptian king, in Ramses III's Regnal Years 5 and 11. The Year 11 campaign was concerned almost exclusively with the Meshwesh, however. Ramesses claimed victory, and settled the Meshwesh in military concentration camps in Middle Egypt in order to force their assimilation into Egyptian culture and press them into military service for the Egyptian state. According to Papyrus Harris I, Ramesses "settled [them] in strongholds of the Victorious King, they hear the language of the [Egyptian] people, serving the King, he makes their language disappear." A Third Intermediate Period text mentions there being at least five "Fortresses of the Meshwesh" in the area of Herakleopolis Magna; these were probably the ones established by Ramesses. However, despite Ramesses III's attempts to deal with Libyan inmigration into Egypt, he was unable to put a stop to it. Throughout the 20th Dynasty, various texts on ostraca and papyri mention attacks by Meshwesh tribesmen as far south as Thebes, where the workmen of Deir al-Madinah were forced to seek protection inside the mortuary temple of Medinet Habu.

References

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