Piya and complete control over Egypt
Piya was the first of the Napata kings to bestow upon himself the entire complex of Egyptian pharaonic titles, three of which he took from the titles of the Egyptian Pharaoh Thutmose III repeatedly inscribed in the temple of Gebel Barkal. Piya was right to take that action since he had established effective control over the Egyptian double crown. Thus, historical fate was changed as Piya inherited precisely the name of that pharaoh who was destined to complete the colonization of Kush in The era of the former New Kingdom of Egypt. We know almost nothing about the first twenty years of Piya's reign, and it seems that, as is the case with Kush, he was installed on the throne after being elected by the priestly elite and with the approval of the people, like the Kushite kings who followed him. In this regard, Piya says: "The gods make the king, and the people make the king, except that Amun has made me king." There is not a single Egyptian text that states that the people have the right to install a new king on the throne.
Piya speaks with some ambiguity about how he accomplished the process of unifying Kush: “Amun of Nabti granted me the right to rule all countries. Whoever has less, ‘Be a king’ will be a king, and whoever has less, ‘Be king’ will not be a king. And Amun in Thebes has bestowed upon me the rule of Egypt. Whoever has less, let him ascend crowned, and he who has less, ‘Do not ascend crowned,’ will not be crowned. And whoever I grant my protection will not fear for his city, and I will never occupy it.”
If Reisner's dating of this text is correct, this may indicate that Piyya had, before his campaign against Egypt, which he immortalized in the twenty-first year of his reign, firmly controlled part of Egypt, a control he inherited from Kashta. However, if Reisner's dating is incorrect, such that the text was written after Piyia's return from his campaign, then this only means that the talk is about the rulers and princes of the Delta whom he subjugated, and they were the ones whom Piyya attacked. At length in his Annals, but whether in one case or that, Piya subjugated all the local chiefs of Egypt and Kush alike. After the subjugation of Kush and the long peace that followed in the northern outskirts of Upper Egypt to the south of Faiyum, Piya was able to devote himself to architectural activity and began to decorate his capital, Napata. He built the magnificent temple at Gebel Barkal in place of the old, smaller temple. He also completed the construction of the temple that he had begun to build at Kashta.
In the twenty-first year of his reign, around 730 BC, Piia successfully led a campaign into Egypt, and his resulting victory was immortalized in his annals, which were written in a solid Egyptian language in hieroglyphic script. But what were the reasons that prompted Beya to organize this campaign? This campaign was certainly not the result of behavioral traits, nor was it the result of religious reasons or the satisfaction of self-love. The explanation for its reasons must be sought in the policy of Piya that he followed in his Egyptian colony. This is because he was content with the previous success he had achieved, the gifts and spoils he received, and the tributes he imposed. He made supervision of the administration of the delta a matter for Thebes, far to the south, while he neglected to return to his beloved capital, Napata, leaving The delta is under the control of its ruler, Tef Nakht. It seems that the latter took advantage of Pia's return to Kush and began to threaten the security of the Kushite possessions in Upper Egypt, allied with the kings and princes of the north. Pia did not issue any reaction, but rather let them march to the south until they captured Heracleopolis. Then he ordered the Kushite legion stationed in the Thebes region to confront them at the fifteenth region and also sent military reinforcements: “So His Majesty summoned the military leaders and officers present in Egypt, namely Baruma and Lemirsky and the rest of His Majesty’s officers stationed in Egypt, and he said to them: Take a position of readiness, enter the battle, surround the enemy and surround him! Capture his men, his livestock, and his river ships! The text continues to explain the Kushite leaders’ commitment to the orders of their master Piyya: “And this is what they did: His Majesty sent an army to Egypt, and gave them strict instructions as follows: Do not attack the enemy at night as if you are playing and having fun, and do not fight unless you can see, and go into battle against him without approaching him! And if he tells you: Wait for the infantry and chariot weapons coming from other regions! Then wait until his army arrives, and do not start the battle.” Except when he requests that, and if his allies are in another city, then they issue orders to wait until they arrive, and fight in the first place the military commanders accompanying him as allies, and his personal guard from the Libyans, and when the army is paraded, we do not know to whom we are directing the conversation, so we say: You, saddle the best horses in your stable and prepare yourself for battle! Pias advises his forces, saying: “If you reach Thebes and stand in front of Abet Sut, immerse yourself in water, purify yourself in the river, and wear pure linen, and put down your bows and arrows. Do not boast that you have authority in the presence of Him, without whose consent the brave has no power. He makes the weak strong, and the crowds retreat before the few and return to their ranks, and one person overcomes a thousand! And get wet with the water of his temples, and kiss the ground in his hands and say, To him: Show us the way, let us fight under the shadow of your strength! May the battles of the recruits you have sent be victorious, and may terror grip the crowds when they face them.
It appears that the Kushite forces surrounded the allied Egyptian forces and forced them to enter the battle, forcing them to take refuge in the city of Hermopolis, which was under siege. Only then did Piya himself go to the theater of operations, stopping on his way to celebrate the New Year in Karnak. Piya’s purpose in doing so was twofold. On the one hand, he wanted to announce to the public Amun’s recognition of him as king, and on the other hand, he aimed to weaken the besieged Egyptian forces by prolonging the siege in a devastating manner. For her morale. During that time, his forces invaded Central Egypt, and reached Hermopolis, subjugating its king, Nimrod. The city of Heracleopolis also surrendered without waiting for Pia to seize it, and its ruler acknowledged Pia’s authority in a speech laden with literary expressions, which stated: “Greetings to you, Horus, O mighty king, you are the bull who fights bulls! Dat (i.e. the underworld) has taken possession of me and darkness has enveloped me. May I give a face? Like your bright face, I did not find anyone to support me in times of distress, but thanks to you alone, O powerful king, the darkness around me has been lifted! I and all my possessions are at your service, and the city of Nani Sut pays taxes to your administrative apparatus. You are certainly my Khorakhti, the light of the horizons, standing at the head of the immortals, and as long as he lives, you remain a king, and just as he is immortal, you are also immortal. O Piya, O king of Upper and Lower Egypt, you have life forever.
After that, Piya headed to the north and seized, without resistance, the castle built by Osorkon I to monitor the entrance to Faiyum. He then visited the city of Heliopolis to perform the traditional rituals held for the god Amun and made sacrifices on top of the Sand Hill. The text states that Piya headed to “the residence of Ra in a terrible procession. He entered the temple amidst the cheers of the attendees and the chanting priest worshiped the god to drive away the king’s enemies. Then the rituals of baroques were held and the royal band was tied.” His majesty was purified with incense and water, and the king stood alone, broke the bolt seal, opened the two shutters of the door, and saw his father Ra in the holy palace of Ben Ben and the day boat designated for Ra and the evening boat designated for Atum. Then he closed the door doors, put clay, and sealed the king with his own seal, and issued his instructions to the priests, saying: I personally placed the seal. No one will enter the place except me, those who claim to be kings, and they lay down on their stomachs on the ground, saying: You are steadfast and everlasting, so may he live. Horus, beloved of Ra, forever! Entering the abode of Atum.
As for Tefnakht, the leader of the rebels, he sent a messenger to the victorious King Piya to negotiate on his behalf, and he carried a message to Piya in which he said: “Has not the heart of Your Majesty calmed down after all that has befallen me because of you? Yes, I am miserable, but do not punish me according to the crime I have committed. You weigh in the balance and judge according to the weights! And you can multiply my crime many times over, but stay on this pill, and it will give you a harvest.” Abundantly at the appropriate time, do not uproot the tree from its roots! Your wailing (your spirit) stirs terror in my guts and my limbs tremble with fear! Since I learned my name, I have not sat in the beer house (Indayah) nor listened to the playing of the junco. I have only eaten and drunk enough to satisfy my hunger and quench my thirst. The pain has reached my bones, and I walk bareheaded and wearing rags until the gods pardon me I was forced to walk long journeys. You are constantly pursuing me. Will I regain my freedom one day? May your servant be cleansed of his sins, and may my property be transferred to the public treasury, as well as all my gold, precious stones, my best horses, and all my equipment. Send your messenger to expel fear from my heart and I will go with him to the temple so that the divine oath may purify me.
Piya actually sent him the chief chanting priest, accompanied by the military commander, the Kushite Baorma, where Tefnakht swore before her in the temple the following divine oath: “I will not violate the royal decree, nor will I tolerate the orders of His Majesty, nor will I behave reprehensible towards a military commander in his absence, and I will act within the limits of the orders issued by the king without violating the decrees he issued. Then His Majesty announced his approval.”
After those victories, Piya established the Egyptian rulers of the Delta, each in his own territory, avoiding giving much to the Libyan descendants of the ancient Egyptian pharaohs, excluding only one of them, Nimrod, as a spokesman on their behalf. The text describes the arrival of these rulers to fulfill the duties of obedience and loyalty: “When a new day lit the land, the kings of the south and the kings of the north came with the cross on their foreheads and kissed the dust of the earth before the power of His Majesty. Thus the kings and leaders of the north came to witness the splendor of His majesty, and their legs were trembling as if they were the legs of women, but they did not enter the king’s residence so as not to desecrate it given that they were not circumcised and because they ate fish. As for King Nimrod, he He entered the king’s residence because he was pure and did not eat fish.”
Then Piya decided to return to Napata, and it was: “The ships were loaded with silver, gold, fabrics, and all the other bounties of the north, and all valuables, and all the other treasures of Syria, and the perfumes of Arabia, and His Majesty’s ships set off for the south, and His Majesty was happy in heart, and on both sides the people on the shore of the river were cheering with ecstasy of joy, and everyone - east and west - began singing a song of joy and jubilation when they heard the news of His Majesty’s crossing, which says: The song: O powerful prince, O powerful prince, O Piya, O powerful prince! Here you are advancing after you have established your control over the north. You are turning bulls into females! Blessed is the heart of the woman who gave birth to you! And blessed is the heart of the man who is your descendant! May you live forever, for your strength is immortal, O beloved prince of Thebes.
What were the reasons that prompted Pia to return to Napata instead of staying in Egypt and administering the Kushite kingdom and its Egyptian possessions from Thebes? Based on the Obelisk of Victory, the details of which we presented above, it is clear that Piya succeeded in imposing his complete control over all of Egypt, but he preferred not to rule it personally directly, and then he resorted to following a policy of granting autonomy to the Egyptians, leaving administrative powers in the hands of the local rulers who took the oath of obedience and loyalty to him, contenting himself with effective supervision of the Thebes region and the western roads up to the Dakhla Oasis at least. It seems to us that understanding these reasons must be sought in the nature of the Kushite state itself, since we have referred to the Kushite administration system based on sheikhdoms or emirates affiliated with Napata, as was the case in the former Kerma kingdom, the later Meroe kingdom, the Christian kingdoms of the Middle Ages, and even the Islamic Funj kingdom. It seems that this form of Kushite administrative organization was linked to the presence of a strong sense of the necessity of the emergence of political unity within the framework of recognition of the country’s distinctive ethnic and cultural diversity since the dawn of its history. Thus, Herodotus conveys to us the speech of King Amani Nataki Labti, 538-519 BC. To the spies sent by Cambyses the Persian to Kush, “The king of the Ethiopians (i.e. the Kushites) has advice that he would like to give to Cambyses, king of the Persians. When the Persians can draw bows of this size as easily as I do, then they can come to war with striking force. But he must be grateful to the gods that they have not yet put it into the minds of their Ethiopian children to possess land that is not theirs.” [See Herodotus' text].
Piya remained in the memory of his successors the founding ruler of the greatness, pride, and power of Kush, the state founded by his ancestors, and his name became a metaphor for the king. During his reign, Piya created the conditions that allowed his brother and successor, Shabaka (716-701 BC). Not only to extend his complete control over Egypt, but also to ascend to the stage of international politics during that period. On the solid ground laid by Piya, Kush reached an unprecedented degree of greatness in the following decades.
Piya's successors were among the kings of the Twenty-Fifth Dynasty