Alara. Evidence indicative of his ruling
ALARA: EVIDENCE FOR REIGN
Translated by Osama Abdel-Rahman Elnur
Alara was the first member of the family of Kush kings whose name has been preserved for us in time. It is initially mentioned in the text of the funerary stele of Queen Tapiri, who had a daughter by Kasaka. He married her to Libya. Alara is mentioned again as a brother of Taharqa’s grandmother, in the inscriptions of Kawa IV, line 16 and following, and Kawa VI, line 23 and following. It is also mentioned in the Eriki Amanoti stele from the second half of the fifth century BC (Cover IX, line 54). Then he was mentioned finally, in the last third of the fourth century BC, in the Horseof Stele.
Pia's ancestor was his father Kashta (as indicated by the adoption stele of Nitocris, Caminos, 1964, and the titles of Pia's sister and his wife, Caster, a daughter of Kashta; see the doorjamb published by Schafer, 1906 and Wenig, 1990). Thus, Ara is likely an ancestor of Kashta; Dunham-Macadam, 1949; Kitchen, 1986. It has always been assumed that inheritance In the family of the Kush kings, it was “inherited”, meaning that the king was succeeded by his younger brother and from the latter the throne passed to the son of the eldest brother, and thus Dunham-Macadam, 1949; Leclant, 1979; Kitchen, 1986. Accordingly, the hypothesis was proposed that Alara and Kashta are brothers Dunham-Macadam, 1949; Priese, 1979; such a relationship is not witnessed Directly, however, it can be assumed if we can match Taharqa's unnamed grandmother, sister of Alara, with Kashta's sister and his wife (see her Abydos inscription, preserved in the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford under the number PE3922). However, concomitant inheritance was not the only method in the Kushite family, but it alternated with patrilineal inheritance (for explanations of the evidence, see Priese, 1981, where he reconstructs a model of matriarchy in which kings married Their sisters and the sisters’ sons become the legitimate heirs to the throne. Morkot (1992) believes that the systems of government are based on a successive family hierarchy, “the patriarchal clan” and the matrilineal clan,” while Laszlo Turok assumes that inheritance alternated between the descendants of two branches of the same family, that is, the descendants of Piya and Chabako. Turok also establishes a reconstitution of the concept of legitimacy through the matrilineal line. ,1964,1906,1990Dunham-Macadam,1949Kitchen,1986Leclant,1979Priese,197Wenig,1979Priese,1981,1992
In the Tapiri funerary stele, which was inscribed during the reign of Biya, the name of Alara is written inside a royal cartouche. In the two aforementioned niche inscriptions IV-VI, Alara is mentioned as “Ur” (leader), but at the same time his name is written inside a royal cartouche preceded by the title “Sa-Ra” (son of the god Ra). These texts refer to the ritual of consecrating his sister, Jeddah Taharqa, to Amun so as to ensure legitimacy for her descendants. Although, as is attested by the continuity of the royal cemetery at Al-Kurru Dunham, 1955, where Al-Ara and his successors are buried, Al-Ara was not the first ruler in his line, the Taharqa inscription depicts him as the founder of the Kushite dynasty of kings who also became rulers of Egypt. The ritual with which Alara linked his sister to Amun indicates a religious and political orientation towards Egypt at the same time, and indicates the establishment of a new system of inheritance. All these transformations mark the end of the tribal state and the emergence of the kingdom. The transformation also comes as an expression of the dual perspective in Taharqa’s reference to the Ara in the two Kawa texts. In the two texts, he was viewed from the perspective of his actual rank as leader of a tribal state and at the same time from the perspective of his grandson Taharqa, who derives his kingship from the Ara and then grants it the royal cartouche and the title of Sa-Ra. The memory of Alara as the founder of a family is raised again in royal inscriptions in the fifth and fourth centuries AD. ,1955
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Kashta: the name of the throne