The Foreigners in Ancient Egypt

Egypt has always had foreigners present owing to its location at the
northeastern of Africa, adjacent to Asia. Egypt acts as a land bridge to
Asia. In ancient times was surrounded by the Libyans to the west, the
Nubians to the south and the Near Easterners to the east1. Egyptian art
categorizes foreign people into separate groups: "Asiatic", "Nubians," and
"Libyans." Each of this group is easily recognizable based on distinct
physical characteristics. Egyptians also differentiated themselves from
other people linguistically. They referred to themselves as rmt, a term that
could signify "the people", the Near Eastern amw, the Nubians nHsj, and
tmHu, "Libyans2. The ancient Egyptians viewed Egypt as the dominant
center of the world. All other countries and their gods were subservient to
Egypt and its gods. All foreigners could be defeated, Egypt with its king
was the land of maat, containing the rightful order of the world, which
countered the land of Seth (foreign lands) with their disorder. Foreigners,
even slaves, living in Egypt who accepted Egyptian ways were seemingly
rapidly integrated into society, if they did not, became champions of
chaos and rebels against the pharaoh, the defender of the divine order,
and therefore enemies to be defeated.

Salves and prisoners: From the Old kingdom forwards, many foreigners
entered Egypt as prisoners of war. By the end of the Old Kingdom,
slavery was the most extreme version of forced labor. By the Middle
Kingdom, foreigners represented the largest portion of slaves, often
acquired in military expeditions; prisoners were frequently given to

1
D. REDFORD, in The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt 1, New York, 2001, s. v. «Foreigners».
2
A. BUTNER, The Rhetoric and the Reality: Egyptian Conceptions of Foreigners during the Middle
Kingdom (c. 2055-1650 BCE), Senior Thesis Projects, University of Tennessee Knoxville, 2007,
(Unpublished), p. 3.
Egyptian as property. During the New Kingdom, many foreigners were
acquired as slaves from foreign salve markets as well as in foreign
military expeditions, but foreigners also came to Egypt voluntarily for
economic reasons. Once established in Egypt, foreigners attempted to
assimilate Egyptian language and culture. They took Egyptian names for
themselves or gave their children Egyptian names3.

Merchants, migrants, mercenaries, and settlers: Among the foreigners

who voluntarily entered Egypt, merchants seem to have enjoyed a special
status, above all when they were envoys from a foreign king. They and
their goods were protected by international common law. Anybody who
attacked them was to be punished and any stolen goods were to be
restituted. Bedouins of the Sinai, Canaanites, and Libyans of the Sahara
lived in regions where drought was frequent. While Egypt was part of the
same climatic area, the country did not depend on the North African
weather for water, but rather on the monsoon rains falling in east Africa.
When living conditions became difficult for nomads of the desert and
semi-nomadic tribes of southern Canaan, they moved to the shores of the
Nile where they were allotted a region in which they could settle. From
the Old Kingdom, there was a great number of Nubians and Libyans
incorporated into the Egyptian army that possibly the Egyptians even
signed contracts with foreign kings to insure the supply of mercenaries.
There were also a number of foreign interpreters who were used during
military and trade expeditions.

Foreign incursions: Egypt suffered incursions from abroad many times

during its long history. Although Egypt's sea and desert frontiers gave it a

3
D. REDFORD, Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in ancient times, New Jersey, 1992, p. 221.

2
degree of isolation that was sufficient to deter the small and unrecognized
neighbors, the Egyptian did not provide enough defense to keep out the
migrations (Libyans) or the imperial armies that attacked from the Near
East (Hittites and Sea Peoples).

* The Libyans4: lived at the west side of the Nile Valley part of the
Sahara. They served as merchants in the trade route of Western Desert, as
a means of communication from north south, and they offered the
possibility to uncontrolled access to the valley at various latitudes. Until
the 18th dynasty, the words tHnu and tmHu were used to designate both
particular regions west of Egypt, tHnu settled at the west area of the Nile
Delta, and tmHu at the stretched south area into Nubia5. The Libyans
accepted Egyptian culture in a superficial way, retaining their separate
group identity and militaristic outlook6. From the Old Kingdom, a notable
scene showing conquered Libyan chieftain had survived in the mortuary
temple of the king Sahure where includes his family and registers of
animal booty. Libyans also appeared as bringers of tribute in Theban
tombs of 18th dynasty, there is an inscription from the reign of
Hatshepsut to which the Libyans supplied ivory and leopard skins,
suggests that they also acted as middlemen using the oasis route to bring
these exotic products from much further south. Some Libyans perhaps
prisoners of war had already been enrolled in the Egyptian army by this
time, since they appear in tomb reliefs at Amarna as part of the king's
bodyguard. Serious hostilities between Egypt and the Libyans were
regarded as having begun in the 19th Dynasty. Following a preemptive

4
D. REDFORD, in The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt 2, New York, 2001, s. v. «Libyans».
5
A. BUTNER, 2007, p. 37.
6
D. REDFORD, Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in ancient times, New Jersey, 1992, p. 247-249.
3
strike into Libya by Seti I recognition of a real danger from the west. No
major clashes are known during the reign of Ramesses II, but inscriptions
at Karnak and elsewhere record that this successor Merenptah was
confronted by a coalition made up approximately two-thirds Libyans and
one-third Sea Peoples. After the battle lasting 6 hours, the Egyptians
drove the enemy from the field with immense losses, and in addition, they
took as many prisoners, of which at least 3,000 were of the sea raiders 7.
The Libyans tried again to invade Egypt twice (First and the second
Libyan wars) during the reign of Ramesses III, the Egyptian victories in
these battles recorded in the temple at Medinet Habu, the story ended
with crushing defeat of the invaders and settlement of captives in camps.
Also records that Ramesses III built new enclosure walls to protect
temples that suffered from disruptive raids. At least some of these raids
involved Libyans, and it is clear from what followed after the New
Kingdom that significant numbers had succeed settling in Egypt
especially in Delta and that their descendants gradually took control of
parts of the country and eventually of the whole of Egypt8.

* The Hittites9: Egyptians and Hittites were in contact since the early
days of the Old Kingdom. By the time their contact was more usually
hostile than peaceful, but trade and exchange did take place. Relations
between Egypt and Hittite truly began to deteriorate during the reign of
Amenhotep III and Akhenaten when the Hittites extended their empire
into the traditional Egyptian sphere of interest on the Syrian coast. There
are indications in the Amarna Letters that an Egyptian-Hittite peace treaty

7
A. BUTTERY, Armies and Enemies of Ancient Egypt and Assyria, Published by Wargames Research
Group, 1974, P. 4.
8
D. REDFORD, 1992, p. 249.
9
D. REDFORD, in The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt 2, New York, 2001, s. v. «Hittites».
4
was signed between the major powers. Although there were a number of
additional attempts by Egyptian forces to regain control of North Syria, as
for example during the reign of Seti I, the Egyptian influence was
primarily limited to the region. The most famous conflict between the
Egyptians and Hittites was fought in the fifth year of the reign of
Ramesses II at the Battle of Kadesh. After the inconclusive Battle both
the Hittite empire and Egypt came under increased pressure from the Sea
Peoples and the reemerging Assyrians led them to conclude a peace treaty
about 16 years later. The treaty has been preserved both Hittite and
Egyptian versions. In the Egyptian version it was the Hittite king suing
for peace, while in the Hittite version it was the pharaoh, who sent
emissaries to Hittite10.

* The Sea Peoples11: The fifty years following Egypt-Hittite peace treaty
were golden days for the entire Near East, where borders were open from
Egypt to the Levant and international trade flourished as never before.
Sea Peoples came mainly from the Aegean and Anatolia, most prominent
amongst them all were the Sherden and the Peleset. The Sherden since
the time of Ramesses II were mercenaries in the Egyptian army, as they
were great heavy infantry warriors with metal helmets and were very
strong12. Later, the Middle Eastern powers were in a weakened state,
possibly because of famine or some other natural catastrophe. Routes to
Egypt used for peaceful trading could easily become a means of entry for
hostile forces and it was essential to protect them. There are a few
Egyptian inscriptions referring to military action against the Sea Peoples.

10
M. G. HASEL, «The Battle of Kadesh: Identifying New Kingdom Polities, Places, and People in
Canaan and Syria», in S. BAR, D. KAHN, and J.J. SHIRLEY (eds.), Egypt, Canaan and Israel: History,
Imperialism, Ideology and Literature, Leiden-Boston, 2011.
11
D. REDFORD, in The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt 3, New York, 2001, s. v. «Sea Peoples».
12
A. BUTTERY, 1974, P. 8.
5
Merenptah defended his country in his fifth year by defeating a coalition
of forces in Libya. The Egyptian claimed victory. Following the usual
practice, the male prisoners were incorporated into the army. The next
Sea Peoples' assault dated back to the 8th year of Ramesses III, the attack
came from the northeast, partly by land and partly by the sea. Again the
Egyptian gained a victory which was depicted in the temple of Ramesses
III at Madinet Habu. The scene shows group of Sea Peoples included
women and children in carts, and there can be no doubt that it is not just a
military force but a population on the move. The Harris Papyrus recoded
that there were numerous Sherden mostly with Egyptian names, and they
had presumably been given land in return for their military service. There
are also several passing references to individual Sherden in the late 20th
dynasty archive from Deir el-Medina known as the Late Ramessid
Letters. Thereafter, even they disappear from sight13.

Conclusion: throughout Egyptian history, foreigners occupied almost all

social strata and occupations. The ancient Egyptians maintained an
ambivalent attitude toward foreigners. The presumption is that foreigners
were inherently inferior and fit only to serve Egypt, generally, the
negative description of foreigners, contrasts with the fact that many
foreigners were able to rise to high levels in Egyptian society and
government. While the Egyptian appeared to dislike foreigners as groups,
they were apparently wiling to enjoy or at least tolerate foreigners as
individuals.

13
D. REDFORD, 1992, p. 241-254.
6
 Bibliography

 Butner (A.), The Rhetoric and the Reality: Egyptian Conceptions of

Foreigners during the Middle Kingdom (c. 2055-1650 BCE), Senior

Thesis Projects, University of Tennessee Knoxville, 2007,

(Unpublished).

 BUTTERY (A.), Armies and Enemies of Ancient Egypt and Assyria,

Published by Wargames Research Group, 1974.

 Hasel (M.G.), «The Battle of Kadesh: Identifying New Kingdom

Polities, Places, and People in Canaan and Syria», in Bar (S.), Kahn

(D.), and Shirley (J.J.) (eds.), Egypt, Canaan and Israel: History,

Imperialism, Ideology and Literature, Leiden-Boston, 2011.

 REDFORD (D.), Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in ancient times, New

Jersey, 1992.

 REDFORD (D.), in The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt 1, New

York, 2001, s. v. «Foreigners».