UNESCO Ancient Civilizations of Africa (Editor G. Mokhtar)

Pharaonic
Egypt
reflect the existence in Lower Egypt of a large Asiatic population. This
element was no doubt increased by the immigration of large groups from
the lands north-east of Egypt, forced southwards as a result of widespread
population movements in western Asia. The leaders of these groups were
called Hka-Hasut by the Egyptians, meaning Rulers of Foreign Countries,
from which was derived the Manethonian term Hyksos which is now
generally applied to the people as a whole.
The Hyksos only began seriously to challenge the political authority of
the thirteenth dynasty about the year —1729. By —1700, however, they
had emerged as a well-organized, well-equipped and warlike people, and
they conquered the eastern part of the Delta, including the town of Hat-
Wcrt (Avaris) which they refortified and used as their capital. It is generally
admitted that the Hyksos domination of Egypt was not the outcome of a
sudden invasion of the country by the armies of a single Asiatic nation.
As we have said, it was the result of an infiltration during the declining
years of the thirteenth dynasty, of groups of several western Asiatic
chiefly Semitic peoples. Indeed, most of their kings had Semitic names,
such as Anat-Hr, Semken, Amu or Jakub-Hr.
There is no doubt that the Hyksos occupation had a profound
effect on the nation. 29 They introduced the horse, the chariot and body
armour into Egypt. The Egyptians, who had never before had need of
such equipment, eventually turned them successfully against the Hyksos
and expelled them from the land. This was the first time in their history
that the Egyptians found themselves under foreign domination. The
humiliation shook their ancient sense of supremacy and of security in the
protection of their gods. They began a war of liberation, conducted
by the rulers of the Theban nome. The few surviving records of this
period mostly concern the war fought by the kings of the late seventeenth
dynasty against the Asiatic oppressors after nearly 150 years of occupation.
Ahmose finallysucceeded in driving the invaders out of the Delta, capturing
their capital, Avaris, and following them into Palestine where he laid siege
to the stronghold of Sharuhen. After that he proceeded northwards and
raided the land of Zahi (the Phoenician coast). Thus Hyksos power was
finally broken.
The New Kingdom ( — 1580 to —1085)
Eighteenth dynasty 30
King Ahmose I, hailed by posterity as the father of the New Kingdom
and the founder of the eighteenth dynasty, was evidently a man of
29. On the Hyksos and the various problems raised by their occupation of Egypt and its
consequences, see J. Van Seters, 1966.
30. See E. Drioton and J. Vandier, 1962, ch. 9, pp. 335-42 and ch. io, pp. 390-414;
T. G. H. James; W. C. Hayes, 1973.
99