Political System of Ancient Egypt

The government of ancient Egypt was a theocratic monarchy as the king was believed to rule by a so-called mandate from the gods, and was initially seen as an intermediary between human beings and the divine, and was supposed to represent the gods' will through the laws passed and policies approved. These theories were only forged to ensure that the people did not revolt against the king, his policies and his choices for the next monarch. Under the guise of an intermediary, the king did whatever he liked. A central government in Egypt was evident by c. 3150 B.C. when King Narmer unified the country, but some form of government existed prior to this date.

In cosmogonical terms, Egyptian society consisted of a descending hierarchy of the gods, the king, the blessed dead, and humanity (by which was understood chiefly the Egyptians). Of these groups, only the king was single, and hence he was individually more prominent than any of the others. ¹ The Egyptian system rested upon a close alliance between religious and civil life. At the head of the government was the king who was believed to be the son of a god and was himself, in the eyes of the people, divine. His power was unlimited. He ruled the country in the gods name as its sole master and lord. He commanded his armed subjects in war, directed their industry, prescribed the course of labor necessary for irrigation and disposed of all the resources the country at his own discretion.

In religious matters he was assisted by the priests, who lived in the temples and helped the king to propitiate the gods with victims’ solemn rites, hymns and liturgies. In secular affairs the king was assisted by officials who carried out his commands and directed the people in their occupations of peace or war. Some of them commanded the army and the fleet, while others collected from the people those products of their labor which the king found it necessary to spend on the requirements of the temples, the government and his own private life. Others directed public works and portioned out labor among the people. Others administered justice and maintained order; while others gave professional service to the king and the royal family. Some of these officials discharged single handed many different duties. They had no independence or power of initiative. They, like the priests, were merely personal servants and agents of the king and the god. Side by side with the priests and high officials of an army of scribes, overseers, artisans, and policemen were employed. They all received maintenance from the king and all, from the highest to the lowest were in theory appointed by him. They were accountable to the king who disposed of their life and property as he saw fit.

The population was absolutely at the mercy of the king and his officials. In the political life of the country, they took no share whatsoever. They had no right of private property especially in land. Their lives, goods, and labor were in the king’s hands and he might dispose of them as he thought fit. ²

The people looked upon Pharaoh as one of their gods. They didn't use his name but instead spoke of him as "Pharaoh" (from name of his house Per-O). Pharaoh owned all the land, made laws, and chose helpers to see that these were obeyed. The country was divided into districts for the administration of these. The Pharaoh was the chief priest. He prayed and made offerings to the gods daily. A new Pharaoh travelled through the whole kingdom. This was known as ‘going round the wall’. He travelled a great deal at other times watching public works and checking on his officers. ³

Egyptians viewed the pharaoh as their protector, the guardian of the country, and they believed that society’s order and prosperity depended on unquestioned obedience to him. Their belief that the pharaoh alone could prevent untold terrors from engulfing the land originated from a primeval myth about the great god Ra who came to earth in human form to rule as the first pharaoh. Egypt prospered during his reign as never before, producing crops in such regular and enormous abundance that life settled into a lazy routine. According to a famous man-made tale, free of cares, the people grew lax and neglected to honor Ra for the bounty he had bestowed. Ra, angered by their behavior, decided to teach his subjects a lesson they would never forget. Using powerful magic, he created a blood-thirsty lioness, the feared goddess Sekhmet, who roamed the land by day, terrorizing its inhabitants, devouring thousands, and instilling fear and respect among the survivors. With his goal accomplished, yet now unable to contain the blood-crazed Sekhmet, Ra convened a council of gods to devise a plan to save what remained of humanity. The gods made vast quantities of red-dyed beer and spread the mixture on the ground. Sekhmet, thinking it was blood, drank until she fell into a deep, intoxicated sleep. When she awoke, no longer crazed, Ra—being the most powerful god, after all—was able to change her into Hathor, the goddess of love. ⁴

Such stories prove the fact the human brain was so corrupted by the devil that even during those times, they believed these nonsensical stories, but refused to believe in the message of God (submission to the will of God) brought by his designated prophets and especially Prophet Muhammad . That message was not only related to religious rituals and practices only, but encompassed every aspect of life and provided a great government system as well which ensured justice, freedom, prosperity and peace.

Divine Marriage

In the corpus of miscellaneous texts from the old kingdom known as the pyramid texts, the sexuality of the king was mentioned together with his other physical needs. Through recitation of spells, he was encouraged in general to be sexually active. When the dead commuted in the universe, there were no moral limits, and he cohabited with all the females available.

By the time of the new kingdom, royal sexuality was described in a particular literary genre known as “theogamy” or divine marriage. This was created in order to legitimize the divine institution of royal marriage and succession. Here, the royal husband was watching from the sidelines while the mighty god Amun entered the stage, allegedly in the guise of the king, but with the easily recognizable scent of the god. According to divine plan, the queen was to submit herself to the god in order to conceive an heir to the throne of suitable parentage. The Queen soon acknowledged the divine qualities of her partner and becomes the receptacle for his seed. ⁵

Some exceptionally active kings produced scores of sons. According to the myth, Horus’ mother was his father’s sister, and both his parents were the offspring of the Earth-god Geb and the Sky-goddess Nut. Thus, the principal wife in the mythological template possessed a lineage as sacred as that of the king himself. In certain instances, it can be proven that kings did marry their sisters and that the true heir was this couple’s eldest son.

In other instances, it seems that kings married half-sisters strategically, so as to improve their own legitimacy and that of their future offspring. Thus, a king borne by a lesser status wife – presumably because the higher status wife had no surviving son – frequently married the daughter of a wife of nobler blood and made the eldest son of that union heir. Some of Egypt’s most famous queens, such as Hatshepsut and Ankhesenpaaten, had far bluer blood than their spouses as a result of this practice. In addition to the status benefit of a union with the highest ranked woman in Egypt, kings who practiced sibling marriage indebted themselves to no one and blatantly disassociated themselves from the world of mortals. The other famous population known to have practiced sibling marriage in Pharaonic times was the gods, and it was thus significant that such pairings were most frequent following periods of disunity in Egypt, junctures at which it was of utmost importance to quickly and decisively re-establish the Pharaoh’s divinity.

It must be stated, however, that the highest status wives of a king were not always closely related to him, and there are many whose origins we know little, if anything about it. Other women appear to have been raised to the exalted position of chief wife only after their sons had become crown prince or even king. Clearly, a son’s chances of ascending the throne occasionally depended on factors other than his mother’s bloodline, such as sentiment or active lobbying on the part of interested parties. The cases in which the choice of heir was not based on established protocol, it would presumably have been especially important for a king to publicly acknowledge his son as crown prince or co-regent prior to his death so as to avert contestation. ⁶

The ancient Egyptian concept of succession was nothing more than the depiction of the lowliness of the human mind. It showed that how low the human mind was willing to go in order to gain mundane benefits. Marriage with sisters was a norm in ancient Egypt, yet many scholars do their best to elucidate the fact that the ancient Egyptians had great moral, ethical and social values and try to undermine the Islamic teachings regarding society, ethics and morality by stating that they were primitive and barbaric due to misunderstanding the teachings or due to ignorance.

The Pharaoh

As god was to Pharaoh, so Pharaoh was to humankind in his position as ‘the god of the living’. Kings, like gods, also had the power to answer prayers, rewarding the righteous with gifts that they could not possibly reciprocate. Boons-that-the-king-gives – i.e. royal favors such as the provision of a sarcophagus, false door, or other high status, otherwise unobtainable mortuary supplies – appear to have been granted primarily in response to specific requests. Thus, a courtier, desirous of such royal favors, was placed in the vulnerable and potentially humiliating position of having to publicly request them as a gift from the king. ⁷

Just as Ra had done, it was up to every pharaoh to ensure that proper order, or maat, was maintained. But the Egyptians’ view of order was calculated strictly along class lines. If good fortune came to a poor person, it was not considered a blessing or a credit to him, but a sign that something was wrong with the world.

The ancient Egyptians believed that as long as the rich and powerful prospered while slaves and the poor remained in their places, maat was maintained. Besides ensuring order, pharaohs performed a unifying function. Egyptians believed that their land had once consisted of a northern and a southern kingdom until Narmer (Menes), a mighty hero from the south, conquered the north, married its queen and, by assuming the crowns of both kingdoms, unified Egypt into a single nation. Even after 2,000 years as a unified country, the title ‘Lord of the Two Lands’ was a pharaoh’s most important designation. To the Egyptian mind, their union existed solely in of the pharaoh—Narmer and his successors—and it was to him, rather than to country or flag, that all loyalty was owed. Because Egyptians believed names held power, pharaohs possessed a number of other names and titles. The designation ‘pharaoh’, however, is not an Egyptian one. ⁸

Famous Egyptian Rulers

She reigned as pharaoh from 1473 B.C. until retiring or dying. Her name meant ‘Foremost of the Noble Ones,’ and she was the surviving daughter of Tuthmosis I and Queen ’Ahmose. She married her half-brother, Tuthmosis II, and gave birth to a daughter, Neferu-Ré. Tuthmosis II’s heir, Tuthmosis III, was the child of a lesser harem lady, Iset. When Tuthmosis II died in 1479 B.C. from a severe systemic illness, Hatshepsut stood as regent for the heir, who was very young. Contemporary records state that she managed affairs of the land. Six years later, however, she put aside Tuthmosis III (r. 1479–1425 B.C.) and declared herself Pharaoh, adopting masculine attire on occasions and assuming the traditional titles. It is possible that she assumed pharaonic titles as early as Tuthmosis III’s second regnal year. She had the full support of the Amunite priests and the court officials and was accepted by the people as a ruler called ‘Beautiful to Behold.’

Hatshepsut was well educated and skilled in imperial administration. It is possible that she led military campaigns in Nubia and Palestine, and she sent a famous expedition to Punt (probably modern Ethiopia). In Egypt, Hatshepsut renovated large sections of Karnak and maintained an apartment there. She also erected the Red Chapel, a pair of granite Obelisks, a formal route for religious processions, and the eighth Pylon in the southern axis of the complex. Near Beni Hasan, Hatshepsut and Tuthmosis III erected the Speos Artemidos, later called ‘the Stable of Antar’ (after a warrior poet of modern Islam). This was a rock-cut temple of the goddess Pakhet. Her cartouches at the Speos were hammered out by Seti I (r. 1306–1290 B.C.) and replaced with his own.

Hatshepsut also erected her major monument at Deir El-Bahri on the western shore in Thebes. This was a temple with three low, broad porticos, ramps, and terraces. The upper terrace had square pillars that were originally faced with Osiride statues of Hatshepsut. In the middle terrace she constructed chapels for the gods Hathor and Anubis. This terrace also contained reliefs concerning the expedition that was sent to Punt. Hatshepsut’s divine birth legend is also depicted here. The bottom terrace had bas-reliefs heralding the raising of her obelisks at Karnak, and the court in front of the terraces had two pools and Myrrh trees in ceramic pots.

During her reign, Egypt remained secure, and Hatshepsut initiated many building projects. Although she professed hatred for the Asiatics in her reliefs, Hatshepsut apparently did not sponsor punitive campaigns against them. When Kadesh and its allies started a revolt in 1458 B.C., Tuthmosis III led the army out of Egypt and Hatshepsut disappeared. Her statues, reliefs, and shrines were mutilated in time, and her body was never found. It is believed that Hatshepsut’s corpse was hidden from the Tuthmossid allies, and her mummified liver was found in a quartzite box in 1881 A.D. A tomb found in Wadi Siqqet Taga el-Zeid contains her crystalline limestone Sarcophagus, but there is no evidence of burial there. ⁹

Ramesses II King (1303–1213 B.C.)

Ramesses II was known to the Egyptians as Userma’atre’setepenre, which means 'Keeper of Harmony and Balance, Strong in Right, Elect of Ra’. ¹⁰ Perhaps the best-known of Egypt’s kings, Ramesses II was a noted warrior and a prolific builder. He was the son of Sethos I and, as his co-regent, he took part in a number of campaigns. In the Great Dedicatory Inscription that he caused to be placed in his father’s temple at Abydos (which Ramesses II completed), it is indicated that Ramesses II devoted the early years of his reign to restoring order at home. In year 4, he set out to repeat his father’s successes in Syria, reaching Nahr el-Kelb, a few miles beyond modern Beirut, and the following year he embarked on his most notable military undertaking—to attack the Hittites and repossess the town of Kadesh that Sethos I had briefly gained. Ramesses II’s account of this battle is preserved in an epic poem which is repeated in eight inscriptions in the temples of Karnak, Luxor, Abydos and the Ramesseum, as well as in a shorter version known as the ‘Report’. This account emphasizes his personal prowess and bravery in achieving a single-handed victory, but the Hittite record, inscribed on tablets in their capital city of Boghazkoy, relates a different story. It is clear that the Egyptians retired homewards, having suffered a strategic defeat, although in later years Ramesses II did achieve success in quelling revolts in the Palestinian states and in penetrating the Hittite territories. Egypt came to realize the difficulty of holding these far-distant gains, and in year 21, Ramesses II signed a peace treaty with the Hittites, bringing to an end some sixteen years of sporadic fighting. The treaty was made between Ramesses II and Khattusilis III as equal powers and it was a pact of perpetual peace and brotherhood. It formed the basis of an alliance with reciprocal provisions: there was an agreement of non-aggression between Egypt and the Hittites; they recognised a mutual frontier and agreed to a joint defensive pact against outside aggressors and to deport refugees from each other’s country. The two lands became amicable allies; the royal families exchanged regular letters and they were formally united by marriage ties when, in year 34, Ramesses II took as his wife the eldest daughter of Khattusilis III. This princess became his Great Royal Wife and she may have been joined later by another Hittite princess.

Although Thebes remained the state and religious capital, the administrative centre was now Memphis, and Ramesses II also built a Delta residence city at Pi-Ramesse. His building program was extensive, and he constructed more temples than any other king. The most important were the Temple of Ptah at Memphis, the temple at Abydos, his mortuary temple (the Ramesseum) at Thebes, and his completion of the Hypostyle Hall at Karnak and of his father’s temple at Abydos. The most celebrated of all are the two rock-cut temples at Abu Simbel which in modern times have been saved from the effects of the construction of the High Dam at Aswan. The larger temple here was dedicated to Re-Harakhte, Amun and Ramesses himself, while the smaller one belonged to the goddess Hathor and was built in honour of Nefertari, the favourite queen of Ramesses II. Ramesses had five or six major queens and many concubines by whom he fathered over one hundred children. In addition to Nefertari, favoured queens included the Hittite princess Manefrure, his own daughter Bint-Anath who became his consort, and Istnofret whose son, Merneptah, succeeded Ramesses II as king. Merneptah was the thirteenth son of Ramesses II but he outlived his elder brothers and eventually inherited the throne.

Ramesses II, who was probably almost one hundred years old when he died, may have been the pharaoh associated with the Exodus. His schemes at home and abroad were grandiose, and although the quality of the art and architecture during his reign does not match its quantity, he nevertheless was the last of Egypt’s truly great rulers. ¹¹

Nefertiti Queen (1370-1330 B.C.)

Nefertiti, also called Neferneferuaten – Nefertiti, was the queen of Egypt and wife of King Akhenaton, who played a prominent role in the cult of the sun god known as the Aton. Nefertiti has become renowned for her beauty, which is evident in her portraits on stelae, in temple reliefs, and in sculptors’ trial pieces and models. Although her face is well known, there is little information about Nefertiti’s origins.

Nefertiti, also called Neferneferuaten – Nefertiti, was the queen of Egypt and wife of King Akhenaton, who played a prominent role in the cult of the sun god known as the Aton. ¹² Nefertiti has become renowned for her beauty, which is evident in her portraits on stelae, in temple reliefs, and in sculptors’ trial pieces and models. Although her face is well known, there is little information about Nefertiti’s origins. Since she never claimed the titles of ‘King’s Daughter’ or ‘King’s Sister’, she was not of royal birth, and, for some reason, Akhenaten apparently did not follow the royal tradition of marrying his eldest sister. It is known that Nefertiti’s nurse or tutor was Tey (Ay’s wife), and that she had a sister, Mudnodjme; one theory suggests that she might have been Ay’s daughter by a wife who died, and that she was subsequently reared by his other wife Tey. Nefertiti became Akhenaten’s chief wife (although he had other wives including a woman named Kia), and she became the mother of six daughters, two of whom (Meritaten and Ankhesenpaaten) became queens. Reliefs show the royal couple with their daughters, often in domestic and intimate surroundings which had never been represented before. In other scenes they participate in ritual or ceremonial events: one scene in the Amarna tomb of the steward Meryre shows the royal family taking part in a great reception of foreign tribute in Year 12 of Akhenaten’s reign. The Queen’s political and religious roles were of particular interest. She was apparently appointed, together with Queen Tiye and Ay, as Akhenaten’s adviser at the beginning of his reign, and she was frequently shown at the king’s side. She was always represented wearing a tall blue crown, which was not seen elsewhere in Egyptian art, and was presumably her unique crown.

The discovery of thousands of stone blocks, carved with reliefs and inscriptions, at Karnak and Luxor has provided new insight into her religious role. These blocks had been used as infill in the pylons in the temples at Karnak and Luxor, but originally they belonged to Akhenaten’s Aten temples which were built at Thebes, before he moved his capital to Amarna. A modern study indicates that Nefertiti played a major cultic role in the Aten rituals, holding equal status with the king, and gaining an unparalleled importance for a queen.

After Year 12, she disappeared and was replaced by her daughter Meritaten, who usurped her inscriptions and portraits. This has led to speculation that Nefertiti may have fallen into disgrace at Court, perhaps because she clung to Atenism when her husband had begun to accept at least a partial restoration of the rival god, Amun.

She may have been exiled to the northern palace at Amarna, where she possibly had the opportunity to indoctrinate the youthful Tutankhamun. It is more conceivable that the Queen died, perhaps soon after the death of her second daughter, Maketaten, and was buried in the Royal Tomb at Amarna, as Akhenaten had decreed in the city’s Boundary Stelae. Her mortal remains may later have been transferred, together with the bodies of other members of this family, from Amarna to Thebes, but neither her body nor her burial place has yet been found. ¹³

Tutankhamun King (1341–1323 B.C.)

Tutankhamun was an Egyptian pharaoh of the 18th dynasty, during the period of Egyptian history known as the New Kingdom or sometimes the New Empire Period. ¹⁴ He succeeded Smenkhkare as ruler of Egypt when he was still a child of eight or nine years. It is probable that he was the son of Amenophis III, whom he calls ‘father’ on one of the granite lions which originally stood in the Temple of Amenophis III at Soleb. Another interpretation of this evidence suggests that the word is to be translated as ‘ancestor’, and that Akhenaten, rather than Amenophis III, could be Tutankhamun’s father. His mother may have been one of the queens of Amenophis III—Tiye or Sitamun—or another unknown woman in the king’s harem.

Tutankhamun married the third daughter of Akhenaten and Nefertiti and originally the names of the royal couple were Tutankhaten and Ankhesenpaaten, but these were later changed to Tutankhamun and Ankhesenamun when there was a return to orthodox religion. As a child ruler, Tutankhamun was probably advised at first by Nefertiti and then by the courtier, Ay; Horemheb also rose to eminence in this reign as the King’s Deputy. Tutankhamun may have lived for some time at the Northern Palace at Amarna, under Nefertiti’s tutelage, or he and Ankhesenpaaten may have moved there after Nefertiti’s death.

His Restoration Stela was issued from Memphis, which presumably became his new capital, although the stela was set up in the Temple of Karnak at Thebes. The inscription gives details of the chaos that prevailed in the land and of the steps that the young king took to restore the old order: the gods, particularly Amun, were reinstated, and since no priests could be found (presumably because Akhenaten had eliminated them), a new priesthood was drawn from well-known persons in all the major towns. The cult of the Aten still retained some importance, for the sun’s disc and rays—the Aten’s symbol—was represented on the king’s coronation throne as the royal patron deity.

Few other details of Tutankhamun’s short reign have survived, although in the Temple of Luxor, a great hall was decorated with wall-reliefs that show his great festival of Amun. The king’s program of restoration was obviously curtailed by his untimely death before he reached twenty; examination of the mummy has not revealed conclusive evidence of the cause of death. Tutankhamun was buried in an improvised tomb in the Valley of the Kings and the entrance to this was later covered over by debris from the tomb of Ramesses VI. Although it was robbed in antiquity, Howard Carter, excavating on behalf of Lord Carnarvon, discovered the tomb in 1922 and found most of the contents intact. The spectacular treasure, crammed into the four small rooms of the tomb, included the funerary goods and the three golden coffins and gold mask that covered the mummy.

Two female fetuses were also discovered in the tomb. These were presumably the offspring of the royal couple. Because Tutankhamun apparently had no heir, his throne was inherited by Ay, a senior courtier, who is shown in the tomb scenes performing the burial rites for the young king. Since the names of Akhenaten and Smenkhkare were not obliterated during the reigns of Tutankhamun or Ay, but at a later date, it would appear that the destruction of the Aten cult was undertaken by their successors. ¹⁵

Amenhotep (Died 1334 or 1336)

Amenhotep, son of Hapu, was a high official of the reign of Amenhotep III of ancient Egypt (reigned 1390–53 B.C.), who was greatly honored by the king within his era and was deified more than 1,000 years later during the Ptolemaic era. His date of birth is not confirmed and his date of demise is also controversial in scholars. Amenhotep rose through the ranks of government service, becoming scribe of the recruits, a military office, under Amenhotep III. While in the Nile River delta, Amenhotep was charged with positioning troops at checkpoints on the branches of the Nile to regulate entry into Egypt by sea; he also checked on the infiltration of Bedouin tribesmen by land.

Sometime later, when he was placed in charge of all royal works, he probably supervised the construction of Amenhotep III’s mortuary temple at Thebes near modern Luxor, the building of the temple of Soleb in Nubia (modern Sudan), and the transport of building material and erection of other works. Two statues from Thebes indicate that he was also an intercessor in Amon’s temple and that he supervised the celebration of one of Amenhotep III’s Heb-Sed festivals (a renewal rite celebrated by the pharaoh after the first 30 years of his reign and periodically thereafter). The king honored him by embellishing Athribis, his native city. Amenhotep III even ordered the building of a small funerary temple for him next to his own temple, a unique honour for a non-royal person in Egypt. ¹⁶

Cleopatra VII (69–30 B.C.)

Cleopatra VII was a queen of the Ptolemaic Period (part of the Greco-Roman Period) who ascended the throne of Egypt at age seventeen. Also known as Netjeret mer-it-es (Goddess, Beloved of Her Father), Cleopatra had been designated heir by her father, King Ptolemy XII Auletes, providing she married her brother Ptolemy XIII, which she did without any shame to get to the throne. Cleopatra was an effective ruler, and held the distinction of being the only ruler of Egypt during the Greco-Roman Period to learn the Egyptian language as opposed to just Greek and Latin (which she knew as well).

Cleopatra faced an unsuccessful attempt by her brother and consort, Ptolemy XIII, to usurp her power, but backed by Roman leader Julius Caesar, she was able to regain her throne. Through her liaisons, first with Caesar (with whom she had a son, Caesarion, or Ptolemy XV) and then with Roman general Marc Antony, Cleopatra was able to maintain much of Egypt’s autonomy under the protection of Rome. Eventually, however, Rome elected to end Egypt’s autonomy. Cleopatra’s reign ended when, after forces under Roman emperor Octavian laid siege to Alexandria, she committed suicide rather than allow herself to be captured. ¹⁷ Within the first ten lines of the historical Shakespearian’s play i.e. Antony and Cleopatra, the men declared Cleopatra a lustful ‘gipsy,’ a description that is repeated throughout the play as though by a chorus. ¹⁸ Cleopatra is labeled a wrangling queen, ¹⁹ a slave, ²⁰ an Egyptian dish, ²¹ and a whore; ²² she was called Salt Cleopatra ²³ and an enchantress who has made Antony ‘the noble ruin of her magic’. ²⁴

Administrative System

Technically the pharaoh was the head of the government. But he did not run it on a regular basis. That job was performed by the vizier, or chief administrator, whose social rank was second only to the pharaoh’s. The vizier oversaw the various government departments, granaries (grain stores), the army, large construction projects, and justice. Governors appointed by the pharaoh oversaw similar departments in their respective provinces. Most of the administrators who stated both the national and provincial governments were literate and enjoyed respect and social status nearly as great as the nobles.

Also high in social rank were the priests who served in the temples. They and the reigning king were the only people allowed to enter the sacred inner chambers of those large structures. The priests not only maintained Egypt’s ongoing relationship with the gods but also managed large rural estates that often employed thousands of people. ²⁵

Administration

The country was divided into more than 40 provinces— or nomes, as the Greeks called them—and each was administered by a governor, or nomarch. Governors charged with the administration of distant areas had to act on their own without permission from the pharaoh, and often without even his knowledge; they developed independence and self-assurance. These were the men who carved out principalities for themselves when the Old Kingdom foundered at the end of the Sixth Dynasty. They ruled their territories as independent princes during the First Intermediate Period and for a time into the Middle Kingdom. Besides the governors, the Middle Kingdom pharaohs had another limitation on their authority in the forms of the priests. From the end of the Old Kingdom onwards the priests grew in wealth and influence, until by the time of the 18th Dynasty they were the richest and strongest men in society and ruled almost in partnership with the pharaoh. ²⁶

The key areas of administration were the Treasury, the Department of Agriculture, the Ministry of Royal Works, the Judiciary, and the army. The man in charge of the Treasury was known as the Overseer of the House of Double Silver, while the Ministry of Works was led by the Overseer of the King’s House, since all public works and buildings belong to the pharaoh.

The Department of Agriculture was further divided between overseers of granaries and cattle. The archives were the most important feature of Egyptian government. Everything was recorded—wills, title deeds, census lists, conscription lists, orders, memos, tax lists, letters, journals, inventories, regulations, and trial transcripts. ²⁷

These departments were already connected to the provincial administration, and the two levels addressed the problems of governing a country that included settled urbanized and closely organized communities as well as more loosely structured agricultural units. In the Old Kingdom pyramid building had required the existence of a fully supportive, highly organized bureaucracy, and consequently a very centralized government emerged. This subsequently broke down, and in the Middle Kingdom a new system was introduced by the rulers of Dynasty 12 who usurped the throne. By the New Kingdom the establishment of a permanent army and an empire, as well as greatly expanded temple estates, resulted in many changes in the administration of the country.

It was this bureaucratic system that enabled civilization to flourish in Egypt. A complex society emerged with well-developed institutions and a king as the central figure who represented divine rulership and embodied the state. He was assisted by a group of deputies who headed the administration, the army, and the priesthood. They were paid large salaries, and they received rent from the land and royal gifts in addition to a share of the temple revenue at certain periods and the gift of a tomb from the king. ²⁸

Eligibility

The elite ruling class was called paat, while the rest of the people were called rekhyt. The officials of every administrative department were very proud of their position. They displayed their high social standing by prefixing their names with strings of titles that indicated their functions and achievements.

But the greatest privilege enjoyed by the paat was that the pharaoh granted them the right to build their tombs in one of the royal cemeteries. This ensured that the deceased enjoyed all the privileges in the afterlife that he enjoyed while living, and that after every harvest his household servants will honor him with offerings of food for a banquet in Heaven.

Compared with most other cultures of the period, Egypt’s society was more liberal. There were few changes in the social organization and system of government over a period of 3,000 years. This orderly arrangement was only punctuated by a possible revolution of some uncertain kind at the end of the Old Kingdom, followed by temporary collapse and disintegration, and by intermittent times of civil war (during the First, Second, and Third Intermediate Periods), when local princelings challenged central authority and established their own power bases. The system was supported and preserved, however, by patterns of marriage and inheritance: People tended to marry within their own social groups, and offices and trades were passed down from father to son.

The king was central to the government and to religion. Everything emanated from the king, and he theoretically owned all the land, people, and possessions. His individual resurrection after death and continuation as a god in the next world was of paramount importance not just for himself but for the survival of Egypt. ²⁹

The government and the political system of ancient Egypt only existed to serve and sustain the lavish lifestyles of the elite class. Under this unfair system, only those who were born with the royal blood were deemed to be eligible for the throne, hence it was impossible for any sane, and educated individual to become a king. Secondly, the kings did everything they could to ensure that succession remained in their family and did not care even if they had to indulge in immoral activities which destroyed the structure of the family and in a wide aspect, the society. As per the books of history, this system was more of a nuisance rather than a relief for the common people of ancient Egypt.

• ¹ Kathleen Kuiper (2011), The Britannica Guide to Ancient Civilizations: Ancient Egypt, Britannica Educational Publishing, New York, USA, Pg. 19.
• ² M. Rostovtzeff (1926), History of the Ancient World (Translated by J. D. Duff), Oxford at the Clarendon Press, Oxford, U.K., Vol. 1, Pg. 40-41.
• ³ P.B. Shelley (1957), Ancient Egypt, Department of Education, Alberta, Canada, Pg. 58-59.
• ⁴ Bob Brier & Hoyt Hobbs (2008), Daily Life of the Ancient Egyptians, Greenwood Press, London, U.K.. Pg. 65-67.
• ⁵ Donald B. Redford (2001), The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt: P-Z, Oxford University Press, Oxford, U.K., Vol. 3, Pg. 310.
• ⁶ Allan B. Lloyd (2010), A Companion to Ancient Egypt, Blackwell Publishing, Sussex, U.K., Vol. 1, Pg. 202.
• ⁷ Ibid, Pg. 208.
• ⁸ Bob Brier & Hoyt Hobbs (2008), Daily Life of the Ancient Egyptians, Greenwood Press, London, U.K.. Pg. 67.
• ⁹ Margaret R. Bunson (2002), Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt, Facts on File Inc., New York, USA, Pg. 161-162.
• ¹⁰ Ancient History Encyclopedia (Online Version): https://www.ancient.eu/Ramesses_II/: Retrieved: 25-04-2019
• ¹¹ Antony E. David & Rosalie David (1992), A Biographical Dictionary of Ancient Egypt, Seaby, London, U.K., Pg. 118-119.
• ¹² Encyclopedia Britannica (Online Version): https://www.britannica.com/biography/Nefertiti: Retrieved: 16-11-2017
• ¹³ Antony E. David & Rosalie David (1992), A Biographical Dictionary of Ancient Egypt, Seaby, London, Pg. 91-92.
• ¹⁴ Karl-Theodor Zauzich (1992), Hieroglyphs Without Mystery, University of Texas Press, Austin, USA, Pg. 30-31.
• ¹⁵ Antony E. David & Rosalie David (1992), A Biographical Dictionary of Ancient Egypt, Seaby, London, U.K., Pg. 157-158.
• ¹⁶ Encyclopedia Britannica (Online Version): https://www.britannica.com/biography/Amenhotep-son-of-Hapu: Retrieved: 14-11-2017
• ¹⁷ Patricia D. Netzley (2003), The Greenhaven Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt, Greenhaven Press, California, USA, Pg. 88-89.
• ¹⁸ William Shakespeare (2013), Antony and Cleopatra, Bantam Books, New York, USA, Act-I: Scene-I: Line-10.
• ¹⁹ Ibid: Act-I: Scene-I: Line-50.
• ²⁰ Ibid: Act-I: Scene-IV: Line-19.
• ²¹ Ibid: Act-II: Scene-IV: Line-123.
• ²² Ibid: Act-III: Scene-IV: Line-67.
• ²³ Ibid: Act-II: Scene-I: Line-21.
• ²⁴ Ibid: Act-III: Scene-X: Line-18.
• ²⁵ Don Nardo (2015), Life in Ancient Egypt, Reference Point Press, California, USA, Pg. 29-30.
• ²⁶ Lionel Casson (1969), Ancient Egypt, Time life International, Netherland, Pg. 93-96.
• ²⁷ Norman Bancroft Hunt (2009), Living in Ancient Egypt, Chelsea House Publishers, New York, USA, Pg. 34-35.
• ²⁸ Rosalie David (2003), Handbook to Life in Ancient Egypt, Facts on File Inc., New York, USA, Pg. 142.
• ²⁹ Ibid, Pg. 136.