In order to understand the relationship between the two states, it is necessary to look briefly at Egyptian foreign relations prior to the New Kingdom. Ancient Egyptian attitudes toward foreigners reflect several fundamental cultural assumptions, the most important of which are summarized here in Egyptian terms.2 The king of Egypt was a living god; son of a mortal woman, he ruled the earth as the heir of his divine father. Because of his hybrid nature, he was the proper intermediary between humankind and the gods; the gods expressed their will through his words and deeds. Egypt was the center of the universe, and the Egyptians were the gods’ chosen people - the only true humans.3 It was traditional Egyptian culture, embodied in the abstract concept of ma‘at, “truth, justice, righteousness, correct behavior, and divinely ordained cosmic order” - in short, the status quo of the Egyptian way of life - that distinguished the Egyptians from their barbaric neighbors. One of the primary duties of the king was to secure the frontiers and prevent aggressors from penetrating them. Glorified as a mighty hunter and heroic warrior, he perpetuated the warlike deeds of the god who had harnessed or repelled the formless and all-encompassing waters of chaos to create the island oasis of Egypt at the beginning of time.
The tribal peoples living just beyond Egypt’s borders consisted of small seminomadic groups; like the untamed herds and other wild animals occupying the fringes of the deserts and the marshlands, they symbolized vestiges of the chaotic preexistent, whose potential return always constituted a threat to Egypt’s security. Isolated by deserts, cataracts, and seas, for the first 1500 years of its recorded history the Egyptian Nile Valley was effectively protected against major foreign incursions. On the other hand, Egyptian expeditions, with superior manpower, weaponry, and organization, felt free to exploit the greater world at will in the quest for needed raw materials and luxury trade goods. Their activities were concentrated in Lower Nubia, the Eastern Desert, and the Sinai, where the pacification of hostile natives could be achieved through coercion or intimidation. Peace, for the Egyptians, meant simply that foreigners submitted to them. Meanwhile, more distant contacts, probably on more equal terms, were maintained with African Punt and the Egyptianized port city of Byblos in Syria (Kemp 1983: 136-37; O’Connor 1983: 270-71). Because there was no standing army, troops were conscripted throughout the country for each such occasion, relying on the long-established corvee system. Foreign warriors and their dependants were frequently brought back from these campaigns. Settled into detention camps until they were Egyptianized (i. e. domesticated or civilized), they were then integrated into Egyptian society without prejudice, serving, for example, as soldiers or household servants.
World History
