Egyptians were courteous, law-abiding people. Society was generally orderly and peaceful. Men and women were treated equally by law and custom, as were members of different social classes.
Egyptian law was based on custom, tradition, and ma’at. An offense against law and order was an offense against ma’at. Laws covered crimes, land disputes, commercial transactions, wills, property transfers, and trusts for eternal care of tombs. Legal disputes could be complex. One land dispute among several generations of a feuding wealthy family went on for decades, with many trials presided over by a series of viziers.
All judgements were made in the king’s name. There were no professional lawyers. Trials were speedy and punishments were swift. Imprisonment was considered expensive and unproductive. Prisons were used as courts, storehouses for legal records, and to hold prisoners awaiting trial. The death penalty was rare. It had to be approved by the king and was reserved for only the most horrible crimes. Children who killed their parents faced especially gruesome deaths, such as being eaten alive by crocodiles. A merciful king might allow a condemned criminal to commit suicide.
For serious offenses, a criminal would have his nose or ears, or both, cut off. He might also be sentenced to hard labor in the mines of Nubia, or be banished to a faraway frontier fort. Disgrace and banishment were considered worse than death. For lesser crimes, beatings and whippings were common. Occasionally, an entire family was punished for a relative’s crime.
While this all may sound harsh to us today, Egypt’s laws and punishments were generally much more humane and enlightened than those of most other ancient cultures.
World History
