The Meshwesh (Ancient Egypt)

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The Meshwesh (often abbreviated in ancient Egyptian as Ma) were an ancient Libyan tribe from beyond Cyrenaica where the Libu and Tehenu lived according to Egyptian references and who were of African ethnicity. Herodotus may have placed them in Tunisia and said of them to be sedentary farmers living in settled permanent houses as the later Massylii. He also added them to be partly descended from Trojan refugees. After the drying up of their lands they attempted periodically to settle in new lands East, what they did in territories formerly under Egyptian control and successfully over the Delta area. Early records of the Meshwesh date back to the 18th dynasty of Ancient Egypt from the reign of Amenhotep III. During the 19th and 20th Dynasties of Egypt (ca 1295 -- 1075 BC), the Meshwesh were in almost constant conflict with the Egyptian state. During the late 21st Dynasty, increasing numbers of Meswesh Libyans began to settle in the Western Delta region of Egypt. They would ultimately take control of the country during the late 21st Dynasty first under king Osorkon the Elder. After an interregnum of 38 years, during which the native Egyptian kings Siamun and Psusennes II assumed the throne, they ruled Egypt throughout the 21nd, 22nd, 23rd and 24nd Dynasties under such powerful kings as Smendes, Osorkon the Elder, Shoshenq I, Osorkon I, Osorkon II, Shoshenq III and Osorkon III respectively. Their reign only came to an end with the invasion of the Kushite 25th Dynasty in Year 20 of Piye. References 1.^ Thesaurus Linguae Aegyptiae, lemma 76410 • Bates, Oric. 1914. The Eastern Libyans: An Essay. Cass Library of African Studies 87. London: Frank Cass and Company Limited. ISBN 0-7146-1634-6 • Dodson, Aidan Mark. 1995. "Rise & Fall of The House of Shoshenq: The Libyan Centuries of Egyptian History." KMT: A Modern Journal of Ancient Egypt 6 (3):52--67. • Gomaà, Farouk. 1974. Die libyschen Fürstentümer des Deltas von Tod Osorkons II. bis zur Wiedervereinigen Ägyptens durch Psametik I. Tübinger Atlas des Vorderen Orients (Reihe B [Geistewissenschaften]) 6. Wiesbaden: Dr. Ludwig Reichert Verlag. • Haring, Bernardus Johannes Jozef. 1992. "Libyans in the Late Twentieth Dynasty". In Village Voices: Proceedings of the Symposium 'Texts from Deir el-Medîna and Their Interpretation,' Leiden, May 31--June 1, 1991, edited by Robert Johannes Demarée and Arno Egberts. Centre of Non-Western Studies Publications 13. Leiden: Centre of Non-Western Studes, Leiden University. 71--80. • Kitchen, Kenneth Anderson. [1996]. The Third Intermediate Period in Egypt (1100--650 BC). 3rd ed. Warminster: Aris & Phillips Limited. • Leahy, M. Anthony. 1985. "The Libyan Period in Egypt: An Essay in Interpretation." Libyan Studies 16:51--65. • ———, ed. 1990. Libya and Egypt c1300--750 BC. London: School of Oriental and African Studies, Centre of Near and Middle Eastern Studies, and The Society for Libyan Studies. • Snape, Steven. 2003. "The Emergence of Libya on the Horizon of Egypt". In Mysterious Lands, edited by David B. O'Connor and Stephen G. J. Quirke. Encounters with Ancient Egypt 5. London: Institute of Archaeology, University College London and UCL Press. 93--106. • Wainwright, Geoffrey Avery. 1962. "The Meshwesh." Journal of Egyptian Archæology 48:89--99. • White, Donald. 1994. "Before the Greeks Came: A Survey of the Current Archaeological Evidence for the Pre-Greek Libyans." Libyan Studies 25 (Cyrenaican Archaeology: An International Colloquium):31--39, 43--44. • Yoyotte, Jean. 1961. "Les principautés du Delta au temps de l'anarchie libyenne (Études d'histoire politique)". In Mélanges Maspero. Volume 1: Orient ancien. Mémoires publiés par les membres de l'Institut français d'archéologie orientale du Caire 66/1 (fascicle 4). Cairo: Imprimerie de l'Institut français d'archéologie orientale du Caire. 121--181.