Cursory Reading into the
Nature of Pharaohnism
There is an ugly tone of Crowism reverberating here and there preposterously echoing calls for restoring the name and history of the malodorously mummified dictator half buried in the Sinai desert of Sharm el Sheikh … Faint albeit, but crowing nevertheless, and timidly peeping from beneath a putrid fig leaf of capricious sense of embarrassment .
Hosni Mubarak is the name of what the world has dubbed “the Last Pharaoh of Egypt”. In Arabic, his first name literally translates into “Good Looking”. His last name translates into “One who is divinely blessed.” You can almost taste where I am going with this … I know!
If we talk Pharaohs, we encounter a dilemma of sort when it comes to sequelae; and yeas, I am using the term here in its pathological implication. It appears that there is some sort of psycho-pathology to becoming Pharaoh of Egypt. We see that clearly in both ancient and modern Egypt despite the fact that there is a gap of two millenniums between the two civilizations.
In Ancient Egypt, the bardies and temple walls bespeak of the great Ramses II, Merinbetah I, Tuhottmuss III, Ahmoss I, and Hatshepsut and many more. They were all historical juggernauts in stature of function and scope of achievements for ancient Egypt. They were all haughty warriors, builders, and statesmen. But what the bardies and temple walls fail to tell us is whether their achievements were self-serving or for the service of their country. If we amalgamated Pharaoh and country into one entity, then it wouldn’t matter really, would it?
History and relics of the Old Dynasties, on the other hand, do tell a different story with no equivocation whatsoever. A brief glance onto the three great pyramids of Giza does leave us with a story so deep in meaning and parable. A Pharaoh who either orders, or allows or even accepts that his nation dedicates 20 years of its total national assets of human and financial resources to construct an edifice for him to be buried in is not a humble man by any long shot, much less building it for the glory of his country.
The last era of the New Dynasties brought about significant decay in the power hierarchy and social cohesion of Ancient Egypt. ... The military Might of the Middle Dynasties and the grand edifices of the Old Dynasties were no longer seen. Egypt, it seems, became old and tired. New blood had to be injected either from within or from without. It happens that it came from without.
Nectanebo II … The last True-Blood Egyptian Pharaoh was not all that great; at least his end suggests that he was not. Much like his father before him and many of his great fathers before them, he started out with great buildings; Edifices and Temples. But then those alone were not signs or greatness. To be great Pharaoh, he had to be tested in battle field Like Ramses, Tuhottmuss and Ahmoss, who were all tested, and left their marks on the temple walls and bardies with great legacies of highly successful battle field history. Not so our “friend Nectanebo II”, who, upon hearing of the advancing imperial Persian army, gathered his belongings, his looted Egyptian wealth, and of course his harem, and much like Ben Ali, he told his people that he understood them and fled south to Ethiopia, which, at the time, was just another remote tropical retreat for the haughty, wealthy but deposed Pharaohs.
But that was around 350 BC … From that time onward all subsequent Pharaohs had either foreign or mixed Egyptian Blood with Persians like Quempis, Greeks like Ptolemy and the eight Cleopatras, Romans like Cleopatra’s two sons from Caesar , and so on.
Alexander the Great would have made one of the greatest Pharaohs of all time on account of being a great builder and one of history’s greatest warriors. But fortunately for his legacy, he didn’t stay much in Egypt and left it to his great Lt. General: Ptolemy I, who was wise enough to realize that he would never be Pharaoh unless he really became an Egyptian Pharaoh. To that end, he passed with flying colors, and so did his offspring. They all married into Egyptian Royals and became part of the Egyptian Royal Blood, the last of whom was Cleopatra VI, whom we fondly and “Shakespeareously” know as Cleopatra.
Cleopatra’s politics were far greater than her military skills. She had in her admiralty some of the greatest naval captains the high seas had ever known. But then again, she thought that with politics, she would not need to be grateful to her admirals. And thus she entrusted the great naval battle to a field General; Mark Antony who, not only was totally untrained in naval warfare, but also could not swim himself!
Mark Antony, being the great political Beau of the Queen Pharaoh of Egypt, became Pharaoh by sequelae, and dismissed the advice of the great admirals of Egypt and decided to build great ships befitting and resembling the luxury yacht of his queen … That was a great mistake, and was totally against the admiral’s strategic and tactical plan of the battle. But, he, after all, was Pharaoh by conjugal association, so who could tell him otherwise!
Rome then Byzantium ruled Egypt for a few centuries until the Islamic conquest in 639 whereupon Egypt became a part of the Islamic empire. Under Islamic Rule, Egyptian Pharaohnic history becomes impertinent so far as this reading is concerned. Islam brought along a novel concept and standards of modesty and humble souls for any would-be Pharaoh. ... The Pharaohnism phenomenon all but disappeared during much of Egypt history under different Islamic statehoods.But the 1st decade of the 19th century ushered in the era of modern Egypt. Muhammad Ali Pasha had a very humble beginning. As the son of a tobacco tradesman, he inherited the profession which required extensive travel to and from Ankara, the HQ of the Ottoman Empire. No sooner that he saw the privileged life of army officers than he joined the military school and served in Egypt after graduation.
His ascent to the seat of power in Egypt was really comical and reflects the humble status to which Egypt the old great civilization had descended to. From a humble beginning, Muhammad Ali Pasha became Pharaoh. But he was no ordinary Pharaoh. And no matter which version of history you prefer to read, Muhammad Ali, history says, built modern Egypt …
He was one of the great Pharaohs. He left a great legacy that indicates he was building a nation state. He had foreign blood in him and was ruthless with both aristocracy and peasantry of the population. He levied great and unbearable taxation. So unbearable that many a land owner had to give up the land to him, which he subsequently used to create a new land-owner aristocracy made up of foreign blood. But he was not looting the nation to fatten his pocketbook. His children were not as honorable or as great pharaohs as he was or would have wanted them to be.
The first decade of the second half of the 20th century witnessed the restoration of the full Egyptian blood to the Pharaohs of Egypt. After 2000 years of rule by other than 100% Egyptian blood, a True Nile blood came about… Also from a humble beginning. From lower middle class Egypt, the son of a postmaster ascended the tribune from which he restored the great name of Egypt to its proper place in history and geography.
Again, No matter which version of history you read, in Nasser, you will see the Pharaohnic phenomenon materializing. Humble beginning, great statesman, great builder, but in the battle field, he failed miserably. Yet when he died, the entire nation could not have possibly dreamt a more horrific and grim nightmare. Once they came to from the daze of their shock, they flooded the streets in tens of millions crying and sobbing with pain emanating from deep down in their souls. The world, history tells us, has witnessed the greatest funeral in human history.
He was a humble Pharaoh who came from a humble status and restored to Egypt its great stature, and died with no more money in his pocket than he had come to power with. Asked to say a word in his obituary, Charles De Gaul said: “Nasser was one of the world’s Greatest Five Statesmen who, when one of them talked, the rest listened; Kennedy, Khrushchev, Nehru, Nasser and … I … !
By Contrast, the greatest Funeral in human history in terms of masses of humanity and the cries for the death of a beloved Pharaoh was matched only by the greatest crowds that went out in horror thinking that their despised Pharaoh was never going to comfort their tired eyes by disappearing from their life and sight.Hosni Mubarak, the last Pharaoh also came from a very humble status, but once on the throne, the Pharaohnic nature overtook him. Only this time, took him to a status of hate, scorn and despise. He ascended the throne penniless, and was forced out with a looted wealth that the whole world could not agree on how to count, much less find.
