Kush vs. Assyria

Ancient Egypt is one of those places that is so popular to learn about in history, it almost feels like everyone had some sort of ancient Egyptian phase where they were obsessed with it. However, when you have over 3,000 years of history, there's inevitably going to be certain periods more obsessed over than others. Depending on who you ask, there are about 33 dynasties of ancient Egypt, which are themselves put into larger categories of Old Kingdom, Middle Kingdom, New Kingdom, three intermediate periods where Egypt was experiencing division and turmoil, the Late Period, and then finally the Greco-Roman Period. The Old, Middle, and New Kingdoms are absolutely obsessed over, and for good reason, that's where you have the majority of the pyramids, beautiful artwork, and empire building. But I'm going to make a video talking about the Third Intermediate Period, easily one of the most exciting moments in Egyptian history. So what happened in between the New Kingdom's demise and the Late Period exactly? There are some foggy details, but basically, Pharaoh Ramses XI died around 1077 BC, but did not have any male successors. Custom at the time had evolved to a point where the man who buried the dead pharaoh was the one who succeeded the throne. Since Ramses XI had no sons, the person who buried him was a man named Nesbanebjed, better known by the Greek given name of Smendes. Smendes used the fact that he buried Ramses to justify his own seizure of the throne. But the problem was, ancient Egypt often had competitions for power between the pharaohs and the high priests of Amun, and this was a time where there wasn't a strong enough figure in the But with that dynasty weak and ended, not only was Smendes starting a new 21st dynasty of Egypt, but the high priests didn't respect him or his rule. While Smendes could effectively control Lower Egypt, which is the part of Egypt in the north in the Nile Delta area, Middle and Upper Egypt were effectively controlled by the high priests. As a result, Egypt fractured, and then to top it all off, some invasions from the Meshwesh people from Libya ended up taking over the fractured Egypt and creating the 22nd and 23rd dynasties, mostly existing at the same time and controlling different parts of Egypt. However, these outsider dynasties would be replaced by another outsider dynasty. South of Egypt in the modern-day country of Sudan was the civilization of the Nubians, who, after a period of being dominated by Egypt during the New Kingdom, had regained independence and formed the Kingdom of Kush. The division of Egypt allowed for the rulers of Kush to slowly gain more influence over Upper Egypt, or the southern part of Egypt, through trade, diplomatic marriages, and simple proximity. The next bit is a bit hazy in information, but we do know that somehow this ended up with Kush peacefully taking over Upper Egypt, entirely under the reign of the Nubian or King Kashta. The 23rd dynasty controlling the area previously didn't end so much as shrink in power and retreat north to an area in Middle Egypt. Regardless, the Kingdom of Kush's acquisition over Upper Egypt resulted in a blend of cultures and their royalty adopting more Egyptian customs. Then in 751 BC, the Nubians built their first pyramid, and while there are clearly influences from Egypt, they also added their own spin to the design by having isosceles pyramids. And while they were never as big as the Great Pyramids of old, in my opinion they looked really cool. Also, on a random note, the Great Pyramids of Giza were about as old to the Nubians in this time period as the Roman Empire is to us now. So, in a way, Nubia adopting their own twist on Egyptian architecture is really similar to early America and Europe adopting their own versions of Greco-Roman style architecture. I just kind of love comparisons like that. Anyway, while Nubia controlled the ancient capital of Thebes, they didn't yet have the legitimacy of a dynasty over Egypt. The Khore of Kush just wasn't the same as Pharaoh. This would change with Kashta's death as his son Pie took the throne in 744 BC. Pie began restoring and reviving temples dedicated to Amun that had originally been built in the New Kingdom era, and between that and the already abundant adoption of Egyptian culture, Kush was now being seen as a more legitimate Egypt than the two competing Meshwesh dynasties in Middle and Lower Egypt. So, Pie, over a decade into his reign, decided to prepare for a campaign to unify all of Egypt under Kush's rule, but he would have some competition. In 732 BC, a group of Egyptians broke away from the 22nd dynasty in the northwestern area of the Nile Delta to form the 24th dynasty. The ruler of the 24th dynasty, Tethnocht, wanted to unify all areas of Egypt that hadn't already been taken by Kush, and once he took the city of Memphis, Pie decided he needed to hurry things up. But it turns out the 24th dynasty ended up not being much of a threat anyway, as by 720 BC, Pie had conquered the 22nd, 23rd, and 24th dynasties, establishing the 25th dynasty, as now Kush ruled over all of Egypt. Now they adopted the title of Pharaoh. Because Kush was so far south from Egypt, there were two capitals placed, in Napata and Kush, which was already Kush's capital, and Memphis was made into a northern capital. But not too much later, there's another event that'll soon be on Kush's doorstep, Assyria. Assyria had been building up an empire in Mesopotamia unlike anything that had been seen before, and their Iron Age weapons along with their militarized style allowed them to conquer their enemies, and in 673 BC, Egypt was their next target. Assyrian king Esarhaddon, based on a mix of records, tried to invade Egypt but didn't quite succeed the first time, with Babylonian records insisting that the Kushites managed to outright defeat him in battle and drive them away. Assyrian records themselves are more quiet and imply, that wasn't a conquest, that was just a raid, it's not a big deal. Regardless, the Assyrians waited until 671 BC to try again, and this time, they decided to slow things down a little bit and be more careful, which seems to imply they probably had a reason to be careful, so perhaps they were defeated quite badly the first time. Regardless, their careful campaign worked, and Assyria managed to not only sack Memphis, but take statues of Egyptian gods and have them sent to their capital Nineveh, which was a big deal in ancient Middle Eastern warfare, as most cultures there had beliefs that gods inhabited statues as homes, so effectively, Assyria kidnapped their gods. Assyria also deported several Egyptians to the Assyrian homeland, including members of the Kushite royal family, although the pharaoh managed to escape further south. Assyrian king Esarhaddon died, and was succeeded by Ashurbanipal, who continued the campaign in Egypt. By 667 BC, Assyria had advanced down to Thebes. In 663, the Kushite Khore, an Egyptian pharaoh named Tantamani, noticed that Assyria's control of Egypt wasn't as strong as expected. Assyria, by this point, had overextended itself, and they even placed a local puppet ruler over Assyrian-controlled Egypt named Necho. Tantamani decided to campaign to reconquer Egypt for Kush again, and he managed to go all the way up to Memphis, where Necho was killed. Naturally, Assyria sent their forces back in to stop Kush, but Kush had a chance to win still. What ended up changing the tide was Necho's son Psamtik. Psamtik was naturally not too happy his father was murdered, but also the fact that his family was given control of Egypt, even if only as a puppet, provided a level of power and prestige he wasn't exactly eager to give up on. Psamtik managed to convince several other local Egyptian administrators in the Nile Delta area to rally under him to support the Assyrians. A battle was fought north of Memphis, and Assyria managed to win, and after that battle they managed to capture and sack the city of Thebes further south within just 40 days. Effectively, the 25th Dynasty of Egypt, Kush's control over Egypt, was over. However, Psamtik had his own plans. After allowing Assyria's army to drive out Kush, Psamtik prepared to take Egypt for himself. In 655 BC, he managed to declare himself pharaoh outright, establishing the 26th Dynasty. There was worry that Assyria might try to retake Egypt again, but this ended up being good timing as Assyria was now in full decline, and Psamtik was able to establish several alliances with other enemies of Assyria to defend himself. As a result, the 26th Dynasty was here to stay, the first unified native Egyptian dynasty in nearly 400 years. This is where the historical late period now typically begins, and I can't cover everything in one video, but I still hope that you learned how chaotic this time period was and how interesting it was as well. Hope you enjoyed the video. I'm EmperorTigerStar, and I'll see you guys next time.