Old Pharaohs, New PharaohsFrom the image of a great civilization, to the image of an

unfaithful dictator

drd. Ana-Maria GajdoSapienza Università di Roma

Hosni Mubarak, The PharaohABSTRACT

In January 2011, the Egyptians were shouting inthe street that Egypt will be better withoutPharaoh. Hosni Mubarak, the Pharaoh, was removedfrom power in February 2011, after a revolution,part of the wave of change that swept North Africaand the Middle East, known as the Arab Spring.Mubarak's dictatorship lasted 40 years. But it isnot the first egyptian president who was namedPharaoh. One of those who had assassinated AnwarSadat, who ruled Egypt before Mubarak, said „Ikilled the Pharaoh”. On the other hand, theEgyptians are proud of their history and are sayingto those who are trying to give them lessons indemocracy, that their civilization is older with atleast 5,000 years than of other peoples. They areproud of their Pharaohs and Pyramids. And, in thiscase, when and where the gap occurred? Why thecontemporary Pharaohs are despicable and the oldones are worthy of admiration and source of nationalpride?

Keyword: Pharaoh, Islam, unfaithful, betrayal, God.

1.The Old Pharaohs

In our mind, when we think of Egypt, the images ofpyramids appear, the Sphinx of Giza, hieroglyphics,pharaohs, the beautiful queen Cleopatra. Who are thePharaohs? „Pharaohs of ancient Egypt were kings-godson Earth (...) They had in their hands the power oflife and death”1.

Names of many pharaohs remained in history, morethan others: Cheops is known for the Great Pyramidwhich is said to have originally a height of 146meters and an area of 5.3 ha; About Tutankhamun weknow that has a solid gold sarcophagus. Djoser,Kefren and Mikerinos, they are all known forbuilding pyramids. „The 170 or more known Pharaohswere part of a royal lineage that goes back to theyear 3.100 B.C.”2, formed 30 dynasties, recorded byManethon, dynasties grouped into three major stages:the Old Kingdom, Middle Kingdom and New Kingdom.

The word „Pharaoh” that now appears in connectionwith the kings of Egypt was originally mentioned inthe Bible3 and then in the Qur'an. But nowadays werefer with this term, Pharaoh, to all the kings ofEgypt. Mentioning the word Pharaoh in holy writings

1 Peter A. Clayton, Cronica Faraonilor- Consemnarea, domnie de domnie, a suveranilorşi a domnilor din Egiptul antic, RAO Encyclopedia, MKT PRINT, Slovenia, 2007, p. 6.2 Ibidem.3 Cf. Arthur Weigall, Istoria Egiptului antic, Artemis Publishing House, Bucharest, 1996, p.15., „By the word Pharaoh the Bible renders the Egyptian term per-aa, meaning (...) the one who owns the earth”.

does have importance as we shall see, in assigning anegative connotation to this quality.

Egyptian Pharaohs are in decline with the arrivalof Alexander the Great, then with the GreekPtolemaic reigns. Cleopatra, wife of Ptolemy XV,then wife of Roman Emperor Caesar and then, afterthe assassination of Caesar, wife of Marc Antony,was the last Egyptian queen. Caesar's nephew,Octavian, defeated Antony in 31 B.C. at Actium4,which led to the refuge's Antony and Cleopatra inAlexandria, then the two committed suicide.Caesarion, son of Caesar and Cleopatra, was killedon the orders of Octavian. But as Egyptians acceptedCaesar as sovereign, also Octavian was accepted asking. Meanwhile Octavian became Emperor of theRomans under the name of Augustus. By the EmperorDecius (250 A.D.) Roman emperors were consideredalso kings, or as we would say today, pharaohs ofEgypt. After the decline of the Roman Empire, Egyptwas under the influence of Byzantium, and after theyear 639 AD was conquered by the Arabs.

In this paper we are not interested inestablishing the sequence of names or achievementsof the pharaohs of Egypt, but mainly what they meantand mean to Egyptians. „He (the King- our note) isclosest to the Gods, he belongs to that world and wecan not treat him apart from Gods”5. King representsthe people in front of the Gods, is theadministrator of worship, the only one who can buildtemples, he is „a holy person”6. People work forPharaoh, Pharaoh divides resources, he is alwaysrepresented as a young man regardless of age, neversleeps because is concerned with the problems of the4 Ibidem, p. 275.5 Erik Hornung, Regele, în Sergio Donadoni (coord.), Omul egiptean, PoliromPublishing House, Iasi, 2001, p. 260.6 Ibidem.

kingdom, etc. „ The Pharaoh is expected to repeatdoings of the creator God and to bring the world tothe ideal state of the Beginning”7. The pharaoh inthe Middle Kingdom is the „solar king”: he isshining, banishes darkness and drives away theenemies of Egypt, so „military victories areexclusive of Pharaoh, generals and soldiers are notmentioned”8. Pharaoh's task was to enforce theprinciple of Maat, ie social equality. „Pharaoh waslinked to a role that highlights his creative power:he had to act like a creator god on earth andovercome by his own divine nature, humanimperfection”9.

2.Islamization of Egypt. Pharaoh and the Qur'an.

With the advent of Islam and the dating of eventssince 622 A.D. (Muhammad leaves from Mecca to Medina), a new world appears. In the name of Islam, theArabs conquered part of the Byzantine Empire(including Egypt) and the Sasanian Empire, CentralAsia and Spain. Christianity has come, before theArabs, in the regions of the Roman Empire or EasternRoman Empire, in Egypt the Coptic language being thelanguage used in administration. Arabs brought Islamwith them, a revelation that completes the previousrevelations, sent to the prophets Moses and Jesus,as those two are seen by Muslims, and a newlanguage: the Arabic, the language of the Qur'an.After the year 910, a descendant of Ali and Fatima10

has created the Fatimid dynasty, whose members have

7 Ibidem p. 265.8 Ibidem, p. 280.9 Ibidem, p. 286.10 Fatima is the Prophet Muhammad's daughter with Khadija. Ali is the sonin law of the Prophet and Caliph of 656 to 661.

conquered Egypt in 969 and created the present townof Cairo.

Most historians are wondering how fast wasaccepted Islam in the new territories conquered byArabs. It is estimated that the mid-eighth century,only 10% of Egypt's population was Muslim and in thetenth century most of the population has adopted thenew religion11. „One reason may have been that Islamgained a much clearer definition (…) Muslims wereliving in an elaborate system of ritual, doctrineand jurisprudence”12. Non-Muslims were not forced toconvert, but their religious freedom had a price:they paid special taxes, could not marry Muslimwomen, were not allowed to testify against a Muslimand, most often, they were excluded from theadministration apparatus. Arabic was more readilyaccepted as literary and spoken language - except inIran where Persian dominate - but even today thereare very many dialects. Furthermore, those peoplespreviously conquered by the Byzantines and theSassanid were not willing to support their formermasters, the greedy ones, especially since „newrulers proved quite tolerant”13. Islam support theidea of equality of all Muslims, regardless ofethnicity. In Egypt, a large part of the populationremained Christian (Coptic) until today.

How is described the pharaoh in Qur’an? Firstlyyou have to remember that in terms of Islam,Mohammed is the third and final Prophet sent by God(Allah), after Moses and Jesus. „It is not given toa human creature to be chosen by Allah, so He speaksto this human creature, unless it happens by an

11 Albert Hourani, Istoria Popoarelor Arabe, Polirom Publishing House, Iasi,Bucharest, 2010, p. 63.12 Ibidem, p. 64.13 Nadia Anghelescu, Identitatea arabă- istorie, limbă, cultură, Polirom PublishingHouse, Iasi, Bucharest, 2009, p. 36.

inspiration, or from behind a veil or it is sent aMessenger in order to realize an inspiredcommunication, with His permission, of what Hewants”14. The Qur'an, ie the revelations sent toMohammed in Mecca and Medina, „seals the revelationspreviously submitted to other peoples, who believein God”15.

Where Judaism and Christianity have failed –„Christ was crucified, Moses died without entering the Promise Land”16

– would be completed by Mohammed: he died as asovereign and conqueror. „Allah is the symbol ofsupremacy. During his life, the Prophet is Itslegitimate representative and supreme ruler onearth”17.

In the Qur'an, respectively in Surat Al-Qasas,(The Naration) it is mentioned the story of thePharaoh and Prophet Moses. Moses has received the 10commandments (Torah) and so was founded the Judaism.Also the 10 commandments are found in the OldTestatment. Under this Surat, Pharaoh is theembodiment of evil, he is the unbeliever: „Indeed,Pharaoh exalted himself in the land and made itspeople into factions, oppressing a sector amongthem, slaughtering their [newborn] sons and keepingtheir females alive. Indeed, he was of thecorrupters”18. In fact, „all historical narratives ofthe Qur'an have their biblical equivalent, exceptfor a few exclusively Arab (...) Moses appears in 34

14 Translation from Qur’an, accotrding to Charles Andre Gilis, Spirituluniversal al Islamului, Herald Publishing House, Bucharest, 2014, p. 128.15 Nadia Anghelescu, op.cit., p. 31.16 Bernard Lewis, Islam in History- Ideas, People and Events in the Middle East, NewEdition, Revised and Explained, Open Court Publishing Company, Ilinois,2002, p. 264.17 Philip K. Hitti, Istoria arabilor, ediţia a X-a, ALL Publishing House,Bucharest, 2008, p. 79.18 Traducerea Sensurilor Coranului…cit., p. 427 see also: http://quran.com/28

surahs”19. „In the Qur’an, Pharaoh is the villain ofa story in which Moses and the children of Israelare the heroes, and in several passages Pharaosappears as the ultimate example of the irreligiousand oppressive ruler whom it is the beliver’s dutyto disobey and if possible to overthrow”20.

3.The New Pharaohs - The Unbelievers, the Tyrants

Images of Revolution, 2011

After Islam became not only the dominantreligion in Egypt, but also a source of law, thedominant image of the Pharaoh is that of theunbeliever, the tyrant. The President Anwar Sadat,when he was assassinated in 1981, was considered a„Pharaoh”. Anwar Sadat was a member of the FreeOfficers group, next to Gamal Abdel Nasser. On 23July 1952, the Free Officers ended the Egyptianmonarchy (Faruk) and the governance of the politicalclass represented by the WAFD party. The king wasexiled and a year later was proclaimed the republic,led by Muhammad Neghib who called the firstgovernment, of the military. Egypt was led by Nasser(until 1970), then by Anwar Sadat. Sadat wasassassinated in 1981, according to most authors,because of his policy of openness to the US andIsrael (declared independent in 1948). Sadat was thefirst Arab who spoke in 1977, the Israeliparliament. „Camp David Accords of 1978 and19 Philip K. Hitti, op.cit., p. 82.20 Bernard Lewis, op.cit., pp. 375-376.

Washington in 1979 have established peace betweenIsrael and Egypt, which is an extremely importantfact for Egypt and the Arab world. Egypt wasisolated from the Arab world, expelled from the ArabLeague and the Islamic Conference and thus Egyptlost the leadership of the Arab world”21. Thus Sadatbecame the target of radical Islamic forces.„According to Muslim legal doctrine, sovereignity iscontractual, and the head of the state holds hisoffice by a contract between him and the community,a contract that imposes duties on both parties, theruler and the ruled and if the ruler for any reasonfails to carry out his part of the contract or,worse still, if he acts in an evil way, then thecontract lapses and the obedience to the ruler is nolonger obligatory (...) „there is no obedience insin”22. Bernard Lewis believes that Islamicfundamentalists, who want restoration of Sharia, seethe state secularization as the paganization of thestate. „There is a widespread assumption that Sadatwas murdered because he made peace with Israel; thisis not correct (...) the real accusation againstSadat was that under the guise of Islam and with apretense of being Muslim, he was de- Islamizing theEgyptian state (...) The leader of the group ofmurderers exclaimed: „I killed the Pharaoh”23.Actions of „punishment” by fundamentalists are notpointed toward foreign powers which are supportingcorrupted regimes - corrupted within the meaning ofremoved from true Islam - but against conationalsbelonging to these regimes removed from Islam, which

21 Capitolul Egipt în Atlante Geopolitico del Mediterraneo 2013, FrancescoAnghelone, Andrea Ungari (coord.), Istituto di Studi Politici „S. Pio V”,Rome, Italy, 2012, p. 198.22 Bernard Lewis, Faith and Power-Religion and Politics in the Middle East, OxfordUniversity Press, New York, 2010, p. 49.23 Ibidem, p. 53.

is much worse than being unfaithful, infidel or non-Muslim. „They are apostates, and the penalty forapostasy is death. The Shah of Iran and PresidentSadat of Egypt were seen as such apostates”24.

Bernard Lewis states that the Pharaoh becameonly later, after the nineteenth century, a reasonof national pride in Egypt. In a reversedchronological order, Muslims have firstly known theimage of the Pharaoh in Qur'an, that of the tyrantwho does not want to accept the law of God (Allah).Lewis's statement makes sense if we think that themost important archaeological discoveries related tothe pyramids of Egypt were made only in theeighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and in ourlanguage the term has been used only since then assynonymous to the old Egyptian kings.

After the assassination of Sadat and the takingof power, Hosni Mubarak - also an Egyptian armyofficer - tried to bring capitalism's ideas in orderto transform Egyptian society, but made strong apolice state. He was removed from the leadership ofEgypt after 40 years of dictatorship, with the ArabSpring in 2011. He was also called Pharaoh, but fordifferent reasons than Sadat. Mubarak was the onewho led a repressive regime and has oppressedpeople, like Pharaoh of the Qur'an. „The newpresident hung onto the economic opening (...) hemoved Egypt back toward the Arab mainstream, but didnot repudiate Sadat’s separate peace with Israel(...) However, thirty years after Mubarakunexpectedly became president, stabilityparadoxically produced an environment conducive toinstability”25. Since 1987 Mubarak began to becomeauthoritarian leader: he refused to reform the24 Ibidem, p. 116.25 Steven A. Cook, The Struggle for Egypt - From Nasser to Tahrir Square, a Council onForeign Relations Book, New York, Oxford University Press, 2012, p. 274.

Constitution, extended the state of emergency,ousted the opposition parties from local councilsand has tightened the National Democratic Party'sgovernance over parliament. On the eve of theoutbreak of revolution in 2011, Hosni Mubarak wasalready characterized as the ruler who monopolizedpower for 30 years through falsified, riggedelections, and who wanted, as the Pharaohs, to passthe power to his son; the corruption in governmenthas reached unprecedented levels – a group ofbusinessmen, close to President, had completecontrol of the Egyptian economy, in their owninterest; 40 million Egyptians, more than half ofthe population, lived below the poverty line, withless than two dollars a day. Egypt was in decline interms of health systems, education, economy etc. Avast police apparatus was spending billions ofdollars from the budget and was a terribleinstrument of retaliation against those who havecalled into question leader's decisions. „Fordecades he has behaved as though he were God-incarnate, carrying a royal staff, rulingautocratically over his minions, consolidatingpower, eliminating opposition”26.

Conclusions: Ancient Egyptian kings, which todayare named Pharaohs, became reasons of national pridefor Egyptians only after the eighteenth andnineteenth centuries, after the Egyptians figuredout the extent of civilization created by theirancestors. Islam and the Qur’an have imposed in thecollective mental the image of Pharaoh as tyrant andinfidel, who doubts the word of God. Two presidents- Sadat and Mubarak - from the total six presidents26 Judie Fein, Mubarak: Modern-Day Pharaoh of Egypt, Huffington Post, March 2,2011, available online at:http://www.huffingtonpost.com/judie-fein/mubarak-modernday-pharoah_b_816944.html, accessed at: November 2014

of Egypt, namely Naguib, Nasser, Sadat, Mubarak,Morsi and Sisi, were removed because of their„pharaonic” conduct.

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