Asyut
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- Lycopolis and Lykopolis redirect here; for the ancient city bearing those names located in the delta of the Nile, see Lycopolis (Delta).
Asyūt (Arabic: أسيوط, derived from Ancient Egyptian Z3JW.TJ (Zawty) through Coptic Syowt) is a city in modern Asyūt Governorate, Egypt. Its modern name is one of many borrowings in Egyptian Arabic from Coptic, the last living phase of Ancient Egyptian. In Graeco-Roman times, it was called Lycopolis or Lykopolis (Greek: ἡ Λύκων πόλις, Ptol. iv. 5. § 63; Steph. B. s. v.; Strabo xvii. p. 813) or Lycon (Plin. v. 9. s. 11) or Lyco (Itin. Anton. p. 157). The modern city is located at coordinates , while the ancient city is located at coordinates .
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[edit] Ancient Asyūt
Ancient Asyūt (early Egyptian Zawty, late Egyptian Səyáwt, Coptic Syowt) currently known as Assiut, was the capital of the 13th Nome of Upper Egypt (Lycopolites Nome), southeast of Hermopolis, in latitude 27°10'14" North, seated on the western bank of the Nile. The two most prominent gods of pre-Christian Asyūt were Anubis and Wepwawet, both funerary deities.
During the First Intermediate Period, the rulers of Zawty Khety I, Itefibi, and Khety II were supporters of the Herakleopolitan kings, of whose domain the nome formed the southern limits. The conflict between this nome and the southern nomes under the rule of the 11th dynasty ended with the victory of Thebes and the decline of the city's importance.
The shield of a king named Recamai, who reigned in Upper Egypt, probably during the shepherd dynasty in the Lower Country, has been discovered here. (Rosellini, Mon. Civ. i. 81.) Lycopolis has no remarkable ruins, but in the excavated chambers of the adjacent rocks are found mummies of wolves, confirming the origin of its name, as well as a tradition preserved by Diodorus Siculus (ii. 88; comp. Aelian. Hist. An. x. 28), to the effect that an Aethiopian army, invading Egypt, was repelled beyond the city of Elephantine by herds of wolves. Osiris was worshipped under the symbol of a wolf at Lycopolis: he having, according to a myth, come from the shades under that form, to aid Isis and Horus in their combat with Typhon. (Champollion, Descript. de l'Egypte, vol. i. p. 276; Jollois, Egypte, vol. ii. ch. 13.) Other Ancient Egyptian monuments discovered in Asyūt include the Asyūt necropolis west of the modern city, tombs that date to Dynasties 9/10 and 12, and Ramessid tombs of Siese and Amenhotep.
In Graeco-Roman times, there was a distinct dialect of Coptic spoken here; it is known as Lycopolitan after the Greek name for the town. Lesser-used names for this dialect are Sub-Akhmimic and Assiutic.
[edit] Modern Asyūt
Today, the city of Asyūt comprises about 1.5 million inhabitants. It is the Egyptian city with the highest Coptic Christian concentration. It is also home to the University of Asyūt, one of the largest universities in Egypt, and to the Lillian Trasher Orphanage.
[edit] People from Asyut
- Gamal Abdel Nasser - The second Egyptian president.[citation needed]
- Ahmed Lutfi Al Sayed - Egyptian nationalist.
[edit] References
- This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography by William Smith (1857).
[edit] Bibliography
- Loprieno Antonio 1996: Ancient Egyptian: A Linguistic Introduction, Oxford U Press. ISBN 0-521-44849-2
- Baines & Malek Cultural Atlas of Ancient Egypt, 2000. ISBN 0-8160-4036-2
