Chancellor Bay
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Chancellor Bay was originally a royal scribe to Seti II, but he quickly rose to prominence as chancellor of Egypt in the closing stages of the 19th Dynasty. He was given the title of Irsu, or Iarsu, meaning "self made".
Bay's importance is emphasized by the fact that he was given permission by Seti to construct his own tomb in Egypt's Valley of the Kings (KV13). This was an unprecedented privilege which was almost never accorded to commoners, only to members of the royal family. His tomb was later usurped in the 20th Dynasty for prince Mentuherkhepshef, son of Rameses IX in the Twentieth Dynasty.
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[edit] Origins
Bay is called a Syrian (Hurru = Hurrian or Harran-born) Asiatic, and may have entered Egyptian service during the reign of Merenptah or even Rameses II. During this period, many Asiatics princes and nobles entered the Egyptian royal harem to be held hostage for their father's good behaviour and raised as loyal servants to their Egyptian masters.
It is even possible that Bay may have been taken to Egypt following Merentah's victories as outlined in the Merenptah or Israel Stele
"The princes are prostrate saying: "Shalom!" Not one of the Nine Bows lifts his head: Tjehenu is vanquished, Khatti at peace, Canaan is captive with all woe. Ashkelon is conquered, Gezer seized, Yanoam made nonexistent; Israel is wasted, bare of seed, Hurru is become a widow for Egypt. All who roamed have been subdued. By the King of Upper and Lower Egypt, Banere-meramun, Son of Re, Merenptah, Content with Maat, Given life like Re every day." [1]
Bay may also have witnessed the events of the great near Eastern Famine, which saw nomadic Semites from Edom, possible remnants expelled by the king's campaign, petitioning the king to be allowed to water their livestock in the "land of Goshen, the fields of Tanis", near the royal capital of Per Rameses, the Hyksos capital of Avaris, as recorded in the Anastasi Papyrus.
[edit] Career
Whatever his origins, Bay may have first entered service as a priest to the temple at Heliopolis, where a small statue of him has been found.
By the time of the death of Seti II, Bay had risen to the post of Chancellor and took the role of "kingmaker". He made the claim, referring to Siptah, that it was he who "established the king on the throne of his father". [2] Siptah was only a boy, and had deformed feet apparently due to polio, and so tended to take guidance from the Chancellor and from his step-mother the powerful queen mother, Twosret who acted as regent.
- Bay was permitted to use the cult facilities in the mortuary temple of Siptah.
- Bay also oversaw the construction of Siptah's tomb KV47, which was probably also used as the resting place of Queen Tiaa, the king's mother.
- During Siptah's reign, work was started on a tomb for Irsu/Bay in the Valley of the Kings (KV13). He was one of the few commoners, and certainly the only foreigner ever to have been granted the privilege.
- The tomb of Queen Twosret, KV14 was also started, and built as part of a threesome with those of Siptah and Irsu/Bay, during the same period. The tombs of Bay and Twosret (2nd building phase) are smaller copies of the royal tomb.
Like the other two, his name was later removed from the tomb, possibly by the new Pharaohs of the 20th Dynasty, who did not recognise the his legitimacy, nor that of any of the monarchs of the later 19th Dyansty. Some have even considered that during this period Twosret and Bay to have been or to have become lovers, encouraging her to take the throne as a full Pharaoh on the death of her step-son. If tradition is to be believed, Bay seduced the pharaoh's widow, who then gave him total control of Egypt's treasury.
[edit] Fate
Bay seems to have predeceased his royal mistress, perhaps falling from power before the death of Siptah. Pierre Grandet, in "The Chancellor Bay’s execution (O. IFAO 1864)," reports on an ostraca which contains an announcement to the workmen of Deir al-Medina, by the "scribe of the Tomb Paser", in Year 5 of Siptah, that this king has put to death his former mentor, the famous Great Chancellor Bay: "Pharaoh LPH killed the great enemy Bay" (sm3 Pr-‘3 ‘.w.s. khrw ‘3 B3y).[3] Bay, hence, was not buried in the dignified style which he sought and instead met a traitor's fate. After his fall, his tomb was subsequently usurped in the 20th Dynasty for prince Mentuherkhepshef, son of Rameses IX [4] and Bay's body presumably destroyed.
After the death of Twosret, Egypt seems to have fallen into anarchy, with many temples being looted by Asiatic followers of Irsu/Bay. For instance, the Harris papyrus reads:
- "The land of Egypt was overthrown from without and every man was thrown out of his right; they had no chief for many years formerly until other times. The land of Egypt was in the hands of chiefs and of rulers of towns; one slew his neighbor great and small. Other times having come after it, with empty years, Iarsu, a certain Syrian was with them as chief. He set the whole land tributary before him together; he united his companions and plundered their possessions. They made the gods like men and no offerings were presented in the temples."
Stenakhte's Elephantine stele also records how he expelled Asiatic rebels who, on their flight from Egypt, left behind the gold, silver and copper they had stolen from Egypt, and with which they had intended to hire reinforcements among the Asiatics.
While it has generally been assumed that Bay later served under Twosret, a recently published ostracon in a paper by Pierre Grandet, "L'execution du chancelier Bay O. IFAO 1864," (BIFAO 100 [2000]: pp. 339-345), reveals otherwise. According to the information in Ostraca IFAO 1864, which is composed of 2 inscribed potsherd fragments that were reunited in February 2000, Bay was executed on or shortly before Year 5, III Shemu day 27 of Siptah, on the king's orders. The recto of the ostracon is basically a public announcement to the workmen of Deir el-Medina and reads thus:
- Year 5 III Shemu the 27th. On this day, the scribe of the tomb Paser came announcing 'Pharaoh LPH, has killed the great enemy Bay.'
While the king is not named, the dating of the ostracon under Siptah is certain and accords well with Bay's last known public appearance in Regnal Year 4 of this king. It is not known what event or palace conspiracy brought about Bay's sudden downfall. However, the prime beneficiary of his death appears to be Twosret, who assumed the throne without opposition a year later when Siptah died.
[edit] Memory
It is possible that memories of these events were distortedly reported in the third century BCE by the Hellenistic Egyptian historian and priest, Manetho, who claimed that a certain Egyptian priest from Heliopolis called Osarseph, led leprous Asiatics out of Egypt, in an Exodus later reportedly that of Moses, although Irsu/Bay's career has a greater resemblance to that of the Biblical Joseph (Yusuf). Manetho's claim of a connection between Osarseph as Moses was vigorously denied by Josephus.
Chancellor Bay was Syrian by origin and enjoyed a sinister reputation in Ancient Egyptian literature. In Egyptian folklore, he is reputed to have seduced the Egyptian Queen Twosret. As the most powerful palace official during Seti II and Siptah's reigns, he once boasted that he "established the king Siptah on the throne of his father." Bay was later derisively called "Iarsu/Irsu" or "a Self-Made Man" in the Great Harris Papyrus or Papyrus Harris I. This document portrays his tenure in office as a time when Egypt was in chaos and temple offerings were denied to the gods.
[edit] References
- Clayton, Peter A. Chronicle of the Pharaohs (The Reign-By-Reign Record of the Rulers and Dynasties of Ancient Egypt) (ISBN 0-500-05074-0)
- Grimal, Nicolas. A History of Ancient Egypt. Blackwell Books, 1992, pp. 270–271.
- Pierre Grandet, "L'execution du chancelier Bay O. IFAO 1864," BIFAO 100 (2000), pp.339-356 [5]
