Amenemhat I

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Persondata
NAME	Amenemhat I
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	{{{Alt}}}
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Pharaoh of Egypt
DATE OF BIRTH	{{{Birth}}}
PLACE OF BIRTH	Ancient Egypt
DATE OF DEATH	{{{Death}}}
PLACE OF DEATH	Ancient Egypt

Preceded by:
Mentuhotep IV

Pharaoh of Egypt
Twelfth Dynasty

Succeeded by:
Senusret I

Amenemhat I

Reign

1991 BC to 1962 BC

Praenomen

Sehetepibre
Who satisfies the heart of Re

Nomen

Amenemhat
Amun is in front

Horus name

Wehemmesut

Nebty name

Wehemmesut

Golden Horus

Wehemmesut^[1]
Repeating of births

Burial

Burial = Pyramid at el-Lisht

The pyramid ruin of Amenemhet I at Lisht.

Amenemhat I was the first ruler of the Twelfth Dynasty (the dynasty debated to be the beginning of the Middle Kingdom of Egypt). He ruled from 1991 BC to 1962 BC^[2] . Amenemhet I was not of royal lineage, and hence took measures to assure the authority of his kingship, such as including literary works (the Prophecy of Neferti, Instructions of Amenemhat) and the revertion to the pyramid-style complexes of the 6th dynasty rulers. Amenemhat I also moved the capital from Thebes to Itjtawy and was buried in el-Lisht.

His son Senwosret I, followed a similar path as Amenemhat did, by building his pyramid at Lisht, although his son, the next ruler of Egypt, Amenemhat II, did not follow this tradition. Senwosret's pyramid is a closer reflection of the 6th dynasty pyramids than that of Amenemhat I. Amenemhat I and Senwosret I are thought to have shared a joint reign (coregency) of at least 10 years, with Amenemhat I celebrating his jubilee (sed festival) one year after they began their joint reign.

== Headline text ==jiyg

1 Assassination
2 Succession
3 Further reading
4 References

[edit] Assassination

He is thought to have been assassinated in a double harem conspiracy while sleeping by his royal bodyguards. It happened when his co-regent and son was leading a campaign in Libya. One literary work from the time of his son makes an account of the king's murder:

"It was after supper, when night had fallen, and I had spent an hour of happiness. I was asleep upon my bed, having become weary, and my heart had begun to follow sleep. When weapons of my counsel were wielded, I had become like a snake of the necropolis. As I came to, I awoke to fighting, and found that it was an attack of the bodyguard. If I had quickly taken weapons in my hand, I would have made the wretches retreat with a charge! But there is none mighty in the night, none who can fight alone; no success will come without a helper. Look, my injury happened while I was without you, when the entourage had not yet heard that I would hand over to you when I had not yet sat with you, that I might make counsels for you; for I did not plan it, I did not foresee it, and my heart had not taken thought of the negligence of servants."^[3]

Amenemhat I's name is associated with one of only two sebayt or ethical "teachings" attributed to Egyptian monarchs.

The document is entitled the Instructions of Amenemhat I. The only other royal sebayt was the Instruction for King Merikara set in the First Intermediate Period, but probably a Middle Kingdom composition. As Merikara was a king during the unstable periods of the Seventh through Ninth Dynasties, however, almost nothing is known of him or of his father who presumably wrote the instructions.

Naguib Mahfouz, the Nobel Prize for Literature – winning Egyptian writer includes Amenemhat I in one of his stories published in 1941 entitled "Awdat Sinuhi". The story appeared in an English translation by Raymond Stock in 2003 as "The Return of Sinuhe" in the collection of Mahfouz's short stories entitled Voices from the Other World. The story is based directly on the "The Story of Sinuhe", although adding details of a lovers' triangle romance involving Amenemhat I and Sinuhe that does not appear in the original.

[edit] Succession

Amenemhat I was the first king of Egypt who definitively had a coregency with his son, Senusret I. A double dated stele dates to the thirtieth year of Amenemhat I and to the tenth year of Senusret I, which establishes that Senusret would have been made coregent in Amenemhat's 20th regnal year.^[4]

[edit] Further reading

W. Grajetzki, The Middle Kingdom of Ancient Egypt: History,Archaeology and Society, Duckworth, London 2006 ISBN 0-7156-3435-6, 28-35
Mahfouz, Naguib. The Return of Sinuhe in Voices from the Other World (translated by Robert Stock), Random House, 2003.

[edit] References

^ [1] Amenemhat I
^ D Wildung, L'Âge d'Or de L'Égypte - le Moyen Empire, Office de Livre, 1984
^ Amenemhet I
^ Murnane, William J. Ancient Egyptian Coregencies, Studies in Ancient Oriental Civilization. No. 40. p.2. The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, 1977.