Ahmed Osman (Arabic: أحمد عثمان) (born 1934) is an Egyptian-born author. He has put forward a number of theories, some revisionist in nature, about Ancient Egypt and the origins of Judaism and Christianity.
Contents |
Born in Cairo in 1934, Osman was a law student at Cairo University before becoming a journalist. He has a Master's Degree in Egyptology.
Osman moved to London in 1964. He became interested in possible links between the Hebrew Bible and archaeological discoveries in Egypt.
His first theory was that Joseph was the father-in-law of Amenhotep III, Yuya. In 1987 this claim provided the basis for his first book, Stranger in the Valley of the Kings.
Osman identified the Semitic-born Egyptian official Joseph with the Egyptian official Yuya, and asserted the identification of Hebrew liberator Moses with the Egyptian pharaoh Akhenaten (as did Sigmund Freud in his book Moses and Monotheism).
Ahmed Osman has even claimed that Moses and Akhenaten were the same person, supporting his belief by interpreting aspects of biblical and Egyptian history. He alleges that Atenism can be considered monotheistic and related to Judaism, and includes other similarities, including a ban on idol worship and the similarity of the name Aten to the Hebrew Adon, or "Lord". This would mesh with Osman's other claim that Akhenaten's maternal grandfather Yuya was the same person as the Biblical Joseph.
A few of Osman's positions are in conflict with some of mainstream Egyptology, including conventional Egyptian chronology. Some Egyptologists have gone as far as rejecting them as unacademic conjecture while others do not consider them worth refuting.[1][2] Donald B. Redford wrote a scathing review of Stranger in the Valley of the Kings for Biblical Archaeology Review.[3]
In his Christianity: An Ancient Egyptian Religion (2005), Osman claims that Christianity did not originate in Judea but is the remnant of an Ancient Egyptian mystery cult that was suppressed and transformed by the Roman authorities.
Osman states that the reason mainstream Egyptologists do not accept his theories and the theories of others is because, "Egyptologists have established their careers on their interpretations", and that to accept other theories could give them less authority.[1]