EGYPT AND THE SUDAN.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 25 October 1924, Page 16

EGYPT AND THE SUDAN.

- - AN UNSUFPOHT.-iB.LE CLAIM. (By Sir Ernest Wallis Badge, in .London dimes.; Egypt is mailing claim to tile Bucian on one g.o..nu Miai'itgypc unci tne Sudan foun a single cu.-uivy, whole and mdivisioie. Tne no.sieot and mosL energetic or the supporters of this claim seem to be oulmous to tne most obvious facts —namely, that lor the last. tkJUO"* years Egypt and the Sudan have been two countries, entirely separate. and distinct, and inhabited by peoples of different races, with different religions and manners and customs and, until the rise of Islam, speaking entirely different languages. The statement of Egypt’s claim as given in the English papers affords little idea of the vehemence of the writers in the Egyptian Press generally, or of the absurd and mischievous misstatements with which they bolster up their so-called arguments. In most cases the misstatements are wholly unimportant, for they deceive no one with any knowledge of- even modern Egyptian history, but recently some of the “Young Egyptians,” who claim to have studied pre-Christian Egyptian history, have put forward. the statement that the hieroglyphic inscriptions of the Pharaohs prove beyond all doubt that from the earliest years of the Dynastic Period Egypt and the Sudan have formed one country, and that the .southern part of that country has always been ruled from a'city near the apex of the Delta—namely* from Heliopolis, or Memphis, or Athitani, or Babylon (Fustat, or Cairo. Many well-informed Egyptian notables are willing to accept, and do accept-, this view and promulgate, it as a fact based upon exact Egyptological evidence. Let us see what this evidence shows us.

Of the relations that existed between Egypt and the Sudan in the preDynastic Period nothifig is known. The-kings-of the first two dynasties cannot have had either leisure or means to conquer any part of Nubia except that which lies immediately to the south of Philae. A legend of* the Ptolemaic Period states that Tcheser (Third Dynasty) endowed the god Khnem with lands in Lower Nubia, and ordered the people to nrovide offerings for his priests. The offerings were products of countries far to the south, and it is evident that caravans coming from them were forced to provide them. Thus even at that early oeriod (B.C. 3000) the Sudan was compelled by Egypt to become a source of supply of precious metals and stones and Sudani merchandise. The earliest raid on a- large scale in the Sudan is that of Sene fern (Fourth Dynasty), who brought back 7,000 prisoners and 200,000 cattle, large and small, etc. The prisoners became slaves, and the Egyptians learned in the third millennium 8.0. .that Nubia and the Sudan produced slaves, and they never forgot to make use of that knowledge. Generals Una and Herkhuf discovered that the Sudani men were first-class fighters, and we find that Papil (Sixth Dynasty) stiffened his regiments with them and subdued the fierce tribes of the Eastern Desert with, their help. His son Merenra made friends with the lords of Elephantine, who were the merchant princes of the day, and visited their stronghold and conversed with them. As a result of this friendly talk they gaVe tlieir help to the Egyptian officers, and guided their caravans of asses to the gold-producing hills in the- Eastern Desert, and to the fertile districts on the Blue Nile and the countries now known as Darfur and Kordofau (whence came gold, iron, ivory, ebony, ostrich feathers, and the gums that formed the 'base of incense), and the coasts of the Bed Sea. and Punt.

Gn the death of the youthful Pharaoh, his successor, Pepi 11., whose imagination was fired by the stories he heard from the caravan-masters of Eliphanti, determined to seize Nubia and Kush and make them parts of his kingdom, so that all these valuable Sudani products might become his own by right. He j-epeatecl the tactics of Seneferu. and twice sent his general Pepinekht into the district that extended to the foot of the Fourth Cataract, and those who resisted his claims were regarded as “rebels” and slain ruthlessly. Large numbers of the natives were "brought to Egypt for slaves, and the Nubian chiefs were made prisoners, and marched, with their flocks and herds, to Egypt. Pep? 11. made no attempt to rule the country. or to introduce law and order among its people; his policy was one of terrorisation and confiscation, and his soldiers left behind them ruin and misery. The Egyptian raids into Nubia were renewed by one of the Mentuhepep kings (Eleventh Dynasty), and , under the kings of the Twelfth Dynasty they were carefully organised .and repeated at frequent intervals. The Matchaiu were seized and deported tc Egypt and employed as soldiers, forced labour in the gold mines was instituted, and Egyptian overseers were appointed to superintend the washing of the gold and its transport to Egypt. The mines on the coast of the Red Sea %vere worked by forced labour, and fortresses were built in the Third Cataract. The “conquest” of the country as far as' the head of the Second Cataract was effected by Usertsen (or Sen-Usrit) 111. who built forts at Saman and Kummab about 45 miles south of Wady Haifa. He declared this point to be the southern boundary of his kingdom, and in the eighth year of his reign set up a stele inscribed with an order that no Black was <to pass this by land or river except for purposes of "trade. A few years later the king made a great raid into the country to the south of his boundary. Many of the Pharaohs who succeeded him sedulously repeated his atrocities in Nubia and the Sudan. Under his successors the Egyptians raided Kash (Kush) with great success, and established a strong outpost at Karmeh, atthe- head of the Third Cataract. Thus they obtained possession temporarily of the rich and fertile region which we know as the Dongolah Province and became masters of the caravan routes to the Blue Nile and Darfur. The kings of the Eighteenth Dynasty tried to tighten their bold on Nubia by appointing viceroys to direct its trade and collect flic heavy taxes and transmit them to Egypt: the Viceroy had the title of “royal son of Kash.” 01- “Prince of Kash.” Several of Hs kings visited Nubia, and it is possih’e that some of them travelled in the Bavuda Desert and the island of Meroe. but it is quite certain that none of them ever held the lenst authority over these remote countries:. Tu the reign of Thnthmes'lTT fR.C. 1500) and later the n rod nets of T T aua (Lower Nubia) and Kash were delivered in Thebes ormunllv, ,w->d arrvnJr. show how great and valuable these ""'re. But immediately this king (bed. the greatest of the Pharaohs the Nubians refused to pnv their impost's, and * -*y»nh/»tcn IT.. his successor, was nViirred to po to the co”ntrv ind employ the usual coercive measures. Be-

sides these, he sent there the body’ of one of the chiefs of Takshi, whom ho had slain in Syria, to, be hung upon the walls of Napata, with the view of terrorising the peoples of the Dongolah Province. Quite early in hi s reign fche easy-going, flamboyant Amenhetep 111 . was obliged to sail un to Abhet and capture 740 people u :fnd cut off 312 heads before he quelled the '‘rebellion” in that country. When later he finished the great. temple of Suib, which was dedicated to Amen and himself, he did not do so with any idea of carrying the religion of Egypt into the regions about the Third Cataract, but only that he might use the authority of Amen to support his own, and so gain more power over the “miserable ” Kashites. From his great scarabs we know that the limit of his kingdom on the south was Karei, or Napata. the Nubian town which lay about nine miles from the foot of the Fourth Cataract, and the site of which is marked by Sanam Abu Dom and Merawi, aiid in fairness to the Egyptians, it must be said that they never claimed authority over any \. place to the south of this point. Under Bameses II (B.C. 1300) the trade in gold was greatly developed, and a series of little temples, part temple and part fortress, was built to •seyve as strongholds where the gold might be stored on its way to Egypt. Othey s« besides the king had an interest in this trade,' for the priesthood ot Amen had been endowed with a por- °* Nnbiia, which is known os the • gold country .of Amen.” And one at least of the priest kings of the Twen-tv-first. Dynasty claimed that he ruled Nubia as the Prince of Hash. Egypt’s hold on Nubia was finallv brokeirWhen Piankti the Nubian (B.C. 728) swept down upon Egypt, and was acknowledged hv Ra as the lawful king of the " And though his successors Shabaka, Tirhakah, and Tanutamen failed to prevent the invasions of the Assyrians, and the' last named was forced to withdraw to Napata. the Inst. Pharaohs never sooppoded in forcing tribute from the Nubians. In 151.7 the Turks, under Selim 1., took Egypt. but they interfered little . in Nuhia, and no serious calamity bewell the Egyntian Sudan until Muhammad Ali openly declared his ; intention to obtain gold and slaves; and his methods were those of the Pharaohs. He regarded the country merely as a. breed-ing-ground .for slaves anc\ a- place for the manufacture of eunuchs! And his chief aims seem to have been to confis- r cate property and to develop the slave trade. He claimed to be overlord of. Sennar, on the Blue NikvTakah, and Kordofan. Isma’il Pasha (1863-1879) followed the example of Muhammad Ali, and also destroyed the old native kingdom of Darfur (1874), and declared that the boundary of Egypt on the south was only a few score miles from the Equator. The facts quoted in the early paragraphs of this article prove beyond all doubt that the ancient Egyptians never claimed suzerainty over any part of the Nile Valley south of Napata, and show that tlieir frontier on the south varied frequently, and often had to be withdrawn to Samnaand Kumniah, - a few miles south of Sarras. The claim to the Sudan—i.e., the “Country of the Blacks” —on the ground that it form- . ed a part of Egypt from the earliest years of dyanstic history, is absurd, and has nothing to support it. No idea of claiming the island .of Meroe and Sennar auct the great provinces of Kordofan and Darfur was ever intertained by the Egyptians before the latter part of the period of the rule of'Muhammad Ali ; (1805-1848). The' area of Egypt proper is about 12,000 square miles, nnd her southern boundary has been rightly" fixed at the island of Faras, a little to the north of Wady Haifa; the area of the Egyptian Sudan is. 984,000 square miles, and its" in-' habitants number about 3,500,000. The overlordshiD of Muhammad Ali and Isma’il was shadowy in the extreme, but even that was completely destroyed by the Mahdi and his followers in 1886.

The ancient Egyptians were as incapable of ruling Nubia as their modern descendants were, and are, incapable of ruling the. Sudan. The socalled rebellion of the. Mahdi was a. protest against the .cnrnint. and incapadministration of Isma.’il Pasha, arid if the Sudan were handed over to Egypt , now a 'similar rebellion would take place in a year or . two. The • Egyptian pbvnvs lacked, and still lacks, the military yistinrt. and he has rarely be«n able defend his own country, unless led by a people of hieher physical rnd mental culture. Lord Cmmer. abolished the rowee and the kurhash, and "nder his benevolently despotic r'de the Egyptian obtained seeurit.v of life and property. Under , the Rri+hh pupation ho has been bett rti * fed ami better clothed than ever bofpre In b>'s own interest he should be ’ kept out of the"'Sudan: