Shabaka or
Shabaka Neferkare, 'Beautiful is the Soul of
ReRa is the ancient Egyptian sun god. By the Fifth Dynasty he had become a major deity in ancient Egyptian religion, identified primarily with the mid-day sun...
', was a Kushite
pharaohPharaoh is a title used in many modern discussions of the ancient Egyptian rulers of all periods. The title originates in the term "pr-aa" which means "great house" and describes the royal palace...
of the
Twenty-fifth dynasty of EgyptThe twenty-fifth dynasty of Egypt, known as the Nubian Dynasty or the Kushite Empire, was the last dynasty of the Third Intermediate Period of Ancient Egypt....
, between (721707/706 or 716702 BC) according to Peter Clayton .
Family
Shabaka is thought to be the son of King
KashtaKashta was a king of the Kushite Dynasty and the successor of Alara. His name translates literally as "The Kushite".-Family:Kashta is thought to be a brother of his predecessor Alara. Both Alara and Kashta were thought to have married their sisters...
and
PebatjmaPebatjma was a Nubiaqueen dated to the Twenty-fifth Dynasty of Egypt. She was the wife of King Kashta. She is mentioned on a statue of her daughter Amenirdis I, now in Cairo . She is also mentioned on a door-jamb from Abydos.-Family:...
, although a text from the time of
TaharqaTaharqa was a pharaoh of the Ancient Egyptian 25th dynasty and king of the Kingdom of Kush, which was located in Northern Sudan.Taharqa was the son of Piye, the Nubian king of Napata who had first conquered Egypt. Taharqa was also the cousin and successor of Shebitku. The successful campaigns of...
could be interpreted to mean that Shabaka was a brother of
TaharqaTaharqa was a pharaoh of the Ancient Egyptian 25th dynasty and king of the Kingdom of Kush, which was located in Northern Sudan.Taharqa was the son of Piye, the Nubian king of Napata who had first conquered Egypt. Taharqa was also the cousin and successor of Shebitku. The successful campaigns of...
and hence a son of
PiyePiye, was a Kushite king and founder of the Twenty-fifth dynasty of Egypt who ruled Egypt from 747 BCE to 716 BCE according to Peter Clayton. He ruled from the city of Napata, located deep in Nubia, Sudan...
.
Shabaka's Queen Consort was
QalhataQalhata was a Nubian queen dated to the Twenty-fifth Dynasty of Egypt.Qalhata was a daughter of King Piye and a queen consort to her brother Shabaka. She is known from the Dream Stela of King Tantamani and from her pyramid in El-Kurru ....
, according to Assyrian records, a sister of
TaharqaTaharqa was a pharaoh of the Ancient Egyptian 25th dynasty and king of the Kingdom of Kush, which was located in Northern Sudan.Taharqa was the son of Piye, the Nubian king of Napata who had first conquered Egypt. Taharqa was also the cousin and successor of Shebitku. The successful campaigns of...
. Shabaka and Qalhata were the parents of King
TantamaniTantamani or Tanwetamani or Tementhes was a Pharaoh of Egypt and the Kingdom of Kush located in Northern Sudan and a member of the Nubian or Twenty-fifth dynasty of Egypt...
and most likely the parents of King
ShebitkuShebitku was the third king of the Twenty-fifth dynasty of Egypt who ruled from 702 BCE to 690 BCE according to Peter Clayton or 707/706 BC-690 BC, according to Dan'el Kahn's most recent academic research. He was the nephew and successor of Shabaka. He was a son of Piye, the founder of this dynasty...
as well.
It is possible that Queen Tabakenamun was a wife of Shabaka. She is thought to be a wife of
TaharqaTaharqa was a pharaoh of the Ancient Egyptian 25th dynasty and king of the Kingdom of Kush, which was located in Northern Sudan.Taharqa was the son of Piye, the Nubian king of Napata who had first conquered Egypt. Taharqa was also the cousin and successor of Shebitku. The successful campaigns of...
by others.
Shabaka's son Haremakhet became High Priest of Amun and is known from a statue and a fragment of a statue found in Karnak. A lady named Mesbat is mentioned on the sarcophagus of Haremakhet and may be his mother.
Shabaka is the father of at least two more children, but the identity of their mother is not known. Piankharty later becomes the wife of her (half-)brother Tamtamani. She is depicted on the Dream Stela with him. Isetemkheb H likely married
TantamaniTantamani or Tanwetamani or Tementhes was a Pharaoh of Egypt and the Kingdom of Kush located in Northern Sudan and a member of the Nubian or Twenty-fifth dynasty of Egypt...
as well. She was buried in
Abydos, EgyptAbydos is one of the most ancient cities of Upper Egypt, and also of the eight Upper Nome, of which it was the capital city. It is located about 11 kilometres west of the Nile at latitude 26° 10' N, near the modern Egyptian towns of el-'Araba el Madfuna and al-Balyana...
.
Biography
He succeeded his brother
PiyePiye, was a Kushite king and founder of the Twenty-fifth dynasty of Egypt who ruled Egypt from 747 BCE to 716 BCE according to Peter Clayton. He ruled from the city of Napata, located deep in Nubia, Sudan...
on the throne, and adopted the throne name of the 6th-dynasty ruler Pepi II. Shabaka's reign was initially dated from 716 BC to 702 BC by
Kenneth KitchenKenneth Anderson Kitchen is Personal and Brunner Professor Emeritus of Egyptology and Honorary Research Fellow at the School of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology, University of Liverpool, England...
. However, new evidence indicates that Shabaka died around 707 or 706 BC because
Sargon IISargon II was an Assyrian king. Sargon II became co-regent with Shalmaneser V in 722 BC, and became the sole ruler of the kingdom of Assyria in 722 BC after the death of Shalmaneser V. It is not clear whether he was the son of Tiglath-Pileser III or a usurper unrelated to the royal family...
(722-705 BC) of Assyria states in an official inscription at Tang-i Var (in Northwest Iran)--which is datable to 706 BC—that it was
ShebitkuShebitku was the third king of the Twenty-fifth dynasty of Egypt who ruled from 702 BCE to 690 BCE according to Peter Clayton or 707/706 BC-690 BC, according to Dan'el Kahn's most recent academic research. He was the nephew and successor of Shabaka. He was a son of Piye, the founder of this dynasty...
, Shabaka's successor, who extradited Iamanni of Ashdod to him as king of Egypt. This view has been accepted by many Egyptologists today such as Aidan Dodson, Rolf Krauss, David Aston, and Karl Jansen-Winkeln among others because there is no concrete evidence for coregencies or internal political/regional divisions in the Nubian kingdom during the Twenty-fifth Dynasty. All contemporary records suggest that the Nubian Pharaohs ruled Egypt with only a single king on the throne, while
TaharqaTaharqa was a pharaoh of the Ancient Egyptian 25th dynasty and king of the Kingdom of Kush, which was located in Northern Sudan.Taharqa was the son of Piye, the Nubian king of Napata who had first conquered Egypt. Taharqa was also the cousin and successor of Shebitku. The successful campaigns of...
states explicitly on one of his
KawaKawa is a town in Sudan. Located in ancient Nubia between the Third and Fourth Cataracts of the Nile. Noteworthy archaeological discoveries include several Twenty-fifth dynasty of Egypt era steles .-References:...
stelas that he assumed power only after the death of his brother, Shebitku.
Shabaka's reign is significant because he consolidated the Nubian Kingdom's control over all of Egypt from Nubia down to the Delta region. It also saw an enormous amount of building work undertaken throughout Egypt, especially at the city of
ThebesThebes is the Greek name for a city in Ancient Egypt located about 800 km south of the Mediterranean, on the east bank of the river Nile within the modern city of Luxor. The Theban Necropolis is situated nearby on the west bank of the Nile.-History:...
, which he made the capital of his kingdom. In
KarnakThe Karnak Temple Complex—usually called Karnak—comprises a vast mix of decayed temples, chapels, pylons, and other buildings, notably the Great Temple of Amun and a massive structure begun by Pharaoh Ramses II . Sacred Lake is part of the site as well. It is located near Luxor, some...
he erected a pink granite statue of himself wearing the twin crowns of
EgyptEgypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
. Shabaka succeeded in preserving Egypt's independence from outside foreign powers especially the
AssyriaAssyria was a Semitic Akkadian kingdom, extant as a nation state from the mid–23rd century BC to 608 BC centred on the Upper Tigris river, in northern Mesopotamia , that came to rule regional empires a number of times through history. It was named for its original capital, the ancient city of Assur...
n empire under
Sargon IISargon II was an Assyrian king. Sargon II became co-regent with Shalmaneser V in 722 BC, and became the sole ruler of the kingdom of Assyria in 722 BC after the death of Shalmaneser V. It is not clear whether he was the son of Tiglath-Pileser III or a usurper unrelated to the royal family...
. The most famous relic from Shabaka's reign is the
Shabaka stoneThe Shabaka Stone is a relic from the Nubian Twenty-fifth Dynasty of Egypt. It is a stone slab measuring 66 cm in height and 137 cm in width and was incised with the surviving hieroglyphs of a worm-ridden, decaying papyrus...
which records several Old Kingdom documents that the king ordered preserved. Also notable is the Shabaka Gate, a large stone door unearthed by archeologists in 2011 and believed to have guarded the room where the king's treasures were stored. Despite being relative newcomers to Egypt, Shabaka and his family were immensely interested in Egypt's past and the art of the period reflects their tastes which harked back to earlier periods. Shabaka would grant refuge to king Iamanni of Ashdod after the latter fled to Egypt following the suppression of his revolt by Assyria in 712 BC.
Death
Shabaka is assumed to have died in his 15th
regnal yearA regnal year is a year of the reign of a sovereign, from the Latin regnum meaning kingdom, rule.The oldest dating systems were in regnal years, and considered the date as an ordinal, not a cardinal number. For example, a monarch could have a first year of rule, a second year of rule, a third, and...
based on BM cube statue 24429, which is dated to Year 15, II Shemu day 11 of Shabaka's reign. From the evidence of the Tang-i Var inscription, Shabaka was already dead by 707 or 706 BC. He was buried in a
pyramidA pyramid is a structure whose outer surfaces are triangular and converge at a single point. The base of a pyramid can be trilateral, quadrilateral, or any polygon shape, meaning that a pyramid has at least three triangular surfaces...
at
el-KurruEl-Kurru was one of the royal cemeteries used by the Nubian royal family. Reisner excavated the royal pyramids. Most of the pyramids date to the early part of the Kushite period, from Alara of Nubia to King Nastasen ....
and was succeeded by his nephew
ShebitkuShebitku was the third king of the Twenty-fifth dynasty of Egypt who ruled from 702 BCE to 690 BCE according to Peter Clayton or 707/706 BC-690 BC, according to Dan'el Kahn's most recent academic research. He was the nephew and successor of Shabaka. He was a son of Piye, the founder of this dynasty...
, Piye's son, following the Kushite tradition of succession from brother to brother, to son of the first brother. Shebitku would eventually be succeeded by Tantamuni—a son of Shabaka.