Biblical Hebrew Forum

[MarianneLuban AT aol.com]

In a message dated 7/26/2004 1:13:05 PM Pacific Daylight Time, 
peterkirk AT qaya.org writes:


> Which shows that in the 18th/19th dynasty transition period, and not 
> only during the TIP, Egyptian princesses might marry foreign rulers.

I am only going to address this one point because I have learned in the past 
that arguing with "Rohlites" is pretty useless.  This matter did not concern 
a 
"princess".
It concerned a queen, who had not been given in marriage to any "foreign 
ruler" but one of her own relations.  The man she requested was no "foreign 
ruler", either, but a mere prince, the son of a mighty king.  Egypt and the 
widow 
had plenty to gain in having this Hittite prince marry the widow--at least 
that 
is the way the widow saw it.  But other Egyptians evidently did not agree.  
If 
Zannanza had become king of Egypt, it would be the first time a foreigner 
assumed the kingship--in the south.  But not in the north.  We mustn't forget 
that.  But, because I am an honest scholar, I will give you this:  I am not 
all 
that certain that this Zannanza didn't have some claim to Egypt's throne by 
birthright.  The Annals of King Mursili, his brother, contain some strange 
things.  It was as though Mursili, himself, was demonstrating that he had 
some 
knowledge of the Egyptian language.  Liverani has asserted that the name 
"Zannanza", itself, is an Egyptian one meaning "Son of the king" or "z3 n 
nsw".  The 
cuneiform name of the widow, herself, is broken--so various theories have 
been 
brought forth about it.  Most have settled on "Dahamunzu" or "t3 Hmt 
nsw"--the 
royal woman" (i.e "the queen"--there being no other word in Egyptian for 
queen).  On phonological grounds, I have asserted that the name is actually 
"t3 Hnwt 
n k3m" or "The Mistress of Egypt"--the same thing the wife of Amenhotep III, 
Tiye, is called in an Amarna Letter.  Added to that, the chamberlain who 
travels to Egypt to see if all this stuff is on the level, is called 
"Hattu-ziti", 
which I suspect means nothing more than "the Hittite vizier" because "ziti" 
is 
precisely how the Egyptian term for vizier --T3ty--would have been vocalized 
at this time.  Also king Shup. (of the long name), the father of Zannanza and 
Mursili had a queen named Henti, the mother of all his sons.  This Henti is a 
suspiciously Egyptian name, in my view, and it wouldn't surprise me at all if 
she happened to be Hnwt-t3wi, one of the younger daughters of Amenhotep III, 
nicknamed Henti.  Just because the king of Babylon (whom Amenhotep III didn't 
really like on account of his begging ways) couldn't get an Egyptian 
princess--doesn't necessarily mean a Hittite king couldn't obtain one as part 
of a 
treaty. (That is, after all, how Ram. II got both his Hittite wives--out of a 
treaty).  Also, at about the time this whole Zannanza affair ended so badly 
and the 
Hittites and Egyptians went to war--this Queen Henti was banished to some 
God-forsaken place and King Shup. took a new wife, a daughter of the king of 
Babylon.  The stepmother later became a great source of aggravation to the 
successor, Mursili, as he doesn't neglect to mention in detail.  That is my 
theory--and that is all it is.