Ancient Egyptian Attitudes Toward Foreigners: A Survey

Introduction: Foreigners in Ancient Egypt

Author Bruce Trigger, a professor of anthropology, explains that during the Late Period of Egyptian history foreigners accounted for "a sizeable proportion of the population of Egypt" (Trigger, 1983, 316). Included among the foreigners living in Egypt — anyone who could not speak Egyptian was considered a foreigner — were "merchants, mercenaries, travelers, students, allies and conquerors" (Trigger, 316). What was the Egyptian response to the presence of foreigners? According to the literature surveyed by Trigger, there was a "complex interplay of prejudice, ideology, pride and self-interest," and pride and self-interest were the attitudes that exerted the greatest influence.

In terms of Egyptian ethnicity, Trigger references Herodotus' writings, which pointed out that everyone was Egyptian "who lived north of Elephantine and drank the waters of the Nile" (316). Herodotus' descriptions of foreigners did not rest on racial considerations; rather, foreigners were judged and described based on "domicile and culture, not physical characteristics" (Trigger, 316). As to culture, Egyptians found it contemptible that foreigners: (a) had poor eating habits "considered disgraceful" because they did not conform to Egyptian customs; (b) did not write from right to left but instead, as the Greeks did, wrote from left to right; and (c) tossed the heads of sacrificed cattle — which had been "heaped with curses" — into the river, or sold them to the Greeks (Trigger, 316).

The ancient Greeks were certainly not widely accepted by the Egyptians. Trigger notes that Egyptians abstained from kissing Greek women or men on the mouth. Ancient Egyptians disliked the Greeks so passionately that they would not use Greek knives, spits, or cooking pots; moreover, Trigger asserts that Egyptians "would not touch any meat cut with Greek knives because all of these items might have been contaminated by contact with slain cows" (316). Herodotus wrote that the Egyptian attitude toward foreigners was a "mixture of cultural superiority and distaste," but that distaste went beyond the merely social and pragmatic. As Trigger paraphrases Herodotus, the distaste Egyptians felt for foreigners was "powerfully reinforced by religious taboos" (316).

On the subject of Egyptian religious biases against foreigners, the literature points to the year 410 BCE, when intense hostility — reaching a fever pitch — was recorded between Egyptian priests of the god Khnum and the Jewish mercenary community (Trigger, 317). According to Herodotus' account, the Jews had been sacrificing lambs in their temple; however, the Egyptian god Khnum was believed to have been "incarnated in a ram" (Trigger, 317). This created what Egyptians perceived as a "grave offence to the religious susceptibilities of the priests," and consequently the Egyptian priests ordered that the center of Jewish worship, the temple of Jahweh, be destroyed (Trigger, 317). This incident offers a clear glimpse of the antipathy recorded in the literature regarding Egyptian attitudes toward foreigners when religion lay at the heart of the conflict.

Greek and Cultural Contempt

Mu-chou Poo writes in Politics and Religion in Ancient and Medieval Europe and China that the Egyptians had a strong sense of "superiority over the Semite/Asiatic" — and that superiority operated from both religious and political points of view (Poo, 1999, 3). The figure of the Horus-falcon is shown holding the enemy in reins, indicating that the "god of the Egyptians also controlled the fate of foreign foes"; a wall painting from an archaic tomb shows the Egyptian king "smiting his enemy" (p. 4).

Poo (p. 5) asserts that in the art and literature of ancient Egypt there is a "strong sense of superiority" over foreigners. In the autobiography of Weni, a high official from the Sixth Dynasty, Weni traveled to the "land of Asiatics" and "returned in safety" having "cut down its figs, its vines," among other deeds. Poo also notes that Egyptians used the word 3amu to mean "speakers of foreign language" — that is, speakers of languages who "could not talk in a civilized, Egyptian tongue" (p. 5).

In the Middle Kingdom, Poo references the Egyptians' contempt for the Asiatic in the Teaching for Merikare:

Religious Hostility and Ethnic Bias

"Lo, the miserable Asiatic; He is wretched because of the place he's in, / Short of water, bare of wood / Its paths are many and painful because of mountains. / He does not dwell in one place / Food propels his legs, / He fights since the time of Horus / Not conquering nor being conquered, / He does not announce the day of combat / like a thief who darts about a group..."

There is clearly a strong criticism of the way Asiatic people lived; they are portrayed as cowards and thieves, even though they lacked the tools, resources, and geography to be as well-off as the Egyptians were. Poo (p. 7) also quotes from an inscription on Sesostris III's boundary stele regarding the Nubians: "They are not people one respects / They are wretches, craven-hearted."

In the Prophecy of Neferti, attitudes toward foreigners are clearly articulated. Asiatics in particular are viewed as "a source of disaster for Egypt":

Conclusion

There are many examples in the literature of the negative approaches that ancient Egyptians embraced toward foreigners. Some of the examples are obvious, some are subtler, and some even show a tolerance for all foreigners except Asiatics. Understanding this aspect of ancient Egyptian history gives readers and students a more complete perspective on how the world's societies evolved into what they are today. The contrast between the society that existed in ancient times and the turbulent transformations of more recent Egyptian history is a reminder of how deep and durable attitudes toward the "other" can be across centuries of change.