CHAPTER III.

THE SUDAN UNDER THE XVIIITH, XIXTH, AND XXTH DYNASTIES.

Of the history of the Sudan under the XVth, XVIth, and XVIIth Dynasties, i.e., during the period of the rule of the Hyksos kings, nothing is known. The seat of the Hyksos power was in the Delta, their capital being at Avaris ; for some centuries they were masters of Lower Egypt, and probably of a large portion of Upper Egypt also. Whether they attempted to exercise any authorit}' over the Sudan cannot be said, but it is probable that they did not ; if they did, they left no traces of their rule behind them. Under the second dynasty of Hyksos kings a dispute broke out between these rulers and the Princes of Thebes, and after a series of fights, which were probably spread over a long period of years, the latter succeeded in expelling the Hyksos and making themselves lords of all Egypt. A legend found in the First Sallier Papyrus sa3's that the Hyksos king was called Ra-Apepi and the Theban Prince Seqenen-Ra, and that the dispute between these kings arose because Seqenen-Ra would neither worship the Hj'ksos god Sutekh, nor acknowlege his supremacy. This may or may not be true, but there is probabl3' a substratum of fact in the statement, and when we remember the devotion which the Princes and Kings of Thebes always displayed towards their god Amen, it is easy to understand the contempt which they would feel for the chief god of their conquerors. In any case, the Thebans vanquished the Hyksos, and Aahmes the younger son of Tauaaqen, whose prenomen was Seqenen-Ra, and who appears to have died in a fight with the Hyksos, ascended the throne as lord of all Egypt, and as the first king of the XVIIIth Dynasty, about B.C. 1700. Q VOL. I. 561 O O