1. 1. IX. THE PRE-ISLAMIC ARABIAN ELEMENT 5 VI Under the Ptolemies trade throve equally, and there is ample evidence of Arab trading-stations in the first and second centuries A.D. on the coast from Bab el Mandeb to the Gulf of Suez.

VII As regards early Arabian immigration by land to Egypt, there are some who, while rejecting the theory that the early dynasts came through Ethiopia, would yet bring them from Arabia into Egypt by way of the peninsula of Sinai . This is very doubtful. The positive evidence, dating from the time of the earliest dynasties, does, however, prove that the eastern side of the Delta was being perpetually harried by nomads from Sinai and Syria, and there are numerous early reliefs shewing a Pharaoh smiting the Beduin, "the sanddwellers" of the mining regions of Sinai*.

VIII During the twelfth dynasty, nearly 2000 years before the Christian era, the monuments prove that there was also trade with these Beduin. "The needs of the Semitic tribes of neighbouring Asia were already those of civilized people and gave ample occasion for trade"; and hence the famous picture from the tomb of Khnumhotep II at Beni Hasan, in which is depicted the arrival of a band of Beduin traders.

The more amicable conditions now prevailing are also suggested by the wording of the Tale of Sinuhe's flight to Palestine during the time of the same dynasty : I came to the Walls of the Ruler, made to repulse the Beduin... I went on. ..I fell down for thirst. ..I upheld my heart, I drew my limbs together, as I heard the sound of the lowing of cattle, I beheld the Beduin. That chief among them, who had been in Egypt, recognized me. He gave me water, he cooked for me milk. I went with him to his tribe, good was that which they did (for me)', IX About 1657 B.C. occurred the Hyksos invasion of Egypt. This people may have been Hittite or possibly Arabian by race: the evidence points to the former, but we may assume in any case that Arabia sent its quota of Beduin in the wake of the invaders i*' and that during the Hyksos period and that succeeding it trade between east and west flourished to a larger extent than formerly.

See Periplus and Ptolemaeus, passim.

-E.g. Lepsius, q.v. ap. Navile, loc. cit. * Elliot Smith, loc. cit. pp. 92, 93.

'' See Breasted, A.R. i, 168, 236, 250, 267, 311-315. The first of these dates from the first dynasty, and all fall within the period of the first six dynasties.

* Breasted, Hist. p. 159.

* Ibid. p. 158, and A. R. i, 620; Schurtz, loc. cit. p. 619.

' Breasted, A. R. 1, 493.

Breasted, Hist. pp. 179, 442.

* Von Luschan,o;</-7z. R. A. I. XLi, 191 1, p. 242. Breasted {Hist. p. 181) remarks that the Hebrews in Egypt may have been " but a part of the Beduin allies of the Kadesh or Hyksos."