THE GLOBAL AFRICAN COMMUNITY
H I S T O R Y N O T E S
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GREAT AFRICAN LAND OF ANTIQUITY
A BRIEF SYNOPSIS OF DYNASTIC KMT
PART 5
Kmt's Fourth Golden Age: The Renaissance Period
It was only with the rise and enthronement of the Kushite rulers of Dynasty XXV that a powerful movement of cultural revival and economic resurgence in Kmt was sparked. Dynasty XXV, Kmt's Fourth Golden Age, was based at Napata, near the fourth cataract. The entire line of Dynasty XXV kings were men of great piety, confident in the belief that they were the true seat of Kemetic sovereignty. About 750 B.C.E. the Kushite king Kashta made a pilgrimage to the Amen Temples at Waset where he was hailed `King of Upper and Lower Kmt.' A daughter of Kashta, Amenirdas I, was installed in Waset with the title of `Divine Wife of the God Amen.' In 730 B.C.E. Kashta's son and successor Piye (Piankhi) conquered Upper and Lower Kmt but chose to govern from Kush (Upper Nubia between the third and sixth cataracts). Finally, about 715 B.C.E., Shabaka, Piye's brother and successor, completed the total reunification of Kmt, ruled from Waset and became the head of a stupendous Kushite empire that extended from the Mediterranean Sea southwards to the confluence of the Blue and White Niles deep in Inner Africa. It was during this same period that the ancient creation story currently known as the Memphite Theology was recopied for eternity on a massive granite slab. During the reign of Shabaka's successor, Shabataka, the demotic script was introduced.
Probably the single most outstanding sovereign of Dynasty XXV was Taharqa (690-664 B.C.E.). Taharqa is one of African's great leaders. As a prince he is believed to have led an African expedition to Spain. As King, he commanded military campaigns in Western Asia to save his Jewish allies from destruction at the hands of the Assyrians. As "A loving son, Tarharqo at one point sent for his mother, resident in far-off Napata, to visit him, so that she could enjoy the sight of her son on the throne of Upper and Lower Egypt."
It is regrettable that so much of the focus of the Dynasty XXV monarchs had be to directed towards fending off a menacing nation of foreign aggressors--the Assyrians. The Assyrians equipped their armies with iron weapons and unlike many nations of antiquity placed no heavy dependence on foreign mercenaries whose loyalties might shift at any time. The bulk of the Assyrian armies consisted of archers, heavily armed spearmen, shield bearers, horsemen and heavy chariotry. The Assyrian armies were well trained and utilized battering rams and formidable siege machines. For several decades the Africans held their own against the Assyrians but in in 671 B.C.E. Assyrian legions invaded Kmt and ransacked Ineb-hedj (Memphis). In 633 B.C.E. Assyrian armies again invaded Kmt and this time pillaged Waset, massacred its inhabitants and emptied the temples of their treasures.
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Copyright © 1998 Runoko Rashidi. All rights reserved.
Revised: November 04, 2000.
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