Third Intermediate Period
Tefnakht
24th Dynasty (Saite) · 727-715 BCE
Open full-size illustration →Source: Shaw, Oxford History of Ancient Egypt (2000)
Background
Tefnakht briefly united the fractured chiefdoms of the Nile Delta into a real military threat, only to see that coalition broken by Piye's dramatic, ship-borne assault on Memphis, one of the best-documented single battles to survive from ancient Egyptian history. Additional detail: UCL Digital Egypt.
Dynastic chronology: Shaw, Oxford History of Ancient Egypt (2000)
Full profile
The coalition of the north
Tefnakht was a powerful local ruler based in the western delta city of Sais and the founder of the 24th Dynasty. As the Kushite kings expanded their influence northward, Tefnakht rallied the fragmented Libyan chiefdoms and petty kings of Lower Egypt into a military coalition to confront them. He successfully expanded his domain to include Memphis and laid siege to Herakleopolis. When the Kushite king Piye pushed north, Tefnakht’s forces were severely beaten. He sued for peace and swore an oath of fealty, but the moment Piye returned to Nubia, Tefnakht reneged on his promise and reasserted his independent royal titles.
The fall of Memphis
According to Piye's own Victory Stela, Tefnakht slipped into Memphis by night with reinforcements as Piye's army approached, swelling its garrison to some 8,000 men behind the city's freshly reinforced walls. Rather than mount a conventional assault, Piye ordered every ship moored in the city's harbor gathered together and used their masts to scale the walls directly from the water, and Memphis fell in a single sudden strike. Tefnakht himself escaped to an island in the Delta marshes and sent a letter formally conceding defeat, but conspicuously never appeared before Piye in person to submit, unlike the other regional rulers who came to pay homage directly.
Sources for this profile
- Shaw, I. (Ed.). (2000). The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt. Oxford University Press.
- Dodson, A., & Hilton, D. (2004). The Complete Royal Families of Ancient Egypt. Thames & Hudson.
- Leprohon, R. J. (2013). The Great Name: Ancient Egyptian Royal Titulary. Society of Biblical Literature.
- UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology. Chronology. UCLA.
- University College London. Digital Egypt for Universities.
The complete, APA-formatted reference list is on the Academic Sources & Bibliography page.