The First Intermediate Period

The First Intermediate Period

After the fall of the Old Kingdom there was a dark period, now known as the “First Intermediate Period”, during which Egypt was ruled by a number of local princes, some assuming the royal titles, but none being sufficiently powerful to control the whole country.

                       

Civil war started between these princes, every one of them trying to proclaim himself as king. The Asiatic Beduins might have profited by this situation and invaded the North-East of the Delta.

The First Intermediate Period covers the dynasties from the VIIth (7^th) to about the middle part of the XIth ( 11^th )Dynasty.

The Seventh and the Eighth Dynasties were very short. Manetho mentioned that the Seventh Dynasty included 70 kings who reigned for 70 days. The Eighth Dynasty lasted for about 30 years. The rulers of these two dynasties were so weak that they were unable to erect any monumental works which might have survived to tell us something of their time.

The Nineth and Tenth Dynasties originated in Heracleopolis (Ihnasya el Medina, near Beni-Suef) where its local prince Kheti I proclaimed himself king of Upper and Lower Egypt. The kings of these two dynasties were greatly supported by the princes of Asyut and were able to build for themselves tombs in which they fortunately left records of the successful career of their family. They restored order in their nomes, as can be clear from the following:

“When night came, he who slept on the road gave me praise, for he was like a man in his house; the fear of my soldiers was his protection."

The Heracleopolitan rule was at first accepted, at least theoretically, by the local princes of Thebes (Luxor). The latter, although independent, lived in peace with the royal house at Heracleopolis, but later, they gained the leading place in the first eight nomes of Upper Egypt. They ended the control of the Heracleopolitans and organized an independent kingdom under their own rule. This marks the end of the Tenth Dynasty and the beginning of the Eleventh Dynasty.

The First Part of the Eleventh Dynasty

In the first part of the Eleventh Dynasty (which ends at about 2060 B.C.) Egypt was under the rule of two royal families: the Kheti family in the Delta and Middle Egypt till Abydos; and the Intef and Mentuhotep family from Abydos to Aswan. Civil war took place between these two kingdoms until Mentuhotep II of the South conquered the Heracleopolitans and reigned over the reunited Kingdom. This marks the end of the First Intermediate Period and the beginning of the Middle Kingdom.

Egyptian Literature during the FIP

The Egyptian language is rich in metaphors and figures of speech. Many religious texts, hymns, naratives, poems and proverbs are known from the Old Kingdom. Some sentences of the instructions of Ptah-hotep, the vizir of King Isesi of the Fifth Dynasty may be quoted as an example:

“Do not speak of something that you do not know; do not look at that which is before him but look at which is before you, ...” etc.

But the full development of the literature appears only to have been reached in the First Intermediate Period and in the Twelfth Dynasty. It is the writings of this period that were read in the schools for five hundred years later. They are interesting since they depict the misery which the world brings upon people and the distress of a nation that has suffered from a complete collapse: “it is best for mankind not to be born”.

The most important texts of this pessimistic literature are the “Complaint of the eloquent peasant” and the “Admonitions of a prophet”. The “Tale of the eloquent peasant” was composed solely in order to place in the mouth of a marvellous peasant a series of speeches in which he pleads his case against an official who had wronged him, with such eloquence that he is at last brought into the presence of the pharaoh himself, that the monarch may enjoy the beauty of his words. 

The “Admonitions of a prophet” were written by a sage called Ipu-wer who depicts the misery already prevailing, and foresees what is still to come, and urges his hearers to fight against the enemies and reminds them that the worship of the gods must be restored.