Naguib Mahfouz - Before the Throne

“Despite my poor health, I did not hesitate to suppress the revolt that sprang up in the south, and another in Asia, as well. Incapable of savoring life, I was unable to endure longer than a few years.”

“You should have given up the throne in view of your weakness,” Menes admonished him. “The weak should not aspire to rule.”

“I triumphed anyway,” retorted Thutmose II.

“Thanks to luck, and in spite of your frailty,” Menes answered in scorn.

“He acted to the best of his ability,” Isis declared. “I would compare his labor to that of the peasant who tills the land.”

“Take your place among the Immortals,” Osiris commanded Thutmose II.

HORUS HERALDED, “Queen Hatshepsut!”

A full-figured woman of medium height came in. She walked in her winding sheet until she stood before the throne.

Thoth, Recorder of the Divine Court, read aloud, “Her reign passed in peace and prosperity. She erected the temple of Deir al-Bahari, and restored intercourse with the Land of Punt, whence she procured myrrh trees and their seedlings for the temple’s grounds. Tribute rained down on her as she spread wealth everywhere, contenting the people.”

Osiris asked her to speak.

“I was the only one worthy of the throne,” Queen Hatsheput replied. “I was the last who remained in the line of Queen Ahmose and the divine royal blood, in contrast to my brother, Thutmose II, son of a morganatic wife named Mutnofret, and to my brother Thutmose III, whose mother was the concubine called Isis. Out of respect for an antiquated custom that rejects women’s rule, I was forced to marry Thutmose III, who served as a priest in the Temple of Amun, and who — with the aid of the priests of that cult — never ceased scheming to put himself on the throne. Then the kingdom was wrenched from us as my brother Thutmose II took power with the support of his own party. When he died, rule returned to me, along with my brother Thutmose III. I imposed a wall of surveillance around him, to put an end to his machinations — and he crawled away into the shadows like a thing of no value. Meanwhile, I was helped by men such as Senenmut, Senmen, and Hapuseneb, who are considered among the greatest Egypt has known. I bestowed upon the masses a golden age of affluence and tranquility, until they came to believe that women are indeed capable of rule.”

“In our time, which you have dismissed as an age of darkness, reigned two awesome queens,” boasted Abnum.

“Why didn’t you bolster your rule by sharing the throne with your brother?” wise Imhotep asked her.

“He was not, like me, of the sun god’s lineage,” she rejoined. “His interest was in weaving intrigues, and I had to be on guard from him. I was advised to have him murdered, but I detested treachery and the spilling of blood.”

“Should it be understood from what you have said that the marital relations between you were merely official?” probed the Sage Ptahhotep.

“Yes,” said Hatshepsut.

“Did you spend your life as a virgin?” he continued.

“You have no right to pose such a question, and the queen is free to disregard it,” snapped Osiris.

Isis stepped in, “A daughter that would make any mother proud, and in need of no defense.”

Osiris then directed, “Onto your seat among the Immortals.”

HORUS HAILED, “King Thutmose the Third!”

A short, strongly built man, whose features projected majesty, entered the room wrapped in his shroud, then stood submissively before the throne.

“He took the throne at Hatshepsut’s decease,” read Thoth, Scribe of the Gods, “purging the administration of his rivals, while seizing the reins of power with an iron grasp. He bestowed favor on the clergy of Amun, granting them primacy over all the priesthoods of the Two Lands. He mustered both an army and a fleet whose peers the nation had not known before, and boldly embarked on numerous wars, thereby creating the greatest empire that the ancient world had seen until his time. He annexed Asia Minor, the Upper Euphrates, the Mediterranean islands, the Western Desert oases, the highlands of Somalia, and the cataracts of the Upper Nile — making Egypt the crossroads for the races of all nations, the repository of traded goods and commodities. He built temples, forts, and obelisks, both within Egypt and in all the countries attached to her, leaving behind him a homeland perched at the summit of greatness and civilization.”

Osiris invited Thutmose III to speak.

“At the start of my life, I tasted oppression as no king has known it,” said Thutmose III. “Noting the strength with which the gods had endowed me, I was more deserving of rule than were my siblings. Yet though I acquired knowledge of the world, and of religion, I was denied my right because of a trifling technicality — my mother’s origin as a commoner. I did not arrive at my right due to trickery, as some have said. Rather, the god Amun revealed me to his priests during his feast day. He stopped in front of me as I stood before the clergy, announcing his choice of me for the throne. I then prostrated myself before him in acceptance of his blessing.

“But the queen’s faction set up a wall around me, and I dwelt in the shadows, like a man without the slightest weight. And so, when I seized the key positions of power after the death of the queen, I brought down the sternest chastisement on the men who had usurped my legitimate authority and sullied my marital bed. The woman’s reign left only weakness as its legacy, for the army had fallen apart, while sedition spread through our foreign dominions as the prestige of Egypt and of her god Amun perished.

“The empire had been my greatest dream — not the love of killing, or the lust for wealth. Rather, I longed to spread the rays of Egyptian civilization, so that its radiance would shine over all the peoples around us, and Amun would occupy the highest place amongst all the gods.”

“I witness that you achieved all of our dreams altogether,” Ahmose I declared, “and acknowledge that you knew victory tens of times, but defeat not even once.”

“What did you do for the peasants?” asked Abnum.

“My soldiers, officers, and commanders were drawn from them,” Thutmose III replied. “I improved the methods of irrigation, took care of their needs, and exterminated the poverty in the places where they lived. I shifted a great many of them toward work in industries, crafts, and trade in the cities.”

“You erected your empire,” the Sage Ptahhotep upbraided him, “on the skulls of thousands upon thousands of Egyptians and others!”

“There is no avoiding death,” rejoined Thutmose III. “Better a man die while building glory and good than wasting away in a plague or being bitten by a snake. In truth, I was not a tyrant, nor did I love the shedding of blood. I planned my wars based on thoroughness and surprise, to obtain the swiftest victory possible, with the least number of losses. After the siege of Megiddo, all of my enemies — soldiers, princes and kings — fell into my hands. They begged for mercy and my heart felt for them — so I let them live.

“I sent their sons to Thebes to learn science and civilization, to prepare them to rule their countries, rather than using Egyptian governors. This was a wise and humane policy not known before me.”

“If it weren’t for the riches that I left you,” heckled Hatshepsut, “you would not have been able to launch a single campaign among the many you made in Asia.”

“You did indeed leave me great wealth,” conceded Thutmose III, “but you left the army in a mortal condition, and corruption was rampant among those closest to you.”