AS we mentioned last week, the tale of Sanehat (or Senohy) took place at the time of king Amenemhat I, the founder of the 12th dynasty, Middle Kingdom. After the king's death, Sanehat was afraid that his elder brother Senusert might see him as a rival and try to slay him, so Sanehat fled to Syria where he was always longing to return to Egypt. He then applied a petition to the King and got his permission to return to Egypt. As we will see, this petition, translated here below by the renowned Egyptologist Flinders Pitrie, carried outstanding diplomatic skills and excellent linguistic expressions: “Now behold what the god has done for me who trusted in him. Having once fled away, yet now there is a witness of me in the palace. Once having fled away, as a fugitive, now all in the palace give unto me a good name. After that I had been dying of hunger, now I give bread to those around. I had left my land naked, and now I am clothed in fine linen. After having been a wanderer without followers, now I possess many serfs. My house is fine, my land is wide, my memory is established in the temple of all the gods. And let this flight obtain thy forgiveness; that I may be appointed in the palace; that I may see the place where my heart dwells. How great a thing is it that my body should be embalmed in the land where I was born! To return there is happiness. I have made offering to God, to grant me this thing. His heart suffers who has run away unto strange land. Let him hear the prayer of him who is afar off, that he may revisit the place of his birth, and the place from which he removed. “May the King of Egypt be gracious to me that I may live of his favor. And I render my homage to the mistress of the land, who is in his palace; may I hear the news of her children. Thus will my limbs grow young again. Now old age comes, feebleness seizes me, my eyes are heavy, my arms are feeble, my legs will not move, my heart is slow. Death draws nigh to me, soon shall they lead me to the city of eternity. Let me follow the mistress of all (the queen, his former mistress); lo! Let her tell me the Excellencies of her children; may she bring eternity to me”. The King reacted positively to Sanehat's petition inviting him back to live in the palace among his children who loved him to the extent that they created a song supporting the petition to the King. This song will be the subject of the next article. [email protected] Saleh is the Director of Egypt's Centre for Documentation of Culture and Natural Heritage.
