Taharqa

Taharqa was the son of Piye, the Nubian king of Napata who had first conquered Egypt. Taharqa was also the cousin and successor of Shebitku.[7] The successful campaigns of Piye and Shabaka paved the way for a prosperous reign by Taharqa.

Taharqa's reign can be dated from 690 BC to 664 BC.[8] Evidence for the dates of his reign is derived from the Serapeum stele, catalog number 192. This stela records that an Apis bull born and installed (fourth month of Season of the Emergence, day 9) in year 26 of Taharqa died in Year 20 of Psamtik I (4th month of Shomu, day 20), having lived 21 years. This would give Taharqa a reign of 26 years and a fraction, in 690–664 BC.[9]

Taharqa explicitly states in Kawa Stela V, line 15, that he succeeded his predecessor (generally assumed to be Shebitku but now established to be Shabaka instead) after the latter's death with this statement: "I received the Crown in Memphis after the Falcon flew to heaven."[10] The reference to Shebitku was an attempt by Taharqa to legitimise his accession to power.[11] However, Taharqa never mentions the identity of the royal falcon and completely omits any mention of Shabaka's intervening reign between Shebitku and Taharqa possibly because he ousted Shabaka from power.[12]

Taharqa portrait, Nubian Museum.

In Kawa IV, line 7-13, Taharqa states:

He (Taharqa) sailed northward to Thebes amongst the beautiful young people that His Majesty, the late King Shabataqo/Shebitku, had sent from Nubia. He was there (in Thebes) with him. He appreciated him more than any of his brothers. (There here follows a description of the [poor] state of the temple of Kawa as observed by the prince). The heart of his Majesty was in sadness about it until his Majesty became king, crowned as King of Upper and Lower Egypt (...). It was during the first year of his reign he remembered what he had seen of the temple when he was young.[13]

Statue of Taharqa, in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.

In Kawa V: line 15, Taharqa states “I was brought from Nubia amongst the royal brothers that his Majesty had brought. As I was with him, he liked me more than all his brothers and all his children, so that he distinguished me. I won the heart of the nobles and was loved by all. It was only after the hawk had flown to heaven that I received the crown in Memphis.”[14]

Therefore, Taharqa says that King Shebitku, who was very fond of him, brought him with him to Egypt and during that trip he had the opportunity to see the deplorable state of the temple of Amun at Kawa, an event he remembered after becoming king. But on Kawa V Taharqa says that sometime after his arrival in Egypt under a different king whom this time he chose not to name, there occurred the death of this monarch (Shabaka here) and then his own accession to the throne occurred. Taharqa's evasiveness on the identity of his predecessor suggests that he assumed power in an irregular fashion and chose to legitimise his kingship by conveniently stating the possible fact or propaganda that Shebitku favoured him "more than all his brothers and all his children."[11]

Moreover, in lines 13 – 14 of Kawa stela V, His Majesty (who can be none other but Shebitku), is mentioned twice, and at first sight the falcon or hawk that flew to heaven, mentioned in the very next line 15, seems to be identical with His Majesty referred to directly before (i.e. Shebitku).[15] However, in the critical line 15 which recorded Taharqa's accession to power, a new stage of the narrative begins, separated from the previous one by a period of many years, and the king or hawk/falcon that flew to heaven is conspicuously left unnamed in order to distinguish him from His Majesty, Shebitku. Moreover, the purpose of Kawa V, was to describe several separate events that occurred at distinct stages of Taharqa's life, instead of telling a continuous story about it.[15] Therefore, the Kawa V text began with the 6th year of Taharqa and referred to the High Nile flood of that year before abruptly jumping back to Taharqa's youth at the end of line 13.[15] In the beginning of line 15, Taharqa's coronation is mentioned (with the identity of the hawk/falcon—now known to be Shabaka—left unnamed but if it was Shebitku, Taharqa's favourite king, Taharqa would clearly have identified him) and there is a description given of the extent of the lands and foreign countries under Egypt's control but then (in the middle of line 16) the narrative switches abruptly back again to Taharqa's youth: "My mother was in Ta-Sety …. Now I was far from her as a twenty year old recruit, as I went with His Majesty to the North Land".[15] However, immediately afterwards (around the middle of line 17) the text jumps forward again to the time of Taharqa's accession: "Then she came sailing downstream to see me after a long period of years. She found me after I had appeared on the throne of Horus...".[15] Hence, the Kawa V narrative switches from one event to another, and has little to no chronological coherence or value.

Portrait of Taharqa, Kerma Museum

Although Taharqa's reign was filled with conflict with the Assyrians, it was also a prosperous renaissance period in Egypt and Kush. When Taharqa was about 20 years old, he participated in a historic battle with the Assyrian emperor Sennacherib at Eltekeh. According to the Hebrew Bible, at Hezekiah's request, Taharqa and the Egyptian/Kushite army managed to stall the Assyrian advance on Jerusalem, with Sennacherib eventually abandoning the siege due to the loss of 185,000 soldiers at the hand of the Lord according to the Biblical account. The might of Taharqa's military forces was established at Eltekeh, leading to a period of peace in Egypt.

During this period of peace and prosperity, the empire flourished. The power of the 25th Dynasty reached a climax under Taharqa. The Nile valley empire was as large as it had been since the New Kingdom. New prosperity[16] revived Egyptian culture.[17] Religion, the arts, and architecture were restored to their glorious Old, Middle, and New Kingdom forms.

In the sixth year of Taharqa's reign, prosperity was also aided by abundant rainfall and a large harvest. Taharqa took full advantage of the lull in fighting and abundant harvest. He restored existing temples, built new ones, and built the largest pyramid in the Napatan region. Particularly impressive were his additions to the Temple at Karnak, new temple at Kawa, and temples at Jebel Barkal.[18][19][20][21][22]

It was during the 25th dynasty that the Nile valley saw the first widespread construction of pyramids (many in modern Sudan) since the Middle Kingdom.[23][24][25]

Taharqa enjoyed some minor initial success in his attempts to regain Egyptian influence in the Near East. He aided King Hezekiah from attack by Sennacherib and the Assyrians (2 Kings 19:9; Isaiah 37:9), however disease among the besieging Assyrian army appears to have been the main cause of failure to take Jerusalem rather than any military setback, and Assyrian records indicate Hezekiah was forced to pay tribute. The Assyrian King Sennacherib then defeated Taharqa and drove the Nubians and Egyptians from the region and back over the Sinai into Egypt. It was during his reign that Egypt's enemy Assyria at last invaded Egypt.

2nd campaign (671 BCE)

The Victory stele of Esarhaddon was created following the king's victory in Egypt and depicts Esarhaddon in a majestic pose with a war mace in his hand and royal captives kneeling before him. One is Ushankhuru, the son of Taharqa, shackled with a rope around his neck, but wearing the Kushite crown.

In the early months of 671 BCE, Esarhaddon again marched against Egypt.[28] The army assembled for this second Egytian campaign was considerably larger than the one Esarhaddon had used in 673 and he marched at a much slower speed in order to avoid the problems that had plagued his previous attempt.[27] Esarhaddon's forces were victorious in their first battle with the Egyptians.

The Assyrian army defeated the Egyptians in two additional battles and successfully seized and plundered the Egyptian capital of Memphis.[29] The Assyrian army was also forced to fight some of their vassals in the Levant, such as Baal of Tyre, who had allied with the Egyptians against Esarhaddon.[30]

Although the Pharaoh Taharqa had escaped to the south, Esarhaddon captured the Pharaoh's family, including his son and wife, and most of the royal court, which were sent to Assyria as hostages. Governors loyal to the Assyrian king were placed in charge of the conquered territories. In his Victory stele, erected to commemorate the defeat of Egypt, Esarhaddon is depicted in a majestic pose with a war mace in his hand and royal captives kneeling before him in shakles. One of them is the son of the defeated pharaoh, kneeling in shakles with a rope around his neck.[27] The conquest resulted in the relocation of a large number of Egyptians to the Assyrian heartland.[31] In an excerpt from the text inscribed on his victory stele, Esarhaddon describes the conquest with the following words:

"I slew multitudes of his [e.g. Taharqa's] men and I smote him five times with the point of my javelin, with wounds from which there were no recovery. Memphis, his royal city, in half a day, with mines, tunnels, assaults, I besieged, I captured, I destroyed, I devastated, I burned with fire. His queen, his harem, Ushanahuru, his heir, and the rest of his sons and daughters, his property and his goods, his horses, his cattle, his sheep, in countless numbers, I carried off to Assyria. The root of Kush I tore up out of Egypt and not one therein escaped to submit to me. Over all of Egypt I appointed anew kings, viceroys, governors, commandants, overseers and scribes. Offerings and fixed dues I established for Assur and the great gods for all time; my royal tribute and tax, yearly without ceasing, I imposed upon them.
I had a stele made with my name inscribed thereon and on it I caused it to be written the glory and valor of Assur, my lord, my mighty deeds, how I went to and from the protection of Assur, my lord, and the might of my conquering hand. For the gaze of all my foes, to the end of days, I set it up."

— Victory stele of Esarhaddon[32]

With Taharqa beyond reach in the south, Esarhaddon reorganized the political structure in the north, establishing Necho I as king at Sais. Upon Esarhaddon's return to Assyria he also erected a stele alongside the previous Egyptian and Assyrian Commemorative stela of Nahr el-Kalb.

Victory of Ashurbanipal (667 BCE)

Assyrian siege of an Egyptian fort, probably a scene from the war in 667 BCE referring to the capture of Memphis. Sculpted in 645 – 635 BCE, under Ashurbanipal. British Museum.[33]

"Taharqa King of the land of Egypt and the land of Kush" in the Rassam cylinder of Ashurbanipal (643 BCE)

Upon the Assyrian king's departure, however, Taharqa intrigued in the affairs of Lower Egypt, and fanned numerous revolts. Esarhaddon died en route to Egypt, and it was left to his son and heir Ashurbanipal to once again invade Egypt. Ashurbanipal defeated Taharqa in 667 BCE, who afterwards fled to Thebes. Ashurbanipal marched the Assyrian army as far south as Thebes, and sacked numerous revolting cities:

Rassam cylinder of Ashurbanipal

"In my first campaign I marched against Magan, Meluhha, Taharqa ( Tar-qu-u), king of Egypt (, Mu-ṣur) and Ethiopia ( Ku-u-si "Kush"), whom Esarhaddon, king of Assyria, the father who begot me, had defeated, and whose land he brought under his sway. This same Taharqa forgot the might of Ashur, Ishtar and the other great gods, my lords, and put his trust upon his own power. He turned against the kings and regents whom my own father had appointed in Egypt. He entered and took residence in Memphis, the city which my own father had conquered and incorporated into Assyrian territory...."

— Rassam cylinder of Assurbanipal.[34]

The rebellion was stopped and Ashurbanipal appointed as his vassal ruler in Egypt Necho I, who had been king of the city Sais, and Necho's son Psamtik I, who had been educated at the Assyrian capital of Nineveh during Esarhaddon's reign.[35] After his victory, Ashurbanipal left Egypt.

The ruins of the pyramid of Taharqa at Nuri. On the horizon (left) is Jebel Barkal

Taharqa died in city of Thebes[36] in 664 BC. He was followed by his appointed successor Tantamani, a son of Shabaka, himself succeeded by a son of Taharqa, Atlanersa. Taharqa was buried at Nuri, in North Sudan.[37] Egypt was still seen as vulnerable and Tantamani invaded Egypt in hopes of restoring his family to the throne. This led to a renewed conflict with Ashurbanipal and the sack of the city by the Assyrians in 663 BCE.

Taharqa making dedications to Egyptian Gods, in the Temple of Mut, Jebel Barkal, Sudan. His name appears in the second cartouche: 𓇿𓉔𓃭𓈎 (tꜣ-h-rw-k, "Taharqa")

Taharqa has been suggested to be the Biblical "Tirhakah", king of Ethiopia (Kush), who waged war against Sennacherib during the reign of King Hezekiah of Judah (2 Kings 19:9; Isaiah 37:9).[38]

The events in the biblical account are believed to have taken place in 701 BC, whereas Taharqa came to the throne some ten years later. If the title of king in the biblical text refers to his future royal title, he still may have been too young to be a military commander.[39]

Herodotus, the Greek historian who wrote his Histories c. 450 BC, speaks of a divinely-appointed disaster destroying an army of Sennacherib, which was defeated by Sethos (probably Shebitku) after praying to the gods. The gods sent "a multitude of field-mice, which devoured all the quivers and bowstrings of the enemy, and ate the thongs by which they managed their shields."[40] This is commemorated in "a stone statue of Sethos, with a mouse in his hand, and an inscription to this effect 'Look on me, and learn to reverence the gods'."

According to Francis Llewellyn Griffith, an attractive hypothesis is to identify the pharaoh as Taharqa before his succession, and Sethos as his Memphitic priestly title, "supposing that he was then governor of Lower Egypt and high-priest of Ptah, and that in his office of governor he prepared to move on the defensive against a threatened attack by Sennacherib. While Taharqa was still in the neighbourhood of Pelusium, some unexpected disaster may have befallen the Assyrian host on the borders of Palestine and arrested their march on Egypt."[41]

The two snakes in the crown of pharaoh Taharqa show that he was the king of both the lands of Egypt and Nubia.

Taharqa, under the name "Tearco the Aethiopian", was described by the Ancient Greek historian Strabo as having "Advanced as far as Europe",[42] and (citing Megasthenes), even as far as the Pillars of Hercules in Spain:[43]

"However, Sesostris, the Aegyptian, he adds, and Tearco the Aethiopian advanced as far as Europe; and Nabocodrosor, who enjoyed greater repute among the Chaldaeans than Heracles, led an army even as far as the Pillars. Thus far, he says, also Tearco went"

— Strabo, Geographia, XV.1.6.[44]

In biblical depictions, he is the saviour of the Hebrew people, as they are being besieged by Sennacherib (Isaiah 37:8-9, & 2 Kings 19:8-9), in a sense saving from Assyrian annihilation Judaism and its future offshots, Christianity and Islam.[45]

Actor Will Smith was developing a film entitled The Last Pharaoh, which he planned to produce and star as Taharqa. Carl Franklin contributed to the script.[46] Randall Wallace was hired to rewrite in September 2008.[47]

Karnak

Kawa

Jebel Barkal

Thebes

Memphis

Nuri

Saqqara

Tanis

Location of Taharqa's monuments

Stele commemorating the death of an Apis bull in "Year 24 of Taharqa". Found in the Serapeum of Saqqara, Saqqara. Louvre Museum

Stele of the Great Temple of Tanis, written in the "Year 6 of Taharqa".[48]

Taharqa has left monuments throughout Egypt and Nubia. In Memphis he rebuilt or restored the Temple of Amon.[49].

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  Statue of Pharaoh Taharqa in the National Museum of Sudan
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  Taharqa, ca. 690-64 BCE, Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen.
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  Taharqa under a sphinx, British Museum
• 
  Taharqa appears as the tallest statue in the back (2.7 meters), Kerma Museum.[54]
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  Granite sphinx of Taharqa from Kawa in Sudan
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  Serpentine weight of 10 daric. Inscribed for Taharqa in the midst of Sais. 25th Dynasty. From Egypt, probably from Nesaft. The Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, London
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  Taharqa as a sphinx
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  Taharqa offering wine jars to Falcon-god Hemen
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  Taharqa close-up
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  Shabti of King Taharqa

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Taharqa.

• List of monarchs of Kush
• List of biblical figures identified in extra-biblical sources
• Takhar (the deity)
• Victory stele of Esarhaddon
• Statues of Amun in the form of a ram protecting King Taharqa
• Sphinx of Taharqo

• Mark, Joshua J. (2009). "Ashurbanipal". Ancient History Encyclopedia. Retrieved 28 November 2019.
• Ephʿal, Israel (2005). "Esarhaddon, Egypt, and Shubria: Politics and Propaganda". Journal of Cuneiform Studies. University of Chicago Press. 57 (1): 99–111.
• Mark, Joshua J. (2014). "Esarhaddon". Ancient History Encyclopedia. Retrieved 23 November 2019.
• Radner, Karen (2003). "The Trials of Esarhaddon: The Conspiracy of 670 BC". ISIMU: Revista sobre Oriente Próximo y Egipto en la antigüedad. Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. 6: 165–183.
• Radner, Karen (2012). "After Eltekeh: Royal Hostages from Egypt at the Assyrian Court". Stories of long ago. Festschrift für Michael D. Roaf. Ugarit-Verlag: 471–479.
• Radner, Karen (2015). Ancient Assyria: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-871590-0.
• Grayson, A. K. (1970). "Assyria: Sennacherib and Esarhaddon (704–669 BC)". The Cambridge Ancient History Volume 3 Part 2: The Assyrian and Babylonian Empires and Other States of the Near East, from the Eighth to the Sixth Centuries BC. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-3111033587.
• Luckenbill, Daniel David (1927). Ancient Records of Assyria and Babylonia Volume 2: Historical Records of Assyria From Sargon to the End. University of Chicago Press.