Menkheperre Piankhi

Menkheperre Piankhi was the first pharaoh of the 25th Dynasty, as well as the fourth High Priest of Amun in the 21st Dynasty, from 638 to 584 B.C. He succeeded his father Pinudjem I, ruled alongside his cousin Shabaka, and was succeeded by his first cousin (once removed) Shabataka. As High Priest of Amun, he was succeeded by his son Smendes II. Upon his coronation as pharaoh, he accepted the five-fold titulary of Thutmose III, and named himself Menkheperre Thutmose. This is the title he used on most of his monuments. Far more is known about this pharaoh in the revised history than in the traditional history.

Menkheperre Piankhi was the son of Pinudjem I, who was himself the son of Piankh, the son of a king of Nubia. Piankh was also the son-in-law of Osorkon III. This links him back to the beginnings of the 21st Dynasty, and to the 23rd as well. Piankhi had two sons of note in the revised history, who succeeded him as High Priest of Amun, Smendes II and Pinudjem II.

In 639 B.C., Piankhi was appointed High Priest of Amun under his father. Using the army he now commanded, he drove out the Assyrian forces in Egypt, ending the Assyrian occupation. A year later, Pinudjem I died, and Piankhi became king of Egypt. He began going by the name of an 18th Dynasty pharaoh, Menkheperre Thutmose.

In Piankhi's twentieth year (619 B.C.), he sent his cousin Shabaka to negotiate a treaty with Assyria and bring peace. This absence caused an uprising, with self-proclaimed pharaoh Tefnakht at the head. Piankhi quickly put it down, and erected a monument celebrating this achievement. In his twenty-third year, Piankhi began to go on military campaigns to the Middle East and proclaiming them under his name Menkheperre.

By 616 B.C., Piankhi had made a name for himself and was wanted to help stop a siege on Nineveh by Babylon. He was unable to do so. However, Assyria asked for his help again in 610 B.C., with the siege of Harran. Piankhi failed in this task also, and Assyria fell. Five years later, Babylonian troops battled the Egyptians at Carchemish for Piankhi's Levant territory. They lost this battle, and tribute from Syria and Israel to Egypt stopped.

For the next four years, Piankhi began building a Mediterranean empire, conquering Crete and other islands. Finally, after building up his forces, he delivered a striking blow to the Babylonians and took back his Levant territories in 601 B.C. Despite this, Piankhi quickly lost them again in the first decade of the sixth century B.C. to Babylon.

After this loss, Shabaka likely lost faith in the military prowess of Menkheperre Piankhi and proclaimed himself pharaoh in 597 B.C. Piankhi’s son Smendes II also died in this year, causing Menkheperre to stop his campaigns. Despite this, Piankhi stayed alive and ruled alongside Shabaka until 584 B.C., when he finally died in his fifty-fourth year of rule.

The evidence for the revised history can be found at Displaced Dynasties. Evidence relating to this pharaoh specifically can be found here.