Shabaka

For the Arabic-language domain name, see Shabaka (domain name). For the Azerbaijani stained glass windows, see Shabaka (window).

Shabaka
Donation stela of Shabaka, on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Pharaoh
Reign	705–690 B.C.E.
Predecessor	Piye
Successor	Shebitku
Royal titulary Horus name Sebeqtawy Nebty name Sebeqtawy Golden Horus Sebeqtawy Prenomen  (Praenomen) Neferkare Beautiful is the Soul of Re Nomen Shabaka
Consort	Qalhata, Mesbat, possibly Tabekenamun
Children	Tantamani, Haremakhet, Piankharty, Isetemkheb
Father	Kashta
Mother	Pebatjma
Died	690 B.C.E.
Burial	el-Kurru
Monuments	Shabaka Stone
Dynasty	25th Dynasty

Neferkare Shabaka (or Shabako) was the third Kushite pharaoh of the Twenty-fifth dynasty of Egypt, who reigned from 705 BC to 690 BC.

Shabaka's timeline in the 25th dynasty

The archaeological evidence now in 2016/2017 firmly favours a Shebitku-Shabako succession. Broekman's GM 251 (2017) paper shows that Shebitku reigned before Shabaka since Shabaka’s NLR #30’s Year 2 Karnak quay inscription was partly carved over Shebitku’s NLR#33 Year 3 inscription. This can only mean that Shabaka ruled after Shebitku.

Critically, Frederic Payraudeau writes in French that "the Divine Adoratrix Shepenupet I, the last Libyan Adoratrix, was still alive during the reign of Shebitku because she is represented performing rites and is described as "living" in those parts of the Osiris-Héqadjet chapel built during his reign (wall and exterior of the gate) [45 – G. Legrain, “Le temple et les chapelles d’Osiris à Karnak. Le temple d’Osiris-Hiq-Djeto, partie éthiopienne”, RecTrav 22 (1900) 128; JWIS III, 45.]. In the rest of the room, it is Amenirdis I Shabaka's sister), who is represented with the Adoratrix title and provided with a coronation name. The succession Shepenwepet I - Amenirdis I thus took place during the reign of Shabataqo. This detail in itself is sufficient to show that the reign of Shabaqo cannot precede that of Shabataqo.

The construction of the tomb of Shebitku (Ku. 18) resembles that of Piye (Ku. 17) while that of Shabaka (Ku. 15) is similar to that of Taharqa (Nu. 1) and Tanouétamani (Ku. 16) [39 – D. Dunham, El-Kurru, The Royal Cemeteries of Kush, I, (1950) 55, 60, 64, 67; also D. Dunham, Nuri, The Royal Cemeteries of Kush, II, (1955) 6-7; J. Lull, Las tumbas reales egipcias del Tercer Periodo Intermedio (dinastías XXI-XXV). Tradición y cambios, BAR-IS 1045 (2002) 208.] . This also favours a Shebitku-Shabaka succession in the 25th dynasty.

Payraudeau notes that Shebitku's shabtis are small (about 10 cm) and have a very brief inscription with only the king's birth name in a cartouche preceded by "the Osiris, king of Upper and Lower Egypt" and followed by mȝʿ-ḫrw [41 – JWIS III, 51, number 9; D. Dunham, (see footnote 39), 69, plate 45A-B.]. .They are thus very close to those of Piye/Piankhy [42 – D. Dunham, (see footnote 39), plate 44.]. However, Shabaka's shabtis are larger (about 15-20 cm) with more developed inscriptions, including the quotation from the Book of the Dead, which is also present on those Taharqo, Tanouetamani and Senkamanisken." All this shows that Shebitku ruled before Shabaka.

The prominent German scholar Karl Jansen Winkeln also endorsed a Shebitku-Shabaka succession in a JEH 10 (2017) N.1 paper titled 'Beiträge zur Geschichte der Dritten Zwischenzeit’, Journal of Egyptian History 10 (2017), pp.23–42 when he wrote a postscript stating “Im Gegensatz zu meinen Ausführungen auf dem Kolloquium in Münster bin ich jetzt der Meinung, dass die (neue) Reihenfolge Schebitku—Schabako in der Tat richtig ist...” or ‘In contrast to my exposition at the Munster colloquium, I am now of the opinion that the (new) succession Shebitku-Shabako is in fact correct…’

Family

Shabaka is thought to be the son of King Kashta and Pebatjma, although a text from the time of Taharqa could be interpreted to mean that Shabaka was a brother of Taharqa and hence a son of Piye.

Shabaka's Queen Consort was Qalhata, according to Assyrian records, a sister of Taharqa. Shabaka and Qalhata were the parents of King Tantamani and most likely the parents of King Shebitku as well.

It is possible that Queen Tabekenamun was a wife of Shabaka. She is thought by some to be a wife of Taharqa.

Shabaka's son Haremakhet became High Priest of Amun and is known from a statue and a fragment of a statue found in Karnak. A lady named Mesbat is mentioned on the sarcophagus of Haremakhet and may be his mother.

Shabaka is the father of at least two more children, but the identity of their mother is not known. Piankharty later became the wife of her (half-)brother Tantamani. She is depicted on the Dream Stela with him. Isetemkheb H likely married Tantamani as well. She was buried in Abydos, Egypt.

Biography

Shabaka succeeded his uncle Shebitku on the throne, and adopted the throne name of the 6th-dynasty ruler Pepi II. Shabaka's reign was initially dated from 716 BC to 702 BC by Kenneth Kitchen. However, new evidence indicates that Shebitku died around 705 BC because Sargon II (722–705 BC) of Assyria states in an official inscription at Tang-i Var (in Northwest Iran)—which is datable to 706 BC—that it was Shebitku, Shabaka's predecessor, who extradited Iamanni of Ashdod to Shebitku as king of Egypt. This view has been accepted by many Egyptologists today such as Aidan Dodson, Rolf Krauss, David Aston, and Karl Jansen-Winkeln among others because there is no concrete evidence for coregencies or internal political/regional divisions in the Nubian kingdom during the Twenty-fifth Dynasty. This point was also stressed by Dan'el Kahn in a 2006 article. All contemporary records suggest that the Nubian Pharaohs ruled Egypt with only a single king on the throne, while Taharqa states explicitly on one of his Kawa stelas that he assumed power only after the death of his brother, Shebitku.

Shabaka's reign is significant because he consolidated the Nubian Kingdom's control over all of Egypt from Nubia down to the Delta region. It also saw an enormous amount of building work undertaken throughout Egypt, especially at the city of Thebes, which he made the capital of his kingdom. In Karnak he erected a pink granite statue of himself wearing the twin crowns of Egypt. Shabaka succeeded in preserving Egypt's independence from outside foreign powers--especially the Assyrian empire under Sargon II. The most famous relic from Shabaka's reign is the Shabaka stone which records several Old Kingdom documents that the king ordered preserved. Also notable is the Shabaka Gate, a large stone door unearthed by archeologists in 2011 and believed to have guarded the room where the king's treasures were stored. Despite being relative newcomers to Egypt, Shabaka and his family were immensely interested in Egypt's past and the art of the period reflects their tastes which harked back to earlier periods. Shabaka would grant refuge to king Iamanni of Ashdod after the latter fled to Egypt following the suppression of his revolt by Assyria in 712 BC.

Death

Shabaka is assumed to have died in his 15th regnal year based on BM cube statue 24429, which is dated to Year 15, II Shemu day 11 of Shabaka's reign. Shabaka was buried in a pyramid at el-Kurru and was succeeded by his nephew Taharqa.

Image gallery

• 
  Head of Shabaka from the Louvre
• 
  Statue of Shabaka from the Louvre
• 
  Donation Stela from the Metropolitan Museum
• 
  Large commemorative scarab of Shabaka

External links

• Media related to Shabaka at Wikimedia Commons