Mizraim (; cf. ) is the

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

and

Aramaic Aramaic (; ) is a Northwest Semitic language that originated in the ancient region of Syria and quickly spread to Mesopotamia, the southern Levant, Sinai, southeastern Anatolia, and Eastern Arabia, where it has been continually written a ...

name for the land of

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

and its people. Mizraim - king of Egypt

Linguistic analysis

Mizraim Mizraim (; cf. ) is the Hebrew and Aramaic name for the land of Egypt and its people. Mizraim - king of Egypt Linguistic analysis '' Mizraim'' is the Hebrew cognate of a common Semitic source word for the land now known as Egypt. It is similar t ...

'' is the Hebrew cognate of a common Semitic source word for the land now known as Egypt. It is similar to '' Miṣr'' in modern

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

, '' Misri'' in the 14th century B.C. Akkadian Amarna tablets, '' Mṣrm'' in

Ugaritic Ugaritic () is an extinct Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language known through the Ugaritic texts discovered by French archaeology, archaeologists in 1928 at Ugarit, including several major literary texts, notably the Baal cycl ...

, ''Mizraim'' in

Neo-Babylonian The Neo-Babylonian Empire or Second Babylonian Empire, historically known as the Chaldean Empire, was the last polity ruled by monarchs native to ancient Mesopotamia. Beginning with the coronation of Nabopolassar as the King of Babylon in 626 BC ...

texts, and ''Mu-ṣur'' in neo-Assyrian Akkadian (as seen on the

Rassam cylinder The Rassam cylinder is a cuneiform cylinder, forming a prism with ten faces, written by Neo-Assyrian king Ashurbanipal in 643 BCE. The 7th century BCE cylinder was discovered in the North Palace of Nineveh by Hormuzd Rassam in 1854, hence its ...

). To this root is appended the dual suffix ''-āyim'', perhaps referring to the "two Egypts":

Upper Egypt Upper Egypt ( ', shortened to , , locally: ) is the southern portion of Egypt and is composed of the Nile River valley south of the delta and the 30th parallel North. It thus consists of the entire Nile River valley from Cairo south to Lake N ...

and

Lower Egypt Lower Egypt ( ') is the northernmost region of Egypt, which consists of the fertile Nile Delta between Upper Egypt and the Mediterranean Sea, from El Aiyat, south of modern-day Cairo, and Dahshur. Historically, the Nile River split into sev ...

. This word is similar in pronunciation and spelling to the Hebrew words '' matsór'' and '' meitsár'', meaning literally "

siege A siege () . is a military blockade of a city, or fortress, with the intent of conquering by attrition, or by well-prepared assault. Siege warfare (also called siegecrafts or poliorcetics) is a form of constant, low-intensity conflict charact ...

" and "

strait A strait is a water body connecting two seas or water basins. The surface water is, for the most part, at the same elevation on both sides and flows through the strait in both directions, even though the topography generally constricts the ...

, distress" respectively, and may carry those connotations to Hebrew speakers.

Biblical accounts

According to

Genesis 10 The Generations of Noah, also called the Table of Nations or ''Origines Gentium'', is a genealogy of the sons of Noah, according to the Hebrew Bible ( Genesis ), and their dispersion into many lands after the Flood, focusing on the major known ...

, Mizraim, son of

Ham Ham is pork from a leg cut that has been preserved by wet or dry curing, with or without smoking."Bacon: Bacon and Ham Curing" in '' Chambers's Encyclopædia''. London: George Newnes, 1961, Vol. 2, p. 39. As a processed meat, the term '' ...

was the younger brother of

Cush KUSH 1600 AM is a radio station licensed to Cushing, Oklahoma. The station broadcasts a Full service format, consisting of local and national talk, sports, and a music format consisting of Americana, country, Texas, and local Oklahoma music with ...

and elder brother of

Phut Phut or Put ( ''Pūṭ''; Septuagint Greek ''Phoud'') is the third son of Ham (one of the sons of Noah) in the biblical Table of Nations ( Genesis ; cf. 1 Chronicles ). The name Put (or Phut) is used in the Bible for Ancient Libya, but some sc ...

whose families together made up the Hamite branch of

Noah Noah (; , also Noach) appears as the last of the Antediluvian Patriarchs (Bible), patriarchs in the traditions of Abrahamic religions. His story appears in the Hebrew Bible (Book of Genesis, chapters 5–9), the Quran and Baháʼí literature, ...

's descendants. Mizraim's sons were

Ludim Ludim () is the Hebrew term for a people mentioned in Jeremiah and Ezekiel. In the Biblical ''Table of Nations'' Genesis 10:13 they were descended from Mizraim. The biblical scholar Victor P. Hamilton believes that the available evidence "sugge ...

Anamim __NOTOC__ Anamim (, ''‘Ănāmīm'') is, according to the Bible, either a son of Ham's son Mizraim or the name of a people descending from him. Biblical scholar Donald E. Gowan describes their identity as "completely unknown." The name should perh ...

Lehabim This list contains tribes or other groups of people named in the Bible of minor notability, about whom either nothing or very little is known, aside from any family connections. A Accaba, descendants of For the descendants of "Accaba" (1 Esd ...

, Naphtuhim,

Pathrusim Pathrusim together with Casluhim were descendants of Mizraim (i.e., Egypt) according to the genealogies in Genesis, who inhabited Pathros (i.e., Upper Egypt). In Saadia Gaon's Judeo-Arabic translation of the Pentateuch, the '' Sa'idi people'' ( ...

Casluhim The Casluhim or Casluhites () were an ancient Egyptian people mentioned in the Bible and related literature. Biblical accounts According to the Book of Genesis () and the Books of Chronicles (), the Casluhim were descendants of Mizraim (Egypt) so ...

, and Caphtorim.Bullinger, 2000, p. 6. 19th-century scholar Henry Welsford identifies this Mizraim of Egypt in the

Book of Genesis The Book of Genesis (from Greek language, Greek ; ; ) is the first book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament. Its Hebrew name is the same as its incipit, first word, (In the beginning (phrase), 'In the beginning'). Genesis purpor ...

Minos Main injector neutrino oscillation search (MINOS) was a particle physics experiment designed to study the phenomena of neutrino oscillations, first discovered by a Super-Kamiokande (Super-K) experiment in 1998. Neutrinos produced by the NuMI ...

. In the

Book of Exodus The Book of Exodus (from ; ''Šəmōṯ'', 'Names'; ) is the second book of the Bible. It is the first part of the narrative of the Exodus, the origin myth of the Israelites, in which they leave slavery in Biblical Egypt through the strength of ...

, it is considered the "house of bondage". Regarding

Passover Passover, also called Pesach (; ), is a major Jewish holidays, Jewish holiday and one of the Three Pilgrimage Festivals. It celebrates the Exodus of the Israelites from slavery in Biblical Egypt, Egypt. According to the Book of Exodus, God in ...

Moses In Abrahamic religions, Moses was the Hebrews, Hebrew prophet who led the Israelites out of slavery in the The Exodus, Exodus from ancient Egypt, Egypt. He is considered the most important Prophets in Judaism, prophet in Judaism and Samaritani ...

says to the

Israelites Israelites were a Hebrew language, Hebrew-speaking ethnoreligious group, consisting of tribes that lived in Canaan during the Iron Age. Modern scholarship describes the Israelites as emerging from indigenous Canaanites, Canaanite populations ...

, "And Moses said to the people, 'Remember this day, on which you went free from Egypt, the house of bondage, how

יהוה The TetragrammatonPronounced ; ; also known as the Tetragram. is the four-letter Hebrew-language theonym (transliterated as YHWH or YHVH), the name of God in the Hebrew Bible. The four Hebrew letters, written and read from right to left, ar ...

freed you from it with a mighty hand: no leavened bread shall be eaten.'" The

book of Deuteronomy Deuteronomy (; ) is the fifth book of the Torah (in Judaism), where it is called () which makes it the fifth book of the Hebrew Bible and Christian Old Testament. Chapters 1–30 of the book consist of three sermons or speeches delivered to ...

forbids the children of Israel from abhorring a ''Mizri'', an Egyptian, "because you were a stranger in his land."

Greco-Roman sources

According to

Eusebius Eusebius of Caesarea (30 May AD 339), also known as Eusebius Pamphilius, was a historian of Christianity, exegete, and Christian polemicist from the Roman province of Syria Palaestina. In about AD 314 he became the bishop of Caesarea Maritima. ...

's '' Chronicon'',

Manetho Manetho (; ''Manéthōn'', ''gen''.: Μανέθωνος, ''fl''. 290–260 BCE) was an Egyptian priest of the Ptolemaic Kingdom who lived in the early third century BCE, at the very beginning of the Hellenistic period. Little is certain about his ...

had suggested that the great age of antiquity of which the later Egyptians boasted had preceded the

Great Flood A flood myth or a deluge myth is a myth in which a great flood, usually sent by a deity or deities, destroys civilization, often in an act of divine retribution. Parallels are often drawn between the flood waters of these myths and the primeva ...

and that they were descended from Mizraim, who settled there anew. According to Byzantine chronicler

George Syncellus George Syncellus (, ''Georgios Synkellos''; died after 810) was a Byzantine chronicler and ecclesiastical official. He lived many years in Palestine (probably in the Old Lavra of Saint Chariton or Souka, near Tekoa) as a monk, before coming to Cons ...

, the ''

Book of Sothis The ''Book of Sothis'' is a document known mainly by transmission by George Syncellus (died after 810 CE), purporting to have been written by the historian Manetho (who lived during the early 3rd century BCE). Modern scholars are nearly unanimous t ...

'', attributed to

, identified Mizraim with the legendary first

pharaoh Pharaoh (, ; Egyptian language, Egyptian: ''wikt:pr ꜥꜣ, pr ꜥꜣ''; Meroitic language, Meroitic: 𐦲𐦤𐦧, ; Biblical Hebrew: ''Parʿō'') was the title of the monarch of ancient Egypt from the First Dynasty of Egypt, First Dynasty ( ...

Menes Menes ( ; ; , probably pronounced *; and Μήν) was a pharaoh of the Early Dynastic Period of ancient Egypt, credited by classical tradition with having united Upper and Lower Egypt, and as the founder of the First Dynasty. The identity of M ...

, who is said to have unified the

Old Kingdom of Egypt In ancient Egyptian history, the Old Kingdom is the period spanning –2200 BC. It is also known as the "Age of the Pyramids" or the "Age of the Pyramid Builders", as it encompasses the reigns of the great pyramid-builders of the Fourth Dynasty ...

and built

Memphis Memphis most commonly refers to: * Memphis, Egypt, a former capital of ancient Egypt * Memphis, Tennessee, a major American city Memphis may also refer to: Places United States * Memphis, Alabama * Memphis, Florida * Memphis, Indiana * Mem ...

. Mizraim also seems to correspond to

Misor Misor was the name of a deity appearing in a theogeny provided by Roman era Phoenician writer Philo of Byblos in an account preserved by Eusebius in ''Praeparatio Evangelica'',van der Toorn, K. et al., ''Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bibl ...

, who is said in

Phoenician mythology Sanchuniathon (; Ancient Greek: ; probably from , "Sakkun has given"), variant ''šknytn'' also known as Sanchoniatho the Berytian, was a Phoenician author. His three works, originally written in the Phoenician language, survive only in partial ...

to have been the father of

Taautus Taautus of Byblos, according to the Phoenician writer Sanchuniathon, was the son of Misor and the inventor of writing, who was bequeathed the land of Egypt by Cronus. Sanchuniathon's writings, through the translation of Philo, were transmitted to ...

, who was given Egypt, and later scholars noticed that it also recalls Menes, whose son or successor was said to be

Athothis Hor-Aha (or Aha or Horus Aha; ) is considered the second pharaoh of the First Dynasty of Egypt by some Egyptologists, while others consider him the first one and corresponding to Menes. He lived around the 31st century BC and is thought to have ...

Islamic sources

According to medieval Islamic historians, such as

Sibt ibn al-Jawzi Shams al-Din Abu al-Muzaffar Yusuf ibn Kizoghlu (c. 581AH/1185–654AH/1256), popularly known as Sibṭ ibn al-Jawzī () was a writer, preacher and historian. Biography Born in Baghdad, the son of a Turkish freedman and Ibn al-Jawzi's daughter ...

, the Egyptian

ibn 'Abd al-Hakam Abu'l Qāsim ʿAbd ar-Raḥman bin ʿAbdullah bin ʿAbd al-Ḥakam (), generally known simply as Ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥakam (; 801 AD – 257 AH / 871 AD) was a Sunni Muslim historian and jurist from Fustat, Egypt. He wrote a work generally known as " ...

, and the Persians

al-Tabari Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad ibn Jarīr ibn Yazīd al-Ṭabarī (; 839–923 CE / 224–310 AH), commonly known as al-Ṭabarī (), was a Sunni Muslim scholar, polymath, historian, exegete, jurist, and theologian from Amol, Tabaristan, present- ...

and Muhammad Khwandamir, the

pyramids A pyramid () is a Nonbuilding structure, structure whose visible surfaces are triangular in broad outline and converge toward the top, making the appearance roughly a Pyramid (geometry), pyramid in the geometric sense. The base of a pyramid ca ...

, etc. had been built by the wicked races before the Deluge but that Noah's descendant Mizraim (Masar or Mesr) was later entrusted with reoccupying the region. The Islamic accounts also make Masar the son of a Bansar or Beisar and grandson of Ham, rather than a direct son of Ham, and add that he lived to the age of 700.

References

Bibliography