The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Hyksos

a group of Asiatic tribes that crossed the Isthmus of Suez from Southwest Asia into Egypt and conquered it in about 1700 B.C. The word “Hyksos” in Egyptian first referred to kings of foreign countries (“shepherd rulers”), but later came to denote the whole group of tribes. The true ethnic name of the Hyksos is unknown; their ethnic composition was highly mixed, judging from the presence of both Semitic and Hurrian names. They settled in Lower Egypt, where they established their capital, Avaris. They were the first to introduce horse breeding and the wheel as a means of transportation into Egypt. They simplified the Egyptian written language by creating purely alphabetical writing. In the beginning of the 16th century a liberation movement was begun in Egypt against the Hyksos, headed by Seqenenre II, the ruler of Thebes, and later by Kamose. The struggle was completed by Pharaoh Ahmose I (ruled in the years 1584-59), who captured Avaris. The surviving Hyksos fled to Palestine, and nothing is known about their fate thereafter.

REFERENCE

Lapis, I. A. “Novye dannye o giksosskom vladychestve v Egipte.” Vestnik drevnei istorii, 1958, no. 3.

D. G. REDER

Mentioned in

References in periodicals archive

Led by a priest of Lunu also known as Onu and Heliopolis who was also a follower of Akhenaton, the 'leprous' sought the help of the shepherds (the Hyksos) of Jerusalem, but could not standup against the army of Egypt, and thus, thus they were forced to run away into the desert.

Comparative monotheism: ancient Egypt and the Kongo religion, the Bukongo

The Hyksos rule Egypt--and Gaza--until they are driven out in the late 16th century.

A long look at a small place gaza a history

After their experience with the Hyksos invaders, the Egyptians began to value the Land of Canaan for its strategic location vis-Ea-vis foreign powers in the north who might have challenged Egypt again.

Who Are the Palestinians

One theory posits that they were Hyksos, people who came from northern Syria and were later expelled from Egypt.

Archaeologists write final chapter of century-old excavation

The site was ancient Avaris, capital of the Hyksos, and it was also a major harbor town and international trading center.

Tell el-Dab'a XXI; the Cypriot pottery and its circulation in the Levant

THE discovery of a 3,500 year- old city in the Nile delta by Austrian archaeologists has renewed international interest in the rise and fall of the Hyksos, who ruled ancient Egypt for a little over 100 years.

People who gave us the horsecart

Archaeology chief Zahi Hawass said in a statement Sunday that the area could be part of Avaris, the summer capital of the Hyksos, invaders from Asia that ruled Egypt from 1664-1569 B.C., during the 15th Dynasty.

Archeologists use radar to find ancient Egypt town

Paradoxically, the desire to keep control of Kemet from settlers both inside and outside; the invasions from the Hyksos, Assyrians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, and finally today's current Arab inhabitants, destroyed this African civilisation.

Returning to the ancient African nation state: Nah Dove offers a way of understanding some of the contradictions facing present-day Africans and their leaders who are trying to democratise their nation states in the face of continuing threats to stability. Her conceptual framework is quite relevant and her recommendations workable

Pero incluso en esa situacion, la incorporacion al estudio, por ejemplo, del Segundo Periodo Intermedio, o epoca de dominacion de los hyksos, de los resultados de las excavaciones realizadas en las ultimas decadas en el yacimiento de Tell el Daba, emplazamiento de Avaris, capital de estos, ha arrojado luz sobre numerosos interrogantes de este periodo.

Parra Ortiz, Jose Miguel (coord.) (2009): El Antiguo Egipto

We might like to disregard the Assyrian, Nubian, Hyksos, Persian, Macedonian and Roman conquests of Egypt which are probably forgiven if not forgotten.

Alas, all is not as it appears

Ancient Egyptians came and went, as did the Hyksos, the Assyrians, the Persians, the Greeks, the Romans, the Ottomans, the British, and now the Israelis.

Untold story of defiance and despair