Shabaka
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Shabaka (or Shabaka Neferkare) was a Kushite pharaoh of the Twenty-fifth dynasty of Egypt, between (721 BC – 707/706 BC). He succeeded his brother Piye on the throne.
Shabaka's reign saw an enormous amount of building work undertaken throughout Egypt, especially at the city of Thebes. He also struggled to keep Egypt free from the domination of the Assyrian empire under Sargon II, a task in which he was successful largely because Sargon was distracted by conflicts in other regions. The most famous relic from Shabaka's reign is the [Shabaka stone] which records several Old Kingdom documents that the king ordered preserved. 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 granted refuge to king Iamanni of Ashdod after the latter fled to Egypt following the brutal suppression of his revolt by Assyria in 712 BC.
Shabaka is now believed to have died around 707/706 BC because Sargon II (722-705 BC) of Assyria states in an inscription at Tang-i Var (in Northwest Iran) that it was Shebitku, Shabaka's successor, who extradited Iamanni of Ashdod to him. (Dan'el Kahn, Orientalia 70) This view has been accepted by some Egyptologists such as Aidan Dodson--in JEA 88(2002) p.182, Rolf Krauss, David Aston, and Karl Jansen-Winkeln among others because there is no clear evidence for coregencies or internal political/regional divisions in the Nubian kingdom during the 25th Dynasty. Shabaka died in his 15th Regnal Year and was buried in a pyramid at el-Kurru. He was succeeded by his nephew Shebitku, Piye's son, following the Kushite tradition of succession from brother to brother, to son of the first brother.
External reading
- Dan'el Kahn, "The Inscription of Sargon II at Tang-i Var and the Chronology of Dynasty 25," Orientalia 70(2001), pp.1-18
| Preceded by: Piye | Pharaoh of Egypt 721 – 707/706 BC Twenty-fifth Dynasty | Succeeded by: Shebitku |
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