Shebitku
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Shebitku was the third king of the Twenty-fifth dynasty of Egypt and ruled from (707/706 BC-690 BC) according to Dan'el Kahn's most recent research. He was the nephew and successor of Shabaka. In recent years, a new Egypt-Assyrian synchronsym has been discovered from the Great Inscription of Tang-i Var in Iran. Carved by Sargon II of Assyria(722-705 BC), the inscription dates to the period around 707/706 BC and reveals that it was Shebitku, king of Egypt, who extradited the rebel Iamanni of Ashdod into Sargon's hands, rather than Shabaka as was previously thought. This would suggest that Shebitku was ruling in Egypt by 706 BC at the very latest, and probably 707 BC to permit for Iamanni's extradition.
During Shabaka's reign, there was a policy of conciliation and cooperation with Assyria, which appeased the Assyrians, and kept them from attacking Egypt. Shebitku had a different policy: resistance. A stela from Kawa tells of Shebitku asking his 'brothers', including Taharqa, to travel north to Thebes from Nubia. The army went with Taharqa presumably to fight the Assyrians at the Battle of Eltekh in 701 BC. Another stela records that when Jerusalem was under attack by the Assyrians, the king of Kush marched against Sennacherib (of Assyria). Shebitku joined in the resistance against Sennacherib and an Egyptian army was sent to Palestine, led by Shebitku's brother, Prince Taharqa. In 690 BC, Shebitku died and was succeeded by Taharqa, as the latter reveals in a stela from Kawa.
References
- 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: Shabaka | Pharaoh of Egypt 707/706 BC – 690 BC Twenty-fifth Dynasty | Succeeded by: Taharqa |
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