Military of ancient Egypt | Police, Army, Navy of the Pharaohs Facts and Soldiers Egyptian Warfares in Pharaonic civilization, Battles History, Tactics War, Medjay and What weapons do ancient Egyptians use? and more about.
The army in ancient Egypt and how was the military system of the armed forces at the time of the Pharaohs? Divisions of armies, police and military fleet and what are the weapons of war used by the Ancient Egyptians in the Pharaonic civilization.
The armed forces of the ancient Egyptian civilization are divided into three types (police, army, navy).
Military of ancient Egypt
Police in ancient Egypt
The specialization of the police service in Egypt only emerged at the time of The New Kingdom, Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt The beginning of a rule King Ahmose I, it was previously surrounded by military or administrative men despite the presence of police to maintain commitment and internal security.
Military of ancient Egypt. One of the tasks of the police was to guard the Egyptian Pharaohs kings and Of the princesses and queens of Pharaonic Egypt “Female Pharaohs” in palace and the royal family and the offices of the cabinet as in Ancient Egyptian Government, and the minister was at the head of the police service, he is the supreme chief in the capital, and provided him with reports on the closure of shops and the opening of shops on justified dates, as well as those entering and leaving the office of the administration of the country, and even in the country itself.
We know from the text of the king Merneptah from Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt era border guards how the security authorities had full control over the movement of people and Bedouins in these areas from the eastern border areas of Egypt, where the report indicates that the Bedouin tribes of Adom were allowed to cross from the fortress to graze their cattle near Tel Al- Meskhouta, 15 km east of Ismailia).
There were two types of police: Military of ancient Egypt.
- The Metropolitan Police Thebes who oversaw order and security in big cities like Memphis and they were supervised by the (chief of police) (Jabo).
- The eastern and Arab desert police are supervised by the (Director of Fishermen) (Mazadi).
The police sometimes used police dogs and Nubian soldiers to trace, and they used crime prevention guides before they occurred, i.e., infiltrated informants.
The weapons of the police were arrows, bows, and shields, they had houses called guard houses and regular patrols, and there were the Pharaoh’s police, the river police, and the Mortuary Temples police.
The army in ancient Egypt
From the Predynastic Period and Naqada III until the end of the Old Kingdom, there was no strictly organized army, with Egyptian states as in Geography of ancient Egypt or territories before unification, each with forces used in wartime.
It seems that the idea of forming a regular army came with the Sixth Dynasty of Egypt when the king Teti Weni the Elder “Uni” was appointed commander-in-chief of these forces to face the Asian attacks and included tens of thousands of conscripts, and after the victory of these forces, the king led four major campaigns, one of which was free, and this is what the king called after him to establish a great regular army.
Military of ancient Egypt. The characteristics of the Egyptian army have become clear: companies and teams are limited in number, each bearing the name of one of The Egyptian Gods or kings, there is the “Brigade of archers, the Brigade of border guards, the Division of the Nine Arcs, the Company of Amun” and Pharaoh, and the company of “the glory of the solar disc” and there is also the “campaign of flags”.
The army consisted of the front of the army, a heart, two left and right wings and the rear of the army as well as auxiliary elements in the foreground and rear. The Egyptian army followed many military plans, including the Lightning War, which aimed to attack the enemy from where it does not know, then there is the tactique retreatto reorganize the ranks, camouflage, deception and military reconnaissance teams. and so, on.
Morally, the king was the supreme commander of the army, but the army was led by an actual commander called “Imi-R-Meshaa”, that is, the commander of the army.
Who was the first regular army in the world?
The army consists of two parts:
Pharaohs’ infantry soldiers | Military of ancient Egypt
They represent the backbone of the army because the soldiers are the main ones, and there are formations of them (regular infantry, special forces, troops composed of foreign warriors) and the regular infantry are divided into:
- Legion
- Battalion (2 companies)
- Company (several factions)
- Faction (multiple groups)
- Group (10 soldiers).
The infantry was divided into archers and spears, each division had a special flag and a special symbol, while the special forces were young people and received special training.
The Chariot in Egyptian Warfare
Where did the Egyptians get the idea for chariots and metal weapons from?
It appeared at the time of King Thutmose III, and there was a flag bearer of the fighters of the war chariots, and each chariot had a driver and an archer throwing arrows, and the vehicles are factions supervised by a former officer (commander of the royal stable) and assisted by an officer and trainers with experience in training called (horse stables chiefs), and the chariots moved at the front of the army during the battles and then followed by the infantry and then the protected factions, including the rear of the army.
Military of ancient Egypt. The minister was also minister of defence because he oversaw the recruitment of the army commander, and the army and its commanders were given peacetime administrative and security functions.
The Egyptians worked hard to document their important battles and wars through Papyrus documents in Egyptian Tombs and Egyptian Temples or stone inscriptions, and even painted, with artistic prowess, the course of some of these battles, as evidenced by this distinctive form of one of the ways in which one of their battalions infiltrated a city during the war:
The Egyptians knew the methods of intelligence and espionage of the movements of enemies through the army and gathering information, and the tools of combat were:
What type of weapons did the ancient Egyptian armies used?
- The baton (pin), the most famous Egyptian weapon since pre-dynastic times.
- Bows and arrows.
- Long bayonets
- Mace
- Daggers
- Copper axes that evolved into curved swords (scribbling) in the shape of a machete.
- Gears, armor, and war shirts
- Drums and trumpets to increase the enthusiasm of the fighters.
Military of ancient Egypt. The Egyptian army consisted of 4 legions: the Legion of God Amun, the Legion of God Ptah, the Legion of God Ra and the Legion of God Set.
The most important military exercises were fighting, clashes as in Ancient Egyptian Sport, jumps and war dances, throwing arrows from chariots at enemies and races, and there were military forts and castles, especially on military roads outside and inside Egypt; Soldiers were chosen by 1%, then 10% and after recruitment became the responsibility of the war council.
The Egyptians did not like to completely destroy the cities of their enemies and did not attack them harshly and did not eat with them, when King Thutmose III besieged the city of Tel Megiddo for seven months, his people were then forced to surrender, the king pardoned them all and even took some of their leaders to Egypt to know Egypt and ensure their loyalty, and in doing so, they differ from the armies of Mesopotamia, Syria, the Romans or the Persians, who have negative exploits in this region.
Ancient Egyptian navy | Military of ancient Egypt
Navigation has been known in Egypt since the beginning of the Old Kingdom as in Trade in Ancient Egypt, but the first sign of its use in warfare was since the Sixth Dynasty at the end of the Old Kingdom as in Industry in ancient Egypt.
Military of ancient Egypt. The war ships were built from sycamore wood, and the king most interested in the navy was Thutmose III, who made Memphis the center of the Egyptian fleet and established a seaport (the beautiful port).
Or an owner’s arsenal (Perou-Nefer) to equip ships going to Asia. The Egyptian fleet was known for its superiority over the Phoenician fleets that roamed the Mediterranean Sea.
king Psamtik II of the Twenty-Sixth Dynasty of Egypt was able to begin the Late Period and build a large fleet that moved to Cyprus and destroyed the Phoenician stations there.
The crew of the combat ship consists of about 200 sailors (Khenet), led by the flag bearer and the officer with the rank of commander of the sailors (Heri Khenet), followed by the bearer of the general of division Nasrit and then the simple soldier (Wa’a) or (Khenet).
Military of ancient Egypt. the Egyptians preceded the ancient peoples by building large boats to roam the Red sea and the Mediterranean and chose a form of these boats that corresponded perfectly to the cargo ships of the Nile River, boats free of internal defects that connect the sides of the ship to one another, and the Egyptians overcame this dilemma by extending a thick rope from the front of the ship to its rear.
He made it rest in its extension on wooden planks resembling a fork at its upper end, then attach this rope with a piece of wood, so that more the winding of the rope and the cohesion of the members of the ship, and reinforced to withstand the impact of the foreground by the waves of the sea, as people used along the Old Kingdom era to extend strong thick ropes around the upper end of the sides of the ship, thus helping to hold it together and to its front, and strengthening its resistance to the waves of the seas.
References Military of ancient Egypt: The Book of Egyptian Civilization, Egypt
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