The individual system during the era of the Third and Fourth Dynasties

The origin of the world in the eyes of the priests

The oldest documents that we can tell about how the Egyptian family was founded date back to the age of the pyramids. We read in its inscriptions that the ancient Egyptian priests when they wanted to represent the people to the formation of the world, represented it in the form of what is happening before their eyes. It falls under their senses and adds to it a religious garment with a tinge of mystery and awe, although, in its origin, it does not go beyond the circle of sense and the sensual. That is why theologians say in the origin of the world: that an egg floated on the surface of the eternal ocean (Noon), from which the god Atum emerged, which is called in the Torah, the Bible, and the Qur’an, Adam, peace be upon him. Then the myth tells us that the god “Atum” and in another narration, the god “Ra” sneezed and spewed. From that, a male and a female arose, namely the god “Shu” (and his pronunciation represents the sound of a sneeze), the god of space, and the goddess “Tafunt” (representing the sound of the tuff), who is the goddess of dew. Then these two gods gave birth to “Geb”, the god of the earth, and “Nut,” the goddess of the sky. Then from them were the offspring of the goddess Farzqa, “Ozir” and the god “Set,” then the two deities, “Isis” and “Nephthys”. And the researcher finds in different religions something similar to what was mentioned in this myth. It came in the stories of the Egyptians that the gods ruled the world before human beings ruled it, and the kings of Egypt were attributed to the divine lineage that we mentioned above.

The family system, according to what was stated in the body of Al-Ahram.

The text of the pyramids indicates that the gods inherited each other as human beings. And this was proven from the texts of Al-Ahram, as the following came in it: “O Ozer, you are the oldest son of“ Jeb ”and his firstborn and heir, then he says:“ He is my son, my dear, and the first to be born to me, and he is the one who sits on the throne of “Jeb”, and he is the one to whom “Jeb” has rested “And it is he who his heirs gave before the Great Divine Ninth.” The significance of this text explicitly defines a family system in which the eldest son appears to be the heir of his father after his death. However, it is not possible to precisely determine at what age the bodies of the pyramids became applicable. Whatever it is, some of them date back to ancient times, older than the era of building the pyramids on which they were inscribed. Some hadiths were written in the era of building the pyramids; for this reason, it is impossible to take these texts as a basis to know the beginning of the formation of the family in the era of the Old Kingdom.

The importance of the texts of the body from the legitimate point of view

The oldest legal document that has come to us related to family rights is the translation of the life of the great “Matn”, who lived during the late third and early fourth dynasty reigns. He is the son of “Inbu I’m Anah”, who was a judicial employee. His mother is called “Nebasent”, who is familiar with the life history of this man. The great one collects essential information about the inheritance of the drug in his family. And according to what appears to be the fact that he inherited part of his father’s property, including land, its farmers, and livestock, he says: “The judicial employee“ Ibnu I’m Ankh ”, and he donated his property and its contents did not include grain or house furniture, but it included livestock and farmers.”

As for his mother, “Nessent”, she wrote a will for her children, in which the share of “deceased” was 150 aurora from the earth. Professor “Moret” believes that “Matn” has given his children 12 Aurora from his cult during his life. In fact, we know only one of his children, who was accidentally mentioned, and he is not far away, as his other children were females. This information is sufficient to describe the legal position of the family in the late third family.

Equality of women with men in the era of the third family

First of all, we see that the mother of “died” disposed completely of her own property, whether by will or gift, which indicates that she had absolute legal authority in her hand. Hence, she was not under her husband’s authority or the tutelage of her son or any other person, and her property was not mixed with the property. Her husband or the property of her children, whose properties were divided between them. He did not mention his wife’s “matn” in the inscriptions of his grave, which indicates that she was independent of him by law, and it is possible that she had a private burial and private rituals.

Equality in the inheritance among children

It is noticeable that we did not see a special advantage for the eldest son or the right to inherit children. Still, on the other hand, “Matn” did not mention that he is the eldest son, and he did not mention to us his male or female brothers, which is natural because his wealth was not mixed with their wealth. We conclude from this that the children inherited the property of their parents equally without any distinction in their shares. This result shows us legitimacy if we know that he “died” on his part, donating his property to his children without distinguishing between male and female.

And we have a document of one of the greats from the era of “Khufu” proving the right of males and females to inherit their father’s property. Each of the children who has three losses and gave a girl and another child whose name we do not know are two of them. From this last text, the system of inheritance among the royal family members becomes clear, and it was organized according to the principles of public rights.

The wife’s share of the property of her husband

It is not far-fetched that this division was at the time of the marriage contract between a man and his wife and that the property of each of them was determined in it, this does not prevent the husband from recommending to his wife something of his property that often exceeds the share of one of his children, as indicated by the wills that we found from the state covenant. For example, the aforementioned Prince “Ni Cao Ra” had recommended to his wife four estates. This is the largest share that each of his children took, which is three losses. Likewise, we see that “Nikankakh”, one of the great statesmen during the reign of the king and “a sufficient secret” of the Fifth Dynasty, made his wife share with him an important part of the income of his funeral estates. Likewise, the priest “Edo”, who lived during the reign of King “Bibi the First”, “Marin Ra”, and “Bibi II” recommended to his wife “Dusnak” a complete estate.

Individuality in the family

It is no secret then that the family’s rights during the reign of the third family appeared distinct from each other and that the family itself manifested itself in its narrowest limits, as it consisted of only the father, mother and children. This view is reinforced that we did not find lineage branches in the terraces of the third family. As the deceased confined himself to inscribing on the walls of his grave the history of his life or mentioning the names of his parents, wife and children to us, as we see in the cemeteries of “Rahotep” and “Hassi”. It denotes the idea of ​​individuality, as the man used to show himself above all in the appearance of an independent and isolated person, not a member of a family of interconnected elements, so he did not boast of his grandparents, but all his pride was confined to his own circle and his surroundings. Moreover, in this narrow-minded formation, the family did not constitute a legal unit, but rather it was composed of distinct and independent personalities, so the husband and wife are on an absolute equal footing, and each of them has his own property that he administers and disposes of with all his freedom, and marital power is absent and there is no control over women, and we can see in graves The third family said that women were not buried with men, so the great “Matn” did not mention to us in his inscriptions the name of his wife, who was apparently buried in a place other than his grave, and while the high priest, Hosni, was buried in Ain Shams from the reign of the third family in one cemetery with his wife “Hathor Neferetep” because the rituals of each of them were separately, and this indicates the independence of the personality even in the hereafter, although we sometimes see that the wife was painted on her husband’s grave during the reign of the third and fourth dynasties of the same size as the husband’s drawing, which proves that It was similar to him in honor as it was similar to him in rights.

Lack of polygamy and concubines among the common people

Marriage was likely contracted during the era of the Old Kingdom, and if no document of this kind reached us, but if the woman owned her own property, then her property must have been recorded at the time of marriage. In any case, we find that the wife was winning a part Of her husband’s property, and her share is usually greater than that of one of his children, taking from the wills we mentioned. It is right to show here that we have not yet found the favours of the great people during the reign of the Third Dynasty, but it is possible that the king had one, even if polygamy was absent among the great people and the common people. It is possible that the Egyptian used to marry twice, as is the case with “Shri” bin “Murr Ib”, the director of the priests of the king “Bar Ibb Sen” in the royal cemetery from the era of the Fourth Dynasty, as well as “Dua Ka”, the priest of the king, “Khakra”. Tomb inscriptions have two wives, but he only had one legal wife. In fact, we did not find in the grave drawings any favours as we will see in families after the fourth family. As for the children mentioned in the inscriptions, whether they are male or female, they are legitimate. They were of equal rights, inheriting the property of their father and mother and enjoying the life of their father’s gifts.

Lack of parental authority over adult boys

It is obvious after this statement that the woman was completely equal to the man in terms of rights, just as she was able, like him, to own a property, which confirms the conclusions that we have drawn from the legal position of the wife. We do not fail to explain that there is no parental authority over adult children, as these had private properties separate from the property of the father and mother. Therefore they could benefit from each gift from them, and they could contract with them, which would make in their hands a complete legal competence independent of Their parents. The status of females is like that of males, and it was not under the control of the father or any other control, which proves the absence of marital authority over women.