Letter of the Egyptian Queen's Proposal to the Hittite king !

Letter of the Egyptian Queen's Proposal to the Hittite king !

 Many things we wonder are hidden in the hidden depths of history.  Many events that shaped the course of history have been hidden in the darkness of the past.

 We wonder about the mysterious aspects of history that we have not yet fully clarified, even though some of them have come to light.  History sometimes opens its doors to us, and sometimes it can keep us waiting in a sense of wonder for years.

 

 Thanks to cuneiform tablets, we can learn some of the secret-filled murders caused by passions, revenge and throne fights.  Here is one of these secrets BC.  II.  It is a letter secretly written by the Egyptian Queen to the Hittite King Suppiluliuma in the millennium BC.

 Who was the owner of this letter, which has been the subject of many studies until now and different theses were put forward about them?  Why did he write this letter?  Why was Suppilulium I surprised who read the letter?

  IV.  What was written in the letter, which was said to have caused the Hittite state's friendship relations with Egypt, which continued until the death of Amenofis, to deteriorate?  Was this woman's ambitions caused the Battle of Kadesh?

 Perhaps no one even thought at that time that a text found among thousands of terracotta tablets in Boğazköy in Anatolia would change the course of history and would be among the most famous letters of the Hittite Age.

 We owe the information about this correspondence between the king and the queen of the two most powerful countries of the period to Mursili II, the son of the Hittite King Suppiluliuma I and his successor.  Murşili;  While telling at length about his works, he mentions his father's works and also mentions these letters.

  According to Mursili, his father, Suppiluliuma I (1380-1345 BC) ascended the bloody throne after shedding blood again due to throne fights and killing many people, especially his brother prince Young Tuthaliya.

 First Shuppiluliuma, who came to power in a period when most of the Hatti lands were lost to enemies and the political situation was not good, firstly dealt with the turmoil in Anatolia.  As an experienced and skilled commander, he knows how to deal with enemy countries and establishes the Great Hittite Empire.  Following an expansionist policy, I. Suppiluliuma, King of Egypt IV.  He sees Amenophis as an opportunity to engage in turning Egypt's polytheistic religion into a single god, and then the internal turmoil that occurred after the death of his son Tutenkamon, who was replaced by Kizzuwatna, this time after securing himself by making an agreement with Kizzuwatna.  he begins to put pressure on him.  On the one hand, two generals named Lupakki and Tarhuntazalma attacked and plundered the country of Amka, the territory of Egypt's influence, while I Suppiluliuma planned a move to take revenge on Egypt, which attacked Kadesh, and Kargamis came before them.

 At the same time that Egypt came to the point of entering the Hittites' sphere of influence, a letter from the Egyptian Queen came to Suppiluliuma.  In the letter that will reshape history, the Queen says:

 “My husband is dead.  I have no son.  They say you have (one) many sons.  If you give me a son, he could be my husband.  I never want to take one of my servants and make him my husband.  I'm very afraid of that. "

 Reading the letter, the Great Hittite King was surprised at what he would do in the face of this unprecedented request of the widowed queen of the proud dynasty of the closed Egyptian palace, doubted the accuracy of the news, gathered the elders of Hatti for consultation and explained the situation.  To see if he was deceived because he could not trust this unusual offer, “Go and bring me the true promise.  Maybe they want to deceive me. ”He sends Hattusha-ziti, the head of the great chamberman, to Egypt.  He brings silver, gold, and bronze items as spoils of war, as well as a large number of prisoners.  The number of prisoners he brought to the palace was 3.330, and the number of those the Hittites brought to their country is not known.

 Meanwhile, Hattusa-ziti, sent to the Egyptian Palace, returns in the spring of the following year with the second letter from the Queen.  This time, the Queen sent the Egyptian commander Hani to persuade the Hittite King Shuppilu-liuma.  The sad and resentful queen appeals to the Hittite Great King once again and writes the following lines, which gives the impression that she is very sincere:

 "Why did you say that:" they are cheating on me. "If I had a son, would I write about the downsizing of myself and my country to another country?  You didn't believe me and wrote me like this.  The person who was my husband died.  I have no son either.  I will never take my servant and make him my husband.  I did not write to any other country, I only wrote to you.  They say you have many sons.  Give me a son.  Let he be husband to me and king to Egypt. "

 This woman, who made history with her surprising words by proposing to a man, is the third daughter of Egypt's "Heretic" King Akhnaton (Amenophy IV) and Nefertiti, and also Ankhesenamon, the wife of Tutankhamon, who was king at a young age and died at the age of eighteen.  was.

 Although Mursili says, "My father was kind hearted, he listened to the woman's word and chose the son to send," as well as being a good commander, Suppiluliuma I, a successful statesman, was not willing to engage in direct conflict with Egypt and the Hittites  With the idea that Hatti and Egypt will always remain friends, he accepts this offer and chooses Zannanza as the groom candidate among his sons.  Unfortunately, the fact that I. Suppiluliuma did not act immediately upon the first letter received from the queen and waited for a long time gave time to the people who had the passion to take the throne in Egypt, and one of the courtiers who took the throne took action to realize his own plan.

 The news reached Hatti that Zannanza, who was sent to Egypt with a small military unit, was killed by the enemies of the queen in the Sinai Desert before reaching the Nile Valley and meeting with the widowed Queen Ankhesenamon.

 Although it is not understood when and how the death of the Hittite Prince Zannanza took place until now, all doubts center on Tutankhamon's successor, the chief vizier Ay.  Because, after the death of Akhenaten, Tuth-ankh-Aten (Tutankhamon), who was the only boy left to the throne at the age of ten, started the war for office among the officials in the palace, Ay (Eje) accepted his superiority among the priests.  He became the head vizier.  Later, with the suspicious death of Tutankhamon, the royal and army management passed into the hands of the Moon.

 In his letter to I.Suppiluliuma that the Moon had pressured Ankhesenamon to marry, possibly to take the throne, but that Ankhesenamon did not want to marry this man who was formerly Akhnaton's horse-keeper, I would never want to take one of my servants and make him my husband.  .  I'm very afraid of that. "  we understand from his words.  The Queen would have felt herself in great danger that by writing these lines she took refuge in I. Suppiluliuma and asked her for help.

 However, Ay, who heard about this letter sent secretly, sent the Egyptian General Horemheb on the Hittite union to execute the said Zannanza murder, thus paving the way to seize the throne. Later, Ay reached this goal and married Ankhesenamon at the age of 66.  We see that he seized his pharaoh.  The ring found by Newberry, with both their names in a cartridge, leads us to this conclusion, and at the same time suggests that Tutankhamon was killed by the Moon.

 Meanwhile, the news of the death of his son, I. Suppiluliuma wrote to Egypt with great pain that "you killed my son", and in his last years, his son II.  It is also told in the second plague prayer of Mursili that he told Arnuvanda to take revenge from the Egyptians and that Suppiluliuma attacked and punished Egypt for this incident.

 It is believed that a broken letter found in Boğazköy belongs to I. Suppiluliuma and confirms this.  In this letter, which was acknowledged by I.Suppiluliuma to be sent to Tutankhamen's successor Ay, the letter of the new Pharaoh to Hattausha is mentioned.  In the letter of the new Pharaoh, he states that the Hittite Prince was treated well in Egypt but died as a result of a natural death, but he writes that Suppiluliuma did not believe this and that his son was killed and declares war to punish Egypt.  However, it is said that this war was waged against dependent states of Egypt in Syria or Phoenician.

 Suppiluliuma I, who followed an expansionist policy after taking the throne, could not face his great adversary, who could be dangerous for him before, and even sent him gifts to celebrate the ascent of Pharaoh Amenophy IV.  The relations of I. Suppiluliuma with Egypt went well until the above-mentioned two generals plundered the country of Amka.  However, with the appearance of the Hittites in Amka, the small kingdoms in Syria were caught between Egypt and the Hittite forces and tried to follow a two-sided policy.  With his rational policy, I. Suppiluliuma managed to take them under his command and his domain now reached the Egyptian border.  Upon the letter that came at this time, I. Suppiluliuma thought of the cunning of seizing Egypt by means of this confluence without entering into a direct conflict with Egypt.  However, the long wait of I. Suppiluliuma to act prevented this historical event from happening.  If I Suppiluliuma had not acted too cautiously, the Pharaoh lineage would have passed to the Hittites and, as the ruler of Asia Minor, they would have written history in a different way, not being limited to their homeland Anatolia.

 Thus, I. Suppiluliuma seized Syria by taking the throne fights in Egypt as an opportunity.  For this reason, the tension between the Egyptians and the Hittites continued for a long time. This hostility was officially resolved through a peace agreement between Hattushili III and Ramses II. This peace was made by the Hittite Queen Puduhepa and the Egyptian Queen Naptera.  They corresponded for the continuation of the brotherhood.  As seen throughout history, men's ambitions for power and power have caused bloody wars and murders for years, while women have fought for peace.

 Just as the kidnapping of the beautiful Helena was shown by causing the Trojan War in Homer's Ilias, it was put forward that Ankhesenamon was caused by the Battle of Kadesh, and a woman was sought behind every evil.  However, Ankhesenamon tried to get rid of a desperate murderer with his ambition for the throne.  The poor woman disappears shortly after the marriage.  It is believed that Ankhesenamon was also killed by the Moon.

 This marriage, which took place 3300 years ago and still has a veil of mystery and could be important enough to change the course of history, unfortunately could not be realized due to the prudence of the Hittite king.

 Although a conclusion has been made on the correspondence in question in the light of what has been achieved through archaeological findings so far, the developments that will take place in the following years will perhaps lead us back to the past and lead to new arguments, and perhaps will completely eliminate the question marks in our minds by reaching a definitive conclusion.

 The other name of Amenofis IV is Akhnaton.  He founded the new capital in central Egypt: Akhet-Aton (Tel-el-Amarna);  The meaning of this name meant "the horizon of the sun".  He also started using the name Akhnaton.  His main purpose was to establish the religion of Aton in this city and to prophesy it.

 Binnur Çelebi, Proposal of the Egyptian Queen to the Hittite King ”, İdol Magazine, Issue 28, Ankara, 2006, p.  39-43.