BATTLE OF KADESH

The 'Battle of Kadesh' took place between the forces of Ramesses II's Egypt and the Hittites of Muwatalli II, on or near the border marked by the headwaters of the Orontes River of modern Syria. The battle is generally dated to 1274 BC, during the reign of Egypt's Ramesses II (1279 – 1213 BC). It was probably the largest chariot battle ever fought, involving some 5,000 chariots. It also involved over 10,000 foot soldiers.

Contents

Background

Kadesh campaign

Battle

Aftermath

References

External links

Further reading

Background

For most of the Hyksos period ^[1] the Hittites were not resisted in their enchroachments southward. In the 18th and 19th Dynasties the Egyptians had been gradually pushed back from upper Retjenu (the Orontes River watershed) into the Djadi (the Jordan River watershed) until Thutmose I pushed back into Naharin, the land of rivers, a place in the mountains which included the headwaters of the Litanni, Orontes (retnu) and Jordan (djadi) which was claimed by the Mitanni vassals of the Hittites, who were at war with the Amurru, the northernmost vassal of Egypt.
After expelling the Hyksos 15th dynasty, the native Egyptian New Kingdom rulers became more aggressive in reclaiming control of their state's borders. Thutmose I, Amenhotep II, the son and coregent of Thutmose III, fought battles against Kadesh from Megiddo North to the Orontes river. The Nine bows, the traditional enemies of Egypt are also mentioned several times in contemporary inscriptions. Rameses personal bodyguard appear to be the Sherden ahown guarding him at his council of war, while the local giants are being interogated. These are portrayed as shashu of the im (Zamzummim, Anakim, Emim, and Rephaim)
Many of the Egyptian campaign accounts between c 1400 and 1300 BC reflect general destabilization of the region of the djadi, including endemic banditry which ties into the accounts of the battles of Judges II and Joshuah at places as far south as Megiddo, Beth Shean, Yanoam, and as far North as Hazor Kadesh and Damascus. MP OF Palestine ^[2]
The reigns of Thutmose IV and Amenhotep III were undistinguished except that Egypt continued to lose power to the Mitanni in northeastern Syria and to Kadesh in the region Biblically referred to as Mount Hermon. As genocidal war against the Canaanites gradually eliminated the people who had once protected it against incursions as far south as the Dead Sea and Negev both Egyptian and Hittite armies attempted to recruit vassals to replace them.
During the late Egyptian 18th dynasty, the Amarna Letters ^[3] tell the story of the decline of Egyptian influence in the region. After the reign of Akhenaten, Horemheb continued to campaign and in the 19th Dynasty so did Ramesses I. Like his father, Ramesses I, Seti I was a military commander and set out to restore Egypt's empire back to the vast glory days of the Tuthmosis kings almost a century before. Inscriptions on Karnak show the details of him campaigning into Canaan and Syria. He took 20,000 men and reoccupied abandoned Egyptian posts and garrisoned cities. He made peace with the Hittites, took control of coastal areas along the Mediterranean, and continued to fight against the bandits in Canaan. A second campaign led him to Kadesh where a stela commemorated his victory and his son and heir Ramesses II campaigned with him.

Kadesh campaign

Ramesses's army crossed the Egyptian border in the spring of year five of his reign and after a month's march reached the area of Kadesh from the south. The army was divided into four divisions, Amun, P're, Seth and the apparently newly formed Ptah division.^[4]
The Hittite king Muwatallis, who had mustered several of his allies (among them Rimisharrinaa, the king of Aleppo), had positioned his troops behind the hill at Kadesh, but Ramesses, misled after capturing two deserters, thought they were at Aleppo. Immediately Ramesses sent messengers to hasten the coming of the Ptah and Setekh divisions of his army which were still on the far side of the river Orontes.

Battle

As Ramesses and the Egyptian advance guard approached the city, 2 further prisoners revealed that the entire Hittite army, and their king, were hidden behind the city to the east. Before Ramesses could react, Muwatallis' chariots attacked the P're division, which was routed, and plundered the Egyptian camp. In the Egyptian account of the battle Ramesses describes himself as being deserted ("''...No officer was with me, no charioteer, no soldier of the army, no shield-bearer ...''"^[5]) and surrounded by enemies. Only through the gods did Ramesses personally defeat his attackers and return to the Egyptian lines ("''...I was before them like Seth in his monument. I found the mass of chariots in whose midst I was, scattering them before my horses...''"). Meanwhile a small group of Egyptian chariotry had formed, made up of Ramesses, his personal bodyguard and some of the chariots recovered from the broken Divisions of Amon and Re. Ramesses rallied them to charge against the Hittite force proving to be more than a match for them. At this time a troop contingent from Amurru called Ne'arin, suddenly arrived, surprising the Hittites. Ramesses reorganized his forces and drove the Hittites back across the Orontes. Muwatalli sent an additional 1000 chariots against the Egyptians but the Hittite forces were almost surrounded and retreated back across the Orontes River to join their infantry.
Ramesses recorded the names of the Hittite allies who opposed him; among them are the following: 1) Pi-da-sa, 2) Da-ar-d(a)-an-ya, 3) Ma-sa, 4) Qa-r(a)-qi-sa, 5) Ru-ka, and 6) Arzawa. The first name has been associated with Pedasos in Mysia of the Troad south of Troy, the second with the Dardanoi of the Troad, the third with southwest Anatolia, the fourth with Caria, the fifth with Lukka/Lycia, and the sixth with Arzawa in western Anatolia (Barnett 1975, 359-62; Breasted 1906, 3:123ff.; Gardiner 1961, 262ff.).

The next morning, a second, inconclusive battle was fought. Muwatalli called for a truce. Neither side gained total victory. The Egyptians had suffered heavy casualties and Kadesh's defenses remained unbroken. Muwutalli's army, though bloodied, was intact, with more than 1,000 chariots still at his disposal.

Aftermath

Ramesses prudently gathered his troops and retreated south towards Damascus, and ultimately back to Egypt. Once back in Egypt, Ramesses proclaimed that he had won a great victory but in reality all he had managed to do was to rescue his army.^[6] In a sense, however, the Battle of Kadesh was a personal triumph for Ramesses since after blundering into a devastating Hittite ambush, the young king had escaped death or capture and, courageously rallied his scattered troops.
The Hittite records from Boghazkoy tell of a very different conclusion to the battle where a humiliated Ramesses was forced to depart from Kadesh in defeat. The Hittite king, Muwatalli II, continued to successfully campaign as far south as the Egyptian province of Upi, which he placed under the control of his brother Hattusili III.^[7] Egypt's sphere of influence in Asia was restricted to Canaan.^[8] Even this was threatened for a time as Ramesses was compelled to embark on a series of campaigns in Canaan in order to uphold his authority here before he could initiate further assaults against the Hittite Empire in his Years 8 and 9 when he succesfully captured the cities of Dapur and Tunip.^[9]
The Egyptian version of the battle of Kadesh is recorded in 2 forms, known as the ''Bulletin'' and the ''Poem''. These are repeated multiple times (7 for the ''Bulletin'' and 8 times for the ''Poem'', in temples in Abydos, Luxor, Karnak, Abu Simbel and the Ramesseum.) ^[5] The Hittite version has been found at Hattusa, and tells the story of the battle as recalled by the brother of Muwatalli II, Hattusili III
The conflicts were finally concluded by a peace treaty in 1258 BC, in the 21st year of Ramesses II's reign, Hattusili III, the new king of the Hittites.^[11]
The treaty that was established was inscribed on a silver tablet, of which a clay copy survived in the Hittite capital of Hattusa, in modern Turkey, and is on display at the Istanbul Archaeology Museum. An enlarged replica of the Kadesh agreement hangs on a wall at the headquarters of the United Nations, as one of the earliest international peace treaties. Its text, in the Hittite version, appears in the links below. An Egyptian version survives in a papyrus.
Peace reigned until Ramesses' successor Merneptah had to undertake a campaign to Canaan shortly after his accession in order to quell unrest among the local kings.

References

1. Baines and Ma'lek, "Atlas of Ancient Egypt" pp 42,84,99,133, 174
2. Joshua
3. Judges IV
4. Egypt of the Pharaohs, , Sir Alan, Gardiner, Oxford University Press, 1964,
5. Ancient Egyptian Literature, , Miriam, Lichtheim, University of California Press, 1976,
6. Nicholas Grimal, A History of Ancient Egypt, Blackwell Books: 1992, p.256
7. Joyce Tyldesley, Ramesses: Egypt's Greatest Pharaoh, Penguin Books, 2000. p.73
8. Tyldesley, op. cit., p.73
9. Tyldesley, op. cit., p.75
10. Ancient Egyptian Literature, , Miriam, Lichtheim, University of California Press, 1976,
11. Ramses/Hattusili Treaty

External links

★ End of Egyptian–Hittite hostilities

★ Hittite version of the Peace treaty of 1258 BC

★ The Battle of Kadesh in the context of Hittite history

★ Battle of Kadesh

★ The actual Battle of Kadesh

★ The Eternal treaty from the Hittite perspective

Further reading

★ Qadesh 1300 B.C, Clash of the Warrior Kings, , Mark, Healy, Osprey Publishing, 1993,

★ The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt, , Ian, Shaw, Oxford University Press, 2003,

★ Ancient Egyptian Literature, , Miriam, Lichtheim, University of California Press, 1976,