Tale of Sinuhe

By Scriptural Research Institute

The Tale of Sinuhe, also called the Story of Sanhat, is one of the most popular stories that has survived to the present from the Egyptian Middle Kingdom. Dozens of fragments of copies have been found, which is unusual and speaks volumes of how popular it was in the Middle Kingdom. Egyptologists are divided on how much of it is fictional, with s

• Language: English
• Publisher: Digital Ink Productions
• Release date: Oct 19, 2021
• ISBN: 9781990289286

Book preview

Tale of Sinuhe

SCRIPTURAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE

Published by Digital Ink Productions, 2023

COPYRIGHT

While every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this book, the publisher assumes no responsibility for errors or omissions, or for damages resulting from the use of the information contained herein.

Tale of Sinuhe

Digital edition. September 16, 2023

Copyright © 2023 Scriptural Research Institute.

ISBN: 978-1-990289-28-6

This English translation was created by the Scriptural Research Institute in 2021, primarily from Papyrus Berlin 10499 (The Ramesside Papyrus), Papyrus Berlin 3022, Papyrus Hagareh 1 (UC 32773), and the Papyrus Buenos Aires.

The image used for the cover is an artistic reinterpretation of ‘Temple of Isis at Philae’ by David Roberts, lithographed in the 1830s.

Note: The notes for this book include multiple ancient scripts. For your convenience, fonts correctly depicting these scripts are embedded in the ebook. If your reader does not support embedded fonts, you will need to install Unicode fonts that cover the ranges for Akkadian Cuneiform, Arabic, Extended Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Imperial Aramaic, Linear B, Phoenician, Syriac, and Ugaritic on your reader manually, or you may see blank areas, question marks, or squares where the scripts are used. The Noto fonts from Google cover most of the scripts used, however, will not depict Egyptian hieroglyphs correctly due to current limitations in Unicode. Additionally, as there is no support for hieratic in Unicode, all hieratic terms have been transliterated into the Latin alphabet.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Title Page

Copyright

Forward

The Letter of Sinuhe

Senusret’s Reply to Sinuhe

Sinuhe’s Reply to Senusret

Sinuhe’s Return to Egypt

Available Digitally

Available in Print

FORWARD

The Tale of Sinuhe, also called the Story of Sanhat, is one of the most popular stories that has survived to the present from the Egyptian Middle Kingdom. Dozens of fragments of copies have been found, which is unusual and speaks volumes of how popular it was in the Middle Kingdom. Egyptologists are divided on how much of it is fictional, with some claiming it is a historical text, while others claim it is entirely fictional. The copies that have been found are not identical, with sections of text that were either added to the original, or dropped from the original, and therefore it was altered over time. As a result, the general view within Egyptology is that it likely started as a historical text that was embellished by later scribes.

Unfortunately, the original author either did not see a reason to explain what had happened before Sinuhe’s flight from Egypt, or it was removed from the copies that have survived to the present. Sinuhe makes a point of claiming that he was not deserting the army in Libya, but later the king states that he knows that Sinuhe was not plotting against him when he fled Egypt. This suggests that someone had conspired against Senusret I at the beginning of his reign, however, the events of this plot have not survived to the present. It isn’t clear if the details were removed out of respect for the king, or if the author simply expected everyone to know what had happened.

The identity of Sinuhe is also somewhat unclear from the surviving texts, however, he appears to be a relative of the Queen, who had grown up with the future king Senusret I. He may have been the army commander sent to conquer the Libyans at the end of Amenemhat I’s