THE CUNEIFORM INSCRIPTIONS OF TEL EL-AMARNA, 23 
The Hittites are alluded to in other tablets at Boulaq. I 
have already spoken of the despatch of Rib-Addu, in which 
reference is made to the kings of Tarkusi and the Hittites, as 
well as to the adjoining kingdom of Mitanna or Naharaim. 
Another tablet of black clay, unfortunately much worn and 
injured, tells us that “at that time the king of the Hittites 
was captured in the vicinity of the country of Kutiti (and) 
the kings of Mittanni and Nabuma” joined in the war. A 
despatch now at Berlin contains an urgent request from one 
of the cities of Syria for help against the Hittites, whose 
forces were advancing southwards. 
One of the facts which result most clearly from a study of 
the tablets is that, not only was a Semitic language the me- 
dium of literary intercourse between the Pharaoh of Egypt 
and his officers abroad, but that Semites held high and respon- 
sible posts in the Egyptian Court itself. Thus we find Dudu, 
or David, addressed by his son as “my lord,” and ranking, 
apparently, next to the monarch ; and there are letters in the 
Boulaq Collection written not only by officials with an Egyp- 
tian name, like Khapi or Hapi (Apis), but with such Semitic 
names as Rib-Addu, Samu-Addu (‘‘ Shem is Hadad’’) of ‘ the 
city of Samkhuna,” Dasru, Bu-Dadu (the Biblical Bedad), and 
Milkili (the Biblical Malchiel). Even the Assyrian Su-arda-ka 
occurs inone ofthem. A flood of light is thus poured upon a 
period of Egyptian history which is of high interest for the 
student of the Old Testament. In spite of the reticence of the 
Egyptian monuments, we can now see what was the meaning 
of the attempt of Amenophis IV. to supersede the ancestral _ 
religion of Egypt. The king was in all respects an Asiatic. 
His mother, who seems to have been a woman of strong 
character,—able to govern not only her son, but even her less 
pliable husband,—came from the region of the Euphrates, and 
brought with her Asiatic followers, Asiatic ideas, and an Asiatic 
form of faith. The Court became Semitised. The favourites 
and officials of the Pharaoh, his officers in the field, his cor- 
respondents abroad, bore names which showed them to be of 
Canaanite and even of Israelitish origin. If Joseph and his 
brethren had found favour among the Hyksos princes of an 
earlier day, their descendants were likely to find equal favour 
at the Court of “the heretic king.” 
We need not wonder, therefore, if Amenophis IV. found 
himself compelled to quit Thebes. The old aristocracy might 
have condoned his religious heresy,—they could not condone 
his supplanting them with foreign favourites. The rise of the 
19th Dynasty marks the successful reaction of the native 
Egyptian against the predominance of the Semite in the 
