Meshves

Meshves hieroglyphs

Meshves ( Mashawasha , abbreviated as Ma ) is one of the Libyan tribes known in ancient Egypt since the nineteenth dynasty .

During the reign of Pharaoh Amenhotep III, the Meshves people supply bull fat to the temples of Malkath near Thebes and is famous as a kind of skilled cattle breeders. They are also referred to as a tribe hostile to Ancient Egypt, who raided the west of the Nile Delta and eventually turned into a serious threat to this region. According to the "stele in Mersa Matruh", for the first time in this capacity they invade Egypt under Pharaoh Ramses II . In 1208 BC e., in the 5th year of the reign of Pharaoh Merneptah , in the west of the Delta, a battle of Sais took place - between a large army of Libyans (including Meshesh ) and “ peoples of the sea ” on the one hand, and Egyptian troops on the other.

The continuation of this struggle between the Egyptian state and the Libyans meshesh took place under Pharaoh Ramses III who, after a victory, settled the meshesh tribes in his country in order to recruit Libyans in his army, and also use them in various jobs. Meshvesh leaders became priests in local churches, and over time, an autonomous small principality formed in the places of their settlement, whose ruler under the name Sheshonk I in 945 BC. e. becomes the first pharaoh of Ancient Egypt from the Libyan dynasty (XXII dynasty).

Probably correspond to the maxims mentioned by Herodotus .