Velikovsky's Historical Sources
Ages In Chaos
Chapter II: The Hyksos
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The expulsion of the Hyksos in the Egyptian and Hebrew records
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The Hyksos retreat to Idumaea
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The Queen Tahpenes
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Location of Auaris
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Hyksos and Amalekite parallels
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The confusion of Hyksos and Israelites
and the beginning of anti-Semitism -
World history in the balance
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Who were the Hyksos?
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The Israelites meet the Hyksos
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The upheaval in Arabia
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The Arabian traditions about the Amalekite pharaohs
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Hyksos in Egypt
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Malakhei-roim—King-shepherds
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Palestine at the time of the Hyksos domination
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The length of the Hyksos period
NEXT: Chapter III: The Queen of Sheba
PREVIOUS: Chapter I: In Search of a Link
This is a brief article exerpted from the 1st (1913) edition of The Encyclopedia of Islam. Velikovsky made brief reference to it in respect of a specific point, but may also have drawn on a wider concept expressed in it.
An important chronological realignment in Velikovsky's thesis was the idea that the Hyksos, Semitic tribes from the deserts of the Sinai Peninsula and southern Canaan, who ruled Egypt for some centuries, were the same as the Amalekites, a tribe which the Israelites encountered and defeated in battle in those same regions while fleeing from captivity in Egypt. The equation of these peoples required removing 500 years from Egyptian history, and leaned heavily on late Islamic traditions about the Amalekites. Velikovsky made passing, and dismissive, reference to Noldeke's monograph on that people, but completely failed to engage with any of its arguments as to why the Islamic accounts of the Amalekites should be considered fictitious. I believe this is the first time that this work has been translated into English.
Towards the end of his section in which the Hyksos were equated to the Biblical Amalekites, Velikovsky quoted Tuch to prove that the Egyptian term for the Hyksos, "Amu", was known to be "a synonym for Amalekite". Unfortunately, this equation fails on two grounds: that the Egyptian term was not "Amu", and that the name "Amu" does not actually appear in Tuch's text.