Fesseha 16

Ethiopia's 5000 Year History, from Noah until the EPRDF, Fesseha Yaze Kassa, AD 2011

translated and annotated by Ras Feqade, AD 2021

### Chapter 16 - Reigns of Aksumay Worrede Tsehay and Kastah Handyon 778-742 BC

[The Ethiopian account, as given in this chapter, and also by Tekletsadek, cannot be correct. When Piankhi II passed away in 714 BC, he was followed in Egypt by his son Shebitku, and in Ethiopia by his sister Nikanta Hendeke (Amernerdis).

The only figure named Kashta (Kastah) is Piankhi's father, (not son in law), who ruled at Napata before him from ca. 762-744 BC. Kashta was also the most powerful figure in Egypt during these years, which was nominally divided among petty Meshwesh pharaohs, getting his daughter Amernerdis confirmed as successor to the High priestess Shepenupet I, daughter of Osorkon III.

Kashta's predecessor is called Alara in Nubian records, Aksumay in Ethiopian tradition. If Aksumay / Alara ruled 23 years as a posthumous son of the previous king with Kashta as regent, he must have been son of Tewasyas II, and must have ruled 785-762 BC.]

King Piyanki II before dying, because he had no son who inherits the throne, and because his wife was pregnant, at the time he became ill he passed a will saying thus for the Kastah who was his daughter's husband:

"As it were my wife bore a son, let my son inherit the throne by thy regency; but if she didn't bear a son, as the children thou beget from my daughter are my children, I have given my kingdom to you."

After this will, on the 15th day that Piyanki died, his wife bore a son for him, and being called Aksumay he ruled in his infancy, and enduring while he ruled in Kastah's regency, because he suddenly died in his youth, the husband of Piyanki's daughter, Kastah, has been able to be substituted in the kingdom.

In the 23rd year that Piyanki's only son Aksumay /Worrede Tsehay/ was born, in the 23rd year that he reigned, when it is known that he endured administering Ethiopia with the realm of Egypt by a regent, his detailed history is not found either on a monument in hieroglyphs, nor in another place.

[Alara however is known from Nubian archaeology to have had a queen named Kasaqa and a daughter, Tabiry, queen of Piankhi.]

But even though the history of Piyanki II's son in law who followed him, king Kastah Handiyon, be not lengthy, it has been found correctly written for him both in hieroglyphs and in others.

#### Reign of Kastah Handyon 755-742 BC

Kastah Handyon was the husband of Piyanki's daughter. In the reign of Piyanki II's son Aksumay, by means of Piyanki's will, he has endured firming up in his regency. And when he was handed the kingdom after Aksumay's death, he had married her called Shapi Napit, daughter of Osorkon III, who was tributary to Ethiopia in Lower Egypt, and held authority of the pharaohship. Although, this is his second wife; yet his main spouse was Piyanki II's daughter.

[King Kashta ca. 762-744 BC (Gregorian), Piankhi II's father, did not marry Shepenupet, high priestess of Thebes, but did have his daughter Amenirdis installed as her successor. Kashta's only known queen was named Pebatma; the parentage of both is uncertain, but surely he was in the same royal family connected with both Napata and Aksum.]

And what the history book of Joseph Katawi Pasha says, beginning from page 54, is what confirms this. Because Piyanki, the father of Kastah or Kashta's main wife, died, those in Egypt who were formerly ruled and subject for Piyanki, now though have fought telling Kastah 'We won't be ruled for thee.'

And above all, Tefnekta's son Konraf eliminated all other princes, and proclaimed "I seized the throne of pharaohship in Lower Egypt."

And because others arose being his confederates, Kastah's era of rule was not calm. Even so, Kastah in Upper Egypt, Tefnekta's son moreover saying "I am who founded the 24th dynasty in Lower Egypt and seized the pharaohship", Konraf and Kastah waited being called in a conflict saying "I am, I am", and finally Piyanki II's grandson, meaning the Shabaka born from Piyanki's daughter and from Kastah Handyon, killed Konraf, and seized the main place and authority of pharaohship, and as we shall see next, has been able to found in Egypt the 25th dynasty of Egypt. And so Kastah has lasted 12 years as King of Kings of Ethiopia, in an unsettled situation.

[The struggle of Tefnakht's son and successor Bakenranef was with the later king Shabaka II, brother of Piankhi II, not with their father Kashta.

Kashta was succeeded in Napata by his son Piankhi II in 744 BC (see preceding Chapter 15), followed by his daughter Amenerdis (Nikanta) in 714 BC.]

* Next: Fesseha 17.