Қылымдағы "Меджай" тайпасы: тарихы мен маңызы

Demonym used in Ancient Egypt

Medjay (also Medjai, Mazoi, Madjai, Mejay, Egyptian mḏꜣ. j, a nisba of mḏꜣ) was a demonym used in various ways throughout ancient Egyptian history to refer initially to a nomadic group from Nubia and later as a generic term for desert ranger police.

The first mention of the Medjay in written records dates back to the Old Kingdom, when they were listed among other Nubian peoples in the Autobiography of Weni, who was at the time a general serving under Pepi I Meryre (reigned 2332–2287 BC). During this time the term "Medjay" referred to people from the land of Medja, a district thought to be located just east of the Second Nile Cataract in Nubia. Nubia was referred to as Ta Seti, meaning "Land of the bow", by the Egyptians and the people there (including the Medjay) were renowned for their military skills, particularly as archers. A decree from Pepi I's reign, which lists different officials (including an Overseer of the Medja, Irtjet and Satju), illustrates that Medja was at least to some extent subjugated by the Egyptian government. Since the time of Alan Gardiner, a common account has been that the Medjay constituted an ethnic group. More recent work suggests that the term was initially an Egyptian exonym, and that those identified as Medjay may not have considered themselves to have a shared ethnicity, and certainly were not a unified polity. Written accounts from the Middle Kingdom such as the Semna Despatches describe the Medjay as nomadic desert people. Egyptian sources are inconsistent in distinguishing between "Nehesy" people generally and Medjay until the latter portion of the Middle Kingdom. Senwosret III enacted a prohibition on Nehesy movement north of Semna, while the administration began making a distinction between these two categories of people. Liszka hypothesizes that this may have motivated people to take on "Medjay" as an ethnic identity. They also were sometimes employed as soldiers (as we know from the stele of Res and Ptahwer). And during the Second Intermediate Period, they were even used during Kamose's campaign against the Hyksos and became instrumental in making the Egyptian state into a military power. The Medjay were also hired as soldiers and guards in the Kushite military as well as the Roman Egypt army.

In the 1999 remake The Mummy, and the sequel The Mummy Returns (2001). the Medjay are mentioned as Pharaoh Seti I's personal bodyguards in ancient Egypt. In the 2017 video game Assassin's Creed Origins, the protagonist, Bayek of Siwa, is considered "the last Medjay". In the game, the Medjay are depicted as a police force whose job is to protect the pharaoh. However, Bayek abandons his duty when he learns that the pharaoh Ptolemy XIII is an ally to a dark and mysterious organization called "The Order of the Ancients"
which is responsible for the death of his son. In the 2020 graphic novel 20s A Difficult Age: The Blue Madjai, by Marcus Orelias, the protagonist of the series goes by the moniker "the Blue Madjai". In the 2017 video game For Honor, in the July 2022 "Curse of the Scarab: Title Update 2" software update, a playable character named for and inspired by the Medjay was released. In the 2021 video game Forewarned, 1 4 players explore ancient Egyptian tombs and gather evidence to identify the evil Medjai haunting the area, and can perform elaborate hidden rituals to banish them to the Egyptian afterlife. In this game, Medjay, or Medjai are depicted as malevolent undead spirits.