Мысыр қаласы Қифт тарихы

Town in Egypt

Qift ( ; Keft or Kebto; Egyptian Gebtu; Κόπτος Coptos / Koptos; Roman Justinianopolis) is a city in the Qena Governorate of Egypt about north of Luxor, situated a little south of latitude 26° north, on the east bank of the Nile. In ancient times its proximity to the Red Sea made it an important trading emporium between India, Punt, Arabia Felix and the North. It was important for nearby gold and quartzite mines in the Eastern Desert, and as a starting point for expeditions to Punt (in modern Somalia).

In ancient Egypt, Qift, known then as Gebtu, was an important center for administration, religion, and commerce, being the chief city of the fifth Upper Egyptian nome of Harawî (Two Hawks). From Qift and Qus, trading expeditions heading for the Red Sea and many mining expeditions into the Eastern Desert left the Nile Valley. Gebtu was at the starting point of the two great caravan routes leading to the coast of the Red Sea, the one toward the port Tââou (Myoshormos or Myos Hormos), the other more southerly, toward the port of Shashirît (Berenice). Under the native pharaohs, the whole trade of southern Egypt with the Red Sea passed over these two roads; under the Ptolemies as well as in Roman and Byzantine times, merchants followed the same roads for purposes of barter at the coasts of Zanzibar and in Southern Arabia, India, and the Far East. Gebtu was the most important religious center in the area. Its principal male deity was Min, a sky god whose symbol was a thunderbolt. He became a male fertility deity, and also was regarded as the male deity of the desert region to the east. His cult rose to prominence in the Middle Kingdom. At that time, he became associated with Horus as the deity, Min Horus. Later, he was fused with Amen in the deity Min Amen ka Mut ef, as "Min Amen bull of his mother" (Hathor Isis). Isis (Hathor Isis) and her infant, Horus, were the deities connected with Gebtu, named Coptos during the Greco Roman period, probably from the reinterpretation of the Two Hawks of the Nome, Harawî, standard as Min and Horus. Gebtu, once politically important, especially under the Eleventh Dynasty, was overshadowed by Thebes.

The town was of importance in Hellenistic times, when it was the terminus of a caravan route to Berenice on the Red Sea. It was built up by Augustus, fell to the Blemmyes in the 3rd cent. AD, and was almost destroyed by Diocletian in AD 292. It recuperated its prominence under the Antonines; it was the base camp of Legio III Cyrenaica, or at least one of its subunits. It rebelled, but soon was captured in 292 by Diocletian after a long siege and the original city got heavily damaged. It was then reconstructed as a Roman City with many fortifications and Roman camps. In the 6th century, Qift was renamed Justinianopolis, like several other cities, after the Byzantine emperor Justinian I. The present day village of Qift is on the site. The epic poet Christodorus was from the city.

Under the caliphs and the sultans in the Islamic era Qift was a chief city of Upper Egypt and a Shi'ite waqf of the Ashraf Alids. In the 12th/13th century the geographer Yaqut al Hamawi wrote of Qift's commerce with India and its surrounding orchards. Several generations of qadi high officials of the Ayubids derived their family nisba (surname), 'Al Qifti', from the territory. The celebrated biographer al Qifti, was born here in 1172, where he received an early education.

Remains of three temple groups surrounded by an enclosure wall were located during the excavations of W. M. Flinders Petrie in 1893 1894, and later, by Raymond Weill and Adolphe Joseph Reinach in 1910–1911. Qift was the focus of an American archaeological project from 1987 to 1992 and an Australian one between 2000 and 2003.

The undecorated northern temple of Min and Isis dates to the Ptolemaic period. Earlier structures on the site date back to the Middle Kingdom, with significant work during the New Kingdom reign of Tuthmosis III. The temple was rebuilt during the Ptolemaic Period. The later work has been attributed to an official named Sennuu shepsi on behalf of Ptolemy II Philadelphus (ruling from 281 BC to 246 BC). This northern temple has some later additions by Ptolemy IV Philopator ruling from 221–205 BC. Scenes on the facade of the temple show the deified king Ptolemy I Soter leaving a palace, while other items such as a triad and a stela date to the time of Ramesses II. This temple stands on the site of earlier Ancient Egyptian temple structures. Foundation deposits point to a temple of Thutmose III of the 18th Dynasty. Another temple belonged to Amenemhat I and his son, Senusret I, both of the 12th Dynasty. Senusret I is shown receiving life from Bubastis and Nekhbet. Within this temple a decree from the 17th Dynasty ruler Nubkheperre Intef was found by the East doorway. The decree describes how Nubkheperre Intef deposed a man named Teti.

The middle temple dates back to the time of Thutmose III of the 18th Dynasty. The temple was later rebuilt by Ptolemy II Philadelphus and restored by the Roman emperor Claudius. At the site of the later middle temple built during the Ptolemaic kingdom, blocks of an earlier structure by Senusret I and a gate of Thutmose III, with additions probably made by Osorkon II of the 22nd Dynasty, were found. This later middle temple was built during the Ptolemaic kingdom by Ptolemy II Philadelphus, with minor additions by members of the Julio Claudian Dynasty of Rome, Caligula, Claudius, and Trajan. The foundations contained objects from the Old Kingdom and the First Intermediate Period. Stelae were found depicting Pepi I and his mother Queen Iput before the god Min, two decrees and fragments of others by Pepi II. A First Intermediate Period decree regarding offerings to a statue of Pepi II was found. The stele mentions the overseer of the prophets named Idi. Three decrees of Neferkauhor, two of which were addressed to a Vizier and are now in the Cairo Museum.

Northeast of Qift, at the modern village of El Qala, the Roman emperor Claudius also built a small temple and dedicated it to Min, Isis, and Horus. The Horus name of the Roman emperor Tiberius (emperor 14–37 A. D.) is shown on two columns in the sanctuary. In the same sanctuary Claudius is shown before Isis. In the south chapel the emperor offers to Hathor, while on the exterior he is shown offering to the united emblems of Upper and Lower Egypt.

The Christian city was still important enough to become a bishopric, suffragan of Ptolemais in the Late Roman province Thebais Secunda. Five bishops are known (Le Quien, II, 607): Theodorus, a partisan of Meletius; Phoebammon in 431; Sabinus in 451; Vincent, author of the "Canonical Solutions", preserved in an Arabic translation and highly esteemed by the Copts; Moyses, who wrote the panegyric of Vincent. It faded under Islamic rule, no later than the Ottoman ruin of the city.