God instructs Moses to collect an army and
destroy Midian
[10]
Israel is oppressed by Midian during the
time of the Judges.
Gideon is called by God to deliver Israel
from Midian's armies.[11]
The people of Midian are also mentioned
extensively in the
Qur'an, where the name appears in Arabic as
Madyan. Verse 9-70 " Has not the story reached
them of those before them? - The people of Nuh
(Noah), 'Ad, and Thamud, the people of Ibrahim
(Abraham), the dwellers of Madyan (Midian) and the
cities overthrown [i.e. the people to whom Lout
(Lot) preached], to them came their Messengers with
clear proofs. So it was not Allah ('The God', in
Arabic) Who wronged them, but they used to wrong
themselves."
The Old Testament makes it clear that Moses was neither a Hebrew nor an
Israelite. Exodus 2:19 specifically refers to Moses as "an Egyptian".
The name Moses derives from the Egyptian word mose, meaning
"offspring" or "heir", as in Tuthmose: "born of Thoth". In the book of
Exodus it is stated that Moses' life was under threat when the Pharoah
decreed death to newborn Israelite males. The reason for this was that their
were too many Israelites in Egypt and they were becoming too powerful. So it
was pronounced that every son born should be cast into the river. An
Israelite woman placed her son in a basket of rushes and set him among the
water reeds. The Pharoah's daughter discovered the baby and rescued him, she
paid a woman to nurse him and eventually adopted him. It was she who named
him Moses. In the very next verse of the bible, Moses appears as a grown
man.
Amenhotep III
Historical linguist, Ahmed Osman, has conducted an in-depth research into
the identity of Moses using Egyptian records. He believes there was an
influential Israelite named Yusef- Yuya (Joseph), who was chief minister to
the Pharoahs Tuthmosis IV and his son
Amenhotep III.
When Tuthmosis died, Amenhotep married his younger sister Sitamun so he
could inherit the throne.Shortly afterwards in order to have an adult wife,
Sitamun was only a child at this time, Amenhotep married Tiye, the daughter
of Yusef- Yuya. It was decreed however, that no son born to Tiye could
inherit the throne,there was a general fear that the Israelite relatives
were gaining too much power in Egypt. So when Tiye was pregnant, certain
palace officials thought that her child should be killed at birth if a son.
Akhenaten
Arrangements were made for Tiye's Israelite relatives to nurse the boy.
Amenhotep (born 1394 BCE), was educated at Heliopolis by the Egyptian
priests of Ra and spent his teenage years at Thebes During this time his
mother had become more influential than the senior queen Sitamun-who had
only borne a daughter- Nefertiti. When Amenhotep III suffered ill health,
young Amenhotep was brought to the fore.He married Nefertiti in order to
reign as co -regent and when his father died he succeeded as Amenhotep IV.
Because of his part Israelite upbringing, Amenhotep IV couldn't accept
the Egyptian dieties and developed the notion of Aten - an omnipotent god
with no image, represented by a solar disk with downward rays. Amenhotep
changed his name to Akhenaten (Glorious spirit of the Aten) and closed all
the temples of the Egyptian Gods making himself very unpopular.There were
plots against his life and threats of armed insurrection if he didn't allow
traditional gods to be worshipped alongside the faceless Aten. He was
eventually forced to abdicate in favour of his cousin Smenkhkare. Akhenaten
was banished from Egypt and fled to the land of Midian. Here, he took
another wife, an Israelite named Zipporah. Nefertiti had died a short while
before. He then made arrangements to return to Egypt to retrieve his
supporters who believed he was the rightful heir, the royal"mose", as they
had been placed in bondage under the new, harsh laws.
Moses is described in the Old Testament as being "an Egyptian" and "slow
of speech" in the language of the Israelites. Ahmed Osman believes that
Moses was in fact the Pharoah Akhenaten. Akhenaten introduced monotheism and
closed the temples making himself extremely unpopular. He was later forced
to abdicate and banished from Egypt. He returned to lead his supporters out
of Egypt to a new life.
