First Published in 2004. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

English translation of selected Ancient Egyptian texts, bringing to life the sapiential, magical, ceremonial and theological traditions at work in the 'House of Life' of Pharaonic Egypt. Included are: Instruction to Hordedef, Instruction to Kagemni, Pyramid Texts (of Unas), Instruction to Merikare, To Become Magic, Discourse of a Man with his Ba, Instruction to Amenemhat, The Great Praise of the Aten, The Book of the Cow of Heaven, Hymns to Amun, The Shabaka Stone, Instruction to Amen-em-apt, The Adoration of Re. These readings span a period of thirteen centuries, covering all important stages of Ancient Egyptian literature. Translated from Egyptian originals and ordered chronologically, these texts were considered by the Ancient Egyptians as part of the core of their vast literature.

A return to the substance and source of African morality by recovering the rational kernel of Africa's ancient moral and ethical traditions and putting it to paper. The term Maat essentially means "truth and justice incarnate" in all aspects of life. Our aim in preparing this book is to serve as a bridge, a portal, a medium for transmitting the transcendental wisdom of our ancestors across centuries, to absorb the most valuable elements of preceding ancient and modern developments, molding those vast experiences into an enlightening repository of guiding principles.--Page 18-19.

Diploma Thesis from the year 2018 in the subject Egyptology, University of Heidelberg (institut von Aegyptologie), language: English, abstract: Egyptian society was founded on the concept of ma‛at. Ma‛at regulated the seasons, the movement of the stars, and relations between man and the gods; it was a golden thread running through their ideas about the universe and their code of ethics; it formed the basis of their thinking and especially of the way they approached justice and law. Ma‛at related to activities of human life and the cosmos in general. After its creation by the sun god Re, ma‛at ordered the universe. Since the pharaoh was a living god, ruling by divine right, he was the supreme judge and lawgiver. As Re’s representative on earth, he was responsible for the preservation of ma‛at and was the nexus between ma‛at and the law (hp). Ma‛at had a religious, ethical, and moral connection, since it was the guiding principle for all aspects of life and represented the values that all people sought. Ma'at is an idea, invented by the king, and believed by the whole world

This volume presents the first comprehensive study of the Kushite concepts of order in the state and in the cosmos as they were conceptualized in royal and temple texts, in urban architecture, in the structure of temple iconography, and in the relationship between the society and the temples as places of popular worship, archives of historical memory, and centres of cultural identity.

(Auto-)biography is a genre of ancient Egyptian written discourse that was central to high culture from its earliest periods. Belonging to the nonroyal elites, these texts present aspects of individual lives and experience, sometimes as narratives of key events, sometimes as characterizations of personal qualities. Egyptian (auto-) biographies offer a unique opportunity to examine the ways in which individuals fashioned distinctive selves for display and the significance of the physical, religious, and social contexts they selected. The present volume brings together specialists from a range of relevant periods, approaches, and interests. The studies collected here examine Egyptian (auto-)biographies from a variety of complementary perspectives: (1) anthropological and contrastive perspectives; (2) the original Old Kingdom settings; (3) text format and language; (4) social dimensions; and (5) religious experience.

First published in 1985. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.