Prophet Abraham VS Pharaoh Merneptah
The Merneptah Stele, erected in Egypt in 1208 BCE, is an Egyptian victory stele erected by Pharaoh Merneptah that tells how he (and his army) defeated the Libyans, and put down uprisings in Canaanite cities, followed by a claim about the destruction of a people called “Israel”.
The Egyptian inscription describes the Israelites as a stateless group of semi-nomadic men and women inhabiting Canaan at a time when Canaan was under Egyptian rule. Pharaoh Merneptah groups them together with several Egyptian-ruled city states in Canaan that were crushed.
The Hebrew’s Exodus from Egypt occurred just a generation or two before this 1208 BCE victory stele. Pharaoh Merneptah’s totally false claim that Israel had been destroyed is evidence that the Pharaohs were still angry that the Pharaoh of the Exodus had been defeated by the one, imageless, God of the Hebrews.
The mysterious Sea Peoples, recorded as invading Egypt and the Eastern Mediterranean around 1250-1150 BCE, but whose identity of this seaborne coalition—blamed for accelerating the Late Bronze Age collapse—remains one of antiquity’s greatest whodunits.
When Pharaoh Ramesses III recorded their defeat at Medinet Habu he listed several distinct groups, including the Peleset, Tjeker, Shekelesh, Sherden, and Weshesh. While there is no single homeland for this confederacy, a prevailing consensus among archaeologists and historians points to the Aegean Sea and Western Anatolia (modern-day Greece and western Turkey) as their primary regions of origin.
Scholars have traced the likely origins of some specific factions through a combination of linguistic, archaeological, and genetic clues: The Peleset: Widely identified by historians as the early Philistines, this group settled in the Levant after their defeat by Egypt. Excavations at Philistine sites like Ashkelon reveal pottery styles, loom weights, and hearth designs similar to those of the agent Mycenaean Greek world.
The Lukka: Known from earlier Hittite and Egyptian texts, this group is almost certainly from the Lycian region of southwestern Anatolia.
The Sherden and Shekelesh: Many researchers connect these names to the islands of the Western and Central Mediterranean. The Sherden are often linked to Sardinia (where ancient warriors with horned helmets matching Egyptian depictions have been found in bronze statuettes), while the Shekelesh are associated with Sicily. Debate continues over whether they originated on those islands or migrated there after the Bronze Age collapse.
Rather than a unified invading army, these groups were likely part of a multi-generational immigration from 1250-1100 BCE. The Eastern Mediterranean had suffered a catastrophic series of earthquakes, plagues, prolonged droughts, and subsequent famines. Fleeing environmental disaster, widespread crop failures, and the crumbling administrative structures of the Mycenaean and Hittite empires, displaced populations took to the sea invading the Levant and Egypt the Sea Peoples were a symptom of an interconnected Bronze Age world coming unraveled.
Unlike the Hebrews, who entered the Levant from Egypt a couple of generations earlier, the Sea People did not speak Semitic tongues; nor did they worship an imageless God. Prophet Abraham was unknown to them because they had ignored him. “And We certainty settled the Children of Israel in an agreeable settlement [Land of Israel] and provided them with good things. And they did not differ until [after] knowledge had come to them. Indeed, your Lord will judge between them on the Day of Resurrection concerning that over which they [Jews and Christians] used to differ. So if you [Muhammad] are in doubt, about that which We have revealed to you, then ask those [Jews and Christians}who have been reading the Scripture before you. The truth has certainly come to you from your Lord, so never be among the doubters. (Qur’an 10:93-4)
“And remember Our servants, [Prophets] Abraham, Isaac and Jacob – those of strength and [religious] vision. Indeed, We chose them for an exclusive quality: remembrance of the home [the “safe haven” Land of Israel]. And indeed they are to Us among the chosen and outstanding.” (Qur’an 38:45-7)
