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Eski Mısır’da Erdem Ahlakının İnanç Sistemine Yansıması: Maat Anlayışı

Year 2022, Volume: 2 Issue: 2, 238 - 254, 15.12.2022

Abstract

Eski Mısır’da insanların birbirleri ile etkileşimlerinde ve tanrılarla olan ilişkilerinde belirleyici olan Maat anlayışı, inananlara erdemli bir yaşantının yolunu da göstermekteydi. Erdem ahlakına dair yazılı en eski metinlerinin oluşturulduğu Eski Mısır’da bin yıllar boyunca kabul gören Maat anlayışı, ideal insanı tarif etmekteydi. Eski Mısır’da binyıllar içerisinde teoloji anlayışları ve tanrıların yücelik sıralamaları değişse dahi erdemli davranışlara sahip olan ideal insanın tanımı, küçük farklılıklar dışında, aynı kalmıştır. Eski Mısır’da tanrıların razı olacağı ve kralın tebaa olarak sahipleneceği bireyin, günümüzde erdemli davranışlar olarak kabul edilen bütün davranışları sergilemesi beklenmekteydi. Eski Mısır’da bireyin hayatına yön vererek, sosyal yaşamın düzenleyicisi olan Maat anlayışı, toplum içerisinde yaşamayı kabul eden her bireyin uyması gereken kuralları içerisinde barındırmaktadır. Bu kurallar, insanların birbirine zarar vermeden ve yardımlaşarak yaşamlarını devam ettirmesini amaçlamıştır. Bu temel amaç dışında Eski Mısır’da yaşamın devamlılığını için vazgeçilmez olan tarımsal üretim devamlılığını sağlamak da Maat anlayışı içerisinde kendisine yer bulmuştur. Eski Mısır’da yaşamı kuşatmış olan Maat anlayışı, erdemli davranışlar sonucunda yeryüzündeki hayatı güzel ve anlamlı kılmayı sağladığı gibi ölümden sonra da sonsuz bir yaşamı sağlamaktaydı. Eski Mısır’da, döneminin diğer medeniyetlerine kıyasla, oldukça güçlü bir ölümden sonraki yaşam inancı bulunmaktadır. Eski Mısır’da tanrılar tarafından yaratılmış olan yeryüzünün insanlar için geçici bir mekân olduğuna inanılmış ve inananların yeryüzündeki davranışların karşılığından ölümden sonraki hayatın tanrılar tarafından belirleneceği düşünülmüştür. Eski Mısır’da kişi, erdemli davranışlar sergilemiş ise sonsuza kadar süren güzel bir hayata kavuşacağı fakat tanrılara ve diğer insanlara karşı kötülük yapmış ise cezalandırılacağı bir yere sürüleceğine inanılmıştır. Eski Mısır’da kişinin, erdemli davranışlar gösteren birisi olduğuna, ölümden sonra kalbinin tartılması ile karar verilmekteydi. Eski Mısır’da ruhu barındıran kişinin ölümden sonra kalbi, birçok tanrının huzurunda Tanrı Anubis tarafından ilahi bir terazinin bir kefesine konduktan sonra diğer kefeye Tanrıça Maat’ın başında taşıdığı deve kuşu tüyü yerleştirilmekteydi. Eğer kalp ve tüy dengede kalırsa kalbin sahibinin erdemli biri insan olduğu anlaşılarak sonsuz bir yaşamı kazandığına inanılmıştır. Kötü davranışlar ile dolu olduğundan dolayı ağırlaşıp deve kuşu tüyünden ağır olan kalbin sahibi ise cezalandırılmaya gönderilmiştir. Bu çalışma, Eski Mısır’da inancın sosyal yaşamdaki yönünü belirleyen Maat anlayışının, erdem ahlakı tarafından nasıl biçimlendirildiğini, günümüze ulaşmış olan metinler üzerinden açıklamayı amaçlamaktadır.

References

  • Asante, M. K. “Maat and Human Communication: Supporting Identity, Culture, and History Without Global Domination”. Intercultural Communication Studies 20/1 (2011), 49-56.
  • Asante, M. K. From Imhotep to Akhenaten: An Introduction to Egyptian Philosophers. Paris: Menaibuc, 2004.
  • Ashby, Muata. The Forty-Two Precepts of Maat, the Philosophy of Righteous Action and the Ancient Egyptian Wisdom Texts. London: Sema Institute, 1998.
  • Assmann, Jan. “When Justice Fails: Jurisdiction and Imprecation in Ancient Egypt and the Near East”. The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 78/1 (1992), 149-162.
  • Assmann, Jan. Death and Salvation in Ancient Egypt, New York: Cornell University Press, 2011.
  • Hood, J. C. “The Decalogue and the Egyptian Book of the Dead”. Australian Journal of Jewish Studies 23 (2009), 53-72.
  • Berlew, Oleg. “Bureaucrats”. The Egyptians. ed. Sergio Donadoni, 87-120. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1997.
  • Black, J. R. The instruction of Amenemope: A critical edition and commentary prolegomenon and prologue. Madison: University of Wisconsin-Madison, Yayınlanmamış Doktora Tezi, 2002.
  • Broadie, A. – Macdonald, J. “The Concept of Cosmic Order in Ancient Egypt in Dynastic and Roman Times”. L’Antiquite Classique 47/1 (1978), 106-128.
  • Castillos, J. J. “The Beginning of Class Stratification in Early Egypt”. Göttinger Miszellen 215 (2007), 9-24.
  • Childe, Gordon. “The Urban Revolution”. The Town Planning Review 21/1 (1950), 3-17.
  • Cowgill, G. L. “Origins and Development of Urbanism: Archaeological Perspectives”. Annual Review of Anthropology 33 (2004), 525-549.
  • Crenshaw, J. L. “Wealth and poverty in the instruction of Amenemope and the Hebrew proverbs”. Journal of Biblical Literature 115/4 (1996), 734-736.
  • Demidchik, A. E. “The date of the Teaching for Merikare”. Cultural Heritage of Egypt and Christian Orient. ed. Eleonora Kormysheva ve Eugenio Fantusati. 49-70. Moskova: Institute of Oriental Studies, 2011.
  • Faraone, C. A. – Teeter, Emily “Egyptian Maat and Hesiodic Metis”. Mnemosyne 57/2 (2004), 177-208.
  • Ferguson, R. J. “The Ancient Egyptian Concept of Maat: Reflections on Social Justice and Natural Order”. Fundamina 24/1 (2016), 69-88.
  • Fischer, H. G. “Some Notes on the Easternmost Nomes of the Delta in the Old and Middle Kingdoms”. Journal of Near Eastern Studies, 18/2 (1959), 129-142.
  • Hornung, Erik. Idea into Image Essays on Ancient Egyptian Thought. New York: Timken, 1992.
  • Hornung, Erik. The Ancient Egyptian Books of the Afterlife. New York: Cornell University Press. 1999.
  • Karenga, Maulana. Maat, the Moral Ideal in Ancient Egypt: A Study in Classical African Ethics. London: Routledge, 2003.
  • Karenga, Maulana. The Book of Coming Forth by Day: The Ethics of the Declarations of Innocence. Timbuktu: University of Sankore Press, 1990.
  • Lichtheim, Miriam. Ancient Egyptian literature a book of readings, Volume I: The Old and Middle Kingdoms. California: University of California Press, 1975.
  • Lichtheim, Miriam. Ancient Egyptian literature a book of readings, Volume II: The New Kingdom. California: University of California Press, 1976.
  • Lichtheim, Miriam. Moral Values in Ancient Egypt. Fribourg: Fribourg University Press, 1997.
  • Lipson, C. S. “Ancient Egyptian Rhetoric: It All Comes Down to Maat”. Rhetoric Before and Beyond the Greeks. ed. C. S. Lipson ve R. A. Binkley. 79 – 89. New York: State University of New York Press, 2004.
  • Lorton, D. “God’s beneficent creation: Coffin texts spell 1130, the Instructions for Merikare, and the Great Hymn to the Aton”. Studien Zur Altägyptischen Kultur 20 (1993), 125-155.
  • Mancini, Anna. Maat Revealed, Philosophy of Justice in Ancient Egypt. New York: Buenos Books America Llc, 2004.
  • Manning, J. G. “The Representation of Justice in Ancient Egypt”. Yale Journal of Law & the Humanities 24/1 (2012), 114-118.
  • Obioha, U. P. “The Nature of Justice”. Journal of Social Sciences 29/2 (2011), 183-192.
  • Martin, Denise. “Maat and order in African Cosmology: A Conceptual Tool for Understanding Indigenous Knowledge”. Journal of Black Studies 38/6 (2008), 951-967.
  • Mercer, S. A. B. Growth of Religious and Moral Ideas in Egypt. Pennsylvania: Morehouse Publishing Company, 1919, 47-57.
  • Morschauser, S. N. “The Ideological Basis for Social Justice / Responsibility in Ancient Egypt”. Social Justice in the Ancient World. ed. K. D. Irani ve Morris Silver, 101-114. Santa Barbara: Greenwood Press, 1995.
  • Mumford, Lewis. Tarih Boyunca Kent, Kökenleri, Geçirdiği Dönüşümler ve Geleceği. İstanbul: Ayrıntı Yayınları 2007.
  • Naydler, Jeremy. Temple of the Cosmos: The Ancient Egyptian Experience of the Sacred. Vermont: Inner Traditions Bear and Company, 1996.
  • Ockinga, B. G. “Morality and Ethics”. The Egyptian World. ed. Toby Wilkinson. 252-262. New York: Routledge, 2007.
  • Okon, E. E. “Akhenaton and Egyptian Origin of Hebrew Monotheism”. American Journal of Social Issues and Humanities 2/6 (2012), 418-427.
  • Schwarz, Fernand. Düzensizliğin İçerisinde Düzen Maat ve Eski Mısır’a Dair. çev. Ferim Örücü. Ankara: Yeni Yüksektepe, 2001.
  • Shirley, J. J. “Crisis and Restructuring of the State: From the Second Intermediate Period to the Advent of the Ramesses”. Ancient Egyptian Administration. ed. Juan Carlos Moreno García. 521-606. Leiden: Brill, 2013.
  • Smith, C. C. “The Birth of Bureaucracy”. The Biblical Archaeologist 40/1 (1977), 24-28.
  • Darnell, J. C. “A Bureaucratic Challenge? Archaeology and Administration in a Desert Environment (Second Millennium B.C.E.)”. Ancient Egyptian Administration. ed. Juan Carlos Moreno García. 781-830. Leiden: Brill, 2013.
  • Smith, Harry. “Ma’et and Isfet”. Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 5 (1994), 67-88.
  • Sterba, R. L. “The Organization and Management of the Temple Corporations in Ancient Mesopotamia”. Academy of Management Review. 1/3 (1976), 16-26.
  • Taylor, J. H. Journey Through the Afterlife: Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead. Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2010.
  • Yıldırım, Ercüment. “Eski Mısır’daki Sebaty Metinlerinin Yönetim Anlayışı Açısından Değerlendirilmesi”. Kahramanmaraş Sütçü İmam Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi 19 (2022), 481-493.
  • Yıldırım, Ercüment. Eskiçağ Mezopotamyasında Liderler Krallar Kahramanlar. İstanbul: Arkeoloji Sanat Yayınları, 2017.
  • Yıldırım, Ercüment. Nil’in Tanrı Kralları. İstanbul: Arkeoloji Sanat Yayınları, 2019.
  • Yoffee, Norman. Myths of the Archaic State. Evolution of the Earliest Cities, States, and Civilizations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004.

The Reflection of Virtue Ethics on the Belief System in Ancient Egypt: The Maat Conception

Year 2022, Volume: 2 Issue: 2, 238 - 254, 15.12.2022

Abstract

The understanding of Maat, which was decisive in the interaction of people with each other and their relations with the gods in ancient Egypt, also showed the believers the way of a virtuous life. The understanding of Maat, which was accepted for millennia in Ancient Egypt, where the earliest written texts on virtue ethics were created, described the ideal man. Even though the understanding of theology and the order of exaltation of the gods changed over the millennia in ancient Egypt, the definition of the ideal man who had virtuous behavior remained the same, except for minor differences. In ancient Egypt, it was expected that the individual, whom the gods would approve and the king would own as a subject, would exhibit all the behaviors that are accepted as virtuous behavior today. The understanding of Maat, which is the organizer of social life by directing the life of the individual in Ancient Egypt, contains the rules that every individual who accepts to live in society must comply with. These rules aimed for people to continue their lives without harming each other and by helping each other. Apart from this main purpose, ensuring the continuity of agricultural production, which is indispensable for the continuity of life in Ancient Egypt, also found a place in the understanding of Maat. The understanding of Maat, which encompassed life in ancient Egypt, not only made life on earth beautiful and meaningful as a result of virtuous behavior, but also provided an eternal life after death. Compared to other civilizations of its time, Ancient Egypt had a very strong belief in the afterlife. In ancient Egypt, it was believed that the earth, which was created by the gods, was a temporary place for people, and it was thought that the life after death would be determined by the gods in return for the behavior of the believers on earth. In ancient Egypt, it was believed that if a person exhibited virtuous behavior, he would have a beautiful life that lasted forever, but if he had done evil to the gods and other people, he would be exiled to a place where he would be punished. In ancient Egypt, a person's virtuous behavior was determined by weighing his heart after death. In ancient Egypt, after death, the heart of the person holding the soul was placed in one pan of a divine scale by the god Anubis in the presence of many gods, and then the ostrich feather that Goddess Maat carried on his head was placed in the other pan. It was believed that if the heart and feather remained in balance, it was understood that the owner of the heart was a virtuous person, and that he would gain eternal life. The owner of the heart, which was heavy and heavier than an ostrich feather, was sent to be punished because it was full of bad behavior. This study aims to explain how the understanding of Maat, which determines the direction of belief in social life in Ancient Egypt, was shaped by virtue ethics, through texts that have survived to the present day.

References

  • Asante, M. K. “Maat and Human Communication: Supporting Identity, Culture, and History Without Global Domination”. Intercultural Communication Studies 20/1 (2011), 49-56.
  • Asante, M. K. From Imhotep to Akhenaten: An Introduction to Egyptian Philosophers. Paris: Menaibuc, 2004.
  • Ashby, Muata. The Forty-Two Precepts of Maat, the Philosophy of Righteous Action and the Ancient Egyptian Wisdom Texts. London: Sema Institute, 1998.
  • Assmann, Jan. “When Justice Fails: Jurisdiction and Imprecation in Ancient Egypt and the Near East”. The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 78/1 (1992), 149-162.
  • Assmann, Jan. Death and Salvation in Ancient Egypt, New York: Cornell University Press, 2011.
  • Hood, J. C. “The Decalogue and the Egyptian Book of the Dead”. Australian Journal of Jewish Studies 23 (2009), 53-72.
  • Berlew, Oleg. “Bureaucrats”. The Egyptians. ed. Sergio Donadoni, 87-120. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1997.
  • Black, J. R. The instruction of Amenemope: A critical edition and commentary prolegomenon and prologue. Madison: University of Wisconsin-Madison, Yayınlanmamış Doktora Tezi, 2002.
  • Broadie, A. – Macdonald, J. “The Concept of Cosmic Order in Ancient Egypt in Dynastic and Roman Times”. L’Antiquite Classique 47/1 (1978), 106-128.
  • Castillos, J. J. “The Beginning of Class Stratification in Early Egypt”. Göttinger Miszellen 215 (2007), 9-24.
  • Childe, Gordon. “The Urban Revolution”. The Town Planning Review 21/1 (1950), 3-17.
  • Cowgill, G. L. “Origins and Development of Urbanism: Archaeological Perspectives”. Annual Review of Anthropology 33 (2004), 525-549.
  • Crenshaw, J. L. “Wealth and poverty in the instruction of Amenemope and the Hebrew proverbs”. Journal of Biblical Literature 115/4 (1996), 734-736.
  • Demidchik, A. E. “The date of the Teaching for Merikare”. Cultural Heritage of Egypt and Christian Orient. ed. Eleonora Kormysheva ve Eugenio Fantusati. 49-70. Moskova: Institute of Oriental Studies, 2011.
  • Faraone, C. A. – Teeter, Emily “Egyptian Maat and Hesiodic Metis”. Mnemosyne 57/2 (2004), 177-208.
  • Ferguson, R. J. “The Ancient Egyptian Concept of Maat: Reflections on Social Justice and Natural Order”. Fundamina 24/1 (2016), 69-88.
  • Fischer, H. G. “Some Notes on the Easternmost Nomes of the Delta in the Old and Middle Kingdoms”. Journal of Near Eastern Studies, 18/2 (1959), 129-142.
  • Hornung, Erik. Idea into Image Essays on Ancient Egyptian Thought. New York: Timken, 1992.
  • Hornung, Erik. The Ancient Egyptian Books of the Afterlife. New York: Cornell University Press. 1999.
  • Karenga, Maulana. Maat, the Moral Ideal in Ancient Egypt: A Study in Classical African Ethics. London: Routledge, 2003.
  • Karenga, Maulana. The Book of Coming Forth by Day: The Ethics of the Declarations of Innocence. Timbuktu: University of Sankore Press, 1990.
  • Lichtheim, Miriam. Ancient Egyptian literature a book of readings, Volume I: The Old and Middle Kingdoms. California: University of California Press, 1975.
  • Lichtheim, Miriam. Ancient Egyptian literature a book of readings, Volume II: The New Kingdom. California: University of California Press, 1976.
  • Lichtheim, Miriam. Moral Values in Ancient Egypt. Fribourg: Fribourg University Press, 1997.
  • Lipson, C. S. “Ancient Egyptian Rhetoric: It All Comes Down to Maat”. Rhetoric Before and Beyond the Greeks. ed. C. S. Lipson ve R. A. Binkley. 79 – 89. New York: State University of New York Press, 2004.
  • Lorton, D. “God’s beneficent creation: Coffin texts spell 1130, the Instructions for Merikare, and the Great Hymn to the Aton”. Studien Zur Altägyptischen Kultur 20 (1993), 125-155.
  • Mancini, Anna. Maat Revealed, Philosophy of Justice in Ancient Egypt. New York: Buenos Books America Llc, 2004.
  • Manning, J. G. “The Representation of Justice in Ancient Egypt”. Yale Journal of Law & the Humanities 24/1 (2012), 114-118.
  • Obioha, U. P. “The Nature of Justice”. Journal of Social Sciences 29/2 (2011), 183-192.
  • Martin, Denise. “Maat and order in African Cosmology: A Conceptual Tool for Understanding Indigenous Knowledge”. Journal of Black Studies 38/6 (2008), 951-967.
  • Mercer, S. A. B. Growth of Religious and Moral Ideas in Egypt. Pennsylvania: Morehouse Publishing Company, 1919, 47-57.
  • Morschauser, S. N. “The Ideological Basis for Social Justice / Responsibility in Ancient Egypt”. Social Justice in the Ancient World. ed. K. D. Irani ve Morris Silver, 101-114. Santa Barbara: Greenwood Press, 1995.
  • Mumford, Lewis. Tarih Boyunca Kent, Kökenleri, Geçirdiği Dönüşümler ve Geleceği. İstanbul: Ayrıntı Yayınları 2007.
  • Naydler, Jeremy. Temple of the Cosmos: The Ancient Egyptian Experience of the Sacred. Vermont: Inner Traditions Bear and Company, 1996.
  • Ockinga, B. G. “Morality and Ethics”. The Egyptian World. ed. Toby Wilkinson. 252-262. New York: Routledge, 2007.
  • Okon, E. E. “Akhenaton and Egyptian Origin of Hebrew Monotheism”. American Journal of Social Issues and Humanities 2/6 (2012), 418-427.
  • Schwarz, Fernand. Düzensizliğin İçerisinde Düzen Maat ve Eski Mısır’a Dair. çev. Ferim Örücü. Ankara: Yeni Yüksektepe, 2001.
  • Shirley, J. J. “Crisis and Restructuring of the State: From the Second Intermediate Period to the Advent of the Ramesses”. Ancient Egyptian Administration. ed. Juan Carlos Moreno García. 521-606. Leiden: Brill, 2013.
  • Smith, C. C. “The Birth of Bureaucracy”. The Biblical Archaeologist 40/1 (1977), 24-28.
  • Darnell, J. C. “A Bureaucratic Challenge? Archaeology and Administration in a Desert Environment (Second Millennium B.C.E.)”. Ancient Egyptian Administration. ed. Juan Carlos Moreno García. 781-830. Leiden: Brill, 2013.
  • Smith, Harry. “Ma’et and Isfet”. Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 5 (1994), 67-88.
  • Sterba, R. L. “The Organization and Management of the Temple Corporations in Ancient Mesopotamia”. Academy of Management Review. 1/3 (1976), 16-26.
  • Taylor, J. H. Journey Through the Afterlife: Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead. Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2010.
  • Yıldırım, Ercüment. “Eski Mısır’daki Sebaty Metinlerinin Yönetim Anlayışı Açısından Değerlendirilmesi”. Kahramanmaraş Sütçü İmam Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi 19 (2022), 481-493.
  • Yıldırım, Ercüment. Eskiçağ Mezopotamyasında Liderler Krallar Kahramanlar. İstanbul: Arkeoloji Sanat Yayınları, 2017.
  • Yıldırım, Ercüment. Nil’in Tanrı Kralları. İstanbul: Arkeoloji Sanat Yayınları, 2019.
  • Yoffee, Norman. Myths of the Archaic State. Evolution of the Earliest Cities, States, and Civilizations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004.
There are 47 citations in total.

Details

Primary Language Turkish
Journal Section Research Articles
Authors

Ercüment Yıldırım 0000-0001-5376-4061

Publication Date December 15, 2022
Submission Date November 1, 2022
Published in Issue Year 2022 Volume: 2 Issue: 2

Cite

ISNAD Yıldırım, Ercüment. “Eski Mısır’da Erdem Ahlakının İnanç Sistemine Yansıması: Maat Anlayışı”. İdrak Dini Araştırmalar Dergisi 2/2 (December 2022), 238-254.