Merhotepre Ini (also known as Ini I or Ini II) was the successor of

Merneferre Ay Merneferre Ay (also spelled Aya or Eje, sometimes known as Ay I) was an ancient Egyptian pharaoh of the mid 13th Dynasty. The longest reigning pharaoh of the 13th Dynasty, he ruled a likely fragmented Egypt for over 23 years in the early to mid ...

, possibly his son, and the thirty-third king of the

Thirteenth Dynasty of Egypt In music or music theory, a thirteenth is the note thirteen scale degrees from the root of a chord and also the interval between the root and the thirteenth. The interval can be also described as a compound sixth, spanning an octave p ...

. He is assigned a brief reign of 2 Years, 3 or 4 Months and 9 days in the

Turin Canon The Turin King List, also known as the Turin Royal Canon, is an ancient Egyptian hieratic papyrus thought to date from the reign of Pharaoh Ramesses II, now in the Museo Egizio (Egyptian Museum) in Turin. The papyrus is the most extensive list av ...

and lived during the early 17th century BC.Kim Ryholt, The Political Situation in Egypt during the Second Intermediate Period c.1800-1550 B.C." Museum Tuscalanum Press, 1997. p.192 ()

Attestations

Merhotepre Ini is attested by a scarab seal of unknown provenance (now at the

Petrie Museum The Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology in London is part of University College London Museums and Collections. The museum contains over 80,000 objects and ranks among some of the world's leading collections of Egyptian and Sudanese material ...

) and an inscribed jar-lid (now at the

LACMA The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is an art museum located on Wilshire Boulevard in the Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles. LACMA is on Museum Row, adjacent to the La Brea Tar Pits (George C. Page Museum). LACMA was founded in 1961, ...

, M.80.203.225).Darell D. Baker: ''The Encyclopedia of the Pharaohs: Volume I - Predynastic to the Twentieth Dynasty 3300 - 1069 BC'', Stacey International, , 2008, p. 212 and p. 138 Merhotepre Ini is attested in the

Turin canon The Turin King List, also known as the Turin Royal Canon, is an ancient Egyptian hieratic papyrus thought to date from the reign of Pharaoh Ramesses II, now in the Museo Egizio (Egyptian Museum) in Turin. The papyrus is the most extensive list av ...

as the successor of Merneferre Ay.

"Merhotepre"

The prenomen "Merhotepre" is also found on a scarab seal probably from

Medinet el-Fayum Faiyum ( ar, الفيوم ' , borrowed from cop, ̀Ⲫⲓⲟⲙ or Ⲫⲓⲱⲙ ' from egy, pꜣ ym "the Sea, Lake") is a city in Middle Egypt. Located southwest of Cairo, in the Faiyum Oasis, it is the capital of the modern Faiyum ...

, on the Karnak king list and on a stele from Abydos (Cairo CG 20044), although these occurrences may instead refer to Merhotepre Sobekhotep.

Chronological position

The exact chronological position of Merhotepre Ini in the 13th Dynasty is not known for certain owing to uncertainties affecting earlier kings of the dynasty. He is ranked as the thirty-third king of the dynasty by Darrell Baker, as the thirty-fourth king by Kim Ryholt and in position 28a in studies by

Jürgen von Beckerath Jürgen von Beckerath (19 February 1920, Hanover – 26 June 2016, Schlehdorf) was a German Egyptologist. He was a prolific writer who published countless articles in journals such as '' Orientalia'', ''Göttinger Miszellen'' (GM), ''Journal of t ...

, a result which Baker qualifies as "nebulous".

Family

In spite of the very brief reign Merhotepre enjoyed, he is attested in the historical records by the '' Juridical Stela''. This document, which is dated to Year 1 of the later Theban king

Nebiryraw I Sewadjenre Nebiryraw (also Nebiriau I, Nebiryerawet I) was an ancient Egyptian pharaoh of the Theban-based 16th Dynasty, during the Second Intermediate Period. Reign On the Turin Canon he is credited with a 26-year-long reign and was succeeded ...

, contains a genealogical charter which states that Ayameru—the son by Vizier Aya and the King's daughter Reditenes—was appointed Governor of El-Kab in Year 1 of Merhotepre Ini. The reason for this appointment was due to the unexpected death of the childless Governor of El-Kab ''Aya-junior'' who was Vizier Aya's eldest son and Ayameru's elder brother. The charter identifies a certain Kebsi as the son of Governor, and later, Vizier Ayameru.Bennett, p.124 The Cairo Juridical Stela records the sale of the office of the governorship of

El-Kab El Kab (or better Elkab) is an Upper Egyptian site on the east bank of the Nile at the mouth of the Wadi Hillal about south of Luxor (ancient Thebes). El Kab was called Nekheb in the Egyptian language ( , Late Coptic: ), a name that refers to ...

to a certain Sobeknakht. This Sobeknakht I was the father of the illustrious governor

Sobeknakht II Sobeknakht II was an ancient Egyptian local Governor at El Kab, El-Kab and a supporter of the Thebes, Egypt, Theban 16th Dynasty, 16th or Seventeenth Dynasty of Egypt, 17th Dynasty during the Second Intermediate Period. Biography Not much is kno ...

who built one of the most richly decorated tombs at El-Kab during the

Second Intermediate Period The Second Intermediate Period marks a period when ancient Egypt fell into disarray for a second time, between the end of the Middle Kingdom and the start of the New Kingdom. The concept of a "Second Intermediate Period" was coined in 1942 by ...

. Based on the stele,

Kim Ryholt Kim Steven Bardrum Ryholt (born 19 June 1970) is a professor of Egyptology at the University of Copenhagen and a specialist on Egyptian history and literature. He is director of the research centeCanon and Identity Formation in the Earliest Litera ...

proposes that Merhotepre Ini was the son of his predecessor Merneferre Ay with his senior queen Ini and with Reditenes as a sister of Merhotepre Ini. The vizierate was an hereditary position at the time and a change of family in charge of the position would have been an important political move. In particular, Reditenes being possibly a sister of Merhotepre Ini, his appointing Aya (thus his brother-in-law) to the vizierate would bring the position into his own family.

References

{{authority control 17th-century BC Pharaohs Pharaohs of the Thirteenth Dynasty of Egypt