Sharek or Shalek could have been a poorly known ancient Egyptian

pharaoh Pharaoh (, ; Egyptian: '' pr ꜥꜣ''; cop, , Pǝrro; Biblical Hebrew: ''Parʿō'') is the vernacular term often used by modern authors for the kings of ancient Egypt who ruled as monarchs from the First Dynasty (c. 3150 BC) until the ...

during the Second Intermediate Period of Egypt.

Attestation

He is only attested on a non-contemporary document, a genealogy of a priest named Ankhefensekhmet who lived at the end of the

22nd Dynasty The Twenty-second Dynasty of Egypt is also known as the Bubastite Dynasty, since the pharaohs originally ruled from the city of Bubastis. It was founded by Shoshenq I. The Twenty-first, Twenty-second, Twenty-third, Twenty-fourth, and Twenty-f ...

– thus several centuries after Sharek's supposed reign; perhaps for this reason, Danish

Egyptologist Egyptology (from ''Egypt'' and Greek , '' -logia''; ar, علم المصريات) is the study of ancient Egyptian history, language, literature, religion, architecture and art from the 5th millennium BC until the end of its native religiou ...

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 ...

doubts his existence. On the document, Sharek is placed one generation before the well-known

Hyksos Hyksos (; Egyptian '' ḥqꜣ(w)- ḫꜣswt'', Egyptological pronunciation: ''hekau khasut'', "ruler(s) of foreign lands") is a term which, in modern Egyptology, designates the kings of the Fifteenth Dynasty of Egypt (fl. c. 1650–1550 BC). T ...

pharaoh

Apepi Apepi (also Ipepi; Egyptian language '), Apophis ( gr, Ἄποφις); regnal names Neb-khepesh-Re, A-qenen-Re and A-user-Re) was a Hyksos ruler of Lower Egypt during the Fifteenth Dynasty and the end of the Second Intermediate Period. Accordin ...

of the

15th Dynasty The Fifteenth Dynasty was a foreign dynasty of ancient Egypt. It was founded by Salitis, a Hyksos from West Asia whose people had invaded the country and conquered Lower Egypt. The 15th, 16th, and 17th Dynasties of ancient Egypt are often combi ...

. The genealogy of Ankhefensekhmet is now exhibited at the

Neues Museum The Neues Museum (English: ''New Museum'') is a listed building on the Museum Island in the historic centre of Berlin. Built from 1843 to 1855 by order of King Frederick William IV of Prussia in Neoclassical and Renaissance Revival styles, ...

in Berlin (inv. no. 23673).

Identification

Both

Nicolas Grimal Nicolas-Christophe Grimal (born 13 November 1948 in Libourne) is a French Egyptologist. Biography Nicolas Grimal was born to Pierre Grimal in 1948. After his Agrégation in Classics in 1971, he obtained a PhD in 1976 and a Doctorat d'État in 1 ...

and

William C. Hayes William Christopher Hayes (March 21, 1903 – July 10, 1963) was an American Egyptologist. His main fields of study were history of Egyptian art and translation/interpretation of texts.W. C. Hayes, ''The Scepter of Egypt'', part II, 4th print ...

have proposed that Sharek should be identified with a king named

Salitis In the Manethonian tradition, Salitis (Greek ''Σάλιτις'', also Salatis or Saites) was the first Hyksos king, the one who subdued and ruled Lower Egypt and founded the 15th Dynasty. Biography Salitis is mainly known from a few passages of F ...

, given as the founder of the Hyksos 15th Dynasty in Manetho's ''Aegyptiaca'', a history of Egypt written in the 2nd century BC., p. 59, p. 185 They further propose that Sharek/Salitis is the same person as

Sheshi Maaibre Sheshi (also Sheshy) was a ruler of areas of Egypt during the Second Intermediate Period of Egypt, Second Intermediate Period. The dynasty, chronological position, duration and extent of his reign are uncertain and subject to ongoing deb ...

, a ruler during Egypt's Second Intermediate Period mentioned on nearly 400 scarab seals.

References

17th-century BC Pharaohs Pharaohs of the Fifteenth Dynasty of Egypt Second Intermediate Period of Egypt People whose existence is disputed {{AncientEgypt-bio-stub