Land ownership in ancient Egypt cycled between private, monarchical, and feudal. A strong king could take advantage of harsh situations such as famine, buy lands from private owners and make them a property of the crown. A weaker king would have to buy services from strong lords by giving them gifts of land.

Bakenranef Bakenranef, known by the ancient Greeks as Bocchoris (Ancient Greek: , ; Latin: ) or Bochchoris (, ; Latin: ) was briefly a king of the 24th Dynasty of Egypt. Based at Sais in the western Delta, he ruled Lower Egypt from c. 725 to 720 BC. Thoug ...

, a king of the Twenty-fourth Dynasty who ruled

Sais Sais ( grc, Σάϊς, cop, Ⲥⲁⲓ) was an ancient Egyptian city in the Western Nile Delta on the Canopic branch of the Nile,Mish, Frederick C., Editor in Chief. "Saïs." '' Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary''. 9th ed. Springfield ...

around 725 BCE, has been credited with initiating a land reform program. The tradition of Bakenranef as a great lawgiver dates back to the ancient historian Diodorus Siculus, but the brevity of Bakenranef's reign and the small geographical extent of the area he ruled, together with the indirect character of the historical evidence for it, has cast some doubt upon this.

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