Decipherment of ancient Egyptian scripts: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 15:14, 10 June 2025

Latest revision as of 09:06, 20 August 2025

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==Early efforts==

===Medieval Islamic world===

[[File:IbnParis, Wahshiyya'sBnf 985man CEArabe translation6805 offol. the92v-93v AncientShawq Egyptianal-Mustaham hieroglyphAttempted alphabettranslation of hieroglyphs.jpg|thumb|right|alt=Hieroglyphs with Arabic characters|thumb|[[Ibn Wahshiyya]]'s attempted translation of hieroglyphs]]

Arab scholars were aware of the connection between Coptic and the ancient Egyptian language, and [[Coptic monks]] in Islamic times were sometimes believed to understand the ancient scripts.{{sfn|El-Daly|2005|p=66}} Several Arab scholars in the seventh through fourteenth centuries, including [[Jabir ibn Hayyan]] and [[Ayub ibn Maslama]], are said to have understood hieroglyphs,{{sfn|El-Daly|2005|pp=66–67}} although because their works on the subject have not survived these claims cannot be tested.{{sfn|Thompson|2015a|pp=51–52}} [[Dhul-Nun al-Misri]] and [[Ibn Wahshiyya]], in the ninth and tenth centuries, wrote treatises containing dozens of scripts known in the [[Islamic world]], including hieroglyphs, with tables listing their meanings. In the thirteenth or fourteenth century, [[Abu al-Qasim al-Iraqi]] copied an ancient Egyptian text and assigned phonetic values to several hieroglyphs.{{sfn|El-Daly|2005|pp=67–69}}