The label and the facts
“Black pharaohs” is a modern popular label for the kings of Egypt’s Twenty-fifth Dynasty, who came from the Nubian kingdom of Kush. It is used in books and documentaries, and the dynasty is also called the Kushite dynasty. These rulers were not outsiders who happened to seize power. They saw themselves as legitimate Egyptian kings, adopted the usual pharaonic titles and religion, and their rule is well documented in Egyptian, Nubian and Assyrian sources. The dates are debated by a few years; roughly 744 to 656 BCE is a common range.
Egypt before the Kushites
By the eighth century BCE Egypt was politically divided. This period, known as the Third Intermediate Period, saw several rulers and local dynasties in the Delta and the Nile valley claiming power at once, with centres such as Tanis and Sais in the north and Thebes in the south. Libyan-descended families held many of these positions. Meanwhile, in the south, a Kushite state centred on Napata, near Jebel Barkal, was growing stronger. The Napata kingdom, covered separately, developed its own ruling line and cemetery at El-Kurru.
Kashta, an early king of this line, is attested in southern Egypt, and the Kushites gained influence at Thebes, partly through the office of God’s Wife of Amun, a powerful priestly role held by royal women. Kashta’s daughter Amenirdis was installed in that role.
Piye’s campaign
The king who brought the north under Kushite control was Piye, Kashta’s son, who reigned from about 744 BCE. His campaign is known from a long inscription, the Victory Stele, found at Jebel Barkal in 1862 and now in Cairo. The text describes how the Delta ruler Tefnakht of Sais built a coalition and advanced south, and how Piye sent forces and then travelled north himself.
According to the stele, Piye’s troops defeated the coalition, took Memphis, and received the submission of the northern rulers. He is portrayed as pious, performing rituals at temples, and as stern about the neglect of horses, which he valued highly. The text also says he left the defeated local rulers in place after they pledged loyalty. Piye then returned to Nubia rather than settling in Egypt, and he was buried at El-Kurru under a small pyramid, an Egyptian-influenced funerary practice. The war chariots and cavalry of this era, and the horses central to Piye’s story, show how military technology moved along the Nile.
Consolidation: Shabaka and his successors
Piye’s brother Shabaka took firmer control of the whole country and is traditionally associated with the final unification under Kushite rule. Shabaka and his successors Shebitku, Shabataka, Taharqa and Tanutamun ruled from Memphis and Thebes, and also kept ties with Napata. They restored temples, supported the cult of Amun and built monuments, and they revived older artistic styles from the Old and Middle Kingdoms, a deliberate return to earlier Egyptian traditions. Kushite kings appear to have followed Egyptian burial customs, including a version of the mummification ritual, though they built pyramid tombs in their homeland.
Taharqa, who reigned roughly 690 to 664 BCE, is the best known. He built or expanded temples at Karnak, Kawa and Jebel Barkal and is shown in both Egyptian and Nubian styles. His reign saw a period of strong Nile floods and prosperity, according to texts of the time, although that is the king’s own portrayal.
The Assyrian conflict
The main threat to Kushite rule came from outside. The Assyrian Empire was expanding westward under kings such as Sennacherib, Esarhaddon and Ashurbanipal, and Egypt, then ruled by Kushites, supported states in the Levant that resisted Assyria. An Assyrian clash with Egyptian and Kushite forces in 701 BCE, around Judah, is recorded in Assyrian and biblical sources, and some scholars think Taharqa was involved as a young commander, though this is debated.
In 671 BCE Esarhaddon invaded Egypt and captured Memphis, and Taharqa withdrew south. Assyrian royal inscriptions record the capture and the seizure of royal family members. Later Assyrian campaigns, under Ashurbanipal, pushed the Kushites further back. Taharqa died at Napata in 664 BCE, and his successor Tanutamun briefly recovered Memphis. Assyrian forces then returned and sacked Thebes, around 664 to 663 BCE, a blow whose damage was famous in the ancient Near East.
Assyria could not hold Egypt directly. Psamtik I, a ruler from Sais who was first a vassal of Assyria, gradually took over the country and united it, and by about 656 BCE his authority had reached Thebes. At that point the Twenty-fifth Dynasty effectively ended in Egypt, and Kush became a separate state again.
After Egypt
The Kushite kings did not disappear. They continued to rule from Napata, and the royal pyramids at Nuri began with Taharqa. Egyptian armies later attacked Napata, notably around 593 BCE, but the Kushite state survived and later moved its centre south to Meroe. The Twenty-fifth Dynasty’s legacy was an unusual one: a Nubian dynasty that governed Egypt in an Egyptian way, then returned to a Nile kingdom that kept using Egyptian script, gods and architecture, as in the Egyptian hieroglyphic script, for centuries.
What historians weigh
Most of what is known about the dynasty comes from Egyptian and Kushite royal inscriptions and Assyrian annals, which each present events from the viewpoint of their own kings. Scholars treat claims of victory and prosperity carefully and use archaeology, such as temple building and burials, to check them. The details of chronology, especially the exact years of individual reigns, remain under study.