We punished the people of Pharaoh with drought, and
shortage of crops, that they might take heed. (7- The Purgatory, 130)
So We sent
on them; the flood, the locusts, the lice, the frogs and the blood. How many
different signs! But they still remained arrogant, for they were a people full
of sin. (7- The Purgatory, 133)
So We
expelled them from gardens, springs.Treasures and every kind of honorable
position.Thus it was made the children of Israel inheritors of such things.(26-
The Poets, 57- 59)
The accounts
given by the Quran about the punishment inflicted upon the Pharaoh and his
followers, like drought and other disasters, and the accounts of the Ipuwer
Papyrus are perfectly in tune with each other. As an evidence of the offense
committed by the dynasty of the Pharaoh in its denial of Moses’ prophethood,
the Quran says that blood was foreseen (the same thing holds true for the proliferation
of the locusts, the lice, etc.). In the Ipuwer Papyrus it is said that blood
ran in riverbeds, everywhere was smeared with blood. (Studies conducted to this
day seem to explain the red coloration of rivers by the existence of protozoa,
zooplanktons, sea and fresh water planktons or dinoflagellates. All these
organisms would deplete the oxygen in water, giving rise to rapid growth of
toxic substances, killing the living organisms and rendering the stream water
undrinkable.)
Researchers
have devised a course of events that might have taken place in relation to the
disasters described in the Quran. According to this fictive account, “The fish
in the Nile perished as a consequence of the intoxication of the river, leaving
the Egyptians deprived of sustenance. Frogs, whose eggs multiplied in the
meantime, invaded the surroundings before they themselves succumbed to
poisoning. Decomposition of fish and frogs coupled with the poisonous water of
the Nile polluted the fertile land around. Annihilation of the frogs caused the
pests like locusts and grain moths to proliferate:” All these are but the
product of imagination, surely. We do not know exactly how things happened
since we have no available data in hand to make valid deductions. Yet, this
account may give us an idea of them.
The Ipuwer
Papyrus records the curse of blood, drought and disasters to which the
Pharaoh’s dynasty fell victim, and the situation of the slaves, who later were
to inherit the former’s possessions almost literally as described in the Quran.
IPUWER
PAPYRUS
10: 3-6
Lower Egypt is devastated. The court came to a standstill. Whatever was stored,
wheat, rye, geese and fish, perished.
10: 6-3
Crops wasted everywhere
2: 5-6
Disasters and blood everywhere
2:10 Blood
flows in rivers
there was no
exit from the palace and no one could see the face of his fellow Towns were
destroyed by mighty tides Upper Egypt suffered devastation blood everywhere
pestilence throughout the country No one really sails north to Byblos today.
What shall we do for cedar for our mummies? Gold is lacking 210
3: 2 Gold
and lapis lazuli, silver and malachite, carnelian and bronze decorate the necks
of slaves
Ipuwer Papyrus-Leidon 344
