SINUHE

flourished 20th century BC Middle Kingdom Egyptian official of the 12th dynasty (19381756 BC) who fled Egypt to settle in Syria. His biography yields information about political and social conditions of the time. Sinuhe was an official of the harem maintained for Amenemhet I by his queen. While on an expedition to Libya he learned of the king's assassination (1908 BC) and fled, either from fright or because of his complicity. He intended to travel southward but was blown to the north while crossing the Nile, and he passed into Palestine. After much wandering in Palestine and Lebanon, he was invited to settle with a chieftain of southern Syria, who adopted him and married him to his eldest daughter. In that land Sinuhe raised a family and became a veritable patriarch. He defended his father-in-law's territory and entertained emissaries traveling to and from Egypt. The pharaoh Sesostris I invited Sinuhe to return to Egypt, and Sinuhe eagerly accepted. The king forgave him his real or imagined crimes and welcomed him with rich gifts; thereafter Sinuhe remarried in his homeland, while the pharaoh ordered a fine tomb built for him. Sinuhe's biography survived as a popular epic; internal evidence suggests that it is based on actual events. The story of Sinuhe was adapted by a modern Finnish writer, Mika Waltari, for a popular novel, The Egyptian (1949).