Name: Josh Sarachek
Date: 4/13/14
The Battle of Kadesh
The following work will portray the story of the Battle of Kadesh (1274 B.C.E.),
as told in a piece known as the Poem of Pentaur, which was the official paper of the
Egyptians for a battle that took place during while Ramses II was on the throne. This
battle was fought for control over the Levant Region. This was a region that was
continuously being fought over between the Hittites and the Egyptians. The Poem of
Pentuar seems that one of the helpers of Ramses II and one who is fairly close to him
write it. The Egyptian forces went to the north to fight with the people of Syria who
were expanding to the south, which leads to a battle-taking place between the people
fighting for the Egyptian, loyal to Pharaoh Ramses II, and the soldiers of the Hittites, who
were loyal to Mutwatalli II. This battle was at Kadesh, an important city on the ford near
the Orontes River, in what is now modern-day Western Syria. This study will show how
that even thought the poem can seem like it demonstrates the specifics of the battle,
mainly the respective talking about the numerous amount of chariots by the powers on
either side, the poem actually appears to beautify what actually happened in the battle in
an effort to keep Ramses reputation and make him look a lot better than he really was.
In order to understand the battle of Kadesh, it is necessary to provide some
perspective about the disagreements between the Hittites and Egyptians, which led to the
battle. Prior to the rule of Ramses II, his father, Seti I, governed the kingdom of Egypt.
Although the Hittites controlled Amurru and Kadesh, the people in these states wanted
Egypt to govern them. King Seti I did not have the resources to maintain control over
these states. When his son Ramses II came into power, his objective was to do what his
father could not which was to gain control over the territory. Ramses pressured the
Hittites through repeated attacks, particularly through the use of chariots. These battles
are the main factor that caused the Egyptians and Hittites to sign a treaty.
Thomas and Conant (2005) describe the battle of Kadesh as a very intriguing
battle mainly for its use of chariots. They also note its important cause it is one of the first
battles in history to use military strategy. The Hittites were at an advantage, although the
poem claims that the Egyptians defeated them brutally and rose as the victors of the
battle. However, more recent evidence has shown this is not true and scholars say the
Egyptian actually retreated at some point and were not the victors of the war. Although,
we do not know officially who won because an aide writes the poem to Ramses so it may
be bias, the peace treaty, which came out of this document, is very important because it is
the backbone of the peace treaties that we still make to this day. We can still look at this
poem to seek information about this battle, but while reading it, you have to keep in mind
that this poem only offers Egyptian perspective. The Egyptian perspective seeks for you
to view Ramses II as a leader and many times in the poem it says how honest and what a
great leader he really is.
The context of this poem is clear, it wants to entertain you and show you how the
Egyptians prevailed and how Ramses led them even though some of this writing may not
be true. In this poem the main goal is to keep Ramses legacy and have him remembered
as one of the greatest generals and pharaohs ever. In this poem it never says Ramses
made a mistake in battle, it says it was his foolish men who made them and his men were
his only failings. Had his men fought better and prevailed over the enemies the peace
treaty would have never existed but because his men had failed him he had to find peace
with the Hittites.
In the poem it is clear that the perspective of the battle was written from the point
of view of an Egyptian who was loyal to Ramses. The poem offers a description of
Ramses and then a description of the battle and everything following. In my opinion this
is not much of a poem but more of a story that praises him. The only as part of this
‘poem’, where it demonstrates that it is such, is the “florid...and highly colored” style
which it uses in description of its heroic acts, a style which Breasted (1903) describes as
similar to “prose reports of victories as far back as the twelfth century [B.C.E.]”
(Breasted, 1903, p. 11). The style of the “prose” is intended to show Ramses II, and
proclaim his military victory, but succeeds only in “greatly exaggerating [Ramses’]
power, and the position of Egypt when the battle was over” (Wanner, 2014, p. 2).
The larger context that this source offers that the Egyptian population was lead by
political hierarchy and also that the Egyptians had too much pride. Following Ramses’
heroic victory, the reader recognizes that Muwatallish “lays the capital of the Hittite
empire at his feet”, a complete victory that apparently had come on the heels of what this
author interpreted the poem to describe as “one border dispute” (Wanner, 2014, p. 4).
Although we have the poem as a source, there is no other evidence that the Hittite
empire was forced by the Egyptians to surrender and lose all hope. This fabrication is
shown in the text that Ramses only reached peace with the Hittites because he was
“disgusted” by the fact that his own men would rather flee than going with Ramses on the
journey to victory against the Hittites. Instead of fleeing with his men, Ramses would
rather make peace with the Hittites. (Wanner, pg. 5). A reader may be fooled by the poem
and the falsehood that it prevents. Ramses may not have taken the peace treaty path then
having a continuous battle just because his men ran away, evidence suggests that this was
a better path for both sides and that is why the peace treaty was made.
Nevertheless in the poem the reason Ramses seeks a diplomatic solution is based
on his disgust for his cowardly men; rather than fleeing alongside them, he chose to
heroically negotiate a peace treaty with the Hittite empire. Although this situation shows
that the poem embellished the battle a lot and that Ramses was not nearly as victorious as
it states in the poem, there is an even harsher explanation provided by Catalan (2004).
Catalan’s statement is that Ramses was “shaken by the overwhelming power of the
Hittite military” and he decided, “ It would not be in his best interest to fight the enemy
so far from Egypt.” (Catalan, 2004, pg. 4) Catalan also suggest that he decided that
Ramses thought it was more important to negotiate for peace than to keep fighting in war
(Catalan, 2004, pg. 4). A reason Catalan might suggest this theory is because after this
war Egypt would slide into a civil war for many years while the Hittite Empire was ruling
the lands.
The battle of Kadesh in the poem may be spurious and fanciful. The battle of
Kadesh can be related to the Six Day War in Israel or the Iraq War. The fact of the matter
is a battle can have lasting effects not just on a leader or their legacy like, Golda Meir or
George Bush, but it can effect the people of that country forever. Because of this
observation I have made you have to note that whenever a major history event occurs
there will always be bias if somebody from that country is writing the article.
Works Cited
Breasted, J.H. (1903). The Battle of Kadesh: A History of the Earliest Known Military
Strategy.
University of Chicago Press.
Catalan, J.F. (2004). The battle of Kadesh. All Empires. Retrieved April 9, 2014 from
http://www.allempires.com/article/index.php?q=battle_kadesh
Thomas, C.G., Conant, C. (2005). The Trojan War. Greenwood Publishing Group.
Wanner, R. (2014). Kadesh. Military History Online. Retrieved April 9, 2014 from
http://www.militaryhistoryonline.com/ancient/articles/kadesh.aspx