Ahmed Osman (author)

For the Moroccan politician, see Ahmed Osman (politician).

Ahmed Osman (Arabic: أحمد عثمان‎‎) (born 1934) is an Egyptian-born author. He has put forward a number of theories, some revisionist in nature, about Ancient Egypt and the origins of Judaism and Christianity.

Biography

Born in Cairo in 1934, Osman was a law student at Cairo University before becoming a journalist. He has a Master's Degree in Egyptology.

Osman moved to London in 1964. He became interested in possible links between the Hebrew Bible and archaeological discoveries in Egypt.

Hypotheses

His first hypothesis was that Joseph was the father-in-law of Amenhotep III, Yuya. In 1987 this claim provided the basis for his first book, Stranger in the Valley of the Kings.

Osman identified the Semitic-born Egyptian official Joseph with the Egyptian official Yuya, and asserted the identification of Hebrew liberator Moses with the Egyptian pharaoh Akhenaten (as did Sigmund Freud in his book Moses and Monotheism).

Ahmed Osman has also claimed that Moses and Akhenaten were the same person, supporting his belief by interpreting aspects of biblical and Egyptian history. He alleges that Atenism can be considered monotheistic and related to Judaism, and includes other similarities, including a ban on idol worship and the similarity of the name Aten to the Hebrew Adon, or "Lord". This would mesh with Osman's other claim that Akhenaten's maternal grandfather Yuya was the same person as the Biblical Joseph.

A number of Osman's positions are in conflict with mainstream Egyptology, including conventional Egyptian chronology. Some Egyptologists have gone as far as rejecting them as unacademic conjecture while others do not consider them worth refuting.[1][2] Donald B. Redford wrote a scathing review of Stranger in the Valley of the Kings for Biblical Archaeology Review in which he wrote "The author treats the evidence as cavalierly as he pleases. He presents himself as a sober historian, yet when it suits him, the Biblical evidence is accepted at face value and literally... When the Biblical evidence does not suit Osman, it is discarded.[3]

In his Christianity: An Ancient Egyptian Religion (2005), Osman claims that Christianity did not originate in Judea but is the remnant of an Ancient Egyptian mystery cult that was suppressed and transformed by the Roman authorities.

He also argues that Jesus was not Jewish but was actually the Egyptian Pharaoh Tutankhamun and that there was no Joshua, just a confusion between the names Jesus and Joshua.: "Up to the 16th century, when the Old Testament books were translated from the Mesoretic Hebrew text into modern European languages, Jesus was the name of the prophet who succeeded Moses as leader of the Israelites in Egypt. Since the 16th century we started to have two names, Jesus and Joshua, which confused people into the belief that they were two different characters".[1]

Osman states that the reason mainstream Egyptologists do not accept his ideas is because "Egyptologists have established their careers on their interpretations" and that to accept other theories could give them less authority.[1]

Works

Alternate edition: Stranger in the Valley of the Kings: The Identification of Yuya as the Patriarch Joseph (1988)
Stranger in the Valley of the Kings (no subtitle) (1994) ISBN 0-586-08784-2
Alternate edition: Hebrew Pharaohs of Egypt: The Secret Lineage of the Patriarch Joseph (2001) ISBN 0-9540168-0-7 (2003) ISBN 1-59143-022-4
Alternate edition: Moses and Akhenaten: The Secret History of Egypt at the Time of the Exodus (2002)
Alternate edition: The House of the Messiah: A Brilliant New Solution to the Enduring Mystery of the Historical Jesus (1994)
Alternate edition: Jesus in the House of the Pharaohs: The Essene Revelations on the Historical Jesus (2004) ISBN 1-59143-027-5

References

  1. 1 2 3 Al-Ahram Weekly | Profile | Ahmed Osman: Beyond belief
  2. ↑ http://www.metimes.com/articles/normal.php?StoryID=20050408-051324-4388r
  3. ↑ Redford, Donald B. Review of Stranger in the Valley of the Kings by Ahmed Osman. BAR 15/2 p.8

External links

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