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2.1 Organs of Government
2.1.1 The King
If during the First Intermediate period individual nomarchs such as
Ankhtifi asserted more independence,^28 by the Middle Kingdom
proper there is good evidence for the reassertion of a powerful cen-
tral authority.^29 The Twelfth Dynasty (ca. 1991–1785) is distinguished
by the gradual disappearance of these nomarchs.^30 The balance of
power between such high officials and the families to which they
belonged and the king is still much discussed.^31 The royal palace,
the vizier’s office, and the heads of the individual departments were
in the capital, Itj-tawy(possibly Lisht), located between Herakleopolis
and Memphis.^32 Many of the traditional characteristics of Egyptian
royalty are developed by or for the Middle Kingdom pharaohs. As
in the Old Kingdom, the image of the king profoundly influences
the formulation of Middle Kingdom private inscriptions.^33 In the
later Middle Kingdom the king’s authority seems to lessen, power
being concentrated in the hands of the viziers.^34
As Quirke observes, kingship is represented as the highest “office”
(“the office of the pharaoh” [fi 3 .t pr-' 3 ]) and the pharaoh understood
as the head of a bureaucracy designed to expedite his legal and
political decisions.^35 The king deals with the chief of that bureaucracy,
the vizier, in an elaborate and formal manner as described by late
Middle Kingdom (or early New Kingdom?) compositions.^36 The king
sometimes takes an active role in the administration. Two Thirteenth
Dynasty petitions, for example, may have been sent directly to the
king. He thereupon gives the vizier, who does not seem to have had
any prior information about the situation, explicit instructions on(^28) Schenkel, “Anchtifi”; Willems, “Nomarchs...”
(^29) See, e.g., Van den Boorn, Vizier.. ., 346–47.
(^30) Kuhrt, Near East.. ., 1: 167; Lorton, “Legal and Social Institutions.. .,” 352;
Franke, “Career of Khnumhotep III”; Quirke, “Royal Power.. .”; Gestermann,
Kontinuität .. ., 154–90; Lloyd, “Great Inscription.. .,” 30; Redford, “Tod.. .,” 48.
(^31) Franke, “Career of Khnumhotep III,” 53, 63; Théodoridès, “Sixième.. .,” 446.
(^32) Hayes, Papyrus.. ., 134–35; Gestermann, Kontinuität.. ., 108.
(^33) Quirke, Administration.. ., 215.
(^34) But see now Ryholt, Political Situation.. ., 282–83.
(^35) Quirke, “The Regular Titles.. .,” 108, and Administration, 51–52.
(^36) E.g., the Duties of the Vizier; see Quirke, Administration.. ., 144.
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