The history of Egypt and Mesopotamia enables scholars to understand the process of civilization. The ancient Egyptian civilization had three stages that included the old kingdom, middle kingdom, and the new kingdom. Similarly, the Mesopotamian civilization is categorized into the Sumerian, Babylonian, and Assyrian civilization periods. The three stages from the two ancient groups have key similarities and differences. An analysis of the similarities and differences of the Egyptian middle kingdom and the Mesopotamian Babylonian provides an insight into how the ancient society contributed to the present-day religion, military, social and political formations (Allen, 2015) . The political, social, military, and religion of the middle kingdom of Egyptians were generally similar to that of the Babylonian structure. The main differences were the specific constituents of the various structures.
The main similarity of the Egyptian middle kingdom and the Babylonian political structures is that they were both monarchical. The Egyptian middle kingdom monarchy was led by a king called the Pharaoh. The king had a vizier who was second in command. It also had other government officials that helped the king to implement the laws and decree he pronounced. The Babylonians, on the other hand, were ruled by a king. The king was helped by literate clerks and scribes. Unlike the Egyptian kingdom, which had provincial administrations, the Babylonian rule was mainly vested in the king. He resolved disputes, managed military activities, and made the law (Kanawati, 2017) .
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Both the Egyptian middle kingdom and the Babylonian had a well defined social structure. The Egyptian social structure comprised of the Pharaoh, the noble and ruling class, craftsmen, and the slaves. The Pharaoh acted as the mediator between the people and the Egyptian gods. The Pharaoh was also considered a god. The ruling and noble class included the vizier and all the administrators. They helped the pharaoh in ruling the country at their designated jurisdiction. The craftsmen, on the other hand, formed the trained labor force. Food production was practiced by a large population of the kingdom that comprised the farmers. Finally, the slaves were mostly workers who cultivated the agricultural fields. The Babylonian social structure, on the other hand, was comprised of three main categories; the nobles, free people, and slaves. The Nobles were referred to as the ‘ Awilu.' The Code of Hammurabi spelled out the roles and rights of the different individuals in the social classes. For instance, injuring a person in the noble class attracted a different penalty from injuring a person in the free people’s class (Allen, 2015).
The military structure of the Egyptian middle kingdom was mainly composed of untrained soldiered gathered from the various provinces. The Army was commanded by Pharaoh. It was not prestigious to be in the army. As such, it consisted of mostly the lower-class men. The army’s main weapon was a bow and arrows. Other weapons of choice included daggers, spears, shields, and maces. The Babylonian, on the other hand, had a well-trained army. It was divided into the groups that guarded the outside and the inner side of the kingdom.
The two civilization groups were polytheistic. The Egyptians middle kingdom mainly believed in the Egyptian gods. The Pharaoh acted as the mediator between the Egyptians and the gods. The gods were responsible for natural phenomena such as droughts, rain, and the annual flooding of the river Nile. The Babylonian, on the other hand, believed in Babylonian god known as Enki. Their religion was advanced since they had practices, observations, and mythologies. One of their significant observations includes the New Year festival that was observed in the Babylonian month of Nisannu (Kanawati, 2017 & Brisch, 2013).
In conclusion, the political, social, military, and religion of the middle kingdom of Egyptians were generally similar to that of the Babylonian structure. They were both monarchical and led by a king. Their social structure was well defined. They also had a military, and they all believed in gods. The main differences were the specific constituents of the various structures. For instance, the Egyptian army was composed of less trained soldiers, unlike the well-trained army of the Babylonians. The Babylonian social class was also well defined into three groups that include the noble, free people and slaved, whereas the Egyptians had the pharaoh, craftsmen, farmers, in addition to the Babylonian three categories.
References
Allen, J. (2015). Middle Egyptian literature . Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press.
Brisch, N. (2013). Of Gods and Kings: Divine Kingship in Ancient Mesopotamia. Religion Compass , 7 (2), 37-46. DOI: 10.1111/rec3.12031
Kanawati, N. (2017). Ritual Marriage Alliances and Consolidation of Power in Middle Egypt during the Middle Kingdom. Études Et Travaux , (30), 267. DOI: 10.12775/etudtrav.30.013
