A false Pharaoh. Illustration by Floc’h in The New Yorker (November 8, 2009)
Zahi Hawass (b. 1947) is an Egyptian archaeologist and he occupied for a considerable time the position of a Minister of State for Antiquities Affairs. The least that could be said about him is that he is a controversial man. Two good articles on that are to be found in Wikipedia and The New Yorker. But, here, I would like to focus on his claim to be of ancient Egypt as he presented himself as the right heir to the Pharaohs. The fact is that he belongs to an Arab tribe by the name of Hawass that emigrated from Syria to Egypt as explained in a book by Saad Abu Saif al-Houti (I publish below a snippet of the relevant section, p. 232):[1]
The book does not explain how and when they came to Egypt, but it seems that they also went to Libya.[2]
It is alright, and desirable, for any man to study Egyptology and work in archaeology but to claim that he represented the Pharaohs and that he is a son of ancient Egypt is nothing but cultural appropriation. Hawass’ roots are not Egyptian but Arab. And his cultural appropriation of the ancient Egyptian culture must be resented.
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[1] الموسوعة العلمية في أنساب القبائل العربية تأليف: د. سعد أبو سيف الحوتي. الناشر: المؤلف بنفسه. 1422هـ-2002م.
[2] See: بنو هيب من بنو سليم.