36 God’s Generals
Figure 1. Portion (lower left panel) of the Reliefs of the Luxor Temple Depiction of Ramses’ II Military Camp at the Battle of Kadesh.102 fans with which they appear to be fanning air over the flame and brazier. If the Ramses relief is indeed portraying a covered brazier and one in full flame, then it might be an Egyptian portrayal of the pillar of smoke and fire described in Exodus. There is one more tantalizing clue as to the device’s Egyptian origins. When Pharaoh’s chariots approached the Israelite camp near the Reed Sea, they saw the pillar of smoke change into a pillar of fire and shift position. But these ‘miraculous’ events produced no reaction at all on the part of the Egyptian commanders and soldiers, and the Egyptians calmly went into their night encampment and waited for dawn. This suggests that the Egyptians were observing something which they had often seen before, an enemy commander’s 42 God’s Generals
To Goshen Migdol To Beersheba
Israelite Camp
To Sinai
Reed Sea Pharaoh’s Camp
Figure 2. Night Crossing of the Reed Sea night water crossing. Exodus 14:24 tells us that the Egyptian pursuit began ‘at the morning watch’, or shortly after daybreak. With the Israelites watching safely from the other side of the marsh, the Egyptians appear to have attempted to follow them across the dry bed of the marsh, but the wheels of their chariots became ‘locked’ so ‘that they moved forward with difficulty’.113 This seems to be nothing more mysterious than chariot wheels caught in the mud. While struggling to free their machines, ‘the waters turned back and covered the chariots and the horsemen’. Perhaps the tide came in and some of the Egyptian troops and horses drowned. The Bible says that every Egyptian died in the Sea of Reeds. Exodus 12:28 tells that ‘not one man remained alive’. The death of an entire Egyptian division of 6,000 men at the hands of a band of Israelite foreigners would hardly have gone unrecorded by the Egyptians or someone else outside the Bible, and cannot be taken as true. But if we recall Manetho’s version of the Israelite saga as the expulsion of the Israelites, the story makes somewhat more sense. The Egyptian 44 God’s Generals
N Route of the Exodus According to Numbers 33,
Verses 1-49 S Shittim
ABARIM Dibon-gad
Beer-sheba MOAB Hormah 0 25 50 N E G E B Iye-abarim Miles Bene-jaakan Hor Moseroth Succoth Hashmonah Oboth SHUR DESERT Punon Kadesh Etham
SHEPHER Zalmonah
Migdol Makheloth Hor-haggidgad Kehelathah E D O M PARAN Rinoh Jotbathah DESERT Libhah
Abronah Rimmon-perez Ezion-geber Marah
Elim Rithmah
SEA OF REEDS
Dophkah SIN Hazeroth
SEA OF REEDS Alush Kibroth-hattaavah
Rephidim
SINAI
Map 1. Route of the Exodus 52 God’s Generals
Figure 3. Recalulated Size of Israelite Units (elef) by Tribe and Estimate of Size of Israelite Army (Numbers: 1 and 26)
Numbers 1 Numbers 26 I Chron 12 Tribe Units Men Units Men Units Men Reuben 46 500 43 750 (40) xxx Simeon 59 300 22 200 7 100 Gad 45 650 40 500 (40) xxx Judah 74 600 76 500 6 800 Issachar 54 400 64 300 200 rd’fim and their men Zebulun 57 400 60 500 50 xxx Ephraim 40 500 32 500 20 800 Manasseh 32 200 52 700 18 xxx (Half-tribe) (40) xxx Benjamin 35 400 45 600 3 xxx Dan 62 700 64 400 28 600 Asher 41 500 53 400 40 xxx Naphtali 53 400 45 400 37 1000 śārīmn TOTALS 598 5550 596 5750 329 2300
Source: George E. Mendenhall, “The Census Lists of Numbers 1 an 26” Journal of Biblical Literature 77 (1958): 52-66. military recruitment as well as Moses’ division of the people for judicial purposes into units of thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens point to a major conclusion: the basis for Israelite political/ military organization was not lineage, but territorial organization. Lineage was of lesser importance, since the social organization of early Israel was based on territorial divisions, as was the military draft.130 The revised census figures permit an estimate as to the size of the overall Israelite community at Sinai. Israelite men became eligible for military service at age 20, the same age for military service in Egypt.131 We do not know until what age soldiers remained in 60 God’s Generals
Israelite Order of Battle March Leaving Sinai (Numbers 10: 11-28)
Scouts Scouts Scouts ISSACHAR Elite Elite Heavy Infantry Heavy Infantry
ZEBULON Heavy Infantry Heavy Infantry
JUDAH DIVISION Levite Clans of Gershon and Merari With Tabernacle
Light Infantry Light Infantry
GADITES
SIMEON (?) Archers Archers
REUBEN DIVISION
Levite Clan of Kohath With Tabernacle
Slingers Slingers Slingers
BENJAMITES Archers Archers MANASSEH
EPHRAIM DIVISION
DAN DIVISION REAR GUARD
ASHER (?)
NAPHTALI
Heavy Infantry Heavy Infantry
Figure 4. The Israelite Army at Sinai 66 God’s Generals
greeting was expressed in the saying ‘waking in life in the tent of Pharaoh’.165 All Egyptian monumental architecture is oriented toward the east, and it is probable that the Jewish religious ritual of praying while facing east at the start of a new day or the ancient Christian practice of burying a corpse with its head to the east to greet the sun on resurrection day may have Egyptian origins as well. The entrance to both Ramses’ compound and the Tabernacle is in the middle of the eastern wall with a path leading to the ‘reception tent’ located in the middle of the walled-off compound. Pharaoh’s tent is twice as long as it is wide, preserving the same ratio as the compound’s outer walls. The ‘reception tent’ of the Tabernacle is also twice as long as its width, preserving the same ratio. In both cases the reception tent leads to a holy of holies that is square, not rectangular like the reception tent.166 The sides of each square are equal to the width of the reception tent in both cases. Figure 4 portrays the layout and relative dimensions of each
Falcon Gods–Horus Reception Tent
Square Throne Tent
Royal Cartouche
Path To Tent Compound Oriented To The East Outer Compound Wall
Eastern Outer Shield Wall
Figure 5. Abu Simbel Relief Portraying Ramses II’s War Tent at the Battle of Kadesh 78 God’s Generals 2000 KM 0 ASIA Indo-Aryans Earliest Migrations Earliest Later Migrations
Caspian Sea INDO-EUROPEAN MIGRATIONS MIGRATIONS INDO-EUROPEAN FROM 1,700BC NEAR EAST NEAR Early Indo-EuropeansEarly Sea Black Indo-Europeans Thracians Greeks Balts Illyrians Slavs EUROPE Mediterranean Sea Germans Italics Celts AFRICA Atlantic OceanAtlantic Map2. Indo-European Migrations 80 God’s Generals
AFGHANISTAN
CHINA HINDU KUSH
HIMALAYA MOUNTAINS
PAKISTAN *Harappa
Indus
Thar Deseart Ganges
INDIA
ARABIAN SEA Deccan Plateau
BAY OF BENGAL
KM 0 500
ARYAN INVASION OF INDIA 1,500-250BC
Map 3. Aryan Invasions and Settlement Routes 84 God’s Generals
KAMBOJA
MILES GANDHARA 0 100 200 300 Taxila R. CHENAB
R. JHELUM R. BEAS
R. RAVI
R. SUTLEJ PANCHAL R. SARASVATIKURU
SURASENA R. INDUS
R. YAMUNA KOSALA R. GANGA MATSYA MALLA VRIJJI
R. LUNI VATSA KASHI R. CHAMBAL ANGA
CHEDI MAGADHA AVANTI
R. NARMADA
R. TAPTI R. MAHANADI
R. GODAVARI BAY OF BENGAL ARABIAN SEA ASMAKA
Map 4. The Mahajanapadas, 600 BC 90 God’s Generals
1 10 2 11 3 12 4 13 5 6 14 15 7 8 16
9 17 18
Figure 6. Ravana in Full Battle Array. (1) Dagger axe, (2) club, (3) mace, (4) lasso, (5) metal trident spear, (6) crescent axe, (7) cane arrow, (8) incendiary arrow, (9) unknown, (10) brownze leaf-point javelin, (11) iron-tipped spear, (12) sickle-sword, (13) sword, (14) battle-axe, (15) trident dagger, (16) club, (17) stimulum (?), (18) composite bow.
Rigveda endowed the animal with divinity. The chariot declined as a true implement of war probably circa 650 BC, although some Indian state armies seemed to have retained it, if only in small numbers, until the third century BC. The Chinese pilgrim, Hiuen Tsan, wrote of his travels in India in which he described the Indian army as having chariots. He noted that ‘the army is composed of foot, horse, chariot, and elephant soldiers...The chariot in which an officer sits is drawn by four horses, whilst infantry guard it on both sides.20 This description is not of a war chariot but a field command vehicle in which the officer sits while guarded by infantry. During a later visit the same Chinese author wrote again of the Indian army, 94 God’s Generals
SHAHBAZGARHI PAROPANISADAI LAMPAKA MANSEHRA GANDHARA Taxila
KANDAHAR
ARACHOSIA KALSI TOPRA YAVANAS R. SUTLEJ MEERUT DELHI GEDROSIA R. INDUS R. GANGES NIGLIVA Mathura Shravasti RAMPURVA BAIRAT RUMMINDEI LAURIYA NANDANGARH SOHGAURA LAURIYA ARARAJ Pataliputra GUJARRA Prayaga MAHASTHAN KAUSHAMBI SARNATH BARABAR SAHASRAM MAGADHA Ujjayini SANCHI RUPNATH CALCUTTA PULINDASR. NARMADA Tamralipti GIRNAR R. MAHANADI DHAULI
SOPARA R. GODAVARI BOMBAY JAUGADA ARABIAN KALINGA SEA ANDHRAS R. KRISHNA MASKI RAJULA-MANDAGIRI SIDDAPURA YERRAGUDI BAY BRAHMAGIRI JATINGA- OF RAMESHWAR BENGAL SATYA Shravana- PUTRAS Belgola MADRAS
CHOLASR. KAVERI Ancient Towns KERALA PANDYAS MODERN TOWNS PUTRAS
0 200 400 KILOMETRES
MILES 0 100 200 300 400
Map 5. Indian States, 500 BC 152 God’s Generals
BYZANTINE EMPIRE (Modern Turkey) Raids and Battles in Muhammad’s Arabia
Scale MesopotamiaTigris R. 0 400 Miles (Modern Iraq) Euphrates R.
Damascus SYRIA Sea Baghdad Jerusalem Mediterranean Persia Muta, 629 (Modern Iran) PALESTINE Duma al Jandal
Tabuk Tabuk, 630 Dhat al Riqa, 626 BAHRAIN Persian Gulf Dhuy Amr, 624 Kheibar, 628 Uhud, 625 Bahran, 624 Bir Maoona, 625 Medina Yathrib, 627 OMANSuhar Beni Dharma, 623 Badr, 624/626 Rabigh, 623 Hunayn, 630 A R A B I A Mecca Mecca, 630 Nakhla, 623 EGYPT Ta’if, 630 Beni Lihyan, 628
Red Sea
HADHRAMAUT YEMEN Arabian Sea
ABYSSINIA Aden N
Expansion under Muhammad Battle Raids
Map 6. Raids and Battles in Muhammad’s Arabia