எகிப்தின் மூன்றாம் இடைநிலைக் காலம்: திருத்தங்களுக்கு இடையிலான வேறுபாடு

Four successive Saite kings continued guiding Egypt into another period of peace and prosperity from 610 to 525 BC. Unfortunately for this dynasty, a new power was growing in the Near East – the [[Achaemenid Empire]] of [[Persia]]. Pharaoh [[Psamtik III]] had succeeded his father [[Ahmose II]] for only 6 months before he had to face the [[Persian Empire]] at [[Battle of Pelusium (525 BC)|Pelusium]]. The Persians had already taken [[Babylon]] and Egypt was no match for them. Psamtik III was defeated and briefly escaped to Memphis, before he was ultimately imprisoned and, later, executed at [[Susa]], the capital of the Persian king [[Cambyses]], who now assumed the formal title of Pharaoh.

 

The historiography of this period is disputed for a variety of reasons. Firstly, there is a dispute about the utility of a very artificial term that covers an extremely long and complicated period of Egyptian history. The Third Intermediate Period includes long periods of stability as well as chronic instability and civil conflict: its very name rather clouds this fact. Secondly, there are significant problems of chronology stemming from several areas: first, there are the difficulties in dating that are common to all of [[Egyptian chronology]] but these are compounded due to synchronisms with Biblical archaeology that also contain heavily disputed dates. [[Peter James (historian)|James et al.]] argued contra Kitchen that the period lasted less than 200 years - starting later than 850 BC but ending at the conventional date - as the five dynasties had many years of overlap.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=|first=|date=1991|title=Centuries of Darkness: Context, Methodology and Implications [Review Feature]|url=https://www.centuries.co.uk/CoDreviewfeature1991.pdf|journal=Cambridge Archaeological Journal|language=en|volume=1|issue=2|pages=228ff|doi=10.1017/S0959774300000378|issn=1474-0540|archive-url=|via=}}</ref> Finally, some [[Egyptologist]]s and biblical scholars, such as [[Kenneth Kitchen]] and [[David Rohl]] have novel or controversial theories about the family relationships of the dynasties comprising the period.