Mesra = Mes Ra = Sons of Ra? Possible Ancient Origins for "New" Names ... مصر Misr !

The Origins of "Mesra" مصر ... Today's Name of Egypt

According to Wikipedia:

The English name Egypt is derived from the Ancient Greek Aígyptos (Αἴγυπτος), via Middle French Egypte and Latin Aegyptus. It is reflected in early Greek Linear B tablets as a-ku-pi-ti-yo. The adjective aigýpti-, aigýptios was borrowed into Coptic asgyptios, and from there into Arabic as qubṭī, back formed into قبط qubṭ, whence English Copt. The Greek forms were borrowed from Late Egyptian (Amarna) Hikuptah "Memphis", a corruption of the earlier Egyptian name Hwt-ka-Ptah (ḥwt-k-ptḥ), meaning "home of the ka (soul) of Ptah", the name of a temple to the god Ptah at Memphis. Strabo attributed the word to a folk etymology in which Aígyptos (Αἴγυπτος) evolved as a compound from Aigaiou huptiōs (Aἰγαίου ὑπτίως), meaning "below the Aegean".

Miṣr (IPA: [mi̠sˤr] or Egyptian Arabic pronunciation: [mesˤɾ]; Arabic: مِصر‎) is the Classical Quranic Arabic and modern official name of Egypt, while Maṣr (IPA: [mɑsˤɾ]; Egyptian Arabic: مَصر) is the local pronunciation in Egyptian Arabic. The name is of Semitic origin, directly cognate with other Semitic words for Egypt such as the Hebrew מִצְרַיִם (Mitzráyim). The word originally connoted "metropolis" or "civilization" and means "country", or "frontier-land".

The ancient Egyptian name of the country was km.t, which means black ground or black soil, referring to the fertile black soils of the Nile flood plains, distinct from the deshret (dšṛt), or "red land" of the desert. This name is commonly vocalised as Kemet, but was probably pronounced [kuːmat] in ancient Egyptian. The name is realised as kēme and kēmə in the Coptic stage of the Egyptian language, and appeared in early Greek as Χημία (Khēmía). Another name was t-mry "land of the riverbank". The names of Upper and Lower Egypt were Ta-Sheme'aw (t-šmw) "sedgeland" and Ta-Mehew (t mḥw) "northland", respectively.

Mizraim (Hebrew: מִצְרַיִם / מִצְרָיִם, Modern Mitzráyim Tiberian Miṣrāyim / Miṣráyim ; cf. Arabic مصر, Miṣr) is the Hebrew and Aramaic name for the land of Egypt, with the dual suffix -āyim, perhaps referring to the "two Egypts": Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt.

Notes:

• King of Egypt was often known as King of the Two Lands (+ Kosh and beyond).
• The Hebrews could likely have got the name (Mizraim) from an older Egyptian origin and then made it sound like something that is meaningful for them!

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Notes:

• Until today, Egyptians call their capital (Cairo or Al Qahera) "Masr" or "Misr" - i.e., the same name they call the whole country. The Capital is located in the joining of the two lands (the Valley and the Delta) - very close to Memphis as well as Heliopolis (Oun - Sun City - close to Ein Shams - Eye of the Sun) - which was a center for the worship of Ra - the Sun God.

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However, we know that the 12th month in the Ancient Egyptian Calendar is Mesra! This is the month of the flood! The flood is when the dead land awakens with life and thus reborn. There is a proverb which says: "In Mesra, the water runs even in the driest of creeks!"

 مسرى تجرى فيه كل ترعة عسرة

This calendar is still used as the Coptic calendar - used by the church and by many Egyptian farmers till today - since it is strongly related to agricultural seasons and Nile cycle.

But what does Mesra means?

According to Wikipedia,

Mesori, also known as Mesra, is the twelfth month of the Coptic calendar. It lies between August 7 and September 5 of the Gregorian calendar. The month of Mesori is also the fourth month of the Season of 'Shemu' (Harvest) in Ancient Egypt, where the Egyptians harvest their crops throughout Egypt. The name of the month of Mesori comes from Mes-en-ra, an Ancient Egyptian word that means Birth of the Sun (Ra).

Ramses (the regnal name of many great Egyptian kings) means "begotten by Ra" (the sun god) or perhaps "son of Ra". And if we just reverse the order it becomes very close to : Mes-Ra, again ... birth of Ra or sons of Ra. This is of course just an attempt to see if the word "Mesra" had some meaning in the ancient tongue.

There are theories which traces the meaning of the word "Mesra" in the languages of the people who lived East of Egypt such the Akkadians, people from Levantines, Hebrews and so on. From Egypt's page on Wikipedia, the Akkadian "mi-iṣ-ru" ("miṣru") related to miṣru/miṣirru/miṣaru, meaning "border" or "frontier". The Neo-Assyrian Empire used the derived term, Mu-ṣur. In trying to trace it back to Ancient Egyptian language, they use the word mdr or mjr meaning fortress in the sense that an Eastern fortress was the symbol of Egypt's border for the people who lived to the east. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egypt

Dr. Taha Abdel Alim

https://web.archive.org/web/20150103090138/http://digital.ahram.org.eg/articles.aspx?Serial=122160&eid=2452

 

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So, it could also be seen that Mesra could mean Sons of Ra - or people of Ra.

So, Mesra ... could simply refer to Sons of Ra or Nation of Ra.

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What about Cairo - Al Qahera?

Cairo (/ˈkaɪroʊ/ kye-roh ; Arabic: القاهرة‎; is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Middle-East and second-largest in Africa after Lagos. Its metropolitan area is the 13th largest in the world. Located near the Nile Delta, it was founded in 969 CE. Nicknamed "the city of a thousand minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a center of the region's political and cultural life. Cairo was founded by Jawhar al-Siqilli "The Sicilian", of the Fatimid dynasty, in the 10th century CE, but the land composing the present-day city was the site of national capitals whose remnants remain visible in parts of Old Cairo. Cairo is also associated with Ancient Egypt as it is close to the ancient cities of Memphis,Giza and Fustat which are near the Great Sphinx and the pyramids of Giza.

Cairo ... Khere-Ohe?

Egyptians today often refer to Cairo as Maṣr ([mɑsˤɾ], مصر), the Egyptian Arabic pronunciation of the name for Egypt itself, emphasizing the city's continued role in Egyptian influence. Its official name is القاهرة al-Qāhirah , means literally: "the Defeater", in reference to the fact that the planet Mars ("Al Najm Al Qahir") was rising at the time when the city was founded as well as, "the Vanquisher"; "the Conqueror"; Egyptian Arabic pronunciation: [elqɑ(ː)ˈheɾɑ], "the Defeater" or, " "the Victorious" (al-Qahira) in reference to the much awaited Caliph al-Mu'izz li Din Allah who arrived from the old Fatimid capital of Mahdia in 973 to the city. The Egyptian name for Cairo is said to be: Khere-Ohe, meaning: "The Place of Combat", supposedly, in reference to a battle which took place between the Gods Seth and Horus. Sometimes the city is informally also referred to as كايرو Kayro [ˈkæjɾo]. It is also called Umm al-Dunya, meaning "the mother of the world".

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Under every layer in Egypt, lies yet another layer!

So, Cairo, Al Qahera ... could be just a distorted way of pronouncing Khere-Ohe ... it is more plausible that Umm Al-Dunya (Mother of the World) ... has its name from an older origin ... and that the Fatimid ruler decided to find a name which had a favorable meaning in Arabic and also sounded like what people used to call their city. It could even be Ka Hwt Ra (The spirit home of Ra?)

So, the concept that Cairo was built a 1,000 years ago, is actually a lie! In reality, it has been the center of Egypt since the Old Kingdom at least (5000 years!)  - whether Memphis, Oun / Iunu / Heliopolis or Babylon . Even when  the capital moved to Thebes, Oun /Heliopolis remained an important center for Sun traditions (which undoubtedly included astronomy and calendar related calculations and mathematics). Moreover, the name is probably not new either. 

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#EgyptRemembers