Having gone over the etymologies surrounding "Egypt", I figured that "Pharaoh of Egypt" although clumsy in pure Middle-Egyptian makes some protoCoptic sense: as a title applied to a ruler of Memphis. Yesterday I assumed most such rulers would take it as a black joke and as an insult. After sleeping on it, I recalled one exception. A very important exception.
Earlier dynasties venerated Ptaḥ and some ruled from his city. "Pharao", however, applies only to the palace of the Empire and later - as the Quran teaches. Pharaonic kings venerated the Sun - as Amun or Aten or Ra. By then, Ptaḥ was no solar deity.
After the failure of the Theban / Amarnan XVIIIth dynasty, the Ramessides moved their seat to the Delta - needing more concentration over Canaan and then the Sea Peoples and Libyans. Among them we find a pharaoh calling himself "Merneptaḥ": he bestowed to posterity a vital res-gestae at Karnak. How did it happen that this king rediscovered his national roots?
The famous Pharaoh Rameses II "Ozymandias", one of those Justinian / Aurangzeb sorts, in his advanced age identified one of his sons as sufficiently competent to groom for succession. Already elderly on succession, our man took the name Mernetjeru, "Beloved of the Gods" but mostly of Ra (Banre). The Karnak record relates that in his reign, Mereye the Libyan invaded the Delta with 16000 Sea-Peoples.
Mernetjeru met Mereye at Memphis and routed him. Thus the victor proclaimed himself "Beloved of Ptaḥ" in particular: such that he set his throne at the god's holy city.
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