Sebayt

Sebayt (Manuel de Codage transcription: sbA.yt) is the ancient Egyptian term for a genre of pharaonic literature. The word literally means 'teachings' or 'instructions' and refers to formally written ethical teachings focused on the "way of living truly".

Most Sebayt are preserved on papyrus scrolls that are copies of earlier works. Four important examples of sebayt are preserved in the Papyrus Prisse, two papyrus scrolls in the British Museum, the Insinger Papyrus and the Canarvon Tablet 1 in Cairo. This genre has much in common with sapiential literature in other cultures, and is for example comparable with the Old Testament Book of Proverbs which has in part been connected to the Instructions of Amenemopet.

Many of the earliest Sebayt claim to have been written in the third millennium BC, during the Old Kingdom, but it is now generally agreed that they were actually composed later, beginning in the Middle Kingdom (c.1991-1786 BC). This fictitious attribution to authors of a more distant past was intended to give the texts greater authority.

Sebayt were a long lived genre, with new compositions continuously appearing well into the Roman era. Some individual teachings, such as the Teaching of Amenemhat I (written c. 1950 BC) were continuously copied and transmitted for over 1500 years.

Perhaps the best-known sebayt is the one which claims to have been written by Ptahhotep, the vizier to the Fifth Dynasty monarch Djedkare Isesi who ruled from 2388-2356 BC. Ptahhotep's sebayt is often called The Teaching of Ptahhotep, or the Maxims of Good Discourse (the latter being a phrase used as a self-description in the sebayt itself). The teaching appears on the 12th-dynasty Prisse Papyrus along with the ending of the Instructions of Kagemni. Another well known sebayt was attributed to the Fourth dynasty of Egypt ethicist named Hardjedef. Only a few fragments survive of his Instruction.

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