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Ahmed Kamal and Adolf Erman are two famous scholars in Egyptology who both lived and died in the same period – the mid-19th to early 20th century. Both faced similar circumstances in their personal lives and careers, and so a comparison of the two men is useful in order to shed light on the history of Egyptology.
Origin, name, family
Ahmed Kamal, of Cretan origin, was born in Cairo in 1852, where he was raised and educated. Erman was born in 1854 in Berlin, but his family was of Swiss origin, having moved to Berlin in 1721. Each was given his name for a particular reason. In school, Ahmed Hussein Ahmed was given the nickname ‘Kamal’, meaning ‘perfection’ in Arabic, because he ‘reflected perfection in combining grand ethics and knowledge’. Erman, on the other hand, was named after the north Swiss region of Ermatingen. Both scholars fathered many children: Kamal had three sons and three daughters, while Erman had five children.
Education and career
Kamal joined the formal educational system in Egypt during the 19th century, and in 1869 joined the el-Lisan el-Masry el-Qadim – the School of the Ancient Egyptian Language, which was also known as the ‘Brugsch School’ after its director, the German Egyptologist Heinrich Karl Brugsch. Erman followed the classes of Georg Ebers at Leipzig.
Both Kamal and Erman were fluent in ancient and modern languages. For instance, Kamal spoke English, French, German, and Turkish, as well as his native tongue Arabic. In addition, he received lessons in the ancient Egyptian language Akkadian, ancient Greek, Abyssinian, and Semitic languages. Similarly, Erman was a native speaker of German and French, with an excellent knowledge of the ancient Egyptian and Semitic languages, although he was not particularly proficient in Arabic.
It seems that Kamal and Erman had similar career experiences, both facing significant difficulties as well as successes. Kamal dreamt of being the first native archaeologist in the Service des antiquités égyptiennes, applying after he graduated from the language school. He failed, as at that time it was controlled by the colonial powers. Instead, he was obliged to work in the ministries of education and finance as a teacher and translator of foreign languages; but success came in 1891, when he became the first Egyptian assistant curator of the Cairo Museum, finally joining the Service in 1910 and becoming known as the first Egyptian Egyptologist.
Erman began his career in 1875 in the library of the Royal Prussian Museums. He also worked as a teacher, based at Berlin University (1881-1923). He held two important positions: the director of the Egyptian section of the Berlin Museum, and Professor of Egyptology (1884-1923), although he lost his positions in 1934 under the Nazi regime because of his part-Jewish ancestry.
Coincidentally, both scholars worked and collaborated with Heinrich Brugsch: Erman edited the famous journal Zeitschrift für Ägyptische Sprache und Altertumskunde (ZÄS), while Kamal was one of Brugsch’s most brilliant students at the Egyptology school in Egypt.
Ancient Egyptian dictionaries
Perhaps the most obvious link between Ahmed Kamal and Adolf Erman is that each of them spent many years compiling a dictionary of the ancient Egyptian language. Both scholars faced many challenges, yet were able to succeed in their colossal endeavours. Nevertheless, each worked in very different circumstances. The Woerterbuch der aegyptischen Sprache (by Erman and Hermann Grapow) was a state-backed project, while Kamal’s Lexique de la langue Égyptienne was a personal initiative. Erman received the assistance of many famous Egyptologists, such as Sethe and Grapow, while Kamal worked alone, with only the help of his daughter Tafida. Kamal wrote 22 volumes, while Erman compiled five volumes, with an additional five for references and bibliography. Kamal was the first to compare and include Semitic languages in his dictionary, which Erman then followed. Kamal was a native Arabic speaker, and so was able to include thousands of Arabic and Semitic words; Erman’s dictionary included only a limited list of such entries. There was also a huge difference in the time taken by each to create their dictionaries: Kamal worked on his volumes for 20 years (1902-1922), although the dictionary was not published in his lifetime, while Erman’s project outlived him, taking 63 years to complete (1898-1961).
Both men lived a long life in the service of Egyptology: Kamal was in his 70s at his death in 1923, while Erman passed away in 1937 at the age of 83. Their work had a major impact on the study of ancient Egypt, in particular by helping to unlock the enigmatic grammar rules, previously incomprehensible meanings, and uncertain interpretations of the ancient Egyptian language.
Azza Ezzat gained her PhD at Alexandria University in 2015 and is currently the Head of Research and Publication in the Writing and Scripts Centre at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina. She has written, edited, and translated several Egyptological works, and is analysing the methodology of Ahmed Kamal’s dictionary, which was given to Bibliotheca Alexandrina by his family in 2020.
Ahmed Mansour also gained his PhD from Alexandria University and he is currently Director of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina’s Writing and Scripts Centre. He has excavated in Luxor and Alexandria, and is now working on the preservation and study of the archives of pioneers in Egyptology such as Ahmed Kamal, focusing on the use of digital technologies in the conservation of heritage.
CRE 2024: Current Research in Egyptology (CRE) is an annual postgraduate conference set up to facilitate research and promote bonds between British and international universities conducting research in Egyptology. Ahead of this year’s conference at the University of Liverpool (2-6 September), AE will preview six new research papers (three in this issue, and a further three in AE 144) by postgraduates attending the conference, beginning with recent excavations in Alexandria.
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