Supervisor Elham AbolFateh
Editor in Chief Mohamed Wadie

Ani Manuscript.. Discloses Secrets of Ancient Egyptians over Death


Sun 22 Nov 2020 | 08:28 AM
Ali Abu Dashish

Ani Papyrus is one of the most celebrated papyrus manuscripts, as it depicts a copy of the “Book of the Dead” texts.

This book was written to be kept with the dead "to help them during their journeys to the other side, coping with ancient Egyptians' faith in life after death and its horrors.

It carried various prayers and incantations to help the dead to overcome the fear of death and win the immortal life in the heavens.

The head of Bibliotheca Alexandrina Museum Hussein Bassir explained: “Ani is a papyrus manuscript. It carries various hieroglyphic texts and descriptive paintings. It dated back to 1250 B.C. or the 19th dynasty period.”

The manuscript is called “Ani papyrus” because it was dedicated to an Ancient Egyptian writer named Ani.

It was discovered in Luxor in 1888 by some Egyptians who smuggled artifacts illegally. Fortunately, the Egyptian police arrested them and seized the artifacts they had, however, Sir E. A. Wallis Budge succeeded in having the manuscript.

Budge spread warm meals to the guards and police officers and asked some Egyptian friends to bring him the artifacts the police seized including Ani papyrus.

Then, those artifacts were smuggled by Budge to Britain. Next, they were handed to the British Museum. Budge was gifted 150 pounds.

Currently, this manuscript is one of the most famous exhibits of the museum.

Contributed by: Rana Atef