The Medjay were originally a semi-nomadic people whose homeland was in the eastern desert in Nubia, ranging from Kemet (Egypt) to the Red Sea. They are mentioned as early as 2400 BC, when Kemetic texts recorded them as warriors serving within the Kemetic military, the police force as well as administrators within the Government. Later ancient texts also document their presence as soldiers at fortresses built along the Iteru (Nile) in Nubia. Their role serving as forces of authority was so enduring that by the time of the New Kingdom the name Medjay had become synonymous with the word for police. The Medjay's closet living ancestors are the Beja and live in the Sudanese states of Red Sea around Port Sudan, River Nile, Al Qadarif and Kassala, as well as in Northern Red Sea, Gash-Barka, and Anseba Regions in Eritrea, and southeastern Egypt.
The first mention of the Medjay in written records dates back to the Old Kingdom, when they were listed among other Nubian peoples in the Autobiography of Weni, who was at the time a general serving under Pepi I Meryre (reigned 2332–2287 BC). During this time the term "Medjay" referred to people from the land of Medjay, a district thought to be located just east of the Second Cataract in Nubia. Nubia was referred to as Ta-Seti, meaning "Land of the bow", by the Kemetyu (ancient Egyptians) and the people there were renowned for their military skills, particularly as archers. Ta-Seti was both the name for Nubia and the name for the first nome of Kemet which was a Nubian province which the Greeks called Elephantine, modern day Aswan.
During the Second Intermediate Period (1650–1550 BC), Kemet was weakened by the immigration of the Hyksos people from the near east who invaded and established a dynasty in Lower Kemet and the Delta, keeping the nation divided for several centuries. It was Ahmose I who was finally able to expel the foreigners in the Delta, unite the country and establish the 18th Dynasty which ruled over all of Kemet, beginning the New Kingdom period in 1550 BC. The Medjay were instrumental in his campaign as well as future campaigns which would solidify the divine authority of the Wa-Setian Kings of the south over Lower Kemet and the Delta region and expelling the foreigners.
"I sailed north to my victory to drive back the ASIATICS, my courageous Army in front of me like a flame of fire, with the Bowmen of the Medjay upland of our encampment ready to seek out the Asiatics." - Stela of King Kamose, 17th Dynasty.
By the Eighteenth Dynasty during the New Kingdom, the Medjay were an elite paramilitary police force. Archers formed the core of Nehesy (Nubian) armies that vied with Kemet for control over parts of the Nile valley, conquered Kemet in the 8th century BCE and expelled the Libyan usurpers.. Nearly a century later they would ally with the Kushites and Upper Kemites to confront the troops of the Assyrian empire. The skill of Medjay archers made them valued members in the military forces of other lands. Kemetic texts as early as 2400 BC note Nehesy in Kemetyu armies having military alliances. Representations of Medjay warriors appear in Kemetic tomb models, reliefs, and paintings in all periods of ancient Egyptian history. Nubian archers also served as warriors in the imperial army of Persia in the first millennium BCE and their presence in Persia was documented on a relief from the Apadana palace (c. 500 BC) where it shows a Kushite delegation into Persia during the ruled of Xerxes I.
The Medjay were known for their long bows. Assyrians nicknamed them the “pupil smiters” not only were they known for shooting out the eyes of their target from a distance but they also mastered the "Double" tap where they would fire off two arrows in rapid succession. Kushite arrows were also often poisoned-tipped. One historical source notes:
"So from the battlements as though on the walls of a citadel, the archers kept up with a continual discharge of well aimed shafts, so dense that the Persians had the sensation of a cloud descending upon them, especially when the Kushites made their enemies’ eyes the targets…so unerring was their aim that those who they pierced with their shafts rushed about wildly in the throngs with the arrows projecting from their eyes like double flutes."
- Jim Hamm. 2000. The Traditional Bowyer's Bible, Volume 3, pp. 138-152.
After they defeated the Assyrians apparently the Assyrians began to hire regiments of Kushite Soldiers on contingency and the legend of the Medjay's was known globally. When the Arabs invaded Nubia around 7 century AD they gave the Nubian army the nickname “archers of the eyes” and they too also feel victim to the pupil smiters. The Nubians constituted an "African front" that barred Islam's spread, along with others in Central Asia, India and the Anatolian/Mediterranean zone. Whereas the Islamic military expansion began with swift conquests across Byzantium, Central Asia, the Maghreb and Spain, such quick triumphs were stopped dead in their tracks at the Sudanic border.
New Insight into Nubian Archers:
Artwork by JFoliveras, digital painting
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