Menkheperre Ini
The poetic stele Louvre C100, drawn byFlinders Petrie.
King ofThebes
Reign	c. 740 BC
Predecessor	Rudamun orShoshenq VII ?
Successor	Piye?
Royal titulary Horus name Sema-tawy Sm3-t3.wj He who unifies the two lands Nebty name Mesi-hemwt Msj-ḥmw.t Creator of the arts Golden Horus Bik nbw sasha qenw Sˁš3-qn.w Multiplier of warriors Praenomen Menkheperre Mn-ḫpr-Rˁ Enduring is the apparition of Ra Nomen Ini S3 Rˁ Jnj Son of Ra, Ini
Dynasty	23rd Dynasty

Menkheperre Ini (orIny Si-Ese Meryamun) was anEgyptian king reigning at Thebes during the 8th century BC following the last king of the23rd Dynasty,Rudamun.

Menkheperre Ini was probablyRudamun's successor at Thebes but was not a member of his predecessor's 23rd dynasty. Unlike the 23rd dynasty rulers, he was a local king who ruled only atThebes for at least 4–5 years after the death of Rudamun. His existence was first revealed with the publication of a dated Year 5 graffito at anEgyptian temple by Helen Jacquet-Gordon in 1979.^[1] Prior to 1989, he was conventionally attested by only three documents:

• Graffito No. 11 which dates to Year 5 III Shemu day 10 of an "Iny Si-Ese Meryamun" on the roof ofKhonsu Temple (as noted by Jacquet-Gordon);
• Abronzeplaque inDurham University which preserves hisnomen: "Son of Re Iny"; and
• Ashard fromAbydos.

Then in 1989,Jean Yoyotte published an important new study on Ini/Iny's reign in a CRIPEL 11 paper.^[2] Below is a partialEnglish summary of his article by Chris Bennett:

Engraved on a bronze plaque inDurham (N 2186) is the cartouche of the 'Son of Re Iny'. This is surely the same individual as the 'Pharaoh Iny' known fromGraffito no 11 of the Temple of Khonsu (AEB 79244) where his Vth year is cited. A shard (now lost) fromAmélineau's work at Abydos bears perhaps another reference to the same king. H. Jacquet-Gordon has shown that theaccession of this enigmatic king can be dated c. 780/770 BC or 753/743 BC (calculated here from Table 6 in AEB 86.0470). There exists, however noepigraphicevidence that to prove that the king Mn-hpr-R' [...]y of the famouspoeticsteleLouvre C100 and of thecalcite jarCairo CG 18498 is in fact theKushite Pi['ankh]y (so AEB 69061); on the contrary, the reconstruction [In]y is perfectly acceptable here. Some remarks ensue concerning the use of 'imperial' and old-fashioned royaltitularies, and alsoarchaizing bas-reliefs, during the late TIPE. In this context, the titulary of Iny, which is formally archaizing, can be seen as expressing an ambitious project....two very unusualepithets of Iny — 'Creator of theArts' and 'Multiplier of...Warriors' — could also suggest a 'Revolutionary' aspect held by this figure, who was apparently an outsider amongst the Theban 'Sons ofIsis Beloved ofAmun" of the 23rd Dynasty.

Yoyotte's proposed identification of Menkheperre as theprenomen of King Ini/Iny, was based on his examination of the surviving traces of this king's nomen in the Louvre stela which he believed conformed better with the name Iny than the Nubian Dynasty 25 ruler Pi(ankh)y/Piye. His arguments here are today accepted by virtually all Egyptologists includingJürgen von Beckerath in the latter's 1999 book on royal Egyptian kings' names.^[3]

It had been previously suggested that Menkheperre was a prenomen or royal title forPiye but this is undermined by the fact that the Nubian king is known to have employed two other prenomens during his lifetime: Usimare and Sneferre. Barring this, Ini was only a local king of Thebes who ruled Egypt concurrently withPeftjaubast of Herakleopolis andNimlot of Hermopolis. Ini may have beendeposed around Piye's year 20 invasion ofEgypt since he does not appear in the latter's year 21Gebel Barkal Victory stela, but thishypothesis remains to be proven because Piye could well have permitted Ini to remain in power as king of Thebes. In this case, Ini would have been a Nubian vassal in Thebes. Evidence to this effect includes the name of king Ini's daughter, Mutirdis (TT410), and the style of Louvre stela C100 whichKenneth Kitchen dated to the early 25th Nubian Dynasty period.^[4] However, all three of Ini's nomen cartouche on his Louvre C100 stela were erased and his figure was partly damaged which may imply that Piye's successorShabaka removed Ini from power and carried out adamnatio memoriae campaign against his monuments.^[5] This would justify the view that Graffito No. 11 was carved not long before the establishment of full Kushite dominion over Egypt by Shabaka who would not have tolerated a native Egyptian king in the important city of Thebes which would pose a threat to the authority of the 25th Nubian dynasty.

Note: Jacquet Gordon published a transcription Ini's Year 5 of the Khonsu temple graffito in this 2003 University of Chicago publication titled "The Graffiti on the Khonsu Temple Roof at Karnak: A Manifestation of Personal Piety", page 55, where it is namedGraffito 146:see online pages 79-80Archived 2013-10-09 at theWayback Machine

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• Pharaohs of the Twenty-third Dynasty of Egypt

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