Yanassi (alsoYanassy andYansas-aden, possibly reflecting theWest Semitic *Jinaśśi’-Ad) was aHyksos prince, and possibly king, of theFifteenth Dynasty. He was the eldest son of thepharaohKhyan, and possibly thecrown prince, designated to be Khyan's successor. He may have succeeded his father, thereby giving rise to the mention of a king "Iannas" inManetho'sAegyptiaca, who, improbably, was said to have ruled after the pharaohApophis.

Alternatively, the EgyptologistKim Ryholt has proposed that Khyan was succeededby Apophis, and because Yanassi was Khyan's eldest son, Ryholt proposed that Apophis was an usurper.^[1] This opinion has been rejected as mere speculation by scholars including David Aston.^[2] Archaeological discoveries in the 2010s show that Khyan's rule may have to be pushed further back in time, creating the need and time for one or more kings to reign between Khyan and Apophis. In addition, theTurin canon, an exhaustive list of kings written during the reign of Ramses II, can be interpreted to have credited more than 10 years of reign to a king ruling before Apophis and after Khyan, possibly Yanassi, if he was indeed Apophis' immediate predecessor.^[2]

In spite of his status as the royal son of the long-reigning Khyan, Yanassi is attested only by a damaged stela (Cairo TD-8422 [176]) found atTell el-Dab'a, the site of the ancient Hyksos capital,Avaris.^[3][4] On the stela – which was probably dedicated to the godSeth, lord of Avaris – he is called theeldest king's son of Khyan.^[1]

If Yanassi indeed became king, he might have ruled between Khyan and Apophis. On the Turin canon, the entry before that attributed to Apophis, on column 10 line 26, is damaged, such that the name of the king is lost, and his reign length is only partial, it may be read as 10, 20, or 30 plus a certain number of years.^[2]

A further, though non-contemporary, attestation of Yanassi may be found inJosephus'polemic,Contra Apionem where Josephus claims to directly quote theAegyptiaca (Αἰγυπτιακά) of Manetho, which would have been written in the 3rd century BC during the reign ofPtolemy II (283 – 246 BC) by the Egyptian priest Manetho. No copies of theAegyptiaca have survived since antiquity, and it is now known only through later quotations bySextus Julius Africanus, Josephus andEusebius. According to Josephus, Manetho's reconstruction of theFifteenth Dynasty's succession wasSalitis, Bnon, Apachnan, Iannas, Archles/Assis, and Apophis. Apachnan is generally understood to be the Hellenized name ofKhyan, while Iannas (Ancient Greek:Iαννας) would best be understood as a corruption of that of Yanassi, confirming that he ascended the Hyksos throne. Josephus further reports that Manetho credited Iannas with an improbably long reign of 50 years and one month.^[5][6][7] In any case, this means that Manetho must have considered Yanassi a king. Until the 2010's, this idea was rejected by the scholarly consensus in Egyptology, which considered Apophis as Khyan's direct successor, as proposed by Ryholt. In this understanding, it appeared more likely that, in a Manethonian passage mentioning both Iannas/Yanassi and Khyan, Josephus erroneously chose the former instead of the latter.^[6] This view was challenged by archaeological discoveries which implied that Khyan may have reigned up to 80 years earlier than thought hitherto, necessitating for one or more kings to reign between him and Apophis.^[8]

Aston, David A. (2018). "How Early (and How Late) Can Khyan Really Be. An Essay Based on "Conventional Archaeological Methods"". In Moeller, Nadine; Forstner-Müller, Irene (eds.).The Hyksos ruler Khyan and the Early Second Intermediate Period in Egypt: Problems and Priorities of Current Research. Proceedings of the Workshop of the Austrian Archaeological Institute and the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, Vienna, July 4 – 5, 2014. Leberstraße 122 A-1110 Wien: Verlag Holzhausen GmbH. pp. 15–56.ISBN 978-3-902976-83-3.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location (link)

Bietak, Manfred (1981). "Eine Stele des ältesten Königssohnes des Hyksos Chajan".Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts, Abteilung Kairo.37:63–73.

Gardiner, Alan (1961).Egypt of the Pharaohs: an introduction. Oxford University Press. p. 156.ISBN 978-0-19-500267-6.{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)

Ryholt, Kim (1997).The Political Situation in Egypt during the Second Intermediate Period, c. 1800–1550 B.C. CNI publications, 20. Carsten Niebuhr Institute of Near Eastern Studies, University of Copenhagen : Museum Tusculanum Press.ISBN 978-87-7289-421-8.

• 17th-century BC pharaohs
• 16th-century BC pharaohs
• Pharaohs of the Fifteenth Dynasty of Egypt
• Amorite kings
• People of the Fifteenth Dynasty of Egypt
• Heirs to the ancient Egyptian throne

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