Historical Accuracies

●While addressing the Egyptian ruler at the time of Prophet Yusuf (عليه السلام), the word “Al-Malik” is used in the Qur’ān, which refers to a ‘King’ or ‘Sultan.’ This is an accurate use of the title. This is during the Old-Middle Kingdom. The bible doesn’t make this distinction.

○E.g. “Then Pharaoh sent and called Joseph, and they brought him hastily out of the dungeon…” (Genesis 41:14) – Old Testament, Bible.

●Pharaoh (“per-aa”) at that time actually meant “Great House” or “Royal Palace” between the Old-Middle Kingdom Period – The time period of Yusuf AS. Pharoah at this time did not refer to a person.

The Qur’an used the correct nomenclature for the leader of the Egyptians during this Era, which the Rosetta stone (15 July 1799) confirmed with later, which helped us finally understand classical Egyptian hieroglyphics.

○E.g. “The King said, ‘Bring him to me straight away!’…” (Sūrah Yusuf 12:50)

What’s the big deal, you might ask?

●The meaning of the word, ‘Pharaoh’ was not actually known until the discovery of the Rosetta Stone (1,000+ years after revelation of the Quran).

●This gave us the ability to unlock the Egyptian hieroglyphs and finally decipher the meaning of the word long after the Qur’ān was revealed!

• The Rosetta Stone contained 3 languages
  • Koine / Classical Greek (known when Rosetta stone discovered)
  • Phenician (unknown, but able to decipher after the stone)
  • Egyptian Hieroglyphics (unknown, until decoded with the stone)

●It is only the Qur’ān that had the correct historical understanding of Ancient Egypt in the seventh century.

How could the Qur’ān have known this?

Verily Allah is Al-’Aleem (All-Knowing)

Rosetta Stone discovered in 1799; near Rosetta, Nile Delta, Egypt.

So only 225 years ago were we able to decode the Hieroglyphics.