Qakare Ini

Qakare's personal name is Ini although in literature he is sometimes reported as Intef or Initef; curiously, the epithet son of Ra is placed inside the cartouche, thus rendering his name Sa-Ra-Ini.

Qakare Ini could have been a pretender to the Egyptian throne headquartered in Lower Nubia, during the politically troubled period spanning the reign of Mentuhotep IV of the 11th Dynasty and the early reign of Amenemhat I of the 12th Dynasty.^[1][5] In fact, both those rulers seem to have had problems in being universally recognized as legitimate pharaohs. As Nubia had gained its independence from Egypt during the First Intermediate Period, it is possible that Qakare Ini was one of the last Nubian chieftains to resist the return of the Egyptians at the beginning of the 12th Dynasty.

Egyptologist Georges Posener hypothesized that Qakare Ini was a Theban son of Amenemhat I and was descended from the Mentuhotep dynasty through his mother, a secondary wife of Amenemhat. One of the aims of the plot that lead to the assassination of Amenemhat I would then have been to bring royal power and administration back to Thebes.^[6] Moreover, Lilian Postel pointed out that his first name – Intef – is borne by several rulers of the 11th Dynasty, and that his Horus Name – Sénéfertaouyèf – is very close to the Horus Name – Séankhtaouyèf – of Mentuhotep III, the last great representative of the 11th Dynasty.^[7][8]

Hungarian Egyptologist László Török suggested a much more recent dating for Qakare Ini (as well as for the other two related rulers mentioned above), some time after the reign of pharaoh Neferhotep I of the 13th Dynasty, that during the Second Intermediate Period, between 1730 and 1650 BCE.^[9] This is rejected by Darrell Baker and the Czech archeologist Zbyněk Žába who believe that Qakare Ini lived concurrently with the end of the 11th Dynasty in the late 20th century BCE.^[3][10]

• Henri Gauthier, "Nouvelles remarques sur la XIe dynastie", BIFAO 9 (1911), pp. 99–136.
• Obsomer, Claude (2005). "Littérature et politique sous le règne de Sésostris Ier". Égypte, Afrique et Orient. 37. Centre vauclusien d'égyptologie: 33–64.
• Thomas Schneider, Lexikon der Pharaonen. Albatros, Düsseldorf 2002, ISBN 3-491-96053-3, p. 74.
• Arthur Weigall, A Report on the Antiquities of Lower Nubia. Cairo 1907, pls. 64-65.