Despite the survival of various historical evidences, the conclusion of the Battle of Kadesh is equivocal due to the fact that both sides - Ramesses II, the Egyptian Pharaoh, and Muwatallish II, the Great King of Hittite, - claimed victory:
‘Ramesses claimed a great victory at Kadesh and had a scribe take down his account of the glorious battle; Muwatalli(sh)’s account differed considerably, most notably in that he set down Kadesh as a Hittite victory. While Ramesses failed to achieve his objective of capturing the city, he did break the Hittite army on the field and, while Muwatalli(sh) retained control of Kadesh, he failed to crush the Egyptians as he hoped to’ (http://www.ancient.eu.com/article/78/).
In addition, the reference from the web site above focuses on Muwatallish II’s mysterious inaction at the decisive point during the battle when Ramesses II was trapped to self-inflicted predicament by having outdistanced other divisions. It argues, ‘At this point Muwatalli(sh) only needed to march from the walls of Kadesh to trap Ramesses’ forces between his army by the river and his advance but, for reasons unknown, he decided to remain in the city and never committed his reserve troops to battle’ (ibid).
 |
| Muwatallish II |
No comments:
Post a Comment