Tefnakht

Tefnakht
Tefnakht on his year 8 stela
Pharaoh
Reign	732–725 BC
Predecessor	Interregnum (as a pharaoh) Osorkon C (as a Great Chief of the Ma) Ankhhor (as a Great Chief of the West)
Successor	Bakenranef
Royal titulary Horus name Siakhet[hor] Sj3-ẖt Son of Khet Nebty name Siakhetnebty Sj3-ẖt Son of the Two Ladies' body Prenomen  (Praenomen) Shepsesre Špss-Rˁ Noble like Ra[1] Nomen Tefnakht[2] T3y-[.f]-nḫt
Children	Bakenranef
Father	Gemnefsutkapu
Dynasty	24th Dynasty

Shepsesre Tefnakht (in Ancient Greek: Τνέφαχθος, romanized: Tnephachthos)^[3] was a prince of Sais and founder of the relatively short Twenty-fourth Dynasty of Egypt; he rose to become a Chief of the Ma in his home city. He is thought to have reigned roughly 732 BCE to 725 BCE, or seven years. Tefnakht I first began his career as the "Great Chief of the West" and Prince of Sais and was a late contemporary of the last ruler of the 22nd Dynasty: Shoshenq V. Tefnakht I was actually the second ruler of Sais; he was preceded by Osorkon C, who is attested by several documents mentioning him as this city's Chief of the Ma and Army Leader, according to Kenneth Kitchen,^[4] while his predecessor as Great Chief of the West was a man named Ankhhor.^[5] A recently discovered statue, dedicated by Tefnakht I to Amun-Re, reveals important details about his personal origins.^[6] The statue's text states that Tefnakht was the son of a certain Gemnefsutkapu and the grandson of Basa, a priest of Amun near Sais. Consequently, Tefnakht was not actually descended from either lines of Chiefs of the Ma and of the Libu as traditionally believed but rather came from a family of priests, and his ancestors being more likely Egyptians rather than Libyans.^[7]

Tefnakht is absent from the Manethonian tradition, perhaps because of the abbreviated form in which the Aegyptiaca is known, perhaps because Tefnakht was considered a usurper.^[8]