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Naguib Mahfouz seems to be equally able to write about ancient and modern Egypt. His novels about Ancient Egypt concern themselves with an analysis of high politics, often through using mythic stories to indicate political concerns. So for example, his novel about Akhenaten, the ancient Pharoah focuses on the links between faith and politics and questions about how far religious motivations can justify political actions. Khufu's Wisdom, his novel about the Pharoah Khufu (also known as Cheops) focuses on similar issues. Mahfouz is fascinated by the way that the personality of the ruler effects his power to control and rule his nation. Khufu's Wisdom concerns the succession to Khufu, from the beggining of the novel the scent of death rests over the realm, after ten years the Great Pyramid is still unfinished. The real story though concerns Khufu's effort to avoid a prophesy that says Djedjef, son of the priest of Ra, will succeed him and not his own sons. The novel shows us the way that despite Khufu's best efforts, Djedjef does come to succeed him, ultimately through the Pharoah's own intercession.

Statecraft is central to this novel. Khufu's actions rest upon the fact that as Pharoah his interests and the people's interests are presumed to be exactly aligned.

Scholarly books about ancient Egyptian art and culture during the Amarna Period and the reign of Pharaoh Tutankhamun are available for students and enthusiasts alike.

The ceaseless fascination with ancient Egyptian art and civilization during the revolutionary age of the "heretic" pharaoh Akhenaten (r. 1353-1336 B.C.) and Tutankhamun (r. 1332-1322 B.C.) continues to inspire extensive research and the publication of quality color-illustrated studies. Suitable for students, scholars and enthusiasts, many are exhibition catalogues authored by world-renowned museum curators and art historians. Most are available in bookstores and through Internet retailers.

See the above page for the list of recommended books.

Taxation in Ancient Egypt
Netfirms.com

The fifth dynasty Palermo Stone provides the earliest details of taxation. These royal annals record, year by year, the reins of individual kings nearly of pharaohs s early as the first dynasty identify a biennial event known as the "Following of Horus," a royal tour of inspection during which the king appeared before his people and collected revenues due him as the incarnation of Horus and head of the state.
In the reign of Ninuter (second dynasty), the entries for the Following of Horus include references to what was evidently a biennial census or enumeration. In two instances late in the dynasty, this census is described as an "enumeration of gold and land." Therefore toward the end of the second dynasty, the royal tour had become biennial and had expanded to include the counting of gold and land. In the reign of Senefru (fourth dynasty), cattle are fist mentioned as the subject of this count. By the reign of Neferirkara in the fifth dynasty, oxen and small livestock are included.
Supervision of the national revenue as early as the predynastic period was under the authority of the chancellor in charge of the treasuries of Upper and Lower Egypt. By the reign of Ninuter, this responsibility included the biennial census as well as the collection and distribution of various commodities levied as taxes in kind in a non-monetary economic system.