Book of the Dead?

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sabrina

There is no definitive book of the dead. The book of the dead is a kind of book of instructions for the dead person to get through the underworld to 'heaven'. there are many problems the dead person gets to meet along the way, traps and beasts that will hurt you. the book of the dead sets out to instruct the dead person how to get past the problems with spells and passwords, what to say and to whom. its written for ancient Egyptian religion and nothing to do with Islam. there are actually many different copies of the book of the dead. Each customer bought the part of the book they thought they needed for them selves. so each book was a personal copy. the particular papyrus that i believe you are referring to is one in the British museum written for a man called Ani. It is supposed to be one of the best and most complete copies in existance. yes of course the Egyptian antiquities authority want it back. It is apparently one of the best copies that has been found. But this is an old problem and many people have debated whether or not to send antiquities back to their country of origin and if you can answer that question. you will have solved many problems.

Monkeypie

Although most Egyptians are now Muslim the Egyptians who wrote the "book of the dead" where not Muslim and had no relation to that religion what so ever, Muslims believe/d in one god whereas Egyptians at that time believed in meny. around 114 i believe..

barry white

I think this is to do with the ancient Egyptians.
It should be in the Cairo museum.

javber26

Osiris

Reggie

Hi Elsie,I agree this should be in Egypt?have a look at en.wikipedia.org as it tells you about German Egyptologist Karl Richard Lepsius 1842 and also I saw that Patricia Cornwells her new book www.WH Smith.co.uk the book of the dead,very interesting like you I am very interested in Egypt,bet your papyrus looks amazing ?

Seen it all before

the nacient egyptians followed a different religion to islam

they had many gods and goddesses

osiris was the blue faced god (he was the one chopped into lots of pieces - husband of isis)

anubis prepared you for life after death - he is the jackal headed god

they weighed up your sins before deciding where you spend eternity

Shuggoth

Well I've got my own copy, even a bit beer stained it's in
better shape I'm sure than the ratty original. The book
should be returned if the Egyptians want it, in the spirit
of all the steamships that were fueled with stacks of
egyptian mummies, and we shouldn't forget the parlor
games where brits would make a party out of unwrapping
a mummy to see what treasure might have been wrapped
up with it.

samy n

book of the dead was for ancient egyptians only,,,thir was no moslems or coptics or jews that time,,,,,,he speak about death and what happen for peoples according thir thoughts that time it is just history

sistablu...Maat

The term Book of the Dead or as the ancient Egyptians knew it "prt m hrw" the Coming forth By Day, is misleading as it was never set out in book form.per se but as a collections of spells and incantations and verses to assist the deceased person to pass through all the stages and dangers in their journey to the Afterlife. It is also known on a similar form as the Book of Gates and The Book of Steps.
The Book if the Dead can be found in tombs as early as the Old Kingdom but it is in some of the New Kingdom tombs that we see the most beautifully depicted examples .
As well as being depicted on papyrus and in painted relief in the walls of tombs and pyramids it can also be found written in mummy windings
The most famous copy on papyrus, is the collection of required spells and incantations known as the Papyrus of Ani a royal scribe c1240BCE. It is this papyrus purchased by E. Wallis Budge in the 1880 that is exhibited in the British museum.
This particular version is 78ft long and 1ft3 inches wide and made up of 6 separate papyrus sheets.
There are several book versions with translations available at any good book store or on line shop that specialises in Egyptology and books of an esoteric nature
http://web.ukonline.co.uk/gavin.egypt/papyrus.htm
The Book of the Dead has no connection with Islam at all, and it appears to have not been used very extensively after the end of the 25th Dynasty of the 2nd Intermediate Period..
Dr Hawass is making an attempt to get many of the ancient artifacts returned to Egypt. He is using as a precedent the success of Australia in having all its Aboriginal works returned from museums around the world except for specified gifts and loans

addit*There are also Tibetan books of the Dead which have no relationship to those of ancient Egypt.

I think Sabrina answered this question perfectly. In addition I would only like to express my opinion that greek and roman mitology, so much loved by western people, were influenced by ancient egyptian religion. Copycats ;)

mobydek

The name of the man is anne.

Moscow

C'mon Elsie. I know yer into the Egypt thing but Islam is the point at which Egyptian culture stopped.

Islamic culture is one thing. Call it x, if you like.

Egyptian culture is another . Call it y, if you like.

x and y are like oil and water.

Suzie s

Give it back, and stop stealing from other countries just because you want it.

Medium Dave

Why on earth would we want to strip our museums of all their interesting antiquities? What's wrong with having a centralised location for items of global historical significance, so more people can get to see/learn about them?

How many people could afford to go to Egypt to see this scroll? How many could afford to visit all the countries we might repatriate various goods to?

The British Museum has more annual visitors than the Pyramids....

My Grain

Thought it was related to Buddhism?

Adam

Its a blasphemous book, BURN IT!!!

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