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Black Adam Is Not Arabic, But A Pharaonist, In DC Comics

Published Tue, 16 Aug 2022 07:05:10 -0500

Black Adam, or Teth-Adam, is the ruler of Kahndaq in the DC Universe, a country parallel with Egypt culturally, and meant to be an Arabic country placed between Egypt, Israel and Jordan, on the African continent. But in today's Black Adam, with Teth-Adam (supposedly) dead and his mantle descending upon a descendant, Malik White, writer Christopher Priest seeks to define Black Adam's ethnicity once and for all as Pharaonist.

Pharaonism was an ideological movement of ethnic identity and nationalism that rose between the World Wars in Egypt, that proposed an ethnic and national identity before the conversion of Egypt to Christianity, and the subsequent rise of Isam in the country, concerning an area defined by the Nile river on one side and the Meditteranean Sea on the other, and glorifying the previous Egyptian civilisation, religion and rule of Pharaohs, embodied in magical monuments and statues that survived the Islamic purges, and still attracted prayers. Archeological revelations of the vast nature of the Egyptian civilisation fuelled Pharoanism as an anti-colonial force against the British, notably without Arabic components, rather a separatist movement that celebrated Egypt as its own thing, with ancient historical roots formed from the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt, with closer ties to Europe than any other land mass.

Egyptian nationalist Taha Hussein wrote in 1933, "Pharaonism is deeply rooted in the spirits of the Egyptians. It will remain so, and it must continue and become stronger. The Egyptian is Pharaonic before being Arab. Egypt must not be asked to deny its Pharaonism because that would mean: Egypt, destroy your Sphinx and your pyramids, forget who you are and follow us! Do not ask of Egypt more than it can offer. Egypt will never become part of some Arab unity, whether the capital were to be Cairo, Damascus, or Baghdad."

And it was Egyptian nationalist Prime Minister Saad Zaghlul who has all of the treasures seized from Howard Carter's archaeological exhibition, and who opened the tomb of King Tutankhamun to the Egyptian public, turning it into a symbol of Egyptian nationalism. Pharaonism was opposed by the Muslim Brotherhood for glorifying a pre-Islamic past and was dismissed as paganism. And as Muslim leaders grew in prominence in Egypt, with the Koran condemning much of ancient Egyptian history, the country became more aligned with Arabic interests and was a founding member of the Arabic League and the United Arab Republic. Ancient Egypt was seen as less and less relevant to modern-day Egyptians.

But it seems, in the fictional world of the DC Universe, that Khandaq retained that history and ethnic allegiance. Black Adam was originally an ancient Egyptian slave who received the powers of the Wizard Shazam. So it is natural that he might become such a figurehead. So who is going to tell Dwayne Johnson? And might the rise of Black Adam in the cinema be seen as a way to inspire modern-day Pharoanism and Egyptian nationalism?

BLACK ADAM #3 CVR A IRVIN RODRIGUEZ
(W) Christopher Priest (A) Rafa Sandoval (CA) Irvin Rodriguez
Black Adam is dead, and the Mesopotamian gods of Akkad are having a field day. Are the gods real or are they merely figments of human imagination? Accepting death but denied redemption, Black Adam becomes an ersatz Gilgamesh as he journeys through Akkadian Hell while Malik, his young descendant, goes to extreme and unethical measures to try and revive him, all the while wondering if he should save the life of one of the greatest evils the world has ever known.
Retail: $3.99 In-Store Date: 08/16/2022

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