Medjai: Doctor

Imhotep also spelled Immutef, Im-hotep, or Ii-em-Hotep meaning “the one who comes in peace, is with peace”) was an Egyptian polymath who served under the Third Dynasty king Djoser as chancellor to the pharaoh and high priest of the sun god Ra (or Re) at Heliopolis. He is considered by some to be the earliest known architect and engineer and physician in early history, though two other physicians, Hesy-Ra and Merit-Ptah, lived around the same time.

Imhotep was one of the chief officials of the Pharaoh Djoser. Egyptologists ascribe to him the design of the Pyramid of Djoser (the Step Pyramid) at Saqqara in Egypt in 2630 – 2611 BC. He may have been responsible for the first known use of columns to support a building. As an instigator of Egyptian culture, Imhotep’s idealized image lasted well into the Ptolemaic period. The Egyptian historian Manetho credited him with inventing the method of a stone-dressed building during Djoser’s reign, though he was not the first to actually build with stone. Stone walling, flooring, lintels, and jambs had appeared sporadically during the Archaic Period, though it is true that a building of the Step Pyramid’s size and made entirely out of stone had never before been constructed. Before Djoser, pharaohs were buried in mastaba tombs.

According to the encyclopedia Britannica, “The evidence afforded by Egyptian and Greek texts support the view that Imhotep’s reputation was very respected in early times … His prestige increased with the lapse of centuries and his temples in Greek times were the centers of medical teachings.”

It is Imhotep, says Sir William Osler, who was the real “Father of Medicine”, “the first figure of a physician to stand out clearly from the mists of antiquity.”

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Immutef or Imhotep depending on the mood, was well known in the Medjai as a healer. When Ardeth approached him about being Turned, he accepted it, finding true immortality where he could continue studying medicine.