Ma'at — Truth, Order & Justice
One word for truth, justice, balance, and the order of the cosmos itself.
Also: Maat · Ma'at · Mayet · Maāt · cosmic order · truth and justice
Egyptians held that the world runs on ma'at: truth, balance, and right order, set in place when the cosmos was made. The sun rising, the Nile flooding, a fair verdict, an honest word — all were ma'at, and its opposite was isfet, disorder. Maintaining ma'at was the duty of everyone, above all the king, and a person's heart was judged against it after death. Ma'at was also personified as a goddess (see the deity entry).
In short
The central Egyptian principle of truth, cosmic order, balance, and justice — the right ordering of the world established at creation, which gods, king, and people are obliged to uphold against chaos (isfet).
Where it’s found
Pyramid Texts; Old & Middle Kingdom wisdom literature (e.g. Instruction of Ptahhotep)
Read it in the Egyptian texts
The passages in our corpus where this idea is discussed — each opens in our reader with the Egyptian transliteration and the English translation side by side.
How the idea developed across Egypt
Attested as a core concept from the Old Kingdom (Pyramid Texts, Old Kingdom wisdom) and runs unbroken through the Ptolemaic period; the ethical and social dimension is developed especially in the Middle Kingdom instructions and the New Kingdom judgment scenes.
Ma'at the principle and Ma'at the goddess are distinguished here; this entry is the principle.