Books of Breathing
several late ancient Egyptian funerary texts, intended to enable deceased people to continue to exist in the afterlife; copies date between 350 BCE and 2nd century CE
The Books of Breathing (Arabic: كتاب التنفس Kitāb al-Tanafus) are several ancient Egyptian funerary texts, intended to enable deceased people to continue existing in the afterlife. The earliest known copy dates to circa 350 BC. Other copies come from the Ptolemaic Kingdom and Roman Egypt, as late as the 2nd century AD. It is a simplified form of the Book of the Dead.
They were originally named "The Letter for Breathing Which Isis Made for Her Brother Osiris, The First Letter for Breathing" and "The Second Letter for Breathing" and have appeared in many varying copies, often leading scholars to confuse them with each other. Their titles use the word "breathing" as a metaphorical term for all of the aspects of life that the deceased hoped to experience again in the afterlife. The texts exhort various Egyptian gods to accept the deceased into their company.
Some of the papyri that the American religious leader Joseph Smith (1805–1844) used to create the Book of Abraham are parts of the Books of Breathing.
See also
Ancient Egyptian funerary texts
Book of the Dead
Breathing Permit of Hôr
Ancient Egyptian religion
Ancient Egyptian afterlife beliefs
References
Hornung, Erik (1999). The Ancient Egyptian Books of the Afterlife (in German). David Lorton (translator). Cornell University Press.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Books of Breathing” is several late ancient Egyptian funerary texts, intended to enable deceased people to continue to exist in the afterlife; copies date between 350 BCE and 2nd century CE. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Books, Breathing and several, not as a finished interpretation.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Oct 27, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q1131955. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1805, 1844 and 1999.
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This entry incorporates text from “Books of Breathing” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.