I'm reading an essay by the Islamic studies scholar Adam Silverstein titled " The Quranic Pharaoh". In the beginning of the essay he mentions that the term pharaoh was an idiosyncratic biblical usage and that ancient Egyptians didn't actually refer to the ruler of Egypt by this term.
However I have read elsewhere that ancient Egyptians did use the term pharaoh to refer to their ruler and there was a gradual evolution from using the term "king" to using the word "pharaoh".
Which view is correct ?
Also which sources would the author(s) of the Quran have consulted regarding stories about Moses and his encounters with the Pharaoh.
Relevant quote from Adam Silverstein's essay.
" After all the term "Pharaoh" or "par-o" means great palace in ancient Egyptian. It is an idiosyncratic biblical usage to refer to the ruler of Egypt by this term (Pharoah)... The fact that this quirky usage of the term "Pharaoh" recurs in the Quran suggests that the Quranic Pharaoh is to be interpreted with reference to an originally Biblical context that an Egyptian one. "
The term pr-ʿȝ did mean 'great house'; that said, its being used metonymically as the style of the ancient Egyptian monarch was demonstrably not unique to the Bible; its internal use in Egypt well documented (in correspondence and internal records) from Akhenaten onward. (See the text of the Amarna letters, or Ch.2 of the Oxford Handbook of the Valley of the Kings), and some (e.g. Gardiner) place the first use even slightly earlier, during the reign of Thutmosis III.
It's perhaps worth noting that its use was traditionally as a style (e.g. 'His Majesty'), and not as part of the formal titulature of the Egyptian monarchs.