KINGS AND KINGDOMS OF ANCIENT NUBIA

Author(s): S.C. MUNRO-HAY

Source: Rassegna di Studi Etiopici, Vol. 29 (1982-1983), pp. 87-137
Published by: Istituto per l'Oriente C. A. Nallino
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 KINGS AND KINGDOMS OF ANCIENT NUBIA

S.C. MUNRO-HAY

The discoveries of the recent past, and the closer study of Ar

and other textual material have considerably expanded our know
the states of Nubia from the late classical period until the event
dominance of Islam. Much of the vital material remains unpu
known only by vague summaries in the journals, and the final p
tion of this material will doubtless have a considerable amount to add
to the chronology of the kingdoms of Nubia, and the identity of its kings.
The purpose of the present work is merely to sum up our present know-
ledge of these kings as a useful guide to historians, and to trace what
is known of the development of the Nubian kingdoms.

The End of the Meroitic Period

The prosperous Meroitic northern province 1 drew its life-sources

from the use of the saqia, and it is perhaps the arrival of this irrigation
device that also attracted the Nobatae to the region. Without discussing
the origin of the Nobatae2, it is at least apparent that they and the
Blemmyes were the most important occupants of the region by the fifth

1 For an account of the northern province, see W.Y. Adams, Nubia , Corridor
of Africa , London 1977, Chapter 12, pp. 333 et seq.
2 A difficult question but the most logical conclusions are those of Kirwan, after
Junker, equating the Nobades with the X-Group; Kirwan also equates them with the
Red Noba, mentioned by Ezana, while the Black Noba are the 44 other Nobades "
of the Silko inscription. Kirwan, Tanqasi and the Noba 44 Kush 5, 1957, pp. 37 et
seq.; Hintze, Meroe und die Noba , 44 ZAS 94 Band, 1967, pp. 79 et seq. defines
Nobatia as the kingdom of the Nobades, the X-Group, Makoria as the Red Noba
region, and Alodia as the area of the Noba. See also Kirwan in The Decline and
Fall of Meroe , 44 Kush ", 8, 1960, pp. 163 et seq., and also, most recently, in The
X-Group Problem , 44 Third International Meroitic Conference ", Toronto 1977, p. 27
where he identifies Red Noba and the people of Makoria. Adams, op. cit p. 735
note 159, gives the references for the controversy of attribution of the X-Group (Bal-
lana Culture) to either Nobadae or Blemmyes.

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88 S. C. MUNRO-HAY

century, and Adams 3 suggests tha

may be ascribed to their residence
would have been considered as sub
the waning of the Meroitic power
their independent tribal autonomy
ries as Nobatae. The Blemmyes a
pants of the eastern desert, the des
and Meroitic texts 4, the Beja of t
Presumably a few generations aft
AD, the last of the Meroitic kings,
Meroe cemetery6, lost what contr
Red and the Black Noba of Ezana's
the former Meroitic heartland, tog
roites, and the Beja on the fringes
at Kalabsha, written in Meroitic
(Isamni) who may be the possibly B
Greek inscription survives at Ka
view as to where these kings fit in
wan 8 favour the view that Khara
presumably before c. 350, whilst t

3 Adams, op. cit., particularly p. 420

4 Adams, op. cit., p. 389
5 Ezana claimed to be king of the Beja
the Noba, in about the mid-4th centur
himself king of the Beja, the Noba an
king of the Beja and Kasu. Aksum, then
perhaps in the Alodia region, where it is
influences had introduced the heresy of
by Longinus (see below). The expeditions
the Noba should be borne in mind when
stianity, as mentioned by Kirwan, Prelud
k K. Michalowski Warszawa 1966, pp. 1
Bologna, 1970, pp. 167 et seq.
6 See the lists of Hintze and Dunham, in P.L. Shinnie, Meroe , A Civilization
of the Sudan , pp. 60-61 and p. 52 for the dates and references for Teqerdeamani.
7 This is the famous monotheist inscription of Ezana, " DAE II (Deutsche
Axum Expedition , IV, pp. 32-35), of which the " Trinitarian " inscription published
by Caquot and Nautin, Journal des Savants, 1970, may be a version; this latter has
been dated to 349, 355 or 360.
8 See Kirwan, The X-Group Problem , pp. 12-13; Millet, N.B., The Kharamadoye
Inscription , "Meroitic Newsletter", 13, July 1973, pp. 31-49. Maspero, J., Notes
epigraphiques , "BIFAO", 6, 1908, p. 46. Monneret de Villard, Storia della Nubia
Cristiana9 Rome 1938, p. 84.

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 KINGS AND KINGDOMS OF ANCIENT NUBIA 89

was regarded by Maspero as being of the late Vth or early Vlt

probably the latest of those Blemmyan inscriptions there, as
Coptic affinities. By 421, Olympiodorus 9 reported that the
were at Qasr Ibrim, Phoinikon, Khiris, Taphis, and Talmis.

The Arrival of Christianity : Nobatae, The Ballana Culture , and th

John of Ephesus 10 provides a contemporary source of so

ficance. John's account refers to "wandering people dwe
eastern borders of the Thebiad ", and it is these people that
and Theodora sent emmissaries to convert. In spite of the re
to the Blemmyes that the description and the geographical positio
they are identified as Nobadae. They received a subsidy,
on condition that they did not enter and pillage Egypt. Thes
must have long had connections with the Empire, and there
that some elements of Christianity had penetrated their cou
king, his princes, and an army, received Julian, Theodora's
and accepted the gifts and letters presented. The Nobadae al
Justinian's gifts, but decided to adhere to the monophysite c
ever the apparent benefits, spiritual or political, offered, they
cient to cause the king of the Alodaei also to apply for the s
one of Julian's ecclesiastical successors, the first bishop of t
Longinus (the church in Nubia had been controlled from
bishop Theodore, until that time). John of Ephesus gives th
portant information that by this time, around 580, the Nob
Alodaei were separated by a third kingdom, that of the Mak
were opposed to the Nobatae and Alodaei.
It is from John's account of the correspondence between

9 Text, Photius, Bibliotheca, ed. R. Henry, Vol. 1, Paris 1959.

10 John of Ephesus, Hist. Eccle. Ill, CSCO Vol. 106, Scriptores S
Iohannis Ephesini Historiae Ecclesiasticae, Versio, Pars Tertia, ed. E.W
vain 1952, Liber IV, Caput VI, pp. 136 et seq., Caput XLVIII, pp. 17
n English trans., R. Payne Smith, The Third Part of EccL Hist . of Joh
Ephesus , Oxford 1860, pp. 251 et seq., and 316 et seq. Vantini, Oriental
8 et seq. See also Michael the Syrian, Vantini, Oriental Sources , pp. 3
Abu'l-Faraj, Barhebraeus, ibid., pp. 418-9. The story has excited endle
some crediting the author, others making much of his biases. See for ex
Studies in the later history of Nubia , " LAAA ", 24, 1936, pp. 67-105; a
porary account of the conversion of the Sudan to Christianity , " SNR "
289 et seq.; and in The International Position of Sudan in Roman and Me
"SNR", 40, 1959, pp. 31, 34. Also U. Monneret de Villard, Storia
Christiana , Rome 1938, pp. 63 et seq., and for other comments Vantini, op.
note 10. Also F. Altheim and R. Stiehl, Die Araber in der Alten Welt , I

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90 S. C. MUNRO-HAY

that we learn the name of the king

Orfiulo, (or Eurypylos, Eirpanome 1
tions). These letters are most inte
though, as they are reported only by
mate how much credence should be
is a certain consistency. The reporte
and the Makoritae are enlarged up
writes that WRPYWL should not d
land, that the enemy of WRPYWL
peoples are brothers, especially now
of Longinus to Alexandria via the
that the kingdom of Aksum also ke
neighbours; some of these Aksumite
of Halicarnassus into the land, and L
recantations. Perhaps, therefore,
watchfulness of Longinus for mo
WRPYWL, himself added a letter to
patriarch) Theodore, wherein the pi
area is completed by the mention of
the Nobatae in circumventing the h
we learn that WRPYWL was a king,
of kings; and that there had been p
with Alodia in the time of his pred
Much has been said about the nature of this evidence for the
conversion. It is apparent however that John of Ephesus has got
facts right to the most precise degree. His geographical and eth
graphical points are, as far as we can say, nowhere improbable.
haps a little extra zeal on the religious side; but it is certain that Nu
was to become a monophysite state very soon, and even here his exa
geration is not, it seems, excessive. Kings of the Nobatae were prese
at the construction or dedication of churches during this very time w
John discusses, (see below).
The much-mentioned parallel to this, the conversion of the Maccu
ritae in 569 as mentioned by John, Abbot of Biclarum 12, fits exactly

11 For these identifications see Monneret de Villard, op. cit., p. 68, n. I; Maspe
Histoire des Patriarches (V Alexandria, Paris 1923, p. 287, n. 4, as well as the t
lations mentioned above.
12 Chronica lohannis abbatis monasterii Biclarensis , ed. Th. Mommsen (Monu-
menta Germaniae Historica), 1894, XI, 212-3. Quoted in Trimingham, Islam in the
Sudan , N.Y. 1965, n. 4. Vantini, Oriental Sources , p. 27.

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 KINGS AND KINGDOMS OF ANCIENT NUBIA 91

political and religious picture, and it seems that the reference is t

Makoritae. It is likely that they were converted to the Melkite be
It has been said 14 that since the Maccurritae of John of Biclarum sent
an embassy to Justin, that it is most probable that they accepted Justin
II's Melkite belief. But Justin received the embassy of the Nobatae, at
some time after 569-70, and listened without comment to their lauding
of the virtues of Justin's hated opponent, Longinus. Justin II was
evidently concerned not to offend the foederatae on his frontiers,
whichever aspect of the Christian faith they embraced.
The basic circumstances of the political position of the kingdoms
of Nubia has been exhaustively dealt with by Kirwan in several articles 15.
The development of the position to that of the three Nubian kingdoms
of the Nile, and the Blemmyes/Beja kingdom in the Red Sea hills, is
likewise as much discussed as the evidence permits, with postulations in
abundance for the origins of these peoples from the similarly named
peoples mentioned by Eratosthenes 16, Strabo, Ezanas and other sources.
One of the most interesting problems of the early kingdom of the
Nobatae is the probable identification with the X-Group 17. This, whilst
peripheral to the subject at hand, does have volumes to speak as far
as the royal position in Nubia at the time goes. It was as natural that
the Nobatae (X-Group) kings should adopt the regalia of the Meroitic
kings, as that they should have retained the Egyptian-derived parapher-
nalia of their Napatan progenitors. The tombs at Ballana were rich in
the symbolism of the royal Meroites, with late classical and Christian
symbols also; the foundations of a new culture, which was to grow more
4 Byzantine ' as time passed, and the old creeds and the Meroitic royal
ritual were forgotten. Kirwan's thesis that the X-Group are the Nobatae
is most credible; Adams comments that the civilisation represented at
this time was also probably that of the Blemmyes, and that of the Meroitic
population who had fallen under the authority of the new rulers.

13 Since John of Biclarum was himself a " Melkite " following the belief of
Chalcedon and Justin II. It is possible that John was not clear as to their belief, but
at any rate it would seem from the later account in the " Life of Isaac " (see below)
that at first the Makoritae were Melkite.
14 Vantini, op. cit pp. 56-7 and Monneret de Villard, op. cit., pp. 66-7.
*5 Already cited above, n. 2, 5, 10.
16 Eratosthenes' works are lost, but were one of Strabo's sources.
17 In addition to the sources mentioned in note 2, see also Kirwan in The
X-Group Enigma , " Vanished Civilizations London, 1963, where many of the items
of furniture, regalia, etc., are illustrated.

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92 S. C. MUNRO-HAY

Silko: Noubadae and Blemmyes (se

Symbolic of the new and the old t

at Kalabsha, calls himself " Basiliskos of the Noubadae and all the
Ethiopians ". His picture 19, nearby, shows a king crowned with the
old hmhmt-crovm of Egypt and Meroe, similar in basic type to that of
the Ballana kings. Perhaps Silko is indeed numbered amongst those
kings; only the phrasing of a sentence or two lead to the postulation of
Christianity for Silko, and those may be due to the scribe who composed
the inscription.
The date of the inscription is variously given. Kirwan places it
between 425 and 450, since it postdates the situation in the time of Olym-
piodorus, and seems to predate the 450 treaty of Philae with Rome, the
Blemmyes and the Nobadae as signatories. Kirwan mentions Wilcken's
date, not later than the fifth century, for the inscription itself. He takes
literally Silko's statement that he was the first to establish himself to the
north of Ibrim, which would date it to an earlier time than the joint
Blemmye-Nobadae raids, and the time of joint access to Philae.
Kirwan20 quotes the text as reading "I warred with the Blemmyes
from Prim to Telelis once and for all, and the others south of the Noba-
dae. I ravaged their lands since they contended with me ". In Kush V 21,
however, he quotes the same lines as reading " of the other Noubadae
in the south I ravaged their lands since they contended with me ". This
is important since the new information given by the papyrus letter of
Phonen, king of the Blemmyes, to Abourni, king of the Noubades (which
Kirwan sees as preceding Silko's inscription, being " slightly earlier ") 22
shows an alliance between those two kings proposed by the former. This
letter is presumably the same as that mentioned by Adams, wherein the
king of the Blemmyes complains to the other king of the depredations
of Silko. If Silko was a contemporary king of the Nobadae, and not

18 Inscription at Kalabsha; Gau, Antiquities de la Nubie , pl. I, no. I; Lepsius

Denkmaler , Abth. VI, Bl. 95 etc. There are many commentaries on the inscription
and many datings. Kirwan, The X-Group Problem , Toronto 1977, pp. 19 et seq.,
and Adams, op. cit pp. 422 et seq., are recent writers on the subject, but until the
publication of the letter of king Phonen to king Abourni, (Kirwan, op. cit.y p. 18;
Adams, op. cit., p. 423) which apparently mentions Silko, any suggestions must wait.
19 Illustrated in Kirwan, op. cit., " Vanished Civilisations ", p. 63.
20 In 44 LAAA *' 24, 1937, pp. 83-4.
21 In " Kush V " ( Tanqasi and the Noba ), p. 41. This is the better version.
22 Kirwan, The X-Group Problem , p. 18.

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 KINGS AND KINGDOMS OF ANCIENT NUBIA 93

Abourni's predecessor, the other king Abourni could have been p

a Noba king of the Alodaei; the Red Noba. John of Ephesus m
the Alodian king's profession that his people and those of Nob
one; the Makoritae are the "enemy", perhaps a recent intru
John of Ephesus day. But possibly, after Hintze (see note 2), and
wan (1977), the 4 other Nobades ', the Red Noba, are the Ma
themselves ?

At any rate, Silko, Basiliskos (paramount ruler, tyrannos, regulu

of the Nobadae and all the Ethiopians (Meroites?) seems to ha
to contend with the Blemmyes in alliance with certain Nobadae u
Abourni, presuming Abourni to have replied favourably. On the
hand, perhaps Abourni was the king whose lands were ravage
Phonen the Blemmye who lost his cities, Talmis, Taphis, Ibrim, T
Until full publication of the letter, nothing can clearly be said. I
be interesting to see if there is any mention of Christianity in it
ing, which might help to solve the question of Silko's faith.
evidence, too, would be invaluable. (Pers. comm. Adams; the lette
to 500 AD with 25 years ±, though it could have been some ye
when it arrived in the dated context).
Ibn Salim, al Aswani, mentions that the Makorites and the Nuba
were often at war before Christianity 24, which is amply indicated by the
reports of John of Ephesus and the " Life of Isaac He also mentions
that they are different races, which would seem to make it more likely
that the 4 4 other Nobatae " were either the Alodaei or another facet of
the northern Nobatae. The Black Noba might even be the race from
which the Alodaei and the Nobatae sprang, and the Red Noba the
Makoritae.

23 For the equivalence with "regulus" see S. Donadoni, UrCepigrafe greco-

nubiana da lkhmindi , 44 La Parola del Passato ", 69, 1959, pp. 458-465. Kirwan in
The X-Group Problem proposes that 44 Basiliskos " is the title of the paramount
ruler in contrast to the title of subordinates 44 Basileus ". The use of the title is un-
certain; Charachin, Basileiskos ton Blemmyon, and Pakytimne, epiph(ylarchos) Basi-
liskou are two illustrations of the title amongst the Blemmyes (Krall, Beitrage zur
Geschichte der Blemmyer und Nubien , Denkschrift der Akad. der Wissenschaft zu Wien,
Vol. XLVI, 1900 IV) and Papadopoullos refers to them as 44 regulus " ( Africanobyzan -
tina, Athens, 196 6). In the great trilingual inscription of Ezana about the kings of
the Bougaeiton (Beja) the captured kings are all called Basiliskoi; and the 44 Scho-
lasticus " of Thebes in Palladius refers to the Aksumite king himself as a basiliskos
mikros, which by the interpretation above would mean a minor king of kings, instead
of the 44 Roitelet " of Desanges. (J. Desanges, D'Axoum d V Assam, aux portes de la
Chine; Le Voyage du 4 Scholasticus de Thebes ', "Historia", XVIII, 5, 1969, p. 631, n. 34).
24 Burckhardt, Travels in Nubia , London 1822 (reprint 1962), Appendix III, p. 452.

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 94 S. C. MUNRO-HAY

Buhriyya

Other kings of the Nobadae who left inscriptions, Eirpanome and

Tokiltoeton, were Christians. But the first of the Nubians to accept
Christianity, according to Abu Salih al-Armani25, was Buhriyya, the
son of the king of Nubia's sister; according to the Nubian matrilineal
succession, (already established, one can presume, by John of Ephesus'
day), this Buhriyya would have been the heir to the throne, and his
acceptance of the new creed would have guaranteed its spread. Where
he fits in the chronological scale is still obscure, for, although there is
considerable likelihood that Jhon of Ephesus' report does represent
the final and crucial importation of the new creed, it is also equally,
likely, from the evidence of texts and the Mud Church at Faras, that
there was earlier an influx of elements of the faith there 26. Vantini
and Jakobielski have discussed the indications for this, and, as the
evidence stands, it is certain that to some extent there was already
Christianity in Nubia; whether the legend of Buhriyya sprang from the
first approaches of the faith into Nubia, or from the second and most
powerful wave later in the sixth century is not certain.

Eirpanome

A certain priest of Dendur, Abraham, set up a Coptic inscription 27

to commemorate the establishment of a church in the temple of Dendur,
in a year variously interpreted as 557 (Vantini), 559 or 574, (Monneret
de Villard). Revillout and Demicheli also settled for 559. The inscrip-
tion was set up "by the will of God and by the order of King Eirpa-

25 S.T.A. Evetts, and A.J. Butler, The Churches and Monasteries of Egypt , attri-
buted to Abu Salifc, the Armenian, Oxford 1895, reprint 1969; Vantini, Oriental Sour-
ces , p. 327.
26 Apart from the contact with the Christian Ezana, and king Kaleb, through
the Ethiopians the heresy of Julian of Halicarnassus had entered Alodia. For the
evidence of earlier Christian influences from the other direction, north, see Kirwan,
4 Prelude to Nubian Christianity'; for the Faras material etc., see Jakobielski, Faras
III, Warszawa 1972, Ch. I, and J. Vantini, The Excavations at Faras , Bologna 1970,
pp. 167 ff. See also J. M. Plumley, Qa$r Ibrim 1969 , " JEA" 56, 1970, p. 18.
27 A. Blackman, The Temple of Dendur, 1911, pp. 36-7. Vantini, The Excavations
at Faras , p. 53, records the date as c. 557; on p. 177 he selects 559-574. H. Monneret
de Villard, op . cit.9 p. 69. Revillout, Memoir e sur les Blemmyes , " Memoires... de l'Acad.
des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres ", T. VIII, 2*m« partie, I*™ serie, 1974, pp. 4-5.
Lepsius, Denkmaler , XIII, p. 1103, no. 39, Coptic Inscriptions. Jakobielski, Faras m,
pp. 24-5, n. 46.

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 KINGS AND KINGDOMS OF ANCIENT NUBIA 95

nome ", in the presence of several officials, the highest of them b

one Joseph, Exarch of Talmis. Abraham himself " received the cro
from Theodore, bishop of Philae, governor of the church in Nubia
ween the missions of Julian and the appointment of Longinus. Ther
several points of note in the inscription. Maspero 28 made the sugg
that Eirpanome and WRPYWL, as John of Ephesus rendered it,
one and the same king. Papadopoullos 29 saw the position of Eirpan
as a vassal of the emperor of Byzantium, because of the presence o
Exarch Joseph. Vantini 30 erroneously read the word En APXOC E
and decided that Joseph was the earliest known of the Eparchs of
batia. He also says that the inscription was found at TafFa (p. 177),
Dendur (p. 53), the latter being the correct provenance. The other
cials who were mentioned Papadopoullos declares to have been Byza
but it is known that the later kings of Nobatia had a very Byz
administrative organization, in so far as titulary went, and the assum
of Byzantine control is neither confirmed by Procopius 31, who dat
retreat of the Roman frontiers to Diocletian's day, nor by John of
sus, who with Procopius says that the tribes to the south received su
not to molest the Roman dominions, and are " not subject to the au
ity of the Roman Empire".

Tokiltoeton

Another early Christian king of Nobatia was Tokiltoeton, known

from a Greek stela at Ikhmindi 32. His date is conjectured to be c. 577,
and is based on the appearance in this text also of Joseph, the Exarch

28 Maspero, Hist, des patriarches , p. 287, n. 4 taken from Schonfelder's trans-

lation of John of Ephesus, p. 184; Land had thought that Awarfiula was to be read
Eurypylos, a surname of Silko, he proposed.
29 Papadopoullos, op. cit ., p. 13. He recalls the usage of Silko, declaring that
Eirpanome "is a vassal to the Byzantine Emperor, a Basiliskos, as the presence of
the Byzantine Exarch Joseph denotes"; the "suzerainty of the Byzantine Emperor
over the Novadae is established by virtue of the exarch's presence and that of three
Byzantine officials. The Exarch has his seat at Talmis
30 Vantini, op. cit., p. 53.
31 Hist, of the Wars , I. 19.
32 A. Stenico, I monument i Crist iani della Bassa Nubia etc., in 44 Atti del Convegno
• La Lombardia e TOriente ' ", II- 1 5/6/1 962, p. 307. S. Donadoni, Uriepigrafe greco-
nubiana da Ikhmindi , 4 4 La Parola del Passato LXIX, 1959, pp. 458-65. A. Stenico,
Ickhmindi. 44 Acme ", XIII, 1960, p. 31 ff., fig. 4. Leclant, 44 Orientalia 30, p. 193.
As Jakobielski says, op. cit., p. 25, n. 47, the dating is based on the appearance in
this text of Joseph, Exarch of Talmis, as also in the Eirpanome inscription from
Dendur.

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 96 S. C. MUNRO-HAY

of Talmis. According to the account of

been about 577, and thus probably in t
first of the Alodian messengers came t
who had just departed for Alexandri
king of the Alodaei came in about 580,
and since he mentions in his letter 33 t
drian Monophysite anti-patriarch electe
and his royal ancestors " also, correspo
probable that WRPYWL was the nephew
the process of matrilineal succession, a
wards. Vantini erroneously calls Awarf

Zacharias, Son of Barky

There is no literary evidence for a c

these kings to attest the progress of t
the rather enigmatic appearance of
man, not called a king by Maqrizi (tho
king of the Nuba) presented a carved
in the time of Abdallah b. Saad, govern
de Villard calls him a king of Nubia, an
Mercurios. Other Arabic authors, in
readings of the name, and some call
sive note of Vantini, shows the gamut
being b. Marql, Barqani, Marquni etc
late, and there is no other evidence to decide the status of Zacharias.

The Uniting of Nobatia and Makoria; Qalidurut and the Baqt

Around this same period, there is the mention of king Qalidurut 36

(Balidarkib, Qalidurdat, and even, in Burkhardt, Koleydozo). This is
the well known account of the invasion of Nubia, (then under one king,
apparently, due to the uniting of Makouria and Nobatia), by Abdallah.

33 Preserved by John of Ephesus ; the details are so convincing that it would seem
likely that John had access to copies.
34 Vantini, op. cit ., p. 55.
35 Maqrizi, in Quatremere, Memoires , II, p. 54. For the notes of Vantini, see
his Oriental Sources , p. 726; Ibn Duqmaq also mentions this minbar, (Vantini, op .
cit.9 p. 526).
36 Maqrizi, in Quatremere, Memoires , II, p. 42 et seq. Monneret de Villard,
op. cit., p. 76. Burckhardt, Travels in Nubia , App. Ill, p. 465. For details about
the Arab attack, see Vantini, Oriental Sources , loc.

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 KINGS AND KINGDOMS OF ANCIENT NUBIA 97

b. Saad, in 651-2. Some authorities doubt that the kingdoms

ed 37, and suspect that the accounts were retrospectively penn
the known circumstance of the united monarchies of Nobatia and Ma-
kouria in much the same way as the probably retrospective mention of
a mosque in Dongola. Other commentators have accepted that the king-
doms were united by the time of Qalidurat, and certainly there is no
mention of any king of Nobatia in the histories of the Nubian war; but
equally in the story of the decline of Dongola there is no mention, in
the Arab sources, of Dotawo, (see below). The most vital result of the
combat was the arrangement of the Baqt (Gk. pacton) 37 a, an agreement
between " Nubia " and the Muslim government for mutual supply of
commodities; the literature shows that there was doubt later about the
nature of the Baqt 38, some seeing it as a reciprocal trading agreement,
others as a virtual tribute owed by Nubia. At first, if the kingdoms were
not united, it must presumably have been imposed upon both Nobatia and
Makoria, as the seige of Dongola was the source of Qalidurat's peace moves.

The " Life of Isaac " and the reign of Mercurius (696 -at least 710).

A Coptic source, the " Life of Isaac " 39, offers another account with
relevance to the uniting of the kingdoms of Nobatia and Makouria. The

37 Adams, op. cit ., pp. 453-454; Kirwan, 44 JEA XXI, 1935, p. 61. The later
date proposed for the uniting of the kingdoms under Mercurius is defended by Mon-
neret de Villard, op. cit., pp. 81-3; Michalowski, "Kush", 12, 1964, p. 199, n. 12;
Jakobielski, Far as III, ch. Ill, pp. 35 et seq., gives a fuller bibliography. Vantini, The
Excavations of Far as, agrees with the late 7th century date, p. 149.
37# Osman suggests (Khartoum Seminar 1978), a Nubian origin, faqati or baqqati,
44 to divide ".
38 This has been a great preoccupation not only with modern writers, but with
Muslim jurists; a good account is in Y.F. Hasan, The Arabs and the Sudan , Khar-
toum 1973, pp. 20 et seq. He notes particularly that clause 4, mentioning the
Dongola mosque, is historically unlikely; thus also with the territorial jurisdiction of
the king in the text; Aswan to the border of Aiwa, comprising the whole of Nobatia
and Maqurra. See also Vantini, Excavations at Far as, pp. 148-9, n. 1, where he sug-
gests that Faras was the city captured (that is, bombarded but not actually captured).
Jakobielski considers that Nobatia bore 44 most of the burden of the Baqt"; perhaps
Muqurra took on the Baqt as a joint payment devolving on the kingdom after its
uniting, and it later seems that the letters concerning the Baqt were the responsibility
of the Eparch of Nobatia, see J.M. Plumley, An eighth century Arabic letter to the king
of Nubia, 44 JEA ", 1965, pp. 241 et seq., and notes by Hinds and Sukkut. For Arab
accounts of the nature of the Baqt, see Vantini, Oriental Sources, loc. var.
39 44 Vie d'Isaac, Patriarche d'Alexandrie de 686 a 689 ". Texte Copte edite
et traduite E. Porcher, (Patr. Or. t. XI, fasc. 3), Paris 1916, pp. 337 et seq. Vantini,

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 98 S. C. MUNRO-HAY

king of Makouria sent to the patriar

culties in the acquisition of bishops
of the king of Maurotania. Maurot
name by which Nobatia was known
text says that the king of Maurotan
and that the Makorian king was a
patriarchate of Isaac fell in 690-69
prelude to the eventual unification
king of Dongola, as the " Life of Mi
king of Nobatia also, since he could e
Coptic in 707 41, his 11th year, at F
year. Both these cities were in the o
mention of the Eparch Markos, per
stood for the king at the head of th
just at the point where the need to
arisen; when the royal administrati
reduced to that of a provincial admin
by the king of Dongola, the king
was called.

Mercurius, king of Dongola, followed the Monophysite profession,

rather than the Melkite belief which had been that of Makouria until
around the time of Isaac. In the few years between 690 and 707, when
the Faras stele was set up, the long gap in the Alexandrine Melkite suc-
cession (636-733) mentioned by the Melkite patriarch Eutychius 42, seems
to have compelled Mercurius' predecessor to apply to the Monophysite
Isaac for bishops. Thus the kingdom of Nobatia lost its independence,
but gave its religion to the united kingdom of Muqurra. Monneret de
Villard 43 speculated on the possibility of two inscriptions which mention
unknown eras being in fact dated according to the change of political
status of the Nubian kingdoms, since one of them dates year 91 of a
new era as 511 of Martyrs, showing that the new era began in 704.

Oriental Sources , pp. 36 et seq. History of the Patriarchs of Alexandria , Trans. B.

Evetts (Patr. Or. V, fasc. I), p. 24.
40 In the Histcry of the Patriarchs , (Patr. Or. V, fasc. I), p. 140.
41 For a good bibliography, see Jakobielski, Faras III, p. 37, n. 16, and for
the Coptic inscription, pp. 37 et seq.
42 For the text of Eutychius and the Arabic paraphrase of Maqrizi, see Kirwan,
Oxford Excavations at Firka, 1939, p. 49 (both rendered into Latin). Vantini, Orien-
tal Sources , p. 375 from al-Makin.
43 Monneret de Villard, op. cit ., pp. 81-83. See also Jakobielski, Faras III, p. 36,
and n. II.

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 KINGS AND KINGDOMS OF ANCIENT NUBIA 99

The Taifa inscription44, dated to 710, year 13 of Mercuriu

latest dated monument of that king; the rest of his reign is un
ed, but his successors are known and there is at least some in
of their dates inasmuch as some of them were contempora
patriarch Michael I of Alexandria 45, 744-768. Zyhlarz 46, iden
Mercurius Phorus of the Kudanbes inscription 47 as Mercurius
Constantine ", as the ' Life of Michael ' calls him, finds a king
gorius and a king Isaac, called ' gur ', 4 the bull ', involved in
of the arrival of the Monophysite doctrine into Makouri
the date 704, (gained from the Wadi es-Sebua inscription of t
Peter of Pachoras,) 48 as the date when Isaac " gur ", who
from an inscription of a year 145 of an unknown era, in the
Figir 'Antawu near Gemmai 49, brought the new doctrine
of these ' kings ' is founded on the 12th line of the Kudanbe
tion where Joel rex, and Isaac rex and Mercurius Phorus rex
that order. However there is no proof that these kings ar
some other period of history; or even that they were kings
though this would seem probable. They may be kings sele
the entire range of Nubian history, arbitrarily as far as chron
merely because of some special features of their reigns. Furt
is now no chance that Isaac " gur ", the mythical king of the
to Monophysitism, ever ruled in 704, the 7th year of Mer
epithet given to king Isaac in the Kudanbes inscription was no
by Griffith, but Zyhlarz reads it " Founder of Unity that is
of the united kingdoms, Nobatia and Makoria, Mukurra. If
then a king Isaac may have been the king who wrote to patr
but he has no connection with 704. A personal communica
W. Adams, the excavator of Figir Antawu, would put the ins
Isaac to the 12th century or later, for archaeological reasons.

44 G. Maspero, Annates du Service des Antiquites , X, 1909, p. 17; Mo

Villard, op, cit ., p. 80. There is no evidence for the proposition that th
was 44 basiliskos " instead of 44 basileus " as M. de Villard interprets it:
45 See the text of the History of the Patriarchs (Patr. Or. V fasc. I),
et seq.
46 I Reami della Nubia prima dell' Islam; uno sguardo storico sul Suda
e medioevale , 44 Rassegna di Studi Etiopici ", 3, 1943, p. 250.
47 F.LI. Griffith, Christian Documents jrom Nubia , 44 Proc. British
1928, pp. 18 et seq.
48 Griffith, Nubian Texts , p. 61 ; Zyhlarz, Nubischen Grammatik , L
pp. 169-170.
49 See Zhylarz as above.

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100 S. C. MUNRO-HAY

Simon

The son of Mercurius, Zacharia, is s

According to the succession system,
was not in fact the heir, and a relati
to have appointed, was perhaps his
of Mercurius. Zyhlarz 51 claims that
of the kings ', but actually the deaco
Michael, gives that title to Zacharia. Z
title, rendered into Nubian, explain
as an error for " fabil (babil) " " fath
have been a royal title used much as
or 4 Tubba ' for the Himyarites, in th

Abraham

Zyhlarz says that, next, Mercurius

Simon. Again, John the Deacon actua
king Simon (like Mercurius (his pos
Monophysite writer for his conduct),
sion of a new king Abraham. Doubtle
perhaps the next nephew of Mercu
wicked, and it was he who implemen
bishop of Dongola (?), and had him r
patriarch Michael and the synod of bi
King Abraham was eventually banis
text of John the Deacon that 24 year
Cyriacus, and that these were bad ye
is not clear as to when exactly Zachari
but it must have been before the deat
of king Cyriacus also fell in the tim
held office for 24 years. Cyriacus at
of Abraham's rule must have been after 744.

50 Hist, of the Patriarchs (Patr. Or. V, fasc. I), pp. 140 et seq. Vantini, Oriental
Sources , pp. 40 et seq.
51 Zhylarz, Reami..., p. 259, n. 4.
52 There are many Arabic sources which mention this title, many copying the
information from earlier historians, and spelling it badly. See Burckhardt's trans, of
Maqrizi ( Travels in Nubia), p. 481, n. 62; Mas'udi, Muruj al-Dhahabt ed. 'Abd al-
Hamid Cairo, 1964, Vol. I, ii, p. 17. For others see Vantini, Oriental Sources , pp.
68, 70, 383, 395, 395-6, 565; Monneret de Villard, op. cit., p. 173.

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 KINGS AND KINGDOMS OF ANCIENT NUBIA 101

Mark

The successor of Abraham was king Mark, named also by Z

The text says that Zacharia was 44 the father of the kings up
time", but presumably does not mean it literally; the phrase p
refers to the fact that Zacharia obviously held the key positio
selection of the successors of his father Mercurius.

Cyriacus

King Mark was slain in the church, whilst praying, by friends of the
exiled king Abraham, whom he had himself killed or planned to kill.
He had reigned for six months. His successor was the famous king Cyria-
cus, who was still ruling when John the Deacon penned his " Life " of
Michael, at some time after 768. John indulged in a eulogy of king
Cyriacus 52a and he is one of the sources for the famous expedition of
this king towards Cairo to release the imprisoned patriarch Michael.
The Egyptian ruler Abd al-Malik had taken Michael into custody, and
later taken the Eparch, sent by the Nubian king as envoy, also. Cyria-
cus' advance into the Cairo region had the effect of so terrifying the
Egyptians that the two were released, and Cyriacus returned to Nubia.
This expedition may be dated to 747/8, and Cyriacus must have set out
to rescue Michael very early in his reign, since between the time of the
beginning of the patriarchate of Michael in 744 there was time for the
settlement of the troubles over bishop Cyriacus and the short reign of
king Mark. The tale of the exploits of Cyriacus was very popular, and
was much repeated by historians in after years 53.
There is a primary documentary source 54 for a king Cyriacus, per-
haps the same one as we are dealing with here. Griffith dated the docu-
ment to c. 758, indicating that he believed the kings were identical. The
document refers to the king as Cyriacus, and to the bishop as Cyri-

52a See Abu Salih for a repetition of this, in Vantini, Oriental Sources , p. 333.
53 Apart from the story in the History oj the Patriarchs , it is repeated by Petrus
ibn Rahib, al-Makin, the Ethiopian Synaxarium, Maqrizi, Abu Salih, and the Ma-
shafa Tefut, all with variants in date or content as they grow further from the event.
Some scholars, probably incorrectly, have tried to connect Ethiopia to the story; see
Vantini, Oriental Sources , pp. 329-30 from Abu Salih; ibid., pp. 374-375 from al-
Makin (Girgis ibn al-Amid).
54 Krall, Denkschrift , Akad. Wien XLVI, pp. 16-17, n, IV; Griffith, Christ .
Doc., p. 15.

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 102 S. C. MUNRO-HAY

Nosk (?), and mentions an Eparch Pa

ing to wonder if the bishop's name
Cyriacus, recognised rather than the
the Eparch is not the same one as wa
Another documentary source 54a, a
king Cyriacus, is the letter in Arabic
scroll is an official letter of complain
governor, Musa Ibn Ka'b, to a king called " Lord of Muqurra and
Nubia ", but the royal name is broken away from the document.
However, Cyriacus was reigning in 747/8 and still reigning after the time
of John the Deacon's biography of Michael, who died in 768, and the
letter must refer to him. The letter is of fascinating content, since it
refers to the Baqt; the earliest evidence for the Baqt from a primary source.
The Arab writer declares that " we have fulfilled for you that which we
took upon ourselves for you in turning away from your blood and pro-
perty " and that the Nubian merchants are protected. He continues
" you however, in that which lies between us behave otherwise. You do
not bring to us that to which you are liable according to the Baqt on the
basis of which agreement was made with you; nor do you return those of
our slaves who run away to you, nor are our merchants safe among you..
Actual cases of transgression of the treaty are cited, and a " deputy " is
mentioned perhaps the Eparch (Paulos Kolla?). At a later stage, the
governor of Egypt continues, " It has been mentioned to me that you are
liable to the Baqt of (several) years, which you have not fulfilled; as for
that which you have sent in accordance with the Baqt, you have sent that
in which there is no good; the one - eyed, or the lame, or the weak old
man or the young boy ". The commentator on this scroll, Plumley ap-
pears to consider that the king of Dongola controlled all three kingdoms
of Nubia, (pp. 244-5).
Cyriacus may also have been the modest and God - fearing Nubian
king who is said to have upbraided the fleeing Ummayyad, Abdallah ibn
Marwan, for the abuse of power, and expelled him and his retinue from
Nubia 54b.

54a J.M. Plumley, An Eight Century Arabic Letter to the King of Nubia , 4 4 JEA
61, 1975, pp. 241 et seq, and "JEA" 60, 1947, pp. 237-8.
54b Vantini, Oriental Sources , pp. 65 et seq., from Ibn Qutalba al-Dinawari
c. 800; pp. 136 et seq., from al-Mas'udi; but for a different account, see al-Ya'qubi,
op. cit., p. 74; Ibn Wasif Shah, pp. 298 et seq.; ibid., pp. 775 et seq. from Ibn lyas.

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 KINGS AND KINGDOMS OF ANCIENT NUBIA 103

Chael

The next known king of Nubia is Chael or Michael. He is known

from a document 55 dated in the five - hundred and twenty - ?th year
of Diocletian, that is, somewhere between 804 and 813; this could be
anywhere from Chad's 11th to 19th year. The earliest possible date of
the accession would be 785-794; Monneret de Villard's estimate 794-803
was based on his reading of the date as the tenth year of the king, not
the? - teenth. Little is known of king Chael, but this and another docu-
ment of almost similar introductory phrasing list certain important officials
and churchmen. Joannes, bishop of Faras 802-809, may possibly be the
Joannes mentioned in the introductions to both these texts, after the No-
batian Eparch, named in the first text as Cyricus.

Jo(h)annes

Another king, not placed by any internal textual information in

any specific year, but estimated to have reigned c. 850 (Griffith, Zhylarz)
was Jo(h)annes 56. Of him, the special notice is given that he reigned
over a certain area specifically designated: "all the Ethiopians being
subject to him from Tilimauara until the fortress of Peilak (Philae) ".
Crum suggested that Tilimauara was Talmis, Griffith that it may have
been " much farther south ", and Monneret de Villard suspected that
the indication was to say that Johannes ruled also over Aiwa (Alodia).
Certainly, since the text is so careful to mention the point that he ruled
over all the Ethiopians (a second text just says " all the Ethiopians being
subject to him "), it would seem to be emphasising an enlarged kingdom.
Philae to Kalabsha (Talmis) would scarcely be anything to boast about,
and some expansion of the kingdom could be indicated. It is even pos-
sible that the document is mis-dated, and refers to the union of Nobatia
(south from Philae), and Makouria (north from Tilimauara?), by a pre-
decessor of Mercurius. M. de Villard dated Johannes to before 822, that
being the earliest date for king Zacharias, son of John 57. He continues
44 Intanto in Nubia a re Giovanni era successo Zaccaria...", but there is
no proof of this succession.

55 Griffith, Christ . Doc. n. 2 and 3, pp. 15-16. Monneret de Villard, op. cit.,
p. 100.
56 Griffith, op. cit., no. 4, p. 16 and no. 5, pp. 16-17; Monneret de Villard,
op. cit ., p. 100; 103; Zhylarz, Reami ..., p. 266.
57 Y.F. Hasan, op. cit., p. 26; Burckhardt, op. cit., p. 467 (a version of Ma-
qrizi, Khitat , III, 294-5); Quatremere, Memoir es, II, p. 49; Michael the Syrian, Chron.
trans. Chabot, XXXV, I, Vol. Ill, pp. 90-94; Monnferet de Villard, pp. 103-5.

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 104 S. C. MUNRO-HAY

Zacharias II

Zacharias is indeed the next known king of Nubia, but, although

he is called the son of John, there is no indication that his father was a
king, and particularly the king Johannes of the documents. Michael the
Syrian says that Zacharias was not of the royal descent, but this is not
mentioned elsewhere; Vantini 58 suggests that Zacharias himself was not
a crowned king, but married to a royal princess. A king called Zacharias
Israel is mentioned by Abu Salih, father of George 59.
The attribution of the year 822 as the succession year of Zacharias II
(if the first was Zacharias, son of Barky), depends on the statement in
the text of the ' Life ' of patriarch Joseph, and in Abu Salih 60 that Ibrahim
(al-Mutasim) sent to Zacharias for fourteen years arrears of the Baqt.
But this may also have been Baqt due from the reign of Zacharias' pre-
decessor as well. Zacharias sent his son and legal heir, George (this dy-
nasty has several kings who were sons of kings, though there may have
been matrilineal succession as well), to the Caliph, and the matter was
settled satisfactorily. The famous embassy of George (not Gabriel as
Zhylarz61 suggested, 100 years out at this point613) was in 836; there is
no information as to the duration of Zacharias' reign but in 840 (Vantini,
p. 233), c. 850, (Vantini, p. 189), 856, 859, or 866 (Jakobielski, 1975),
George I succeeded 62. Jakobielski, in Faras III, on the basis of a
Coptic inscription found at Faras, had decided on the date of 871 if
the date of the year 12 inscription was an indiction date, or 868 or 878,
if the Diocletianic date were the solo one. This means that the accession
of George I lies between 856 and 866.

58 Vantini, Oriental Sources , p. 130, n. 11.

59 Evetts and Butler, op. cit.y fol. 94b. Vantini, Oriental Sources , p. 324.
60 History of the Patriarchs (Patr. Or. X. fasc. 5), p. 503. Abu Salih, Evetts
and Butler, op. cit., fol. 97b, Vantini, Oriental Sources , pp. 193 et seq. after Sawirus
Ibn al-Muqaffa.
61 Zhylarz, op. cit.t p. 265.
61a There is a variant date (852) and story in Ibn Hawqal; Vantini, Oriental
Sources , p. 158. Also see Michael the Syrian, Vantini, Oriental Sources , pp. 316 et
seq.; ibid., pp. 330-331 from Abu Salih; ibid., pp. 429 et seq., after Gregory abu
'1-Faraj.
62 Vantini mentions, Excavations at Faras , pp. 188-9, that George died in 920
and spent nearly 70 years on the throne; on p. 233 he estimates 840 as the succession
date and 850 (?) in the plate section, pl. 12. Jakobielski, in Nubia , Recentes Recher -
ches , ed. Michalowski, Warszawa 1975, p. 45, mentions the dates as he had inter-
preted them in Faras III, p. 95.

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 KINGS AND KINGDOMS OF ANCIENT NUBIA 105

George I and the Nubian Succession

George I is called the son of Zacharias and succeeds as t

son of the king; this succession of the sons of kings rather tha
appears quite frequently in the dynasty, but there are other fac
make such a simple succession less straightforward. The wh
of the Nubian succession, from John (Yahnus, Bahnus etc), Za
George I, Zacharias III, George II, to Raphael, king in 1002
closer consideration. Several suggestions about relationships in
family of Dongola, and even of Aiwa have been made, base
information from Arab writers and from the discoveries of ar
though the female line may have retained its predominance ove
cession, there are several kings mentioned whose filiation is t
ceeding king 63 a. This may be due to lack of an heir on the o
or to special circumstances, the king's son being the accepted he
was no sister's son. Just as George I was son of Zacharias, son
so Zacharias III was the son of George I, and George II was the
Zacharias III; confirmation comes from the designations " Kin
son of King Zacharias " 64 and " King Zacharias, son of King Ge
from Faras.

Zacharias III , Niuty and al-Umari

The very full information about the Nubian dynasty of this period
is due largely to the story of the depredations of al-Umari in the mining
region, and the troubles he caused to the Nubian authorities in the days
of George I. Al-Maqrizi 66 mentions the king, Karki ibn Zakariyas ibn
Yahnus, and the nephew he sent to deal with the problem, Niuty ibn
Kishma, George's sister's son. Next the king sent his oldest son, and
finally his younger son Zacharias, later Zacharias III. Zacharias even-
tually offered the extraordinary suggestion that al-Umari should marry
the wife of Ibn Kisham, (Niuty), his own sister, whose name is not known.

63 Abu Salih, Evetts and Butler, op. cit., fol. 95b. Vantini, Oriental Sources ,
p. 326.
63a Vantini, Oriental Sources , pp. 354-5. See also, ibid., pp. 555^6, Ibn Khaldun.
64 On a wall painting at Faras. Faras III, pp. 128-9. Also in Abu Salih's
description of the painting of George, (Jirji) son of Zacharia, at Darmus, Vantini,
Oriental Sources , p. 334.
65 In the inscription of Zacharia, Faras III, pp. 111-112.
66 Maqrizi, Muqaffa , IV, f. 164b-167b; Balawi, 64-7; Kindi, 214. The Maqrizi
version may be found in Quatremere's translation of the Kitab al-Muqaffa, in Memoires ,
II, pp. 59 et seq. Also in Vantini, Oriental Sources , pp. 710 et seq.

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 106 S. C. MUNRO-HAY

This would have given to al-Umari a

family, and, on Zacharias' succession,
elimination of the royal nephew Niuty,
George) would have given to al-Umar
of Nubia. By marrying his cousin,
by not permitting the intrusion of an
gement which Zacharias proposed to
Zacharias III, son of George I may be
representative of his father at Maw
Nubia 67a. In the time of [al-Ya'qub
in the " great town of the Nuba " a k
reads "Sannal"; this may be the nam

John , Eparkhos ton Gaderon

John, Eparch of the Gaderon, which

from Greek " gadera ", a country, is m
have been a member of the royal fam
interpretation above is unlikely, and p
El Gaddar. But the title in general re
of Staurophorus, Navarchos of Nob
Or. 28, 1964) to perhaps be a simila
control of large areas. The Zacharia
use of the word ' 4 Augustus " as "king", as "Rex" is used in the
Kudanbes inscription, thus indicating that the high rank of Eparch was
bestowed on a royal son, the brother of George I 69. John, (Ioannes)
was born in 827 and died in 883.
There is a mention in the work of Girgis ibn al-Amid, al-Makin 69a,
that in the year 345/956 the reigning king of Nubia carried out a raid
which destroyed Aswan. The reaction was swift, and Ibrim was taken
by an Egyptian force sent in retaliation. In 339/950 the Nubian king

67 For a discussion of the marital relations, and the system of succession in the
Nubian royal families, see al-Haj Hamad Mohd. Kheir, Matrilineal Elements in the
Political Organisation of the Medieval Eastern Sudan , unpub. M.A. thesis Khartoum,
1977.
67a Vantini, Oriental Sources , p. 78 from al-Ya'qubi.
68 S. Jakobielski and L. Krzyzaniak, Polish Excavations at Old Dongola , Third
Season , Doc. 1966-February 1967, " Kush ", 15, p. 163, and n. 39, also pl. XXXIII.
69 As suggested by T. Dzierzykray-Rogalski and Jakobielski, La Tombe de VEpar -
che Yoannes dans VEglise a Colonnes en Granit de Dongola , " Nubia, R6centes Recher-
ches ed. Michalowski, Warszawa, 1975 (Mus6e Nationale), pp. 44-45.

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 KINGS AND KINGDOMS OF ANCIENT NUBIA 107

is said to have attacked the Oases of the territory of Egypt

Salih 69c says that Ibrim had fallen to the Egyptians also in th
Kafur the Ikhshid (965-8). How much of this is correct dating
to say, but it must have fallen within the reign of Kabil Ibn Su
George II according to the evidence available.

George II and Aiwa

It is possible to speculate a little on the situation in Nubi
time of George II. We know that George II was king at least
most 1002, and was contemporary with the Hadani and the que
tioned by Ibn Hawqal, who wrote between 943-977 (estimate of Ta
or perhaps as late as 988 (the date of the definitive revision as
by Kramers and Weit) 71 . Ibn Hawqal 72 states that when he wa
region (he is discussing 'Aiwa) the king was Isabius Karju ibn Ju
reigion 17 years, and was then succeeded by his sister's son
ibn Yurki, who was still reigning when he wrote. The king
Dongola was under the authority of the king of 'Aiwa 72a. If o
Kramers and Weit's date, for the while, as a fixed point, then
before 988 the kings of 'Aiwa just mentioned, and George II
(i.e. Muqurra) who was certainly on the throne in 969 when al-
met him, and was certainly still ruling in 979 when Philotheus w
arch 72b, and George was subject to the kings of 'Aiwa. Van
suggests that George (given in the Arabic texts as Kirki, Kurki
is the same as Yurki. He also asserts that George II was the
Zacharias (III) which seems to be true, since the Faras picture o
George, son of king Zacharias, shows74 him associated with Petro

69a Vantini, Oriental Sources , p. 377.

69b Ibid., p. 386, after Yahya Ibn Intaki.
690 Ibid., p. 326 after Abu Salih; Evetts and Butler, op. cit ., fol. 96b
Oriental Sources, p. 476 after Nuwairy.
70 T. Tamrat, Church and State in Ethipoia, Oxford 1972, p. 39.
71 J.H. Kramers, and G. Wiet, Ibn Hauqal, Configuration de la Terre, 1964,
Beyrouth and Paris, p. xiii.
72 Ibid., p. 54. Vantini, Oriental Sources, p. 163.
72a This is reiterated by Ibn Hawqal, who says that the king of Dongola is also
king of Muqurra, and under the king of Aiwa; ibid., p. 166.
72b Vantini, Oriental Sources, p. 205, from Severus ibn al-Muqaffa; Ibid., pp.
721-2 for the story of the 969 message to Qirqi from Maqrizi, where Qirqi implies that
his father and grandfather ruled before him.
73 Vantini, Excavations at Faras, pp. 76-77, and Nubia, Recentes Recherches,
pp. 130 ff.
74 Jakobielski, Faras III, pp. 128-9.

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 108 S. C. MUNRO-HAY

of Faras, 974-999. The identification

written the inscription on both these
son of Zacharias III.

Kabil Ibn Surur

However, it is not necessary to assume, as Vantini does, that Za-

charias his father was the direct predecessor of George II. Zacharias is
known to have come to the throne in 920, as an inscription of his tenth
year survives 75 ; thus he certainly ruled until 930; but he may have died,
and been succeeded first by a nephew, who, rather than a son, was always
the heir to the Nubian throne. Thus the king, Kubri, or Kubra, or, and
more likely, Kabil, Ibn Surur, whom Mas'udI mentions as king of Nubia
in 943, reigning at Dongola over Muqurra and Aiwa, would have been
such a nephew 76.
Naturally, this Kabil could be Zacharias III, if it were merely a
title, but the filiation is ibn Surur. Hasan mentions that this name (he
writes Kubra b. Surur) sounds Arabic763, but in the " History of the

75 ibid., p. 112.
76 See note 52. al-Mus'udi, Muruj al-Dhahab... ed. Abd al-Hamid, Vol. I, ii,
p. 17, Cairo, 1964). Vantini, Oriental Sources , p. 130. For the name Kabil see
Burckhardt's trans, of Maqrizi, (in Travels in Nubia , Ilnd ed. London 1922, p. 481,
n. 62) 44 in an old volume of Maqrizi's 44 ancient history of Egypt " called Akhbar
Messer ft eddaher Elawel, in the chapter of " the titles and surnames given to the kings
of different nations " I find it stated, that the name of the ancient kings of Nouba
was always Kabyl in the same manner as Hatty was the name given to the kings
of Abyssinia, Toba to these of the Hemyar race of Yemen etc. ". Al-Khordadhbeh,
c. 912, quoted by Vantini, op. cit., p. 70, mentions also that the king of Nubia has
the title kabil; al-Yaqut, 1169-1229 (see Vantini, op. cit., p. 94) mentions that 44 their
king claims Himiarite descent and his title is kabil; kabil, king of Maqurra and Nubia
Al-Bakawi, c. 1413 (Vantini, op. cit., p. Ill, quoting Notes et extraits des mss. de
la Bibliothique du Roi, Paris 1789, pp. 395-6) adds, speaking of Nubia, that 44 they
have a king whom they call Kabil, and whom they claim to be descended from the
Himyarites...". Another reference also, for a speculative note, Zhylarz, op. cit ., p.
259, n. 4. Ahmad al-Bushra mentions the designation 44 al-Iksil wa sahib al-Khayl "
as a title of the Eparch at Ibrim, suggesting that the honorific al-Iksil is the origin
of al-kabil. The title 44 sahib al-khayl Lord of the Horses, is, it seems, the correct
reading of the title so often rendered 44 Lord of the Mountain (sahib al-Jabal).
A. al-Bushra 44 Some Remarks on the Nubian Baqt " paper read at the Conference
of Nubian Studies, Cambridge, 1978, and at Khartoum, Post-Graduate Seminar,
Department of History. Thus it may be that Kabil ibn Surur was actually an Eparch,
whose pseudo-royal position as successor of the kings of Nobatia resulted in the re-
port to al-Mas'udi that he was in fact the king.
76a Op. cit., p. 240.

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 KINGS AND KINGDOMS OF ANCIENT NUBIA 109

Patriarchs " there are many Coptic Christians called Surur or Ibn
and there is no reason why it should not have been the name of so
who had married a Nubian princess in Zacharias Ill's time, (Zac
sister was a widow after Niuty's death) or even the name of the e
son of George I. Zacharias III was the younger son of George I
the long tale of Niuty and Zacharias tells 77 . George I was the
Zacharias II, son of John, and his eldest son had fled to 'Aiwa. Now
the assumption that George I died at the age of around 104 years, which
is necessary if one follows the account of Vantini whereby Zacharias III,
succeeding in 920, is the direct successor of George I, does indeed seem
unlikely. For a brief note which appears to be more reasonable, see
Haycock78 in SNR where he suggests that the elder brother of Zacha-
rias III, ruled between George I and Zacharias III. Maqrizi states 79
that this son left 'Aiwa seven years after his arrival there at the head
of a band of troops given to him by the king of 'Aiwa. Could he have
been Surur?

Simon , Crown Prince of Aiwa

Maqrizi mentions that Ibn Salim quoted an Alodian prince of the

period, c. 365/975 as one of his sources. " The historian of the Nuba
said; -Simun, the §ahib 'ahd, (Crown Prince) of the country of 'Aiwa
told me... " Burckhardt renders it as " the reigning chief of Aloa " 80.
It is possible, as Vantini says, that this prince too has a place in the
royal family-tree of Muqurra and 'Aiwa. There is, at the church of
Sonki, a painting of an eparch of Pacheras shown with king George son
of king Zacharias, called Simeon; Vantini therefore suggests that the
two Simeons are identical. If the close connection postulated between the
two kingdoms is to be accepted, it would not be surprising to find that
the heir to 'Aiwa was also the holder of an office of high rank in the
northern kingdom. From all these theories, it is possible to postulate
a reconstruction of the royal succession in the two kingdoms in the
following way:

77 Quatremfcre, Memoir es, II, pp. 65 et seq. trans from Maqrizi.

7* Haycock, " SNR 52, p. 125.
79 Quatremere, p. 66.
80 Vantini, Oriental Sources , p. 610, n. 28; Burckhardt, Travels in Nubia, App.
in, p. 452.

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 110 S. C. MUNRO-HAY

John ( Yahnus ) possibly the king Ioannes of

p. 16. King and founder of a new dynasty,
The documents call him (?) king from T
the Ethiopians" were subject to him (= 'Aiwa?)
i
princes = Zacharias I , (Israel) Abu $alih, Fol 94b. Non-royal, ac ording to Mi-
chael the Syrian. " Not a crowned king but mar ied
to a royal princess ", Vantini, Oriental Sources,
p. 130, n. 11.
-833 to 842- Possibly 822 accession if 14 years baqt indicates his reign.
!

i i i
Mariam = George I (Karki) sister = Kisham John the Eparch
his Heir to throne in 836 of the Gaderdn.
niece succeeded 856-866
(Faras III, 95) until

at least 883. j
Elder son, Zacharias III sister = Niuty Mariam = George I,
(Surur?)- 920 (" King Zacha- (offered to (her
rias, son of al-'Umar!;) maternal
King George ".) possible re- uncle) Juti (?)
920-30 at least married to
Surur if he
was not a son

of George I.
Kabil ibn George II |
Surur . (" King George = sister Isabius
king at son of King Karju
Dongola, over Zacharias ", King of Aiwa.
Muqurra and Yurki?) reigned 17
Aiwa. years at some
reigning 943 time after
? 943 (Ibn
Hawoal's

Raphael Istabinus {Stephen) ibn sister journey)

reigning 1002. Yurki,
King of Aiwa, reigning
in c. 988, authority
extended over kingdom of
Dongola.
? | (See A. & W. Kornenberg,
Simeon, 44 Parallel "Cousin
c. 975, Crown prince Marriage in Mediaeval
of Aiwa. Sister's son and Modern Nubia ",
of Stephen? Eparch Kush, 13, p. 587 ff.
of Pachoras.

Should the list of names found at Faras turn out to be a list of the
kings of Nubia, then this reconstruction must be wrong 81 . One would

81 Jakobielski, Faras III, pp. 197-8. Unfortunately this list was not preserved.

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 KINGS AND KINGDOMS OF ANCIENT NUBIA 111

assume, looking at the list, that, in spite of the interposition of a

as 29, the three Zacharias' 28, 31 and 33, with the two Georges 30
32, could be concerned with this period. The no. 34, of which .
survives, could be Raphael. In 804-13 there was a king Chael of Nub
perhaps no. 25 of the list. An Abraham (Abraam) and Mark (Ma
at 14 and 15, succeeded by a possible Kiriakos, could reflect the per
discussed in the biography of Michael I. All this is highly speculati
of course, but these small aids are all there are for the moment to
in the reconstruction of Nubian dynastic history.

Raphael

Raphael, king of Nubia, is only known from the very brief mention
in Abu Salih 63, that he was king in the year of the Hijra 392, A.D. 100
He is said to have introduced the style of domed red-brick architecture
into Nubia. It is possible that he died in c. 1006 and was succeeded
by his son, who handed over Abu Rakwah to the representatives of al-
Hakim, if Ibn al-Athir is correct 63a.

Solomon

After Raphael the sources are again silent for a time about the kings
of Nubia, until the reign of Solomon. According, apparently, to the
ms. used by Quatremere 83, the History of the Patriarchs mentions that,
under the patriarchate of Christodoulos, George, bishop of Natu, was
sent to Solomon, king of Nubia, to dedicate a church which the king
had built. Christodoulus had been accused 84 in the time of the wazir
al-Yazuri, 1047-58, of forbidding the king of Nubia to send the offer-
ing, the Baqt, but it is unknown who was then the Nubian ruler. Solo-
mon was on the throne in the time of Christodoulus (i.e. before 1077)
and abdicated in favour of his nephew George in the second year of
patriarch Cyril, 1079/80 85. It appears likely that it was Solomon who
gave money to Chistodoulus to free him from the heavy financial im-
positions he suffered from the Lewatis 86, since the letter requesting this

82 Griffith, op. cit ., n. 2.

83 Quatremere, op. cit., p. 86.
84 History of the Patriarchs , Vol. II, III, p. 263.
85 Ibid., p. 328. Evetts and Butler, op. cit., pp. 270-271, fol. 98a, for Abu
Salih's version: Quatremere, op. cit., p. 88. Vantini, Oriental Sources, pp. 215, 331-
332, 393-4.
86 History of the Patriarchs, II, III, p. 281.

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 112 S. C. MUNRO-HAY

was sent with the bishop of Batu (Natu

church for the king. Perhaps also it w
al-Juyush sent for confirmation of the
and 1077 87, and it is likely that it was
rebellious Kanz al-Dawla to the Amir
or his son, had handed over Abu Rakwa to al-Hakim; such a return
of fugitives accorded with the stipulations of the Baqt 88.
The abdication of Solomon is mentioned by Abu Salih and the
History of the Patriarchs 89. He retired to the church of St. Onnophrius
at al-Wadi, but was soon seized and taken to Cairo as a sort of prisoner-
guest, magnificently lodged until his death in 1080/1, when he was en-
tombed in Cairo. Just after mentioning this, Abu Salih continues to
speak about the royal succession in Nubia, whereby a king is succeeded
by his sister's son and his own son succeeds only if there is no sister's
son. This process seems, inferentially, to have been in force for the
greater part of the history of the kingdoms of Nubia.

George III
By this same process, George, (Girgah) nephew of Solomon, and
third of that name to rule in Nubia as far as is known, succeeded in
1079-80. His reign was rather brief, as it is known that Basil was
king in 1089.

Basil I

This king Basil is recalled in the History of the Patriarchs 90, as the
source of considerable relief to the patriarch Cyril and the bishops of
Egypt, since he sent gifts, with the son of his predecessor, to the Amir
al-Juyush, when the patriarch was imprisoned because of the affair of
the metropolitan of Ethiopia. Basil had sent the son of the late king
his predecessor to be made a bishop, since he could not succeed to the
throne because of the matrilineal succession.
A text from Nauri 91 also mentions a king Basil. The actual trans-

87 Ibid., p. 316; Quatremfcre, op. cit., p. 87, et seq.

88 Ibid., p. 205. Vantini, Oriental Sources , from Ibn Qalanisi, pp. 285-286;
ibid., pp. 387-9, from Yahya al-Intaki.
89 Hasan, op. cit., p. 60; Ibn al-Athlr, " Kamil", IX, 139-143.
90 History of the Patriarchs , II, III, pp. 349-350. Vantini, Oriental Sources,
p. 217.
91 Monneret de Villard, op. cit., p. 129. Griffith, op. cit., p. 12 et seq. Mon-
neret de Villard refers to Basil as " figlio del suo predecessore ", p. 223, and, cor-

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 KINGS AND KINGDOMS OF ANCIENT NUBIA 113

lation is rather doubtful, 4 4 Basil the king being komari k

Griffith, or "in the time that king Basil reigned in Omari " af
neret de Villard. Monneret de Villard suggested that he mi
subordinate king due to the appearance of the word " omari "
Griffith), assuming that this indicated a place name 92.
The name of a king Basil also appears in one of the Meroe 93
inscriptions, a graffito on a pyramid there. " I, Powesi, of king Basil...
being (?)...".

The Ibrim Letter and Kings Basil , David and Paul

After the reign of Basil there ensues a long gap between the reign
of the next known king. However, there is a brief mention by Plumley 94
of a letter from Qasr Ibrim which mentions that the writer's grandfather,
father, and cousin rendered certain services to the Nubian kings, Basil,
David and Paul, and it may be that the gap between Basil (c. 1089-)
and king George IV, 1130-1158, is filled by these reigns. The letter95
was written to the Eparch, by an Arab writer, a descendant of a Grand
Qadi of the Fatimids. Another letter refers to an event which occurred
early in 1169. The great point of interest is that, when he is relating the
missions of his ancestors to the kings, he says that his grandfather went
to king Basil, and his father went to king Paul at Soba. His father also
was " the one who mediated " between the king and Sultan " when
things went wrong in the days of king David His cousin also went,
like his father, to king Paul as messenger of the Sultan to Soba, and
the writer accompanied him as a boy. Finally, his son went to " the
just king Paul, and he was in Dongola The phrase about " things
went wrong in the time of king David " could call to mind the invasion
of the Nubian king David in the days of Sultan Bayhars, but there is no
room for king Paul at that period. It may be, however, that Basil and
Paul are kings of Soba, and David is David I of Dongola. The letter
probably mentions only one king Paul, though it could be read as stat-
ing that a king Paul ruled at Soba in his father's day, then David reigned,
and then another king Paul in the time of the writer's cousin, the writer

rectly, on p. 175 he refers to " un Basilio che b nipote del suo predecessore as also
p. 129.
92 Monneret de Villard, op. cit p. 129.
93 Lepsius, Denkmaler, n. 58 ; Zhylarz, Grundzuge der Nubischen Grammatik, p. 190.
94 J.M. Plumley, The Christian Period at Qasr Ibrim ; Some Notes on the MSS
Finds , 44 Nubia, Recentes Recherches ed. Michalowski, Warszawa, 1975, p. 106.
95 Personal communication by Ust. Ahmad al-Bushra, University of Khartoum.

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114 S. C. MUNRO-HAY

himself, and the writer's son. It may

written in the time of king George
George, who may be assumed to have succeeded George IV, in 1158
(see below). It would then be plausible to expect that the writer's grand-
father could have lived at the time of king Basil (c. 1089-). If Griffith 96
was right in attributing the royal name George to a lesser king, then
there is little even here to rely upon for dating. That one of the letters
referred to an incident in 1169 might be a hint that the letter in question
belongs to about that period, or it might be a mention of an incident
of some time before; there is a gap of about one hundred years after
the death of George IV and the probable accession of Moses in 1158,
where these kings could also fit, and perhaps they were successors of
king Moses son of king George. In this case we are dealing with a king
Basil II and then his successors David I and Paul; but it is still quite
possible that closer study of the letters, and their eventual publication,
may reveal David as the David who attacked Aydhab and Aswan in 1272,
and Basil and Paul may be Alodian sovereigns (see below). This seems
to be the most likely hypothesis; but Osman considers that the letters
date to the mid 12th century 108a.
Amongst the letters found at Qasr Ibrim in 1974, is a letter96®, or
draft of a letter, to the Patriarch Mark of Alexandria 1166-89, dateable
since other letters are of the latter half of the twelfth century. The letter,
sent by the Nubian rulers, whose names are not yet published, refers
to the Nubian states Nobadia, Makuria and Alodia. From the brief
account so far published, there is more than one ruler in question. The
eventual publication of this letter should help to clear up the problem
of the late twelfth century rulers of Nubia; whether Basil II, David and
Paul, or Moses and unknown successors, were ruling at this period.

George IV

The offering table found in the church of Sitt Mariam, in the Wadi
Natrun, with a text in both Nubian and Greek, is the source of our know-
ledge of the existence of George, a king probably of Dongola rather than
Aiwa, according to Griffith 97. Griffith based this on the style of writing,
but, as we have just seen, there could have been very close contact bet-
ween the two kingdoms. Griffith decided that George was either king

96 Griffith, op. cit., p. II.

96» J.M. Plumley, Qasr Ibrim 1974 , 44 JEA 1975, p. 7.
97 Ibid., pp. 2 et seq.

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 KINGS AND KINGDOMS OF ANCIENT NUBIA 115

of Dongola or possibly one of its sub-kings; he also mentions a

stone in Berlin of a possible king George from Soba, but comm
the differences in writing and dialect. The sub-kingdoms of th
monarchy of Muqurra do appear at about this period, it se
will be dealt wit below.
The next king of Nubia may be the king Moses, son of king George,
mentioned as the relative of a woman whose portrait appears on tha
walls of the Cathedral at Faras. Michalowski dates him after George III
(i.e. IV) in his list at the end of Faras , Die Kathedrale 98. Vantini exclu-
des George II on historical and stylistic grounds, but mentions that he
could be the son of George III, successor of Solomon". However, it
would seem that the reign of Basil, in 1089, would leave only a very
few years for George III, who began to regn in 1079/80, and then Moses,
and it may be preferable to place Moses as the son of George IV.

The Kings of Dotawo: David , Moses , George and Basil

The Nubian documents from Qasr Ibrim have a vital contribution

to make at this point 10°. They mention several of the ruling kings of
an area called Dotawo, the earliest being Moses George, " nephew of
David who was king Moses George seems to have been king from
at least 1144-1199, and he was thus ruling as a contemporary of George
IV, who died in 1158, and perhaps Moses. This may be a hint that
George IV was king of Dongola. David, uncle of king Moses George
of Dotawo, was possibly also a contemporary of George IV at the
beginning of his reign, 1130. In a document of year 871 of the
Martyrs, 1155, Moses George is mentioned with Mary the Nonnen or
Queen Mother, and Papomena the bishop of Silim. Another document,
of king Basil of Dotawo, mentions exactly the same persons as Nonnen
and bishop of Silim, and it may be presumed that Basil either succeeded
Moses George, presumably his brother, or preceded him on the death
of David, who would have been his uncle also. The asseveration in the
text of Moses George that he was " the one born to be king might
indicate that there had been trouble over the succession.

98 Michalowski, Faras , Die Kathedrale , aus dem Wustensand , Zurich & Cologne,
1967, list.
99 Vantini, Excavations at Faras , pp. 233-4.
100 Some of this information is drawn from the writings and a Khartoum Uni-
versity Seminar of Ust. Ali Osman, University of Khartoum. The documents which
speak of these kings are not yet published save in tantalising fragments, as in Plum-
ley, op. cit., 1975 and Adams, "Nubia", Ch. 16, pp. 532 et seq.

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116 S. C. MUNRO-HAY

George, king of Dotawo is also kn

Ibrim (1974). Mary was Nonnen, but
since the document of Moses George calls him George Moses at the
end, it may well be that George and Moses George are the same. After
these kings there is a gap in our knowledge of the kingdom of Dotawo
for a considerable time.
The interest of these documents is that it was formerly thought that
the kingdom of Dotawo was a latter-day resurrection of the ancient king-
dom of Nobatia101; when the Dongola throne was finally occupied by
a Muslim prince, albeit of the royal line, the Eparchs were supposed
to have founded Dotawo as a Christian state. The dating of the kings
of Dotawo now makes this impossible, since there was a kingdom of
Dotawo nearly two hundred years before the enthroning of the Muslim
kingdom at Dongola in 1317 102. It is thought that the kingdom had
its seat at Jabal Adda. The size of the kingdom is unknown, but it had
a Papas, perhaps metropolitan, and the bishoprics of Ibrim and Silim
were apparently included in the kingdom.

The Expedition of Turan Shah

The history of the royal houses of the kingdoms of Dongola, Aiwa
and Dotawo are completely obscure for the space of about 100 years
after the accession of Moses and Moses George. The Nubians attempted
to assert themselves in support of the Fatimids, apparently, but the Ayyu-
bid dynasty delivered a salutary lesson in 1173 under Turan Shah, and
the Muslim army supposedly found a very miserable state of affairs in
Nubia103. If it were king Moses who appeared to Masud, messenger

101 Monneret de Villard, op. cit ., p. 188; Michalowski, Die Kathedrale... p. 44;
Adams, 44 Nubia...", has given a very good summary of the present state of our know-
ledge about Dotawo, pp. 532 et seq. A. Osman, The Post-Medieval kingdom of Kokka;
A means for a better understanding of the administration of the Medieval kingdom of
Dongola , p. 22 {Society for Nubian Studies, Seminar Cambridge, July 1978).
102 Perhaps the kingdom of Dongola and that of Dotawo were very closely
connected in their royal families; it is not inconceivable, depending on the date pre-
ferred for David, the king mentioned in the Ibrim letter, that he could have been
the uncle of the king of Dotawo, Moses George (but see the account under David I).
103 For an account of the expedition, Quatrem&re, Memoires II, pp. 89 et seq.
from Abu Shama, Abu Salih, and al Maqrizi. Abu Shama, 1, 209; Abu Salih, (Evetts
and Butler, fol. 96a & b. Vantini, Oriental Sources, pp. 327-8; ibid., pp. 357-8 from
Ibn al-Athir ibid., p. 367 et seq. from Abu Shama; ibid., p. 397 after Ibn Khallikan;
ibid., pp. 422-3 after Bar Hebraeus; ibid., p. 436 from Ibn Wasil (also p. 438); ibid.,
p. 466, Abu'l-Fida; ibid., p. 477 from Nuwairy; ibid., p. 504 from al-Wardi; ibid.,
p. 510 from al-Umari; ibid., p. 530 from Ibn al-Furat; ibid., 673-4 al-Maqrizi.

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 KINGS AND KINGDOMS OF ANCIENT NUBIA 117

of Turan Shah, Shams al-Dawla, simply dressed in a robe

satin, and mounted on a horse without harness 104, he makes
contrast with his female relative, whose portrait, preserved in
at Khartoum, is richly robed and crowned 105. Vantini, too,
possibility that Moses was a contemporary of Saladin.

The Mamluk Period

When the Nubians reappear in the historical records, their situation

is very different. The Mamluks in Egypt have a considerable part to play,
and as the end of the independent Christian kingdoms approaches, the
Sultans' interference in the internal affairs of Nubia grows ever more
apparent. At the end, the royal family are treated as pawns, in captivity
at Cairo, to be placed on the Nubian throne at the whim of the Sultans,
and all vestiges of the former power of the dynasty of Zacharia and George
have gone. Due to the Mamluk interference, under Baybars, 1260-77
Qala'un, 1279-90 and al-Nasir Muhammad ibn Qala'un 1293-4, 1299-
1308 and 1309-41 particularly, the Arab writers grow more informative
about Nubian affairs.

Murtashkar and David I

The first king of Nubia of this latter period is a very shadowy figure,
Abu'l-Izz Murtashkar; he is only known from Ibn Abd al-Zahir's account
of the life of Baybars 106, from the report about a message sent in 667/
1268 by king David (I) 107 of Nubia. The message declared that David
had deposed his maternal uncle, Murtashkar, who had become blind,
and the new king had banished the sons of the ex-king to al-Abwab,
" The Gates " an area said 108 to have been around modern Kabushiya.

1(>4 Abu Shama, loc. cit.

i°5 For an illustration, see Michalowski, Die Kathedrale , p. 148, ill. 70.
106 Ibn Abd al-Zahir, Rawd (al-Rawd al-Zahir fi sirat al-Zahir), III, 1145.
For a king who is mentioned by Ibn Khaldun as an uncle of David, called Martash-
kin (and min tashkil by error) see Ibn Khaldun, ed. Arab. Vol. 5, p. 400, Bk. II, men-
tioned in MacMichael, A History of the Arabs in the Sudan , 1922, 2nd imp. 1967,
Vol. 1, p. 180, n. 2. Hasan, op. cit ., pp. 106 ff. offers a convenient summary and
excellent notes: (Vantini, Oriental Sources , pp. 558-9) mentions a contention bet-
ween Mintashkil and the son of his brother, David. Later Martanskin is mentioned
as king, uncle of David.
107 So called assuming that the king mentioned in the Arabic letter from Ibrim
is the same king.
108 Hasan, op. cit.t pp. 6-7 and notes.

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 118 S. C. MUNRO-HAY

Baybars reply was to demand the pa

the king in whose day " things went
letter from Qasr Ibrim 108a, in which
cessor, in Dongola or Soba, and Paul would seem to have been also a
king of Soba; he certainly cannot fit into the royal sequence otherwise,
and the letter mentions his presence at Soba and Dongola at different
times.
David is next heard of in the year 671/1272 109, when he initiated an
attack on the port of Aydhab and the important town of Aswan. The
ensuing events are a little unclear, since there are some confusing addi-
tions from the historians. It is said, that, amongst the contents of a let-
ter 110 sent by Yekuno-Amlak, king of Ethiopia, to Baybars, he commented
that king David was dead and his son reigned in his stead. Since this
letter came in 672/1274, and since there seems to be no other king David
to whom it can refer, it seems that it concerns David I's death, and the
elevation of his son, presumably David II.

David II (?) and Shakanda

The Arab sources also mention that in 67 4 / 1275-6 111 a Nubian prince
called Shakanda, apparently a nephew of the deposed Murtashkar, came

iQ8a Personal communication from Ust. Ahmad al-Bushra, Univ. of Khartoum.

A. Osman, op. cit ., p. 26, dates the letters to mid-1 2th century.
109 Quatremere, op. cit., pp. 96 et seq. Mufaddal, in his continuation of the
history of Girgis ibn al-Amid (Al-Nahj al-sadid wa'l-durr al-ferid fi ma ba'd ta'rikh
ibn al-Amid) II, 211; Nuwairy (in Vantini, Oriental Sources pp. et seq.) dates
the Aswan expedition to June 1275, and the departure of the army to avenge the
raids to January 1276. By March they were at the island of Michael. Al-Mufaddal
says Aydhab was sacked on August 18th 1272. Ibn al-Furat dates the Aswan raid
to 1275; the expedition with mskd (Shakanda) set out in January 1276, reaching
Daw on 24 March 1276; ibid., pp. 648 et seq., after al-Maqrizi, who says the Aswan
attack was 671/1272; Shakanda complained about his maternal uncle David, and
replaced him on the throne.
110 Mufaddal, after Ibn Abd al-Zahir, in 44 P.O.", XIV, p. 303; also al-Qal-
qashandi, quoted in Gaudefroy-Demombynes, ed and trans. Ibn Fadl Allah al-'Omari,
Masalik el-Absar fi Mamalik el-Amsar , p. 38. App. III. Vantini, Oriental Sources ,
pp. 494 et seq., from Mufaddal, dates the arrival of the letter to 1272/3.
111 Mufaddal II, 234; Ibn Abd al-Zahir, Tashrij al-Ayyam wa'l-usur fi sirat al-
malik al-Mansur , 154, calls him Mashkadat; Ibn al-Furat, Ta'rikh al-Duwal wa'l-
muluk , VII, 45; Quatremere, op. cit., pp. 96 et seq. For other spellings of the name
see MacMichael, op. cit., p. 180, n. 2. Ibn Khaldun seems to have been confusing
the name with that of Abu'l-Izz Murtashkar. For Ibn Abd al-Zahir, see Vantini,
Oriental Sources, p. 427, Nuwairy calls the king mrmsiskd (Vantini, op. cit., pp.

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 KINGS AND KINGDOMS OF ANCIENT NUBIA 119

to Cairo to try to persuade the Sultan to aid him against his cou
(II); a battle followed the entry of the Sultan's forces, with Sh
into Nubia, in April 1276, and Shakanda became king. The Epar
to David had been taken to Cairo and sawn in two, and the new
swore allegiance to Shakanda. Meanwhile Adur, king of al-Abwab
(presumably not the king of 'Aiwa, but a subordinate southern prince),
sent David himself a prisoner to the Sultan in June 1276, and he was cast
into prison in Cairo; Adur is said to have killed David's son; (Nuwairy).
The story seems clear enough, but there are other aspects. It is only
the account of the letter of the Ethiopian king which mentions David II;
al-Mufaddal says that Shakanda was the son of a paternal uncle of David,
and complained about the son of his uncle.
Shakanda has a selection of names in the literature; Mashkadat,
Shakandy etc. The sources seem to indicate that he was the cousin of
David on the father's side, (Mufaddal) or a son of the sister of Murtashkar
(Ibn al-Furat). At any rate his right to the throne was clear as a nephew
of Murtashkar, but David 1 as a nephew of Murtashkar doubtless had
equal rights. David II, if he existed, as a son of David I, would not have
had the same rights.
It is interesting to note that in the reprisals against David I, the Eparch,
or Lord of the Mountain, Sahib al-Jabal, was captured, and executed
and that on the arrival of Shakanda the new Eparch, Qamr al-Dawla,
called the governor of half of Nubia in the name of king David, surren-
dered to him. This indicates that the system of the dual kingdom was
still in existence, but there is no hint of a sub-king of Dotawo, in the
Arabic texts. Scrolls from Ibrim, the ancient capital of the Eparchs, testify
to the existence at just this time of a new series of kings of Dotawo, who
will be discussed below.
Rightful heir to the throne of Nubia or not, the accession of Shakanda
cost Nubia a tremendous price llla. Shakanda engaged upon an annual

470-472) with variations from the Paris Mss of martskr, mrskd. Shakanda and
Martashkar are equally confused here. Vantini, op. cit ., pp. 497 et seq. from Mu-
faddal. Maqrizi, ibid., pp. 680 et seq., mentions Mashkad. The story, dated to
674/1275-6 is told also by Ibn Iyars (ibid., p. 779). Ibn al-Furat says that mskd
or Shakanda was son of the sister of the king whom David had deposed, mrtskr.
David was his ibn 'amm, son of his maternal uncle, and therefore his cousin; Van-
tini, op. cit ., p. 531; ibid., p. 573, from al-Qalqashandi (MRQshan quz).
llla Vantini, Oriental Sources , pp. 472 et seq., from Nuwairy; ibid., pp. 499-
500 from Mufaddal; ibid., pp. 582-4 from al-Qalqashandi Ibid., pp. 533-5 from Ibn
al-Furat. He mentions the delivery of whent to Nubia as counterpart to the Baqt;
ibid., after al-Maqrizi, p. 650 and p. 681.

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 120 S. C. MUNRO-HAY

tribute of three elephants, three gir

medaries, and 100 cattle. Half of the entire revenue of Nubia went to
the Sultan, the provinces of the Mountain, and al-'Ali adjacent to Aswan
and one quarter of the entire kingdom, was to belong to the Sultan toge-
ther with cotton, dates etc. Islam, a head-tax, or death were the choices
meted out to the inhabitants of the province, and they chose the tax.
Shakanda also agreed to pay the Baqt on its old footing, four-hundred
slaves yearly.

Barak

Quatremere 112 quotes from Ibn Abd al-Zahir a brief note which says
that Mashkadat was killed by an assassin and a certain Barak succeeded
in the time of Qala'un 1279-90. The account in the 4 4 Life of Qala'un " 113
indicates that Barak was taken prisoner shortly after his accession and
executed before 685/1286, by the expedition of Sanjar al-Masruri; Has-
san114, however, suggests that Barak was deposed in early 678/1279,
which would not agree with the story in Ibn Abd al-Zahir unless another
king intervened, (see below).

Shamamun

The succession apparently fell to Shamamun. It appears to be this

king who was the subject of a complaint which king Adur, king of al-
Abwab, sent to Sultan Qala'un115. Adur had sent messengers in return
to a messenger from the Sultan, and they had been arrested by the king
of Dongola. Eventually they were freed and arrived in Cairo in 685/Nov.
1286; apparently the king of Dongola was later deposed by his own sub-
jects and another elected in his place. Whether this refers to the end
of the reign of Barak, or to an incident in the complicated reign of Sha-
mamun 115a, is not certain. Ibn Abd al-Zahir recounts 116 that in 685/

112 Quatremere, op. cit ., p. 112; also in Vantini, Oriental Sources , pp. 427-428.
113 Ibid., p. 101. The author is Ibn Abd al-Zahir; Vantini, op. cit., p. 428.
The Amir Alam al-Din Sanjar al-Masrui was sent by Qala'un in 686/1287 to raid
Dongola, according to Rukn al-Din Baybars al-Dawadari, Vantini, op. cit., p. 452.
114 Hasan, op. cit., p. 241, n. 110.
115 Quatremere, op. cit., pp. 100-101 from Ibn Abd al-Zahir, Vantini, Oriental
Sources, pp. 425-6, from Tashrif.
1153 As appears from the story in Tashrij (Vantini, op. cit., p. 428). He (Sha-
mamun) remained until his countrymen rose against him... the present king acceded
to the throne and was crowned; his name was Budamma, who is still reigning".
This account rather simplifies Shamamun's reign.
116 Quatremere, p. 101; Ibn Abd al-Zahir, Tashrif, 144.

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 KINGS AND KINGDOMS OF ANCIENT NUBIA 121

October 1286 ambassadors of the king of Dongola arrived w

and that in the same Hijra year (February 1287) the Sultan sen
embassy to the king of Nubia, Adur, king of al-Abwab, the pr
Baeah (Bazah), Al-Takah, Kadru, Danfu, Ari, Bafal, Anaj, and Ku
as well as sending a messenger to the king of Dongola, Shamamu
as a result, by 686/1287-8, as Ibn al-Furat, Maquizi, and Nuw
report, military operations were launched against Shamamu
northern deputy, Jurays, Lord of the Mountain, and governor of th
of Michael and of Daw. The Eparch was eventually captured, bu
stated as subject of a new king, a son of the sister of Shamam
is unnamed. On the departure of the Sultan's army which reac
in August 1288 Shamamun returned to Dongola and re-establish
self on the throne, the new king and the Eparch meanwhile flee
Sultan at Cairo.
In 688/1289 119 the Sultan's next army was collected to settle the Nu-
bian problem. The king of Nubia, Shamamun's nephew, set out with
the Eparch, but died at Aswan, where he was buried. The Sultan then
sent a nephew of king David to replace him, and the army set out, half
on each side of the river, with the Eparch Jurays going before to assure
each area of amnesty and prepare provisions. Between Daw and the Isles
of Michael, the former fief of Jurays, all went well. But after that Jurays
influence was not felt, and the Muslims massacred the inhabitants. At
Dongola, it was learnt that Shamamun had fled to an island fifteen days
to the south. On the arrival of the army at the island, Shamamun fled
again to al-Abwab, three days distant. The officials and the bishop and
priests left behind submitted to the Sultan's army, and returned to Don-
gola, where the new king was crowned, with an agreement to pay the
Baqt on its old footing. The army then left in 689/May 1290.

117 Quatrem&re, p. 101; Ibn Abd al-Zahir, Tashrij , 145; Vantini, Oriental Sour-
ces , p. 426.
118 Quatremere, pp. 102 et seq. Also Ibn al-Furat VIII, 52 et seq. Vantini,
Oriental Sources , pp. 478 et seq. from Nuwairy; ibid., pp. 450 et seq. from Ibn al-
Furat; ibid., p. 559 from Ibn Khaldun, who calls the king Baitamamun, brother (?)
of Martashkin, ibid., pp. 683 et seq. after Maqrizi; ibid., pp. 779-80 from Ibn Iyas.
119 Quatremere, pp. 104 et seq. Ibn al-Furat, loc. cit. Nuwairy, in Vantini,
Oriental Sources, pp. 480 et seq., ibid., pp. 542 et seq., after Ibn al-Furat; ibid., pp.
686 et seq., from al-Maqrizi.

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122 S. C. MUNRO-HAY

Budamma

Although neither Ibn al-Furat nor Nuwairy, nor Maquizi mention

the name of the king, Hasan 120 suggests, most plausibly, that it was that
prince Budamma whom Ibn Abd al-Zahir says was sent to Nubia in the
year 688/1289-90. Budamma, then, was probably a nephew of David II.
Ibn Khaldun mentions that the new king was David, the son of Mar-
tashkin's brother, instead of an unnamed nephew of David, or Budamma.

Shamamun' s Third Reign

The reign of Budamma was brief, since the moment the Sultan's
armies had retired (they reached Cairo May 1290) Shamamun reappeared,
and persuaded the nobles at Dongola to help him regain his throne. The
Mamluk captain left to guard Budamma was allowed to retire, but the
unfortunate ex-king was killed in a curious manner by Shamamun, who
also slew Jurays, the Lord of the Mountain. Shamamun sent an offer
of the Baqt, with gifts, to Qala'un, as a peace-offering, and Qala'un, occu-
pied elsewhere, allowed him to remain king of Dongola. Shamamun
sent an apology about the arrears for the Baqt to Sultan al-Ashraf Khalil,
in 691 /Feb 1292 probably, as Ibn Abd al-Zahir mentions in his biography
of the Sultan (al-Ashraf) 121 . The king was unable to pay due to the wars,
and the plots of Adur of al-Abwab, but the Sultan did not accept the
apology. He sent assurances to Shamamun (unnamed in this entire ac-
count) that his female relatives were being well treated. The king sent
his brother al-Barsi, and the new Eparch Faris al-Dawla Jurays, to repeat
his excuses to the Sultan. The Regent of al-Abwab, said the Nubian
king, would perhaps arrive at the Sultan's court (with, presumably, com-
plaints) and the Sultan was asked to disregard him. The reign of Shamamun
seems then to have been from before 1286 until 1288, when one of his
nephews became king, then 1288-1289, when Budamma ruled for about
six months, 1289-90, then finally 1290 until at least 1295. Adur was pro-
bably still alive in al-Abwab in at least 1292 121 .

120 Hasan, op. cit.> p. 114 and n. 123, p. 242; Quatremfcre, op. cit ., pp. 109 et
seq. See also MacMichael, op. cit., p. 184, n. 3, for Ibn Khaldun's mention here of
a king David. Ibn Abd al-Zahir is quoted by Vantini, Oriental Sources , p. 427; ibid.,
p. 560 for Ibn Khaldun's account about David and Baitamamun.
121 Hasan, pp. 116-7 from Ibn Abd al-Aahir's Al-Altaf al-khaffiyya min al-sira
al-sharifa al-sultaniyya al-ashrafiyya' the Sultan al-Ashraf Khalil ibn Qala'un reigned
1290-1292, and Shamamun wrote to him complaining of Adur... Vantini, Oriental
Sources , p. 430, n. 10 suggests Jan.-Feb. 1292 as the date of this complaint against Adur.

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 KINGS AND KINGDOMS OF ANCIENT NUBIA 123

Any

At just the period when Budamma arrived as the new king of Dongola,
there was another king causing trouble somewhere in Nubia. Ibn Abd
al-Zahir mentions 122 that one of the campaigns of the Muslims came
across a certain king Any in the time of Qala'un; the king had fled to
Anaj, one of the provinces to whose princes messengers had been sent
in February 1287. King Any escaped, it appears, in 1289, but who he
was is a problem; both claimants to Shamamun's throne are accounted
for, the nephew of Shamamun being buried in Aswan, and Budamma just
arriving in Nubia. P (i) arl was king of Dotawo in 1281, George Simon
in 1287; Adur was king of al-Abwab from at least 1276-1292, and anyway
was a friend of the Sultans. Doubtless the states of Nubia had begun
to crumble, and other principalities were being founded, including that
ruled by Any.
During the reign of Budamma 123, five days after the departure of
the army which had bestowed the throne on the new king, the Amir in
charge had a letter from Budamma, bearing the encouraging news that
the Nubians were returning to their homes and undertaking repairs. He
also received a letter from the king of al-Abwab, who must have been
Adur (this was early in 1290). Adur apologised for not arriving in person,
but said that he was still pursuing king Any; the land of Anaj had also
been invaded by a foreign prince, and the king of al-Abwab was attemp-
ting to dislodge him. The third reign of Shamamun continued into the
reign of Katbugha 124 December 1294-97. For a space there is no news
of any of the kings of Nubia until the arrival at the court of Sultan al-
Nasir Muhammad ibn Qala'un, in his second reign, of king Amay of
Nubia

122 Quatremdre, op. cit ., pp. 109 et seq. MacMichael, op. cit ., p. 185, refers to
Any as 44 a lesser Mek Vantini, Oriental Sources , p. 426.
123 Quatremfcre, op. cit., p. 112 from Ibn Abd al-Zahir; Vantini, Oriental Sour-
ces , p. 429 ( Tashrif ).
124 Quatremere, op. cit., p. 109; al-Adil Zayn al-Din Kaytbugha al-Mansuri
1294-7. Vantini, Oriental Sources , p. 484, from Nuwairy, ibid., p. 547, after Ibn al-
Furat.

125 Quatremere, op. cit., p. 114, from Maqrizi, Kitab al-Suluk. Vantini, Orien-
tal Sources, p. 505 after al- Wardi, who calls him Away, Lord of Dongola. Maqrizi
is quoted, by Vantini, op. cit., p. 690; he is called Lord of Dongola, king of the
Nuba; ibid., p. 780 for the account of Ibn Iyas.

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124 S. C. MUNRO-HAY

Amay

Amay arrived in 704/1304-5, seeking the help of the Sultan al-Nasir

against a rebel. An army was sent, and remained for over a year and a
half in Nubia, presumably trying to confirm the position of Amay. Of
the end of Amay nothing is known, save that he may be the brother of
Karanbas who was murdered 126 just before Karanbas went to Cairo
in 711/1311 as the new king of Nubia. This account is more reliable than
the later account of Ibn Khaldun 127, who calls Amay " Ay " and is un-
certain whether he is the successor of Shamamun or if another king in-
tervened; Ibn Khaldun also adds that Ay ruled until 1316, but this must
be wrong if Karanbas was king by 1311 ; Ay was, he says, brother of Kar-
bis (Karanbas).

Karanbas

Karanbas' career has some resemblance to that of Shamamun. But

Karanbas is also known from a primary source, an inscription at the
monastery of St. Simeon at Aswan 128. The inscription is dated 1038
AM, that is 1322, just when the Arab historians say that Karanbas would
have been returning to Nubia to depose Kanz ad-Dawla. The king is
called Kudanbas in Greek.

Sayf Al-Din Abdallah Barshambu

By the year 715/1315 129 the king of Nubia had evidently offended
the Sultan, and an army set out towards Dongola. In 716/September
1316 Sayf al-Din Abdallah Barshambu was sent from Cairo to become
king of Nubia. He was a prince of the Nubian royal dynasty who had
become a Muslim during the sojourn which he had experienced as an
exile at the court of Cairo ; he is supposed to have been a nephew of David.
Karanbas then sent his nephew Kanz al-Dawla, also a Muslim, to the

126 Quatremere, loc. cit. Also Vantini, Oriental Sources , p. 691, from A1 Ma-
qrizi; ibid., p. 780, from Ibn Iyas.
127 MacMichael, op. cit ., p. 186, n. 3. See Hasan, n. 144, p. 243. Vantini,
Oriental Sources , p. 561, ibid., p. 573, where al-Qalqashandi speaks of Amay reigning
until 1315, succeeded by his brother Karanbas.
128 Quatremere, op. cit pp. 114 et seq., from the Kitab al-Suluk. Also Nu-
wairy, in the Nihayat al-arab fi funun al-adab (see Hasan, op. cit., p. 243, n. 155).
129 Ibn Khaldun and al-Qalqashandi refer to this king as Nashli; see Vantini,
Excavations at Faras , p. 109. Vantini, Oriental Sources , pp. 484-5 from Nuwairy;
ibid., pp. 561-2 from Ibn Khaldun, ibid., p. 573 from al-Qalqashandi; ibid., pp. 692-
693 from al-Maqrizi.

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 KINGS AND KINGDOMS OF ANCIENT NUBIA 125

Sultan al-Nasir Muhammad ibn Qala'un, with the proposal that if

Sultan intended to place a Muslim on the Dongola throne, Kanz al-
was the legal heir, being the son of the sister of the reigning king, Kar
The Sultan merely imprisoned Kanz al-Dawla, and by 717/1316
al-Din Abdallah Barshambu was seated upon the Nubian throne
ranbas and his brother Abraham were captured and taken to Cairo
imprisonment, through the agency of the king of al-Abwab.
The new king may have established a mosque in the palace a
Dongola, since there is still in place there an inscription which he s
it reads " This blessed door for religion was opened by the hands o
al-Din Abdullah al-Nasir in the year 717 on the 16th of Rabia al-Aw-
wal ", (1317).

Kanz Al-Dawla

The new Muslim king did not remain in Dongola for long, however,
since Kanz al-Dawla, freed from prison in Cairo, was soon back in Nubi
active in the resistance to Abdallah Barshambu. On his arrival at Daw
he was saluted as king (a title he apparently refused in favour of his un-
cle) and it was not long after that he was master of the whole of Nubia,
and had killed Abdallah Barshambu. Ibn Khaldun says that Abdallah
(Nashli) met his death by a conspiracy in 1318-19 13°. Nuwairy says that
news of his death reached Cairo in June 1317.

Abraham

At Cairo, the Sultan, on hearing this news, despatched the brother

of Karanbas, Abraham, with an army to seize Kanz al-Dawla. He pro-
mised to release Karanbas and appoint him king if Abraham sent Kanz
al-Dawla back to Egypt in captivity. Kanz al-Dawla submitted immedia-
tely to Abraham, but after three days Abraham died, and the Nubians
hailed Kanz al-Dawla as king.

Karanbas ' Second Reign

In 723/1323 131 after a gap of several years, Karanbas again appears.

Why there was a delay on the part of the Sultan in exercising vengeance
on Kanz al-Dawla is not explained, but in the end he decided to allow

130 Vantini, Excavations at Faras , p. 109.

131 Quatremere, op. cit p. 116. Also Ayni, Ttfrikh al-Sadr fi awsaf ahl al-
asr , quoted by Hasan, op. cit.9 p. 243, n. 160 and 162. Al-Qalqashandi follows this
story, see Vantini, Oriental Sources , p. 573; ibid., p. 695, for the story in Maqrizi.

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126 S. C. MUNRO-HAY

the reinstatement of the old king, Ka

with an expeditionary force to seat him
Karanbas stopped at Aswan, and the
written. Ibn Khaldun 132 says that Karanbas became a Muslim, thus
gaining the promise of the throne, and Hasan finds it " understandable "
that the king changed his religion to increase his chances for the throne.
But the inscription would lead one to believe that Ibn Khaldun might
be mistaken, perhaps confusing him with Abdallah Barshambu. The
debased Greek inscription is full of appeals to the Archangel Michael
and holy men, priests, deacons and a "pious, single-minded bishop of
the Orthodox"; it is indubitably Christian, and the writer mentions Ku-
danbes, the "president of Caesars" and later "rex Kudanbes, a king
worthy of three hundred years ". The date is equivalent to 7 April 1322,
and must have been prepared when Kudanbes was on his way to his brief
restoration. It is in this inscription that the writer, Kartolaus, mentions
amongst the great persons of the past the kings Joel Gregorius, Mercu-
rius Phorus and king Isaac.

Kanz A I- Daw la's Restoration

The army of the Sultan installed Karanbas (Kudanbes) on the throne

of Dongola, and Kanz al-Dawla fled. No sooner had they departed when
the same reaction as Shamamun had practised occured, and Kanz al-
Dawla returned, drove out Karanbas, and reinstalled himself as king of
Nubia. The amirs of the Sultan's army were absent for only nine months,
returning to Cairo in 724, August 1324; Karanbas went back to Aswan,
and there awaited renewed efforts on the part of the Sultan, but he was
still there in the year 726/1326 133.
The reigns of Kanz al-Dawla in Nubia were, then, 1317, then, after
the brief interlude of Prince Abraham, 1317-1324, then Karanbas at the
end of 1323-1324, and Kanz al-Dawla until an unknown date afterwards.

The Kanzi Dynasty

The dynasty of Kanz al-Dawla seems to have remained in power in
Nubia for a considerable time. In 1349 al-Umari 134 described the Nu-

132 Ibn Khaldun, v, 922; he calls the king Karbis. Also Ayni, Ta'rikh , f. 6 a;
after Hasan, p. 243, n. 158. This does not appear in Vantini, Oriental Sources , except
in the work of al-Qalqashandi, who says that the Sultan sent the converted Muslim
Karanbas to Nubia after Nashli's death in 1319 (p. 573).
133 Ayni, Ta'rikh , f. 15 a after Hasan, p. 243, n. 162.
134 Ibn Fadlallah al-Umari, Masalik al-absar fi mamalik al-aqtar , tr. Gaudefroy-

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 KINGS AND KINGDOMS OF ANCIENT NUBIA 127

bians as Christians, but ruled by Muslims of the family of Kanz

and this is easy to credit. The Christian state had not yet begun
in large measure to Islam, and the dynasty ruling was still in f
timate, since it was directly descended from the family of Karan
is a silk embroidered wedding contract 135 of the king of Dong
Amir Abi Abdallah Kanz al-Dawla, dated 733/1333, preserved in
at a time when it is known that the king of Dotawo was Siti (k
least 1331-1334) 136. Also there is the curious mention of th
Nubia Sab'a Nol 137, called Weluda Ityopya, said to have bee
in the time of the patriarch Benjamin, 1327-1339.
Ibn Battuta 138 likewise has a contribution to make; he declares
that the king of Nubia at some time before 1377 (Ibn Battuta's death)
was Ibn Kanz al-Din, who embraced Islam at the time of al-Malik al-
Nasir, (died 1341). This could refer to either Kanz al-Dawla ibn Shuja
al-Din Nasir ibn Fakhr al-Din Malik, the king who disputed the throne
with Karanbas, or al-Amir Abi Abdallah Kanz al-Dawla; Ibn Battuta
travelled to Aydhab in 1326, and 1349, to Sawakin in 1332 139, so he was
probably informed about the Nubian monarchy at the time of the latter,
(if indeed they are not the same person).

The Division of the Kingdom ; Dongola and Daw

Another gap ensues in the history of Nubia at this point. But the
Kitab al-Suluk recommences the story of the Kenzi Nubian dynasty in
767/1365-6 140. Maqrizi comments that the Banu'l Kanz and their allies
the Ikrima had spread over the Aswan-Aydhab region, and the oases,
and were committing depredations. They were allied by marriage with

Demombynes, 1927, pp. 48-49; and in Vantini, Oriental Sources , p. 511. Al-Umari
says also that the kings rule by consent of the Sultan at Cairo. Al-Umari in Al-
Ta'rif notes the protocol of the Sahib Dunqula, king of Dongola, ibid., pp. 514-5.
Al-Qalqashandi repeats the statement about the Muslim king, op. cit.9 p. 574; and
refers to the protocols of the king of the Nuba, Lord of Dongola. Maqrizi (Vantini,
op. cit.t p. 616, n. 32) mentions the year 725/1325 as the beginning of the rule of the
Awlad Kanz al-Dawla.
135 Noted by Hasan, op. cit.9 p. 244, n. 163.
136 Documents from Edfu and Ibrim, see below.
137 Turaiev, trans. Gadla Ewostatewos (CSCO, Script. Aeth. 15, 1955); Vantini,
Oriental Sources , pp. 516-7.
138 Monumenta Cartographica, IV, pp. 1353-4 (ed. M. Kamal).
139 Hasan, op. cit., p. 199; Vantini, Oriental Sources , pp. 519 et seq.
140 Quatrem&re, op. cit.y pp, 116 et seq. Vantini, op. cit.. pp. 698 et seq.

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 128 S. C. MUNRO-HAY

the kings of Nubia and the Ikrima Am

al-Din Karanbas, with a Nubian interp
sadors of the king of Dongola. They b
had revolted against the then king, u
the Ja'd Arabs towards Dongola. The k
bjects had placed his brother on the th
between Dongola and Aswan. The rebe
and by stratagem destroyed the Amir
him; then he marched on Daw, but m
that the uncle should remain king,
then appealed to the Sultan for aid to
al-Ashraf Nasir al-Din Sha'ban was Sultan between 1363-76.
The army accordingly set out, the Sultan's government being equally
anxious to set a limit on the increasing power of the Banu'l-Kanz. The
army, a day south of Philae, met with the messengers of the king of Nubia
with information that the king was beseiged in the fortress of Daw by
the Arabs. The leader of the force, the Amir Aqtamir, was able to reach
Ibrim, then to join with the king, and continue to the Arab stronghol
at the Island of Michael. Attacking from both sides of the river, the for
managed, with arrows and Greek fire, to destroy or capture most of th
Arabs. It was decided that the royal seat should remain at Daw, sinc
the destruction at Dongola had been immense, and the city was nearly
destroyed. The king's nephew was set up at Ibrim, and a sort of shadow
of the kingdom of Dongola with its Eparch at Ibrim was established. A
large gift was, of course, sent by the restored king to the Sultan. This
kingdom, with its seat at Daw, and with the fortress of Ibrim in its con
trol, is the entity which some authorities have suggested was the kingdom
of Dotawo, (see below).

Nasir Al-Din

The restored king, or perhaps a successor, may have been that king
of Nubia Nasir al-Din who arrived in person in the year 800/September
1397 142, at Cairo, in flight from his rebellious cousin, when al-Zahir
Sayf al-Din Barquq, 784-801/1382-99, was Sultan. He was received

141 So, with speculations as to the origin of Rukn al-Din, op. cit ., p. 121. Qua-
tremere merely calls him a general. Vantini, op. cit p. 698, writes min umara ' an -
nuba.

142 Quatremere, op. cit., p. 124, from the Kitab al-Suluk. Vantini, Oriental
Sources , p. 704.

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 KINGS AND KINGDOMS OF ANCIENT NUBIA 129

with all honours, clothed in a robe of honour, and the gov

Aswan was ordered to assist him as much as possible. How
Hasan 143 comments, it would appear that the king had little
from Aswan, whose governor only the year before had fled to
bian court before an invasion of the Banu'l-Kanz.
The chaotic situation in the south was even exploited at this time
by David of Ethiopia, who, as the Kitab al-Suluk 144 declares, entered
the Aswan region in 783/1382 and caused great destruction to the lands
of the Muslims. He appears to have retired at the behest of the Sultan,
and five years later sent gifts in token of a better state of affairs vis a vis
the Egyptian court. Amidst the chaos of this period the record of the
kings of Nubia vanishes, except for the intriguing primary records, more
or less recently discovered, of the kingdom of Dotawo.

The Kingdom of Dotawo and the End of the Christian Period

Anything written at present about the kings of Dotawo is of a tem-

porary nature since most of the material is still wanting publication. Ne-
vertheless, from the two periods of the kingdom which are known to us,
we can safely say that it was not the same as the kingdom of Dongola 145.

143 Hasan, op. cit ., p. 123 from Ibn al-Furat, IX, 440-441.
144 Quatremfcre, op. cit., p. 276.
145 At least, from the point of view of our knowledge of the names of the mo-
narchs of Dongola and Dotawo. There is more to be said on this point however.
One of the most interesting hinges for speculation is the town of Ibrim. Documents
of the kings of Dotawo were found at Ibrim, dating 1144-1199, 1281-1334 and 1464.
Some of these scrolls mention bishops of Ibrim, and Adams (Nubia... , pp. 534-5) for
example, believes that the mentions of Ibrim's bishops means that they were amongst
the royal retinue of the kings of Dotawo. Ibrim is not mentioned in the earliest group;
only the bishops of Silim and Kurte appear. (Chael of Ibrim appears in the undated
documents of David, who, in the context of the dates of the other scrolls, could fit
anywhere between 1281 and 1464. The dates of David of Dotawo are needed to
settle this; he may even be the uncle of Moses George of Dotawo (see above).). To
return to Ibrim, it was in 1193 captured by Shams al-Dawla and its bishop tortured.
It remained alienated until 1195/6, but presumably almost immediately (by 1199, the
date of one scroll found there) became an administrative centre of Nubia again. Pos-
sibly the affairs of a sub-king of Dotawo, were conducted on behalf of the Dongola
king, (to whom the Arab writers refer at this time as the king of Nubia), from Ibrim;
the capital of Dotawo would then have been at Jabal Adda, and the bishop at Silim.
Ibrim and Daw may have been controlled by the Sultan as part of Shakenda's tri-
bute from 1276; they were both royal seats in 13 66. Is is only much later, with
Joel (at least 1464-1484) that Ibrim appears connected with Dotawo, save for the
enigmatic documents of David. The holders of the office of Papas, Shenoute in
David's time, Kosmos in George Simon's time, may have been at Ibrim, as in the

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130 S. C. MUNRO-HAY

The first phase, with the monarchs Mo

Basil, is of the last half of the 12th cent
IV (of Dongola ?), and possibly Moses, so
citing these kings were found at Qasr I
the nephew of a king David (of Dotawo
For nearly one hundred years there is
it reappears with a new set of scrolls m
in 1281. By 1287 the monarchy had p
was, it seems, a contemporary of Shaka
Shamamun and Adur of al-Abwab. The
is mentioned on an Ibrim scroll found in
to 1334; he is also known from docume
is, then a contemporary of the king of
Kanz al-Dawla, testified as ruling in 133
Another long gap ensues; but the kin
kept itself intact, though possibly again
of officials decrease as the kingdom ages
tawo, appears in a graffito at the rock s
still using the formula 44 in the Name o
of the Spirit ". In the same shrine, and
pear the names of king Koudlaniel, w
and of Tienossi, king of Ilenat. He may
the king of one of the lesser kingdoms

time of Merkos, Papas in the time of Joel (1

Ibrim, in the 1484 Jabal Adda letter of Joel's
pas was borne by Papomina in the days of Ba
years earlier. Darme, bishop of Kurte, as he
haps the same as Darme the Migin Sonoj and Sa
If the kingdom then included Jabal Adda and
Ibrim, between the two towns. But there is n
latest kings, Joel, Koudlaniel and Tienossi of
information yet available to settle questions of
at the moment, but it is premature to attemp
coalescing the Christian and Muslim kingdom
places (Silim-Sileam) by mere phonology is alw
146 For all these scrolls and other inscriptional evidence about Dotawo see
J.M. Plumley, Qasr Ibrim , 1974 , " JEA ", 61, 1975, p. 7. Ali Osman, Doctoral Thesis,
Univ. of Cambridge 1978; Plumley, The Christian Period at Qasr Ibrim , in "Nubia,
Recentes Recherches "; Adams, The Twilight of Nubian Christianity (in the same work);
Monneret de Villard, op. cit., loc. var; Michalowski, Far as, Die Kathedrale ..., p. 44;
Griffith, Nubian Texts of the Christian Period , " Abhandlungen der Konigl. Preuss.
Akad der Wissenschaft 1913, pp. 52, 64-5, 166, and Millet, op. cit., p. 62.

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 KINGS AND KINGDOMS OF ANCIENT NUBIA 131

The dating of these kings is now illuminated by the discovery

Adda of a leather letter dated 1484, in the reign of king Joel. A
the officials mentioned is Merki, bishop of Ibrim, and Ibrim was
part of the kingdom. Another scroll of Joel, also mentioning M
Papas of Ibrim, and dated 1464 was among the 1964 and 196
at Ibrim.

Northing is known of the end of Dotawo or of Aiwa. In the Funj

Chronicle 147 there is mention of the overthrow of the Nuba and their
city Soba, at some unknown date before 1504, and it is now evident that
the kings of Dotawo were able to maintain themselves until nearly that
time. Undoubtebly the last of the Christian kings fell at the hands of
the Abdallab or the Funj; it may be that the Abdallab traditions were
those which were later incorporated into the Funj ideology, and that
the end of Soba was an Abdallab 148 achievement. The legends of the
Abdallab declare that it was Abdallah Jamma who took from the Chri-
stian kingdoms in the South the " bejewelled crown of the Anaj kings
using the name of one of the princely states mentioned as lesser in rank
to the kingdoms of Al-Abwab and Dongola. Dotawo, at present, simply
fades from our knowledge; there is no trace of either the monarchy or its
Christian faith in later times.

To conclude, it must be mentioned that there are several kings of the

various Nubian kingdoms known whose dates are as yet uncertain. The
kings Basil, David and Paul 149, who may have lived in the twelfth century
or perhaps even in the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries if
their connections with Soba allow us to place them as kings of 'Aiwa,
(with the reference to king David in whose day " things went wrong "
referring to David I,) are among those. Also king Gabriel 150, of whom
there is a record dated year 5 from Ibrim; king David 151 from an inscrip-
tion at Amada; Elteeit, king of Dotawo on a document now in Berlin 152 ;

147 MacMichael, op. cit ., pp. 358 et seq.; Penn, "SNR", XVII, 1934, pp. 59-
83; H.N. Chittick, 44 Kush II, 264-72. Vantini, Oriental Sources , pp. 786 et seq.
148 Penn, op. cit.; Adams, op. cit.f pp. 538-9. Hasan, op. cit., pp. 128 et seq.
For the extinction of Christianity, in Nubia, see Vantini, loc. var. in both Excavations
at Faras , and Oriental Sources ; Adams, op. cit.y pp. 359 et seq. Vantini, Oriental
Sources , quotes, pp. 745 et seq, the curious story of David Roubeni, a visitor at Soba
in the days of Umara Dunqas.
149 Personal communication Ust. Ahmad al-Bushra, Univ. of Khartoum.
150 M. de Villard, op. cit ., p. 142.
151 Ibid., loc. cit.
152 Griffith, Nubian Texts , p. 54; M. de Villard, op. cit ., pp. 117, 141, 193;

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132 S. C. MUNRO-HAY

another David, known from two docum

in whose day a certain Chael was bisho
been a king of Dotawo 153 and Aaron
dofan mentioned by Arkell; these are
them into their true contexts.

Addenda

Since the above was written some additional points have come to
notice, particularly with reference to the letter from Phonen to Abourni
These notes have as their main reference the work of T. C. Skeat, " A
letter from the King of the Blemmyes to the King of the Noubadae ",
JEA, 63, 1977, pp. 159 ff. The letter is dated by Roberts to the mid
fifth century, and concerns peace overtures from Phonen to Abourni.
The Blemmye king seeks the return of his lost lands, including the cit
of Talmis. At first Phonen would appear to have defeated Silko, an
to have seized Talmis, only to lose it again to Abourni. Skeat suggested
that, in the end, Silko was the victor, since his inscription remaine
intact at Talmis and he adopted the title ' basiliskos But some of
the phrases in the letter could also lead to the impression that, though
Silko's war was in the recent past, it was now over, and the Blemmye
king's sole problem was with his successor Abourni. The letter is very
difficult to interpret, and whether Abourni and Silko were contempo-
rary rulers of the Nobadae, or successor and predecessor respectively,
remains unclear. Silko, 6 basiliskos of the Noubadae and all the Ethio-
pians ', and his contemporary or near contemporary Nobadian ruler
Abourni, both had to contend with the Blemmyes around Talmis, and
the end result seems to have been the loss of Blemmye control at Tal-
mis, Taphis, Ibrim and Telelis somewhere in the region of 450 A.D. or
a little later. Skeat suggested that the letter of Phonen came at th
point of Silko's first campaign, and that later Abourni was subordi-
nated or disposed of, whilst Silko became ' basiliskos ', but there is
also the possibility that Silko was by this time dead, and that Phonen's
conquest of Talmis and defeat of Silko was after Silko had had hi
inscription set up. Phonen could have re-conquered the town from
Silko, but, before anything could be done to efface the inscription

Adams, " Nubia p. 532 and n. 80 where it is mentioned that one of the texts o
1974 from Ibrim has a similar name as surname (?) of a king George.
!53 Plumley, " Nubia, Recentes Recherches p. 106.

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 KINGS AND KINGDOMS OF ANCIENT NUBIA 133

Abourni could have re-established the rule of the Nobadae there. He

made promises about the restoration of territories, and received gifts
from the Blemmyes, but, at the time of the letter, no restitution had
been made. Indeed, it is quite possible that from this point on the
Blemmyes were excluded from the Valley, having been disloged first by
Silko, temporarily, and finally by Abourni. There is no hint of Chri-
stianity in the letter, and, providing that the possibility of a second
Silko is discounted (Bosse-Griffiths, in Skeat, op. cit ., p. 164) this helps
to confirm that the Silko inscription precedes the Christian period in
Nubia.
Abourni's sons, Nakase and Mouses, and Breeitek, son of Phonen,
are named in the letter, but nothing more is known of their careers.

A few more references and notes may be profitably added here.

Note 41; p. 12; also Kubinska, J, Inscriptions grecques chretiennes,
" Faras " IV, Warszawa 1974, pp. 14-21, 71-72, and Stein, E., Nubie
chretienne, "Revue d'histoire ecclesiastique ", 36, 1940, pp. 131-142.
George I, p. 19. The inscription from Faras (" Faras " III, p.
95) mentions the Eparch of Palation, a certain Zacharias. A note in
the list of dignitaries at Faras mentions 43 years for a George, and, if
it were to be confirmed as a king list, this George would probably be
either George I or George II.
Note 76, p. 23: see also Plumley, Qasr Ibrim 1969, " JEA " 1970, p. 14.
Faras list, p. 24. Ioannes the Eparch, no. 36 on the list, could
perhaps be identified with the Eparch who died in 1007 (see below),
Ioannes, no. 29 could be misplaced for the father of Zacharias II (no.
28), and Stephanos, (see also below) would fit at no. 35.
Raphael, p. 24. In 1007 the otherwise unknown Ioannes, Eparch
of the Nobades, died (Kubinska, op. cit., p. 49; Millet, N.B., Gebel
Adda, " JARCE " 6, 1967, p. 59). Possibly Marianos, Eparch of Nobatia
in the early eleventh century, was his successor.
p. 24. King Stephanos. The name of Stephanos is known only
from Jabal Adda (Leclant, Orientalia 38, 1969, p. 280; Millet, op. cit.,
p. 59). He is dated to around 1027. Possibly he is the son of Raphael
mentioned above. His name is mentioned in the will of Ioasse, on a
leather document in Greek and Coptic. He would seem to be too late
to be connected with Istabinus ibn Yurki, reigning in 'Aiwa around 988.
Note 96, p. 28. Plumley, in " Nubia, RScentes Recherches ", p. 107,
dates the letter to the end of the 13th to beginning of the 14th centuries.
The Kings of Dotawo, p. 30. Michalowski suggests that the Epar-
chs took the title ' king of Dotawo ' but admits the difficulty of identity

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 134 S. C. MUNRO-HAY

in the later period, when the Eparchs

pp. 45, 273). If the suggestion were
(p. 35) would have to be identified
(1287).
The Division of the Kingdom, p. 43. In 1372 a bishop of Ibrim
and Faras was consecrated, which Adams suggests implies a measure
of the decline of Christianity in Nubia, (Plumley, J. M., The Scrolls of
Bishop Timotheus , London, 1975; Adams, W. Y., Post-Pharaonic Nubia ,
II, " JEA " 51, 1965, p. 177).
King Joel, p. 45. A king Joel is also known from a Faras graffito,
(Michalowski, K., 44 Faras Warsaw 1974; Inscr. 44, p. 304). Frend
dates the Ibrim scroll to c. 1420 in e.g. " ZKG " 1973, p. 338.
King Taanengo, p. 46. To add to those kings whose dates are still
uncertain, is king Taanengo, known from an Old Nubian graffito from
Jabal Adda, where he is called ' Ameud's son Taanengo the king He
is dated between 750 and 1000 A.D. (Millet, N.B., Gebel Adda Expe-
dition , Preliminary report 1963-4, " IARCE " 3, 1964, p. II).

CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF THE KINGS OF NUBIA - > (p. 135)

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 KINGS AND KINGDOMS OF ANCIENT NUBIA 135

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