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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Sudan
Index
By the sixth century, three states had emerged as the
political and cultural heirs of the Meroitic kingdom. Nobatia in
the north, also known as Ballanah, had its capital at Faras, in
what is now Egypt; the central kingdom, Muqurra, was centered at
Dunqulah, the old city on the Nile about 150 kilometers south of
modern Dunqulah; and Alwa, in the heartland of old Meroe in the
south, had its capital at Sawba. In all three kingdoms, warrior
aristocracies ruled Meroitic populations from royal courts where
functionaries bore Greek titles in emulation of the Byzantine
court.
The earliest references to Nubia's successor kingdoms are
contained in accounts by Greek and Coptic authors of the
conversion of Nubian kings to Christianity in the sixth century.
According to tradition, a missionary sent by Byzantine empress
Theodora arrived in Nobatia and started preaching the gospel
about 540. It is possible that the conversion process began
earlier, however, under the aegis of Coptic missionaries from
Egypt, who in the previous century had brought Christianity to
the Abyssinians. The Nubian kings accepted the Monophysite
Christianity practiced in Egypt and acknowledged the spiritual
authority of the Coptic patriarch of Alexandria over the Nubian
church. A hierarchy of bishops named by the Coptic patriarch and
consecrated in Egypt directed the church's activities and wielded
considerable secular power. The church sanctioned a sacerdotal
kingship, confirming the royal line's legitimacy. In turn the
monarch protected the church's interests. The queen mother's role
in the succession process paralleled that of Meroe's matriarchal
tradition. Because women transmitted the right to succession, a
renowned warrior not of royal birth might be nominated to become
king through marriage to a woman in line of succession.
The emergence of Christianity reopened channels to
Mediterranean civilization and renewed Nubia's cultural and
ideological ties to Egypt. The church encouraged literacy in
Nubia through its Egyptian-trained clergy and in its monastic and
cathedral schools. The use of Greek in liturgy eventually gave
way to the Nubian language, which was written using an indigenous
alphabet that combined elements of the old Meroitic and Coptic
scripts. Coptic, however, often appeared in ecclesiastical and
secular circles. Additionally, early inscriptions have indicated
a continuing knowledge of colloquial Greek in Nubia as late as
the twelfth century. After the seventh century, Arabic gained
importance in the Nubian kingdoms, especially as a medium for
commerce.
The Christian Nubian kingdoms, which survived for many
centuries, achieved their peak of prosperity and military power
in the ninth and tenth centuries. However, Muslim Arab invaders,
who in 640 had conquered Egypt, posed a threat to the Christian
Nubian kingdoms. Most historians believe that Arab pressure
forced Nobatia and Muqurra to merge into the kingdom of Dunqulah
sometime before 700. Although the Arabs soon abandoned attempts
to reduce Nubia by force, Muslim domination of Egypt often made
it difficult to communicate with the Coptic patriarch or to
obtain Egyptian-trained clergy. As a result, the Nubian church
became isolated from the rest of the Christian world.
Data as of June 1991
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