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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Sudan
Index
Until the thirteenth century, the Nubian kingdoms proved
their resilience in maintaining political independence and their
commitment to Christianity. In the early eighth century and again
in the tenth century, Nubian kings led armies into Egypt to force
the release of the imprisoned Coptic patriarch and to relieve
fellow Christians suffering persecution under Muslim rulers. In
1276, however, the Mamluks (Arabic for "owned"), who were an
elite but frequently disorderly caste of soldier-administrators
composed largely of Turkish, Kurdish, and Circassian slaves,
intervened in a dynastic dispute, ousted Dunqulah's reigning
monarch and delivered the crown and silver cross that symbolized
Nubian kingship to a rival claimant
(see The Rule of the Kashif
, this ch.). Thereafter, Dunqulah became a satellite of Egypt.
Because of the frequent intermarriage between Nubian nobles
and the kinswomen of Arab shaykhs, the lineages of the two elites
merged and the Muslim heirs took their places in the royal line
of succession. In 1315 a Muslim prince of Nubian royal blood
ascended the throne of Dunqulah as king. The expansion of Islam
coincided with the decline of the Nubian Christian church. A
"dark age" enveloped Nubia in the fifteenth century during which
political authority fragmented and slave raiding intensified.
Communities in the river valley and savanna, fearful for their
safety, formed tribal organizations and adopted Arab protectors.
Muslims probably did not constitute a majority in the old Nubian
areas until the fifteenth or sixteenth century.
Data as of June 1991
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