Christian Kingdoms In The Lands Of The Blacks

[anansi]

While mentioned in some threads I was surprised that we did not have a thread dedicated to this topic.
Everyone reading this knew of Christian Axum which was a great empire but little less known were the other Christian Kingdoms the first being Nobatia

The Nubian kingdom of Nobatia (or Nobadia) had its capital at Pachoras (modern Faras), and was located in modern northern Sudan and southern Egypt. The exact date of its founding is not known, but it seems to be early, perhaps early enough to be an indirect continuation or re-founding of the Meroë Kush kingdom. The traditional theory is that the old kingdom was destroyed during an invasion by Ezana of the Ethiopian kingdom of Axum. To contradict this, the Ethiopian account seems to describe the quelling of a rebellion in lands they already controlled. It also refers only to the Nuba, and makes no mention of the rulers of Meroë.

However, no details of rulers at Meroë are known after about AD 350, making their survival unlikely. There is a possibility that the kings, or at least something of the royal family, moved to Pachoras and re-found the kingdom as Nobatia. Unfortunately, no records exist to document anything about the kingdom other than its last days.
Christian Nubia

Three Nubian kingdoms arose on the ruins of Meroitic power and are first known to history from the accounts of sixth century missionary activity given by the Syrian writer John of Ephesus. In the north, from the First to the Third Cataracts, was the kingdom of Nobatia, with its capital at Faras; south of it and stretching as far as the place known to Arab writers as El Abwab, ‘the doors’, thought to be near the modern village of Kabushia, was Makuria, with its capital at Old Dongola; and further south again, the kingdom of Alwah (or Alodia), whose capital, Soba, is close to Khartoum.

During all this time (after the christianization of Nobatia in the 5th century) these remote kingdoms on the Middle Nile were cut off from the rest of the Christian world by the Muslim occupation of Egypt (640-'42). Yet they were strong enough to resist Muslim encroachment and even to threaten Muslim positions in Egypt, making a treaty with the Caliph of Baghdad and occupying southern Egypt in 962. Not until 1173 did there come the first big Muslim raid by Saracen cavalry from the north. A startling panorama of the wealth and distinction of their religious life was revealed in 1961-‘64 by Polish excavations at Faras under the leadership of Kazimierz
www.hubert-herald.nl/SudanC.htm

Silko King of Christian Nobitia

Heraldry


Thanks to the excavations of Faras we are informed about some of the heraldic symbols used by the christian rulers of Nobatia.Together with data from other sources it is possible to make up a fairly complete picture of the heraldic structure of Christian Nubia. It turns out that the symbols of Empire and State are of a common design reaching back to ancient Egyptian and Mesopotamian times. The symbols of authority are of the kind common in the early Christian empires. As we know these symbols were hallmarked in the time of Constantine the Great (307-337).
On the walls of the Faras cathedrals are some more or less well preserved frescoes of saints, angels and biblical figures. The more interesting frescoes for us however, show kings and queens and other Nobatian dignitaries, amongst them some eparchs or chief executives.
The frescoes show considerable differences in style and fashion and seem to have been painted over a period of several centuries.

Even when some of the frescoes are dated by Michalowski in the ninth century, taking the relation of the texts and the images for granted, we may doubt if they are very much older than the beginning of the twelfth century.
The main reason for this opinion is the analysis of the patterns on the clothing of the kings, together with the analysis of the crowns they wear.
One of the oldest paintings seems to be the painting of a dignitary, dressed in a tunica of a pattern we find almost exactly identical on a mosaic of the Byzantine Emperor Manuel I (r. 1143-’80) in the Palazzo dei Normanni in Palermo. Also, the crown he is wearing is of the 12th century model worn by Byzantine kings, consisting of a cilindrical diadem with four pearls set on the upper rim.

A second group of dignitaries is dressed in clothes with a pattern which was the fashion in the second half of the 12th century. This cloth was strewn with medallions of concentric rings and little points arranged in circles. It can be seen on the purple tunica of the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa on a fresco in the SS. Quattro Coronati in Rome. His wife Beatrice is also dressed in a robe strewn with medallions on a mosaic in the apse of the S. Maria de Trastevere in Rome. Brocades and silks strewn with medallions were anyhow the fashion around the turn of the 13th century. The king in Faras who is wearing such a robe is wearing a crown of a more evoluated style, consisting of a cilindrical diadem with one hoop with a crux quadrata on top, between two horn-like ornaments resembling a mitre. In his right hand he holds a sceptre with another crux quadrata.

Another dignitary, belonging to this group, wears a robe with multicoloroured medallions. He has a socalled bukranion in his left hand, consisting of a diadem with a ram’s head mounted on the front and a disc with a pair of horns above it. Much likely this fresco, much damaged, depicts an eparch. The crown is a much evoluated version of the ancient crown of Kush.




The Sun motif:The coat of arms of “The King of Bougis”
Symbols of Military Rank: The White, a black patriarchal cross / white a black patriarchal cross an a red bordure


Nubian eparch on a fresco in Abd el-Qadir. On his apron medaillons with double eagles.
Detail of the so-called dove-frieze in the ancient Faras-Cathedral, early 7th c. A.D.

[anansi]

This Nubian burial mound of a Nobatian king was discovered at Ballana, Lower Nubia, during excavations that were carried out in the 1930s

Crown Of A Nobatian King found at Bellana.

Ballana was a cemetery in Lower Nubia. It was excavated by Walter Bryan Emery between 1928 and 1931 as a rescue project before the construction of a high dam at Aswan. A total of 122 tombs were found under huge artificial mounds. They date to the time after the collapse of the Meroitic state but before the founding of the Christian Nubian kingdoms, around AD 350 to 600. They usually featured one or several underground chambers, with one main burial chamber. Some tombs were found unlooted, but even the robbed burials still proved to contain many burial goods.

The objects found are chiefly of Nubian origin, but there were also many objects imported from Byzantine Egypt and the Mediterranean in general. Most remarkable is a set of crowns from different tombs showing that the richest burials belong to local ruling kings and queens. There were horses and servants buried with their masters. There are few written objects in the burials. The identification of the tomb owners is, therefore, impossible. It has been assumed that these are the burials of the kings and the court of Nobatia.

One important tomb discovered here was tomb 118 which consisted of three chambers. It might be described as an example of a royal burial at Ballana and consisted of a main burial chamber and two storage rooms. The roof of the burial chamber had collapsed and the tomb, therefore, escaped looting. The body of the person buried here was found on a bier. It was most likely that of a king. Upon his head was found a crown. Under the bier, were the remains of a large wooden gaming board, weapons and an iron folding chair. There were also skeletons of a young male servant and a cow. In the two storerooms, more skeletons of servants, as well as pottery and several bronze lamps were discovered.

The Ballana tombs belong to a culture complex often called X-Group. Following the find of these tombs, this culture is most often called Ballana Culture.[2] The original Ballana cemetery is now flooded by the Nasser Lake.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballana

A page from an Old Nubian translation of Liber Institutionis Michaelis Archangelis from the 9th–10th century, found at Qasr Ibrim, now housed in the British Museum. The name of Michael appears in red.
Makuria

The Kingdom of Makuria (Old Nubia, Makouria; Arabic: مقرة‎, al-Muqurra) was a kingdom located in what is today Northern Sudan and Southern Egypt. Makuria originally covered the area along the Nile River from the Third Cataract to somewhere between the Fifth and Sixth Cataracts. It also had control over the trade routes, mines, and oases to the east and west. Its capital was Dongola (Arabic: Dunqulah), and the kingdom is sometimes known by the name of its capital.

By the end of the 6th century it had converted to Christianity, but in the 7th century Egypt was conquered by the Islamic armies, and Nubia was cut off from the rest of Christendom. In 651 an Arab army invaded, but it was repulsed and a treaty known as the baqt was signed creating a relative peace between the two sides that lasted until the 13th century. Makuria expanded, annexing its northern neighbour Nobatia either at the time of the Arab invasion or during the reign of King Merkurios. The period from roughly 750 to 1150 saw the kingdom stable and prosperous, in what has been called the "Golden Age". Increased aggression from Egypt, and internal discord led to the state's collapse in the 14th century.

The origins of Makuria are uncertain. Ptolemy mentions a Nubian people known as the Makkourae, who might be ancestors to the Makurians.[5] The kingdom is believed to have formed in the 4th or 5th century. The first recorded mention of it is in a work by the 6th-century John of Ephesus, who decries its hostility to Monophysite missionaries traveling to Alodia. Soon after John of Biclarum wrote approvingly of the "Makurritae"'s[1] adoption of the rival Melkite faith.

Makuria was one of the few states in the world to repulse Muslim invasions led by the Rashidun Caliphate when they defeated an Arab army at the First Battle of Dongola in 642. The Arabs had taken Egypt in 641, and the jihad soon turned south. Makuria repeated the feat in 652 at the Second Battle of Dongola. Arab writers noted the Makurians' skill as archers in both battles. One of the few major defeats suffered by an Arab army in the first century of Islamic expansion, it led to an unprecedented agreement: the bakt. This treaty guaranteed peaceful relations between the two sides. The Nubians agreed to give Arab traders more privileges of trade in addition to a share in their slave trading, while the Egyptians may have been obliged to send manufactured goods south.[6]


Near East in 700 AD, showing Makuria and its neighbors
At some point Makuria merged with Nobatia to the north

Makuria seems to have been stable and prosperous during the 8th and 9th centuries. During this period Egypt was weakened by frequent civil wars, and there was thus little threat of invasion from the north. Instead it was the Nubians who intervened in the affairs of their neighbor. Much of Upper Egypt was still Christian, and it looked to the Nubian kingdoms for protection. One report has a Nubian army sacking Cairo in the 8th century to defend the Christians, but this is probably apocryphal

Stone acrade to the entrance of the Place



Palace on Sai Island Kingdom of MAKURIA


Ruins of the Church of the columns at Old Dongola (II - IX - century a.D). Old Dongola was the capital of the Christian Kingdom of Makuria.

Makurian Bishops and Makurian Queen being touched by Mary and the Christ Child.


Egyptian troops and Nubian crusaders in the manuscript of Marino Sanudo



This shows a group of knights chasing another with the banner of Alexandria. The knights themselves, of fairly black complexion, have a red triple cross on a yellow field on their shields and on the horseclothes of their commander.

www.hubert-herald.nl/EthiopiaOC.htm

[anansi]

565 AD, showing Alodia and its neighbors.

Kingdom of Alodia (Nubia)
c.AD 570 - c.1480

The kingdom of Alodia (Aloa, or Alwa, the Arabic form of the name) was a medieval Nubian state which formed during the very murky, undocumented period of the sixth and seventh centuries. The best known and probably most powerful Nubian kingdom in this period was Dongola in northern Sudan and southern Egypt. Both it and Alodia emerged in the centuries after the fall of the Kushite kingdom which had dominated the region from 785 BC to AD 350. This occurred alongside a third kingdom named Nobatia, with its capital at Pachoras (modern Faras). Alodia was formed around its capital at Subah (Soba) near what is now Khartoum, making it the southernmost of the three kingdoms, all of which lay along the Nile. Alodia's territory stretched from the south of the Fifth Cataract all the way to the Ethiopian uplands

Apse with the synthronon, Faras Cathedral

The great majority of these churches were built of sun dried bricks and consequently, they are still only found in a reasonable state of repair in the almost rainless areas of the north. A few larger and more important ones were built of stone, such as two at Faras, and the large monastic church at Ghazali.
These paintings show very strong Byzantine characteristics, and are further evidence of the deeply rooted influence which the Byzantine church must originally have had in Nubia. The illustration shown here (FIG. 4) from the church at Faras is of a bishop, almost certainly the bishop of Faras, who may well have been the senior bishop of the Nubian church. He is shown in full vestments, which are very similar to those then in use in the Orthodox Church. An unusual feature is the series of what are apparently bells sewn round the hem of his cope.

There is some evidence to show that the art of writing was valued. FIG. 9 shows the beginning of a manuscript of the life of St. Minas. It is a specimen of a type of decorated manuscript which was probably common and a good example of Nubian handwriting of the period.

Alodia or Alwa was the southernmost of the three kingdoms of Christian Nubia; the other two were Nobatia and Makuria to the north.

Much about this kingdom is still unknown, despite its thousand year existence and considerable power and geographic size. Due to fewer excavations far less is known about Alodia than its northern counterparts. Most of what is known about Christian Nubia comes from either contemporary Egyptian sources and the intensive archaeological work done in Lower Nubia prior to the flooding of many sites by the Aswan High Dam. Neither of these sources shed much light on what went on in the Upper Nubia during this period. Alodia's location in modern Sudan rather than Egypt has also hampered excavations as the greater instability of that country has long hampered work. Several literary works in Ethiopian Orthodox liturgy however point to Ethiopian control and tribute both during ancient Axumite times and during the latter Solomonic restoration. The campaigns of the twin Emperors Ezana and Sezana and their younger sibling Hadefan appear from their chronicles a retaliation for withheld tribute and continued rebellion. The inhabitants of the regions had been helping the Bejan raiders that Axum perennially fought against. Axumite records list in meticulous detail the army units dispatched, the measures taken and the numbers killed and prisoners seized in the area.[citation needed]

The origins of the kingdom are little known. The first reference to the Alodia might be a Meroitic stela from the reign of Nastasen, that mention a region known as Alut that might be a reference to Alodia.[1] The first concrete reference is made Pliny the Elder who includes Alwa on his list of towns in Nubia. How Alodia is related to the ancient kingdom of Meroe is one of the most important questions. Alodia was centered on what was the heart of the Meroitic empire. By the time of Ezana of Axum it seems that Alwa was controlled by the Noba rather than the Kushites.

Alodia was converted to Christianity in the 6th century by missionaries sent by Byzantine Emperor Justinian and his wife Theodora. Monophysite Christianity flourished in Alodia, more so than other Christian sects. Alodia was centered south of the great bend in the Nile river and south into the Gezira with its capital at Soba. P.L. Shennie mentions that the name of a king David, who died in 1015, was learned from a recently recovered tombstone.[2] At some points in time it seems as though Alodia and Makuria merged into one state, perhaps as a result of the close dynastic links between the two. If the two states did merge at certain times, Alodia regained its independence.


Near East in 565 AD, showing Alodia and its neighbors.
Ibn Hawqal is the most important external source on the country, being one of the only detailed first hand accounts of a traveller to the country. He describes Alodia as being larger, wealthier, and more powerful than Makuria, with the country covering a large region stretching from Ethiopia to the Kordofan.

Alodia was the farthest of the Nubian states from the influences of Egypt and thus the last of the Nubian states to be converted to Islam. The conventional date for the final destruction of Alodia is the Funj conquest of the region in the early sixteenth century. Archaeological evidence seems to show that the kingdom was in decline as early as the thirteenth century. Near the end of this century al-Harrani reports that the capital had been moved to Wayula. Later Mamluk emissaries reported that the region was divided among nine rulers.

Alodia seems to have preserved its identity after the Funj conquest and its incorporation into the Kingdom of Sennar. The Alodians, who became known as the Abdallab, revolted under Ajib the Great and formed the semi-autonomous Kingdom of Dongola that persisted for several centuries.

rumkatkilise.org/nubia.htm

The Last hold out of Christian Nubia

Kingdom of Dotawo (Nubia)
c.AD 900 - c.1504

Dotawo was a small kingdom in the Beja region of southern Nubia with a capital at Dau (modern Djabel-Adda). The name meant 'lower Dau'. Throughout much of its lifetime it was obscure and poorly recorded, and some even doubt it existed at all. Its beginnings and first two centuries of existence are almost completely opaque. It was one of a group of Nubian kingdoms that emerged in the centuries after the fall of the Kushite kingdom which had dominated the region from 785 BC to AD 350. The main kingdoms, all three of which emerged before Dotawo, were Makuria, Nobatia, and Alodia in the south. The latter was probably Dotawo's main rival, but the discovery of a large collection of documents at Qasr Ibrim in the 1960s not only proved Dotawo's existence, they showed that Dotawo had many dealings with Nobatia.

Moses George is the earliest of Dotawo's kings to have been recorded, making its earlier existence as an independent entity somewhat dubious. Another factor influencing the uncertainty about Dotawo's existence is the apparent congruence in names and dates between Makuria and Dotawo. It is possible that Dotawo is merely a colony of Makuria, with the same kings recorded by different sources and with different spellings and pronunciations. Names that do not match could be governors of Dotawo, mixed in accidentally or uncaringly with the names of royalty. Or they could be vassal rulers, as the Baja region is apparently home to thirteen lesser kings under one 'great king.
www.historyfiles.co.uk/KingListsAfrica/AfricaSudanDotawo.htm