Fazughil Ramblings

While perusing the sources on the Wikipedia page for the Kingdom of Fazughli, I saw some interesting things. If Fazughili really was founded by people from Alodia who left during its decline or after the Funj conquest, I wonder if some of the observations from 19th century travelers or ethnographers could be useful. For instance, Alfred Peney, who visited Fazughli in the 19th century, contrasted the Hamaj of the plains with the mountaineers. However, none of the area seems particularly Muslim or devout, since they ate pork and did not pray or fast for Ramadan. In terms of religion, they appear to have possessed animal cults with special ceremonies for elephants, cows, dogs and other species. Indeed, Peney described on specific ritual involving the king and a dog during the sowing season. This ceremony involved the sacrifice of the dog at the end. Yet, according to Peney and Pierre Tremaux, the Fazughli meks were descendants of Alwa. 

Spaulding and other scholars still believe that the Fazughli rulers were, at least initially, Christians. They even endeavored to receive Catholic priests from the Franciscans in Sennar and prior to that, had Ethiopian priests. Spaulding also cited Bruce for a reference to a Christian polity that survived until the late 1700s in the area, but the short list of kings written by Frédéric Cailliaud seems to indicate meks with Muslim names by the end of the 1600s. That makes sense and is in accord with the c.1685 date for Sennar's conquest of Fazughli. The rest of listed meks often had short reigns and some were killed by successors or came to power long after their fathers died. 

To what extent can Fazughli really be seen as the successor of Alodia? Perhaps in its gold and the trade between Ethiopia and Nubia. If they traded gold for food and other goods from Sennar (and probably Alodia before the Funj Sultanate) also traded with Ethiopia (and hints of this can be seen in the Portuguese reports of Nubians who were once Christian and having much gold) then Fazughli probably played a similar role before the fall of Alodia. The Nubians who were the target of a planned campaign by the Bahr Negash, who were only 5-6 days travel away from his domains, were possibly Nubians living in the Fazughli region already in the early decades of the 1500s. These same Nubians may have also been the ones who requested priests from the Ethiopian emperor, as detailed in the narrative of Francisco Alvares. Nubian Christians were probably already living or trading with the Fazughli region for centuries and, once a group of them did establish a kingdom there, they were a minority who lacked the necessary clergy (and perhaps force) to spread Christianity. Thus, they relied on the Ethiopians, although Krump saw their priests as ineffective. By the end of the 17th century, the Funj conquered Fazughli by c.1685, making Christianity even less likely to persist. But that would have made little difference to most of the population, who became nominal Muslims or were never Christian to begin with. 

Medieval Kingdoms of Nubia

Derek Welsby's The Medieval Kingdoms of Nubia: Pagans, Christians and Muslims along the Middle Nile is a great synthesis of archaeology and historical studies on a period of over 1000 years in Nubia. Beginning with the late Meroitic period and post-Meroitic period, better represented in northern Nubia, Welsby outlines the entire history of Medieval Nubia from the emergence of Nobadia, Alwa and Makuria to the spread of Christianity and their eventual decline in the late Christian period by the end of the 15th century. Sadly, Lower Nubia is better represented by archaeological surveys and excavations and northern Nubian towns like Qasr Ibrim possessed more favorable conditions for the preservation of records. Thus, most of the book is really on the kingdoms of Nobadia and Makuria (both as independent states in the post-Meroitic period and as a unified kingdom). Alwa, the lesser known southern kingdom said to have been wealthier in some of the medieval Arabic sources, remains a mysterious entity but one that may, with future archaeological excavations at Soba and other sites, potentially elucidate the relationship of medieval Christian Nubia with African societies to the east, west and south. 

The main theme, if one can be selected for this detailed work, is that of continuity. Viewing Nubia through the lens of continuity beginning with the Kushite kingdom does suggest that Nubia, despite experiencing obvious historical changes and transformations, remains a civilizational unit defined by geography and culture. Indeed, even the Christian states which emerged by the 6th century were, during phases of the post-Meroitic period, preserving the Meroitic script and continuing to use and worship at Kushite temples or the temple of Isis at Philae. That said, the spread of the waterwheel and the adoption of Christianity changed the nature of worship while also continuing Nubia's ties to Coptic, Byzantine and Eastern Christian influences. But even that development can be partly traced to the Meroitic era, when Kush was closely connected to the Hellenistic and Roman worlds. Indeed, Greek became an important language for inscriptions of Nobadian and Blemmye rulers in the 5th and 6th centuries  as these peoples became federates of the Roman Empire in the turbulent 5th century. Intriguingly, the archaeological evidence does not support a large-scale migration along the Middle Nile of Blemmyes or Noubades, suggesting that the bulk of the population in medieval Nubia were likely descendants of the population already living in the region for millennia. In fact, Welsby even finds evidence of this development in the post-Christian period, when Makuria and Alwa fragmented and the formal Church disappeared. Even then, after centuries, some Christian-derived traits persisted in Nubia.

Viewed through the lens of continuity, one begins to wonder if the political fragmentation of Nubia into 3 then later 2 kingdoms mirrored the political fragmentation of the declining Meroitic phase. Can one see similarities in terms of the Meroitic state's northern officials and those of Makuria with regard to the eparchs in Qasr Ibrim? And to what extent was the Kushite kingdom's relations with societies to the east, west and south similar to arrangements which characterized the medieval Nubian kingdoms? Certainly, the medieval Nubians were interested in trade through the oases to the north and west, but was this actually a major route connecting the Nubian states to societies in Darfur or further west? And what to make of the Beja polities to the east, which, according to some Arabic sources, were Christians and aligned with the Nubians? One wonders if Nubia may have had access to goods from the west and south by acting as a middleman between the Red Sea ports of Aidhab and Suakin to the kingdoms further west, like Kanem. And what, if any, were the connections between medieval Nubia and Ethiopia? The Coptic sources suggest Nubia on at least one occasion (Makuria's ruler?) intervened to request the Patriarch to send another metropolitan to Ethiopia. Were the kingdoms of Makuria and Alodia also serving as routes for Ethiopian pilgrims traveling to Egypt and the Holy Land, as suggested by Ge'ez texts in medieval Egyptian sites? And to what extent were the peoples south of Alwa, despite not being Christianized, participating in trans-Sudanic trade like the Shilluk of later centuries?

Tentative Timeline For Medieval Nubia

Important dates and events in the history of Medieval Nubia, drawn largely from Vantini’s Oriental Sources Concerning Nubia and Fontes Historiae Nubiorum. Welsby’s work was also of pivotal importance. We may add additional dates for the Funj period and for what can be dated in Ethiopia, Egypt and Darfur.

-c. 739–656 BCE: Kushites rule as 25th dynasty of Egypt

-342 BCE: Nectanebo flees to Nubia after Persian conquest of Egypt

-200s BCE: Nubai lived to west of the Nile in separate kingdoms, not under the Meroites

-285-246 BCE: Reign of Ptolemy II Philadelphus in Egypt, contemporary of Arkamani (Ergamenes in Diodorus Siculus), Kushite king said to have been Hellenized and centered in Meroe

-274 BCE: Aithiopian Expedition of Ptolemy II of Egypt

-205-186 BCE: Revolt in Upper Egypt of Horwennefer and his successor

-25-22 BCE: Meroe and Rome at war, conflict ends with a treaty between Queen Amanirenas and -Roman Empire establishing the border between Roman Egypt and the Kushite state for centuries

-c.61-63: Roman reconnaissance expedition to Meroe sent by Emperor Nero

-80-90: Acts of the Apostles possibly written, including the tale of the Ethiopian eunuch of the Candace of Meroe who became a Christian 

-c.200: Pestilence in Nubia prevented entry of Septimus Severus 

-c.240 Meroitic rule in Dodecaschoenus around AD 240

-250-253: spread of a pestilence that began in Nubia

-253: Teqorideamani was reigning in Meroe

-Late 200s: According to Procopius ,the Noba lived in the oases to the west of the Nile before entering Lower Nubia

-280: Emperor Marcus Aurelius Probus liberates Coptos and Ptolemais from barbarian servitude to the Blemmyes, bringing some Blemmyes to Rome as captives

-291: Roman source mentions war between Meroe and the Blemmyes

-297: Revolt of Lucius Domitius Domitianus in Egypt

-297/298: Roman victory over Blemmyes and Meroe

-298: Emperor Diocletian cedes territory south of First Cataract

-320s-360: Reign of Ezana of Axum; Aksumite ruler left inscriptions recording battles with the Noba

-336: Eusebius mentions Aithiopians and Blemmyes in Constantinople

-337-338: Flavius Abbineus recorded his interaction with Blemmye federates

-373/374: Blemmyes said to have attacked a monastery in Sinai 

-392-394: Blemmyes had occupied the emerald mines in the Eastern Desert near Kalabsha, according to Epiphanius (monk from Palestine)

-395: Aithiopians attack Syene (Aswan) 

-423: According to Olympiodorus, the Blemmyes occupied five towns in Nile Valley 

-c.425-450: Appion, bishop of Syene region, bemoaned to the Roman emperors the attacks by Blemmyes and Anoubades

-c.450: Tantanti, phylarch of the Anouba, received letters in Coptic, one of which suggests he may have been Christian

-451: Council of Chalcedon

-452: Romans retaliate and defeat the Nubians and Blemmyes 

-480-490: Latest royal burial of a Nobadian king at Ballana 

-Early 500s: King Silko in Nobadia

-c.520: Kaleb of Aksum invades Himyar

-524: Emperor Justin of Rome (Byzantium) proposed to the Aksumite ruler sending Blemmyes and Noubades to assist him against Himyar

-531: Emperor Justinian sought to make the Aithiopians and Homeritae (Himyarites) his allies 

-537: Graffito in Greek carved on the wall of the Temple of Isis at Philae by Theodosios, a Nubian (Nouba)

-c. 543: Mission sent by Empress Theodora reached Nobadia

-550s: Longinus appointed first bishop of Nubia

-559: Eirpanome, king of Nobadia (inscription in Coptic commemorated conversion of the Temple at Dendur into a church in this year, or in 574)

-568: Chronicler John of Biclar noted that the Maccurritae became Christians

-573: Arrival of delegation from Makuria in Constantinople with gifts for the emperor, including elephant tusks and a giraffe

-580: Aksumites in the capital of Alwa

-619: Persians invade Egypt

-641/642: Arab invasion of Nubia

-652: According to al-Maqrizi, Nubians raided Upper Egypt and held Aswan and Philae until 652, leading to the baqt; king in Dongola was Qalidurut

-686-689: Patriarch Isaac of Alexandria wrote letters to the rulers of Abyssinia and Nubia to help resolve a dispute between the two

-c.700: King Mercurios of Makuria named the New Constantine in the Annals of the Coptic Patriarchs

-707: Union of Nobadia and Makuria by this year confirmed by epigraphic evidence; construction of cathedral in Faras 

-710: King Mercurios mentioned on foundation stone of a church in Taifa

-723-745: Muslim raids on Makuria

-725: Coptic revolt in Egypt

-739: Coptic revolt in Egypt

-748: King Cyriacus of Nubia intervened in Egypt after Patriarch Abba Michael was imprisoned by the emir, invaded Egypt with a huge army demanding the release of the patriarch

-mid-700s: King Cyriacus was “Great King” in Makuria, under whom served 13 kinglets

-c.750: death of Eparch Paulos-Kolla

-750: Coptic revolt in Egypt

-758: Letter in Arabic to king of Makuria (probably Cyriacus) about Makuria’s failure to uphold the baqt

-762-770: Raids by Muslims against Nubia

-798: Death of Petros, eparch of Nobadia

-796: Birth of Sufi saint of Nubian descent, Dhul-Nun al-Misri

-798: Death of Eparch Petros (tombstone at Old Dongola)

-835: Prince Giorgios of Nubia sent by his son, Zachararias I, to Baghdad to negative with the caliph’s court a remittance of the baqt payment (which was now to be paid every three years); Coptic sources indicate that Zacharias had trouble with rebels during this time before sending his son to Baghdad

-835-836: Nubian agent of Makuria who collected taxes on Nubians living in Egypt rebelled against King Giorgios

-c.850: King Johannes said to have reigned from Tilimauara until Philae

-854-855: Beja raid in Upper Egypt; possible around this time that el-Omari fought with the Nubians and Makurian king Giorgios appointed his nephew, Nyuti, to defeat him 

-866-902: First metropolitan of see of Faras was Abba Kyros

-c.868-884: Oases route through Sahara to “Sudan” and “Maghrib” discontinued; route through oases west of Nile once prosperous, with “Rum” (Greeks) and Egyptians and Nubians traveling to the west/Northwest and another route to the Fazzan

-883: Death of Eparch Johannes, eparch of Gaderon and son of the king of Makuria, Zacharias

-900s: Alwa reported to be more powerful and prosperous than Makuria 

-903: Ibn al-Faqih mentions route used by traders to travel from Egypt to Ghana, which passed through the Wahat Misr (Oases of Egypt) to Marawa, Maranda, Kawkaw (Gao), and Ghana)

-910-915: Abu Mansur Makin raided Nubia

-943: el-Masudi reported that Kubra Ibn Surur, king of Dongola, ruled Alwa while Ibn Hawqal reported that the king of Makuria was king of Alwa

-950: Makurian ruler raided oases in Egypt

-c.955: Ibn Hawqal visited Nubia 

-956: Makuria raided the Oases and attacked Aswan

-960-966: Nubian vizier Kafur ruled Egypt

-964: Nubian king marched on Aswan

-980-1003: During tenure of Patriarch Philotheus, contacts recorded between Ethiopia and the King of the Nubians (King George of Nubia received a letter from Ethiopian ruler, asking for his aid to receive a metropolitan from the Patriarch of Alexandria)

-985: Ibn Selim traveled through Nubia

-Late 900s-early 1000s: Akhbar al-zaman mentions the kingdom of Zaghawa as vast, large and at war with Nubia

-c.1000-1006: Raphael and David reigned as kings of Makuria and Alwa

1002: King Raphael said to have introduced novelty of brick domes to the buildings of Dongola

-1004-1033: Patriarch John Abdun of Antioch humbled himself to a Nubian monk, Shishi or Sawsana. 

-1006: Abu Rakwa, member of Spanish Umayyads, fled to Nubia but given back by the king of Makuria

-1008: Decree of al-Hakim in Egypt allowing Copts who wish to leave the right to go to Byzantine, Nubian, Abyssinian or other territories

-1036/1037: Death of Bishop Marianos of Pachoras (Faras), buried at Ibrim

-1036-1094: Reign of Fatimid caliph al-Mustansir Billah, the son of a Nubian slave

-1066: Nasir ed-Dawla raided Nubia but was defeated

-1069: Inscription at Debeira mentioned the title “admiral supreme”

-1078-1092: Cyril II Patriarch of Alexandria; during his tenure, king Solomon of Nubia (who had abdicated in favor of his nephew, George, to lead a life of asceticism) dies in Cairo 

-1106: Birth of future Makuria king Giogios

-1113: Death of Giorgios, archbishop of Old Dongola for 50 years

-1130-1158: Reign of Giorgios in Makuria

-c.1155-1190: Reign of Moses Georges, said to have ruled Alwa and Makuria

-1155: King Moses Giorgios, king of Dotawo, was also Eparch of Palagi

-Before 1170: al-Idrisi repeated report from travelers to Kawar that Nubia (Makuria) had attacked town of Samnah, of the Taju kingdom bordering Nubia

-1172: Makuria attacked Aswan and Upper Egypt; Richard of Poitiers recorded that the king of Nubia makes war on pagan neighbors

-1173: Shams ed-Dawla Turanshah, brother of Saladin, takes Qasr Ibrim

-1181-1221: Reign of Lalibela of Zagwe dynasty in Ethiopia

-1182/83: Reynald of Châtillon’s said to have raided Aidhab

-1203/1204: Nubian ruler on pilgrimage to Holy Land visited Constantinople

-1242: Madrasat in Cairo built by Kanem for pilgrims

-1253: Revolt of the Arabs in Upper Egypt

-1270: Beginning of Solomonic Dynasty in Ethiopia

-1272: Makuria raids Red Sea port of Aidhab 

-1275: Shekanda, nephew of King David of Nubia, appeals to the Sultan of Egypt for help and replaces David on the throne of Nubia after an invasion from Egypt (after King Dawud had raided area near Aswan)

-1276: Treaty between Mamluks in Egypt and Makuria giving northern part of Maris to Muslim control

-1280: Nubian pilgrims in Holy Land mentioned by Burchard of Mount Sion

before 1286: Ibn Sa’id al-Maghribi’s Book of Geography, borrowing from lost work, describes Kanem in great detail: King Muhammad, capital of Njimi, old capital was Manan, Kanem ruled over Fezzan, Tajuwa, Kawar, “Zaghawa” east of Manan

-1285/86: Invasion of Nubia from Egypt, ultimately leading to defeat of King Semamun of Nubia and his replacement by a nephew appointed by the invading army from Egypt

-1289-1290: Muslim invasion of Makuria, king fled Old Dongola (Semamun)

-1291: King Semamun kills king installed by Egypt, restores the baqt agreement with Egypt

-1292: Nubian king gave excuses to sultan of Egypt for nonpayment of baqt

-1298: Sultan al-Malik an-Nāṣir Muḥammad ordered closing of churches in Fustat and Cairo

-1301: Mamluk Sultan passes edict introducing more discrimination against Christians and Jews, extending it as far as Dongola

-1304: Lord of Dongola (King Ayay) brought tribute to the court of the Sultan in Egypt, asks and receives an army to support him in a struggle with unnamed enemies 

-1312: Nuba king brings gifts to the court of Mamluk Egypt (1311 king Kerenbes, who was said to have killed his brother?)

-1314 to 1344: Reign of Amda Seyon in Ethiopia

-1316: Dominican mission to "Ethiopia" (Nubia) Sultan of Egypt sends Abdalla Barshanbo (a nephew of King David) with support of an army to become king of Dongola, replacing Kerenbes but Kenz ad-Dawla eventually becomes King

-1317: Throne Hall in Old Dongola converted into a mosque

-1323: Kerenbes seizes throne from Kanz ad-Dawla but is eventually defeated by him 

-1324: Mansa Musa of Mali goes on pilgrimage

-1327-1339: Benjamin patriarch of Alexandria; Ethiopian Ewostatewos met him in Cairo after traveling through Nubia, where he left a favorable impression on the Nubian king

-1330: Bishop Tavoli appointed to Dongola by the Latins

-1365: Gebel Adda became capital of Makuria (or Dotawo), no longer Dongola

-1385: El libro del conosçimiento de todos los reinos referred to Genoese merchants traveling to Dongola

-1391-1392: Letter of Sultan Uthman (Bir) b. Idris of Kanem-Borno to Mamluk Sultan Barquq, complaining of depredations of Judham Arabs and asking the Mamluk ruler to free any Kanem-Borno Muslims sold into slavery in Egypt, Syria. Judham Arabs are said to have killed the previous Borno king, Amr the Martyr b. Idris, son of al-Hajj Idris, son of al-Hajj Ibrahim

-1397: Regent of Nubia fled to Egypt, escaping his cousin 

-1434-1468: Reign of Zara Yaeqob

-1442: Black slaves in Egypt plot to revolt, appointing their own sultan, vizier, etc. and plundering cereals until put down by the Mamluk government

-1447: Antonio Malfante’s Latin letter mentions "Indian" merchants who were Christian at Tawat

-1480-1483: Felix Fabri met Nubian Christians in Jerusalem during his pilgrimage

-1484: King Joel of Dotawo reigning

-1486: Janim el-Ajrud el-Ainani, Kashif of Manfalut, fled to Nubia 

-1517: Ottoman conquest of Egypt

-1518: Emir 'Alī b. 'Umar went out on a raid against the Lord (ṣāḥib) of Nubia

-c.1520-1527: Nubian emissaries visit Ethiopia, asking Lebna Dengel for priests. Nubia reported to be divided into captaincies.

-c.1526: According to Leo Africanus, the king of Nubia is always at war, sometimes with the people of Gorhan and sometimes with those to the east of the Nile

-1607: Deposed Abd al-Qadir II of Sennar fled to Ethiopia, performed obeisance to Susenyos

-c.1611: Wadai state founded by Abd al-Karim

1618-1619: Ethiopian Emperor Susenyos campaigned against Sennar

1637: Gondar established as capita

-1644/5-1681: Reign of Badi II of Sennar (Funj Sultanate)

-Late 1660s: Shaykh Ahmad b. Muhammad al-Yamani, from the Nile Valley, visited Kulumbardo

-1672: Plan to send Catholic mission to Nubia through the Fezzan aborted due to fall of Pasha Osman in Tripoli

-1700-1702: Theodor Krump traveling from Sennar to Egypt with people from Borno and the Fezzan, reports caravans from Darfur, Borno, Fezzan reach Sennar

-1703: Fra Damiano da Rivoli tried to reach Borno from Sennar but didn’t pursue caravan route; a Borno caravan leader in Sennar told him the journey would take 60 days

-1744: Ethiopia-Funj Sultanate War during reign of Badi IV

Alwa in Sudanic Context

Although we have long considered Alwa to be the more interesting of post-Meroe states in Nubia, the limited archaeological excavations and fewer references in the external Arabic primary sources makes it more of an elusive entity. Mohi el-Din Abdalla Zarroug attempts to redress this with an admittedly speculative but provocative analysis of the kingdom of Alwa. Based on the ethnographic present (after assuming probable cultural continuity in the Nubian heartland for the last several centuries), archaeological surveys, and textual sources from Antiquity, Islamic lands, and later reports or narratives, The Kingdom of Alwa proposes an interesting interpretation of Alwa as the more powerful, wealthiest state of medieval Nubia. Instead of being a peripheral Nubian state, or, as Adams wrongly assumed, a "primitive" state based on the slave trade, Alwa may have been a major state whose influence radiated far to the east and west, perhaps vying with Kanem over influence in Darfur and what later became Wadai. 

Contrary to assumptions or expectations of Makuria being the dominant Nubian kingdom, often based on the far more extensive archaeological research in northern Nubia, Alwa appears to have been able to support higher population densities while benefitting from surplus crops (through riverine and rain-based agriculture), gold exports, hides, and long-distance trade. The interdependency of the pastoralist and agriculturalist populations of Alwa became the basis for a regional economy and local exchange. Gold, iron, ivory, leather, and salt also contributed to this economy, which must have connected Alwa to the Mediterranean, Red Sea, Indian Ocean, Sudanic, and trans-Saharan trade routes. The extent to which Alwa inherited aspects of Meroitic economic or administrative structures is unknown, but Zarroug sees evidence of "Meroitized" Noba in the region during the Late Meroitic Period, according to burial types and the Axumite inscription of Ezana. Geographical factors likely favored continuity, too, suggesting Alwa succeeded Meroe as the center of Nubia. This is also the impression one gains from the external Arabic sources like al-Aswani. 

Zarroug speculates that Alwa relied more on east-west trade routes that linked the kingdom to trans-Saharan routes as well as to the Red Sea. Ruins of structures in Kordofan and Darfur suggest Alwa (and probably Makuria, too) had a presence in western Sudan, likely connecting it to trade routes that led to the Fezzan and North Africa. Although the evidence is still lacking or perhaps waiting on confirmation from finds in Kanem, Darfur, and Soba, Zarroug's theory is quite plausible. We have long wondered to what extent Kanem may have played an early essential role in trade and cultural contacts across the Sudanic belt of the African continent. Hints of it can be seen in the chronicles of Ahmad b. Furtu or al-Idrisi, Ibn Said and oral traditions of Darfur suggestive of Kanem's influence further east. Perhaps Kanem and Alwa (and likely Makuria) exerted influence over the Daju and what later became Wadai as peripheral territories. Over time, secure trade routes developed which could link Alwa to the Fezzan and possibly establish a firmer "Sudan Road." The presence of Muslim traders in Alwa and Makuria may have facilitated this process, so that Christian Nubia did not represent an impenetrable barrier for Muslims of the Central Sudan.