The Medieval Christian Kingdoms of Nubia Quiz

Answer: Dotawo

The three kingdoms seem to start in the late fourth century. Nobadia (capital at Pachoras, modern Faras) stretched from about the first to the third cataracts) was absorbed by Makuria (capital at Dunqulah, modern Old Dongola) in the mid eighth century.
The southern kingdom was Alwa (capital at Subah, now Soba, near what is now Khartoum). The boundary with Makuria was probably half way between Khartoum and the mouth of the Atbara to Sennar.
The status of Dotawo is a puzzle. One of the king of Makuria's titles is 'Great king over thirteen lesser kings' and it is possible the king of Dotawo is one of these, but it seems Dotawo survived after the fall of Makuria and took over the remnants.

Answer: Early 14th century

The northern Kingdom was Makuria.

The Nubians were the first people to stop the Muslim advance. The Arabs said their archers could shoot a man's eye out.

After the initial conflict there seem to have been mostly peaceful relationships (although King Cyriacus invaded Egypt in 745 in defence of the Patriarch of Alexandria, who had been imprisoned. The Nubian army reached Cairo and forced his release), but in 1265 when the Muslims raided Makuria as far as old Dongola then there were about 15 incidents in the next century including an attack on Aswan and a red sea port by King David of Makuria in 1275. It seems he felt that the Muslims were surrounding him. The southern Kingdom of Alwa and the Kingdom of Dotawo probably survived until about the early 16th century.

Answer: Slaves

It seems it was an exchange of about equal value - but because of difficulties the Nubians got the exchange reduced to once every three years.
The Nubians sent 437 or 442 slaves. The Muslims sent grain, cloth, two horses of the breed used by the emir and 1,300 jugs. The source does not say what was in the jugs or if they were made of some valuable material.
It has been said this treaty was the world's longest lasting peace treaty.

Answer: Baked brick.

Red brick was used mostly in the wetter southern kingdom of Alwa. This is one of the reasons for the poorer preservation of buildings in Alwa as the bricks were worth salvaging. The other reasons for poor preservation are that any mud brick buildings were dissolved and some northern buildings - notably the cathedral at Faras - were buried by wind blown sand.
The Nubians made little use of stone except that some churches had monolithic granite columns. One church was actually known as the church of the granite columns.
The ability to date fired brick by thermoluminescence will probably be very useful as there is a shortage of dating evidence. This is important as the Nubians did not mint coins and written sources are rare.

Answer: False

Nubian monasteries are hard to identify. They are usually surrounded by a wall and have a church, refectory and accommodation for the monks.
Monasteries included Qasr el Wiz and Holy Trinity in old Dongola. A Muslim traveller said that in Soba, the capital of Alwa there were large monasteries but no sign of them has been found.
Sometimes a xenon was associated with a monastery. A xenon was originally a Byzantine institution which was a combination of a hospice and a hospital boosted by the proximity of a holy relic.
Archaeologists have identified one monastery in western Sudan near the border with Chad, so they were widespread.
As well as monasteries there were also hermits.

Answer: Gabrielinkouda

Gabrielinkouda was only an eparch (a very senior official).
Tokiltoeton was King of Nobadia in about 577. He built the earliest known purpose-built church in Nubia and also a 120 by 90 meter fortified enclosure at Ikhmindi which according to the dedication inscription was 'for the protection of men and beasts'.
Giorgios was the name of several kings (plus one or two Moses Giorgioses and a Giorgios Simon - and a Moses and a Giorgios may have been one person called Moses Giorgios).
There were at least three Davids, David of Alwa in 999 to 1015, an early king of Dotawa and David of Makuria in about 1270.
There are lots of gaps in the list and some kings are only known as things like 'brother of the murdered king' or 'Senamun's nephew'. The last king listed was Joel of Dotawo from 1464 to 1484.
The kings do not seem to have had impressive tombs - none have been identified and the tombstone of King David of Alwa (AD 999 to 1015), from the heyday of the southern Nubian kingdom gives no hint that he was the ruler of the rich and powerful kingdom recorded by the Arab writers.
The king was also considered a priest and could perform mass.

Answer: False

There are many wall paintings. Religious figures like Christ, angels and saints had pale faces. It seems that each new bishop had his portrait painted.
The surviving images give a poor idea of what they were like - Nubian churches were cramped and very dark and it seems many of the images were intended to be viewed by lamp light.
There are some good images at rumkatkilise.org/nubia.htm (in an interesting copy of a now out-of-print 1954 pamphlet by the Sudan Antiquities Service).
They were heavily influenced by the 'Byzantines' but do not seem to have adopted iconoclasm.

Answer: A very senior government official

He seems to have been the viceroy of the King of Makuria in the former kingdom of Nobatia. Records found at Qasr Ibrim show he was also responsible for trade and diplomacy with the Egyptians. Early records make it seem like the Eparch was appointed by the king, but later ones indicate that the position had become hereditary Mostly, the Nubians used the same names for government jobs as the Eastern Romans (popularly called Byzantines) used but we do not know if they did exactly the same job. The official language was Greek and from the number of graffiti that survive it seems that the level of literacy in Greek (and Nubian) was high for the medieval period.

Answer: 535-537

It was originally a temple of Isis. The first purpose-built church was dated 577 (but there might have been a church in the mid fifth century a century before Nubia was supposed to have been converted).
Between 543 and 575 these three kingdoms were officially converted to Christianity by the work of Julian who proselytized in Nobadia (543-545), and his successor Longinus, who between 569 and 575 consolidated the work of Julian and then carried Christianity to Alwa in the south. The new religion appears to have been adopted with considerable enthusiasm and by the ninth century it had reached the Darfur region in south-western Sudan.
Later churches were small and it seems that only the priests went in so laymen met outside.
It seems that there was a Christian ruler in the 18th century but when Europeans made contact with the Sudan in the 19th century there was virtually no trace of Christianity.

Answer: The son of his sister.

If no nephew was available the next choice was the king's son. Also it seems that some men became kings by marriage.
In one case in the eighth century prince Zacharias decided to dedicate himself to God rather than become king. He appointed a relative Simon who died so he adopted Ibrahim who was deposed as unacceptable and replaced by Mark who was assassinated after six months. Finally Cyriacus seems to have ruled from 747 to 768.