Old Nubian - Page 2 of 2

Medieval Nubian Archaeology

MEDIEVAL NUBIAN ARCHAEOLOGY Although Nubia was a part of the world of Coptic Christendom throughout the Middle Ages, the region was very rarely visited, and still less often described, by Egyptians. Almost the only firsthand accounts of medieval NUBIA that survive are those of IBN HAWQAL and IBN SALIM AL-ASWANI, and both are preserved only …

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Nubian Languages And Literature

History / By Armia FAYEZ

NUBIAN LANGUAGES AND LITERATURE According to the system of classification devised by Joseph Greenberg, the languages spoken by the Nubians belong to the Eastern Sudanic family of the Nilo-Saharan stock. They are fairly closely related to several of the tribal languages of southern Sudan and Uganda, and are more distantly related to many other indigenous …

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Nubian Church Organization

System / By Armia FAYEZ

NUBIAN CHURCH ORGANIZATION The three Nubian kingdoms of NOBATIA, MAKOURIA, and ‘ALWA were converted to Christianity at various times in the sixth century. There seems to have been rival missionary activity of Monophysites and Melchites in all three kingdoms, with differing results. Nobatia and ‘Alwa were both converted by the Monophysites from the beginning, while …

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Medieval Nubian Inscriptions

Heritage / By Armia FAYEZ

MEDIEVAL NUBIAN INSCRIPTIONS Literary records of medieval Nubia are few and fragmentary, but archaeology has yielded a large number of short written texts, mostly of a religious nature, that were inscribed on house and church walls, on pottery vessels and fragments, and on tombstones. There are medieval texts in at least four different languages: Coptic, …

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Oriens Christianus

Theology / By Armia FAYEZ

ORIENS CHRISTIANUS The technical Latin term for the scholarly study of the Christian Orient. In its examination of the cultures of the Christian East this study encompasses seven languages: Georgian, Armenian, Syriac, Christian Arabic, Ethiopic, Coptic, and Old Nubian. Scholars in this discipline study works of literature originally composed in these languages as well as …

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Dotawo

Places / By Youssef Matta

DOTAWO A small, late medieval kingdom, probably the last surviving Christian polity in Nubia. The name in Nubian means “below Do,” a place usually identified with the Daww of medieval Arabic manuscripts and the JABAL ‘ADDA of modern times. It is not certain whether “below” is to be read literally (since Jabal ‘Adda was on …

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Epigraphy

Culture / By Youssef Matta

EPIGRAPHY Definition and time span Epigraphy is the study of INSCRIPTIONS, texts that are destined for long-term visual display in public space, more rarely in the private sphere. As a discipline, it sits in between archaeology and philology. Coptic epigraphy is taken here in a broad sense to comprise the study of Christian inscriptions from …

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