Nubia, Medieval

Medieval Nubia is a problematic term which is used to describe the Christian period of Nubia's history, after the collapse of the ancient Meroitic kingdom in the fourth century ce and before the collapse of the Nubian central state a thousand years later. Politically, it is a period of consolidation of ties and even unity between Nobadia in the north, Makouria in the center, and Alodia or Alwa in the south. For most of the period, the central state governed Nubia from Dongola, the capital of Makouria. Foreign relations were defined by a long period of peace with Muslim Nubia under the terms of the baqt treaty, and then a shorter but much more damaging period of conflict with Egypt from the time of Saladin on. In this period, Egypt took sides in the internal Nubian dynastic squabbles which eventually tore the central state apart. Nubian Christianity took form in a church subordinate to the miaphysite Egyptian patriarchs and found expression in highly heterodox Old Nubian forms praising the powers of the archangels, saints, and other celestial powers. Linguistically, medieval Nubia was polyglot. Its documentary and literary record includes texts in Old Nubian, Greek, Coptic, and Arabic. Economically, the material record shows that Nubia mediated the trade which took place between Africa and the Mediterranean. Archaeological indications that it had no currency are complicated by documentary records detailing private sales and other transactions in gold and silver coin. The processes through which medieval Nubia transformed, including the rise of Islam in Nubia, remain poorly understood.