The Comparative Use of Geʽez and Coptic in the Interpretation of Old Nubian Texts: New Philological Evidence

Nile Corridor literature in Old Nubian, Coptic, and Geʽez is often studied in isolation. Comparative analysis of an Old Nubian burial shroud inscription and Geʽez prayers led to the probable identification of a formerly unattested Prayer of Mary at Bartos in Old Nubian. Moreover, linguistic comparison of the Old Nubian text with a Geʽez apotropaic name-formula illuminated the possible function of a previously unexplained theurgic name. Comparative linguistic analysis indicated that the Old Nubian theurgic formulation was perhaps influenced by, or shared with, Ethiopian prayer formulae and doxology. Similarly, comparison of an Old Nubian hagiographical text with Coptic material yielded new insights into Old Nubian theological exegesis.

From antiquity through the medieval era, centres of cultural exchange facilitated the transmission of literary culture in the Nile Corridor. The monastic complex of Wadi Al Natrun was conducive to the production and transmission of a shared literary heritage. Egyptian, Ethiopian, and Nubian theologians frequented and resided there from late antiquity through the medieval period. Among these were dignitaries like Patriarch Benjamin I and a notable number of Nubian kings who retired into monasticism, including the eleventh-century King Solomon and the twelfth-century King George.

Possibly from the apostolic era through the medieval period, a corpus of Christian funerary literature developed in the Nile Corridor in Geez, Coptic and Old Nubian, often inscribed on burial shrouds.

Coptic and Old Nubian

A second case study illustrates how Coptic theological and hagiographical literature can provide new insight into the interpretation of Old Nubian hagiography and theology. The tenth-century Old Nubian Miracle of St. Menas describes the saint appearing on horseback in a church at Mareotis. The interpretive question raised here, is whether this episode represents an actual visitation of the saint or rather a vision or apparition and new exegesis of the text. The Old Nubian text contains several linguistic and narrative clues.