Dotawo
Kingdom of Dotawo | |
---|---|
late 14 century–Early 17th century | |
Coptic Christianity | |
Government | Monarchy |
History | |
• Established | late 14 century |
• Disestablished | Early 17th century |
Dotawo was a Christian kingdom in Lower Nubia (Northern Sudan and Southern Egypt) in the Middle Ages. It is attested in Old Nubian documents from the 12th to the 15th centuries. It is one of the last attested Christian states to survive in the region.
Etymology
Two proposals explain the etymology of the name of Dotawo. The first sees the name as an Old Nubian term meaning "Lower Daw" or the region "Below Daw"), pointing to the Old Nubian suffix -tauo ("under") and the toponym "Daw," widely known from Arabic histories of Christian Nubia. The second sees the name as a calque for the old Egyptian term "Upper and Lower Egypt," proposing a combination of the Old Nubian suffixes -do ("upon") and -tauo ("under").[1]
History
Modern understanding of the history of Dotawo has evolved considerably in recent generations. It had been generally held that Dotawo was one of a number of small successor states to emerge during the prolonged collapse of central government in the Christian kingdom of Makuria.[2] A brief mention in the work of the medieval Egyptian historian al-Maqrīzī was taken to indicate that prolonged fighting for control over the capital city, Dongola, devastated that city and compelled the Nubian court to move to Daw, which some modern scholars believed to be modern Gebel Adda, in 1364/65. Under the first etymology of the term "Dotawo" discussed above, it might then be the Nubian state as it survived from its new capital at Daw. Even in earlier periods, prior to the collapse of Dongola, Arab writers report that Nubia was structured with thirteen lesser kings under one "Great King," and Dotawo could have been one of these vassal kingdoms.
The large collection of
The end of Dotawo has traditionally been placed around the year 1500, at which point it is thought to have been conquered by the Funj Sultanate, founded in 1504. However, in 2023 Adam Simmons pointed to overlooked evidence in Terceira Década da Ásia by the Portuguese historian João de Barros for the existence in the 1520s of a Christian Nubian queen who de Barros called Gaua, and suggested that Dotawo continued as an independent polity between the Ottomans to the North and the Funj to the south into the seventeenth century.[7][8]
See also
References
- ^ van Gerven Oei 2021, 1 note 2.
- ^ Adams 1991
- ^ Plumley 1975.
- ^ Ruffini 2013.
- ISBN 9781003038108.
- ^ van Gerven Oei, op.cit.
- .
- ^ 'Dr Adam Simmons rewrites the historical narrative of the fall of Dotawo in historical research paper' (14 November 2022).
- Adams, William Y. "The United Kingdom of Makouria and Nobadia: A Medieval Nubian Anomaly." Egypt and Africa: Nubia from Prehistory to Islam. Edited by W.V. Davies. London: British Museum Press, 1991.
- Plumley, J. Martin. "New Light on the Kingdom of Dotawo." Études nubiennes: colloque de Chantilly, 2-6 juillet 1975. Cairo, 1978.
- Ruffini, Giovanni R. "Newer Light on the Kingdom of Dotawo." Qasr Ibrim, between Egypt and Africa: Studies in Cultural Exchange. Edited by J. van der Vliet and J.L. Hagen. Leuven: Peeters, 2013.
- van Gerven Oei, Vincent. A Reference Grammar of Old Nubian. Leuven: Peeters, 2021.