AS SUDAN
THE CHRISTIAN ERA
350 - 1275/1323 A.D.
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NOBATIA
& MAKURIA (Faras and Dongola) |
700 ca - 1323 |
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Three
Nubian kingdoms arose on the ruins of Meroitic power and are first known to
history from the accounts of sixth century missionary activity given by the
Syrian writer John of Ephesus. In the north, from the First to the Third
Cataracts, was the kingdom of Nobatia, with its capital at Faras;
south of it and stretching as far as the place known to Arab writers as El
Abwab, ‘the doors’, thought to be near the modern village of Kabushia, was Makuria,
with its capital at Old Dongola; and further south again, the kingdom of Alwah
(or Alodia), whose capital, Soba, is close to Khartoum. During
all this time (after the christianization of Nobatia in the 5th
century) these remote kingdoms on the Middle Nile were cut off from the rest
of the Christian world by the Muslim occupation of Egypt (640-'42). Yet they
were strong enough to resist Muslim encroachment and even to threaten Muslim
positions in Egypt, making a treaty with the Caliph of Baghdad and occupying
southern Egypt in 962. Not until 1173 did there come the first big Muslim
raid by Saracen cavalry from the north. A startling panorama of the wealth
and distinction of their religious life was revealed in 1961-‘64 by Polish
excavations at Faras under the leadership of Kazimierz Michalowski [1]. |
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Thanks to the excavations of Faras we are informed
about some of the heraldic symbols used by the christian rulers of
Nobatia.Together with data from other sources it is possible to make up a
fairly complete picture of the heraldic structure of Christian Nubia. It
turns out that the symbols of Empire and State are of a common design
reaching back to ancient Egyptian and Mesopotamian times. The symbols of authority are of the kind common in the
early Christian empires. As we know these symbols were hallmarked in the time
of Constantine the Great (307-337). |
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I.
Royal Images |
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On the walls of the Faras cathedrals are some more
or less well preserved frescoes of saints, angels and biblical figures. The
more interesting frescoes for us however, show kings and queens and other
Nobatian dignitaries, amongst them some eparchs or chief executives. The frescoes show considerable differences in
style and fashion and seem to have been painted over a period of several
centuries. Even when some of the frescoes are dated by
Michalowski in the ninth century, taking the relation of the texts and the
images for granted, we may doubt if they are very much older than the
beginning of the twelfth century. The main reason for this opinion is the analysis
of the patterns on the clothing of the kings, together with the analysis of
the crowns they wear. One of the oldest paintings seems to be the painting
of a dignitary, dressed in a tunica of
a pattern we find almost exactly identical on a mosaic of the Byzantine Emperor Manuel I (r.
1143-’80) in the Palazzo dei Normanni in Palermo. Also, the crown he is
wearing is of the 12th century model worn by Byzantine kings, consisting of a
cilindrical diadem with four pearls set on the upper rim. |
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A second group of dignitaries is dressed in
clothes with a pattern which was the fashion in the second half of the 12th century.
This cloth was strewn with medallions of concentric rings and little points
arranged in circles. It can be seen on the purple tunica of the Emperor
Frederick Barbarossa on a fresco in the SS. Quattro Coronati in Rome. His
wife Beatrice is also dressed in a robe strewn with medallions on a mosaic in
the apse of the S. Maria de Another dignitary, belonging to this group, wears
a robe with multicoloroured medallions. He has a socalled bukranion in
his left hand, consisting of a diadem with a ram’s head mounted on the front
and a disc with a pair of horns above it. Much likely this fresco, much damaged,
depicts an eparch. The crown is a much evoluated version of the
ancient crown of Kush. |
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A third group is made up of a king wearing an
apron with a pattern of large squares and seven-petalled marguerite-like flowers,
his tunica chequy, in each square a little disc. He is wearing a cross-sack,
a piece of cloth worn from the right shoulder and draped over his left lower
arm. He is wearing a veiled crown of three triangular plates and a collar
with a crux quadrata. A counterpart, not found in Faras but in Abd
el-Qadir (somewhat north of Khartoum), shows a man dressed in an apron strewn
with medallions with two-headed eagles, his tunica with a diamond pattern. He
wears also a cross-sack. On his head he has a particular horned helmet with a
six-pointed star on the front and a crescent as a crest which seems to be a
residual form of the ancient crown of Kush. A third item probably belonging to this group is
the socalled Black Virgin of Puy-en-Velay. This statuette is said to be
brought to France by King Louis X the Saint (1226-’70) when he returned from
his seventh crusade in 1254. As known he ransomed himself in Cairo in April
1250 and was set free in May of the same year. The statuette is of a sitting queen with a crown
on her head of Komnenan Byzantine fashion, consisting of a cilindrical diadem
with three hoops. Pending from the diadem is a short veil instead of pendilia. On her lap is a child dressed in purple, strewn
with white medallions each encircling a square cross, and crowned with a
crown of more European fashion. The robe of the queen has green sleeves and is of
a pattern of large diamonds of red, green and blue, in each diamond an
ornament. In the middle and on the lower edge of the robe is a broad band of
brocade. [2] |
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If these three figures belong to the same group
and are of about the same period, they can be dated in the age of the Latin
Empire (1204-‘61). As a consequence of the fall of Constantinople in 1204
there sprang up some two-headed eagles in the provinces formerly under the
authority or winthin the sphere of influence of orthodox Byzantium. There are
examples from Nicaea, Trabzon, Konya and Russia (Galicia). In the broader
context of the former Roman Empire the two headed eagle of the Western Roman
Emperor was adopted by Emperor Otto IV. Some of these eagles were maintained
even when in 1261 the Byzantine Empire, now reduced to its core around
Constantinople, was restored by Michael VIII Paleologos. The dark age of the
christian empire of Kush (1171-1275) overlaps the age of the Latin Empire.
The resurrection of this Empire is illustrated by a next cycle of royal
images. |
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Trusting the inscriptions accompanying these images, they are dated in the reign of the kings Georgios I (856-920) and Georgios II (969-1002). This opinion is contradicted by the clothes and regalia of the persons depicted. The clothes of all three images have a pattern of triple horizontal stripes in common. The king and the queen are wearing almost identical crowns. We may be sure that the clothes of the king and queen as shown here, are heavily influenced by European fashion of the 13th century. There, we know, royal persons (and other dignitaries) were dressed in a long sleeved tunica and a large cloak, most of the time closed with a fibula on the right shoulder like in the example on the left shown here. As we can see the crowns the king and queen are wearing are an extension of the crowns of the Komnenians by enlarging the hoops. We may also notice that the crown of the king is crested with a six-pointed star or monogram of David and the one of the queen with a square cross. On the crown of the king there are also latin crosses which are replaced by square crosses on the queen’s crown. Taking into consideration that hooped crowns were only common for Byzantine Emperors after the reign of Alexius I (1081-1118) it is only natural to suppose that the crowns of the Kushite kings of Faras are of a later time. For this reason it is opted here for the last period of the Christian empire which lasted from 1275 until its fall in 1323. The third image on the other hand, seems to continue ancient dressing codes as he is not wearing a cloak but a sleeved tunica and an apron, together with a byzantine-style shawl or loros. On his head is a helmet with a crescent as crest. This crescent is the symbol of state and symbolizes the executive power. This defines the man depicted as an eparch. |
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The Egyptian sun as the emblem of empire was frequently used in ancient times. The emblem also appeared on the crowns of all rulers in Nubia who considered themselves as the successors of the Egyptian farao’s. In Faras the Egyptian sun appears on the bukranion in the hands of a dignitary, possibly the commander in chief. Also the sun is in the center of the hexagram on top of the crown of a Nubian king supposed to be King Georgios I. The red sun is also on a medallion pending from a collar around the neck of the Nubian eagle. In a European source the red sun on a white field, alias the Egyptian sun, is confirmed by the Wijnbergen Roll of Arms. This Roll, dating from the middle of the 13th century, shows a coat of arms with a red ball on a white field with the legend le Roi de bougis.[3] With this bougis the Bugia region is meant which was situated on the Red Sea coast between the Tropic of Cancer and 20° N.L.. [4] Here all pilgrimage roads from Egypt ended in Aydab and from Middle Africa in Port Sudan. This region, which was a part of Nubia, should have been very well known. |
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The coat of arms of “The King of Bougis” as in the Wijnbergen Roll
of Arms and the location of this “Bougis” on the map of Northeast Africa. |
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As we know, the crescent was of Mesopotamian origin. It was introduced in the time of Alexander the Great in the Hellenistic world and we meet a crescent on the crowns of Nubian kings. In the time of the Christian kingdoms in Nubia, a crescent is on top of the headdress of the eparch. The use of the crescent qualifies the bearer as the most important official of government as the crescent is always the symbol of the state. In the Nubian
kingdoms this was exactly what the eparchs were as they were the
highest police- and judicial officials and responsable for law and order in
the kingdom. Also the eparchs were the highest provincial officials or
governors of the king. [5] |
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The square cross is the symbol of Christian administrative authority. As such it is worn by the king himself but also by the queen and high officials. Generally it is also attached to buildings which had an administrative function. In the case of Nubia we have examples of square crosses in the sceptres of the kings, on the crown of the queen and as a jewel on the breast of the eparchs. When a king was deposed his crown as wel as his cross were taken away from him. This is mentioned when King Šemamun (1286-’93) was defeated by Sultan Al Mansur Qalaun (1279-’90) of Egypt in 1290. He was then “abandoned by his officers and by the bishop and the priests who took away from him his crown and the silver cross which he wore”. [6] |
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The latin cross is the symbol of Christian religous authority. Latin crosses are on the royal crown and inply that the king was head of the (Nubian) church as well.The united administrative and religious authorities are symbolized by the united square and latin crosses. This occurrred in Byzantium in the time of Emperor Justin II (565-578). The version called “patriarchal cross” was introduced by Emperor Justinian II (705-711). As we can conclude from the portrait of “Georgios I” administrative and religious authority were combined in the 13th century or even at the end of the Christian era in Nubia. It is also documented by the Libro de Conoscimiento, probably copied from the work of Ibn Battuta.
1355 ca The Libro de Conoscimiento writes: “Thence I went to another Kingdom called Dongola marching with the deserts of Egipto, and the river Nilus. [...] The King of Dongola has for his device a white flag with a cross like this. (White, a black patriarchal cross / white a black patriarchal cross an a red bordure) ".[7] |
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The hexagram or Magen David is the symbol of armed authority. It has its counterpart in the Christogram which consists of the first greek letters of the name of Christ “XP” and has the same symbolic meaning. The “ΔΔ” monogram is mainly found in the Byzantine Empire and its dependencies and successors. The portrait of “Georgios I” suggests that the administrative, the religious and the armed authorities were united in the time of the last Christian kings of Nubia. This means that the king had the last say in the administration, the church and the army. |
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The only source available showing the use of a double eagle in Nubia, is on the fresco in Abd el-Qadir, depicting a Nubian eparch. [8] This double eagle is certainly the badge of the highest military officer in Nubia, in any case in the southernmost part of it. It would mean that an eparch of Nubia was comparable with many other high officials within the former Roman Empire like the Roman Emperor of the West, the Emperor of Byzantium, the King of the Rus, the Sultan of Ikonion and many others who, at one time or another, used the title of basileus for themselves, often combined with the double-eagle emblem.
Nubian eparch on a fresco
in Abd el-Qadir. On his apron medaillons with double eagles. On this drawing the
reconstruction of Michalowski is based. |
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B.
The Eagle and the Cross |
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The Christian kingdoms of Nubia continued the Byzantine-Christian traditions on the one hand and the Egyptian-Roman traditions on the other hand. As we have seen on the 4th century crown of Kush, for example, there appears a row of cobras-and-sun which were the ancient royal egyptian emblem. These are borrowed from the long egyptian friezes on which the cobra-sun motif is endlessly repeated. In the oldest cathedral of Faras, from the beginning of
the seventh century A.D. there appear instead friezes with repeated eagles
with square crosses (crux quadrata) between their wings, the imperial sun in
a medallion pending from a collar on their necks. Such eagles at the same time appear in Coptic Egypt. [9]
They certainly belong to the hellenistic culture, introduced in Egypt in the
time of the Ptolemies |
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Detail of the so-called
dove-frieze in the ancient Faras-Cathedral, early 7th
c. A.D. Sandstone, 43 Î 254 cm. British Museum inv. n° EA 606. Piles of stylized trees between rising eagles respecting, above their heads a crux quadrata, on thier breasts a medallion with the imperial emblem. The meaning of these combination would have been: commander (turmarch, meriarch) of the Christian government (of the kingdom), the cross making the difference between a christian commander and any other commander. |
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On a frieze in the new cathedral, built in the time of Georgios I (856/866-920), the same eagles appear but the cross is now diferentiated into a eight-leafed rosette with four leaves red and four leaves yellow [10] In this version the sun-emblem is in the heart of the rosette.
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©
Hubert de Vries 2009-11-11; Updated 2011.07.05; 2016.08.03
Heraldry of the World