Vᵉ siècle – XVIᵉ siècle
Central Sudan, Nile and Gezira
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Alodia, called 'Aiwa in the source, was a Christian Nubian kingdom centered on the Nile and associated with the capital of Soba. Medieval accounts describe it as prosperous, with extensive church institutions and a major market for slaves. Its decline involved Arab settlement, intermarriage, control of pastures, attacks from the south, slave trading, and the weakening of central authority; the date of Soba’s fall remains disputed.
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Alodia was the southern of the two major riverain kingdoms of medieval Nubia. In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries it was distinguished from Mukurra by a frontier located between the Fifth and Sixth Cataracts, while its northernmost outpost was al-Abwab, identified with modern Kabushiya. The kingdom’s political institutions shared the matrilineal succession principle found elsewhere in Nubia.
Earlier Muslim accounts portray Alodia as prosperous and commercially active. Abu Salih described a kingdom with approximately four hundred churches and a spacious cathedral at Soba, while Muslim merchants visited the country as a market for the purchase of slaves. During the Mamluk period, references became rarer, although the ruler Adur of al-Abwab appears repeatedly in connection with the extradition of fugitive Nubian kings and diplomatic relations with Cairo.
Alodia’s decline probably followed processes also visible in Mukurra. Arab immigrants entered marginal areas and then the heartland, intermarried with local communities, gained control over pastures, and weakened the social foundations of central authority. Attacks by black peoples from the south, the effects of the slave trade, and the stagnation of the Church in isolation added to the kingdom’s difficulties.
By the second half of the fifteenth century, Arab settlement had reached the vicinity of Soba. The town of 'Arbadji, founded about 1475, represented the most southerly point of Arab expansion in the Gezira. The fall of Alodia was traditionally dated to 1504, when the Funj sultanate was established at Sennar, but the source stresses that Soba may have been captured earlier by Arabs acting alone.
Vᵉ siècle – XVIᵉ siècle
Central Sudan, Nile and Gezira
Traduction non disponible · Original (anglais) · français indisponible
Alodia, called 'Aiwa in the source, was a Christian Nubian kingdom centered on the Nile and associated with the capital of Soba. Medieval accounts describe it as prosperous, with extensive church institutions and a major market for slaves. Its decline involved Arab settlement, intermarriage, control of pastures, attacks from the south, slave trading, and the weakening of central authority; the date of Soba’s fall remains disputed.
Poursuivre l’exploration
Le récit
Alodia was the southern of the two major riverain kingdoms of medieval Nubia. In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries it was distinguished from Mukurra by a frontier located between the Fifth and Sixth Cataracts, while its northernmost outpost was al-Abwab, identified with modern Kabushiya. The kingdom’s political institutions shared the matrilineal succession principle found elsewhere in Nubia.
Earlier Muslim accounts portray Alodia as prosperous and commercially active. Abu Salih described a kingdom with approximately four hundred churches and a spacious cathedral at Soba, while Muslim merchants visited the country as a market for the purchase of slaves. During the Mamluk period, references became rarer, although the ruler Adur of al-Abwab appears repeatedly in connection with the extradition of fugitive Nubian kings and diplomatic relations with Cairo.
Alodia’s decline probably followed processes also visible in Mukurra. Arab immigrants entered marginal areas and then the heartland, intermarried with local communities, gained control over pastures, and weakened the social foundations of central authority. Attacks by black peoples from the south, the effects of the slave trade, and the stagnation of the Church in isolation added to the kingdom’s difficulties.
By the second half of the fifteenth century, Arab settlement had reached the vicinity of Soba. The town of 'Arbadji, founded about 1475, represented the most southerly point of Arab expansion in the Gezira. The fall of Alodia was traditionally dated to 1504, when the Funj sultanate was established at Sennar, but the source stresses that Soba may have been captured earlier by Arabs acting alone.