Author: LinusLinothorax
Original Title: East African Research Thread



Medieval Nubian Kingdoms I think its time to collect stuff for the two Christian factions which are located below the Ayyoubid Sultanate, in what is now Sudan, Eritrea and Ethiopia.


Let's start with Makuria, the Christian Nubian faction which is located in what is now modern North Sudan. Makuria was one of the initially 3 Christian kingdoms of Nubia, succeeding the Kushite Kingdom of Meroe. After the fracture of Kush due to Nomadic invasions, expeditions of Aksum and a decline of trade with Rome, Nubians took control of Kushite territory. From the first to third Nile cataract, Nobadia was established during the 5th century as a satelite kingdom of Rome, with its capital in Pachoras (modern Faras). Further south, from the third to below the fifth cataract we have Makuria, established probably around 500 AD, as proven by the founding of Tungul (Dongola) in the mid 5th century and, at the first mentioned date, the great expansion of the city. Below Makuria, Nubians established the still badly known kingdom of Alodia, which controlled large parts of the Sudanese savannah, probably to become the largest and wealthiest of all Nubian kingdoms in later years.


The three Nubian kingdoms

The first major event in Nubian history was the acceptance of Christianity, when at first Nobadia converted in 543 AD, then Makuria in 567-68 AD and at last Alodia in 580 AD. Soon to be followed was the merge of Nobadia and Makuria under Makurian suzerainity. When exactly and why this happened is still disupted, but it happened somewhere during the 7th century, probably before the Arabic invasion. The mentioned Arabs conquered Egypt in 640 AD, and two years later they sent a first expedition into Nubia, but were probably quickly defeated. The next army sent by the Arabs in 652 AD was much larger, even including a catapult. They peneted into Makurian territory as far as Tungul and laid siege to it. In the course of the siege the great cathedral of Tungul got destroyed, but in the end Makuria managed to defeat the invading army, making it one of the very few kingdoms defeating the Arabs during the great century of Arabic expansion, when Arabs conquered everything from Spain to Anatolia up to the Indus river. The Arabic defeat saw the making of the Baqt, a peace and trading treaty which should last for centuries.

While the Arabic world soon saw a steady decline of political unitiy due to the fragmentation of the Ummayad and later Abbasid Caliphate, Makuria managed to stablizie its situation, establishing itself as Christian nation located between Egypt and the Kingdom of Alodia, acting as economical middleman and protector of the Coptic Church. The land saw considerable prosperity and a cultural highday, visible in the construction of massive churches with beautiful murals. Makurias might had swolen that much that, according to a legend, it even dared to invade Egypt in 745 AD with 100.000 men to demand the release of the imprisoned Patriarch of Alexandria, the religious head of the Coptic Church. The following years saw Makurian interventions in Upper Egypt, and eventually it became tributary to Makuria at some point.


Mural from Sonqi Tino depicting king Georgios II of Makuria, protected by Jesus (Late 10th century)

The great years of military interventions came to an end when the Fatimids took control over Egypt in 969 AD. The Fatimids, while beeing the largest and mightiest Islamic power at that time, were Shia Musims, so they were surrounded by Sunni states who considered the Fatimids as heretic. Therefore, the Fatimids were forced to find allies at all costs, so they turned their eyes to the Christian Nubians to the South. The Fatimid days were, as far as we know, peacefu days, and no wars between Egyptians and Nubians are known.
However, things massively changed when the Europeans started their crusades and took control of the Levantine during the late 11th and early 12h century. They slowly reduced the power of the Fatimids, later so much they could even demand tribute from it, acitvely making it a vasall state. In 1164, when the Crusaders even tried to conquer Egypt, a Sryian Atabeg named Nur ad-Din sent a relief force, defeating the Crusaders and annexing Egypt to his own Empire. However, in 1171, the governor of Egypt declared his independence from his Syrian master. This governor was the famous Saladin. The rise of Saladin not only marked the end of peaceful relations between Egypt and Makuria, but also the golden days of Makuria in general.

Around the time Saladin declared his independence a Makurian army raided Assuan, which was the most important city in the Egyptian South, eventually to support the last Fatimid Caliphe. However, they withdrew when Saladin sent an army to counter the Nubians. One year later, in 1172-1173 AD, Saladin sent his brother Shams ad-Dawla to take care of the Nubians, and he was able to conquer Qasr Ibrim, the northernmost stronghold of Makuria. He converted the local church into a mosque, imprisoned and tortured the local bishop, killed all local pigs and enslaved thousands of Nubians. As traumatic as this event has been for Makuria, Shams ad-Dawla don't advanced towards Tungul but withdrew back into Egypt. A peace was negotiated and Qasr Ibrim was given back to Makuria during the following decades. Although there were no further conflicts for 100 years Makuria was now declining, visible especially on the declining quality of the Nubian churches aswell as the start of dynastic troubles. Also important is the start of Arabic nomads penetrating into the Sudan. The first and also most significant Arabs were the Banu Khanz, who should become more important later.

Although there were no further wars between Makuria and the Ayyubids, how the dynasty of Saladin was called, this peace was still only shortlived: In 1260, the Ayyubids were deposed by their own elite warriors, the Mameluks, who were formed by slaves from the Caucasus. The Mameluks were not only able to field powerful and well equipped armies, but were also known for their religious fundamentalism. Although their focus was limited to the Crusader states aswell as the Mongols they also organized invasions into Nubia in 1265, 1276, 1287 and 1289. While the first expedition was rather a raid of Makurian territory the results of the next expedition were more dramatic: After the first expedition king David decided to strike back and attacked and sacked Aidhab, at that time one of the most important ports in the Islamic world, acting as a bridge for African Muslims who intend to travel to Mecca. The Mamluks stroke back with a mighty army, conquering Tungul and forcing the Makurian king to flee into the South. Meanwhile the Mameluks enthroned Shekanda and therefore made Makuria a puppet state. It was in that time that the Jizya was introduced, the tax for infidels. Although Shekanda broke free from vasalry he was soon murdered. Shortly before the third expedition in 1287, Shemamun was able to seize the throne. He was able to maintain Makurian independence despite the upcoming expeditions, but to a heavy price: Makuria was pillaged, the army and population depleted.


Expansion of the Mameluke Sultanate during the late 13th century


However, after Shemamun Mameluke interventions don't stopped. The most important goal was to keep Makuria weak and a de-facto vasall of the Mamelukes. It was at this time that the first puppet kings became Muslim. A turning point was when the throne hall of Tungul was finally converted into a Mosque in 1317 AD. This was also the year when the Banu Khanz, about whom we talked earlier, seized power. Although they were deposed 6 years later, the Islamic element had become strong in Dongola, even though the largest amount of the population was probably still Christian. Meanwhile, further South the Kingdom of Alodia was suffering from a similiar fate: Heavy fragmentation and Islamization.
Athough the Banu Khanz were defeated and Christian kings like Siti and Paper took control, the formerly mighty kingdom of Makuria was dying. In 1365 AD a new civil war broke out and Tungul was lost to Arabic nomads. The royal court was forced to migrate to Adda (Daw) in former Nobadia. Makuria had become a rump state, which should last until around 1500 AD. It became small, impoverished and weak, but still keept up the Christian traditions of old days, like the colourful mural painting. Meanwhile, Dongola became the center of the Muslim Sultanate of Dongola, which should last for centuries even though it was during the most time not much more than a vasall of the rising Sultanate of Sennar, which replaced the by now compeletly irrevelant Kingdom of Alodia in around 1504 AD.


The throne hall of Dongola, which was used as a mosque since 1317 AD

Now that we took a brief look on Makurian history let's check the for Total War projects most relevant aspect, the warfare and the look of Nubian warriors.




Researching Medieval Nubian warfare is a relatively tough field because of the types of sources which are available to us. In partfiular we have the advantage to have many beautful, detailed and often well preserved murals, while we suffer from an almost non-existing amount of archaeological finds. The latter is the case because with Christianization, Nubians abandoned the custom of burying weapons with their owners, a custom which took extreme forms especially during the post-Meroitic phase (Ca. 350 AD - 550 AD).
Sadly we also suffer from a lack of written sources, especially Nubian ones, since the Nubians don't wrote any historiographies.

Anyway, even with our limited amount of sources we are able to get a proper view on the Nubian armies. The mainstay of the Nubian armies very likely consisted of extremely light equipped infantry, fighting either as spearmen, archers and eventually also axemen. The poorest of them would wear skirts (See discussion below), while the majority of them would wear wide cotton clothing resembling the contemporary Egyptian fashion. Therefore they wear mostly long-sleeved white tunics aswell as trousers, eventually covered with complex embrodery. A good idea of such a basic warrior can be found on this artwork from Alejandro Sanchez:
Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Note that this guy wears several spears since he is a horsemen. A footsoldier would possibly wear only a spear, a shield and a dagger which was worn either in the belt, as seen above, or strapped around the arm, how it still is a custom in modern Sudan. On his feet, such a simple warrior wear either shoes like above, or, what was more more common, sandals. Boots also occured, but were probably limited to nobles and horsemen.
At his head he would wear not much due to the hot climate, except maybe of a Coptic cap like it was found in Soba, the capital of the Kingdom of Alodia:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 


Since this mod plays in the late Middle Ages and therefore Arabic influences penetrated into the Nubian culture one can also assume turbans, like on can see on the first picture. They shouldn't be overdone though. A further element which might be of Arabic origin is a long headband of varying colour (white-grey-ish, yellow and red). This headband could be knotted that way that there was either one long tail or two shorter ones. The headband could be worn bare or eventually under a cap, like one can see on this mural from the late 13th/early 14th century:
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Here a further fragmentary mural showing a saint with a two-tailed headband:
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Meanwhile, helmets are not proven for Makurian warrios, neither for footsoldier nor for elite warriors. The reason might have been the very arid climate. However, further South, in Alodia, we know of several graffiti depicting horsemen with conical helmets. Therefore, an Alodian unit might make sense. For more informations on Nubian helmets, you can check a small article of mine posted HERE.

Cloaks were worn, but were probably restricted to the mounted nobility. According to the murals discovered so far white and red were the most prominent colours, while yellow (In fact it's rather ocher) appears only one time. Here a quite fancy white cloak with yellow borders (Possibly golden embroderiy), covered with black squares:
Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Here one more warrior saint, wearing a dark-red cloak, covered with white dots forming flowers / crosses:
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Before we come back to weapons, let us take a look on jewelry and further accessoires. The most remarkable jewelry was probably the cross amulet like we know it from basicaly every single Christian culture out there. I am not that up to date on Makurian archaeology, but I am relatively well informed on Alodian archaeology, so here you have several Christian amulets found in Alodian territory:
Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

To the left you have several cross-amulets from Soba, while to the right you have a rather unusual amulet found in a Christian grave in Musawwarat as-Sufa, having the shape of the monogram of St. Michael, who was probably the most important saint in Medieval Nubia. The material for those amulets could vary from shell over to bronze up until iron. Beside wearing cross-amulets they could also wear bead necklaces how they worn since archaic times. Something interesting is reported by Johann Burckhardt, who reported that during the early 19th century all male Nubians would always wear a rosary around their neck, despite beeing formaly Muslim. This was very likely the remain of a Medieval Nubian custom.
Burckhardt also mentions that metallic ankle rings were worn and this also matches with Makurian sources, like for example a nativity scene from Faras (See post #10, picture 1).
Earrings were probably worn, though of course not in battle. A further accessoire might have been the hairpin, though I am not sure if they would be worn by men (Alteast the Beja, the eastern neigbours of the Nubians, did and still do so).

Now lets come finally back to the interesting part, the weapons. As mentioned before, the most basic weapons were the spear and bow as primary weapons, while daggers, axes and swords were used as secondary weapons.
Concerning bows, we sadly not only lack archaeological finds but even murals. However, one mural clearly depicts the eparch (governor) of Nobadia with a short recurved bow:
Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Rather short bows are also supported by post-Meroitic archaeology. It doesn't happen often that one discover more or less well preserved bows, but the bows discovered from that era all relatively short. There were found both recurved aswell as more primitive self bows. It remains open how far spread self bows were in Christian times, but it is likely that most would use recurved bows, since they were the most popular bow since Kushitic times. Aprospos "Kushitic times": There are no hints for Medieval Nubians still using the mighty Kushitic longbow. Possible that it's use came out of fashion with Kush's death in the 4th century AD and that instead Nubians paid attention to keep its archers small and agile by using only very short bows.
Meanwhile, Makurians stored their arrows in leather quivers, just the Kushites and post-Meroitic cultures did. As always, we suffer from a bad archaeological situation, but one quiver from Qasr Ibrim (The place that was conquered by Saladins brother, if you remember) was found and could be identified as "Medieval":
Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Even if this is just one specimen one can clearly notice a decline of elaborateness compared to the quivers of former periods, especially compared to the sometimes completely over-the-top specimens of post-Meroitic times, like this example from Gebel Adda:
Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

An other missile weapon used by the Nubians was the sling. This weapon is not only proven by archaeology but also by one mural from Dongola (See post #10, picture 3), where two shepherds are depicted with slings. The mentioned archaeological proof is a found specimen from Qasr Ibrim:
Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

In Banganarti was also found egg-shaped slinger ammonition. Sadly I dont have a pic of it right now tho, but if there is interest let me know.
The role of the sling is unknown to us, but very likely this was a weapon of the very poor, or, as the mural from Dongola is suggesting, of shepherds.

Aside from bows and slings we don't have sources for any other type of missile weapon. There have been found two dartheads in Qasr Ibrim, but those are from post-Meroitic times and eventually either looted from Roman soldiers or Roman gifts.
For firearms we also don't have any legit sources. Its doubtful that the Muslim Mameluks would have traded firearms to their southern neighbours as long as they were Christians. Meanwhile, the Christian kingdom of Ethiopia adopted firearms only during the mid 16th century as a consequence of facing a well equipped Somalian army, so at a time where Christian Nubia was pretty much gone.

From missile weapons we move to melee weapons, in particular secondary melee weapons (For spears, check Alejandros artwork at post #5). There we see daggers, swords and axes. Dagger were possibly the secondary weapon of the poor men. As already stated in the beginning, they could be worn either in the belt or around the upper arm, like this:
Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Daggers were probably mostly straight, but curved daggers appear atleast since the Meroitic age and are sometimes seen even today.

Now let's come to swords, probably the favoured secondary weapon of the nobility. The Nubians made use of a special type of sword one could entitle as "Nobadian Type" or "Ballana Type". They appeared first in pagan Nobadian times (5th century AD) and were appareantly used throughout the whole Medieval period.
They were in fact a medium length, one-edged sword without a cross-guard, used for slashing, atleast if we assume that they don't evolved from one-edged to two-edged swords during the medieval period (Sadly such details are not visible on the Medieval murals). To get an idea here such a "Ballana" sword from a post-Meroitic grave:
Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

For comparison, see here Medieval murals depicting this sword:
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Beside this "Ballana Type" sword we also know about a longer variant with crossguards, eventually beeing two-edged:
Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

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Those swords were stored in leather scabbards, and those scabbards were worn in a typical Sudanese way which is proven since Meroitic times. Here a graphic by Johannes Willers for demonstration, though note that the depicted sword is a Central Sudanese Kaskara:
Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

The scabbards strap which gets slung over the shoulder can be seen on several murals, like for example the mural with the angel drawing his cross-guarded sword I posted above (Though the strap on that mural is knotted in the middle). Here an other mural from Dongola depicting a duel between two individuals, and one can clearly see the scabbards hanging down from their shoulders:
Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 


Now let's come to axes. Interestingly enough, axes appear not a single time on Makurian murals. Appareantly, they were not too farspread, maybe because they were not considered chivalric enough. Anyway, we know about a relatively frequent use of axes in historical Sudan thanks to Meroitic (Reliefs and archeological finds) aswell as post-Meroitic (Archaeological finds) sources, and even if the Medieval sources are meagre we can't deny atleast a moderate usage of axes. The mentioned Medieval sources are all archaeological. In particular, we have one axe head from Soba, undoubtly used as some type of battle axe:
Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 


In a military building in Dongola were found several axe heads, by pottery they were dated to the late 14th century. That would make them post-Makurian, atleast if they are truely from that period and not found their way into the building in an earlier time.
Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

It had been speculated that those were not axe heads, but rather halberds, eventually used by the royal guard. Already in a post-Meroitic grave there was found some type of halbard and also there it had been speculated that this halberd was representative for royal power.

Now we can leave offensive weapons behind and take care of protective weapons, so normally that would shields, armour and helmets, but as I already stated it seems that Makurians don't used helmets. So let's take a look on shields and then armours.
Since the beginning of time, the habitants of Sudans made use of hide shields. They got their hide from all animals the local fauna could offer: Hippos, crocodiles, elephants, cattle and so on. Concerning the shape we know that Nubians prefered one type: The round shield. It's size could vary from merely beeing buckler-sized until around 0.50 x 0.50 m.
The basic shields would be rather plain, while, the most elaborated shields would look like this:
Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

As it seems by the murals, the most elaborated shields were decorated with precious stones.

Beside round shields, Nubians ocassionally used rather oval shields, looking similiar to the old Celtic thureos shields of old, just in leather. They are proven since Meroitic times and are still proven for Burckhardts era (Early 19th century), where he clearly reports Nubians using that type of shield, importing them from the area around the 4th Nile cataract. A shield of that shape has been captured during the Mahdist war in the late 19th century:
Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

A similiar, appareantly oval shields appears on a Makurian woodcarving from Dongola:
Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Due to the lack of sources showing the oval shield compared to sources showing round shields we have to assume that the oval shield was way less popular than the round shield tho.

Now it's time to check the other type of Nubian protective weapon, the body armours. For Makuria we know of exactly two types of armour: Quilted and mail.
Quilted armour was very popular in the Africa south of the Sahara, as it offered great protection against handweapons for a low price. Quilted armour appears on two sources:
1) A mural from Faras, depicting the crucification of Jesus (No, they don't wear helmets but magi-caps):
Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 


2) A graffito from Faras:
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As you can see it covered the whole body from the wrists to the knees. As the mural implies this quilted armour might have been worn even by the heavy Nubian infantry. Meanwhile, the next tpe of armour, the mail, was very likely restricted to the high-end nobility. It is proven by the upcoming sources:

1) Mail fragment found in Soba:
Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 


2) Mural from Abdallah Nirqi, showing a warrior saint in mail armour:
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3) Painted parchment from Qasr Ibrim, depicting a saint in mail:
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4) Plaque from Attiri, showing a saint with mail armour (Also note the cross fixed on his chest via several straps!):
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5) The left guy on the mural I posted on the top this post (From Dongola)


Now I am pretty much done, can't think of any other stuff I could add. So I hope that all this is enough for you guys to make a visually appealing Makuria. If there any questions please let me know! Also don't forget to check the links in my signature for more pictures.