Dotawo/content/article/tsakos.md

---
title: "Words on Warfare from Christian Nubia"
authors: ["alexandrostsakos.md"]
abstract:
keywords: []
---

The purpose of this paper is to present textual evidence from Christian
Nubia relating to issues of warfare, weaponry, and military functions.
This evidence will be gleaned mainly from manuscripts, and secondarily
from monumental epigraphy. From the four languages used in Christian
Nubia, the present study will focus primarily on Old Nubian and partly
on Greek, while occasionally evidence from sources in Arabic and Coptic
will also be used. Although the material is not particularly rich, it
may add to and/or nuance the picture of warfare in Nubia during the
medieval era (ca. 5th to 15th centuries), which otherwise lacks a
systematic study.

Moreover, evidence of warfare in the archaeological record from Nubia is
scarce.[^2] One of the major reasons is the abandonment of the ancient
custom of accompanying the dead with tomb furnishings already from the
very beginnings of the Christian era in Nubia,[^3] whereas it was
precisely tombs that provided the richest material evidence for warfare
in terms of weaponry, as can be seen in A-Group,[^4] Kerma,[^5]
Napatan,[^6] Meroitic,[^7] and post-Meroitic burials.[^8] Wars were,
however, far from absent from Christian Nubia.

Warfare in Nubia is marked on the landscape by the numerous castles and
forts of the Middle Nile region,[^9] although their function was also as
sites of power, sights of might, centers of authority[^10]; it was
witnessed by the historians who recorded the frequent wars between
Christian Nubia and the Caliphate[^11]; it is related with slavery and
slaving expeditions that have impregnated the image of the past in Sudan
from prehistory until modernity[^12]; it was recorded implicitly on the
walls of the Nubian churches, where military saints, most often on
horseback, parade as martyrs of the Christian faith and as guarantors of
the security, longevity and prosperity of the Makuritan realm.

These military saints will set off the presentation of the textual
evidence on warfare in Old Nubian,[^13] because there has also been
preserved textual evidence of their cult, in the form of both shorter
texts (dedications, prayers) and longer hagiographic works,[^14] as well
as legal documents. From the sanctified humans that populated the
celestial army, we will then move to the *archistratēgos* of the
heavens, the archangel Michael, whose cult in Nubia has produced texts
that offer important insights into the military organization of the
Makuritan state. Finally, a question about the possibility of discerning
evidence of Makuritan naval forces in our epigraphic material will
conclude this modest contribution on warfare in Christian Nubia.

# The Protector of the Four Corners of the Nubian Nation

One of the most impressive documents of legal practice from Christian
Nubia is a Royal Proclamation found at Qasr Ibrim (P.QI 3 30) and dated
to the 23^rd^ of August 1155.[^15] Through this legal act, king Moses
George proclaims the rights and privileges of the church of Saint
Epimachos at Ibrim West.[^16] The king threatens anyone who "speaks
against and denies my statement" (P.QI 3 30, l. 30) that Epimachos will
"stab him with his spear" (ll. 30-1). The action is described by the
verb ϣⲁⲅ and the weapon by the noun ϣⲓⲅⲣ̄, but whether the latter refers
to the "spear" indeed and not to any other weapon is uncertain. Without
parallel texts in other languages, it is difficult to confirm the
definitions in OND, which seem to try to conform with the fact that the
spear was the diagnostic iconographic attribute of Epimachos in Nubian
iconography (see below). There is moreover another word in the OND for
"spear" or "lance," i.e. ϣⲁ, which possibly has a related root, but
again it does not necessarily mean "spear." Finally, it should be noted
that an Old Nubian term for "ruler" is ϣⲓⲕⲉⲣⲓ, and although in the OND
this is etymologically linked with a variant ϣⲏⲕⲕ of the term ϣⲁⲗ for
"administrative unit," a verb ϣⲓⲕ, meaning "to rule" has recently been
identified in P.QI 4 93.4 and P.QI 4 108.7. It is tempting to associate
this verb with the noun ϣⲓⲅⲣ̄ and thus suggest that ϣⲓⲕⲉⲣⲓ was a military
ruler, but for the time being this hypothesis remains speculative.

In any case, the king's threat to invoke Saint Epimachos is presented in
the royal proclamation from Qasr Ibrim as even more powerful than the
King's curse; a heart attack; the sharing of Judas Iscariot's faith; and
the rejection of the trespasser by the society. Again, after all these
threats/curses, it is Epimachos who is called upon "on the day of
judgment" to "come great in battle against him" (ll. 34-5). Here, the
Old Nubian word for battle is used, i.e. ⲡⲛ̄ⲅ. There is also attested a
verb form ⲡⲛ̄ⲕ, i.e. "to fight," as well as a synonym ⲇⲓⳟⲉ (or
ⲇⲓⳟⲁⲣ).[^17] One instance of the use of the latter term in the Old
Nubian corpus translates the Greek participle πολεμουμένων, which
derives from the term πόλεμος, i.e. "war." In Nobiin, the verb ⲇⲓⳟ also
translates as "Krieg führen," [^18] and it is not inconceivable that a
derivative of the root ⲇⲓⳟ was also used to define "war" or "warfare." A
military victory can also be discerned behind the meaning of the term
ⲇⲓⳟⲁⲣⲧ, attested once in the OND translating the Greek word νῖκος.[^19]
In the same semantic field as ⲇⲓⳟⲉ (or ⲇⲓⳟⲁⲣ), there is the verb ⲉⲥⲕ
meaning "to conquer," which seems rather related with the ability to win
rather with the fight necessary to mark a military victory. However, in
one instance, the term is directly linked with the quality of a weapon,
namely a shield (about the Old Nubian terms for this weapon, see below):
P.QI 1 11.ii.2 ⲥⲟⲩⲇⲇⲟⲩ ⲙⲉⲇⲇⲕ̄ⲕⲧⲓⲛⲁ *ⲅⲟⲩⲉⲓⲟⲩ ⲉⲥⲕⲓϭⲣⲉⲛⲛⲗ̄*, that can be
translated as "the staff which is the victorious *shield* of readiness."

Conversely, the Greek term for "war," i.e. πόλεμος, was surely known in
Christian Nubia, since it appears several times in the Septuagint and
the New Testament. It is important to note that the Greek term is also
used in the Sahidic New Testament, suggesting that it is not impossible
that it had remained untranslated in the Old Nubian version of the Bible
too (for further evidence, see the section on Saint George).

Moreover, the adjective πολέμιος for "enemy," deriving from the noun
"πόλεμος" is attested in a prayer to Raphael from Banganarti, composed
in "extremely corrupted" Greek. In the same text, a participle
"πολεμόντων" (sic) also appears.[^20] From the rich textual corpus
recorded at the same site one can also glean a couple of instances of
the use of the Greek noun ἐχθρὸς, meaning «enemy».[^21] These instances
seem to rather refer, however, to the devil and other demonic forces as
the *par excellence* enemies of the Christians.

The term πολέμιος -- denoting real, earthly enemies -- is read in the
text on the back of a small wooden plaque found at the late Christian
settlement of Attiri, where Saint Epimachos is called upon "to protect
the roads from the enemies." [^22] At the same time, there is also an
Old Nubian term for "enemy," i.e. ⲟⲩⲕⲕⲁⲧⲧ stemming apparently from the
verb ⲟⲩⲣ meaning "to oppress."

The reference to "the roads" in the text of the Attiri plaque seems to
invest Epimachos with the role of the protector of the territory that
the ruler and/or the inhabitants of Attiri controlled. This role is
confirmed and expanded to the entire Makuritan realm in the text of P.QI
3 30.26-7, where the king makes an invocation "in order that Epimachos
might arise, come and place the four corners of the nation for care
under my feet."

Although there are several saints with the name Epimachos, it is
generally thought that the Nubian Epimachos is the same with Epimachus
of Pelusium, who was not initially a warrior-saint, but a weaver from
Pelusium who martyred for the Christian faith under Diocletian.[^23]
Perhaps through his association with other martyrs under Diocletian,
like Saint George, Epimachos became a warrior saint in the belief system
of the Christian Nubians; perhaps this was due to his name, including
the Greek word for battle, i.e. μάχη; or perhaps thanks to some local
miracle that was not preserved to us due to the loss of the relevant
written source. In any case, the cult of Epimachos was widespread at
least in Lower Nubia and in the later centuries of Christianity there
(first half of the second millennium CE), as can also be seen from a
fragment of a stela in Coptic,[^24] two fragmentarily preserved texts
witnessing an Old Nubian version of his Martyrdom,[^25] as well as from
two painted representations at Aballah-n Irqi and Abu Oda, where the
saint is spearing a fallen figure, like in the plaque from Attiri.[^26]

There were, however, other military saints who were at least equally
venerated in Christian Nubia as Saint Epimachos, and it seems that the
idea of Epimachos spearing the enemies is inherently linked with the
function of such saints who speared the adversary, in the form of a
dragon, a pagan or an apostate, symbolizing in general terms the evil
itself.

# The Saint *Stratēlates* Mercurios and George

The spearing of an adversary of the Christian faith is exemplified in
the Acta of Saint Mercurios.[^27] Mercurios was a Roman soldier who
martyred under Decius. The locality of his martyrdom was near Caesarea
in Cappadocia. Thence, he was linked in one legend with Saint Basil of
Caesarea. Basil was a contemporary of Julian the Apostate and, according
to a version of his Life, during Julian's Persian campaign, Basil was
informed in a dream that Mercurios was chosen by the Theotokos to kill
the emperor. Basil rose and went to the martyrion of Mercurios, but
neither his body nor his weapons were there. Later on, the news of
Julian's death reached him.

An exegesis for this miracle may be linked with the report by Ammianus
Marcellinus that Julian was killed by a lance "no one knows whence" (Res
Gestae XXV.3.6: incertum inde).[^28] Obviously, this vagueness gave room
to speculation for divine intervention, while the reason that Mercurios
was chosen may allegedly be linked with the role of Basil and the
geographical proximity of the martyrion with Julian's Persian campaign.

In any case, when the narrative about the assassination of Julian
reached Egypt, it was still linked with both the dream of Basil and the
spear of Mercurios, but rather seen as part of the History of the
patriarchate of Athanasios, apparently in order to invest the miracle
with local references. An even further alienation from the narrative in
Basil's Life is to be found in a Greek version of the Acta of Saint
Mercurios discovered at Qasr Ibrim. There, Basil has disappeared from
the miracle story, and the person who sees the dream is Pachomios. When
this dream comes, the father of coenobitic monasticism is together with
Athanasios, during the exile of the latter in the second half of
Julian's reign, i.e. 362-3 CE. The Theotokos has also disappeared from
the narrative and it is now an angel of God who reveals things to
Pachomios. Whether this new narrative is a local, i.e. Nubian, invention
or an Egyptian contextualization of the legend around the assassination
of the Emperor Julian cannot be investigated in this context.

It can be mentioned, however, that while Mercurios is represented in
Egyptian iconography both as a holder of a spear,[^29] and as Abu
Sayfayn, i.e. the Father with the two swords,[^30] in Nubia he appears
as the slayer of Julian with his spear in all known mural
representations, i.e. from Faras, Abdel Qadir and the Central Church of
Abdallah-n Irqi.[^31] The mural from Faras is of special importance,
because it has been suggested that the story of Abu Sayfayn was already
part of the complete iconographical concept in that section of the
cathedral (see below). Thus, the iconography of Mercurios spearing
Julian unites a type of weapon with the miracle story of the saint and
underlines the identification of Mercurios with the act of eliminating
pagans and the threat of the old religion.

This identification is relevant for the purpose of this paper, when one
considers that Mercurios was the name of a very important royal figure
in the history of medieval Nubia: King Mercurios ruled during the turn
from the 7^th^ to the 8^th^ century and the *History of the Patriarchs
of Alexandria* calls him the New Constantine, who "became by his
beautiful conduct like one of the Disciples".[^32] Although this
characterization has been linked with the annexation of Nobadia by
Makuria and the integration of the united kingdom in the hierarchy of
the Coptic Patriarchate of Alexandria, I have suggested that the name
Mercurios might have been given to him as indeed a New Constantine who
turned away from heathen practices the Nubian people remaining to be
Christianized, stamping out paganism like his name-sake saint speared
the last pagan emperor.[^33] In sum, for Christians of the Nile Valley,
the name Mercurios must have sounded extremely heroic, belligerent and
war-like.

Finally, there are three words that are attested in the Greek version of
the Acta S. Mercurii from Qasr Ibrim, which are of direct relevance for
the present investigation, namely:

\- the noun πόλεμον for "war" commemorating the Persian campaign of
Julian and confirming the knowledge that the Nubians must have had of
this term.

\- the noun λόγχαριν for "spear" identifying the miraculous weapon of
the martyr in Greek. About the Old Nubian term, see discussion in
previous section.

\- the adjective στρατηλάτης for "general" referring to Mercurios and
linking him with the other famous "general" of the Christian faith,
saint George.

Saint George is perhaps the most renowned military saint. He belongs to
the circle of Roman soldiers who martyred for the Christian faith under
Diocletian, but his fame far surpassed that of others, for reasons that
also surpass the scope of this article. His cult reached of course
Christian Nubia too, as is witnessed by fragments of both a Greek and an
Old Nubian version of his Acta that have been unearthed at Qasr Ibrim
and Kulubnarti respectively.[^34]

The Old Nubian fragments of the Martyrdom of Saint George have been
reconstructed on the basis of the Greek *editio princeps*, but find also
parallels in witnesses in several other languages.[^35] As to the Greek
version, it exhibits a text written in a Greek language characteristic
of late Christian Nubia,[^36] while its content seems to be a
combination of Greek and Coptic versions. This observation led the
editor of the Qasr Ibrim fragments to the hypothesis that the text is
either the result of a free choice from both sources or a Nubian edition
of an original narrative of the martyrdom antedating the Greek *editio
princeps*.[^37]

In terms of vocabulary, the Martyrdom of Saint George offers interesting
attestations in both versions:

In the Greek one, the term κομητοῦρα,[^38] a Latin loan-word also
attested in the *editio princeps*, is worthwhile to comment upon,
because it confirms the acquaintance of Nubians with Latin military
jargon, most probably as a result of an influx of Latin terms in
medieval Greek. Moreover, it is interesting that Roman military
correspondence has been unearthed at Qasr Ibrim,[^39] the site of
provenance of the Greek version of the Nubian martyrdom of Saint George.
The influence of Roman military practices in the Middle Nile region has
also been marked on the ground through the apparent similarities between
Roman forts and those built in the Middle Nile region during Late
Antiquity.[^40]

As far as the Old Nubian version of the Acta S. Georgii is concerned,
the most interesting term is ⲡⲁⲇⲁⳡⳝⲁⲣⲓ\[ⲗⲅⲟⲩⲗ\], which stands for the
Greek term σπαθάριος, or etymologically "those (soldiers) who carry
sword," combining the terms ⲡⲁⲇⲁⳡ for "sword" and ⳝⲁⲣ from ⲕⲁⲣⲣ for "to
grasp, hold".[^41] The shift from *kappa* to *jima* can be explained as
progressive assimilation under influence of the palatal nasal *nia*,
while the phenomenon of the incorporation of a noun into a verbal root
complex is attested in Old Nubian.[^42]

This etymological analysis may be compromised by the existence of the
Old Nubian word ⲕⲁⲣ meaning "shield," which could translate the term as
"the holder (sic) of the sword and the shield," but without any morpheme
explicating the coining of the two terms, unless it can be found in the
reconstructed part of the manuscript. Moreover, the existence of a Greek
Vorlage for the Acta S. Georgii gives good ground for accepting the
original etymological analysis, while the term ⲕⲁⲣ is only attested in a
passage of the Stauros-text, that the Coptic parallel text does not
preserve.[^43]

Finally, the analysis of ⲡⲁⲇⲁⳡⳝⲁⲣⲓ\[ⲗⲅⲟⲩⲗ\] as "those (soldiers) who
carry sword" opens the path for a new interpretation of another office
from the titulature used in Christian Nubia, namely ⲅⲟⲩⲕⲁⲣⲕⲟⲗ.

This term is attested in P.QI 3 30.37 & 41 and seems to derive its
etymology from the word ⲅⲟⲩⲉⲓ for "shield" or "armor" more generally.
The last element ⲕⲟⲗ defines "the one who has," forming a sort of a
participle. And the remaining three letters could again be interpreted
either as ⲕⲁⲣ meaning "shield" or as ⲕⲁⲣⲣ meaning "to grasp/hold". In my
opinion, it makes better sense to use the latter etymology and to see
ⲅⲟⲩⲕⲁⲣⲕⲟⲗ as a term defining the officer who is wielding the
shield.[^44] For this etymology to work, one must account for the
dropping of the final glide, a phenomenon which is not unattested.

The relation of this office with the "shield" brings to mind the Greek
title ὑπασπιστής, which means "the one who is under the shield" and
derives from the Macedonian military organization, where the hypaspistēs
were a sort of esquires.[^45] The office continued into the Byzantine
period and, according to Maspero the hypaspistēs were the guard of the
duces in Egypt,[^46] often composed of mercenaries, also including
"Ethiopians", a term used for the peoples leaving south of Egypt, but
which remains vague whether it denoted in the medieval era the Nubians
or the inhabitants of modern-day Ethiopia or both.[^47] The meaning
"guard" for hypaspistēs appears also in Byzantine sources of the 11^th^
century,[^48] while in later times the hypaspistēs were important
individuals close to the ruler, sort of retainers of the king.
Interestingly, the most renowned chronicle of the Fall of Constantinople
in 1453 was written by Georgios Frantzis who was -- among other things
-- the hypaspistēs of the last Byzantine Emperor, Constantine
Paleologos.[^49]

This interest lies with the fact that both instances of the term
ⲅⲟⲩⲕⲁⲣⲕⲟⲗ in the Old Nubian corpus derive from the royal proclamation
from Qasr Ibrim, examined in the section about Epimachos. Now, the first
instance is only preserved partially as ⲅⲟⲩⲕ ̀ⲕ ́ and has been
deciphered based on the second one, although they apparently refer to
different persons, first to someone called Papasa and then to someone
called Ounta. The first one accumulates several titles, mainly monastic,
palatial, and bureaucratic; the second one is a scribe. It is not
improbable that such individuals in Christian Nubia may also have
exercised military functions, as the etymology based on ⲅⲟⲩⲉⲓ for
"shield, armor" may indicate and the history of the term hypaspistēs in
Byzantine Egypt underlines, but it is equally probable that the office
meant in Makuria the same as in the later centuries in Byzantium, namely
an esquire. At least this seems, in my opinion, more fitting with Papasa
and Ounta in the service of king Moses George.

In any case, a military aura of the Makuritan royal court is very
plausible, given, among other things, the certainly important role that
the king played in warfare, as is attested in the Arabic sources
referring to Christian Nubia, where the king always appears as the
leader of the Nubian armies. We could look for example at this same king
Moses George who stamped with hot iron a cross on the hand of the
emissary of none less than Saladin, when he was asked to subdue and
convert to Islam[^50]; or much earlier in the 8^th^ century, when king
Kyriakos invaded Egypt and caused chaos there attempting to liberate the
imprisoned patriarch Michael[^51]; or even in the heroic defense of
Dongola in the 7^th^ century by king Qalidurut who signed the
much-discussed *baqt* with Abdalla ibn Sa'd.[^52] During the siege, the
world came to know the might of the Nubian archers who were praised by
the Arabic chroniclers and poets for centuries to come. The Old Nubian
word for bow is attested once in a passage translated from Greek
Patristic literature: ⲇⲁⲙⲁⲣ. Interestingly, in the OND, this term is
linked etymologically with the Dongolawi/Andaandi *tungur*, which has a
striking phonetic similarity with the Old Nubian toponym for the
Makuritan capital, namely ⲧⲟⲩⲅⲅⲟⲩⲗ. Although the term tungur for "bow"
seems unrelated to the accepted etymologies of ⲧⲟⲩⲅⲅⲟⲩⲗ,[^53] it cannot
be excluded that the inhabitants of Dongola associated their city with
the war technique that their ancestors became famous for, and they
themselves surely still practiced. This is a line of thought that might
be worth investigating further in a future study.

# The ⲥⲟⳟⲟⳝ of Heavens and the Archistratēgos of the Makuritan King

Mercurios and George were sanctified and as stratēlates were
posthumously surely manning the celestial hosts in their perennial and
eternal fight against evil, along with Epimachos and the other military
saints of Nubia. In this superhuman afterlife, the martyrs would thus be
expected to join forces with the archistratēgos of heavens, the leader
of the angelic hosts, the archangel Michael.

Characteristically, the swords that Mercurios holds in his
representations in Coptic art as Abu Sayfayn are given to him by Michael
as narrated in the *Encomium of Acacius, Bishop of Caesarea, on
Mercurius the Martyr*.[^54] It seems that the Nubians were aware of that
story and while preserving the spear as weapon of the mounted Saint
Mercurios in the cathedral of Faras, they represented on the adjoining
wall Michael offering the sword to the saint.[^55]

The archangel Michael is the most venerated celestial being in the
Christian pantheon of medieval Nubia with innumerable sources dedicated
to his cult.[^56] One of the most popular aspects of the archangel's
cult is an apocryphal work called "The Book of the Investiture of the
Archangel Michael," which describes -- among other things -- the fall of
Mastema (i.e. the devil) from Heaven due to his objection to venerate
Adam as an image of God and his replacement by Michael who thence
becomes protector of the humans and leader/archistratēgos of the angelic
hosts.[^57]

A lot has been written about the importance of this work in Nubia.[^58]
One important element in the discussion is the coincidence that the
focal passage of the entire work -- the scene of the Investiture of
Michael -- is the only thing narrated in the two versions fragmentarily
preserved in two Nubian manuscripts: one in Greek from Serra East and
one in Old Nubian from Qasr Ibrim.[^59] Among other insights that this
coincidence offers, there is one that obtains a special importance in
the context of the present paper, namely that the word that translates
the Greek term ἀρχιστράτηγος in Old Nubian is ⲥⲟⳟⲟⳝ, which is most
probably the term used to define an Eparch of the Makuritan
kingdom,[^60] more often than not (but not exclusively) linked with the
Late Antique kingdom of Nobadia controlling between the 4^th^-5^th^ and
the 6^th^-7^th^ centuries Lower Nubia.

There are, however, more Eparchs attested in the Nubian sources than
just the Eparch of Nobadia. Whether all Eparchs were Songoj or whether
all Eparchs had (also) a military function, it is impossible to
ascertain. The Eparch of Nobadia though (the Migin Songoj of the Nubian
texts) seems to be the same term as the "Lord of the Mountain," which is
attested in Arabic sources and although apparently linked with economic
activities (an idea based on the nature of the documents in which the
title appears) he was also understood as a military officer and also
called "Lord of the Horses."[^61] Suffice to be reminded here that
military saints in Nubia were mostly depicted on horseback.[^62]

One more detail from the field of Nubian iconography: a mural from Faras
housed at the National Museum of Warsaw represents an unnamed Eparch who
holds a bow,[^63] perhaps the weapon par excellence of Nubians, as we
mentioned in the reference to the successful defense of Dongola against
the invading Islamic army in the 7^th^ century. Admittedly, this is not
the only representation of an Eparch from Christian Nubia, but the sole
iconographic witness of the links between the Eparch and warfare.

So, although the title of the Eparch may have been used for a variety of
functions in the Makuritan state, the military one should not be doubted
based on the translation of ἀρχιστράτηγος as ⲥⲟⳟⲟⳝ in the Book of the
Investiture of the Archangel Michael. All this is of course the result
of the identification of the titles Eparch and ⲥⲟⳟⲟⳝ. This
identification is quite certain for some contexts, but during the
centuries (at least six) that it was in use the terms may have shifted
semantic fields. So, it is plausible that the term ⲥⲟⳟⲟⳝ translating the
Greek ἀρχιστράτηγος was a military office that supplemented the civil
functions of the Eparch, an office for which the Old Nubian term is
unknown -- if it ever existed. On the same token, one may be reminded of
the existence of the offices of *peseto* and *pelmos* in Meroitic Lower
Nubia, the former having civil functions and the latter military
ones.[^64]

Leaving aside this necessary and eventually inevitable nuancing for a
different venue, it may be concluded in the context of the present paper
that the Songoj/Eparch was (also) the archistratēgos of the Makuritan
king, a sort of a *præfectus prætorio* or ἔπαρχος στρατευμάτων.[^65]

Hence, a complementary working hypothesis can be advanced. In the Greek
version of the Book of the Investiture of the Archangel Michael, we get
a detailed description of the celestial ceremony of investiture, where
Michael is receiving the garments of his new function, the uniform of
the archistratēgos. In the first instance that the military character of
the archangel's dress is mentioned, the garments are called
στρατοπεδαρχίας ἀμφιάσματα, "the clothes of the chief of the military
encampment." The Old Nubian text prefers again to state that Michael was
dressed in the garment of the office of the ⲥⲟⳟⲟⳝ. So, it seems that for
the Makuritans the Songoj was an army general presiding over an
encampment. Was this encampment permanent? Or did the role apply to the
leadership of a special type of unit stationed at a given locality? And
to what degree such στρατοπεδαρχίαι reflect the local authority that
eventually the various Eparchs attested in our sources had? These
questions should remain open until new discoveries and a more thorough
study of the material takes place.

# War on the Nile

There is a last aspect that is worthwhile a comment in the framework of
the present paper. The dimensions of warfare discussed hereby all seem
to refer to land forces. However, the most characteristic element of the
Nubian civilization is its relation with the River Nile. Therefore, its
navigation cannot have left unaffected the military exploits of
Christian Nubians. Actually, it has already been suggested that the
placement of the fortresses of Makuria along the banks of the Nile
necessitated the existence of a fleet which could transport the army and
vital provisions in case of a land attack from intruders, be they desert
marauders or the Egyptian army.[^66] Unfortunately, there is very little
in our sources that gives information about the naval forces of the
Makuritans. Moreover, what is known about navigation on the Nile in
terms of Old Nubian vocabulary has already been presented and this
material includes nothing that points with certainty to warfare.[^67]

There exists, however, one title in Greek, namely ναυάρχης, for
ναύαρχος, meaning "admiral," who has been already seen as the leader of
the fleet transporting goods and military units to the Makuritan
fortresses.[^68] Furthermore, there should be no doubt that an "admiral"
was always in existence in Nubia, since we know of a "strategos of the
water" from Meroitic times.[^69] Now, it has been shown in an early
study of the titles and honorific epithets from Nubia that ναυάρχης,
albeit of apparently Byzantine inspiration, was not the preferred
*terminus technicus* for a Byzantine "admiral," but it was mainly to be
found in literary works.[^70] Thus, it is worthwhile enquiring whether
the Makuritans did not make some bookish research in order to find the
term that they would use for their admiral, as it seems that they have
done in other occasions, like in the accumulation of terms for "king" in
the renowned Kudanbes inscription, which -- rather unsurprisingly under
this light -- is one of the places where the term ναυάρχης is being
attested.[^71]

# Concluding Remarks

It would be difficult to pronounce a set of conclusions from this study
that aimed primarily at assembling lexicographical data about warfare in
Christian Nubia. Previous research has already traced the outlines of
the influence of Greek terminology upon the way Nubians created their
own titles and honorific epithets and there has not been found any new
military terms or words of weaponry that can be added to OND. However,
new apprehension of a couple of words on war was proposed here, while
the revisiting of both literary and documentary sources has offered a
reappraisal of some others and the nuancing of their contextualization
against the background of the Makuritan Christian kingdom, undoubtedly
involved in wars along its history and across the classes of its social
stratification. Finally, it is perhaps the main contribution of this
paper to show the potential of teasing out information about neglected
aspects of the Nubian past from a careful and educated but also bold and
imaginative reading of the available material.

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[^1]: The author would like to thank Adam [Łajtar and
    Vincent W.J. van Gerven Oei for their reviews of this study.

[^2]: For a general presentation, see [Welsby, *The
    Medieval Kingdoms of Nubia*, pp. 78-82.

[^3]: Edwards, "The *Christianisation* of *Nubia*: some
    archaeological pointers", p. 89

[^4]: Hafsaas-Tsakos, *War on the Southern Frontier of the Emerging
    State of Ancient Egypt*.

[^5]: Hafsaas-Tsakos, "Edges of bronze and expressions of masculinity:
    The emergence of a warrior class at Kerma in Sudan".

[^6]: [Welsby, *The Kingdom of Kush*, pp. 39-50.

[^7]: [Francigny, *Les coutumes funéraires dans le royaume
    de Méroé*.

[^8]: [Lenoble, *El-Hobagi*.

[^9]: [Crawford, *Castles and Churches in the Middle Nile
    Region.*

[^10]: [Drzewiecki, *Mighty Kingdoms and their Forts.*

[^11]: [Vantini, *Oriental Sources Concerning Nubia*;
    [Seignobos, *L'Égypte et la Nubie à l'époque
    médiévale.*

[^12]: [Edwards, "Slavery and Slaving in the Medieval and
    Post-Medieval Kingdoms of the Middle Nile".

[^13]: All the Old Nubian words assembled in this study can be found in
    [Browne, Old Nubian Dictionary (hence OND).

[^14]: [Frend, "The Cult of Military Saints in Christian
    Nubia".

[^15]: For the correction of the date from 1156, see
    [Ruffini, *Medieval Nubia: A Social and Economic
    History*, pp. 265-70.

[^16]: The same church may be the object of two more documents, i.e.
    P.QI 3 40 & P.QI 3 53.

[^17]: Here a corrigendum to P.Attiri 1.ii.1 from \[ⲁⲛ\] to \[ⲇⲓ\]
    should be noted, see [Van Gerven Oei e.a., *The Old
    Nubian Texts from Attiri*, p. 39.

[^18]: [Khalil, *Wörterbuch der nubischen Sprache*, p. 41.

[^19]: The word ⲇⲓⳟⲧ̄ for "wrestling" is totally reconstructed in OND and
    is not considered in the present discussion.

[^20]: [Łajtar, *A Late Christian Pilgrimage Centre in
    Nubia. The Evidence of Wall Inscriptions in the Upper Church at
    Banganarti*, pp. 383-385 (inscription nr. 578). The citation is from
    p. 384.

[^21]: Idem, p. 562-3 and inscription 964.

[^22]: [Tsakos, "Miscellanea Epigraphica Nubica III:
    Epimachos of Attiri: a Warrior Saint of Late Christian Nubia", pp.
    215-7.

[^23]: [Esbroeck, "Epimachus of Pelusium, Saint", *Coptic
    Encyclopedia*, pp. 965b-967a.

[^24]: [Van der Vliet, *I. Khartoum Copt.*, pp. 83-4 (nr.
    24).

[^25]: [Browne, "An Old Nubian Version of the Martyrdom of
    Saint Epimachus" and "An Old Nubian translation of the Martyrdom of
    Saint Epimachus".

[^26]: See [Tsakos, "Miscellanea Epigraphica Nubica III:
    Epimachos of Attiri: a Warrior Saint of Late Christian Nubia", p.
    213 with an image of the plaque and pp. 220-1 for the other
    representations with references

[^27]: [Frend, "The Cult of Military Saints in Christian
    Nubia", pp. 156-8.

[^28]: For the reference, see Idem, p. 157 and note 9.

[^29]: [Piankoff, "Peintures au monastère de Saint
    Antoine", p. 160 and ill. IV.

[^30]: [Esbroeck, "Mercurius of Caesarea, Saint", pp.
    1593b-1594a.

[^31]: See [Frend, "The Cult of Military Saints in
    Christian Nubia", p. 157 for references.

[^32]: [Vantini, *Oriental Sources Concerning Nubia*, p.
    40; [Seignobos, *L'Égypte et la Nubie à l'époque
    médiévale*, p. 96.

[^33]: [Tsakos, "The Christianization of Nubia".

[^34]: For the find from Qasr Ibrim, see [Frend, "Fragments
    of a version of the Acta S. Georgii from Q\'asr Ibrim". For the find
    from Kulubnarti, see [Browne, *The Old Nubian Martyrdom
    of Saint George*.

[^35]: [Browne, ibid., p. 1-3.

[^36]: For the general characteristics of Greek in Late Christian Nubia,
    see [Łajtar, *A Late Christian Pilgrimage Centre in
    Nubia. The Evidence of Wall Inscriptions in the Upper Church at
    Banganarti*, pp. 20-30.

[^37]: [Frend, "Fragments of a version of the Acta S.
    Georgii from Q\'asr Ibrim", pp. 103-4.

[^38]: Idem., p. 94.

[^39]: See [Derda and [Łajtar, "Greek and
    Latin papyri from the Egypt Exploration Society excavations at Qasr
    Ibrim: A testimony to the Roman army in Upper Egypt and Lower Nubia
    in the first years of Augustus", p. 185; [Derda and
    [Łajtar, "The Roman Occupation of Qasr Ibrim as
    Reflected in the Greek Papyri from the Site", pp. 105-6 and notes 1
    and 2 for references.

[^40]: [Drzewiecki, "Roman Type Forts in the Middle Nile
    Valley. Late Antique Fortlets between Patterns of Roman Military
    Architecture and Local Tradition".

[^41]: [Browne, *The Old Nubian Martyrdom of Saint George*,
    p. 11.

[^42]: For the phenomenon of "incorporation", see [Van Gerven
    Oei, *A Reference Grammar of Old Nubian*, §15.1.3.4.

[^43]: This passage has been interpreted as a later interpolation by the
    copyist of the original work in Old Nubian, see [Van Gerven
    Oei and [Tsakos, "Apostolic Memoirs in Old
    Nubian".

[^44]: It should be noted that two more terms may be linked with ⲅⲟⲩⲉⲓ
    for "shield": the first is ⲅⲟⲩϣ (or ⲅⲟⲩⲥ), perhaps from ⲅⲟⲩⲉⲓ for
    "shield" and ϣⲁ for "spear", but [Osman, "The
    Post-Medieval Kingdom of Kokka: A Means for a Better Understanding
    of the Administration of the Medieval Kingdom of Dongola", p. 191
    proposes an alternative explanation of the word, albeit still
    interpreted as a military title; and the second is ⲅⲟⲩⲁⲇ, about
    which there is even less certainty.

[^45]: [Foulon, "Hypaspistes, peltastes, chrysaspides,
    argyraspides, chalcaspides".

[^46]: [Maspero, *Organisation militaire de l'Égypte
    byzantine*, pp. 66-68.

[^47]: For an up-to-date discussion of the issue, see
    [Simmons, *Nubia, Ethiopia, and the Crusading World,
    1095-1402*.

[^48]: [Ostrogorsky, "Observations on the Aristocracy in
    Byzantium", pp. 13-14

[^49]: [Koukounas, *Georgios Phrantzes, Chronicon*.

[^50]: [Vantini, *Oriental Sources Concerning Nubia*, p.
    369-70.

[^51]: [Vantini, *Oriental Sources Concerning Nubia*, p.
    329; [Seignobos, *L'Égypte et la Nubie à l'époque
    médiévale*, p. 93-112.

[^52]: [Vantini, *Oriental Sources Concerning Nubia*, p.
    639; [Seignobos, *L'Égypte et la Nubie à l'époque
    médiévale*, p. 53-91.

[^53]: [Łajtar, "On the Name of the Capital of the Nubian
    Kingdom of Makuria".

[^54]: [Budge, *Miscellaneous Texts in the Dialect of Upper
    Egypt*, pp. 858-61.

[^55]: [Zielińska and [Tsakos,
    "Representations of the Archangel Michael in Wall Paintings from
    Christian Nubia", pp. 85-6.

[^56]: [Tsakos, "Sources about the cult and persona of the
    archangel Michael in Nubia".

[^57]: For the use of the title archistratēgos for the archangel
    Raphael, see [Łajtar, *A Late Christian Pilgrimage
    Centre in Nubia. The Evidence of Wall Inscriptions in the Upper
    Church at Banganarti*, p. 46.

[^58]: [Tsakos, "The Liber Institutionis Michaelis in
    Medieval Nubia".

[^59]: About this coincidence, see [Browne, "Old Nubian
    literature", p. 382 and [Tsakos "Textual finds from
    Cerre Matto".

[^60]: [Ruffini, *Medieval Nubia: A Social and Economic
    History*, pp. 34-5.

[^61]: [Seignobos, *L'Égypte et la Nubie à l'époque
    médiévale*, p. 198 and note 158.

[^62]: For examples of the contrary, see
    [Martens-Czarnecka, *The Wall Paintings from the
    Monastery on Kom H in Dongola*, pp. 207-13.

[^63]: [Michalowski, *Faras - Wall Paintings in the
    Collection of the National Museum in Warsaw*, nr. 61, p. 263;
    [Jakobielski e.a., *Pachoras/Faras: The Wall Paintings
    from the Cathedrals of Aetios, Paulos and Petros*, nr. 138, pp.
    419-22.

[^64]: For a discussion framed as background for an analysis of the
    title "Eparch of Nobadia," see [Hendrickx, "The "Lord
    of the Mountain". A Study of the Nubian *eparchos of Nobadia*".

[^65]: [Mason, *Greek Terms for Roman Institutions: A
    Lexicon and Analysis*, pp. 138-40.

[^66]: [Żurawski, "Strongholds on the Middle Nile: Nubian
    Fortifications of the Middle Ages", pp. 115-8.

[^67]: [Tsakos, "Terms for Boats and Navigation in Old
    Nubia".

[^68]: [Żurawski, "Strongholds on the Middle Nile: Nubian
    Fortifications of the Middle Ages", p. 116.

[^69]: [Welsby, *The Kingdom of Kush*, p. 40

[^70]: [Hägg, "Titles and honorific epithets in Nubian
    Greek texts", pp. 161-2.

[^71]: [Griffith, "Christian Documents from Nubia", pp.
    134-45; [Łajtar, "The so-called Kudanbes Inscription in
    Deir Anba Hadra (St. Simeon Monastery) near Aswan: An Attempt at a
    New Reading and Interpretation".