diff --git a/content/article/adamsimmons.md b/content/article/adamsimmons.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..708333e --- /dev/null +++ b/content/article/adamsimmons.md @@ -0,0 +1,468 @@ +--- +title: "A Short Note on Queen Gaua: A New Last Known Ruler of Dotawo (r. around +1520-6)?" +authors: ["adamsimmons.md"] +abstract: +keywords: [] +--- + +The Nubian Christian kingdom of Dotawo, which was the product of the +unification between the kingdoms of Makuria and Alwa, is attested in Old +Nubian sources from the eleventh century to the late fifteenth +century.[^1] Spanning from Aswan to an unknown distance beyond the +confluence of the White and Blue Niles, this region had been politically +Christian since the sixth century. The last *ourou* ("king") of Dotawo +named in Old Nubian sources is Joel \[II\], who reigned between at least +1463 and 1483.[^2] His reign is often seen as reflecting the last period +of the Christian Kingdom of Dotawo before the kingdom witnessed +increasing strain, and ultimate collapse, following the Funj conquest of +Soba in 1504 and their establishment along the Nile. How long this +process took remains open for debate. The next known named ruler in the +surviving corpus is Ḥasan *walad* Kuškuš, Muslim *mekk* ("king": Funj +title akin to Arabic *al-malik*) of Dongola in the 1680s, seemingly +after the disintegration of the Christian kingdom.[^3] + +This short note wishes to highlight another named ruler, a Queen +Gaua,[^4] who was first mentioned by the Portuguese historian João de +Barros in his imperial history entitled the *Terceira Década da Ásia* +("Third Decade of Asia"), published in 1563. Her reign can be dated to +encompass the early 1520s as she is said to have sent an embassy to +Ethiopia as the Portuguese were resident at the Ethiopian court which +would date this embassy between 1520 and 1526: the dates that the +Portuguese arrived and left the Ethiopian kingdom. To date, she has +hitherto been overlooked but she offers a significant anomaly in our +current understanding of Christian Nubia: Gaua would be the only known +female ruler to hold power throughout Christian Nubian history. Her +reign also comes during a period of almost complete source silence, both +internally and by external observers. Whether Gaua was a ruler of Dotawo +or of a successor kingdom cannot be explored adequately here. As such, +it is not the intention of this short note to explore the many questions +her reign asks in-depth, but, rather, to offer some initial +interpretations which shall receive greater attention at a later date. + +Unlike the text of Francisco Álvares, a Portuguese Franciscan who was +part of the Portuguese embassy to Ethiopia between 1520 and 1526 and who +related a few comments about a people he called the *Nobiis*, which is +known in Nubian Studies, the work of João de Barros remains +overlooked.[^5] Before looking at the text of Barros, here is the most +significant passage by Álvares for our purposes: + +> E contra ho norte confinam estes bellomos com una gente que se chamam +> Nobiis: & estes dizem que foram xp̃aos & regidos por Roma. Ouvi a hum +> homem Suriano natural de Tripulli de Suria, & se chama Joam de Suria +> (que andou com nosco tres annos na terra do Preste, & veyo comnosco a +> Portugal): que fora nesta terra, & que ha nella cento & cincoenta +> igrejas: & que ainda tem crucifixos & imagemes de Nossa Senhora: & +> outras imagemes pintadas pollas paredes & tudo velho: & ha gente da +> terra nam sam christãos, mouros, nem judeus: & que vivem com desejos +> de serem christãos. Estas igrejas todas estam em fortalezas velhas +> antigas que ha polla terra: & quantas fortalezas ha tantas igrejas +> tem. E sendo nos na terra do Preste Joam vieram de aquella terra leis +> homemes aho mesmo Preste como embaixadores, pedindolhe que lhes +> mandasse clerigos & frades que hos ensinassem: & elle hos nam quis +> mandar, & deziam que lhes disera, que elle havia ho seu Abima da terra +> dos mouros .f. do Patriarca de Alexandria que estava em poder de +> mouros: como poderia elle dar clerigos & frades, pois outro lhos dava? +> & assi se tornaram. Dizem que estes antigamente haviam tudo de Roma, & +> que ha grandes tempos que lhe falleceo hum Bispo que de Roma tinham: & +> pollas guerras dos mouros, nam poderam haver outro: & assi careceram +> de toda ha clerecia & de toda sua christandade. Estes confinam com +> Egipto & dizem haver nesta terra muyto ouro & fino: & jaz esta terra +> de tromte de çuaquem que he perto do mar roxo: & sam estas senhorias +> de Nobiis de aquem & dalem Nillo: & dizem que quantas sam has +> fortalezas, tantos sam hos capitães: nam tem rey senam capitães.[^6] +> +> Towards the north, these Bellonos border upon a people who are called +> Nobiis: and they say that they had \[once\] been Christians and ruled +> from Rome. I heard from a Syrian man, a native of Tripoli of Syria, +> who was called John of Syria (he accompanied us for three years in the +> Prester's country, and came with us to Portugal), that he had been to +> this country, and that there are a hundred and fifty churches in it, +> which still contain crucifixes and images of Our Lady, and other +> images painted on the walls. All are old. And the people of this +> country are neither Christians, Moors, nor Jews; and that they live in +> the desire to become Christians. These churches are all in ancient old +> castles which are \[dotted\] throughout the country; and as many +> castles there are, so there are as many churches. While we were in the +> country of Prester John there came six men from that country \[of the +> Nobiis\] as ambassadors to the Prester himself, begging him to send +> them priests and friars to teach them. He did not send them; and it +> was said that he told them that \[Ethiopia\] had the Abun from the +> country of the Moors, that is to say from the Patriarch of Alexandria, +> who is under the rule of the Moors; how could he give priests and +> friars when \[it was the power of\] another to give them. And so \[the +> ambassadors\] returned. They say that in ancient times these people +> had everything from Rome, and that it was a very long time ago that a +> bishop had died, whom they had got from Rome, \[but\] on account of +> the wars of the Moors they could not get another, and so they lost all +> their clergy and their Christianity. These \[Nobiis\] border up to +> Egypt, and they say that they have much fine gold in their country. +> This country lies in front of Suakin, which is close to the Red Sea. +> The lordships of the Nobiis are on both sides of the Nile, and they +> say that as many castles as there are, so \[too are as\] many +> captains: they have no king, but only captains. + +Álvares' account was first published in 1540 and, while a second +printing in Italian in 1550 shows some changes, the content remains +largely the same in this instance.[^7] Elsewhere in his narrative +Álvares also highlights the strength of these *Nobiis*, saying that on +their frontier regions there are four or five hundred cavalry who were +great warriors, that the kingdom was well supplied, and that only a +short time ago they killed the son of the Ethiopian Bäḥr Nǝguś ("ruler +of the sea"), a quasi-independent regional ruler centred in modern +Eritrea within the dominion of the Ethiopian *Nǝguś* ("king") Lǝbnä +Dǝngǝl (r. 1508-40), though no great detail about this conflict is +forthcoming.[^8] Álvares portrays a kingdom which is both simultaneously +fragmented and apparently in decline, yet militarily strong. + +The text of João de Barros equally relates the embassy but adds one +additional key detail to the text of Álvares: Nubia was actually ruled +by a queen called Gaua. The career of João de Barros (b. 1496-d. 1570) +had him at the centre of Portuguese imperial affairs throughout his +life.[^9] Educated at the palace of Dom Manuel I (r.1495-1521), his +career saw him hold numerous roles: notably having a brief stint as +captain of São Jorge da Mina (1524-5), becoming treasurer of the Casa da +Índia (1525-8), and receiving a captaincy which made him a driving force +behind the Portuguese colonisation of the region of Maranhão in Brazil +from 1539. Following a stroke, he retired in 1567, returning to +Portugal, before dying of another stroke in 1570. He wrote numerous +published and unpublished works. His four-volume history of the +Portuguese in India, the *Décadas da Ásia* (1552-1615), is the most +well-known and is a key set of texts for chronicling the history of the +first two centuries of the Portuguese empire and are remarkably +well-informed.[^10] Whether the noting of Queen Gaua remained an +oversight on the part of Álvares or was contained in lost unpublished +manuscripts remains impossible to know. + +In a passage in Book Four, Chapter Two of the *Terceira Década* *da +Ásia* Barros makes note of a Queen of Nubia (*Nobia*), who the +Ethiopians (*Abasiis*) called Gaua, and who was said to be "not of small +stature" (*nam de pequeno estádo*)[^11] and had sent an embassy to +Ethiopia.[^12] Given the two descriptions of a Nubian embassy being sent +to Ethiopia concerned with the same issue of requiring clerics, it would +appear that both Álvares and Barros were describing the same event. It +was likely while treasurer of the Casa da Índia at the heart of the +Portuguese imperial project that Barros had heard news or viewed +documents relating to a Queen Gaua of Nubia soon after her embassy had +arrived in Ethiopia. Nothing else is said of this queen. For example, it +is not made known how long this Queen Gaua had ruled or would rule. The +wider passage is about the Queen of Sheba in Ethiopian tradition, +describing her as a Candace (*kandake*: "queen" or "queen-mother") of +Meroë before leading on to a passage about Gaua inserted within the +broader narrative. The section concerning Gaua relates: + +> \[INSERT IMAGE\] +> +> João de Barros. *Terceira Década da Ásia*. Lisbon: Impressa per João +> Barreira, 1563, fo. 88, Mi,v. +> +> E ainda que nam seja com nome de Candaçe, sabemos que quásy naquelles +> confiis que dissemos oje rey na huma molhęr, & nam de pequeno estádo: +> a qual os mesmos Abasiis chamão Gaua. Nas tęrras de qual, +> prinçipalmente nas que sam da regiam a que chamámos Nobia, & os +> Abexiis Nobá, algũus dos nósses que aly foram, viram muytos templos da +> Christiandáde que aquella tęrra teue: os quáes jaziam aruinados das +> mãos dis mouros, & em algũas paredes imagenes de sanctos pintádas. E a +> causa desta destruiçam segundo elles diziam: foy serem desemparádos +> igreja Romana, por razá do grande numero de mouros que ons tinham +> çercádo. E sendo os nossos na corte de Pręste Ioam, em companhia de +> hum embaixador que Diogo López de Sequeira desta vez do porto de +> Arquico lhe mandou (como logo veremos): esta Gaua raynha daquelles +> Nobiis, mandou pedir ao mesmo Pręste per seus embaixadores, que lhe +> mandasse clerigos & frádes pera lhe reformar o seu povo, que com a +> entráda dos mouros avia muyto tempo que estáva sem doctrina +> Evangęlica, pom am poderem aver Bispo Romano como já tevęram. Ao que o +> Pręste respondeo que o nam podia fazer, porque tandem o seu Abuna, +> debaixo da doctrina do qual estava toda a igreja da Ethiópia: elle os +> avia do Patriarcha Alexandrino que estáva entre os mouros, & sem +> recádo do que pediam se tornaram estes embaixadores da Gaua. +> +> And even though she is not named Candace, we know that in this region +> they say that the king today is a woman, and \[she\] is not of small +> stature: who these Abyssinians call Gaua. These lands are principally +> those which we call Nubia and the Abyssinians call Noba. Some of our +> people who went there saw many Christian temples that belonged to the +> land: they lay in ruins from the hands of the Muslims, and on some +> walls there were painted images of saints. The cause of their +> destruction, according to what they said, was that they were abandoned +> by the Roman Church because they had become surrounded by a large +> number of Muslims. And to the court of Prester John, in the company of +> the ambassador who Diogo López de Sequeira had sent to the port of +> Arkiko (as we will see), this Queen Gaua of the Nubians sent to the +> same Prester her ambassadors to ask for clerics and friars to be sent +> to Nubia to reform her people, who, as a result of Muslim incursion, +> had been without Christian doctrine for a long time so that they could +> see a Roman bishop as they used to have. The Prester replied that he +> could not do this, as they had the Abun, whose authority oversaw all +> of the Ethiopian Church: he had been sent from the Alexandrian +> Patriarch who was among the Muslims. No more \[information\] was +> received of what became of these ambassadors of Gaua. + +While clearly the passage is portraying a Latin discourse onto Nubia +with the suggestion that they sought Latin Christian priests -- Bishop +Tivoli was made first Latin Christian Bishop of Dongola in 1330, though +likely only in name, following a period of increasing relations between +Nubia and Latin Europe -- it should not be dismissed out of hand.[^13] +Indeed, the *Noba* (ኖባ) were the Nubians in Ethiopian Gəʿəz texts, as +can be witnessed in the account of the monk Täklä ʾÄlfa who travelled +through Dongola in 1596 as a near contemporary example.[^14] The +fundamental elements of the text, Gaua's name and the act of sending an +embassy to Ethiopia, need to be taken into consideration and not +dismissed as purely Latin Christian hearsay and rumours. For instance, +firstly, it is notable that Gaua could readily be a form of the female +name Jawe (ⳝⲁⲩⲉ), known in at least one c. tenth-century Old Nubian text +regarding somebody described as the wife (ⲉⲧ̅ⲧⲟⲩ ⳝⲁⲩⲉ: lit. "his wife +Jawe") of Ṅešš of Atwa in a colophon of a hymn to the Cross and +discourse on Christ, when rendered into Portuguese.[^15] While error and +conflation are often a feature of European texts writing about regions +of Africa without direct authorial experience, Barros does appear to be +referencing a Nubian queen rather than combining different pieces of +information. It should be said that a contemporary female ruler called +Gaʿəwa is recorded in both Arabic and Gəʿəz sources as leading the +Sultanate of Säläwa/Mäzäga in Tigray from 1534 (initially as her brother +the sultan lay dying) until at least 1558. She allied with Aḥmad ibn +Ibrāhīm al-Ġāzī, the initial leader of a period of Muslim conquest +within the Kingdom of Ethiopia until the latter was killed in battle by +Ethiopian forces in 1543, before Gaʿəwa then allied with his +followers.[^16] Barros certainly would have had ample opportunity to +learn about this other Gaʿəwa prior to the publication of his *Terceira* +*Década* in 1563 which could have resulted in a later conflation. +However, Gaʿəwa is never portrayed as a Christian ruler -- which her +later nominal association with the tenth-century destruction of the +pagan Queen Gudit, who also became to be known as Gaʿəwa by some as a +result, attests -- let alone a ruler who would have wanted Christian +clerics sent to her kingdom, and it is unknown how much power she held +in the early 1520s in any case. Moreover, her kingdom was to the east of +the Kingdom of Ethiopia towards the Red Sea, whereas Barros makes clear +that he intended the region of the Nile Valley below Egypt in his text. +It would therefore appear that any similarly in name between the Nubian +Gaua/Jawe and the Ethiopian Gaʿəwa is purely coincidental and need not +necessarily result in any uncritical dismissal of the possibility of +Gaua as a Nubian queen. + +Despite being the only known female Nubian Christian ruler in the +surviving corpus, it is unclear how unique, or indeed even unremarkable, +Gaua's reign may actually have been given the fragmentary nature of our +knowledge of rulers in general. Indeed, her reign poses questions +regarding the commonality of the ability of daughters and nieces to be +able to assume the throne akin to sons and nephews, whether as a sole +heir or as a rival to a male challenger. Alternatively, she may have +been acting as regent for a child male *ourou* and not an outright ruler +after all, yet was still somebody who wielded significant power.[^17] In +the absence of another illustrative Nubian scenario, a similar +contemporary example of the latter situation can be found in +neighbouring Ethiopia where an embassy was sent to Lisbon in 1509 by +dowager queen Ǝleni, the acting primary regent for her adoptive +great-grandson Lǝbnä Dǝngǝl who would not become of age to rule +independently until 1516. She had held significant influence at the +Ethiopian court since the 1440s: Solomonic Ethiopia only witnessed one +outright female ruler (Zäwditu, r. 1916-30) in its history between 1270 +and 1974. Secondly, while the request for Latin Christian priests was in +all likelihood a Portuguese fallacy, requesting aid from its sister +church in Ethiopia would otherwise make sense for a ruler of Nubia. The +relationship between the Churches of Nubia and Ethiopia is remarkably +seldom featured in either internal or external sources beyond noting its +existence. Nevertheless, these were not two disconnected Christian +neighbours. Despite this passage, it remains unclear whether Dotawo +continued to function in the same form into this latter period or had +morphed into something new. + +Questions remain regarding the territorial extent of Dotawo after Joel +\[II\]. Indeed, while it is commonly assumed that the capital at Dongola +relocated to Daw in 1365, both archaeological and textual evidence is by +no means conclusive and remains open to the possibility for a new +narrative: this will surely come to light in future work, but it is not +for this brief note here to discuss this any further beyond providing a +few key details for initial consideration. The most southern Ottoman +permanent presence during this period was established at Sai Island by +the late sixteenth century -- though they appear to have had increasing +influence as far south as Hannek -- whereas Funj evidence does not +suggest any prominent offensive into Nubian territory beyond Soba until +the second decade of the seventeenth century, leaving a region along the +Nile, which significantly included Dongola, potentially stretching as +much as c.170 miles unconquered.[^18] In turn, given this reference to +Gaua, a picture can be painted which highlights the possibility for the +continuing functioning of a Christian kingdom centred at Dongola between +both the Ottomans and the Funj for at least a century after 1504. It is +also not until this mid-seventeenth-century period where archaeology is +increasingly dating new urban developments in Dongola.[^19] Such +developments may potentially speak to a later dating to the eventual +Funj conquest and subsequent submission of Dongola as a client kingdom +to the Funj under rulers such as *mekk* Ḥasan *walad* Kuškuš if such +evidence is to be viewed in this way. The acknowledgement of Gaua now +poses even more questions for our understanding of sixteenth-century +Nubia and further adds fuel to the need for a continual re-evaluation of +this later period of Christian Nubian history prior to the *true* onset +of the Ottoman and Funj periods. + +Bibliography + +Sources + +ÁLVARES, Francisco. *Verdadeira informaçam das terras do Preste Joãm*. +Lisbon: Impressa per Luis Rodrigues, 1540. + +---------. "Viaggio fatto nella Ethiopia per don Francesco Alvarez +Portoghese." In *Primo volume delle navigationi et viaggi nel qual si +contiene la descrittione dell'Africa, et del paese del Prete Ianni, con +varii viaggi, dal mar Rosso a Calicut & infin all'isole Molucche, dove +nascono le Spetiere et la navigatione attorno il mondo: li nomi de gli +auttori, et le navigationi, et i viaggi piu particolarmente si mostrano +nel foglio seguente*, edited by Giovanni Batista Ramusio. Venice: +Appresso gli Heredi di Lucantonio Giunti, 1550. + +DE BARROS, João. *Ásia de Joam de Barros, dos fectos que os Portugueses +fizeram no descobrimento et conquista dos mares et terras do Oriente*. +Lisbon: Impressa per Germão Galharde, 1552. + +---------. *Quarta* *Década da Ásia*, edited by João Baptista Lavanha. +Madrid: Impressão Real, 1615. + +---------. *Segunda* *Década da Ásia* (Lisbon: Impressa per Germão +Galharde, 1553. + +---------. *Terceira* *Década da Ásia* (Lisbon: Impressa per João +Barreira, 1563. + +FAḌL ḤASAN, Yūsuf, *Kitāb al-tạbaqāt fī khusụ̄s ̣al-awliyāʼ wa-al-sạ̄lihị̄n +wa-al-ʻulamāʼ wa-al-shuʻarāʼ fī al-Sūdān*. Khartoum: University of +Khartoum Press, 1974). + +STRABO. *Geography*, edited and translated by Horace L. Jones, 8 vols. +Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1917-1932. + +Studies + +BOXER, Charles R. *João de Barros: Portuguese Humanist and Historian of +Asia*. New Delhi: Concept Publishing Company, 1981. + +CECCARELLI-MOROLLI, Danilo. "Un interessante brano di un manoscritto +etiopico del XVI sec. concernente la Nubia." In *Actes de la VIIIe +Conférence internationale des études nubiennes: Lille, 11-17 septembre +1994*, 3 vols. Villeneuve-d'Ascq: Université Charles de Gaulle--Lille +III, 1995-1998: pp. III:67-72. + +COELHO, Antonio B. *João de Barros: Vida e obra*. Lisbon: Grupo de +Trabalho do Ministério da Educação para as Comemorações dos +Descobrimentos Portueses, 1997. + +ELZEIN, Intisar. "Ottoman Archaeology of the Middle Nile Valley in the +Sudan', in *The Frontiers of the Ottoman World*, edited by Andrew C. S. +Peacock. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009: pp. 371-383. + +GRIFFITH, Francis L. *The Nubian Texts of the Christian Period*. Berlin: +Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1913. + +ŁAJTAR, Adam. *A Late Christian Pilgrimage Centre in Nubia: The Evidence +of Wall Inscriptions in the Upper Church at Banganarti*. Leuven: +Peeters, 2020. + +ŁAJTAR, Adam and Giovanni RUFFINI. "Qasr Ibrim's Last Land Sale, AD 1463 +(EA 90225)." In *Nubian Voices: Studies in Nubian Christian +Civilization*, edited by Adam Łajtar and Jacques van der Vliet. Warsaw: +University of Warsaw/Raphael Taubenschlag Foundation, 2011: pp. 121-131. + +LEVI, Caroline A. *Yodit*. Unpublished PhD Thesis, School of Oriental +and African Studies, 1992. + +OBŁUSKI, Artur and Dorota DZIERZBICKA, *Old Dongola: Development, +Heritage, Archaeology: Fieldwork in 2018-2019, vol. 1: Excavations*. +Leuven: Peeters, 2021. + +RUFFINI, Giovanni. "Newer Light on the Kingdom of Dotawo." In *Qasr +Ibrim, Between Egypt and Africa: Studies in Cultural Exchange (Nino +Symposium, Leiden, 11-12 December 2009)*, edited by Jacques van der +Vliet and Joost Hagen. Leuven: Peeters, 2013: pp. 179-191. + +SIMMONS, Adam. *Nubia, Ethiopia, and the Crusading World, 1095-1402*. +Abingdon: Routledge, 2022. + +SMALL, Margaret. *Framing the World: Classical Influences on +Sixteenth-Century Geographical Thought*. Woodbridge: Boydell and Brewer, +2020. + +VAN GERVEN OEI, Vincent. *A Reference Grammar of Old Nubian*. Leuven: +Peeters, 2021. + +VAN GERVEN OEI, Vincent and Alexandros TSAKOS. "Apostolic Memoirs in Old +Nubian." In *Parabiblica Coptica,* edited by Ivan Miroshnikov. Tübingen: +Mohr Siebeck, forthcoming. + +WERNER, Roland. *Das Christentum in Nubien: Geschichte und Gestalt einer +afrikanischen Kirche*. Münster: LIT Verlag, 2013. + +[^1]: The circumstances of this unification are still unknown, though it + would appear to be the result of a political union of both kingdoms + via marriage, as there is no currently known evidence reflecting + upheaval or a Makuritan conquest of Alwa. For a brief summary with + references, see: VAN GERVEN OEI, *Reference Grammar*, p. 1n2. On + Dotawo in the sources, see: RUFFINI, "Newer Light on the Kingdom of + Dotawo." + +[^2]: He is the second Joel known in the corpus but there may have been + others not yet known. The earlier Joel is recorded as ruling in 1322 + in an as-yet-published new interpretation of an inscription by Adam + Łajtar: ŁAJTAR, *A Late Christian Pilgrimage Centre in Nubia*, p. + 388. On Joel \[II\], see: ŁAJTAR & RUFFINI, "Qasr Ibrim's Last Land + Sale." The 1483 document found at Gebel Adda is known and currently + housed at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo but remains unpublished. + +[^3]: FAḌL ḤASAN, *Kitāb al-tạbaqāt*, pp. 183, 275. + +[^4]: There are currently no other known female rulers of Dotawo or of + the earlier kingdoms of Makuria, Alwa, or Nobadia to know for sure + what indigenous title akin to *ourou* Gaua would have held so + "queen" is employed here for familiarity and in keeping with the + Portuguese text. + +[^5]: For example: WERNER, *Das Christentum in Nubien*, pp. 149-50. + +[^6]: ÁLVARES, *Verdadeira informaçam*, p. 168. + +[^7]: ÁLVARES, "Viaggio fatto nella Ethiopia per don Francesco Alvarez + Portoghese", p. 269a. + +[^8]: ÁLVARES, *Verdadeira informaçam*, p. 30. + +[^9]: On his life and works, see: BOXER, *João de Barros*; COELHO, *João + de Barros*. + +[^10]: *Ásia de Joam de Barros,* *Segunda* *Década da Ásia*, and + *Terceira* *Década da Ásia* were published in his lifetime, with the + *Quarta* *Década da Ásia* being posthumously published in an edited + and reworked form by João Baptista Lavanha. + +[^11]: It is unclear here whether this is a contemporary description or, + given it follows a passage about Queen Candaces, was imitating + Strabo's description of his Queen Candace as being a "masculine + woman" (ἀνδρική τις γυνὴ: STRABO, *Geography*, 17.1.54). Barros + certainly knew the text of Strabo and makes reference to it + elsewhere; see: SMALL, *Framing the World*, p. 68. + +[^12]: DE BARROS, *Terceira Década da Ásia*, fo. 88ff. + +[^13]: On Bishop Tivoli, see: SIMMONS, *Nubia, Ethiopia, and the + Crusading World,* p. 132. + +[^14]: CECCARELLI-MOROLLI, "Un interessante brano." + +[^15]: GRIFFITH, *Nubian Texts of the Christian Period*, p. 47. On this + text, see: VAN GERVEN OEI & TSAKOS, "Apostolic Memoirs in Old + Nubian." + +[^16]: LEVI, *Yodit*, pp. 104-6. + +[^17]: There are numerous examples of women who held the title of + *ngonnen*, or "queen-mother", in the surviving corpus and these + individuals were influential and active in Nubian politics and + society. Regrettably, we are not aware of an instance of a similar + regency scenario prior to Gaua, if, indeed, that was the case, to be + able to expand on this suggestion any further. The naming of Gaua + directly would, however, suggest that she wielded great power in any + case. + +[^18]: ELZEIN, "Ottoman Archaeology"; FAḌL ḤASAN, *Kitāb al-tạbaqāt*, p. + 61. + +[^19]: For example, see the results in: OBŁUSKI & DZIERZBICKA, *Old + Dongola 2018-2019 vol. 1.* diff --git a/static/images/simmons.jpg b/static/images/simmons.jpg new file mode 100644 index 0000000..774dc2a Binary files /dev/null and b/static/images/simmons.jpg differ