Dotawo was a Christian kingdom in
Lower Nubia
Lower Nubia (also called Wawat) is the northernmost part of Nubia, roughly contiguous with the modern Lake Nasser, which submerged the historical region in the 1960s with the construction of the Aswan High Dam. Many ancient Lower Nubian monuments, ...
(northern Sudan and southern Egypt) in the Middle Ages. It is attested in
Old Nubian documents from the 12th to the 15th centuries. It is one of the last attested Christian states to survive in the region.
Etymology
Two proposals explain the etymology of the name of Dotawo. The first sees the name as an
Old Nubian term meaning "Lower Daw" or the region "Below Daw"), pointing to the Old Nubian suffix -''tauo'' ("under") and the toponym "Daw," widely known from Arabic histories of Christian Nubia. The second sees the name as a calque for the old Egyptian term "Upper and Lower Egypt," proposing a combination of the Old Nubian suffixes -''do'' ("upon") and -''tauo'' ("under").
History
Modern understanding of the history of Dotawo has evolved considerably in recent generations. It had been generally held that Dotawo was one of a number of small successor states to emerge during the prolonged collapse of central government in the Christian kingdom of
Makuria. A brief mention in the work of the medieval Egyptian historian
al-Maqrīzī was taken to indicate that prolonged fighting for control over the capital city,
Dongola
Dongola (), also known as Urdu or New Dongola, is the capital of Northern State in Sudan, on the banks of the Nile. It should not be confused with Old Dongola, a now deserted medieval city located 80 km upstream on the opposite bank.
Et ...
, devastated that city and compelled the Nubian court to move to Daw, which some modern scholars believed to be modern
Gebel Adda, in 1364/65. Under the first etymology of the term "Dotawo" discussed above, it might then be the Nubian state as it survived from its new capital at Daw. Even in earlier periods, prior to the collapse of Dongola, Arab writers report that Nubia was structured with thirteen lesser kings under one "Great King," and Dotawo could have been one of these vassal kingdoms.
The large collection of
Old Nubian documents found at
Qasr Ibrim in the 1960s pose considerable problems for this view. The texts from Qasr Ibrim show the
Eparch
Eparchy ( ''eparchía'' "overlordship") is an Ecclesiology, ecclesiastical unit in Eastern Christianity that is equivalent to a diocese in Western Christianity. An eparchy is governed by an ''eparch'', who is a bishop. Depending on the administra ...
of
Nobatia (northern Nubian) to be subordinate to the King of Dotawo during Makuria's peak in the 12th century. One explanation for this is that Dotawo is simply another name for Makuria. The depiction of multiple Nubian kings conflicts with the description of the region given by Arab traveler
Ibn Selim el-Aswani. In no known document are the names of both Dotawo and Makuria present, and at several points the listed names of the king of Dotawo matches those of Makuria. The first generation of scholars to study the Qasr Ibrim finds found too many apparent conflicts between the names of the kings of Makuria and the kings of Dotawo to be satisfied with this explanation. Later study and re-editing of these texts resolved most of these apparent conflicts, and it now seems likely that "Dotawo" is the indigenous name for the central state of Nubia from at least its first attestation in the 1180s to its last attestation in the 1490s; by 2022, this position was accepted as the scholarly consensus. In 2021, it was suggested that the name "Dotawo" appears so late in the history of Christian Nubia because it referred specifically to the unified kingdom of Makuria and
Alodia after a personal union between their royal families in the eleventh century.
The end of Dotawo has traditionally been placed around the year 1500, at which point it is thought to have been conquered by the
Funj Sultanate, founded in 1504. However, in 2023 Adam Simmons pointed to overlooked evidence in ''Terceira Década da Ásia'' by the Portuguese historian
João de Barros
João de Barros (; 1496 – 20 October 1570), nicknamed the "Portuguese Livy", is one of the first great Portuguese historians, most famous for his (''Decades of Asia''), a history of the Portuguese in India, Asia, and southeast Africa.
Early y ...
for the existence in the 1520s of a Christian Nubian queen who de Barros called ''Gaua'', and suggested that Dotawo continued as an independent polity between the Ottomans to the North and the Funj to the south into the seventeenth century.
Dr Adam Simmons rewrites the historical narrative of the fall of Dotawo in historical research paper
(14 November 2022).
See also
* Joel of Dotawo
References
*Adams, William Y. "The United Kingdom of Makouria and Nobadia: A Medieval Nubian Anomaly." ''Egypt and Africa: Nubia from Prehistory to Islam.'' Edited by W.V. Davies. London: British Museum Press, 1991.
*Plumley, J. Martin. "New Light on the Kingdom of Dotawo." ''Études nubiennes: colloque de Chantilly, 2-6 juillet 1975.'' Cairo, 1978.
*Ruffini, Giovanni R. "Newer Light on the Kingdom of Dotawo." ''Qasr Ibrim, between Egypt and Africa: Studies in Cultural Exchange.'' Edited by J. van der Vliet and J.L. Hagen. Leuven: Peeters, 2013.
*van Gerven Oei, Vincent. ''A Reference Grammar of Old Nubian.'' Leuven: Peeters, 2021.
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Makuria
Former monarchies of Africa