''Makk'' (plural ''mukūk''), also spelled ''mak'', ''mek'' or ''meek'',
[Robert S. Kramer, Richard Andrew Lobban Jr. and Carolyn Fluehr-Lobban, ''Historical Dictionary of the Sudan'', 4th ed. (Scarecrow Press, 2013), p. 293.][Richard Andrew Lobban Jr., ''Historical Dictionary of Ancient and Medieval Nubia'' (Scarecrow Press, 2004), p. .] is a title formerly used in the
Sudan, meaning "ruler" or "king". There are three theories of its origins. It may be a corruption of the
Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walte ...
word ''
malik'' (pl. ''mulūk''), meaning "king";
[Jay L. Spaulding, "The Fate of Alodia", ''Transafrican Journal of History'' 4, 1 (1974): 27–40.] it may descend from
Meroitic ''mk'', meaning "God", appropriate to the
divine kingship practised in the Sudan;
[ or, as ]E. A. Wallis Budge
Sir Ernest Alfred Thompson Wallis Budge (27 July 185723 November 1934) was an English Egyptologist, Orientalist, and philologist who worked for the British Museum and published numerous works on the ancient Near East. He made numerous trips ...
proposed, it may be derived from Ge'ez መከሐ (''mkḥ''), meaning "to be glorious", making it an Ethiopia
Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the Er ...
n import. The territory ruled by a ''makk'' may be called a "makkdom" or "mekdom" in English.
The title ''makk'' was used for the ruler of the Funj Sultanate
The Funj Sultanate, also known as Funjistan, Sultanate of Sennar (after its capital Sennar) or Blue Sultanate due to the traditional Sudanese convention of referring to black people as blue () was a monarchy in what is now Sudan, northwestern ...
and for all his vassal rulers in the region of Sennar.[ It was used by the ruler of Taqali, whose tributaries were also known as ''mukūk al-ʿāda'' (sing. ''makk al-ʿāda''), "customary kings".][Janet J. Ewald, ''Soldiers, Traders, and Slaves: State Formation and Economic Transformation in the Greater Nile Valley, 1700–1885'' (University of Wisconsin Press, 1990), p. 235.] The ruler of Shendi
Shendi or Shandi ( ar, شندي) is a small city in northern Sudan, situated on the southeastern bank of the Nile River 150 km northeast of Khartoum. Shandi is also about 45 km southwest of the ancient city of Meroë. Located in th ...
also bore the title, and Shendi's last ruler, ''Mek'' Nimr, resisted the Egyptian conquest of Sudan in 1821–22.[
During the period of the Anglo-Egyptian condominium in the Sudan, the government used ]indirect rule
Indirect rule was a system of governance used by the British and others to control parts of their colonial empires, particularly in Africa and Asia, which was done through pre-existing indigenous power structures. Indirect rule was used by vario ...
, appointing and deposing many ''mukūk''. Following the deposition in 1903 of the ''makk'' of the Shilluks for misappropriation of funds and other abuses, the new ''makk'' was forced to accept "eleven conditions of mekship". Among the Nuba, the government made the "''mek''-in-council" (akin to the king-in-council), along with tribal hierarchies and federations, the basis of indirect rule.[Kamal Osman Salih, "British Policy and the Accentuation of Inter-Ethnic Divisions: The Case of the Nuba Mountains Region of Sudan, 1920–1940", ''African Affairs'' 89, 356 (1990): 417–36.]
References
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Royal titles