''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 Sudan, officially the Republic of the Sudan, is a country in Northeast Africa. It borders the Central African Republic to the southwest, Chad to the west, Libya to the northwest, Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the east, Eritrea and Ethiopi ...

, meaning "ruler" or "king". There are three theories of its origins. It may be a corruption of the

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

word ''

malik Malik (; ; ; variously Romanized ''Mallik'', ''Melik'', ''Malka'', ''Malek'', ''Maleek'', ''Malick'', ''Mallick'', ''Melekh'') is the Semitic term translating to "king", recorded in East Semitic and Arabic, and as mlk in Northwest Semitic d ...

'' (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 Egyptology, Egyptologist, Orientalism, Orientalist, and Philology, philologist who worked for the British Museum and published numerous works on the ancient ...

proposed, it may be derived from Ge'ez መከሐ (''mkḥ''), meaning "to be glorious", making it an

Ethiopia Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east, Ken ...

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 Taqali (also spelled Tegali from the Tagale people) was a state of Nuba peoples that existed in the Nuba Mountains, in modern-day central Sudan. It is believed to have been founded in the eighteenth century, though oral traditions suggest it ...

, 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 () 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 the River Nile s ...

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 public administration, governance used by imperial powers to control parts of their empires. This was particularly used by colonial empires like the British Empire to control their possessions in Colonisation of Afri ...

, 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 Nuba people are indigenous inhabitants of southern Sudan. The Nuba are made up of 50 various indigenous ethnic groups who inhabit the Nuba Mountains of South Kordofan, South Kordofan state in Sudan, encompassing multiple distinct people that ...

, the government made the "''mek''-in-council" (akin to the

king-in-council The King-in-Council or the Queen-in-Council, depending on the gender of the reigning monarch, is a constitutional term in a number of states. In a general sense, it refers to the monarch exercising executive authority, usually in the form of app ...

), 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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