Tabirqo was a

king King is a royal title given to a male monarch. A king is an Absolute monarchy, absolute monarch if he holds unrestricted Government, governmental power or exercises full sovereignty over a nation. Conversely, he is a Constitutional monarchy, ...

Kush KUSH 1600 AM is a radio station licensed to Cushing, Oklahoma. The station broadcasts a Full service format, consisting of local and national talk, sports Sport is a physical activity or game, often competitive and organized, tha ...

, ruling from

Meroë Meroë (; also spelled ''Meroe''; Meroitic: ; and ; ) was an ancient city on the east bank of the Nile about 6 km north-east of the Kabushiya station near Shendi, Sudan, approximately 200 km north-east of Khartoum. Near the site is ...

in the first half of the 2nd century BCE. Tabirqo's name is known only from his tomb, Beg. N 9 in Meroë.

Chronology and reconstructions

Tabirqo's relationship with the king Adikhalamani, known from inscriptions at Philae from roughly the same time, has been variously reconstructed. No burial of Adikhalamani can be securely identified.

George Andrew Reisner George Andrew Reisner Jr. (November 5, 1867 – June 6, 1942) was an American archeologist of Ancient Egypt, Nubia and Palestine. Early life Reisner was born on November 5, 1867, in Indianapolis. His parents were George Andrew Reisner Sr. and M ...

(1923) suggested that Tabirqo was a "funerary name" of Adikhalamani and that they were thus one and the same king. This identification has been maintained by some scholars, such as

László Török László Török (13 May 1941 – 17 September 2020) was a Hungarian historian, archaeologist, and Egyptologist. His works on the ancient Coptic language, Ancient Egypt, ancient Nubia, and the Kingdom of Kush were highly regarded. He was a member ...

(2015).

Claude Rilly Claude Rilly (born November 4, 1959) is a French linguist, Egyptologist, and archaeologist at the French National Centre for Scientific Research who primarily specializes in Meroitic and Nilo-Saharan languages. He is professor at the École prati ...

(2017) and Josefine Kuckertz (2021) instead proposed that Adikhalamani was the same king as (...)mr(...)t, a name fragmentarily preserved in the temporally close tomb Beg. N 8, and that Tabirqo was a distinct succeeding king. Under the earlier reconstruction (...)mr(...)t is seen as a separate king who succeeded Adikhalamani.

Nahirqo Nahirqo is the name attributed to a Kushite queen regnant buried in pyramid Beg N. 11 in Meroë. Nahirqo is the earliest known woman to have ruled the Kingdom of Kush, reigning in the middle second century BC. Prior to her own reign, Nahirqo is bel ...

, the former consort of (...)mr(...)t (thus perhaps Adikhalamani), ruled as queen regnant after Tabirqo, which suggests that Tabirqo may have died early. Nahirqo may have directly succeeded Tabirqo or was perhaps also preceded by an additional unknown king, known only from the unfinished burial Beg. N 10 from around this time.

References

2nd-century BC monarchs of Kush 2nd-century BC monarchs in Africa {{Sudan-bio-stub