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Maqquria/Dongola


Also MAKKURIA, MAKURIA, etc.
Maqquria was the larger of two Christian kingdoms in Nubia (Sudan). It absorbed its smaller northern neighbour, Nobadia, in the chaotic mid-VII Century, forming the Kingdom of Dongola. The Nobadian church was non-Chalcedonian (miaphysite), whereas the Maqqurian church accepted the Council. Surprisingly, it was Nobadia's non-Chalcedonianism which Mercurius, first important ruler of the unified kingdoms, selected as the religion of his Empire. The capital of Maqquria was Old Dongola, over 100 km. north of the modern Sudanese city of Dongola. The Empire, which at its greatest extent included most of Upper Egypt as well as Nubia proper, came under heavy attack in the XIII Century and became an Islamic state after King Kerenbes was deposed in 1317.

For more information about Dongola after the Union, see the general Nubia page.

Norman Hugh Redington

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