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Mercurius, Emperor of Nubia
VII/VIII Centuries
Called the "second Constantine" by his admirers,
Mercurius was the first great ruler of the
united Christian Nubia which emerged from the
difficulties of the VII Century, when Muslim
forces twice attempted without success to conquer the region. The
new empire was created by the fusion of the large,
southern, melkite (Chalcedonian) state of
Maqquria with the smaller, miaphysite kingdom of
Nobadia.
Mercurius, although himself a Maqqurian and reigning
from the Maqqurian city of (Old) Dongola, chose to
make miaphysitism the state religion, and to place the
church under the jurisdiction of the Coptic pope.
Norman Hugh Redington
- ABOUT:
- R. A. Lobban:
Historical Dictionary of Ancient and
Medieval Nubia, p. 257.
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