A small, newly uncovered document from ancient Dongola is reshaping what historians know about a little-understood period in Sudan’s past.
A small Arabic document found in the ruins of Old Dongola is helping confirm the existence of King Qashqash, a ruler long treated as legendary.
The study, published in Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa, examines a newly excavated order issued in Qashqash’s name. The text, found in an elite residence inside the city’s citadel, deals with the exchange of textiles and livestock. Although modest in appearance, it offers rare evidence for rulership, trade, social ties, and the spread of Arabic writing in Nubia during the Funj period.
The authors say the document provides a “rare glimpse into Sudanic kingship” during “one of the least-documented periods in Sudanese history.”
Dongola After Makuria
Old Dongola, in present-day northern Sudan, was once the capital of Makuria, a powerful Christian Nubian kingdom. By the mid-14th century, the city had lost that status, and the next several centuries remain difficult to reconstruct.
This was not a simple shift from a Christian past to an Islamic future. The authors stress that Arabization and Islamization unfolded slowly, with Nubian traditions, Arabic literacy, Islamic authority, and regional politics overlapping for generations.
During the Funj period (1504–1821), Dongola stood between Ottoman Egypt to the north and the Sultanate of Sennar to the south. Even after its decline as a capital, it remained connected to trade routes linking Cairo, Sennar, Darfur, and regions deeper into Africa.
A Royal Residence in the Citadel
The document was discovered in Building A.1, known locally as the House of the Mekk, meaning the ruler’s house. Archaeological evidence supports that tradition. The structure was larger and more complex than other homes at the site, and its contents point to elite life.
Excavators found cotton, linen, silk, leather shoes, a gold ring, and an ivory or rhinoceros horn dagger handle. They also uncovered lead balls and a cattle horn likely used as a gunpowder flask, suggesting the residents had access to firearms, which could serve as prestige objects in precolonial Nubia.
Between 2019 and 2021, researchers recovered 23 paper documents from the building, including letters, amulets, a legal text, and an administrative list. The king’s order came from Room U128, a space about 5 × 4 meters (16 × 13 feet), where the documents had been discarded in rubbish layers.
The paper itself measures only 10.5 × 9.5 centimeters (4.1 × 3.7 inches). Coins and radiocarbon dating show that it was thrown away sometime between the 17th and 18th centuries, but internal evidence suggests it was probably written earlier, in the late 16th or early 17th century.
A King Managing Everyday Power
Rather than issuing a dramatic royal decree, the order concerns a practical exchange involving a man named Khiḍr, who was told to handle goods between Muḥammad al-ʿArab and ʿAbd al-Jābir. The items included textiles, a ewe, and her offspring. One damaged passage may refer to cotton cloth or cotton headwear, which may have carried elite significance.
That ordinary subject is what makes the document valuable. Rather than showing a king at war, it shows a ruler managing relationships, obligations, and access to goods.
The authors say the exchange likely reflected “micropolitical actions aimed at strengthening social ties,” not simply profit-driven trade. They also say their aim is to show “the King of Nubia at work, not at war, but in everyday management.”
Turning Legend Into History
Before this discovery, Qashqash was known mainly from the Kitāb al-Ṭabaqāt, a 19th-century biographical dictionary based on oral traditions about Sudanese holy men. In that source, he appears in a genealogy connected to Sheikh Ḥilālī and Muḥammad b. ʿĪsā Suwār al-Dhahab, one of Sudan’s most revered religious figures.
Because that evidence came from later religious storytelling, Qashqash’s historical status was uncertain. The new document changes that. The study identifies him as the earliest known post-medieval king of Dongola and strengthens the case that King Ḥasan, described in later tradition as his son, was also a real ruler.
The authors say the order provides “a compelling argument for the historicity of both rulers.”
Arabic Writing in a Nubian Court
The document also captures a moment of linguistic change. It was written in Arabic, but not polished Classical Arabic. Its spelling and grammar include nonstandard forms, suggesting that Arabic was becoming central to written administration even though Nubian languages likely remained important in daily life.
The order names the scribe as Ḥamad, showing that Qashqash relied on literate specialists. Khiḍr, the recipient, may also have been able to read Arabic or had access to someone who could.
The authors say the find helps reveal “the linguistic transformations and cultural interactions that have shaped Nubia over time.”
The king’s order is only a scrap of paper, but it confirms that Qashqash was more than a legend. It also shows Dongola as an active political center after Makuria’s decline, where rulers managed trade, favors, and local power through everyday decisions.
Reference: “The King of Nubia at work: archaeological context and text edition of a sixteenth/seventeenth-century Arabic document from Old Dongola” by Tomasz Barański, Artur Obłuski and Maciej Wyżgoł, 6 February 2026, Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa.
DOI: 10.1080/0067270X.2026.2615518
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