Search results for ""author a. obluski""

The author of this book presents an innovative approach to the history of Nubia. The period covered includes the fall of Meroe and the rise of the united kingdom of Nobadia and Makuria. The emphasis was put on the analysis of social and political change/dynamics/transformations. Moreover some major improvements of the chronological nomenclature have been suggested. To date, it has been largely influenced by the early 20th cent. politically incorrect approach to African cultures and the contemporary state of research. The author implies that there is actually no reason which would compel modern scholars to study and describe the history of Nubia in other ways than the rest of the world. It means that all studies postdating this path-breaking book should be based on actual political changes and not vague racial or religious criteria. Nowadays we can be certain that after the fall of Meroe there was no political vacuum, but various political organisms immediately started to rise: Nobadia, Makuria and Alwa. For this reason the term 'Group X' should not be used any longer.

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The aim of this book is to present the material record of Nubian monasticism in a systematic manner and to conduct a comparative analysis of this phenomenon. This book also addresses several fundamental issues, for instance the presence of various forms of monasticism (hermitages, laurae and coenobitic monasteries) in Nubia and their spatial organisation. The source base for reconstructing the monastic movement in Nubia, or rather life in individual monasteries, is largely archaeological and epigraphic. Looking beyond Nubia is motivated not only by the desire to find reference points in centres that influenced the formation of the Nubian civilisation, but also because such parallels are indispensable for the interpretation of archaeological finds. One of the fundamental questions posed repeatedly in this book concerns the models that inspired the creators of monastic communities in Nubia. The geographic arguments point primarily to Egypt, but other regions of the Late Antique East should not be ruled out prematurely. We have, for instance, sound evidence for Syrian influence on the culture of Christian Nubia, especially liturgy. Also Constantinople, a core region of the Eastern Mediterranean and the imperial capital, must be considered as a possible source of inspiration. Thus far, attempts to characterise Nubian monasticism in a synthetic manner have taken the form of short articles limited mostly to discussion of architectural features. In addition, with the notable exception of Adam ?ajtar’s ad-hoc publications spurred by the emergence of new evidence, no study published to date collects and discusses the various titles associated with the monastic milieu, investigating who stood at the head of coenobitic communities, what their internal organisation was like, and how the monastic, ecclesiastical and spiritual hierarchies were intertwined. Another area in need of investigation is the relationship between Nubian monks and society, including the roles they played in lay communities and whether they really ‘abandoned’ the world at large. The book seeks to determine whether the Nubian elites perceived monastics as a threat to their dominant position in the social hierarchy, or rather collaborated with monks, taking advantage of the fact that monasteries offered human resources with highly esteemed and useful skills that proved helpful, if not indispensable, in managing non-monastic communities ranging from individual settlements to the state.

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Old Dongola was the capital city of the Medieval Christian kingdom of Makuria (modern Sudan) from the early 6th to the 14th century. Although the royal court abandoned the city in 1364, it remained an important urban center with extensive residential quarters functioning on and around the citadel hill until the end of the 19th century. An archaeological expedition from the Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology, University of Warsaw, has been working at Old Dongola since 1964. A new project, “UMMA. Urban Metamorphosis of the community of a Medieval African capital city”, funded by the European Research Council, was launched in 2018. UMMA (Arab. for 'community') is a multidisciplinary project conceived of as the first study of the liminal phases of the Christian African community inhabiting Old Dongola and the emergence of a Muslim city-state organized along different social and religious paradigms. The project investigates the impact that the weakening of the central authority and migrations of Arab tribes had on the kingdom’s capital city and its community and seeks to trace patterns of continuity and change on a household level. It is one of the few excavation projects in Sudan systematically conducted on a deep-stratified urban site spanning the Funj period (16th-18th centuries). This volume is a report from the first, four-month season of fieldwork, which unearthed over 20 residential compounds located within and outside the city walls. The research provides new data on building techniques and organization of space in the city.

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