Dotawo

Dotawo was a Nubian, Christian kingdom of the Middle Ages in what is now southern Egypt and neighboring Sudan.

Dotawo was on the level of the 2nd Nile cataract in the region of the first Christian Nubia Nobatia, which was added to the southern kingdom of Makuria end of the 7th century. Most of the settlements were flooded by Lake Nasser from the mid- 1960s. Dotawo is not mentioned in Arabic sources that would otherwise constitute the most important information about Nubian history, but appears this kingdom in some contemporary documents and in graffiti. Most sources come from Qasr Ibrim, where the kingdom is listed in the 12th century for the first time.

The capital was probably Jebel Adda, a mountain on the east bank of the Nile, where the modern Nubian village Abahuda (Abu Hoda ) was. The place probably corresponds to the date mentioned in Arabic sources Daw. There, large building complexes have been found, in fact, may even represent the palace of the kings of Dotawo.

The history of Nubia in the Middle Ages is still uncertain. Old Dongola was abandoned as the capital of Makuria 1365-1366, and it can be assumed that the capital was moved from there to the mountain Adda.

From many sources it is evident that the Kingdom of Makuria had several vassal kingdoms among themselves. Dotawo was apparently one of these. In the 14th century Makuria certainly seems to be completely broken in, and the rest of the state established himself at the mountain Adda, or Dotawo at least, was the only province that still survived. It was thus one of the last Christian kingdoms in Nubia. In Kulubnarti, a small island in the Nile, was the last known Christian community. In the year 1518 is still a "Lord of Nubia ", as an enemy of the Muslims, called, which possibly was the king meant by Dotawo. Around 1560, Nubia was up to the 3rd cataract in Turkish hands, so that Dotawo has apparently been destroyed in the meantime.