Catalogue of the Greek Inscriptions in the Sudan National Museum at Khartoum (I. Khartoum Greek) FROM THE PUBLISHER
The book contains the edition of 123 Greek inscriptions kept in the Sudan National Museum in Khartoum. Two of them were monuments set up by Axumite kings in Meroe City after victorious campaigns carried out against the Meroitic state still before the official conversion of the kingdom of Axum to Christianity in the middle of the 4th century. The remaining texts, in overwhelming majority epitaphs, are connected to the Nubian Christian culture flourishing between the 1st and the 6th Nile cataract from the 6th until the 14th/15th century. The inscriptions are presented in the geographical order from the north to the south. Each text is reproduced, edited (in many cases for the first time), translated and provided with an extensive commentary. The book opens with an introduction on the language, form and dating of the inscriptions. It is supplemented by ample indices and concordances. The book constitutes an indispensable instrument and material for every student of medieval Nubia. It shall also be of interest among scholars researching Oriental Christianity and Greek epigraphy.
SYNOPSIS
All but two of the 83 Greek inscriptions in the museum are texts generated by the Christian Nubian culture, and of those, only one is definitely not funerary and another two might not be. All the rest are epitaphs, which means that this study is primarily of Christian funerary inscriptions. They come from the entire territory of the Sudanese Nubia, from Faras in the north the Soba in the south, and from four large territories centering on the Second Nile cataract, Old Dongola, Gebel Barkal, and Abu Hamed. Most are from the period between 785 and 1162 AD. The entries describe the object, transcribe and translate the text, and annotate the text in detail. Black-and-white photographs are provided for each. Distributed by The David Brown Book Company. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
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