Page "History of Sudan" Paragraph 22

The earliest references to Nubia's successor kingdoms are contained in accounts by Greek and Egyptian Coptic authors of the conversion of Nubian kings to Christianity in the 6th century AD.

According to tradition, a missionary sent by Byzantine empress Theodora arrived in Nobatia and started preaching the gospel about 540 AD.

It is possible that the conversion process began earlier, however, under the aegis of Coptic missionaries from Egypt.

The Nubian kings accepted the Monophysite Christianity practiced in Egypt and acknowledged the spiritual authority of the Egyptian Coptic patriarch of Alexandria over the Nubian church.

A hierarchy of bishops named by the Coptic patriarch of Alexandria and consecrated in Egypt directed the church's activities and wielded considerable secular power.

The church sanctioned a sacerdotal kingship, confirming the royal line's legitimacy.

In turn the monarch protected the church's interests.

The queen mother's role in the succession process paralleled that of Meroe's matriarchal tradition.

Because women transmitted the right to succession, a renowned warrior not of royal birth might be nominated to become king through marriage to a woman in line of succession.