The manuscript, found during excavations at the medieval site, is a written order issued on behalf of the king. Researchers say the document provides rare evidence that the ruler mentioned in later tradition was a historical figure.

The document was discovered in a large residential structure at the site, where archaeologists also found artefacts indicating the elite status of the building, including cotton, linen and silk textiles, as well as objects made of ivory and rhinoceros horn. More than 20 Arabic texts were uncovered there, including letters, administrative and legal documents, and amulets.

Among them was the order issued in the name of King Qasqash. The manuscript was recovered from refuse layers, a common context for archaeologically significant finds.

“Interestingly, the building is still referred to by local residents as the ‘King's House’. The discovery of this document in this particular location provides another argument supporting the local identification of these ruins, preserved to this day through oral tradition,” the Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology at the University of Warsaw reported.

Old Dongola, located on the eastern bank of the Nile in Sudan, was the capital of Makuria in the Middle Ages, one of the most important states in Africa at the time. Polish archaeologists and historians have been studying the site for more than 60 years, examining the history of the city and the daily lives of its inhabitants.

The newly analysed document is presented in a paper published in the journal Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa. Researchers from the Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology at the University of Warsaw describe it as one of several newly studied historical texts from the site.

Tomasz Barański, an Arabist from the centre, is working on Arabic documents discovered during the excavations. According to researchers, such texts allow the ruins uncovered by archaeologists to “speak”, providing insight into the city’s past.

“The written order issued by King Qasqash proves the historical existence of this figure, previously known only from brief references in a hagiographic work dating to the early nineteenth century. Although the content of the letter itself may appear relatively mundane, it offers a unique glimpse into the socio-economic relations of the Kingdom of Dongola during a period of intensive Arabisation and Islamisation, particularly into the relationship between the king and his subjects. We may suspect that Qasqash and his court skilfully managed the distribution of material goods - and, consequently, social prestige - within the traditional system of royal patronage. This document provides only a small but valuable piece of evidence for that process,” Barański says.

The manuscript, written on paper, has survived intact, unlike many other documents from the site that have been preserved only in fragments.

Barański said the language and handwriting suggest the text was produced in a setting where Arabic was not yet fully established.

“The use of non-standard grammatical forms and the rather unsophisticated hand should not be surprising, particularly in an environment where Arabic had not yet become a native language. Moreover, the irregular shape of the sheet of paper on which the order was written suggests that this text may have been only a draft of the actual document,” Barański adds.

Researchers say the discovery indicates that Arabic was already being used by scribes serving the successors of Makuria around the turn of the seventeenth century.

It remains unclear whether Arabic had already become widely spoken at the royal court in Dongola or in communities further from the centre of power, where people almost certainly continued to use a local variety of the Nubian language in everyday communication.

“This observation is significant for further research into the scope and pace of the processes of Islamisation and the formation of Arab identity in Sudan,” the Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology says.

Artur Obłuski, a professor at the University of Warsaw and head of the ERC project under which the research was conducted, said the archaeological team works closely with residents of Dongola and the surrounding area.

“They are our partners in this research. We learn from each other and exchange knowledge. This is how we know that King Qasqash still appears in legends preserved in local memory. Interestingly, his descendants continue to live in the Dongola region to this day,” Obłuski says.(PAP)

PAP - Science in Poland

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