My poster intends to present an Arabic letter that was recently found during the archaeological excavations in Old Dongola in 2021. Although the document contains no specific message except for greetings and words of support, it is very interesting from a historical viewpoint and social perspective. This is a fully-preserved letter from a Muslim religious leader identifying himself with the position of faqīh, i.e. Islamic jurist. The high social status of such a person is well known from the historical sources concerning pre-modern Sudan. Holymen like this were prominent agents in the process of the Islamisation of once Christian Nubia. However, the venerated addressee of the letter is even more interesting. He seems to be identical with the successor of a local ruler, so-called mānjil, whose father was sent from Sennar to govern the Northern Province of the Funj Sultanate in the seventeenth century. Furthermore, the name of this figure is attested only due to the European traveller’s description who declared an interest in oral history which was passed on to him as late as in the nineteenth century.
[Later added] The name of the addressee is also to be found in three documents from the 18th century that were collected in the volume: Public documents from Sennar edited by Muḥammad Ibrāhīm Abū Salīm and Jay Spaulding in 1989.

“Don’t worry about anything” – A snippet of communication between the Old Dongola elite