Joel of Dotawo was a king of the Christian kingdom of

Dotawo Dotawo was a Christian kingdom in Lower Nubia (Northern Sudan and Southern Egypt) in the Middle Ages. It is attested in Old Nubian documents from the 12th to the 15th centuries. It is one of the last attested Christian states to survive in the reg ...

in Nubia. His rule is documented from the year 1484.Noel Davies, Martin Conway: ''World Christianity in the twentieth century''. London: SCM-Canterbury Press Ltd 2008, p 110. Joel represents one of the last recorded kings of Christian

Nubia Nubia () (Nobiin: Nobīn, ) is a region along the Nile river encompassing the area between the first cataract of the Nile (just south of Aswan in southern Egypt) and the confluence of the Blue and White Niles (in Khartoum in central Sudan), or ...

. He is known from a

graffiti Graffiti (plural; singular ''graffiti'' or ''graffito'', the latter rarely used except in archeology) is art that is written, painted or drawn on a wall or other surface, usually without permission and within public view. Graffiti ranges from s ...

in the

Faras Cathedral Faras Cathedral was a cathedral in the Lower Nubian city of Faras. It was the original seat of the Diocese of Faras. Nobadian rulers controlling the Nile Valley from the first to the third cataracts converted to Christianity around 548 AD infl ...

, the inscription in the Church of Tamit, the letter from

Jebel Adda Gebel Adda (also Jebel Adda) was a mountain and archaeological site on the right bank of the Nubian Nile in what is now southern Egypt. The settlement on its crest was continuously inhabited from the late Meroitic period (2nd century AD–4th centu ...

(which is dated to 1484) and an inscription from a nearby church. This number of inscriptions and other references seems to be unusual, especially from times shortly before the Christian states in Nubia vanished. So Joel certainly seems to have had some significance; it is reported that he had at least one vassal: king Tienossi of Ilenat.

Notes

Literature

* Derek A. Welsby: ''The Medieval Kingdoms of Nubia''. London 2002, pp. 250–251, {{DEFAULTSORT:Joel Of Dotawo African Christians Nubian people 15th-century monarchs in Africa History of Nubia