page_title: Alodia
hierarchical_section_title: Alodia
caption_attribution_description: English: Initially based on map IX from the book "The Kingdom of Alwa" (see the first four versions of the map to see the faithful copy).&#91;1&#93; The original map had several problems, so I decided to modify it. 1) Zarroug had Alodia extend as far west as Darfur. However, there is still virtually no archaeological evidence supporting this assumption.&#91;2&#93; 2) The exact nothern border is still desputed; it is generally placed between Abu Hamad and the confluence of the Nile and the Atbara.&#91;3&#93; 3) Zarroug shows all regions west of the Nile as part of Alodia. However, the traveller Ibn Hawqal explicitly stated that parts of the region west of the White Nile were part of Makuria. The Nuba mountains were probably part of Alodia, hence I included stripes and a question mark for the area between the confluence of the two Niles and the Nuba mountains.&#91;4&#93; 4) There is little evidence that the Bayuda desert (between ed Debba and Omdurman) was part of either Makuria or Alodia.&#91;5&#93; ↑ Mohi el-Din Abdalla Zarroug (1991): "The Kingdom of Alwa". Calgary. ↑ David Edwards (2004): "The Nubian Past. An Archaeology of the Sudan". Routledge. p. 254 ↑ Derek Welsby (2014): "The Kingdom of Alwa" in "The Fourth Cataract and Beyond". Peeters. ↑ Jay Spaulding (1998): "Early Kordofan" in "Kordofan Invaded: Peripheral Incorporation in Islamic Africa". Brill. p. 49 ↑ Tim Karberg, Angelika Lohwasser (2018): "The Wadi Abu Dom Itinerary (W.A.D.I.) Survey Project" in "Bayuda Studies. Proceedings of the First International Conference on the Archaeology of the Bayuda Desert in Sudan". Harrassowitz.
context_page_description: Alodia, also known as Alwa, was a medieval Nubian kingdom in what is now central and southern Sudan. Its capital was the city of Soba, located near modern-day Khartoum at the confluence of the Blue and White Nile rivers.
  Founded sometime after the ancient kingdom of Kush fell, in around 350 AD, Alodia is first mentioned in historical records in 569. It was the last of the three Nubian kingdoms to convert to Christianity in 580, following Nobadia and Makuria. It possibly reached its peak during the 9th–12th centuries when records show that it exceeded its northern neighbor, Makuria, with which it maintained close dynastic ties, in size, military power and economic prosperity. Being a large, multicultural state, Alodia was administered by a powerful king and provincial governors appointed by him. The capital Soba, described as a town of "extensive dwellings and churches full of gold and gardens", prospered as a trading hub. Goods arrived from Makuria, the Middle East, western Africa, India and even China. Literacy in both Nubian and Greek flourished.
context_section_description: Alodia, also known as Alwa (Greek: Aρουα, Aroua; Arabic: علوة‎, ʿAlwa), was a medieval Nubian kingdom in what is now central and southern Sudan. Its capital was the city of Soba, located near modern-day Khartoum at the confluence of the Blue and White Nile rivers.
  Founded sometime after the ancient kingdom of Kush fell, in around 350 AD, Alodia is first mentioned in historical records in 569. It was the last of the three Nubian kingdoms to convert to Christianity in 580, following Nobadia and Makuria. It possibly reached its peak during the 9th–12th centuries when records show that it exceeded its northern neighbor, Makuria, with which it maintained close dynastic ties, in size, military power and economic prosperity. Being a large, multicultural state, Alodia was administered by a powerful king and provincial governors appointed by him. The capital Soba, described as a town of "extensive dwellings and churches full of gold and gardens", prospered as a trading hub. Goods arrived from Makuria, the Middle East, western Africa, India and even China. Literacy in both Nubian and Greek flourished.
  From the 12th, and especially the 13th century, Alodia was declining, possibly because of invasions from the south, droughts and a shift of trade routes. In the 14th century, the country might have been ravaged by the plague, while Arab tribes began to migrate into the Upper Nile valley. By around 1500 Soba had fallen to either Arabs or the Funj. This likely marked the end of Alodia, although some Sudanese oral traditions claimed that it survived in the form of the kingdom of Fazughli within the Ethiopian–Sudanese borderlands. After the destruction of Soba, the Funj established the Sultanate of Sennar, ushering in a period of Islamization and Arabization.
caption: Estimated extent of Alodia in the 10th century
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