1. What and Where is Nubia?

"Nubia" is the name of a specific ethnic and culture area in Africa. It is part of the Nile Valley, and it lies partly in southern Egypt and partly in northern Sudan. In the north, its boundary is approximately the area of modern Aswan, Egypt. It extends southward, along the Nile, to about the area of modern Khartoum, Sudan, where the Blue and White Niles meet to form the single great Nile. By the measure of the winding river, this distance is about 1000 miles (1600 km). In a straight line, it about 700 miles (1200 km). The northern 200 miles (330 km) lies in Egypt; it is known as "Lower (i.e. northern) Nubia." In the late 1960's all this land was permanently flooded by the Aswan Dam, and the people were forced to move elsewhere. Today the only preserved and accessible parts of Nubia lie in northern Sudan, which is known as "Upper (i.e. southern) Nubia."

1. Changing Definitions of Nubia

When ethnologists speak of "Nubia," they usually mean only the land occupied by the people who speak dialects of the Nubian language. Nubian-speakers live between Kom Ombo, about 30 miles (50 km) north of Aswan in Egypt, and ed-Debba, Sudan, about 180 miles (300 km) northwest of Khartoum, Sudan. Before the fifteenth century, when the spread of Islam became very widespread in Sudan, Nubian-speaking peoples occupied a much larger area, even including the land southwards up the Blue Nile. Their descendants live there still, but today they speak only Arabic.

For modern historians and archaeologists the term "Nubia" is now used quite broadly to include all of northern Sudan, even the deserts. Indeed, the terms "Nubia" and "Sudan" (north of the equatorial provinces) have almost become synonymous. Popular American usage has carried this a step farther; for many consider the term "Nubian" to be virtually synonymous with "African."

2. The origins of the term "Nubia"

Although today we speak of "ancient Nubia," the name "Nubia" did not exist before the Middle Ages. The term seems originally to have come from the tribal name "Nuba" or "Noba", which first appears in historical texts in the second century BC. The Noba were a nomadic people of uncertain origin who, when first mentioned, occupied the lands on the left bank of the Nile north of the confluence of the Blue and White Niles. By the fourth century AD, they were dwelling on both sides of the river and had absorbed the declining kingdom of Kush, centered at Mero‘. They were converted to Christianity in the sixth century AD and formed first three, then two, Christian kingdoms that flourished side by side until the fifteenth century. These people gave their name to these kingdoms, which were called "Nubian."

Some writers have speculated, probably incorrectly, that the name "Nuba/Noba" may have come from the ancient Egyptian word nub, which meant "gold." In ancient times Nubia was famed for its gold mines, and even today mining companies are hard at work in Sudan extracting the precious metal from the ancient sources.

Today a large rugged area about 300 miles (500 km) southwest of Khartoum is known as the Nuba Hills. Today the peoples who live there are also called "the Nuba." These Nuba, however, are not one group but many. They speak many different languages and settled here in many waves and at many different times. These modern "Nuba" should not be confused with the "Nubians" (the ancient "Nuba" or "Noba"), for they are very different in language, appearance, and cultural heritage. It is possible, however, that centuries ago some "Noba" people dwelt here and gave their name to the mountains and that some of the modern "Nuba" may be descended from them.

3. The ancient names of Nubia

Nubia was anciently called by many names, and it is important to learn these names so as not to be confused by them. They were used at different times in history and in their time all had their special meanings. Essentially they all mean "Nubia."

Ta-Seti: was the ancient Egyptian name of Nubia as recorded in the earliest Egyptian inscriptions, starting about 3200 BC. It meant "Land of the Bow," emphasizing what is known from later history: that the Nubians were skilled archers and feared soldiers.

Kush: was the name of an early kingdom in northern Sudan and first appears in Egyptian texts about 2000 BC. The Egyptians, who were afraid of the growing power of Kush, habitually tied the name to an adjective meaning "vile" or "bad." The earliest capital of Kush was apparently located at the site of modern Kerma, Sudan, about 420 miles (700 km) upstream (south) from Aswan. Originally designating only Upper Nubia (i.e. northern Sudan), the term "Kush/Cush" (also "Kas, Kos") was eventually more freely interpreted to mean all of Nubia south of Aswan. This name was used not only by the Nubians themselves, but also by the Egyptians and the rest of the ancient world (prior to the Greeks). "Kush" or "Cush" is the name of Nubia used in the Old Testament. It was also the native name of the later ancient Nubian kingdom, which was centered first at Napata and then at Mero‘.

Aithiopia/Ethiopia: was the Greek name for Nubia. Since the people in Nubia were much darker skinned than the Egyptians, the Greeks called them Aithiopes ("Burnt-Faced Ones"), and their land, they called Aithiopia ("Land of the Burnt Faces"). In modern spelling this has become Ethiopia. The Greeks and Romans used this name primarily to refer to what is now northern Sudan and the Upper (southern) Nile Basin rather than the land of modern Ethiopia, which until recently was called "Abyssinia." In the New Testament, which was written in Greek, Nubia is called "Aithiopia" or "Ethiopia."

Nubia: was the medieval name for the land of Kush/Aithiopia, which from the sixth to the fifteenth centuries AD was occupied first by three and then by two competing Christian kingdoms. These kingdoms were Alwa, centered at Soba on the Blue Nile (just upstream of modern Khartoum), Makuria, centered at Old Dongola between the Third and Fourth Cataracts, and Nobatia ("Land of the Nuba"), encompassing Lower Nubia. Ultimately, Nobatia was absorbed by Makuria.

Sudan: is the name of the modern country that now includes Upper (southern) Nubia. The name comes from the Arabic Bilad es-Sudan or "Land of the Blacks." Prior to the early twentieth century, all of sub-Saharan Africa, from the Nile tributaries to the sources of the Niger, was called al-Sudan (the Sudan"= "the Blacks"). It was a term used by the Arabs very much as the Greeks and Romans had used the term "Aithiopia"; its translation was virtually the same. In 1956, on achieving independence from Egypt and Great Britain, the vast territory formerly called "the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan" (as opposed to "the French Soudan" in the west) became the "Republic of the Sudan" or today simply "Sudan". The name is now applied only to the country that bears its name. Books over fifty years old, however, often apply the name "Sudan/Soudan" to various parts of central and West Africa on the southern edge of the Sahara. These lands should not be confused with Nubia or modern Sudan.

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