Makk(pluralmukūk), also spelledmak,mekormeek,[1][2]is a title formerly used in theSudan,meaning "ruler" or "king". There are three theories of its origins. It may be a corruption of theArabicwordmalik(pl.mulūk), meaning "king";[3]it may descend fromMeroiticmk,meaning "God", appropriate to thedivine kingshippractised in the Sudan;[2][3][4]or, asE. A. Wallis Budgeproposed, it may be derived fromGe'ezመከሐ (mkḥ), meaning "to be glorious", making it anEthiopianimport.[5]The territory ruled by amakkmay be called a "makkdom" or "mekdom" in English.[6]
The titlemakkwas used for the ruler of theFunj Sultanateand for all his vassal rulers in theregion of Sennar.[3]It was used by the ruler ofTaqali,whose tributaries were also known asmukūk al-ʿāda(sing.makk al-ʿāda), "customary kings".[7]The ruler ofShendialso bore the title, and Shendi's last ruler,MekNimr,resisted theEgyptian conquest of Sudanin 1821–22.[1]
During theperiod of the Anglo-Egyptian condominiumin the Sudan, the government usedindirect rule,appointing and deposing manymukūk.Following the deposition in 1903 of themakkof theShilluksfor misappropriation of funds and other abuses, the newmakkwas forced to accept "eleven conditions of mekship".[8]Among theNuba,the government made the "mek-in-council "(akin to theking-in-council), along with tribal hierarchies and federations, the basis of indirect rule.[9]
References
edit- ^abRobert S. Kramer, Richard Andrew Lobban Jr. and Carolyn Fluehr-Lobban,Historical Dictionary of the Sudan,4th ed. (Scarecrow Press, 2013), p. 293.
- ^abRichard Andrew Lobban Jr.,Historical Dictionary of Ancient and Medieval Nubia(Scarecrow Press, 2004), p..
- ^abcJay L. Spaulding, "The Fate of Alodia",Transafrican Journal of History4,1 (1974): 27–40.
- ^Richard Hill,A Biographical Dictionary of the Sudan(Frank Cass, 1967), p. xii.
- ^E. A. Wallis Budge,The Egyptian Sudan: Its History and Monuments(Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co., 1907), p. 212n, points to a scribe calledMekḥGiyorgis (George) who wrote a life of the EmperorTakla Maryam.
- ^Intisar Soghayroun Elzein,Islamic Archaeology in the Sudan(Archaeopress, 2004),passim.
- ^Janet J. Ewald,Soldiers, Traders, and Slaves: State Formation and Economic Transformation in the Greater Nile Valley, 1700–1885(University of Wisconsin Press, 1990), p. 235.
- ^Gabriel Warburg,Sudan Under Wingate: Administration in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan (1899–1916)(Routledge, ), p..
- ^Kamal Osman Salih, "British Policy and the Accentuation of Inter-Ethnic Divisions: The Case of the Nuba Mountains Region of Sudan, 1920–1940",African Affairs89,356 (1990): 417–36.