Recommended listening: Hymns of the Coptic Orthodox Church
Story
On the sandy slopes of the Nile Valley, an ancient seat of Christianity stood proud. The cathedral at Faras, perhaps the oldest cathedral in the Nubian kingdom of Makuria, had recently been refurbished. The late Bishop Petros had replastered the walls and commissioned fresh portraits before passing on to heaven. Prayers for his soul echoed through the church as pilgrims came from all over Nubia to worship God in these hallowed halls. While commoners might leave their name carved into the plaster to memorialize their visit, there were some visitors in the cathedral who left a more distinguished record of their visit behind.
Martha, Mother of Kings, had her portrait added to the cathedral walls at the turn of the eleventh century. The position Mother of Kings, or ńonnen in Old Nubian, was the second most important in the country. It's unclear how long the queen mother had held such a high position in Makurian society, but this elevation of women was reflected in the ability of everyday Nubian women to inherit, own, and trade property in their own names. While sometimes the Mother of Kings was the wife of the previous king, there were times when the Makurian king had no male heirs. In these cases, his sister's son would take the throne. Martha may have earned the title in such circumstances. King Georgios III died around the year 997, and the man who succeeded him was almost certainly not his son. The new king, Raphael, may have been the son of Martha, since her portrait went up in the cathedral around the time of his accession to the throne.
But if Raphael did become king thanks to his mother, there were some in the kingdom who may have contested this. At the same time as Raphael became king, a 74-year-old man called Ioannes became the new bishop of Faras. He was a layman, not even a priest or monk, which was highly unusual for a Nubian bishop, leading some historians to speculate that he was the late King Georgios's brother. Ioannes had two sons, Marianos and Merkurios. In spite of being monks, they both succeeded their father as bishop, another thing which raised eyebrows among the Makurian elite. This line of bishops took the prestige of their office to new levels. Ioannes and Marianos both had special crypts prepared for themselves attached to the cathedral, and Marianos commissioned a splendid portrait of himself. Mysteriously, both Marianos and Merkurios's names were struck from the list of bishops of Faras in later years. Were they expunged from the record because they had posed a challenge to Raphael's royal line?
Because of these dynastic politics, Martha's portrait in Faras Cathedral is more than a record of her personal piety. Her portrait features her standing beside the Virgin Mary, both of them wearing splendid crowns. Martha's crown is very similar to the one in another mural painted at the turn of the century - the Nativity in the north aisle, the most monumental surviving mural in all of medieval Nubian art. This Nativity scene is the apogee of Marian art in the cathedral which tends to show the Virgin in glittering royal regalia. The art shows a clear parallel between Mary's regal status as the mother of God and the ńonnen's status as the Mother of Kings. By rooting her right to rule in the Virgin Mary herself, Martha was sending a clear message that her role had been divinely ordained and that her son had the right to rule.
We find Martha here with two other women, all admiring the new Nativity scene. The Three Kings ride towards Mary bearing their gifts in pouches while angels crowd around the Virgin. An old and slightly bemused Joseph sits at Mary's feet, dwarfed by her enormous size as she reclines on a cushioned seat. The Star of Bethlehem shines above an ox and ass who peer curiously at the Christ child below. Like most images of Mary and queens in the cathedral, this mural is on the north side; Oriental Orthodox churches separated men into the south half and women into the north half of the church.
One of the women Martha has brought with her is dressed in plain and simple clothes, a stark contrast to the resplendent robes of her fellow royal women. This woman, too, will be memorialized on the cathedral wall as a Mother of Kings, perhaps the mother of Stephanos who would succeed Raphael in 1006. Remarkably, she will be depicted wearing a crown of thorns. This unusual expression of piety and her simple clothes suggest she may have become a nun, like many royal women did across Christendom once their children had grown. Behind her is a fashionable princess, more overcome with awe than piety upon beholding the immense work of art. Martha looks upon the scene approvingly, enjoying the scene she has brought to life. Her own portrait is just around the corner, and she feels secure in the knowledge that the Virgin Mary is watching over her and will continue do to so for centuries to come.
Martha, Mother of Kings, had her portrait added to the cathedral walls at the turn of the eleventh century. The position Mother of Kings, or ńonnen in Old Nubian, was the second most important in the country. It's unclear how long the queen mother had held such a high position in Makurian society, but this elevation of women was reflected in the ability of everyday Nubian women to inherit, own, and trade property in their own names. While sometimes the Mother of Kings was the wife of the previous king, there were times when the Makurian king had no male heirs. In these cases, his sister's son would take the throne. Martha may have earned the title in such circumstances. King Georgios III died around the year 997, and the man who succeeded him was almost certainly not his son. The new king, Raphael, may have been the son of Martha, since her portrait went up in the cathedral around the time of his accession to the throne.
But if Raphael did become king thanks to his mother, there were some in the kingdom who may have contested this. At the same time as Raphael became king, a 74-year-old man called Ioannes became the new bishop of Faras. He was a layman, not even a priest or monk, which was highly unusual for a Nubian bishop, leading some historians to speculate that he was the late King Georgios's brother. Ioannes had two sons, Marianos and Merkurios. In spite of being monks, they both succeeded their father as bishop, another thing which raised eyebrows among the Makurian elite. This line of bishops took the prestige of their office to new levels. Ioannes and Marianos both had special crypts prepared for themselves attached to the cathedral, and Marianos commissioned a splendid portrait of himself. Mysteriously, both Marianos and Merkurios's names were struck from the list of bishops of Faras in later years. Were they expunged from the record because they had posed a challenge to Raphael's royal line?
Because of these dynastic politics, Martha's portrait in Faras Cathedral is more than a record of her personal piety. Her portrait features her standing beside the Virgin Mary, both of them wearing splendid crowns. Martha's crown is very similar to the one in another mural painted at the turn of the century - the Nativity in the north aisle, the most monumental surviving mural in all of medieval Nubian art. This Nativity scene is the apogee of Marian art in the cathedral which tends to show the Virgin in glittering royal regalia. The art shows a clear parallel between Mary's regal status as the mother of God and the ńonnen's status as the Mother of Kings. By rooting her right to rule in the Virgin Mary herself, Martha was sending a clear message that her role had been divinely ordained and that her son had the right to rule.
We find Martha here with two other women, all admiring the new Nativity scene. The Three Kings ride towards Mary bearing their gifts in pouches while angels crowd around the Virgin. An old and slightly bemused Joseph sits at Mary's feet, dwarfed by her enormous size as she reclines on a cushioned seat. The Star of Bethlehem shines above an ox and ass who peer curiously at the Christ child below. Like most images of Mary and queens in the cathedral, this mural is on the north side; Oriental Orthodox churches separated men into the south half and women into the north half of the church.
One of the women Martha has brought with her is dressed in plain and simple clothes, a stark contrast to the resplendent robes of her fellow royal women. This woman, too, will be memorialized on the cathedral wall as a Mother of Kings, perhaps the mother of Stephanos who would succeed Raphael in 1006. Remarkably, she will be depicted wearing a crown of thorns. This unusual expression of piety and her simple clothes suggest she may have become a nun, like many royal women did across Christendom once their children had grown. Behind her is a fashionable princess, more overcome with awe than piety upon beholding the immense work of art. Martha looks upon the scene approvingly, enjoying the scene she has brought to life. Her own portrait is just around the corner, and she feels secure in the knowledge that the Virgin Mary is watching over her and will continue do to so for centuries to come.
Artist's Comments
Learning about the medieval Nubian church was an absolute BLAST! I had no idea that Nubia was Christian for over a thousand years until the 15th century. The Oriental Orthodox churches have been a big knowledge gap for me, and it was so thrilling filling some of that gap by researching this illustration. It's really consumed me over the past few weeks! I was shocked and delighted to discover an entire world of women with individualized portraits and pivotal roles in the political and religious world of the time in a country I knew nothing about, Sudan. In fact, Martha is the first person I've ever drawn for this project who had an individualized portrait of herself made in her lifetime available for me to use as reference. Unlike Gurandukht, who was based on a surviving image from her time, Martha's portrait is not formulaic in its details. All of the Mothers of Kings are wearing different outfits, hairstyles, and have different facial features and skin tones, meaning this illustration is much closer than usual to what the woman definitely looked like!
Today Faras is completely underwater, but the murals survive, split between museums in Khartoum and Warsaw (who would have thought?!). You can see the amazing portraits of Martha, the praying woman, and the princess online, plus the enterprising Marianos. (The princess is based on a slightly later mural, but hey, there would have been some princesses around in 1000 too, and I HAD to draw that outfit!) I want to give a special thanks to Professor Włodzimierz Godlewski, who kindly answered my questions over email in spite of the difficulties in pinning down anything about Makurian history. It was really exciting getting up-to-date theories about who these women were from an expert! Working on this illustration brings out the best of what I love about this project: learning about amazing people in history I knew nothing about, then sharing that excitement with others! Thanks too to my friend Sacha for her help figuring out the composition of this one. ~ January 12, 2020
Today Faras is completely underwater, but the murals survive, split between museums in Khartoum and Warsaw (who would have thought?!). You can see the amazing portraits of Martha, the praying woman, and the princess online, plus the enterprising Marianos. (The princess is based on a slightly later mural, but hey, there would have been some princesses around in 1000 too, and I HAD to draw that outfit!) I want to give a special thanks to Professor Włodzimierz Godlewski, who kindly answered my questions over email in spite of the difficulties in pinning down anything about Makurian history. It was really exciting getting up-to-date theories about who these women were from an expert! Working on this illustration brings out the best of what I love about this project: learning about amazing people in history I knew nothing about, then sharing that excitement with others! Thanks too to my friend Sacha for her help figuring out the composition of this one. ~ January 12, 2020
Resources
Want to learn more about Martha and the medieval Nubian Church? Here are some recommended resources.
"Bishops and Kings: The official program of the Pachoras (Faras) Cathedrals" by Włodzimierz Godlewski
This excellent article makes the argument that the royal Marian imagery in Faras was tied to the importance of the Mother of Kings in Makurian politics around the turn of the 11th century. The article also features images of the other Mothers of Kings, including the woman with the crown of thorns, and floor plans of the cathedral in different stages of construction. A few pieces of information in this article are outdated, so I used the most recent information Professor Godlewksi kindly shared with me over email when drawing this illustration.
This article is difficult to access online, so I am grateful for Professor Godlewski for sending it to me. If you would like to read it too, please let me know using the contact form. A more general history of Nubian Christianity by Godlewski is available here. The website linked above does have one interesting article available for public viewing: "Social Class and Local Tradition in Nubia: The Evidence from Archaeology" by William Y. Adams, which includes a section about women and covers lower social classes as much as possible.
"Faras 3D" on YouTube
This video from the National Museum in Warsaw shows a wonderful reconstruction of what the cathedral looked like, both inside and outside. I used this video a lot as a reference for this illustration. It shows you many of the murals in great detail, including Martha and the Nativity, and gives an overview of the history of the cathedral. The museum also has a longer video here which features more in-depth information about its collection of Nubian artefacts. Finally, there is a nice overview of the cathedral on the Ancient Encyclopedia website.
"Banganarti on the Nile: An Archaeological Guide" by Bogdan Żurawski
This excellent illustrated guide takes you through the story of another Nubian church, Banganarti. Banganarti was further south on the Nile, very near to the Makurian capital of Old Dongola. Martha and other Mothers of Kings would have known it well.
Medieval Nubia: A Social and Economic History by Giovanni R. Ruffini
This book's conclusion had some interesting comments about women in Nubian society which I found helpful for researching this illustration. Medieval Nubia is much better-documented than most people realise, and this book goes into different aspects of the kingdom's history.
"Coptic Civilization: Nubian Christianity" on YouTube
In this episode of Coptic Civilization, Michael Saad interviews Salim Faraji about Faraji's book The Roots of Nubian Christianity Uncovered: The Triumph of the Last Pharaoh. Faraji brings out some really interesting evidence concerning the early centuries of Coptic Christianity in Nubia, challenging the assumption that Nubian rulers weren't Christian until the Byzantine missions.
"Bishops and Kings: The official program of the Pachoras (Faras) Cathedrals" by Włodzimierz Godlewski
This excellent article makes the argument that the royal Marian imagery in Faras was tied to the importance of the Mother of Kings in Makurian politics around the turn of the 11th century. The article also features images of the other Mothers of Kings, including the woman with the crown of thorns, and floor plans of the cathedral in different stages of construction. A few pieces of information in this article are outdated, so I used the most recent information Professor Godlewksi kindly shared with me over email when drawing this illustration.
This article is difficult to access online, so I am grateful for Professor Godlewski for sending it to me. If you would like to read it too, please let me know using the contact form. A more general history of Nubian Christianity by Godlewski is available here. The website linked above does have one interesting article available for public viewing: "Social Class and Local Tradition in Nubia: The Evidence from Archaeology" by William Y. Adams, which includes a section about women and covers lower social classes as much as possible.
"Faras 3D" on YouTube
This video from the National Museum in Warsaw shows a wonderful reconstruction of what the cathedral looked like, both inside and outside. I used this video a lot as a reference for this illustration. It shows you many of the murals in great detail, including Martha and the Nativity, and gives an overview of the history of the cathedral. The museum also has a longer video here which features more in-depth information about its collection of Nubian artefacts. Finally, there is a nice overview of the cathedral on the Ancient Encyclopedia website.
"Banganarti on the Nile: An Archaeological Guide" by Bogdan Żurawski
This excellent illustrated guide takes you through the story of another Nubian church, Banganarti. Banganarti was further south on the Nile, very near to the Makurian capital of Old Dongola. Martha and other Mothers of Kings would have known it well.
Medieval Nubia: A Social and Economic History by Giovanni R. Ruffini
This book's conclusion had some interesting comments about women in Nubian society which I found helpful for researching this illustration. Medieval Nubia is much better-documented than most people realise, and this book goes into different aspects of the kingdom's history.
"Coptic Civilization: Nubian Christianity" on YouTube
In this episode of Coptic Civilization, Michael Saad interviews Salim Faraji about Faraji's book The Roots of Nubian Christianity Uncovered: The Triumph of the Last Pharaoh. Faraji brings out some really interesting evidence concerning the early centuries of Coptic Christianity in Nubia, challenging the assumption that Nubian rulers weren't Christian until the Byzantine missions.