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The mythical King's identity has been shrouded in mystery for years but a recent breakthrough could transform modern understandings of the region's history.
12:10, Wed, Mar 4, 2026 Updated: 12:21, Wed, Mar 4, 2026
The newly-discovered text has confirmed the existence of the mythical African king (Image: M. Rekłajtis/PCMA/Cover Images)
Archaeologists have uncovered a crucial document shedding light on an African King whose mythical status mirrored that of the legendary British King Arthur. Nubian King Qashqash, whose existence has so far been documented only in oral traditions and later texts, was an actual ruler in pre-colonial Sudan, the new findings revealed. Excavists found the centuries-old piece of Arabic writing buried in a layer of rubbish in the citadel of Old Dongola, providing the first contemporary record of King Qashqash as a real historical figure.
Old Dongola, which bordered the River Nile in northern Sudan, was once the capital of the Christian kingdom of Makuria, which historians believe entered an era of poor documentation after the 14th century, amid political fragmentation and the replacement of earlier written traditions with Arabic. The lack of surviving records casts doubt over the identities of the era's rulers, assigning King Qashqash a mythical Arthurian reputation.
Archaeologists have dated the recovered text to the 17th century (Image: M. Rekłajtis/PCMA/Cover Images)
The newly recovered document dates his reign to the 17th century, however, by matching it to the Islamic Ṭabaqāt text, which records the lives of Sudanese scholars and holy men.
It contains an order from the King written in colloquial Arabic, rather than the language's classic form, according to a research team at the University of Warsaw, potentially mirroring the cultural change taking place in Sudan at the time.
The order reads: "From King Qashqash to Khiḍr son of ŠHDT/ŠHB(T?). As soon as Muḥammad al-ʿArab comes to you, take from him three ʾRDWYĀT and give him a ewe and her offspring and collect, from ʿAbd al-Jābīr, the ewe and her offspring; and give them to their master without delay. Do not hesitate! This is my letter/reply to you. His scribe Ḥamad wrote it. Greetings.
"And you, Khiḍr, give to ʿAbd al-Jābīr three cotton cloths and a head (or three cotton headwear) and collect the ewe and her offspring for their master."
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King Qashqash was previously only known through oral tradition and later texts (Image: WÅ‚odzimierz Godlewski/Cover Images)
Leading researcher Tomasz Branski said: "King Qashqash, the father of King Hasan, seems to have held power at the latest by the early to mid-seventeeth century.
"His rule may have begun as early as the second half of the 16th century, if it was prolonged. However, the deposition of the king's order among rubbish heaps [where it was found] occurred later, during the mid-to-late 17th century or even as late as the 18th century."
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The document was discovered in a structure traditionally associated with a mekk or minor king in Old Dongola's citadel, with excavations revealing that it would have stood out from ordinary houses of the period in terms of size and decor.
Other findings detailed in the research, which was published in the journal Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa, included silk and fine cotton, leather footwear, a golden ring and an ivory or rhino horn dagger.
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