Kandake (royal title)
| Kandake of Sudan | |
|---|---|
 Relief depicting Kandake Amanitore | |
| Details | |
| Style | Nubian monarchy |
| First monarch | |
| Last monarch | |
| Formation | c. middle 2nd century BCE[1] |
| Abolition | c. AD 350[3] |
| Residence | Ancient Sudan |
| Appointer | Hereditary |
Kandake, kadake or kentake (Meroitic: 𐦲𐦷𐦲𐦡 kdke),[4] often Latinised as Candace (Ancient Greek: Κανδάκη, Kandakē),[4] was the Meroitic term for the sister of the king of Kush who, due to the matrilineal succession, would bear the next heir, making her a queen mother. She had her own court, probably acted as a landholder[5] and held a prominent secular role as regent.[6] Contemporary Greek and Roman sources treated it, incorrectly, as a name. The name Candace is derived from the way the word is used in the New Testament (Acts 8:27).[7][8][9]
A kandake who ruled in her own right bore in addition the title qore, the same title carried by male rulers.[10]
Biblical usage
[change | change source]_Mauritshuis_282.jpg)
In the New Testament, a treasury official of "Candace, queen of the Aethiopians", returning from a trip to Jerusalem, met with Philip the Evangelist:
Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, "Rise and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza." This is a desert place. And he rose and went. And there was an Aethiopian eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Aethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure. He had come to Jerusalem to worship[11]
He discussed with Philip the meaning of a perplexing passage from the Book of Isaiah.[12] Philip explained the scripture to him and he was promptly baptised in some nearby water. The eunuch 'went on his way, rejoicing',[13] and presumably therefore reported back on his conversion to the Kandake.
List of ruling kandakes
[change | change source]
At least eleven kandakes also ruled in their own right as monarchs (i.e. queens regnant) of Kush:
- Nahirqo (middle 2nd century BC)[1]
- An unknown queen regnant (end of the 2nd–first half of the 1st century BC)[1]
- Amanirenas (end of the 1st century BC–beginning of the 1st century AD)[1]
- Amanishakheto (early 1st century AD)[1]
- Shanakdakhete (first half of the 1st century AD)[1]
- Nawidemak (first half of the 1st century AD?)[1]
- Amanitore (middle 1st century AD)[1]
- Amanikhatashan (middle 2nd century AD?)[1]
- Amanikhalika (second half of the 2nd century AD)[14]
- patrapeamani (early 4th century)[2]
- Amanipilade (mid-4th century)[2]
Based on the reading of a single inscription, some lists give two later kandakes named Maloqorebar (266–283 AD) and Lahideamani (306-314 AD).[15] A recently discovered inscription corrects this earlier reading, however, showing that neither was a woman.[16]
Related pages
[change | change source]References
[change | change source]- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Kuckertz, Josefine (2021). "Meroe and Egypt". UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology: 5, 11–13.
- 1 2 3 Török, László (2015). The Kingdom of Kush: Handbook of the Napatan-Meroitic Civilization. BRILL. p. 206. ISBN 978-90-04-29401-1.
- ↑ Kuckertz, Josefine (2021). "Meroe and Egypt". UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology: 22.
- 1 2 Kirsty Rowan, "Revising the Sound Value of Meroitic D: A Phonological Approach," Archived 2023-05-22 at the Wayback Machine Beitrage zur Sudanforschung 10 (2009).
- ↑ Lohwasser, Angelika (1999). "Die Frau im antiken Sudan" (PDF). p. 131.
- ↑ Khan, Dan'el (2012). "The Queen Mother in the Kingdom of Kush: Status, Power and Cultic Role". Teshura le-Zafrira: Studies in the Bible, the History of Israel, and the Ancient Near East Presented to Zafrira Ben-Barak of the University of Haifa. pp. 67–68.
- ↑ Lobban, Richard A. Jr. (2003). Historical Dictionary of Ancient and Medieval Nubia. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press. ISBN 978-0-8108-6578-5.
- ↑ Miriam Ma'at-ka-re Monges (2005). "Kush". In Molefi Kete Asante, Ama Mazama (ed.). Encyclopedia of Black Studies. Sage. p. 302. ISBN 978-0-7619-2762-4.
- ↑ Fage, John (23 October 2013). A History of Africa. Routledge. p. 115. ISBN 978-1317797272.
- ↑ László Török (1997), The Kingdom of Kush: Handbook of the Napatan–Meroitic Civilization, Brill, pp. 213–214.
- ↑ "Acts 8:27 Study Bible: And he arose and went; and look, there was a man from Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was over all her treasure, who had come to Jerusalem to worship". biblehub.com. Retrieved 2025-05-29.
- ↑ Isaiah 53:7–8
- ↑ Acts 8:39
- ↑ Eder, Walter; Renger, Johannes; Henkelman, Wouter; Chenault, Robert (2007). Chronologies of the Ancient World: Names, Dates and Dynasties. Brill. p. 55. ISBN 978-90-04-15320-2.
- ↑ Mark, Joshua (19 March 2018). "The Candaces of Meroe". World History Encyclopedia. Retrieved 2 June 2019.
- ↑ Claude Rilly (2017), "New Light on the Royal Lineage in the Last Decades of the Meroitic Kingdom: The inscription of the Temple of Amun at Meroe Found in 2012 by the Sudanese–Canadian Mission", Sudan and Nubia 21: 144–147 (appendix to "The Amun Temple at Meroe Revisited" by Krzysztof Grzymski).
Sources
[change | change source]- Harris, G.L.A. (2014). Living Legends and Full Agency: Implications of Repealing the Combat Exclusion Policy. CRC Press. ISBN 978-1-4665-1378-5.