Arabic document from 17th-cent. rubbish heap confirms semi-legendary Nubian king

I did not expect the recovered order that confirmed the existence of a (semi-)legendary Nubian king to basically be "Dear X, when you get here, please take some sheep from Y in exchange for some cotton cloths. Kthxbye! -King Qashqash".

I just love the sounds in sentence "...Arabization of Dongola in the Funj period."

Dongola in the Funj period sounds like the place to be!

Paper at https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0067270X.2026.2... from Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa

The writing style (in Arabic) feels like a message in a chat. It's a mix between dialect and official Arabic.

Great find. This is the kind of content that makes HN worthwhile.

Please don’t edit the title

Dots?

That was interesting, notwithstanding the editorialising comments by Tomasz Barański.