Nubians
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| (1.7 million speakers of Nubian languages (SIL estimate as of 1996)) | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
 Sudan Egypt Kenya
|
|
| Languages | |
| Nubian (Dongolawi, Kenzi, Nobiin), Nubi, Arabic (Sudanese Arabic, Egyptian Arabic, Sa'idi Arabic Latin) | |
| Religion | |
| Predominantly Islam |
Nubians are an ethnic group that originated in present-day Sudan and Egypt. Today, people of Nubian descent primarily live in Sudan, and inhabit the region between Wadi Halfa in the north and Al Dabbah in the south. A significant number of Nubians, estimated at 100,000, live in Kenya. The main Nubian groups from north to south are the Halfaweyen, Sikut, Mahas, and Dongola. They speak a variety of Nilo-Saharan languages in the Nubian language family.
Nubian people have a long history dating back to dynastic Egypt. Nubians founded a dynasty that ruled upper and lower Egypt during the 8th century BCE. Ancient Nubians were famous for their skill and precision with the bow.
The Nubian people historically inhabited the region south of Egypt, known today as Sudan, where they settled mainly along the banks of the Nile. They were noted for their horsemanship, riding their horses bareback. They were light, mobile and efficient this way, and became valued for cavalry duties in later years.
They speak Nubian language, an Eastern Sudanic language that is part of the Nilo-Saharan phylum.
The Old Nubian language is attested from the 8th century, and is the oldest recorded language of Africa outside of the Afro-Asiatic group. It was the language of the Noba nomads who occupied the Nile between the First and Third Cataracts and also of the Makorae nomads who occupied the land between the Third and Fourth Cataracts, following the collapse of the Kingdom of Kush sometime in the 4th century AD. The Makorae were a separate tribe who eventually conquered or inherited the lands of the Noba: they established a Byzantine-influenced state called the Kingdom of Makuria, which administered the Noba lands separately as the eparchy of Nobadia. Nobadia was converted to Miaphysitism by the Orthodox priest Julian and Bishop Longinus of Constantinople, and thereafter received its bishops from the Pope of Alexandria.
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