Maloqorebar

Maloqorebar (late 3rd or early 4th century AD) was an ancient Kushite prince.[1][2]

He is known from a single inscription, no. REM 0101, found in the so-called "Meroitic chamber" of the temple of Isis at Philae, which was originally read as tdxe Mloqorebr qoret Lhidmni. A recently discovered contemporary inscription, however, allows this reading to be corrected to tdxe Mloqorebr qore Tlhidmni. The word tdxe means 'child' and usually connected a child's name to a mother's. Qore(t) indicates a ruler.[3] The original reading was variously translated:

  • "the mother of Maloqorebar the king, Lakhidamani" (Griffith)[3]
  • "Lakhidamani, the mother's child of the ruler Maloqorebar" (Macadam, Haycock)[3]
  • "Maloqorebar, child of a queen Lakhideamani"[1]
  • "a present that Maloqorebar, the king's man, and Lakhidamani" (Priese, reinterpreting tdxe)[3]

The revised reading is translated "the child Maloqorebar and the ruler Talakhidamani". It is based on the appearance of the king Talakhidamani in another inscription.[1][3] The name Maloqorebar probably means "beautiful is the boy of the kings".[3] The inscription is associated with a diplomatic mission sent by Talakhidamani to meet with Roman authorities. It is possible that he was ruling Kush as regent on behalf of the young Maloqorebar.[1] Since royal names at the time typically had the -amani element (after Amun), Maloqorebar does not appear to have been a ruler. In the inscription, the two are placed under the protection of the goddess Patarus (an epithet of Isis) and the child god Horus.[3]

The absence of Maloqorebar's name on the other inscription of Talakhidamani suggests that he died before it was carved.[3]

  1. ^ a b c d Josefine Kuckertz (2021), "Meroe and Egypt", in Wolfram Grajetzki, Solange Ashby and Willeke Wendrich (eds.), UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology, Los Angeles.
  2. ^ Joshua Mark, "The Candaces of Meroe", World History Encyclopedia, retrieved 2 June 2019, lists Maloqorebar as a queen (kandake) of Kush from 266 to 283.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h 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).