Kyriakos of Makuria

Kyriakos or Cyriacus (ca. 750) was a ruler of the Nubian kingdom of Makuria. While some authorities place his reign between Merkurios and Zacharias I, according to Severus of El Ashmunein, Kyriakos succeeded Markos.[1]

Around 748,[2] Kyriakos marched north into Egypt as far as Fustat (Cairo) at the head of an army said to number 100,000 men to free the Patriarch of Alexandria Michael, whom the Governor of Egypt, Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan ibn Musa bin Nusayr, had thrown into prison. However, once the Makurian army reached Egypt, the Patriarch was released from prison, along with Kyriakos' envoy, who was then dispatched to Kyriakos to ask him to return to Makuria.[3]

  1. ^ B. Evetts, History of the Patriarchs of the Coptic Church of Alexandria, Part 3 (1910), pp. 144-146
  2. ^ Derek A. Welsby, The Medieval Kingdoms of Nubia (London 2002), p. 73, ISBN 0-7141-1947-4
  3. ^ E.A Wallis Budge, A History of Ethiopia: Nubia and Abyssinia, 1928 (Oosterhout, the Netherlands: Anthropological Publications, 1970) p. 104. Budge gives two dates for this expedition: 722 on this page, and 737 on p. 117; neither fits the dates Michael (whom Budge calls "Khail", the Egyptian form of his name) was patriarch (743-767).