The monarchs of Kush were the rulers of the ancient Kingdom of Kush (8th century BCE – 4th century CE), a major civilization in ancient Nubia (roughly corresponding to modern-day Sudan). Kushite power was centralised and unified over the course of the centuries following the collapse of the New Kingdom of Egypt c. 1069 BCE, leading to the eventual establishment of the Kingdom of Kush under Alara c. 780 BCE.
Kush reached the apex of its power c. 739–656 BCE, when the Kushite kings also ruled as the Twenty-fifth Dynasty of Egypt. The kingdom remained a powerful state in its heartland after Kushite rule in Egypt was terminated and it survived for another millennium until its collapse c. 350 CE. Egyptian culture heavily influenced Kush in terms of its royal and monumental iconography, though indigenous elements were also used and became increasingly prominent in the Meroitic period (c. 270 BCE–350 CE).[1]
There are no preserved Kushite lists of rulers and the regnal sequence is instead largely reconstructed based on evidence such as royal inscriptions and burials. Surviving sources are at several points scant, meaning that parts of the chronology and sequence are approximate and tentative.[2] The list of rulers might also be incomplete given that future discoveries of additional royal names and burials are possible.[3]
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- ^ Lohwasser 2020, Introduction.
- ^ Eide et al. 1996, p. 512.
- ^ Török 2015, p. 200.