Christianity
Christianity reached what is now northern Sudan, then called Nubia, by about the end of the first century after Christ.
It greatly developed under the influence of the Eastern Roman Empire. Indeed, Byzantine architecture influenced most of the Christian churches in lower Nubia
The Roman Emperor Justinian I made Nubia a stronghold of Christianity during the Middle Ages. By 580 AD, Christianity had become the official religion of the northern Sudan, centered around the Faras cathedral.
It largely disappeared following later Islamic conquests, but only after a long lasting struggle that went on for eight centuries.
Read more about this topic: Sudanese Arabs
Famous quotes containing the word christianity:
“To die proudly when it is no longer possible to live proudly. Death freely chosen, death at the right time, brightly and cheerfully accomplished amid children and witnesses: then a real farewell is still possible, as the one who is taking leave is still there; also a real estimate of what one has wished, drawing the sum of one’s life—all in opposition to the wretched and revolting comedy that Christianity has made of the hour of death.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“In great cities men are brought together by the desire of gain. They are not in a state of co-operation, but of isolation, as to the making of fortunes; and for all the rest they are careless of neighbours. Christianity teaches us to love our neighbour as ourself; modern society acknowledges no neighbour.”
—Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881)