Old Nubian is an ancient variety of
Nubian, attested in writing from the 8th to the 15th century (the most recent known text was written in 1485). It is ancestral to modern-day
Mahasi–Fadijja and related to other Nubian languages such as
Dongolawi. It was used throughout the medieval
Christian kingdom of
Makuria and its satellite
Nobadia. The language is preserved in at least a hundred pages of documents, mostly of a religious nature, written using a modified form of the
Coptic script; the best known is
The Martyrdom of Saint Menas.