Egyptian monuments of the Ethiopian Dynasty show that the rule of descent for the royal family was the same as in Egypt, or with the female element still more strongly insisted on. In the Stele of the Coronation, the descent of King Aspalut is given for seven generations on the maternal side, from “his mother, the royal sister,” So-and-so, “whose mother was the royal sister,” etc., etc., while his father's father only is named. Among the kings of Meroe, if one died, his consort succeeded, with the son in a secondary position; if the consort died, the son was at once associated in the crown.

Makrizi and other Arab writers give a similar account of the Begas and other Nubian tribes met with in the early days of Islam. And Lepsius describes a modern Ethiopian princess, Nasr, the sister of a former sultan, who was treated with peculiar respect because she was descended on the mother's side from the legitimate royal house. Throughout Northern Africa, numerous non-negro tribes have preserved the same family custom unchanged certainly for many centuries, in spite of the conversion to Islam of those who observe them.

Ibn Batuta mentions as a curious custom that, among the Berber princes, the succession went, not to the sons of the king, but to his sister's sons; and other Arab chroniclers mention this custom as peculiar to the Berbers and the natives of Malabar.