Kingdom of Makuria
- Makuria was a Nubian kingdom located in what is today Northern Sudan and Southern Egypt. Makuria originally covered the area along the Nile River from the Third Cataract to somewhere south of Abu Hamad as well as parts of northern Kordofan. Its capital was Dongola (Old Nubian: Tungul), and the kingdom is sometimes known by the name of its capital.
- The first half of the 4th century AD saw the gradual collapse of the Kingdom of Kush. Napata, located near the fourth cataract and formerly one of the most important political and sacred places of Kush, continued to be in use. During the 4th and 5th centuries it served as a center for a new regional elite, which would be buried in large tumuli like those at el Zuma or Tanqasi. Social transformations took place, resulting in the absorption of the Kushites into the Nubians and the rise of the Nubian language in favour of the Meroitic one. Thus, a new Makurian society and state emerged. In the late 5th century the still developing kingdom moved its power base from Napata to further downstream, where the fortress of Dongola, the new seat of the royal court, was founded and which soon developed a vast urban district. Many more fortresses were built along the banks of the Nile, probably not intended to serve a military purpose, but to foster urbanization.
- The Nubians were a literate society, and a fair body of writing survives from the period. These documents were written in the Old Nubian language in an uncial variety of the Greek alphabet extended with some Coptic symbols and some symbols unique to Nubian. Written in a language that is closely related to the modern Nobiin tongue, these documents have long been deciphered. However, the vast majority of them are works dealing with religion or legal records that are of little use to historians. The largest known collection, found at Qasr Ibrim, does contain some valuable governmental records.
- At the time of the foundation of Dongola contacts were maintained with the Byzantine Empire. In the 530s, the Byzantines under Emperor Justinian mounted a policy of expansion. The Nubians were part of his plan to win allies against the Sasanian Persians by converting them to the Byzantine state religion. Archaeological records might suggest that Makuria converted in the first half of the 6th century.
- In the 7th century Egypt was conquered by the Islamic armies. Makuria was one of the few states in the world to repulse Muslim conquests led by the Rashidun Caliphate when they defeated an Arab army at the First Battle of Dongola in 642. The Arabs had taken Egypt in 641, and the jihad soon turned south. Makuria repeated the feat in 652 at the Second Battle of Dongola. Arab writers noted the Makurians' skill as archers in both battles. One of the few major defeats suffered by an Arab army in the first century of Islamic expansion, it led to an unprecedented agreement: the bakt. This treaty guaranteed peaceful relations between the two sides. The Nubians agreed to give Arab traders more privileges of trade in addition to a share in their slave trading, while the Egyptians may have been obliged to send manufactured goods south.
- Makuria expanded by annexing its northern neighbor Nobatia, a process which would have occurred at some point after the Sasanian conquest of Egypt, but was completed until the reign of King Merkurios. It also maintained close dynastic ties with the kingdom of Alodia to the south. The period from the 9th to 11th century saw the peak of Makuria's cultural development: new monumental buildings were erected, arts like wall paintings and finely crafted and decorated pottery flourished and Nubian grew to become the prevalent written language.
- One of the most important discoveries of the rushed work prior to the flooding of Lower Nubia was the Cathedral of Faras. This large building had been completely filled with sand preserving a series of magnificent paintings. Similar, but less well preserved, paintings have been found at several other sites in Makuria, including palaces and private homes, giving an overall impression of Makurian art. The style and content was heavily influenced by Byzantine art, and also showed influence from Egyptian Coptic art and from Palestine. Mainly religious in nature, it depicts many of the standard Christian scenes. Also illustrated are a number of Makurian kings and bishops, with noticeably darker skin than the Biblical figures.
- Women enjoyed a high social standing. The matrilineal succession gave the queen mother and the sister of the current king as forthcoming queen mother great political relevance. Women had access to education and there is evidence that, like in Byzantine Egypt, female scribes existed. Private land tenure was open to both men and women, meaning that both could own, buy and sell land. Transfers of land from mother to daughter were common.
- The main economic activity in Makuria was agriculture, with farmers growing several crops a year of barley, millet, and dates. One important technological advance was the saqiya, an oxen-powered water wheel, that was introduced in the Roman period and helped increase yields and population density. Settlement patterns indicate that land was divided into individual plots rather than as in a manorial system. The peasants lived in small villages composed of clustered houses of sun-dried brick.
- Important industries included the production of pottery, based at Faras, and weaving based at Dongola. Smaller local industries include leatherworking, metalworking, and the widespread production of baskets, mats, and sandals from palm fibre. Also important was the gold mined in the Red Sea Hills to the east of Makuria. Cattle was of great economic importance.
- Increased aggression from Egypt, internal discord, bedouin incursions and possibly the plague and the shift of trade routes led to the state's decline in the 13th and 14th century. Due to a civil war in 1365, the kingdom was reduced to a rump state that lost much of its southern territories, including Dongola. It had disappeared by the 1560s, when the Ottoman occupied Lower Nubia. Nubia was subsequently Islamized, while the Nubians living upstream of Al Dabbah and in Kordofan were also Arabized.
First Battle of Dongola
The First Battle of Dongola was a battle between early Arab-Muslim forces of the Rashidun Caliphate and the Nubian-Christian forces of the Kingdom of Makuria in 642. The battle, which resulted in a Makurian victory, temporarily halted Arab incursions into Nubia and set the tone for an atmosphere of hostility between the two cultures until the culmination of the Second Battle of Dongola in 652.
Second Battle of Dongola
The Second Battle of Dongola or Siege of Dongola was a military engagement between early Arab-Egyptian forces of the Rashidun Caliphate and the Nubian-Christian forces of the kingdom of Makuria in 652. The battle ended Muslim expansion into Nubia, establishing trade and a historic peace between the Muslim world and a Christian nation. As a result, Makuria was able to grow into a regional power that would dominate Nubia for over the next 500 years.
Baqt
The Baqt (or Bakt) was a 7th-century CE treaty between the Christian state of Makuria and the new Muslim rulers of Egypt. Lasting almost seven hundred years, it is by some measures the longest-lasting treaty in history. The name comes either from the Egyptian's term for barter, or the Greco-Roman term for pact.
Merkurios of Makuria
Merkurios (reigned 697 - ca. 722) was ruler of the Nubian kingdom of Makuria. Authorities believe that during his reign Makuria absorbed the Nubian kingdom of Nobatia.
Dotawo
Dotawo (Old Nubian: Lower Dau or Daw) was a kingdom that might have existed in the Beja Region of Lower Nubia (Northern Sudan and Southern Egypt) in the Middle Ages. It has long been known that a kingdom by this name is mentioned as existing during the collapse of the Kingdom of Makuria in the thirteenth century. It was reported to be one of the last surviving Christian states in the region.
Zacharias III of Makuria
Zacharias III (Arabic: Zakarya ibn-Bahnas) (c. 822 – c. 854) was ruler of the Nubian kingdom of Makuria. In 833 he ceased paying the Baqt to the rulers of Egypt, and prepared to fight the Abbasid Caliph al-Mu'tasim (833-842) over the tribute. He sent his son Georgios (Arabic: Firaki) to renegotiate the terms, and al-Mu'tasim reduced the payment to once every third year. When the Beja refused to pay their tribute to the Abbasids in 854, the forces of Makuria joined with them in attacking Egypt. They slew the Egyptian working the emerald mines in the Eastern Desert, invaded Upper Egypt and pillaged Edfu, Esna and many other villages.
Throne Hall of Dongola
The Throne Hall of Dongola, also known as the Mosque Building, is an archaeological site in Old Dongola, Sudan. It is a two-storey brick building situated on a rocky hill, overlooking the town and the Nile valley. It was originally built in the 9th century, serving as the richly adorned representative building of the Makurian kings.
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