Makuria: Encyclopedia II - Makuria - History

Makuria - History

Makuria - Origins

The origins of Makuria are uncertain. Ptolemy mentions a Nubian people known as the Makkourae, who might be ancestors to the Makurians^[5]. The kingdom is believed to have formed in the 4th or 5th century. The first recorded mention of it is in a work by the 6th-century John of Ephesus, who decries its hostility to Monophysite missionaries traveling to Alodia. Soon after John of Biclarum wrote approvingly of Makuria's adoption of the rival Melkite faith.

The most important event in Makurian history was the defeat of an Arab army in 652. The Arabs had taken Egypt in 641, and the jihad soon turned south. At the Battle of Dongola in 652 the Arabs were either defeated or stalemated by the Nubians. It is unclear how the Nubians achieved this feat, but Arab writers noted their skill with the bow. This was the only major defeat suffered by an Arab army in the first century of Islamic expansion, and it led to an unprecedented agreement, the bakt, which guaranteed peaceful relations between the two sides. In this treaty the Nubians agreed to send several hundred slaves each year to Egypt, while the Egyptians may have been obliged to send food and manufactured goods south.^[6]

At some point Makuria merged with Nobatia to the north.^[7] The evidence for when this occurred is contradictory. The Arab accounts of the invasion of 652 only make reference to a single state based at Dongola. The bakt, negotiated by the Makurian king, applied to all of Nubia north of Alodia. This has led some scholars to propose that the two kingdoms were unified during this turbulent period. However, a book written in 690 makes clear that Makuria and Nobatia were still two separate and rather hostile kingdoms. Clear evidence for union is provided by an inscription from the reign of King Merkurios at Taifa that makes clear that Nobatia was under Makurian control by the middle of the eighth century. Every source after this date has Nobatia under Makurian control. This leads many scholars to infer that the unification occurred during the reign of Merkurios, who was described as the "New Constantine" by John the Deacon.^[8]

What this merged kingdom should be called is unclear in both contemporary sources and among modern historians. Makuria remained in use as a geographic term for the southern half of the kingdom, but it was also used to describe the kingdom in its entirety. Some writers refer to it simply as Nubia, ignoring that southern Nubia was still under the independent kingdom of Alodia. It is also sometimes called the Kingdom of Dongola, after the capital city. Another name, the Kingdom of Makuria and Nobatia, perhaps implies a dual monarchy. Dotawo could be another name, or it could refer to an entirely separate kingdom.^[9]

Makuria - Height

Makuria seems to have been stable and prosperous during the eighth and ninth centuries. During this period Egypt was weakened by frequent civil wars, and there was thus little threat of invasion from the north. Instead it was the Nubians who intervened in the affairs of their neighbour. Much of Upper Egypt was still Christian, and it looked to the Nubian kingdoms for protection. One report has a Nubian army sacking Cairo in the eighth century to defend the Christians, but this is probably apocryphal. ^[10]

Not a great deal is known about Makuria during this period. One important story is that of Zacharias III sending his son Georgios to Baghdad to negotiate a reduction of the bakt. Georgios as king also plays a prominent role in the story of Arab adventurer al-Umari. The best evidence from this time is archaeological. Excavations show that this era was one of stability and seeming prosperity. Nubian pottery, painting, and architecture all reached their heights during this era. It also seems to have been a long period of stability in the Nile floods, without the famine caused by small floods or the destruction caused by large ones.

Egypt and Makuria developed close and peaceful relations when Egypt was ruled by the Fatimids. The Shi'ite Fatimids had few allies in the Muslim world, and they turned to the southern Christians as allies.^[11] Fatimid power also depended upon the black slaves provided by Makuria, who were used to man the Fatimid army. Trade between the two states flourished: Egypt sent wheat, wine, and linen south while Makuria exported ivory, cattle, ostrich feathers, and slaves. Relations with Egypt soured when the Ayyubids came to power in 1171. Early in the Ayyubid period the Nubians invaded Egypt, perhaps in support of their Fatimid allies.^[12] The Ayyubids repulsed their invasion and in response Salah-ed-din dispatched his brother Turan Shah to invade Nubia. He defeated the Nubians, and for several years occupied Qasr Ibrim before retreating north. The Ayyubids dispatched an emissary to Makuria to see if it was worth conquering, but he reported that the land was too poor. The Ayyubids seem to have thus largely ignored their southern neighbour for the next century.

Makuria - Decline

There are no records from travelers to Makuria from 1171 to 1272, and the events of this period have long been a mystery, although modern discoveries have shed some light on this era. During this period Makuria seems to have entered a steep decline. The best source on this is Ibn Khaldun, writing several decades later, who blamed it on Bedouin invasions and Nubian intermarriage with Arabs. The Ayyubids dealt very aggressively with the Bedouin tribes of the nearby deserts, forcing them south into conflict with the Nubians. Archaeology gives clear evidence of increasing instability in Makuria. Once unfortified cities gained city walls, the people retreated to better defended positions, such as the cliff tops at Qasr Ibrim. Houses throughout the region were built far sturdier, with secret hiding places for food and other valuables. Archaeology also shows increased signs of Arabization and Islamicization. Free trade between the kingdoms was part of the bakt, and over time Arab merchants became prominent in Dongola and other cities. Eventually the northern area, most of what was once Nobatia, had become largely Arabized and Islamicized. Largely independent of Dongola it was increasingly referred to as al-Maris.

While the desert tribes may have been the most important destructive force, the campaigns of the Egyptian Mamlukes are far better documented. An important component of the bakt was the promise that Makuria would secure Egypt's southern border against raids by desert nomads, like the Beja. The Makurian state could no longer do this, prompting interventions by Egyptian armies that further weakened it. In 1272 the Mamluk Sultan Baybars invaded, after King David I had attacked the Egyptian city of Aidhab, initiating several decades of intervention by the Mamlukes in Nubian affairs. Internal difficulties seem to have also hurt the kingdom. David's cousin Shekanda claimed the throne and traveled to Cairo to seek the support of the Mamelukes. They agreed and invaded Nubia in 1276, and placed Shekanda on the throne. The Christian Shekanda then signed an agreement making Makuria a vassal of Egypt, and a Mamluke garrison was stationed in Dongola. After only a few years of occupation Shamamun, another member of the Makurian royal family, led a rebellion that eventually defeated the Mamluk garrison. He offered the Egyptians an increase in the annual bakt payments in return for scrapping the obligations to which Shekanda had agreed. The Mamluke armies were occupied elsewhere, and the Sultan of Egypt agreed to this new arrangement.

After a period of peace King Karanbas defaulted on these payments, and the Egyptians again invaded. This time a Muslim member of the Makurian dynasty was placed on the throne. Sayf al-Din Abdullah Barshambu began converting the nation the Islam and in 1317 the Dongola cathedral was turned into a mosque. This was not accepted by other Makurian leaders and the nation fell into civil war and anarchy. The countryside came under the control of the raiding tribes from the desert, and the monarchy was left with effective control over little more than the capital. The last known evidence of the Makurian dynasty is a call for aid in 1397. In 1412, the Awlad Kenz took control of Nubia and part of Egypt above the Thebaid, and remained the de facto rulers until 1517, when the area was conquered and amalgamated into Egypt by the armies of the Ottoman Sultan Selim.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "History", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki