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Makuria (Old Nubian: ⲇⲱⲧⲁⲩⲟ, Dotawo; ; ) was a Middle Ages Nubians monarchy in what is today northern Sudan and southern Egypt. Its capital was Old Dongola (Old Nubian: Tungul) in the fertile Dongola Reach, and the kingdom is sometimes known by the name of its capital.
Coming into being after the collapse of the Kingdom of Kush in the 4th century, it originally covered the Nile Valley from the 3rd cataract to somewhere south of Abu Hamed at Mograt Island. The capital of Dongola was founded around 500 and soon after, in the mid-6th century, Makuria converted to Christianity. Probably in the early 7th century Makuria annexed its northern neighbour Nobatia, now sharing a border with Byzantine Egypt.
In 651 an Arab army invaded, but it was repulsed and a treaty known as the Baqt was signed to prevent further Arab invasions in exchange for 360 slaves each year. This treaty lasted until the 13th century. The period from the 9th to 11th century saw the peak of Makuria's cultural development: a brisk construction activity resulted in the construction of buildings like the Throne Hall, the great cruciform church (both in Dongola) or the Banganarti, arts like wall paintings and finely crafted and decorated pottery flourished and Nubian languages grew to become the prevalent written language. Other written languages were Coptic language, Medieval Greek and Arabic. Makuria also maintained close dynastic ties with the kingdom of Alodia to the south and exerted some influence in Upper Egypt and North Kordofan.
Increased aggression from Mamluk Sultanate, internal discord, Bedouins incursions and possibly the plague and the shift of trade routes led to the state's decline in the 13th and 14th century. In the 1310s and 1320s it was briefly ruled by Muslim kings. Due to a civil war in 1365, the kingdom was reduced to a rump state that lost much of its southern territories, including Dongola. The last recorded king, probably residing in Gebel Adda, lived in the late 15th century. Makuria had finally disappeared by the 1560s, when the Ottoman Turks occupied Lower Nubia. The former Makurian territories south of the 3rd cataract, including Dongola, had been annexed by the Islamic Funj Sultanate by the early 16th century.
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 language, 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.
The construction of the Aswan High Dam in 1964 threatened to flood what had once been the northern half of Makuria. In 1960, UNESCO launched a massive effort to do as much archaeological work as possible before the flooding occurred. Thousands of experts were brought from around the world over the next few years. Some of the more important Makurian sites looked at were the city of Faras and its cathedral, excavated by a team from Poland; the British work at Qasr Ibrim; and the University of Ghana's work at the town of Debeira West, which gave important information on daily life in Middle Ages Nubia. All of these sites are in what was Nobatia; the only major archaeological site in Makuria itself is the partial exploration of the capital at Old Dongola.
Already 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 Sasanians by converting them to Christianity, the Byzantine state religion. The imperial court, however, was divided in two sects, believing in two different natures of Jesus Christ: Justinian belonged to the Chalcedonians, the official denomination of the empire, while his wife Theodora was a Miaphysitism, who were the strongest in Egypt. John of Ephesus described how two competing missions were sent to Nubia, with the Miaphysite arriving first in, and converting, the northern kingdom of Nobatia in 543. While the Nobatian king refused Justinian's mission to travel further south archaeological records might suggest that Makuria converted still in the first half of the 6th century. The chronicler John of Biclar recorded that in around 568 Makuria had “received the faith of Christ”. In 573 a Makurian delegation arrived in Constantinople, offering ivory and a giraffe and declaring its good relationship with the Byzantines. Unlike Nobatia in the north (with which Makuria seemed to have been in enmity) and Alodia in the south Makuria embraced the Chalcedonian doctrine. The early ecclesiastical architecture at Dongola confirms the close relations maintained with the empire, trade between the two states was flourishing.
In the 7th century, Makuria annexed its northern neighbour Nobatia. While there are several contradicting theories, it seems likely that this occurred soon after the Sasanian occupation of Egypt, presumably during the 620s, but before 642. Before the Sasanian invasion, Nobatia used to have strong ties with Egypt and was thus hit hard by its fall. Perhaps it was also invaded by the Sasanians itself: some local churches from that period show traces of destruction and subsequent rebuilding. Thus weakened, Nobatia fell to Makuria, making Makuria extend as far north as Philae near the first cataract. A new bishopric was founded in Faras in around 630 and two new cathedrals styled after the basilica of Dongola were built in Faras and Qasr Ibrim. It is not known what happened to the royal Nobatian family after the unification, but it is recorded that Nobatia remained a separate entity within the unified kingdom governed by an Eparch.
Between 639 and 641 the Muslim Arabs overran Byzantine Egypt. A Byzantine request for help remained unanswered by the Nubians due to conflicts with the Beja people. In 641 or 642 the Arabs sent a first expedition into Makuria. While it is not clear how far south it penetrated, it was eventually defeated. A second invasion led by Abd Allah ibn Sa'd ibn Abi al-Sarh followed in 651/652, when the attackers pushed as far south as Dongola. Dongola was besieged and bombarded by . While they damaged parts of the town they could not penetrate the walls of the citadel. Muslim sources highlight the skill of the Nubian Archery in repelling the invasion. With both sides being unable to decide the battle in their favour, abi Sarh and the Makurian king Qalidurut eventually met and drew up a treaty known as Baqt. Initially it was a ceasefire also containing an annual exchange of goods (Makurian slaves for Egyptian wheat, textiles etc.), an exchange typical for historical North East African states and perhaps being a continuation of terms already existing between the Nubians and Byzantines. Probably in Umayyad times the treaty was expanded by regulating the safety of Nubians in Egypt and Muslims in Makuria. While some modern scholars view the Baqt as a submission of Makuria to the Muslims it is clear that it was not: the exchanged goods were of equal value and Makuria was recognized as an independent state, being one of the few to beat back the Arabs during the early Islamic expansion. The Baqt would remain in force for more than six centuries, although at times interrupted by mutual raids.
The 8th century was a period of consolidation. Under king Merkurios, who lived in the late 7th and early 8th century and whom the Coptic biograph John the Deacon approvingly refers to as “the new Constantine”, the state seems to have been reorganized and Miaphysite Christianity to have become the official creed. He probably also founded the monumental Ghazali monastery (around 5000 m2) in Wadi Abu Dom. Zacharias, Merkurios' son and successor, renounced his claim to the throne and went into a monastery, but maintained the right to proclaim a successor. Within a few years there were three different kings and several Muslim raids until before 747, the throne was seized by Kyriakos. In that year, John the Deacon claims, the Umayyad governor of Egypt imprisoned the Coptic Patriarch, resulting in a Makurian invasion and siege of Fustat, the Egyptian capital, after which the Patriarch was released. This episode has been referred to as “Christian Egyptian propaganda”, although it is still likely that Upper Egypt was subject to a Makurian campaign, perhaps a raid. Nubian influence in Upper Egypt would remain strong. Three years later, in 750, after the fall of the Umayyad Calipate, the sons of Marwan II, the last Umayyad Caliph, fled to Nubia and asked Kyriakos for asylum, although without success. In around 760 Makuria was probably visited by the Tang dynasty traveller Du Huan.
In 831 a punitive campaign of the Abbasid caliph al-Mu'tasim defeated the Beja people east of Nubia. As a result, they had to submit to the Caliph, thus expanding nominal Muslim authority over much of the Sudanese Eastern Desert. In 834 al-Mu'tasim ordered that the Egyptian Arab Bedouins, who had been declining as a military force since the rise of the Abbasids, were not to receive any more payments. Discontented and dispossessed, they pushed southwards. The road into Nubia was, however, blocked by Makuria: while there existed communities of Arab settlers in Lower Nubia the great mass of the Arab nomads was forced to settle among the Beja, driven also by the motivation to exploit the local gold mines. In the mid-9th century the Arab adventurer al-Umari hired a private army and settled at a mine near Abu Hamad in eastern Makuria. After a confrontation between both parties, al-Umari occupied Makurian territories along the Nile. King Georgios I sent an elite force commanded by his son in law, Nyuti, but he failed to defeat the Arabs and rebelled against the crown himself. King Georgios then sent his oldest son, presumably the later Georgios II, but he was abandoned by his army and was forced to flee to Alodia. The Makurian king then sent another son, Zacharias, who worked together with al-Umari to kill Nyuti before eventually defeating al-Umari himself and pushing him into the desert. Afterward, al-Umari attempted to establish himself in Lower Nubia, but was soon pushed out again before finally being murdered during the reign of the Tulunids Sultan Ahmad ibn Tulun (868–884).
During the rule of the autonomous Ikhshidid dynasty in Egypt, relations between Makuria and Egypt worsened: in 951 a Makurian army marched against Egypt's Kharga Oasis, killing and enslaving many people. Five years later the Makurians attacked Aswan, but were subsequently chased as far south as Qasr Ibrim. A new Makurian attack on Aswan followed immediately, which was answered by another Egyptian retaliation, this time capturing Qasr Ibrim. This did not put a hold on Makurian aggression and between 962 and 964 they again attacked, this time pushing as far north as Akhmim. Parts of Upper Egypt apparently remained occupied by Makuria for several years. Ikhshidid Egypt eventually fell in 969, when it was conquered by the Shia Islam Fatimid Caliphate. Immediately afterward the Fatimids sent the emissary Ibn Salim al-Aswani to the Makurian king Georgios III. Georgios accepted the first request of the emissary, the resumption of the Baqt, but declined the second one, the conversion to Islam, after a lengthy discussion with his bishops and learned men, and instead invited the Fatimid governor of Egypt to embrace Christianity. Afterwards, he granted al-Aswani permission to celebrate Eid al-Adha outside of Dongola with drums and trumpets, though not without the discontent of some of his subjects. Relations between Makuria and Fatimid Egypt were to remain peaceful, as the Fatimids needed the Nubians as allies against their Sunni Islam enemies.
The kingdom of Makuria was, at least temporarily, exercising influence over the Nubian-speaking populations of Kordofan, the region between the Nile Valley and Darfur, as is suggested by an account of the 10th century traveller Ibn Hawqal as well as oral traditions. With the southern Nubian kingdom of Alodia, with which Makuria shared its border somewhere between Abu Hamad and the Nile-Atbara river confluence, Makuria seemed to have maintained a dynastic union, as according to the accounts of Arab geographers from the 10th century and Nubian sources from the 12th century. Archaeological evidence shows an increased Makurian influence on Alodian art and architecture from the 8th century. Meanwhile, evidence for contact with Christian Ethiopia is surprisingly scarce. An exceptional case was the mediation of Georgios III between Patriarch Philotheos and some Ethiopian monarch, perhaps the late Aksumite emperor Anbessa Wudem or his successor Dil Ne'ad. Ethiopian monks travelled through Nubia to reach Jerusalem, a graffito from the church of Sonqi Tino testifies its visit by an Ethiopian abuna. Such travellers also transmitted knowledge of Nubian architecture, which influenced several medieval Ethiopian churches.
During the second half of the 11th century, Makuria saw great cultural and religious reforms, referred to as "Nubization". The main initiator has been suggested to have been Georgios, the archbishop of Dongola and hence the head of the Makurian church. He seems to have popularized the Nubian language as written language to counter the growing influence of Arabic in the Coptic Church and introduced the cult of dead rulers and bishops as well as indigenous Nubian saints. A new, unique church was built in Banganarti, probably becoming one of the most important ones in the entire kingdom. In the same period Makuria also began to adopt a new royal dress and regalia and perhaps also Nubian terminology in administration and titles, all suggested to have initially come from Alodia in the south.
Relations with Egypt worsened with the ascension of the Mamluks under Baybars in 1260. Already in 1265 a Mamluk army allegedly raided Makuria as far south as Dongola. Meanwhile they also expanded southwards along the African Red Sea coast. In 1268/9 king David usurped the throne and in 1272 sacked the Red Sea port of Aidhab, located on an important Hajj route to Mecca. In response the Mamluks sent a punitive expedition to Lower Nubia. After David attacked another Mamluk town, Aswan, the Mamluks dispatched a large army on 20 January 1276, accompanied by a relative of David called Mashkouda. After conquering Gebel Adda and Meinarti it met the Nubian army at Dongola, defeating it decisively. Afterwards Dongola was sacked. David fled to the Kingdom of al-Abwab in the south, which had once been Alodia's northernmost province, but was now a kingdom of its own. Its king, Adur, handed David over to Baybars, who imprisoned him and other family members in Cairo.
Mashkouda was installed on the Makurian throne on 4 June 1276 and had to swear an oath of fealty to Baybars, thus turning Makuria into a Mamluk vassal state. He was forced to send regular tribute in addition to the Baqt, transfer Lower Nubia to Baybars and collect Jizya from every adult, although the latter conditions were probably never put into action. The Mamluks had Mashkouda assassinated soon after. By 1286 a new king had seized power, Simamon. In the late 1280s the Mamluks launched at least two new invasions to depose the king, although the Mamluk sources contradict each other in regard of the timeline and who was replaced by whom. One source, Al-Nuwayri, described the devastation caused by the Mamluks between Meinarti and Dongola, killing everyone who had not fled, plundering the villages and destroying the agriculture. Archaeological evidence from Dongola confirms the heavy destruction and depopulation caused by the Mamluks, although there were attempts to rebuild it afterwards. The kingdom of al-Abwab reportedly caused destruction in Makuria as well. The Mamluk invasions diminished the wealth of the Makurian elite, which was no longer able to sponsor the rapidly declining monasteries.
In 1311 Kudanbes killed his brother Ayay and usurped the throne. Despite his attempt to appease Sultan Al-Nasir Muhammad the latter eventually sent an expedition to install a new king on the throne, Abdallah Barshanbu. Being a convert to Islam, he became Makuria's first Muslim king in 1316. Deeply unpopular, he was slain in late 1317 by another Muslim named Muhammad, another nephew of king David and Emir ( kanz ad-dawla) of the Banu Kanz tribe from Aswan. In 1323 Sultan Al-Nasir Muhammad tried to install the same Kudanbes he had deposed in 1316, but as soon as the Mamluk army left Muhammad seized the throne once more. In return for paying tribute the Mamluks finally recognized him as rightful Makurian king. Between 1328 and 1331 he had been replaced by a Christian king, Siti, who ruled at least until December 1333. He is known from various Nubian sources from Lower Nubia to Kordofan, suggesting that Makuria remained powerful and centralized during his reign. The next decades remain murky, but there seem to have been both Christian and Muslim kings. Emir Muhammad continued to lay claim on the Makurian crown.
It was also in the mid 14th century, more particularly after 1347, when Nubia would have been devastated by the plague. Archaeology confirms a rapid decline of the Christian Nubian civilization since then. Due to their small population the plague might have cleansed entire landscapes from its Nubian inhabitants.
In 1365, there occurred yet another short, but disastrous civil war. The current king was killed in battle by his rebelling nephew, who had allied himself with the Banu Ja'd tribe. The brother of the deceased king and his retinue fled to a town called Daw in the Arabic sources, most likely identical with Gebel Adda in Lower Nubia. The usurper then killed the nobility of the Banu Ja'd, probably because he could not trust them anymore, and destroyed and pillaged Dongola, then traveled to Gebel Adda to ask his uncle for forgiveness. Thus Dongola was left to the Banu Ja'd and Gebel Adda became the new capital.
The last known king is Joel, who is mentioned in a 1463 document and in an inscription from 1484. Perhaps it was under Joel when the kingdom witnessed a last, brief renaissance. One graffito from Gebel Adda that likely dates to the 14th–15th centuries mentions an eparch called Akiri and some unnamed king (previously read as "Taanego"). After the death or deposition of king Joel the kingdom might have collapsed. The cathedral of Faras came out of use after the 15th century, just as Qasr Ibrim was abandoned by the late 15th century. The palace of Gebel Adda came out of use after the 15th century as well. In 1518, there is one last mention of a Nubian ruler, albeit it is unknown where he resided and if he was Christian or Muslim. However, in 2023 Adam Simmons pointed to the existence in the 1520s of Christian Nubian Queen Gaua.Adam Simmons, 'A Short Note on Queen Gaua: A New Last Known Ruler of Dotawo (r. around 1520-6)?', Dotawo: A Journal of Nubian Studies (2023), . There were no traces of an independent Christian kingdom when the Ottomans occupied Lower Nubia in the 1560s, while the Funj Sultanate had come into possession of Upper Nubia south of the third cataract.
It is possible that some petty kingdoms that continued the Christian Nubian culture developed in the former Makurian territory, for example on Mograt island, north of Abu Hamed. Another small kingdom was the Kingdom of Kokka, probably founded in the 17th century in the no-mans-land between the Ottoman Empire in the north and the Funj in the south. Its organization and rituals bore clear similarities to those of Christian times. Eventually the kings themselves were Christians until the 18th century.
In 1412, the Awlad Kenz took control of Nubia and part of Egypt above the Thebaid.
Today, the Nubian language is in the process of being replaced by Arabic. Furthermore, the Nubians have increasingly started to claim to be Arabs descending from Abbas, disregarding their Christian Nubian past.
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. They could also be the patrons of churches and wall paintings. Inscriptions from the cathedral of Faras indicate that around every second wall painting had a female sponsor. An inscription from Faras suggests that women could also serve as .
One house in Dongola featured a vaulted bathroom, fed by a system of pipes attached to a water tank. A furnace heated up both the water and the air, which was circulated into the richly decorated bathroom via flues in the walls. The monastic complex of Hambukol is thought to have had a room serving as a steam bath. The Ghazali monastery in Wadi Abu Dom also might have featured several bathrooms.
Little is known about government below the king. A wide array of officials, generally using Byzantine titles, are mentioned, but their roles are never explained. One figure who is well-known, thanks to the documents found at Qasr Ibrim, is the Eparch of Nobatia, who seems to have been the viceroy in that region after it was annexed to Makuria. The Eparch's records make clear that he was also responsible for trade and diplomacy with the Egyptians. Early records make it seem like the Eparch was appointed by the king, but later ones indicate that the position had become hereditary. The elite of Makuria was drawn from noblemen who the Islamic sources called "princes". It was them who constituted the courtiers, military commanders and bishops. They were apparently powerful enough to openly exlaim their discontent and even depose the ruler if they were unhappy with him, despite claims in Islamic sources that the power of the Makurian king was absolute. A selected few of them, the elders, constituted a council that assisted the king in his decision making. The elders aside it was also the queenmother who bore a key role in advising the king. In 1292 an unnamed Makurian king is even reported to have claimed that "it was only the women who direct the kings ..."
The might have played a role in the governance of the state. Ibn Selim el-Aswani noted that before the king responded to his mission he met with a council of bishops. El-Aswani described a highly centralized state, but other writers state that Makuria was a federation of thirteen kingdoms presided over by the great king at Dongola.
Certain conversion came with a series of 6th-century missions. The Byzantine Empire dispatched an official party to try to convert the kingdoms to Chalcedonian Christianity, but Empress Theodora reportedly conspired to delay the party to allow a group of Miaphysitism to arrive first. John of Ephesus reports that the Monophysites successfully converted the kingdoms of Nobatia and Alodia, but that Makuria remained hostile. John of Biclarum states that Makuria then embraced the rival Melkite Christianity. Archaeological evidence seems to point to a rapid conversion brought about by an official adoption of the new faith. Millennia-old traditions such as the building of elaborate tombs, and the burying of expensive grave goods with the dead were abandoned, and temples throughout the region seem to have been converted to churches. Churches eventually were built in virtually every town and village.
After this point the exact course of Makurian Christianity is much disputed. It is clear that by c. 710 Makuria had become officially Coptic and loyal to the Coptic patriarch of Alexandria; the king of Makuria became the defender of the patriarch of Alexandria, occasionally intervening militarily to protect him, as Kyriakos did in 722. This same period saw Melkite Makuria absorb the Coptic Nobatia, historians have long wondered why the conquering state adopted the religion of its rival. It is fairly clear that Egyptian Coptic influence was far stronger in the region, and that Byzantine power was fading, and this might have played a role. Historians are also divided on whether this was the end of the Melkite/Coptic split as there is some evidence that a Melkite minority persisted until the end of the kingdom.
In Dongola, there was no larger number of Muslims until the end of the 13th century. Before that date, Muslim residents were limited to merchants and diplomats. In the late 10th century, when al-Aswani came to Dongola, there was, despite being demanded in the Baqt, still no mosque; he and around 60 other Muslims had to pray outside of the city. It is not until 1317, with the conversion of the throne hall by Abdallah Barshambu, when a mosque is firmly attested. While the Jizya, the Islamic head tax enforced on non-Muslims, was established after the Mamluk invasion of 1276 and Makuria was periodically governed by Muslim kings since Abdallah Barshambu, the majority of the Nubians remained Christian. The actual Islamization of Nubia began in the late 14th century, with the arrival of the first in a series of Muslim teachers propagating Islam.
Cattle were of great economic importance. It is possible that their breeding and marketing was controlled by the central administration. A great assemblage of 13th century cattle bones from Old Dongola has been linked with a mass slaughter by the invading Mamluks, who attempted to weaken the Makurian economy.
Makurian trade was largely by barter as the state never adopted a currency, though Egyptian coins were common in the north. Makurian trade with Egypt was of great importance. From Egypt a wide array of luxury and manufactured goods were imported. The main Makurian export was slaves. The slaves sent north were not from Makuria itself, but rather from further south and west in Africa. Little is known about Makurian trade and relations with other parts of Africa. There is some archaeological evidence of contacts and trade with the areas to the west, especially Kordofan. Additionally, contacts to Darfur and Kanem Empire seem probable, but there are only few evidences. There seem to have been important political relations between Makuria and Christian Ethiopia to the south-east. For instance, in the 10th century, Georgios II successfully intervened on behalf of the unnamed ruler at that time, and persuaded Patriarch Philotheos of Alexandria to at last ordain an abuna, or metropolitan, for the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. However, there is little evidence of much other interaction between the two Christian states.
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