Islamization of Nubia

References

Sources

1. 1.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 6 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 251)

   The circumstances of Nubia's transition from Christianity to Islam are obscure, for it took place at a time for which historical records are almost entirely lacking. From the available evidence, however, it appears that the demise of Christianity and the adoption of Islam cannot be viewed as closely linked events. Christianity disappeared apparently very gradually after the loss of contact between the Nubian church and Alexandria, while Islam at a later date seeped into the void left by the disappearance of the earlier faith. Moreover, different factors seem to have contributed to the Islamiza

2. 2.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 6 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 251)

   Throughout the Middle Ages, the peoples of Nubia adhered almost exclusively to the Coptic Christian faith. They had successfully resisted two Arab invasions, in 642 and 652, and subsequently concluded the BAQT TREATY, which ensured them against further Islamic incursions for several centuries. Muslim merchants from Egypt were allowed to travel and to settle in Lower Nubia, but there is no evidence that they sought or made any converts among their Nubian neighbors.

3. 3.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 5 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 393)

   Their first attack, in 642, resulted in a resounding defeat of the invaders. A second attack ten years later was militarily inconclusive and was followed by the conclusion of a negotiated truce, called the BAQT. Under its terms the political and religious independence of the Nubians was guaranteed, in exchange for an annual tribute of slaves. The obligations of the Baqt were not consistently met, but the agreement remained at least nominally in force for more than 600 years.

4. 4.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 6 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 251)

   As early as 1235 the patriarch of Alexandria had refused to send bishops into Nubia, because of disturbed political conditions in the country. This policy was not consistently followed by later patriarchs, and as late as 1372 a certain Bishop Timotheus was dispatched to Phrim (Qasr Ibrim), in Lower Nubia. However, there is no record of any further contact between the Nubian church and Alexandria after that date.

5. 5.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 6 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 252)

   In 1540 a delegation of Nubians called on the emperor of Abyssinia, asking him to send priests and monks to teach them, but he responded that he had no authority to do so. Thus, it seems likely that in the absence of any renewal from abroad, the Nubian clergy gradually dwindled away.

6. 6.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 5 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 395)

   A number of military expeditions were sent into Makouria to support the cause of one dynastic claimant or another, and in 1276 the Nubian king Shekenda was forced to accept the Mamluk sultan Baybars as his suzerain. Although the king himself remained a Christian, he and his subjects were now obliged to pay the JIZYAH (poll tax) like any other Christian subjects of the sultan. Under these circumstances many ordinary citizens as well as some members of the royal family converted to Islam, and in 1323 a Muslim claimant succeeded to the royal throne. The great bulk of his subjects, nevertheless, c

7. 7.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 6 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 252)

   Farther to the north, the smaller kingdom of DOTAWO remained under a Christian ruler until at least 1484, but a generation later its territories were overrun and annexed by the Ottomans. To the south of Makouria, the kingdom of ‘Alwa remained under a Christian ruler until sometime around 1500, when it was defeated and absorbed by the Funj sultanate of Sennar. Thus, by the end of the fifteenth century, all of Nubia had passed under the control of Muslim rulers. There is no evidence that the new monarchs attempted forcibly to convert their subjects to their own faith, but it is nevertheless prob

8. 8.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 6 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 252)

   Another factor contributing to the Islamization of Nubia was the wholesale migration of Arab bedouin tribes into the Sudan at the end of the Middle Ages, partly from Egypt and partly from the Arabian Peninsula. The immigrants overran most of the territory of ‘Alwa and a part of that of Makouria, establishing a number of petty principalities ruled by tribal shaykhs, who in turn were subject to the sultan of Sennar. The newcomers intermarried extensively with the settled Nubian population and, in time, were absorbed into it. Their knowledge of Islamic doctrine was probably no more than minimal,

9. 9.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 6 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 253)

   phenomenon of conversion by intermarriage was noted by the historian Ibn Khaldun among the Nubians of the DONGOLA area.

10. 10.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 6 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 253)

    Meanwhile, active propagation of Islam began in the central Sudan early in the sixteenth century, within the territories of the Funj sultanate. At the invitation of the Funj rulers, a number of learned religious mystics came to found schools at various places, mostly along the middle reaches of the White Nile, above the site of present-day Khartoum. Sudanese tradition attributes the Islamization of the country entirely to these pioneers, whose biographies are preserved in the extraordinary Tabaqat (story) written by Wad Dayfallah, set down at the beginning of the nineteenth century. The missio

11. 11.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 6 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 253)

    In spite of these developments, there are a number of references to the continued presence of Nubian Christians in the sixteenth century and even the seventeenth. The last known reference to them dates from the year 1742, when a missionary friar reported hearing of a small surviving colony of Christians living somewhere in the vicinity of the Third Cataract of the Nile. It was said, however, that there were neither priests nor monks among them.

12. 12.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 6 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 251)

    Yet, when J. L. Burckhardt, the first European visitor of modern times, passed through Nubia in 1811-1812, he found no surviving trace of the Christian faith. All of the Nubians professed a nominal allegiance to Islam

13. 13.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 6 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 268)

    The people of NUBIA adhered to the Coptic Christian faith from the time of their conversion in the sixth century (see NUBIA, EVANGELIZATION OF) until nearly the end of the fifteenth century. At that time the Christian Nubian kingdoms were destroyed through a combination of internal weakness, nomad Arab migrations, and Mamluk intervention. Effective political power passed to Arab tribal shaykhs, and at the same time contact between the Nubian Christian communities and the Coptic patriarchate was broken. Gradually the people adopted the Islamic faith of their new rulers, and the numerous churche

14. 14.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 6 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 289)

    Christianity eventually gave way to Islam after the Arab migrations and the breakup of the medieval Nubian kingdoms in the fourteenth century.