Battle of Dongola (1276)

Last updated
Battle of Dongola
Date1276
Location
Result Mamluk Sultanate victory
Belligerents
Kingdom of Makuria Mamluk Sultanate
Commanders and leaders
David of Makuria Baibars

The Battle of Dongola (1276) was fought between the Mamluk Sultanate under Baibars and the Kingdom of Makuria. The Mamluks gained a decisive victory, capturing the Makurian capital Dongola, forcing the king David of Makuria to flee and placing a puppet on the Makurian throne. After this battle the Kingdom of Makuria went into a period of decline until its collapse in the 15th century.

Contents

Background

The Baqt was an agreement between the Muslim rulers of Egypt and the Christian rulers of Makuria which had guaranteed peace between the two opposing groups for over 600 years at this point and is in many ways the longest lasting treaty in history. The treaty greatly benefitted the Makurians, who gained friendly relations with a powerful neighbour, with the main drawback being that they were required to send 360 slaves a year to Egypt, which was later negotiated down so the payment was only made every 3 years. [1] However the treaty never fully stopped conflict and small scale raiding often occurred between both sides

The exact reasons for the breakout of war between Makurian king David and Egyptian sultan Baibars are not known but was most likely a simple unwillingness by David to pay the Baqt to the upstart Mamluk state, as the Mamluks had only came to power in 1250 and were seemingly not viewed favourably by David. There is also evidence raids between the two sides had been occurring for a few years before the reigns of both Baibars and David. This already strained relationship was likely not helped by the arrival of Shekenda, a Makurian prince with a claim to David’s throne, in the Mamluk court. [2] These factors would lead the two states to full scale war, which started in 1272 as the Makurians sacked the Egyptian town of Aidhab. [3] This was followed by a Makurian raid on Aswan in 1275.

Battle

In 1276 Sultan Baibars led a campaign into Nubia and fought David of Makuria in a series of battles that culminated in Makuria's defeat at their capital of Dongola. [4] Very little details about the engagement are known but it was a heavy defeat for the Makurian army. David was forced to flee and Dongola fell. Baibars placed Shekenda on the throne where he would rule as a Mamluk vassal. The battle signified the beginning of the end for Makuria as the state would slowly shrink in territory over the coming century in the face of increased aggression from its Muslim neighbours, eventually disappearing altogether in the 15th century.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1276</span> Calendar year

Year 1276 (MCCLXXVI) was a leap year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Funj Sultanate</span> Confederation of monarchies in northeast Africa from 1504 to 1821

The Funj Sultanate, also known as Funjistan, Sultanate of Sennar or Blue Sultanate, was a monarchy in what is now Sudan, northwestern Eritrea and western Ethiopia. Founded in 1504 by the Funj people, it quickly converted to Islam, although this conversion was only nominal. Until a more orthodox form of Islam took hold in the 18th century, the state remained an "African empire with a Muslim façade". It reached its peak in the late 17th century, but declined and eventually fell apart in the 18th and 19th centuries. In 1821, the last sultan, greatly reduced in power, surrendered to the Ottoman Egyptian invasion without a fight.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Makuria</span> Medieval kingdom in Lower Nubia

Makuria was a medieval Nubian kingdom in what is today northern Sudan and southern Egypt. Its capital was Dongola in the fertile Dongola Reach, and the kingdom is sometimes known by the name of its capital.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Qutuz</span> Sultan of Egypt from 1259 to 1260

Sayf al-Din Qutuz, also romanized as Kutuz or Kotuz and fully al-Malik al-Muẓaffar Sayf ad-Dīn Quṭuz, was the Mamluk Sultan of Egypt. He reigned as Sultan for less than a year, from 1259 until his assassination in 1260, but served as the de facto ruler for two decades.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Al-Ashraf Khalil</span> Sultan of Egypt and Syria (r. 1290–1293)

Al-Malik Al-Ashraf Salāh ad-Dīn Khalil ibn Qalawūn was the eighth Turkic Bahri Mamluk sultan, succeeding his father Qalawun. He served from 12 November 1290 until his assassination in December 1293. He was well known for conquering the last of the Crusader states in Palestine after the siege of Acre in 1291. While walking with a friend, Khalil was attacked and assassinated by Baydara and his followers, who was then killed under the orders of Kitbugha.

The Baqt (بقط) was a 7th-century 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.

Banu Kanz, also known as Awlad Kanz, was a semi-nomadic Muslim dynasty of Arab descent that ruled the border region between Upper Egypt and Nubia between the 10th and 15th centuries. They were descended from the sons of sheikhs of the Arab Banu Hanifa tribe who intermarried with the princesses of the Beja Hadariba tribe. They gained official control over the region of Aswan, Wadi Allaqi and the frontier zone in the early 11th century when their chief, Abu al-Makarim Hibatallah, captured a major rebel on behalf of the Fatimid authorities. Abu al-Makarim was accorded the title Kanz al-Dawla by Caliph al-Hakim and his successors inherited the title. The Banu Kanz entered into conflict with the Ayyubids in 1174, during which they were defeated and forced to migrate southward into northern Nubia, where they helped accelerate the expansion of Islam in the mostly Christian region. They eventually assumed control of the Nubian Kingdom of Makuria in the early 14th century, but by the early the 15th century, they were supplanted by the Hawwara tribesmen dispatched by the Mamluks to combat the Banu Kanz. Their modern-day descendants are a Sudanese tribe known as the "Kunuz", who live in the far north of the country.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alodia</span> Medieval kingdom in Upper Nubia

Alodia, also known as Alwa, was a medieval kingdom in what is now central and southern Sudan. Its capital was the city of Soba, located near modern-day Khartoum at the confluence of the Blue and White Nile rivers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Old Dongola</span> Sudanese human settlement

Old Dongola is a deserted Nubian town in what is now Northern State, Sudan, located on the east bank of the Nile opposite the Wadi Howar. An important city in medieval Nubia, and the departure point for caravans west to Darfur and Kordofan, from the fourth to the fourteenth century Old Dongola was the capital of the Makurian state. A Polish archaeological team has been excavating the town since 1964.

Georgios II was a ruler of the medieval Nubian kingdom of Makuria. He ascended the throne in 887, after the death of his father Georgios I, and ruled until 915 or 920, when he was succeeded by his son Zacharias II. Belonging to the Dynasty of Zacharias, little is known about his rule, although it is recorded that at some point between 910 and 915, his kingdom was involved in a war with the Abbasid Caliphate.

Abu Muhammad Abdallah ibn Ahmad ibn Salimal-Aswani was a tenth-century Egyptian diplomat and Shia Muslim dāʿī (missionary) in the service of the Fatimids.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Baybars</span> Sultan of Egypt and Syria from 1260 to 1277

Al-Malik al-Zahir Rukn al-Din Baybars al-Bunduqdari, commonly known as Baibars or Baybars and nicknamed Abu al-Futuh, was the fourth Mamluk sultan of Egypt and Syria, of Turkic Kipchak origin, in the Bahri dynasty, succeeding Qutuz. He was one of the commanders of the Egyptian forces that inflicted a defeat on the Seventh Crusade of King Louis IX of France. He also led the vanguard of the Egyptian army at the Battle of Ain Jalut in 1260, which marked the first substantial defeat of the Mongol army and is considered a turning point in history.

The first battle of Dongola took place between the early Muslim Rashidun army and the Oriental Orthodox Christian Nubians of the Makuria in 642, This was the first real Rashidun arab defeat on the battlefield despite outnumbering their opponents.

The second battle of Dongola or siege of Dongola was a military engagement between early Arab 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kingdom of al-Abwab</span> Medieval Nubian kingdom

The kingdom of al-Abwab was a medieval Nubian monarchy in present-day central Sudan. Initially the most northerly province of Alodia, it appeared as an independent kingdom from 1276. Henceforth it was repeatedly recorded by Arabic sources in relation to the wars between its northern neighbour Makuria and the Egyptian Mamluk sultanate, where it generally sided with the latter. In 1367 it is mentioned for the last time, but based on pottery finds it has been suggested that the kingdom continued to exist until the 15th, perhaps even the 16th, century. During the reign of Funj king Amara Dunqas the region is known to have become part of the Funj sultanate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Throne Hall of Dongola</span> 9th century, largely extant, building in northern Sudan

The Throne Hall of Dongola, also known as the Mosque Building or Mosque of Abdallah ibn Abi Sarh, 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. In 1317, during the period of Makurian decline, it was converted into a mosque, serving this purpose until it was closed and turned into a historic monument in 1969. Shortly afterwards Polish archaeologists from the Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology of the University of Warsaw began to excavate the building. It has been described as possibly "the most important, symbolic edifice in the medieval history of Sudan". It is presently the oldest preserved mosque in Sudan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Moses Georgios of Makuria</span> King of Makuria and Alodia

Moses Georgios was ruler of the Nubian kingdom of Makuria. During his reign it is believed that the crown of Alodia was also under the control of Makuria. He is mostly known for his conflict with Saladin.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gebel Adda</span>

Gebel Adda was a mountain and archaeological site on the right bank of the Nubian Nile in what is now southern Egypt. The settlement on its crest was continuously inhabited from the late Meroitic period to the Ottoman period, when it was abandoned by the late 18th century. It reached its greatest prominence in the 14th and 15th centuries, when it seemed to have been the capital of late kingdom of Makuria. The site was superficially excavated by the American Research Center in Egypt just before being flooded by Lake Nasser in the 1960s, with much of the remaining excavated material, now stored in the Royal Ontario Museum in Canada, remaining unpublished. Unearthed were Meroitic inscriptions, Old Nubian documents, a large amount of leatherwork, two palatial structures and several churches, some of them with their paintings still intact. The nearby ancient Egyptian rock temple of Horemheb, also known as temple of Abu Oda, was rescued and relocated.

The Fourth battle of Dongola or the Second Conquest of Makuria (1287) was fought between the Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt and the Kingdom of Makuria resulting in a decisive Mamluk vvictory, capturing the Makurian capital Dongola, forcing the king Samamun to flee and placing a puppet on the Makurian throne.

Izz al-Din al-Kawrani was an Egyptian politician and military leader, and one of the leaders of the campaign to invade Makuria (Nubia) in 1287 by order of Sultan Qalawun of Egypt. His campaign achieved a landslide victory, and this victory is one of the reasons for the end of the rule of the Christian Nubian kingdoms in Sudan.

References

  1. A. Welsby, Derek. The Medieval Kingdoms of Nubia. British Museum Press. pp. 73–74.
  2. Lobban, Richard A. (2003-12-09). Historical Dictionary of Ancient and Medieval Nubia. Scarecrow Press. ISBN   978-0-8108-6578-5.
  3. Werner 2013, p. 118.
  4. Werner 2013, pp. 120–122.