The Second Battle of Dongola or Siege of Dongola was a military engagement between early Arab forces of the
Rashidun Caliphate
The Rashidun Caliphate ( ar, اَلْخِلَافَةُ ٱلرَّاشِدَةُ, al-Khilāfah ar-Rāšidah) was the first caliphate to succeed the Islamic prophet Muhammad. It was ruled by the first four successive caliphs of Muhammad after his ...
and the Nubian-Christian forces of the kingdom of
Makuria
Makuria (Old Nubian: , ''Dotawo''; gr, Μακουρία, Makouria; ar, المقرة, al-Muqurra) 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 ...
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.
Background
Relations between the kingdom of Makuria and Rashidun Egypt had gotten off to a rocky start in 642 with the
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 incur ...
. After their defeat, the Arabs withdrew from Nubia and something of a peace had been established by 645.
[ According to the 14th-century Arab-Egyptian historian ]al-Maqrizi
Al-Maqrīzī or Maḳrīzī (Arabic: ), whose full name was Taqī al-Dīn Abū al-'Abbās Aḥmad ibn 'Alī ibn 'Abd al-Qādir ibn Muḥammad al-Maqrīzī (Arabic: ) (1364–1442) was a medieval Egyptian Arab historian during the Mamluk era, kn ...
, Makuria did something to violate the truce.[ It was then that ]Abdallah ibn Sa'd
Abd Allah ibn Sa'd ibn Abi al-Sarh ( ar, عبد الله ابن سعد ابن أبي السرح, ʿAbd Allāh ibn Saʿd ibn Abī al-Sarḥ) was an Arab administrator and commander.
During his time as governor of Egypt (646 CE to 656 CE), Abd Al ...
, the successor of the first governor of Arab Egypt, invaded Makuria in an attempt to bring the Makurians to heel.[ At this time, northern and central Nubia were united under the Makurian king Qalidurut.][
Archaeological discoveries show that Dongola was a well fortified city in the seventh century. It had walls at least high and wide at the base with towers. These were constructed of ]mudbrick
A mudbrick or mud-brick is an air-dried brick, made of a mixture of loam, mud, sand and water mixed with a binding material such as rice husks or straw. Mudbricks are known from 9000 BCE, though since 4000 BCE, bricks have also bee ...
s in mortar and faced with stone. The round corner towers were 6 metres wide and projected out from the wall. There were another two towers on the north wall. The towers, however, may have been added after, and possibly in response to, the siege of 652.[Purton, pp. 45–46.]
Battle
Abdallah marched a force of 5,000 men to the Makurian capital of Dongola in 651.[ He was equipped with ]heavy cavalry
Heavy cavalry was a class of cavalry intended to deliver a battlefield charge and also to act as a Military reserve, tactical reserve; they are also often termed ''shock cavalry''. Although their equipment differed greatly depending on the re ...
and a catapult (''manjaniq''), probably a traction trebuchet
The mangonel, also called the traction trebuchet, was a type of trebuchet used in Ancient China starting from the Warring States period, and later across Eurasia by the 6th century AD. Unlike the later counterweight trebuchet, the mangonel opera ...
, which according to al-Maqrizi the Makurians had never seen before.[ He then laid siege to the city,][Kissling, p. 166.] putting his cavalry in the precarious situation of storming a walled city defended by the infamous Nubian archers.[Burns, p. 75.] During the siege the town's cathedral was damaged by catapult fire.[ (A damaged church has been discovered outside the remains of the city walls dating to the mid-seventh century.][)
The siege ended in a pitched battle.][Spaulding, p. 582.] The casualties incurred by Abdallah's forces were heavy,[ and Qalidurut did not sue for peace.][ In the end, Abdallah called off the siege and negotiated a pact (''baqt'').][ According to the 9th-century Egyptian historian Ibn 'Abd al-Hakam this was because "he was unable to defeat them". The 10th-century Shiite historian ]Ahmad al-Kufi
Abū Muḥammad Aḥmad ibn Aʿtham al-Kūfī al-Kindī ( ar, أبو محمد أحمد بن أعثم الكوفي) was a 9th-century Arab Muslim historian, poet and preacher (''qāṣṣ'') active in the late 8th and early 9th centuries. He was a ...
, who had no sympathy for the forces of the caliph, had an even stronger opinion: "The Muslims had never eforesuffered a loss like the one they had in Nubia."[ An Arab poet describing the battle wrote:][Shinnie, p. 4.]
"My eyes ne'er saw another fight like Damqula ongola
With rushing horses loaded down with coats of mail."
In the centuries that followed, however, the siege and second battle of Dongola were transformed by Muslim historians into a victory. Qalidurut was said to have come out of the city submissively seeking terms, according to al-Maqrizi.[ It may be that this version of events stems from the conflation of the events of 652 with late 13th-century conflict between Nubia and the ]Mamluks
Mamluk ( ar, مملوك, mamlūk (singular), , ''mamālīk'' (plural), translated as "one who is owned", meaning "slave", also transliterated as ''Mameluke'', ''mamluq'', ''mamluke'', ''mameluk'', ''mameluke'', ''mamaluke'', or ''marmeluke'') i ...
.[
]
Aftermath
The details of the second Battle of Dongola are scarce, but we do know that the forces of the caliphate suffered enough casualties that taking their objective—the city of Dongola—was no longer possible.[ A negotiated truce known as the '']Baqt
The Baqt (or Bakt) (بقط)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 eith ...
'' was agreed upon by both sides and lasted for six centuries.[Jennings, p. 26.] It set up trade relations between Muslim Egypt and Christian Nubia. It involved the exchange of wheat, barley, wine, horses and linen from Egypt for 360 slaves per year from Nubia.
The ''baqt'' was without precedent in the early history of Islam. Also new to the paradigm of Muslim-Non Muslim Relations was Nubia's status as a land free from conquest. Traditionally, Nubia was made the exception.[ It was a Christian region where its rulers did business with Muslim rulers on equal terms well until the 12th century when the power of Nubia began to wane. As a result of the battle and the ''baqt'', Christian Nubia had the space to flourish for the next 600 years.][
]
References
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Second Battle Of Dongola
652
7th century in Africa
Dongola
Dongola ( ar, دنقلا, Dunqulā), also spelled ''Dunqulah'', is the capital of the state of Northern Sudan, on the banks of the Nile, and a former Latin Catholic bishopric (14th century). It should not be confused with Old Dongola, an ancien ...
Dongola
Dongola ( ar, دنقلا, Dunqulā), also spelled ''Dunqulah'', is the capital of the state of Northern Sudan, on the banks of the Nile, and a former Latin Catholic bishopric (14th century). It should not be confused with Old Dongola, an ancien ...
Kingdom of Makuria
Military history of Africa