# Christian Nubia ## Intro For roughly a thousand years, from the 500s to about 1500, the Nile valley south of Egypt, in what is now southern Egypt and Sudan, was ruled by Christian African kingdoms. There were three of them: Nobadia in the north, Makuria in the middle with its capital at Dongola, and Alodia in the south with its capital at Soba, near modern Khartoum. They built cathedrals, painted their walls with saints and bishops, and wrote in their own language, Old Nubian. When Arab armies conquered Egypt in the 640s and pushed south, the Nubians fought them to a standstill at Dongola. The result was a famous treaty, the Baqt, which kept the peace for some six hundred years. Christian Nubia faded slowly in the 1300s and 1400s, through war, migration and economic decline, until Islam became the majority faith. Its story is little known, but it is one of the great chapters of African Christian history. ![A medieval wall painting of a dark-skinned bearded bishop in rich vestments holding a book, standing beside the Virgin Mary holding the Christ child](/codex/assets/faras-bishop-marianos.jpg) *Bishop Marianos of Faras, a Nubian bishop of the early eleventh century, under the protection of the Virgin and Child. Wall painting from Faras Cathedral. Public domain, via [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Faras_Bishop_Marianos.jpg).* ## In full After the collapse of the Meroitic kingdom of Kush in the fourth century, three successor kingdoms took shape along the middle Nile: Nobadia (Greek Nobatia), between the First and Third Cataracts with its capital at Pachoras (Faras); Makuria, centred on Dongola; and Alodia (Alwa), centred on Soba at the confluence of the Blue and White Niles. Christianity was present earlier, but the courts converted in the mid-sixth century through rival missions from Constantinople. John of Ephesus, a contemporary miaphysite historian, reports that the Empress Theodora sent the priest Julian, who baptized the king and nobles of Nobadia around 543, and that Bishop Longinus later baptized the king of Alodia (about 580). John of Biclarum reports that Makuria received the Chalcedonian faith around 569-570. Makuria absorbed Nobadia, probably in the seventh century, and in 651-652 repulsed the Arab army of Abdallah ibn Sa'd at Dongola, after which the two sides agreed the Baqt, an arrangement of non-aggression, trade and an annual exchange that included enslaved people sent north and grain and cloth sent south. Christian Nubia flourished from the ninth to the twelfth centuries, leaving the cathedral paintings of Faras, the churches and throne hall of Dongola, and a large body of Greek, Coptic and Old Nubian texts. Pressure from Mamluk Egypt from the 1270s, Arab tribal migration and civil war broke Makuria's power; the Dongola throne hall was converted into a mosque in 1317, and the last recorded Makurian king lived about 1460. Alodia fell around 1500, when Soba was taken by Arab groups or the Funj. ## The three kingdoms | Kingdom | Capital | Conversion of the court | Source | |---|---|---|---| | Nobadia (Nobatia) | Pachoras (Faras) | c. 543, by the miaphysite priest Julian, sent through the Empress Theodora | John of Ephesus | | Makuria | Dongola (Old Dongola) | c. 569-570, Chalcedonian mission from Constantinople, in the reign of Justin II | John of Biclarum | | Alodia (Alwa) | Soba | c. 580, by the miaphysite bishop Longinus, at the king's request | John of Ephesus | ### How the conversions happened - **Before the courts.** Christianity had reached the region by the fourth century. [Athanasius](/codex/athanasius/) consecrated a bishop for Philae, at the Egyptian-Nubian frontier, and archaeology shows Christian burials and objects in Nobadia before the official conversion. - **A contest between missions.** Justinian supported the Chalcedonian definition; Theodora supported the miaphysites. John of Ephesus says she arranged for her miaphysite mission to reach Nobadia first. Whatever the intrigue, the Nubian kings chose to be baptized. - **The end of the old gods.** The Isis temple at Philae, long a pilgrimage centre for Nubians, was closed under Justinian in the 530s, around the time the Nobadian elite was moving toward Christianity. - **Church allegiance.** Over time all Nubian Christianity came under the Coptic patriarch of Alexandria. A Melkite chronicle records Nubia transferring its allegiance to the Coptic church in 719. See [Coptic Orthodox Church](/codex/coptic-orthodox-church/) and [Miaphysitism vs Dyophysitism](/codex/miaphysitism-vs-dyophysitism/). ## Holding back the conquest: the Baqt - **The war.** After conquering Egypt, Arab forces raided Nubia and in 651-652 besieged Dongola. Early sources indicate that the attackers met a strong defence, including Nubian archers famous enough to be called "pupil-smiters," and withdrew. - **The treaty.** The Baqt (from a Greek or Coptic word for "pact") committed both sides to non-aggression, free passage for traders, the return of fugitives, and the upkeep of a mosque for Muslim visitors in Dongola. Nubia delivered an annual quota of enslaved people (later sources say 360, with forty more for officials) in exchange for wheat, lentils, cloth and other goods. - **How long it lasted.** With interruptions, the Baqt framed Egyptian-Nubian relations for some six centuries, by some measures the longest-lasting treaty in history. No original text survives; all copies come from later Muslim writers and differ. - **The hard truth.** The Baqt protected Christian Nubia's independence, and it also institutionalized a trade in human beings. An honest account holds both. See [African Participation in the Atlantic Slave Trade](/codex/african-participation-in-the-atlantic-slave-trade/) and [Slavery](/codex/slavery/) for the codex's wider treatment. ## Golden age - **Churches and cathedrals.** Faras, Qasr Ibrim and Dongola had major churches; Faras preserved a painted list of its bishops and over a hundred wall paintings. See [Faras Cathedral Frescoes](/codex/faras-cathedral-frescoes/). - **Language and literature.** Old Nubian, written in an adapted Greek-Coptic alphabet, was used for religious and legal texts alongside Greek and Coptic. The first dated Old Nubian inscription is from 797. - **Royal Christianity.** Nubian kings appear in wall paintings under the protection of Christ, Mary and the saints, and Makurian kings corresponded with the patriarchs of Alexandria. - **Visitors' reports.** The Fatimid envoy al-Aswani, visiting in the tenth century, described Alodia's capital Soba as prosperous, with churches "full of gold." ## Decline The end of Christian Nubia was gradual, not a single conquest. 1. **Mamluk pressure.** From the 1270s Mamluk Egypt intervened repeatedly in Makurian succession disputes, and in 1276 a Mamluk army installed a client king. 2. **The first Muslim king.** In 1316 a convert, Abdallah Barshambu, was placed on the throne of Makuria; in 1317 he converted the throne hall of Dongola into a mosque, the first firmly attested mosque in the city. 3. **Migration and Islamization.** Arab tribes, especially the Banu Kanz, moved into the Nile valley, intermarried with Nubian ruling families, and gradually shifted the population toward Islam. 4. **Collapse.** Civil war in 1365 reduced Makuria to a rump state; a bishop is still recorded at Qasr Ibrim in 1372, and the last recorded king lived about 1460. Alodia's capital Soba fell around 1500. 5. **Last echoes.** Around 1500 a Syrian traveller told the Portuguese priest Francisco Álvares that the Nubians were still Christians in name but had no priests and no instruction. Some Sudanese traditions link Christian refugees to the later kingdom of Fazughli. Historians also cite drought, plague and the shift of trade routes. See [Decline of North African Christianity](/codex/decline-of-north-african-christianity/) for the parallel story further west. ## Why it matters - **A thousand-year African Christian civilization.** Nubia proves that the Christian faith took root on the Nile in black African kingdoms with their own language, art and kings. - **Resistance and coexistence.** Nubia shows a Christian state holding off conquest and negotiating a lasting peace with an Islamic power. - **A warning.** Nubia also shows how a church can fade. Scholars point to dependence on a foreign hierarchy for bishops, limited use of the vernacular in Scripture and worship, and the loss of royal protection. These lessons are debated, but they recur in missiology. - **Scripture and the Kushites.** Nubia lies in the territory the Bible calls Cush ([Genesis 10:6-8](/codex/genesis-10-6-8/); [Isaiah 18](/codex/isaiah-18/); [Acts 8:27](/codex/acts-8-27/)). See [Africa in the Table of Nations](/codex/africa-in-the-table-of-nations/) and [Ethiopian Eunuch](/codex/ethiopian-eunuch/). ## Tensions - **Did Makuria first accept Chalcedon?** John of Biclarum says so; John of Ephesus says Makuria was hostile to the miaphysite mission. Some historians doubt the Chalcedonian phase, others accept it and note the later switch to the Coptic church. - **Why did Nubian Christianity disappear?** Explanations range from military and demographic pressure to internal weakness of the church. The codex lists the main proposals without ranking them. ## Scholarship Published academic works this page draws on, each matched to a publisher, index or library catalog record. - Jay Spaulding, "Medieval Christian Nubia and the Islamic World: A Reconsideration of the Baqt Treaty," *The International Journal of African Historical Studies* 28 (1995). [doi:10.2307/221175](https://doi.org/10.2307/221175) - Giovanni Vantini, *Christianity in the Sudan* (1981). [Open Library](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL5313949W) ## See also - [Faras Cathedral Frescoes](/codex/faras-cathedral-frescoes/), the greatest surviving body of Nubian Christian art - [Kingdom of Aksum](/codex/kingdom-of-aksum/), the Christian kingdom to Nubia's east - [Coptic Orthodox Church](/codex/coptic-orthodox-church/), the church of Alexandria to which Nubia belonged - [Decline of North African Christianity](/codex/decline-of-north-african-christianity/), the parallel story west of Egypt - [Taharqa](/codex/taharqa/), the Kushite pharaoh from the same Nile lands a millennium earlier - [African Christianity Pre-Colonial](/codex/african-christianity-pre-colonial/), the wider pre-colonial picture - [Islam](/codex/islam/), the faith that eventually replaced Christianity in Nubia - [Africa and Christianity](/codex/africa-and-christianity/), master hub ## Common questions this page answers **Q: Was Nubia Christian?** Yes. From the sixth century to about 1500 the Nubian kingdoms of Nobadia, Makuria and Alodia, in what is now southern Egypt and Sudan, were Christian. Their kings were baptized through missions from Constantinople in the 540s to 580. **Q: What was the Baqt treaty?** A pact agreed around 652 between Christian Makuria and the Muslim rulers of Egypt after the Arabs failed to take Dongola. It set non-aggression, free trade and an annual exchange in which Nubia sent enslaved people north and received grain and goods. It lasted, with interruptions, about six hundred years. **Q: How did Sudan become Christian?** The rulers of the three Nubian kingdoms were baptized in the sixth century: Nobadia about 543 through the priest Julian, Makuria about 569-570 through a mission from Constantinople, and Alodia about 580 through Bishop Longinus. Christianity had already been spreading in the region before that. **Q: Why did Christianity disappear from Nubia?** Gradually, through Mamluk military pressure from the 1270s, the installation of Muslim kings in Makuria from 1316, Arab tribal migration and intermarriage, civil war, and economic decline. Alodia's capital Soba fell around 1500. **Q: What language did Christian Nubians use?** Greek and Coptic for much church use, and their own Old Nubian, written in an adapted Greek-Coptic alphabet, for religious and legal texts. The earliest dated Old Nubian inscription is from 797. **Q: Where can I see Christian Nubian art?** The finest collection is the paintings from Faras Cathedral, divided between the National Museum in Warsaw and the Sudan National Museum in Khartoum. Polish excavations at Old Dongola and elsewhere have added more.