The Baqt — the Treaty That Organised Relations Between Nubia and Islamic Egypt for Six Centuries
In 652 AD (31 AH), the governor of Egypt, Abdullah ibn Sa'd ibn Abi al-Sarh, marched south at the head of an army whose strength Arab sources estimated at about five thousand fighters. He besieged Dongola, the capital of the Christian Kingdom of Makuria, and used the catapult to bombard it. But the siege did not achieve a decisive victory; the Nubian archers were famous in Arab sources by the nickname "archers of the pupils" for the accuracy of their aim, and the losses of the attacking army were heavy, so the matter ended in negotiation with the Nubian king Qalidurut and agreement on a truce known as "the Baqt".
The Baqt was an agreement without parallel in the history of the early Islamic conquests: Nubia was not opened by force, the jizya was not imposed on it, and it remained an independent Christian kingdom outside the state of the Caliphate. Scholars suggest that the name "Baqt" is derived from the Greek word "pacton", meaning the covenant or agreement, a description that was not applied to any other agreement concluded by the Arabs in the Middle Ages, according to the Coptic Encyclopedia.
The accounts in circulation of the agreement stipulated that neither party would attack the other, freedom of movement for merchants and travellers between the two countries, and the handing over of fugitives, and that Nubia would present annually a number of slaves — the fullest accounts state that it was 360 — in return for food supplies from Egypt such as wheat and lentils of equivalent value. The numbers differ between the sources; al-Baladhuri, for example, mentions 300 and describes them as a gift in return for food, a difference to which scholars draw attention when reading the text.
No original copy of the agreement survives, and everything we know about it came from Muslim historians who wrote centuries after it, its fullest version being that of al-Maqrizi, more than seven hundred years after the event. However, an archaeological document supported the credibility of many of its provisions: in 1972, an Arabic letter dated to 758 AD was found at Qasr Ibrim, from the Abbasid governor Musa ibn Ka'b to the king of Makuria, in which he complains of violations of the provisions of the Baqt, proving that the agreement was alive and was invoked a century after it was concluded.
The Baqt remained the nominal framework governing relations between Nubia and Egypt for more than six hundred years, with modifications over the ages, until the balance changed in the Mamluk era in the thirteenth century, and the end of its application was officially declared in 1323 AD, with a Muslim ruler ascending the throne of Dongola. Contemporary scholars, such as the historian Jay Spaulding, tend to read it as an equal diplomatic exchange rather than a tribute imposed on a defeated party, which partly explains how Islam entered Sudan gradually through trade and peaceful contact, not through military conquest.
📚 Sources: Entry "Baqt Treaty" by William Y. Adams in The Coptic Encyclopedia, Claremont University; I. Hrbek (editor), UNESCO General History of Africa, Volume Three; Jay Spaulding, "Medieval Christian Nubia and the Islamic World: A Reconsideration of the Baqt Treaty", The International Journal of African Historical Studies, 1995; The Sudanese Encyclopedia (Sudapedia), study by Dr. Mohamed Adam Abdel Rahman on the Baqt Treaty. — Editorial Team
