Along the Nile: a study pack

Part two: the handout

II. Along the Nile

The envoy who came to Aksum to fetch the refugees went back years later, and the king who had sheltered them sent him to the Prophet. Before long he led an army into Egypt. Up the Nile, Christian Nubia held the Muslims off and made a treaty that lasted for centuries.

The story in brief

1. Amr ibn al-As was one of the envoys Quraysh sent to Aksum to bring the first refugees home. Years later he went back to the Negus, who told him to follow the Prophet, and he became Muslim at the king’s hand.
2. The Prophet sent a letter to the Muqawqis, ruler of Alexandria. The Muqawqis sent Mariya the Copt, who became the mother of the Prophet’s son Ibrahim.
3. The Prophet told his companions that they would conquer Egypt, and to treat its people well, because of a blood tie and a tie of marriage.
4. About 640 Amr led an army into Egypt. Alexandria surrendered on terms: the Roman troops would leave, and the Muslims would not seize the churches.
5. Amr wrote a letter of safe conduct for the Coptic patriarch Benjamin, who had hidden from the Byzantine authorities for thirteen years. Benjamin came home.
6. Amr founded Fustat and its mosque, which Egypt calls the oldest surviving mosque in Egypt and Africa.
7. Christian Nubia held off the Muslim armies. In 652 the two sides made a treaty, the baqt, that kept the peace for centuries. In 1317 the throne hall at Dongola became a mosque.

Dates

• About 615The first Muslims emigrate from Makkah to Abyssinia and are given protection by the Negus.
• About 640Amr ibn al-As leads a Muslim army into Egypt and, by al-Baladhuri’s count, subdues it in the twentieth year after the Hijrah.
• 641Amr founds Fustat and its mosque, the oldest surviving mosque in Egypt and Africa.
• About 642Amr enters Alexandria without a fight, and the Coptic patriarch Benjamin comes home after thirteen years in hiding.
• 652Abdallah ibn Sa’d besieges Dongola. Christian Makuria and Muslim Egypt make the treaty called the baqt.
• 670Uqba ibn Nafi founds Kairouan and its great mosque.
• 1317The throne hall of the kings of Makuria at Dongola becomes a mosque, the oldest preserved mosque in Sudan.

People

• Mariya the Copt seventh centurySent to the Prophet, peace be upon him, by the Muqawqis of Egypt, she was the mother of his son Ibrahim. An early teacher named her as the tie of marriage between the Muslims and Egypt, and her home village was later spared the poll tax.
• Amr ibn al-As seventh centuryThe Quraysh envoy who came to Aksum to fetch the first refugees, and who years later gave his allegiance to Islam at the same king’s hand. He led the Muslim army into Egypt, founded Fustat and its mosque, and gave the Coptic patriarch a safe conduct.
• Benjamin I, patriarch of Alexandria patriarch 622 to 661Head of the Coptic church, who spent thirteen years in hiding from the Byzantine authorities. Amr ibn al-As wrote him a letter of safe conduct, and he came home to Alexandria and his people.

Words to know

Muqawqis

The title Muslim sources give the ruler of Alexandria in the Prophet’s time.

Copts

The Christians of Egypt, and their church. Their head is the patriarch of Alexandria.

Patriarch

The head of a church. Benjamin was patriarch of the Coptic church from 622 to 661.

Safe conduct

A written promise that a person may travel and live without being harmed. Amr wrote one for Benjamin.

Fustat

The city Amr founded beside the fortress of Babylon. It now lies inside Cairo.

Baqt

The treaty of 652 between Christian Nubia and Muslim Egypt. It kept the peace for centuries, and it was paid in part with enslaved people.

Read together

Talk about it

1. The Negus once sent Amr away with nothing, and later sent him to the Prophet. What does this tell you about how people’s hearts change?See: The envoy goes back
2. The Prophet asked that the people of Egypt be treated well, because of kinship. Why might ties of family matter between peoples?See: Kinship with Egypt
3. John of Nikiu praises Amr for sparing the churches and blames him for heavy taxes. Why is it useful to read an account written by the other side?See: The surrender of Alexandria
4. Amr wrote a safe conduct for a Christian leader. What do you think that letter meant to the Copts?See: The patriarch comes home
5. The baqt kept the peace for centuries, and it was paid for in people. How should we talk about the good and the wrong in the same story?See: The archers of the eyes

Try this

1. Trace the road. On the atlas, start at Makkah, then find Aksum, Alexandria, Cairo and Old Dongola. Follow Amr’s road from Makkah to Aksum, and then the Muslims’ road into Egypt and up the Nile.
2. Read the letter aloud. Read Amr’s letter for Benjamin from the chapter. Then write a short reply as Benjamin might have written it.
3. Read the verse. Read Quran 12:99 together, where Joseph welcomes his family into Egypt. Talk about Egypt as a place of refuge in the stories of the prophets.
4. Look at old Dongola. Look at the University of Warsaw’s work on the mosque at Old Dongola, listed in the chapter’s sources. What does a building that was a throne hall and then a mosque for six hundred years tell you?

On the atlas: Aksum Alexandria Cairo and Fustat Old Dongola Kairouan

Check yourself

1. Who told Amr ibn al-As to follow the Prophet, by Ibn Ishaq’s account?
2. Who was Mariya the Copt?
3. What did the Prophet ask his companions to do when they conquered Egypt?
4. Who was Benjamin, and what did Amr write for him?
5. What did Amr found beside the fortress of Babylon?
6. What was the baqt, and when was it made?
7. What happened to the throne hall at Dongola in 1317?

From The First Refuge, ferrand.africa/teach/along-the-nile/. Free to print and copy for teaching.