270’s B.C.E.              Nubia invaded by Greeks under Ptolemy II.

    70 C.E.                          Pliny describes Nubia; Romans capture Jerusalem with Nubian mercenary cavalry.

    297                          Withdrawal of Romans from Lower Nubia to Aswan.

    450’s                       Anonymous Christians begin missions in Nubia; Mouses, a Nobadian prince may have

converted to Christianity; Tantani, phylarch of Nobades, also appears to be a Christian.

c. 500’s                        Kushite empire replaced by three Nubian kingdoms: Nobadia in northern Nubia, Makuria in central Nubia, and Alwa southern Nubia.

    527–565                  Emperor Justinian rules the Eastern Roman empire; the reconquest of much of

North Africa.

c. 537                          Nubian King Silko implies that he is the first Christian king of Nubia.

543                          Julian, a Coptic monk sent by Empress Theodora to Nubia; Theodore becomes bishop of Philae (Nile island) in Nobadia; Monophysite faith.

c. 543                          King of Nobatia baptized.

c. 550’s                        Faras established as capital of Christian Nobadia. A former guest house is converted to a church; referred to as the “Rivergate Church.”

c. 555                          Missionary Longinus at Nobadia and Alwa (Alodia); established clergy and liturgy.

c. 573                          Dongola established as capital of Makuria after its conversion to Christianity;

converted to Melkite Christianity (Orthodoxy.)

c. 580                          Alwa converts to Monophysite Christianity. Soba is the established capital.

    640                         Muslim conquest of Egypt.

    641–642                  Islamic armies of Amru b. El-As campaign against Nubia but fail to capture it.

    646                          Muslim rulers of Egypt attack Nubia.

652                          Baqt (Pact) treaty established between Nubia and Egypt; Christian Nubians and Arabs in Egypt agree that Aswan on Nile should mark southern limit of Arab expansion; only time in the Middle Ages that Muslims exempted a non-Muslim state from conquest.

    697–707                  King Merkurius unites Nobadia and Makuria; sometimes referred to by bishops as

the “new Constantine.”

    707                          Reconstruction of the cathedral in Faras under direction of Bishop Paulos.

    720                         Baqt treaty established between Egypt and Beja of the Red Sea.

    740's                       Cyriacus, the Makurian king lays siege to Umayy capital at Fustat (Cairo);

seeks release of Alexandrian patriarch Abba Michael.

    762­–770                 Muslim raids led by Abd al A’la b. Hamid .

    762­­–770                c. 800-1000     Nubian era of prosperity.

    819–822                  Dongola king and Beja refuse to pay baqt tribute.

    856                          Giorgios I (816-920), crowned King of Makuria.

    866                          Faras becomes metropolitan see; Abba Kyros (866-902.)

    920                          Reign begins of Makurian King Zakaria.

c. 1000                        Nilotic pastoral expansion into southern Sudan.

    1127                        Nubian King George IV.

    1140's                     Christian kingdom of Dotawo noted in Nubia.

    1235                        Last priest sent to Nubia from Alexandria.

    1264                        Nubians again pay baqt tribute, now to Mamlukes.

    1276                        Mamluke Egyptians sack Dongola; forced conversion to Islam.

    1317                        Defeat of the last Christian king in Nubia; first mosque is built at Dongola.

    1371–1372              Bishop of Faras consecrated by Patriarch in Alexandria.

    1453                        Fall of Roman Empire of the East.

c. 1500                        The fall of Soba, capital of the last Christian kingdom of Alwa;

rise of the Islamized Funj.