Makuria was a Nubian kingdom that existed from 500 to 1276 and from 1286 to the 1560s, with Dongola serving as its capital. It was one of the kingdoms to emerge from the ashes of the Kingdom of Kush, and it converted to Christianity by the end of the 6th century. During the 7th century, Egypt was conquered by the Islamic armies, and Nubia was isolated from the rest of Christendom. In 651, an Arab army invaded, but it was repulsed, and the two sides had a peace treaty until the 13th century. Makuria expanded by annexing Nobatia to the north, and it maintained close dynastic ties with Alodia to the south. From the mid-8th to mid-11th centuries, Makuria entered into a golden age, and it was stable and prosperous. Increased aggression from Egypt, internal discord, Bedouin incursions, the plague, and the shift of trade routes led to the state's decline in the 13th and 14th centuries, and the kingdom was reduced to a rump state by a 1365 civil war. During the 1560s, the empire was ended when the Ottoman Empire occupied Lower Nubia. Nubia was subsequently Islamized, while the Nubians of Kordofan were Arabized.
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