Baqt

The Baqt (or Bakt) (بقط)was a 7th-century treaty between the Christian state of Makuria and the new Muslim rulers of Egypt. Lasting almost seven hundred years, it is by some measures the longest-lasting treaty in history. The name comes either from the Egyptian's term for barter, or the Greco-Roman term for pact. Despite its longevity, not much is clear about the Baqt and almost all the information about it comes from Muslim sources. The Baqt was signed after the 652 conquest of Egypt by troops coming from the Arabian peninsula. That year, the Hejazi general Abdallah ibn Abi Sarh led an army south against the Christian kingdoms of Nubia. Later Islamic historians state that Nubia was not worth conquering and the expedition was simply to subordinate the region to Egypt. Earlier sources give the more likely story that the Arab armies met a rare defeat at the Battle of Dongola and only acceded to the Baqt when they realized that the conquest of the region would be difficult. The treaty was negotiated between Abi Sarh and the Makurian King Qalidurut. There is no extant copy of the treaty they signed, and the earliest copies are several centuries after the fact and are quite varied. The treaty might not have been written at all and may have just been an oral agreement. Some sections of the Baqt are clear: the Arabs would not attack Nubia and the Nubians would not attack Egypt the citizens of the two nations would be allowed to freely trade and travel between the two states and would be guaranteed safe passage while in the other nation immigration to and settlement in the other nation's lands was forbidden fugitives were to be extradited, as were escaped slaves the Nubians were responsible for maintaining a mosque for Muslim visitors and residents the Muslims had no obligation to protect the Nubians from attacks by third parties The most important provision was that 360 slaves per year were to be sent to Egypt in exchange for cargoes of wheat and lentils. These slaves had to be of the highest quality, meaning that the elderly and children were excluded.