<Originally posted this on another board, wondering if it will attract more interest here>
What would be a good POD for Makuria, or another Nubian kingdom, to conquer Egypt? No Islam strikes me as one plausible option-considering the ease with which the Arabs were able to conquer Egypt, Makuria would probably have an easier time, with them actually being Copts and all. Another option might be the collapse of the Ummayyad caliphate being more protracted and destructive, giving the Makurians an opening where Egypt might not be as well defended as it otherwise would be, and they can get some of the Copts (who had begun to sour on the Muslims by this point) to cooperate with them.
The collapse of the Fatimid caliphate also seems like an outside possibility.
Also, what might Makurian Egypt look like? My feeling is that it will Copticize within a century or two, given the cultural prestige of Coptic and the greater wealth and population of the "Egyptian" part compared to the "Nubian" part. Also, how much do we know about the Makurian state's organization-was a tax-raising administrative bureaucracy like Byzantium or more feudal? What kind of culture might it produce-I'm thinking something very Byzantine, at least at first, but I wonder if anyone has any other ideas.
What would be a good POD for Makuria, or another Nubian kingdom, to conquer Egypt? No Islam strikes me as one plausible option-considering the ease with which the Arabs were able to conquer Egypt, Makuria would probably have an easier time, with them actually being Copts and all. Another option might be the collapse of the Ummayyad caliphate being more protracted and destructive, giving the Makurians an opening where Egypt might not be as well defended as it otherwise would be, and they can get some of the Copts (who had begun to sour on the Muslims by this point) to cooperate with them.
The collapse of the Fatimid caliphate also seems like an outside possibility.
Also, what might Makurian Egypt look like? My feeling is that it will Copticize within a century or two, given the cultural prestige of Coptic and the greater wealth and population of the "Egyptian" part compared to the "Nubian" part. Also, how much do we know about the Makurian state's organization-was a tax-raising administrative bureaucracy like Byzantium or more feudal? What kind of culture might it produce-I'm thinking something very Byzantine, at least at first, but I wonder if anyone has any other ideas.