Amr ibn al-'As sends an Arab expedition of twenty thousand horsemen under his cousin Uqba ibn Nafi to Makuria.
The Nubians strike hard against the Muslims near Dongola with hit-and-run attacks.
According to historian Al-Baladhuri, the Muslims found that the Nubians fought strongly and met them with showers of arrows.
The majority of the Arab forces returned with wounded or blinded eyes.
It is thus that the Nubians are called 'the pupil smiters'.
The Nubian victory at Dongola is one of the Rashidun Caliphate's rare defeats during the mid-seventh century.
With their archers' deadly accuracy plus their own experienced cavalry forces, Makuria is able to shake the Amr's confidence enough for him to withdraw his forces from Nubia.
Arab sources claim that the expedition into Nubia was not a Muslim defeat while at the same time acknowledging it was not a success.
The expedition into Nubia, like as the more successful expedition into the imperial lands of North Africa, is undertaken by 'Amr ibn al-'As on his own accord.
He believes that they will be easy victories and will inform the caliph after the conquests.
The Arab sources also make it clear there were no pitched battles in Nubia.
Yet, they do mention an encounter whereupon Uqba ibn Nafi and his forces happened upon a concentration of Nubians that promptly gave battle before the Muslims could attack.
In the ensuing engagement, he claims two hundred and fifty Muslims lost their eyes.
Arab sources lend more credit to Nubian guerrilla tactics than a single decisive engagement.
They claim that the Nubians would call out to their Muslim adversaries from afar where they would like their arrow wound.
The Muslims would jokingly respond, and the arrow would strike them there invariably.
This statement, along with a claim that Nubian horsemen were superior to Muslim cavalry in hit-and-run tactics, was used to support their position that the Nubians were besting them in skirmishes and not all-out battles.
Regardless of the situation, Uqba ibn Nafi was unable to succeed with his expedition and wrote back to his cousin that he could not win against such tactics and that Nubia was a very poor land with no treasure worth fighting for.
Uqba may not have been exaggerating, since Nubia is surrounded by formidable deserts.
Upon receiving this news, Amr bin al-As asks his cousin to withdraw, which he does.
