Chapter LI: Conquests By The Arabs.—Part V

The sieges and battles of six campaigns had consumed many
thousands of the Moslems. They died with the reputation and the
cheerfulness of martyrs; and the simplicity of their faith may be
expressed in the words of an Arabian youth, when he embraced, for
the last time, his sister and mother: “It is not,” said he, “the
delicacies of Syria, or the fading delights of this world, that
have prompted me to devote my life in the cause of religion. But
I seek the favor of God and his apostle; and I have heard, from
one of the companions of the prophet, that the spirits of the
martyrs will be lodged in the crops of green birds, who shall
taste the fruits, and drink of the rivers, of paradise. Farewell,
we shall meet again among the groves and fountains which God has
provided for his elect.” The faithful captives might exercise a
passive and more arduous resolution; and a cousin of Mahomet is
celebrated for refusing, after an abstinence of three days, the
wine and pork, the only nourishment that was allowed by the
malice of the infidels. The frailty of some weaker brethren
exasperated the implacable spirit of fanaticism; and the father
of Amer deplored, in pathetic strains, the apostasy and damnation
of a son, who had renounced the promises of God, and the
intercession of the prophet, to occupy, with the priests and
deacons, the lowest mansions of hell. The more fortunate Arabs,
who survived the war and persevered in the faith, were restrained
by their abstemious leader from the abuse of prosperity. After a
refreshment of three days, Abu Obeidah withdrew his troops from
the pernicious contagion of the luxury of Antioch, and assured
the caliph that their religion and virtue could only be preserved
by the hard discipline of poverty and labor. But the virtue of
Omar, however rigorous to himself, was kind and liberal to his
brethren. After a just tribute of praise and thanksgiving, he
dropped a tear of compassion; and sitting down on the ground,
wrote an answer, in which he mildly censured the severity of his
lieutenant: “God,” said the successor of the prophet, “has not
forbidden the use of the good things of this worl to faithful
men, and such as have performed good works. Therefore you ought
to have given them leave to rest themselves, and partake freely
of those good things which the country affordeth. If any of the
Saracens have no family in Arabia, they may marry in Syria; and
whosoever of them wants any female slaves, he may purchase as
many as he hath occasion for.” The conquerors prepared to use, or
to abuse, this gracious permission; but the year of their triumph
was marked by a mortality of men and cattle; and twenty-five
thousand Saracens were snatched away from the possession of
Syria. The death of Abu Obeidah might be lamented by the
Christians; but his brethren recollected that he was one of the
ten elect whom the prophet had named as the heirs of paradise. 91
Caled survived his brethren about three years: and the tomb of
the Sword of God is shown in the neighborhood of Emesa. His
valor, which founded in Arabia and Syria the empire of the
caliphs, was fortified by the opinion of a special providence;
and as long as he wore a cap, which had been blessed by Mahomet,
he deemed himself invulnerable amidst the darts of the infidels.
9111

91 (return) [ Abulfeda, Annal. Moslem. p. 73. Mahomet could
artfully vary the praises of his disciples. Of Omar he was
accustomed to say, that if a prophet could arise after himself,
it would be Omar; and that in a general calamity, Omar would be
accepted by the divine justice, (Ockley, vol. i. p. 221.)]

9111 (return) [ Khaled, according to the Rouzont Uzzuffa, (Price,
p. 90,) after having been deprived of his ample share of the
plunder of Syria by the jealousy of Omar, died, possessed only of
his horse, his arms, and a single slave. Yet Omar was obliged to
acknowledge to his lamenting parent. that never mother had
produced a son like Khaled.—M.]

The place of the first conquerors was supplied by a new
generation of their children and countrymen: Syria became the
seat and support of the house of Ommiyah; and the revenue, the
soldiers, the ships of that powerful kingdom were consecrated to
enlarge on every side the empire of the caliphs. But the Saracens
despise a superfluity of fame; and their historians scarcely
condescend to mention the subordinate conquests which are lost in
the splendor and rapidity of their victorious career.

To the north of Syria, they passed Mount Taurus, and reduced to
their obedience the province of Cilicia, with its capital Tarsus,
the ancient monument of the Assyrian kings. Beyond a second ridge
of the same mountains, they spread the flame of war, rather than
the light of religion, as far as the shores of the Euxine, and
the neighborhood of Constantinople. To the east they advanced to
the banks and sources of the Euphrates and Tigris: 92 the long
disputed barrier of Rome and Persia was forever confounded; the
walls of Edessa and Amida, of Dara and Nisibis, which had
resisted the arms and engines of Sapor or Nushirvan, were
levelled in the dust; and the holy city of Abgarus might vainly
produce the epistle or the image of Christ to an unbelieving
conqueror. To the west the Syrian kingdom is bounded by the sea:
and the ruin of Aradus, a small island or peninsula on the coast,
was postponed during ten years. But the hills of Libanus abounded
in timber; the trade of Phoenicia was populous in mariners; and a
fleet of seventeen hundred barks was equipped and manned by the
natives of the desert. The Imperial navy of the Romans fled
before them from the Pamphylian rocks to the Hellespont; but the
spirit of the emperor, a grandson of Heraclius, had been subdued
before the combat by a dream and a pun. 93 The Saracens rode
masters of the sea; and the islands of Cyprus, Rhodes, and the
Cyclades, were successively exposed to their rapacious visits.
Three hundred years before the Christian aera, the memorable
though fruitless siege of Rhodes 94 by Demetrius had furnished
that maritime republic with the materials and the subject of a
trophy. A gigantic statue of Apollo, or the sun, seventy cubits
in height, was erected at the entrance of the harbor, a monument
of the freedom and the arts of Greece. After standing fifty-six
years, the colossus of Rhodes was overthrown by an earthquake;
but the massy trunk, and huge fragments, lay scattered eight
centuries on the ground, and are often described as one of the
wonders of the ancient world. They were collected by the
diligence of the Saracens, and sold to a Jewish merchant of
Edessa, who is said to have laden nine hundred camels with the
weight of the brass metal; an enormous weight, though we should
include the hundred colossal figures, 95 and the three thousand
statues, which adorned the prosperity of the city of the sun.

92 (return) [ Al Wakidi had likewise written a history of the
conquest of Diarbekir, or Mesopotamia, (Ockley, at the end of the
iid vol.,) which our interpreters do not appear to have seen. The
Chronicle of Dionysius of Telmar, the Jacobite patriarch, records
the taking of Edessa A.D. 637, and of Dara A.D. 641, (Asseman.
Bibliot. Orient. tom. ii. p. 103;) and the attentive may glean
some doubtful information from the Chronography of Theophanes,
(p. 285-287.) Most of the towns of Mesopotamia yielded by
surrender, (Abulpharag. p. 112.) * Note: It has been published in
Arabic by M. Ewald St. Martin, vol. xi p 248; but its
authenticity is doubted.—M.]

93 (return) [ He dreamt that he was at Thessalonica, a harmless
and unmeaning vision; but his soothsayer, or his cowardice,
understood the sure omen of a defeat concealed in that
inauspicious word, Give to another the victory, (Theoph. p. 286.
Zonaras, tom. ii. l. xiv. p. 88.)]

94 (return) [ Every passage and every fact that relates to the
isle, the city, and the colossus of Rhodes, are compiled in the
laborious treatise of Meursius, who has bestowed the same
diligence on the two larger islands of the Crete and Cyprus. See,
in the iiid vol. of his works, the Rhodus of Meursius, (l. i. c.
15, p. 715-719.) The Byzantine writers, Theophanes and
Constantine, have ignorantly prolonged the term to 1360 years,
and ridiculously divide the weight among 30,000 camels.]

95 (return) [ Centum colossi alium nobilitaturi locum, says
Pliny, with his usual spirit. Hist. Natur. xxxiv. 18.]

III. The conquest of Egypt may be explained by the character of
the victorious Saracen, one of the first of his nation, in an age
when the meanest of the brethren was exalted above his nature by
the spirit of enthusiasm. The birth of Amrou was at once base and
illustrious; his mother, a notorious prostitute, was unable to
decide among five of the Koreish; but the proof of resemblance
adjudged the child to Aasi, the oldest of her lovers. 96 The
youth of Amrou was impelled by the passions and prejudices of his
kindred: his poetic genius was exercised in satirical verses
against the person and doctrine of Mahomet; his dexterity was
employed by the reigning faction to pursue the religious exiles
who had taken refuge in the court of the Aethiopian king. 97 Yet
he returned from this embassy a secret proselyte; his reason or
his interest determined him to renounce the worship of idols; he
escaped from Mecca with his friend Caled; and the prophet of
Medina enjoyed at the same moment the satisfaction of embracing
the two firmest champions of his cause. The impatience of Amrou
to lead the armies of the faithful was checked by the reproof of
Omar, who advised him not to seek power and dominion, since he
who is a subject to-day, may be a prince to-morrow. Yet his merit
was not overlooked by the two first successors of Mahomet; they
were indebted to his arms for the conquest of Palestine; and in
all the battles and sieges of Syria, he united with the temper of
a chief the valor of an adventurous soldier. In a visit to
Medina, the caliph expressed a wish to survey the sword which had
cut down so many Christian warriors; the son of Aasi unsheathed a
short and ordinary cimeter; and as he perceived the surprise of
Omar, “Alas,” said the modest Saracen, “the sword itself, without
the arm of its master, is neither sharper nor more weighty than
the sword of Pharezdak the poet.” 98 After the conquest of Egypt,
he was recalled by the jealousy of the caliph Othman; but in the
subsequent troubles, the ambition of a soldier, a statesman, and
an orator, emerged from a private station. His powerful support,
both in council and in the field, established the throne of the
Ommiades; the administration and revenue of Egypt were restored
by the gratitude of Moawiyah to a faithful friend who had raised
himself above the rank of a subject; and Amrou ended his days in
the palace and city which he had founded on the banks of the
Nile. His dying speech to his children is celebrated by the
Arabians as a model of eloquence and wisdom: he deplored the
errors of his youth but if the penitent was still infected by the
vanity of a poet, he might exaggerate the venom and mischief of
his impious compositions. 99

96 (return) [ We learn this anecdote from a spirited old woman,
who reviled to their faces, the caliph and his friend. She was
encouraged by the silence of Amrou and the liberality of
Moawiyah, (Abulfeda, Annal Moslem. p. 111.)]

97 (return) [ Gagnier, Vie de Mahomet, tom. ii. p. 46, &c., who
quotes the Abyssinian history, or romance of Abdel Balcides. Yet
the fact of the embassy and ambassador may be allowed.]

98 (return) [ This saying is preserved by Pocock, (Not. ad Carmen
Tograi, p 184,) and justly applauded by Mr. Harris,
(Philosophical Arrangements, p. 850.)]

99 (return) [ For the life and character of Amrou, see Ockley
(Hist. of the Saracens, vol. i. p. 28, 63, 94, 328, 342, 344, and
to the end of the volume; vol. ii. p. 51, 55, 57, 74, 110-112,
162) and Otter, (Mem. de l’Academie des Inscriptions, tom. xxi.
p. 131, 132.) The readers of Tacitus may aptly compare Vespasian
and Mucianus with Moawiyah and Amrou. Yet the resemblance is
still more in the situation, than in the characters, of the men.]

From his camp in Palestine, Amrou had surprised or anticipated
the caliph’s leave for the invasion of Egypt. 100 The magnanimous
Omar trusted in his God and his sword, which had shaken the
thrones of Chosroes and Caesar: but when he compared the slender
force of the Moslems with the greatness of the enterprise, he
condemned his own rashness, and listened to his timid companions.
The pride and the greatness of Pharaoh were familiar to the
readers of the Koran; and a tenfold repetition of prodigies had
been scarcely sufficient to effect, not the victory, but the
flight, of six hundred thousand of the children of Israel: the
cities of Egypt were many and populous; their architecture was
strong and solid; the Nile, with its numerous branches, was alone
an insuperable barrier; and the granary of the Imperial city
would be obstinately defended by the Roman powers. In this
perplexity, the commander of the faithful resigned himself to the
decision of chance, or, in his opinion, of Providence. At the
head of only four thousand Arabs, the intrepid Amrou had marched
away from his station of Gaza when he was overtaken by the
messenger of Omar. “If you are still in Syria,” said the
ambiguous mandate, “retreat without delay; but if, at the receipt
of this epistle, you have already reached the frontiers of Egypt,
advance with confidence, and depend on the succor of God and of
your brethren.” The experience, perhaps the secret intelligence,
of Amrou had taught him to suspect the mutability of courts; and
he continued his march till his tents were unquestionably pitched
on Egyptian ground. He there assembled his officers, broke the
seal, perused the epistle, gravely inquired the name and
situation of the place, and declared his ready obedience to the
commands of the caliph. After a siege of thirty days, he took
possession of Farmah or Pelusium; and that key of Egypt, as it
has been justly named, unlocked the entrance of the country as
far as the ruins of Heliopolis and the neighborhood of the modern
Cairo.

100 (return) [ Al Wakidi had likewise composed a separate history
of the conquest of Egypt, which Mr. Ockley could never procure;
and his own inquiries (vol. i. 344-362) have added very little to
the original text of Eutychius, (Annal. tom. ii. p. 296-323,
vers. Pocock,) the Melchite patriarch of Alexandria, who lived
three hundred years after the revolution.]

On the Western side of the Nile, at a small distance to the east
of the Pyramids, at a small distance to the south of the Delta,
Memphis, one hundred and fifty furlongs in circumference,
displayed the magnificence of ancient kings. Under the reign of
the Ptolemies and Caesars, the seat of government was removed to
the sea-coast; the ancient capital was eclipsed by the arts and
opulence of Alexandria; the palaces, and at length the temples,
were reduced to a desolate and ruinous condition: yet, in the age
of Augustus, and even in that of Constantine, Memphis was still
numbered among the greatest and most populous of the provincial
cities. 101 The banks of the Nile, in this place of the breadth
of three thousand feet, were united by two bridges of sixty and
of thirty boats, connected in the middle stream by the small
island of Rouda, which was covered with gardens and habitations.
102 The eastern extremity of the bridge was terminated by the
town of Babylon and the camp of a Roman legion, which protected
the passage of the river and the second capital of Egypt. This
important fortress, which might fairly be described as a part of
Memphis or Misrah, was invested by the arms of the lieutenant of
Omar: a reenforcement of four thousand Saracens soon arrived in
his camp; and the military engines, which battered the walls, may
be imputed to the art and labor of his Syrian allies. Yet the
siege was protracted to seven months; and the rash invaders were
encompassed and threatened by the inundation of the Nile. 103
Their last assault was bold and successful: they passed the
ditch, which had been fortified with iron spikes, applied their
scaling ladders, entered the fortress with the shout of “God is
victorious!” and drove the remnant of the Greeks to their boats
and the Isle of Rouda. The spot was afterwards recommended to the
conqueror by the easy communication with the gulf and the
peninsula of Arabia; the remains of Memphis were deserted; the
tents of the Arabs were converted into permanent habitations; and
the first mosch was blessed by the presence of fourscore
companions of Mahomet. 104 A new city arose in their camp, on the
eastward bank of the Nile; and the contiguous quarters of Babylon
and Fostat are confounded in their present decay by the
appellation of old Misrah, or Cairo, of which they form an
extensive suburb. But the name of Cairo, the town of victory,
more strictly belongs to the modern capital, which was founded in
the tenth century by the Fatimite caliphs. 105 It has gradually
receded from the river; but the continuity of buildings may be
traced by an attentive eye from the monuments of Sesostris to
those of Saladin. 106

101 (return) [ Strabo, an accurate and attentive spectator,
observes of Heliopolis, (Geograph. l. xvii. p. 1158;) but of
Memphis he notices, however, the mixture of inhabitants, and the
ruin of the palaces. In the proper Egypt, Ammianus enumerates
Memphis among the four cities, maximis urbibus quibus provincia
nitet, (xxii. 16;) and the name of Memphis appears with
distinction in the Roman Itinerary and episcopal lists.]

102 (return) [ These rare and curious facts, the breadth (2946
feet) and the bridge of the Nile, are only to be found in the
Danish traveller and the Nubian geographer, (p. 98.)]

103 (return) [ From the month of April, the Nile begins
imperceptibly to rise; the swell becomes strong and visible in
the moon after the summer solstice, (Plin. Hist. Nat. v. 10,) and
is usually proclaimed at Cairo on St. Peter’s day, (June 29.) A
register of thirty successive years marks the greatest height of
the waters between July 25 and August 18, (Maillet, Description
de l’Egypte, lettre xi. p. 67, &c. Pocock’s Description of the
East, vol. i. p. 200. Shaw’s Travels, p. 383.)]

104 (return) [ Murtadi, Merveilles de l’Egypte, 243, 259. He
expatiates on the subject with the zeal and minuteness of a
citizen and a bigot, and his local traditions have a strong air
of truth and accuracy.]

105 (return) [ D’Herbelot, Bibliotheque Orientale, p. 233.]

106 (return) [ The position of New and of Old Cairo is well
known, and has been often described. Two writers, who were
intimately acquainted with ancient and modern Egypt, have fixed,
after a learned inquiry, the city of Memphis at Gizeh, directly
opposite the Old Cairo, (Sicard, Nouveaux Memoires des Missions
du Levant, tom. vi. p. 5, 6. Shaw’s Observations and Travels, p.
296-304.) Yet we may not disregard the authority or the arguments
of Pocock, (vol. i. p. 25-41,) Niebuhr, (Voyage, tom. i. p.
77-106,) and above all, of D’Anville, (Description de l’Egypte,
p. 111, 112, 130-149,) who have removed Memphis towards the
village of Mohannah, some miles farther to the south. In their
heat, the disputants have forgot that the ample space of a
metropolis covers and annihilates the far greater part of the
controversy.]

Yet the Arabs, after a glorious and profitable enterprise, must
have retreated to the desert, had they not found a powerful
alliance in the heart of the country. The rapid conquest of
Alexander was assisted by the superstition and revolt of the
natives: they abhorred their Persian oppressors, the disciples of
the Magi, who had burnt the temples of Egypt, and feasted with
sacrilegious appetite on the flesh of the god Apis. 107 After a
period of ten centuries, the same revolution was renewed by a
similar cause; and in the support of an incomprehensible creed,
the zeal of the Coptic Christians was equally ardent. I have
already explained the origin and progress of the Monophysite
controversy, and the persecution of the emperors, which converted
a sect into a nation, and alienated Egypt from their religion and
government. The Saracens were received as the deliverers of the
Jacobite church; and a secret and effectual treaty was opened
during the siege of Memphis between a victorious army and a
people of slaves. A rich and noble Egyptian, of the name of
Mokawkas, had dissembled his faith to obtain the administration
of his province: in the disorders of the Persian war he aspired
to independence: the embassy of Mahomet ranked him among princes;
but he declined, with rich gifts and ambiguous compliments, the
proposal of a new religion. 108 The abuse of his trust exposed
him to the resentment of Heraclius: his submission was delayed by
arrogance and fear; and his conscience was prompted by interest
to throw himself on the favor of the nation and the support of
the Saracens. In his first conference with Amrou, he heard
without indignation the usual option of the Koran, the tribute,
or the sword. “The Greeks,” replied Mokawkas, “are determined to
abide the determination of the sword; but with the Greeks I
desire no communion, either in this world or in the next, and I
abjure forever the Byzantine tyrant, his synod of Chalcedon, and
his Melchite slaves. For myself and my brethren, we are resolved
to live and die in the profession of the gospel and unity of
Christ. It is impossible for us to embrace the revelations of
your prophet; but we are desirous of peace, and cheerfully submit
to pay tribute and obedience to his temporal successors.” The
tribute was ascertained at two pieces of gold for the head of
every Christian; but old men, monks, women, and children, of both
sexes, under sixteen years of age, were exempted from this
personal assessment: the Copts above and below Memphis swore
allegiance to the caliph, and promised a hospitable entertainment
of three days to every Mussulman who should travel through their
country. By this charter of security, the ecclesiastical and
civil tyranny of the Melchites was destroyed: 109 the anathemas
of St. Cyril were thundered from every pulpit; and the sacred
edifices, with the patrimony of the church, were restored to the
national communion of the Jacobites, who enjoyed without
moderation the moment of triumph and revenge. At the pressing
summons of Amrou, their patriarch Benjamin emerged from his
desert; and after the first interview, the courteous Arab
affected to declare that he had never conversed with a Christian
priest of more innocent manners and a more venerable aspect. 110
In the march from Memphis to Alexandria, the lieutenant of Omar
intrusted his safety to the zeal and gratitude of the Egyptians:
the roads and bridges were diligently repaired; and in every step
of his progress, he could depend on a constant supply of
provisions and intelligence. The Greeks of Egypt, whose numbers
could scarcely equal a tenth of the natives, were overwhelmed by
the universal defection: they had ever been hated, they were no
longer feared: the magistrate fled from his tribunal, the bishop
from his altar; and the distant garrisons were surprised or
starved by the surrounding multitudes. Had not the Nile afforded
a safe and ready conveyance to the sea, not an individual could
have escaped, who by birth, or language, or office, or religion,
was connected with their odious name.

107 (return) [ See Herodotus, l. iii. c. 27, 28, 29. Aelian,
Hist. Var. l. iv. c. 8. Suidas in, tom. ii. p. 774. Diodor.
Sicul. tom. ii. l. xvii. p. 197, edit. Wesseling. Says the last
of these historians.]

108 (return) [ Mokawkas sent the prophet two Coptic damsels, with
two maids and one eunuch, an alabaster vase, an ingot of pure
gold, oil, honey, and the finest white linen of Egypt, with a
horse, a mule, and an ass, distinguished by their respective
qualifications. The embassy of Mahomet was despatched from Medina
in the seventh year of the Hegira, (A.D. 628.) See Gagnier, (Vie
de Mahomet, tom. ii. p. 255, 256, 303,) from Al Jannabi.]

109 (return) [ The praefecture of Egypt, and the conduct of the
war, had been trusted by Heraclius to the patriarch Cyrus,
(Theophan. p. 280, 281.) “In Spain,” said James II., “do you not
consult your priests?” “We do,” replied the Catholic ambassador,
“and our affairs succeed accordingly.” I know not how to relate
the plans of Cyrus, of paying tribute without impairing the
revenue, and of converting Omar by his marriage with the
Emperor’s daughter, (Nicephor. Breviar. p. 17, 18.)]

110 (return) [ See the life of Benjamin, in Renaudot, (Hist.
Patriarch. Alexandrin. p. 156-172,) who has enriched the conquest
of Egypt with some facts from the Arabic text of Severus the
Jacobite historian]

By the retreat of the Greeks from the provinces of Upper Egypt, a
considerable force was collected in the Island of Delta; the
natural and artificial channels of the Nile afforded a succession
of strong and defensible posts; and the road to Alexandria was
laboriously cleared by the victory of the Saracens in
two-and-twenty days of general or partial combat. In their annals
of conquest, the siege of Alexandria 111 is perhaps the most
arduous and important enterprise. The first trading city in the
world was abundantly replenished with the means of subsistence
and defence. Her numerous inhabitants fought for the dearest of
human rights, religion and property; and the enmity of the
natives seemed to exclude them from the common benefit of peace
and toleration. The sea was continually open; and if Heraclius
had been awake to the public distress, fresh armies of Romans and
Barbarians might have been poured into the harbor to save the
second capital of the empire. A circumference of ten miles would
have scattered the forces of the Greeks, and favored the
stratagems of an active enemy; but the two sides of an oblong
square were covered by the sea and the Lake Maraeotis, and each
of the narrow ends exposed a front of no more than ten furlongs.
The efforts of the Arabs were not inadequate to the difficulty of
the attempt and the value of the prize. From the throne of
Medina, the eyes of Omar were fixed on the camp and city: his
voice excited to arms the Arabian tribes and the veterans of
Syria; and the merit of a holy war was recommended by the
peculiar fame and fertility of Egypt. Anxious for the ruin or
expulsion of their tyrants, the faithful natives devoted their
labors to the service of Amrou: some sparks of martial spirit
were perhaps rekindled by the example of their allies; and the
sanguine hopes of Mokawkas had fixed his sepulchre in the church
of St. John of Alexandria. Eutychius the patriarch observes, that
the Saracens fought with the courage of lions: they repulsed the
frequent and almost daily sallies of the besieged, and soon
assaulted in their turn the walls and towers of the city. In
every attack, the sword, the banner of Amrou, glittered in the
van of the Moslems. On a memorable day, he was betrayed by his
imprudent valor: his followers who had entered the citadel were
driven back; and the general, with a friend and slave, remained a
prisoner in the hands of the Christians. When Amrou was conducted
before the praefect, he remembered his dignity, and forgot his
situation: a lofty demeanor, and resolute language, revealed the
lieutenant of the caliph, and the battle-axe of a soldier was
already raised to strike off the head of the audacious captive.
His life was saved by the readiness of his slave, who instantly
gave his master a blow on the face, and commanded him, with an
angry tone, to be silent in the presence of his superiors. The
credulous Greek was deceived: he listened to the offer of a
treaty, and his prisoners were dismissed in the hope of a more
respectable embassy, till the joyful acclamations of the camp
announced the return of their general, and insulted the folly of
the infidels. At length, after a siege of fourteen months, 112
and the loss of three-and-twenty thousand men, the Saracens
prevailed: the Greeks embarked their dispirited and diminished
numbers, and the standard of Mahomet was planted on the walls of
the capital of Egypt. “I have taken,” said Amrou to the caliph,
“the great city of the West. It is impossible for me to enumerate
the variety of its riches and beauty; and I shall content myself
with observing, that it contains four thousand palaces, four
thousand baths, four hundred theatres or places of amusement,
twelve thousand shops for the sale of vegetable food, and forty
thousand tributary Jews. The town has been subdued by force of
arms, without treaty or capitulation, and the Moslems are
impatient to seize the fruits of their victory.” 113 The
commander of the faithful rejected with firmness the idea of
pillage, and directed his lieutenant to reserve the wealth and
revenue of Alexandria for the public service and the propagation
of the faith: the inhabitants were numbered; a tribute was
imposed, the zeal and resentment of the Jacobites were curbed,
and the Melchites who submitted to the Arabian yoke were indulged
in the obscure but tranquil exercise of their worship. The
intelligence of this disgraceful and calamitous event afflicted
the declining health of the emperor; and Heraclius died of a
dropsy about seven weeks after the loss of Alexandria. 114 Under
the minority of his grandson, the clamors of a people, deprived
of their daily sustenance, compelled the Byzantine court to
undertake the recovery of the capital of Egypt. In the space of
four years, the harbor and fortifications of Alexandria were
twice occupied by a fleet and army of Romans. They were twice
expelled by the valor of Amrou, who was recalled by the domestic
peril from the distant wars of Tripoli and Nubia. But the
facility of the attempt, the repetition of the insult, and the
obstinacy of the resistance, provoked him to swear, that if a
third time he drove the infidels into the sea, he would render
Alexandria as accessible on all sides as the house of a
prostitute. Faithful to his promise, he dismantled several parts
of the walls and towers; but the people was spared in the
chastisement of the city, and the mosch of Mercy was erected on
the spot where the victorious general had stopped the fury of his
troops.

111 (return) [ The local description of Alexandria is perfectly
ascertained by the master hand of the first of geographers,
(D’Anville, Memoire sur l’Egypte, p. 52-63;) but we may borrow
the eyes of the modern travellers, more especially of Thevenot,
(Voyage au Levant, part i. p. 381-395,) Pocock, (vol. i. p.
2-13,) and Niebuhr, (Voyage en Arabie, tom. i. p. 34-43.) Of the
two modern rivals, Savary and Volmey, the one may amuse, the
other will instruct.]

112 (return) [ Both Eutychius (Annal. tom. ii. p. 319) and
Elmacin (Hist. Saracen. p. 28) concur in fixing the taking of
Alexandria to Friday of the new moon of Moharram of the twentieth
year of the Hegira, (December 22, A.D. 640.) In reckoning
backwards fourteen months spent before Alexandria, seven months
before Babylon, &c., Amrou might have invaded Egypt about the end
of the year 638; but we are assured that he entered the country
the 12th of Bayni, 6th of June, (Murtadi, Merveilles de l’Egypte,
p. 164. Severus, apud Renaudot, p. 162.) The Saracen, and
afterwards Lewis IX. of France, halted at Pelusium, or Damietta,
during the season of the inundation of the Nile.]

113 (return) [ Eutych. Annal. tom. ii. p. 316, 319.]

114 (return) [ Notwithstanding some inconsistencies of Theophanes
and Cedrenus, the accuracy of Pagi (Critica, tom. ii. p. 824) has
extracted from Nicephorus and the Chronicon Orientale the true
date of the death of Heraclius, February 11th, A.D. 641, fifty
days after the loss of Alexandria. A fourth of that time was
sufficient to convey the intelligence.]