Chapter IV: Appendix: No. I. Illustration of Maps Page 445 (3)

Their creed is the Monothelite, or Eutychian heresy. The solely divine nature of Christ, the procession of the Holy Ghost from the Father alone. The Copts embrace transubstantiation; in which, and other points, the Catholics of Kahira think they approach their faith nearer than the Greeks. Yet the Copts have adopted from the Mohammedans the custom of frequent prostrations during divine service, and of public individual prayer; of ablution after the conjugal rites, &c.

The Copts are an acute and ingenious people. They are generally writers and accomptants. In business they accumulate money steadily, without shew; long experience having taught them, what the other Christians have yet to learn, that, under an arbitrary government, obscurity is safety. Melancholic in their temperament, but when called into action, industrious and laborious. Otherwise, fond of their distilled liquor, and rather licentious in their amours. The Copts are zealous in their faith, and their ecclesiastics are numerous.

It is remarkable, that in Egypt the children of Europeans seldom survive their second or third year. This proceeds, it is likely, from the improper warmth of place and clothing, in which they are kept by the injudicious fondness of their parents, while the children of the natives run about almost naked, and enjoy a constitution firm and vigorous.

CHAP. VI.

KAHIRA.

_Commerce — Manufactures — Mint — Castle and well — Misr attiké — Antient mosque — Antient Babylon — Fostat — Bulak — Jizé — Tomb of Shafei — Pleasure-boats — Charmers of Serpents — Magic — Dancing girls — Coffee-houses — Price of provisions — Recent history of Egypt — Account of the present Beys._

Before the revolution in commerce, occasioned by the discovery of the passage to India by the Cape of Good Hope, that of Kahira was very extensive. It has since gradually declined, and is now restricted to the following articles.

From Yemen are imported coffee, odours, gems, and several useful drugs. From Surat, and other neighbouring parts of India, muslins and various articles of cotton manufacture, a portion of the spices of Ceylon; shawls from Cashmîr.

Kahira may still be regarded as the metropolis of the trade of eastern Africa, as Tripoli chiefly possesses that of the west. A few slaves are brought from Habbesh (Abyssinia) by the way of Jidda and Mecca. Caravans pass to and from Sennaar, Dar-Fûr, and Fezzan, bringing slaves, gold-dust, ivory, horns of Rhinoceros, Ostrich feathers, gum, drugs.

There is another uncertain caravan from Morocco, which employs five thousand camels for merchandise; part passes to Mecca, and part remains to transact business, and await the return of the pilgrims. The other caravans are merely for the carriage of goods; and the camels are supplied by the Arabs, who rove through the deserts which form the boundaries of Egypt.

The navigation of the Red Sea cannot be conducted upon worse principles than it is by the Egyptians and Arabs. The ships are constructed on a wrong plan, being sharp, while the shallows and rocks require vessels that draw little water; and they are overcharged with passengers and goods. Hence the passage would be dangerous, even if managed by able navigators; but the mariners here are extremely unskilful, and only pique themselves on avoiding the sunk rocks near the shore, in which it must be confessed they are very dextrous. The ships employed by persons residing in Egypt are thirty-seven in number, so far as I could learn from an agent at Suez, and so many are lost, that the continual building barely supplies the usual number.

European imports in general have been specified under the head Alexandria. From Tunis and Tripoli are brought oil, red caps, of a particular manufacture, for which Tunis is famous, and fine flannel, used for garments by the Bedouins and others. From Syria arrive cotton, silk, crude and manufactured, soap, tobacco, beads of glass. From Constantinople, besides white slaves, male and female, all kinds of brass, copper, and iron manufactures.

Proceeding to exports, those to Europe have been mentioned in treating of Alexandria, and those to Dar-Fûr shall be enumerated when we come to visit that kingdom. To Sennaar and Fezzan, the same with Dar-Fûr. Hedjas, in Arabia, is wholly supplied with grain from Egypt, but the trade to India and Jidda is carried on chiefly by money. To Constantinople, black slaves, chiefly eunuchs, great quantities of coffee, and some Indian goods, though these be for the most part conveyed thither by caravans.

Egypt was formerly the granary of Rome and of Constantinople. The exports of rice remain very great, with considerable quantities of wheat from Upper Egypt, in favourable years. No oats are seen in Egypt; and the barley is consumed by the horses.

To Syria are exported rice, crude leather, flax, and sometimes wheat.

The manufactures at Kahira are not numerous. The sugar cane being cultivated with ease in Egypt, it was manufactured in great quantities at Kahira, so as to supply Constantinople. But a capital being requisite, Government made demands on it which crushed the trade. The sugar, though of less strength than that of the West Indies, was nevertheless well refined, of a close texture, pure and of a light white. It is now extremely bad, and so scarce as to sell for fourteen pence the pound, retail.

The sal ammoniac made at Kahira is of a very good quality. Glass lamps, saltpetre, and gun-powder, red and yellow leather, for home-consumption. There is a great manufacture of linen cloth made of the fine Egyptian flax.

The mode almost peculiar to Kahira, of hatching eggs without incubation, has been very minutely described by former travellers.—The practice is said by the Egyptians to proceed from the experience that, at a certain season, the eggs fostered only by the hens are commonly unprolific. Of those hatched in the ovens, on the contrary, not quite one third is lost.—The ovens where these eggs are placed are of the most simple construction, consisting only of a low arched apartment of clay. Two rows of shelves are formed, and the eggs placed on each in such a manner as not to touch each other. They are slightly moved five or six times in twenty-four hours, and the whole time they are in the oven does not exceed twenty-two days, when the chickens free themselves from the shell. All possible care is taken to diffuse the heat equally throughout, and there is but one small aperture, large enough to admit a man stooping. During the first eight days the heat is rendered great, and, during the last eight is gradually diminished; till at length, when the young brood is ready to come forth, it is reduced almost to the state of the natural atmosphere. At the end of the first eight days, it is known which eggs will not be productive. Those who have eggs to be hatched, bring them to the master of the oven, and contract to pay so much a hundred; and when the chickens appear, he receives his money on delivering them. Those which have not succeeded, are required to be produced. The oven is public property.

Kahira is the only mint for Egypt, where they strike in gold mahbûbs and half mahbûbs; the first about five shillings in value. In copper washed with silver the small coins worth about a halfpenny, and called in Turkish _paras_, in Arabic _diwani_, _fuddha_, or _maidi_: by European writers, _aspers_, and _medines_. On one side is the name of the reigning Sultan, on the reverse, _Misr_, and the date.

The mint is fixed in the castle, built by the celebrated _Yussuf abu Moddafar ibn Aiûb_, whose title of honour was Salah-eddîn, in the sixth century of Mohammedism. The people of the country, who are in the habit of confounding all history and chronology, attribute it to Joseph the son of Isaac, whose palace they say it was; but it is unnecessary to confute an opinion wholly unsupported by facts. Including the quarters of the Janizaries and Assabs (the latter of whom no longer exist), the building occupies a large space. But it is irregular, and the Pasha’s apartments are mean and incommodious. The well is of great depth, and has been hewn with much labour through the solid rock, but as that rock is of a soft nature, the magnitude of the work is not comparable to that of some excavations which have been executed in several other places. The broken remains of the palace of Salah-eddîn, are indeed worthy of remark. An apartment of great length overlooks the city, the river, and the adjacent country; and several beautiful columns raise their heads out of the general wreck. In a chamber of this building is fabricated the embroidered cloth, which the munificence of the Porte annually devotes to the use of the _Kaba_.

Misr-el-Attiké, to the South of the present city, is pleasantly situated, and well inhabited. It can now only be esteemed a faux-bourg of the former. A mosque there, said, probably without reason, to have been built by order of the Chalîfé Omar, was lately rescued from the oblivion to which it was hastening, by the mandate of Murad Bey. This mosque is a building of great extent; there may be thirty or thirty-five columns remaining in their original position. The rest have been reversed, and again set up without any regard to order. The most perfect remain is a small octagon building in the middle of the mosque, supported by eight Corinthian columns, the shaft, about ten feet high, of blue-and-white marble. In this small edifice is a chamber, which is said never to have been opened. Multitudes of columns appear around, to the number of more than a hundred, some in black marble, one has a small cavity, fabled an impression made by the hand of the Prophet. The cement is so hard as to evince that the Saracens were no strangers to the antient mode of preparing it. Many arches of an elliptical form remain, and some inscriptions, on the West, probably the place of the antient gate, as it is of the modern.

Antient Arabic books, some of them in the Kuphic character, have been recently discovered here, in a cellar, under lock and key, and inclosed in a sycamore chest. Some of them are on vellum, and very beautiful. Such a number was found as filled a very large chest. Murad Bey, being informed that treasures were hid under the antient mosque, had recourse to the finesse of pretending to rebuild it; he did rebuild part of a wall; and the cellar and books were discovered in clearing the foundations.

From the convent of St. George, one distinguishes clearly on the west the ruins of an antient city, ascertained to have been the Babylon built by the Persians. They constitute merely a heap of rubbish, already described by former travellers.

Fostât is a long street, running parallel to the river, and occupying part of the space between Kahira and its bank. It nearly joins Misr-el-Attiké on the South.

Bulak is a large irregular town, which has gradually risen around the place of embarkation. It is marked by an extensive and convenient okal, built by Ali Bey the Great, and called the Alexandrian okal, being chiefly used for goods brought from that city. Gardens, filling the fertile grounds between the houses, and betwixt Bulak and Kahira, afford an ample supply of fruits and vegetables. Boats croud the river at Bulak, which is the port of Lower Egypt, as Misr-el-Attiké is of the Upper.

An island is situated in the middle of the river, nearly opposite Bulak, where Murad Bey has a kind of summer-house, or place of retirement. Here are also several gardens. On the opposite coast is Embabîl, a village, where cows are kept, that furnish excellent butter.

Farther to the south, and nearly opposite Misr-el-Attiké, is Jiza, a considerable town, fortified by Ismaîl Bey, who also built a palace there, completed and since inhabited by Murad Bey, by whom has been established a foundery, constructed by a Zanthiote, who has embraced Mohammedism. I found six mortars and twenty-three cannon, some of them however almost useless. Three of the mortars and six of the field-pieces, cast by that Zanthiote, were excellent, considering the place, the instruments, and the workmen. The guns are twenty-four, eighteen, and twelve pounders. These are in reserve, and the Bey has a larger number mounted, in different parts of the fort. The walls of Jiza are of great extent, and have only one gate to the country; they are ten feet high, three feet thick, and have six half-moons: but are only fit to resist cavalry, the original intention in raising them. Murad Bey has suffered the iron work about the loop-holes, &c. to be plundered or ruined.

The palace is in the southern quarter of Jiza, close to the water. It has numerous apartments for the Mamlûks, and every convenience for ease or luxury.

Murad Bey has, of late years, thought it necessary to institute a marine; to effect which, he has caused three or four vessels to be built, and has purchased some from the Europeans. The whole has been attended with no small expense, and promises no adequate advantage. The largest of these vessels carries twenty-four guns. Six of them were moored before Jiza, whence they cannot be navigated, except during the time of the Nile’s increase. They were well appointed, and had their full complement of mariners, chiefly Greeks of the Archipelago, moderately skilful in their art, and receiving every encouragement from the Bey. They were commanded by a native of Sagos named _Nikôla reis_, Admiral, or Captain Nicholas.

Not far south of Jiza is _Geziret-ed-dahab_, a small island, intended, as appears, by Diodorus Siculus under the name of _Venus aurea_.

North-east of the city are gardens, and some spacious houses, the property of the great, who occasionally leave the city to divert themselves in this retreat; and have there an open space, where the Mamlûks perform their military evolutions, and exercise their horses. The ground under the mountains to the East is filled with tombs. The mountain is of white sand and calcareous stone, and destitute of verdure.

The tomb of the Imâm Shafei is without the walls of the city, near the castle. It is in a mosque of good architecture, and kept in complete repair. On Friday, the day of devotion among the Mohammedans, the women being at liberty to visit the tombs of their relations, crowd to this mosque to provide substitutes, the place being the Daphne of Kahira, and sacred to the blandishments of Venus.

There is a much more considerable canal, styled _Chalige ibn Menji_, which, from its opening to the Nile near Bulak, extends to _Bilbeis_, (according to D’Anville, the _Pharbæthus_ of antiquity, which Herodotus, Pliny, and Ptolemy, make the capital of a _Nome_,) where it joins another canal, and passes to the lake _Sheib_.

The pleasure boats used by the great on the increase of the Nile are very numerous. They are light and of elegant form; rowers from four to eight. Those for the women covered with wainscot; such as are for the use of the men, are covered above, and open at the sides, or only latticed. Others are kept for hire, like the Venetian gondolas. They are used in the chalige, and upon the river.

The gates of Kahira are numerous; but the most striking are two at the northern extremity of the city, called _Bab-el-Nasr_, and _Bab-el-Fituch_, which present a splendid display of Saracenic architecture.

_Romeili_ is an open place, of an irregular form, where feats of juggling are performed. The charmers of serpents also seem worthy of remark, their powers appearing extraordinary. The serpent most common at Kahira is of the viper class, and undoubtedly poisonous. If one of them enter a house, the charmer is sent for, who uses a certain form of words. I have seen three serpents enticed out of the cabin of a ship, lying near the shore. The operator handled them, and then put them into a bag. At other times I have seen the serpents twist round the bodies of these Psylli in all directions, without having had their fangs extracted or broken, and without doing them any injury.

The Egyptians pretend to numerous kinds of magic. The powerful influence of the name of the Divinity, _Ism Ullah_, an account of which is contained in the _Kitab-el-rihani_, is supposed to work various miracles. The mode of its application is divided into _halâl_, lawful, and _harâm_, unlawful. Though the practice terminate in perpetual disappointment, the credulous, who still confide in it, are not few. There are three or four places on the mountain, above Kahira, to which the Arabs ascribe some influence of magic. _El Maraga_, where they say the earth trembles. _Bîr-el-kuffâr_, the well of the infidels.—_Cassaat el Molûk_.—_Ain el Siré_, a spring of salt water, to which they attribute medical virtues.

The dancing girls form a distinct class. They are always attended by an old man and woman, who play on musical instruments, and look to the conduct of the girls, that they may not bestow their favours for an inadequate reward; for, though not chaste, they are by no means common. Their dances exhibit all that the most luxurious imagination can picture—all the peculiar motions and arts for which Martial has remarked the Egyptians as celebrated,

_Nequitias Tellus scit dare nulla magis._

Their forms are elegant, their faces rather expressive than beautiful.

The following amusements are chiefly exhibited during the Ramadân:

After breaking the fast by some refreshments, the prayer commences, which is a long one. The principal meal then has place, and then the arrival of strangers to pay their respects to the Bey, or to transact business, occupies some time. The amusements then commence. The Gerîd and various other exercises are practised by day-light, but at night wrestling is commonly the first. In this the lower class of people in Egypt shew considerable vigour and activity at least, though perhaps not consummate skill. When the Bey and his company are tired of these exercises, singers (male) appear. The plaintive vocal music of Kahira, and the agreeable sensations occasioned by it, have been the subject of remark to many who have described Egypt. Then appear the story-tellers, who with wonderful readiness and rapidity of utterance go through the romantic adventures resembling the _Thousand and One Nights_, of which the varieties are innumerable. These are succeeded by wits, who with droll and unexpected similies often set the company in fits of laughter. The adversary brings some similitude equally unexpected.—Whoever holds out the longest is rewarded as conqueror.—“Methel Sire”—“Let us wrestle in similies;” the other answers, “Ma Methel-lak”—“What is your similitude?” “You are like the city ass, look sleek and carry dung.” Some of these have really a portion of wit, and it is almost the only occasion that I remember, when the Arabs exhibit any thing that can properly be so denominated. The place of these, when they have received a present according to the pleasure of the Bey, is often supplied by female singers, who frequently accompany their voices with an instrument, touched like the guitar. There are women who are highly valued for this talent of amusing the public; and if any judgment may be formed from the manner in which they are sometimes rewarded, the gratification of their auditors is far from being moderate. There are occasions when some of the _Harem_ exhibit their vocal powers in the presence of select company; but this is not common; and in that case the performer is concealed behind a curtain or lattice.

The last are the female dancers or _ghawasié_. These, it may be supposed, if they are able to fascinate the eye of the multitude, in the public streets, with only ordinary exertions, neglect not to have recourse to the more laboured blandishments of their art in the presence of a prince.

_Pehlawân_, rope-dancers, &c. are introduced, whose exertions are not contemptible.

Chess and the Polish drafts are the only games that are indulged in, and in these some of the Beys are skilled. They play remarkably quick, and apparently without much premeditation. But habit has given this facility. They practise daily, and their minds are occupied by few objects.

Convenient markets appear in every part of the city. Coffee-houses are equally numerous, where the natives pass a great part of the day smoking and conversing. These commonly consist of one apartment, not very large. Only coffee and fire for the pipe are furnished. But at Damascus I afterwards saw coffee-houses remarkably large, some of them placed over running water. The furniture is however very simple, and unlike the splendid apartments, for the same purposes, to be seen in Constantinople. One, in particular, at Damascus, under the castle wall, is capable at a very moderate calculation of holding one thousand persons: it has no walls, but an extensive roof spreads over numerous benches, and it is encircled with trees and water.

The number of small imposts in Egypt is almost inconceivable; they are estimated to amount to three hundred and sixty. One is for all goods crossing from Jiza to Kahira; a poor woman bringing a basket of eggs, worth two paras, must pay the fifth part of a para for passing. Upon the whole, the revenue can hardly be raised to a greater amount than it is.

In May 1792 there was a famine, occasioned by various accidental circumstances; and wheat sold at 20 and 22 patackes the _ardeb_. In October 1796 it was at five patackes. When I made my inquiries at the latter period, the following prices of provisions were stated:

Mutton, per rotal, 10 paras.

Beef, ditto, 8 ditto.

Sugar, per rotal, 20 to 25 paras.

Sweet oil, ditto, 12 ditto.

Milk, ditto, 4 ditto.

Tobacco of Ladakîa, per oke, 45 to 70 paras.

Fowls, small, 12 paras each.

The recent history of Egypt, till the time of Ismaîl Bey, is sufficiently known. On the death of Ismaîl, Hassan Bey succeeded him in his office of Shech-el-bellad, governor of the city, and implying the precedence among the Beys. Hassan was soon expelled by Murad Bey, who held the office till the Capitan Pasha arrived from Constantinople with a fleet, and drove him into Upper Egypt. The Pasha, after satisfying his avarice, withdrew, and the Beys returned. Ibrahim Bey, who had been a slave of Ali Bey the Great, had however acquired such authority, that Murad was constrained to share the government with him; and they have since ruled Egypt, Ibrahim as _Shech-el-bellad_, and Murad as _Defter-dâr_. Mutual jealousies prevail between them, each seeking the destruction of the other. They however conspire together to recruit the number of the Mamlûks, and to collect treasure from all quarters.

These are considered as usurpers by the Beys of Upper Egypt, who are favoured by the Porte; one of whom, named Ali, contrived to escape from Saïd into Syria, where he courted the nearest Pasha, Jezzâr of Akka, to support their interest; but that potent and able leader refused to listen to his suggestions, or amused him with false hopes.

The year before I arrived, there had been a pestilence which had destroyed great numbers of the Mamlûks. The next memorable event was the contest with Alexandria, before stated.

To strengthen his interest, Ibrahim Bey had negotiated a marriage between his daughter and another powerful Bey, of the same name, but no relation. The wedding-day, 30th of August 1792, was celebrated with great pomp. A splendid equipage was prepared, in the European form, of a coach, drawn by two horses, and ornamented with wreaths of artificial flowers, in which a beautiful slave from the _harem_, personating the bride, whose features were very plain, was carried through the principal streets of Kahira. The blinds of the coach were however drawn up, and the fair deputy sat concealed. The procession was attended by some Beys, several officers and Mamlûks, and ended at the house of the bridegroom, who received her from the carriage in his arms. The Beys have baths in their houses, otherwise this procession, on arriving at the house of the bridegroom, would have attended the female to the bath, and then returned thither. In general, at Kahira, the bride, completely veiled, walks under a canopy, and supported by two women, to the house of the bridegroom.

The fête had continued for three days preceding the marriage. In the evening, fire-works were exhibited at the houses of the husband and the father, and presents of shawls, caffetans, and other parts of dress and money were liberally distributed. After consummation the ensanguined cloth was shown to the relations of the bride, especially the mother. The virgin had been before instructed by matrons in what manner to receive the conjugal embraces, and the same women remained in an adjoining chamber during this final ceremony, to lend assistance if required. The Oriental virgins marry in such early youth that the marks of their purity are seldom deficient.

A curious circumstance occurred to mark the systematic rapacity of the Beys, which could not be lulled even by such a season of festivity. Ibrahim Bey, the father of the bride, having heard that a company of female singers, who usually attend on these occasions, had been employed in singing in Birket-el-fîl, the chief open place in the city, not only during the day, but also most part of the ensuing night, and had in consequence collected donations to a considerable amount, sent for the leading woman to his house. She, supposing that she had been summoned to receive some reward, or that the charms of her voice had been made known to the Bey, readily obeyed the mandate. On entering the apartment, the first question was, “How many half sequins (_nusfiat_) did you collect yesterday?”—She replied, “About ten thousand.”—“Pay me eight thousand, then,” said the Bey, “and I will give you a note of credit on Ibrahim Jeuhari, my secretary.” The money was paid, but the woman was turned out of the house without receiving any security whatever. She is said to have died of the disappointment a short time after.

Some negotiations took place that summer between the Beys here, and those in Upper Egypt (whom I afterwards found at Isna, attended by a small party of Mamlûks); the former were so powerful that they rejected the applications of the latter. All continued quiet till I went to Upper Egypt.

I shall now endeavour to give some idea of the most celebrated Beys, who at present have the sway in this unhappy country. Ibrahim Bey is upwards of sixty years of age, a tall thin man, with an aquiline nose. He is very avaricious, but by his treasures and connections has secured a large party. His Mamlûks may amount to about a thousand. Though reputed to manage the sabre with dexterity, he has nothing of enterprise in his character, which has the mean rapacity of the vulture, nothing of the daring flight of the eagle.

Murad Bey, once his superior, now his equal in power, has passed a life of tumult and activity. Originally a slave of Mohammed Bey Abu-dhahab, at the head of a detachment of his master’s Mamlûks, he defeated and made prisoner Ali Bey the great, whose death shortly after ensued. Murad is detested by the Porte. He is an energetic character, and his profusion is supplied by his rapacity: about forty-five years of age, of a replete habit of body. His Mamlûks, in 1796, amounted to about seventeen hundred. His party, though not so numerous as that of Ibrahim Bey, is yet of a more decided and military stamp. Murad Bey is married to the widow of his master, the daughter of the celebrated Ali Bey.

Next in power is Mohammed Bey Elfi, a young man of not more than thirty-five years: his name imports that he was bought for a thousand patackes. His master was Murad Bey, just mentioned. Quick in apprehension, impetuous in action. Mamlûks eight hundred. Power great and increasing.

Ibrahim Bey, _el Uali_, a name derived from the second military magistracy in the city, is a young man, about the same age with the last. He is married, as has been mentioned, to the daughter of the elder Ibrahim, and is firmly attached to his interests. Of a sedate, yet firm character. Mamlûks six or seven hundred.

Aiûb Bey, _el zogheir_, or junior, is another powerful leader, perhaps the most eminent in capacity among the whole, and on all occasions consulted by the rest. His age, between thirty and forty. Mamlûks not many. He is a prudent manager, and rarely accused of extortion.

Fatmé, now the aged daughter of the famous Ali, is held in much respect by all the Beys. Even Murad, her husband, stands reverently in her presence. When a Bey is appointed to a government, he never fails to pay a visit to this old lady, who lectures him on his duties; and will say, “Do not pillage the people; they were always spared by my father.”

CHAP. VII.

_Abstract of the history of Africa in general, and Egypt in particular, under the domination of the Arabs._

As this portion of history is little known, and may lend illustration to many topics discussed in these pages, I have been induced to insert a brief idea of it, abstracted chiefly, in what regards Africa, from the valuable work of Cardonne, a compilation which has saved me much research into the original writers[16].

Syria and Persia had already fallen under the rapid progress of the followers of Mohammed, and it was so early as the 19th year of the Hejira, the 640th of the Christian æra, that the Chalîf Omar commanded Amrû to subdue Egypt. Memphis, or Misr, submitted through the treason of the governor; but Alexandria stood a siege of fourteen months. The loss of the library has been much regretted; it was probably replete with the absurd philosophy and divinity of the times; and amid the number of libraries in the Greek empire, it is impossible to conceive, that the work of any truly valuable author should have existed only in one copy.

A.D. 643. A famine desolating Arabia, Amrû re-opened the canal, formed by the Romans from Memphis to the Red Sea. The capital seat of the Chalîfs being soon after removed from Medina to Damascus, it was neglected and went to ruin.

A.D. 647. Abd-ullah, governor of Egypt, proceeds to the conquest of Africa. He vanquishes the Greek patrician Gregory in the battle of Yakûb.