Muslim Conquest of Christian Egypt, 639-646

• published: 18 Jun 2014
• views: 11216

Donate to support Crusades history: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted;_button_id=GL77L7KZRK4JY For the full series: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPq6iUifPrJa9RMdQXe--Gd9cXqXsQb_Z https://www.facebook.com/pages/Real-Crusades-History/220051141405247 Having captured Christian Syria and Palestine and Persian Mesopotamia, the Muslims set out in December, 639, to invade Egypt (Charles W.C. Oman, The Byzantine Empire, (Yardley, 2008), 164). Fortunately for the Arabs, Egypt was currently in the grip of religious turmoil as a result of disputes between the orthodox Byzantine Christians and various non-orthodox factions. The Islamic Caliph Umar sent the Arab general Amr ibn al-Aas at the head of an army of four-thousand through al-Arish. The Muslims besieged and captured Pelusium, then Bilbays. Both cities resisted fiercely, finally succumbing to the assaults by the Arab troops. This allowed the Muslims to enter into the Nile Delta. They besieged Babylon, and in 640 the city fell after a desperate resistance by the Byzantine defenders. Even before Babylon fell, Amr sent detachments to attack the Fayyum oasis, where they massacred the local people. The Muslims then pressed farther south down the Nile, taking the towns of Behnesa and Aboit, again, slaughtering the inhabitants. Continuing their march south, the Arabs attacked Nikiou, where they butchered every man, woman, and child (Bat Ye'or, the Decline of Eastern Christianity Under Islam, (London, 1996), 46). Having established a solid position in Egypt, Amr now unleashed the usual Arab raids all over the country of the Nile, which had the dual effect of frightening the population and gaining immense booty in loot and slaves. The scene in Egypt was much as it had been in Syria: Arab raiders scoured the land, burning farms, destroying crops, slaughtering or enslaving peasants. The people of Egypt were terrified. The rural population abandoned their farms and villages, fleeing to the nearest fortress, hoping to find shelter: they wouldn't be safe for long, for the Muslims quickly captured the remaining walled towns as well (Henri Laoust, Le Traite de droit public d'Ibn Tamiya. Traduction annotee de la 'Siyasa sar'iya (Beirut, 1948), 35-36, Bat Ye'or, 47). Egypt, which had been the thriving bread basket of the Byzantine Empire, was reduced to a charred, ruined landscape. The folklore of the native Egyptian Christians of the period reflects the trauma of the Arab invasion. For example, the legend of Saint Ptolemy included a miracle in which he forced the Arabs to return all the children they had kidnapped to their families, demonstrating just how many thousands of Christian children were seized by Arab raiders (Les Miracles de Saint Ptoleme, trans. L. Leroy, in Patr. Or. (1910), 5, fasc. 5, 784). By 641, all of Egypt was in the hands of Amr ibn al-Aas, save for the beautiful port city of Alexandria, a magnificent center of learning and culture since its establishment by Alexander the Great in 331 B.C. Now Alexandria was packed with terrified Christian refugees, with Arab forces preparing to attack the walls. At the time, Alexandria was governed by the Patriarch Cyrus. Overcome with despair, Cyrus began negotiating with the Arabs for the surrender of Alexander's beautiful port, but the Byzantine Emperor, Heraclius, was furious, and recalled Cyrus back to Alexandria immediately (Warren H. Carroll, The Building of Christendom, (Front Royal, 1987), 230). Heraclius was preparing to defend Alexandria when he died in February, 641. He was succeeded by his eldest son, Constantine III, who also died only a few months later. The imperial throne ended up going to Heraclius' younger son, Heraclius II, still a minor, under the regency of his mother, Empress Martina (Oman, 164). The Empress could not handle the wretched situation in Egypt; she allowed Cyrus to continue negotiating the surrender. Thankfully the refugees in Alexanderia were able to escape via the Byzantine fleet, which picked them up from the port on September 17, 642. On September 29 the Arabs, who had just spent the last three years butchering and enslaving the people of Egypt, rode triumphant into Alexandria, elated over their victory. This ended some thousand years of Greek history for Alexandria, and initiated a new Arab age which has endured until the present (Carroll, 230). Around this time Heraclius' grandson, Constans II, overthrew Heraclius II and his regent Martina. The Byzantine Empire was embroiled in a doctrinal crisis between adherents of orthodox Christianity and Monothelitism: the doctrine that Christ had no human will, only a divine will. The new Emperor Constans II was not interested in this controversy, but rather focused his energies on unifying his empire for the sake of fighting the Muslims.