Muslim Conquest of Christian Egypt, 639-646
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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.