A.H. 19–20.
amidst groves of fig-tree and acacia, ʿAmr reached at last the obelisks and ruined temples of ʿAin Shems (ʿAun or Heliopolis). On the way he routed several columns sent to arrest the inroad; amongst them one commanded by his Syrian antagonist Arṭabūn, who was, it is said, slain in the encounter.
Battle of Heliopolis.From Heliopolis ʿAmr crossed the Nile and (according to John of Nikiu) made a flying raid into the Faiyūm (Lake Mœris), and it appears to have been only on his return to the neighbourhood of Heliopolis that he was joined by the reinforcements which ʿOmar had sent after him under the command of Az-Zubeir. These may have brought his forces up to 15,000. The people of ʿAin Shems, mixed Copts and Nubians, now urged the Governor of Egypt, whom the Arab writers call the Muḳauḳis,[1] to make peace and not expose them to destruction. "What chance," they said, “have we against men that have beaten both the Chosroes and the Kaiser?" An armistice of five days was agreed upon,[2] but as soon as it had expired, an action took place. ʿAmr adopted the familiar plan of dividing his forces into three parts, one stationed near Heliopolis, one to the north of the Roman fortress of Babylon, and one near a place on the Nile called Ṭendūnyās or Um Dunein. When the Roman generals attacked the first, which was commanded by ʿAmr, the other divisions fell on their rear. The victory of the Arabs was complete. The Romans took to their boats and fled down the river. The battle of Heliopolis took place in July 640 (viii., 19 A.H.).
By this victory the City of Miṣr (Memphis), in which
- ↑ This name is generally derived from the Greek μεγανχής, vainglorious. That it is a title, not a proper name, appears from the fact that it is used also of the governor of Egypt in the lifetime of Moḥammad (Muir's Life of Moḥammad, 4th ed., p. 371). See Mrs E. L. Butcher, The Story of the Church in Egypt, vol. i., chap. xxxii. A. J. Butler, The Arab Conquest of Egypt, considers it to be a nickname of Cyrus, a view which is taken for granted in the 11th ed. of the Encycl. Brit. On the other side, see The Athenæum for 1903, vol. i., p. 455 f.
- ↑ Ṭabari (i. 2584) says that the Muḳauḳis sent Abu Maryām, "catholicus of Egypt,”" with "the bishop" [Abu Maryām] and the religious folk, who concluded a truce of five days. Arṭabūn, however, would not agree to it. One of those who accepted Islām was called Abu Maryām, according to what professes to be the narrative of a soldier who served under ʿAmr (i. 2583).
