A.H. 19–20.
inhabitants, non-combatants, women and children, were put to the sword. Similar scenes were enacted in other towns. In spite of considerable resistance at points, ʿAmr worked his way as far as Kiryaun, some sixteen miles east of Alexandria. Here Theodore gave battle, but was forced to retire within the city, before which the Arabs encamped, just out of range of the catapults. mounted behind the walls, which it was futile for the Arabs to think of assaulting. The stretch of wall on the land side was indeed as narrow as it was well fortified, and succour and supplies could always be obtained by sea. But, as may be imagined, the contention of factions within the city, filled as it was with fugitive generals, and in the absence of Cyrus, who had been recalled, had reached a climax (John of Nikiu, p. 568 f.).
All parties, however, even the Copts whom he had persecuted, united in welcoming Cyrus back in the following September, when he came empowered to make peace with the Muslims; and in the autumn of the year 641 Egypt passed from the hands of the Emperor into those of the followers of the Arabian Prophet, with whom it has remained for over 1200 years.[1]
FusṭāṭʿAmr wished to fix his seat of government at Alexandria, but ʿOmar would not allow him to remain so far away from his camp. So he returned to Upper Egypt. For several years his followers were engaged against the Nubians, and at last brought them under subjection in the direction of Dongola. A body of the Arabs crossed the Nile and settled in Ghizeh, on the western bank,—a movement which ʿOmar permitted only on condition that a strong fortress was constructed there to prevent the possibility of surprise. The headquarters of the army were pitched near Memphis. Around them grew up a military station, called from its origin Fusṭāṭ, the fossatum or "Encampment." It expanded rapidly into the Capital of Egypt, the modern Cairo. And there ʿAmr laid the foundation of a great Mosque on the site of that which still bears his name.[2]
- ↑ The treaty was concluded between Cyrus and ʿAmr at Babylon (John of Nikiu, p. 575). E. W. Brooks, following John of Nikiu, dates the capitulation of Alexandria 17th October 641. (Ṭab. i., 2588 f.).
- ↑ An interesting history of the Mosque, with illustrations, appears in the Asiatic Journal for October 1890, p. 759. ʿAmr is there described, from a tradition of Al-Makrīzi, as "a short thick-set man with a large
