Character and life of Amrou.
The conquest of Egypt may be explained by the character of the victorious Saracen, one of the first of his nation, in an age when the meanest of the brethren was exalted above his nature by the spirit of enthusiasm. The birth of Amrou was at once base and illustrious; his mother, a notorious prostitute, was unable to decide among five of the Koreish; but the proof of resemblance adjudged the child to Aasi, the oldest of her lovers. (96) The youth of Amrou was impelled by the passions and prejudices of his kindred: his poetic genius was exercised in satirical verses against the person and doctrine of Mahomet; his dexterity was employed by the reigning faction to pursue the religious exiles who had taken refuge in the court of the Aethiopian king. (97) Yet he returned from this embassy a secret proselyte; his reason or his interest determined him to renounce the worship of
idols; he escaped from Mecca with his friend Caled; and the
prophet of Medina enjoyed at the same moment the satisfaction of embracing the two firmest champions of his cause. The impatience of Amrou to lead the armies of the faithful was checked by the reproof of Omar, who advised him not to seek power and dominion, since he who is a subject to-day, may be a prince to-morrow. Yet his merit was not overlooked by the two first successors of Mahomet; they were indebted to his arms for the conquest of Palestine; and in all the battles and sieges of Syria, he united with the temper of a chief the valour of an adventurous soldier. In a visit to Medina, the caliph expressed a wish to survey the sword which had cut down so many Christian warriors; the son of Aasi unsheathed a short and ordinary cimeter; and as he perceived the surprise of Omar,
"Alas," said the modest Saracen, "the sword itself, without the arm of its master, is neither sharper nor more weighty than the sword of Pharezdak the poet." (98)
After the conquest of Egypt, he was recalled by the jealousy of the caliph Othman; but in the subsequent troubles, the ambition of a soldier, a statesman, and an orator, emerged from a private station. His powerful support, both in council and in the field, established the throne of the Ommiades; the administration and revenue of Egypt were restored by the gratitude of Moawiyah to a faithful friend who had raised himself above the rank of a subject; and Amrou ended his days in the palace and city which he had founded on the banks of the Nile. His dying speech to his children is celebrated by the Arabians as a model of eloquence and wisdom: he deplored the errors of his youth but if the penitent was still infected by the vanity of a poet, he might exaggerate the venom and mischief of his impious compositions. (99)
Invasion of Egypt, A.D. 638, June.
From his camp in Palestine, Amrou had surprised or anticipated the caliph's leave for the invasion of Egypt. (100) The magnanimous Omar trusted in his God and his sword, which had shaken the thrones of Chosroes and Caesar: but when he compared the slender force of the Moslems with the greatness of the enterprise, he condemned his own rashness,
and listened to his timid companions. The pride and the greatness of Pharaoh were familiar to the readers of the Koran; and a tenfold repetition of prodigies had been scarcely sufficient to effect, not the victory, but the flight, of six hundred thousand of the children of Israel: the cities of Egypt were many and populous; their architecture was strong and solid; the Nile, with its numerous branches, was alone an insuperable barrier; and the granary of the Imperial city would be obstinately defended by the Roman powers. In this perplexity, the commander of the faithful resigned himself to the decision of chance, or, in his opinion, of Providence. At the head of only four thousand Arabs, the intrepid Amrou had marched away from his station of Gaza when he was overtaken by the messenger of Omar.
"If you are still in Syria," said the ambiguous mandate, "retreat without delay; but if, at the receipt of this epistle, you have already reached the frontiers of Egypt, advance with confidence, and depend on the succour of God and of your brethren."
The experience, perhaps the secret intelligence, of Amrou had taught him to suspect the mutability of courts; and he continued his march till his tents were unquestionably pitched on Egyptian ground. He there assembled his officers, broke the seal, perused the epistle, gravely inquired the name and situation of the place, and declared his ready obedience to the commands of the caliph. After a siege of thirty days, he took possession of Farmah or Pelusium; and that key of Egypt, as it has been justly named, unlocked the entrance of the country as far as the ruins of Heliopolis and the neighbourhood of the modern Cairo.
The cities of Memphis, Babylon, and Cairo.
On the Western side of the Nile, at a small distance to the
east of the Pyramids, at a small distance to the south of
the Delta, Memphis, one hundred and fifty furlongs in
circumference, displayed the magnificence of ancient kings.
Under the reign of the Ptolemies and Caesars, the seat of
government was removed to the sea-coast; the ancient capital
was eclipsed by the arts and opulence of Alexandria; the
palaces, and at length the temples, were reduced to a
desolate and ruinous condition: yet, in the age of Augustus,
and even in that of Constantine, Memphis was still numbered
among the greatest and most populous of the provincial
cities. (101) The banks of the Nile, in this place of the breadth of three thousand feet, were united by two bridges
of sixty and of thirty boats, connected in the middle stream by the small island of Rouda, which was covered with gardens and habitations. (102) The eastern extremity of the bridge was terminated by the town of Babylon and the camp of a Roman legion, which protected the passage of the river and the second capital of Egypt. This important fortress, which might fairly be described as a part of Memphis or Misrah, was invested by the arms of the lieutenant of Omar: a reinforcement of four thousand Saracens soon arrived in his camp; and the military engines, which battered the walls, may be imputed to the art and labor of his Syrian allies. Yet the siege was protracted to seven months; and the rash invaders were encompassed and threatened by the inundation of the Nile. (103) Their last assault was bold and successful: they passed the ditch, which had been fortified with iron spikes, applied their scaling ladders, entered the fortress with the shout of "God is victorious!" and drove the remnant of the Greeks to their boats and the Isle of Rouda. The spot was afterwards recommended to the conqueror by the easy communication with the gulf and the peninsula of Arabia; the remains of Memphis were deserted; the tents of the Arabs were converted into permanent habitations; and the first mosch was blessed by the presence of fourscore companions of Mahomet. (104) A new city arose in their camp, on the eastward bank of the Nile; and the contiguous quarters of Babylon and Fostat are confounded in their present decay by the appellation of old Misrah, or Cairo, of which they form an extensive suburb. But the name of Cairo, the town of victory, more strictly belongs to the modern capital, which was founded in the tenth century by the Fatimite caliphs. (105) It has gradually receded from the river; but the continuity of buildings may be traced by an attentive eye from the monuments of Sesostris to those of Saladin. (106)
Voluntary submission of the Copts or Jacobites, A.D. 638.
Yet the Arabs, after a glorious and profitable enterprise, must have retreated to the desert, had they not found a powerful alliance in the heart of the country. The rapid conquest of Alexander was assisted by the superstition and
revolt of the natives: they abhorred their Persian oppressors, the disciples of the Magi, who had burnt the temples of Egypt, and feasted with sacrilegious appetite on the flesh of the god Apis. (107) After a period of ten centuries, the same revolution was renewed by a similar cause; and in the support of an incomprehensible creed, the zeal of the Coptic Christians was equally ardent. I have already explained the origin and progress of the Monophysite controversy, and the persecution of the emperors, which converted a sect into a nation, and alienated Egypt from their religion and government. The Saracens were received
as the deliverers of the Jacobite church; and a secret and effectual treaty was opened during the siege of Memphis between a victorious army and a people of slaves. A rich and noble Egyptian, of the name of Mokawkas, had dissembled
his faith to obtain the administration of his province: in the disorders of the Persian war he aspired to independence: the embassy of Mahomet ranked him among princes; but he declined, with rich gifts and ambiguous compliments, the
proposal of a new religion. (108) The abuse of his trust exposed him to the resentment of Heraclius: his submission
was delayed by arrogance and fear; and his conscience was prompted by interest to throw himself on the favour of the nation and the support of the Saracens. In his first conference with Amrou, he heard without indignation the usual option of the Koran, the tribute, or the sword.
"The Greeks," replied Mokawkas, "are determined to abide the determination of the sword; but with the Greeks I desire no communion, either in this world or in the next, and I abjure forever the Byzantine tyrant, his synod of Chalcedon, and his Melchite slaves. For myself and my brethren, we are resolved to live and die in the profession of the gospel and unity of Christ. It is impossible for us to embrace the revelations of your prophet; but we are desirous of peace, and cheerfully submit to pay tribute and obedience to his temporal successors."
The tribute was ascertained at two pieces of gold for the head of every Christian; but old men, monks, women, and children, of both sexes, under sixteen years of age, were exempted from this personal assessment: the Copts above and below Memphis swore allegiance to the caliph, and promised a hospitable entertainment of three days to every Mussulman who should travel through their country. By this charter of security, the ecclesiastical and civil tyranny of the Melchites was destroyed: (109) the anathemas of St. Cyril were thundered from every pulpit; and the sacred edifices, with the patrimony of the church, were restored to the national communion of the Jacobites, who enjoyed without moderation the moment of triumph and revenge. At the pressing summons of Amrou, their patriarch Benjamin emerged from his desert; and after the first interview, the courteous Arab affected to declare that he had never conversed with a Christian priest of more innocent manners and a more venerable aspect. (110) In the march from Memphis to Alexandria, the lieutenant of Omar entrusted his safety to the zeal and gratitude of the Egyptians: the roads and bridges were diligently repaired; and in every step of his progress, he could depend on a constant supply of provisions and intelligence. The Greeks of Egypt, whose numbers could scarcely equal a tenth of the natives, were overwhelmed by the universal defection: they had ever been hated, they were no longer feared: the magistrate fled from his tribunal, the bishop from his altar; and the distant garrisons were surprised or starved by the surrounding multitudes. Had not the Nile afforded a safe and ready conveyance to the sea, not an individual could have escaped, who by birth, or language, or office, or religion, was connected with their odious name.
Siege and conquest of Alexandria.
By the retreat of the Greeks from the provinces of Upper
Egypt, a considerable force was collected in the Island of
Delta; the natural and artificial channels of the Nile
afforded a succession of strong and defensible posts; and
the road to Alexandria was laboriously cleared by the
victory of the Saracens in two-and-twenty days of general or
partial combat. In their annals of conquest, the siege of
Alexandria (111) is perhaps the most arduous and important enterprise. The first trading city in the world was
abundantly replenished with the means of subsistence and
defence. Her numerous inhabitants fought for the dearest of
human rights, religion and property; and the enmity of the
natives seemed to exclude them from the common benefit of
peace and toleration. The sea was continually open; and if
Heraclius had been awake to the public distress, fresh
armies of Romans and Barbarians might have been poured into
the harbour to save the second capital of the empire. A
circumference of ten miles would have scattered the forces
of the Greeks, and favoured the stratagems of an active
enemy; but the two sides of an oblong square were covered by
the sea and the Lake Maraeotis, and each of the narrow ends
exposed a front of no more than ten furlongs. The efforts of
the Arabs were not inadequate to the difficulty of the
attempt and the value of the prize. From the throne of
Medina, the eyes of Omar were fixed on the camp and city:
his voice excited to arms the Arabian tribes and the
veterans of Syria; and the merit of a holy war was
recommended by the peculiar fame and fertility of Egypt.
Anxious for the ruin or expulsion of their tyrants, the
faithful natives devoted their labours to the service of
Amrou: some sparks of martial spirit were perhaps rekindled
by the example of their allies; and the sanguine hopes of
Mokawkas had fixed his sepulchre in the church of St. John
of Alexandria. Eutychius the patriarch observes, that the
Saracens fought with the courage of lions: they repulsed the
frequent and almost daily sallies of the besieged, and soon
assaulted in their turn the walls and towers of the city. In
every attack, the sword, the banner of Amrou, glittered in
the van of the Moslems. On a memorable day, he was betrayed
by his imprudent valour: his followers who had entered the
citadel were driven back; and the general, with a friend and
slave, remained a prisoner in the hands of the Christians.
When Amrou was conducted before the praefect, he remembered
his dignity, and forgot his situation: a lofty demeanour, and
resolute language, revealed the lieutenant of the caliph,
and the battle-axe of a soldier was already raised to strike
off the head of the audacious captive. His life was saved by
the readiness of his slave, who instantly gave his master a
blow on the face, and commanded him, with an angry tone, to
be silent in the presence of his superiors. The credulous
Greek was deceived: he listened to the offer of a treaty,
and his prisoners were dismissed in the hope of a more
respectable embassy, till the joyful acclamations of the
camp announced the return of their general, and insulted the
folly of the infidels. At length, after a siege of fourteen
months, (112) and the loss of three-and-twenty thousand men, the Saracens prevailed: the Greeks embarked their dispirited and diminished numbers, and the standard of Mahomet was
planted on the walls of the capital of Egypt.
"I have taken," said Amrou to the caliph, "the great city of the West. It is impossible for me to enumerate the variety of its riches and beauty; and I shall content myself with observing, that it contains four thousand palaces, four thousand baths, four hundred theatres or places of amusement, twelve thousand shops for the sale of vegetable food, and forty thousand tributary Jews. The town has been subdued by force of arms, without treaty or capitulation, and the Moslems are impatient to seize the fruits of their victory." (113)
The commander of the faithful rejected with firmness the idea of pillage, and directed his lieutenant to reserve the wealth and revenue of Alexandria for the public service and the propagation of the faith: the inhabitants were numbered; a tribute was imposed, the zeal and resentment of the Jacobites were curbed, and the Melchites who submitted to the Arabian yoke were indulged in the obscure but tranquil exercise of their worship. The intelligence of this disgraceful and calamitous event afflicted the declining health of the emperor; and Heraclius died of a dropsy about seven weeks after the loss of Alexandria. (114) Under the minority of his grandson, the clamours of a people, deprived of their daily sustenance, compelled the Byzantine court to undertake the recovery of the capital of Egypt. In the space of four years, the harbour and fortifications of Alexandria were twice occupied by a fleet and army of Romans. They were twice expelled by the valour of Amrou, who was recalled by the domestic peril from the distant wars of Tripoli and Nubia. But the facility of the attempt, the repetition of the insult, and the obstinacy of the resistance, provoked him to swear, that if a third time he drove the infidels into the sea, he would render Alexandria as accessible on all sides as the house of a prostitute. Faithful to his promise, he dismantled several parts of the walls and towers; but the people was spared in the chastisement of the city, and the mosch of Mercy was erected on the spot where the victorious general had stopped the fury of his troops.
The Alexandrian library.
I should deceive the expectation of the reader, if I passed
in silence the fate of the Alexandrian library, as it is
described by the learned Abulpharagius. The spirit of Amrou
was more curious and liberal than that of his brethren, and
in his leisure hours, the Arabian chief was pleased with the
conversation of John, the last disciple of Ammonius, and who
derived the surname of Philoponus from his laborious studies
of grammar and philosophy. (115) Emboldened by this familiar intercourse, Philoponus presumed to solicit a gift,
inestimable in his opinion, contemptible in that of the
Barbarians - the royal library, which alone, among the
spoils of Alexandria, had not been appropriated by the visit
and the seal of the conqueror. Amrou was inclined to gratify
the wish of the grammarian, but his rigid integrity refused
to alienate the minutest object without the consent of the
caliph; and the well-known answer of Omar was inspired by
the ignorance of a fanatic.
"If these writings of the Greeks agree with the book of God, they are useless, and need not be preserved: if they disagree, they are pernicious, and ought to be destroyed."
The sentence was executed with blind obedience: the volumes of paper or parchment were distributed to the four thousand baths of the city; and such was their incredible multitude, that six months were barely sufficient for the consumption of this precious fuel. Since the Dynasties of Abulpharagius (116) have been given to the world in a Latin version, the tale has been repeatedly transcribed; and every scholar, with pious indignation, has deplored the irreparable shipwreck of the learning, the arts, and the genius, of antiquity. For my own part, I am strongly tempted to deny both the fact and the consequences. The fact is indeed marvellous. "Read and wonder!" says the historian himself: and the solitary report of a stranger who wrote at the end of six hundred years on the confines of Media, is overbalanced by the silence of two annalist of a more early date, both Christians, both natives of Egypt, and the most ancient of whom, the patriarch Eutychius, has amply described the conquest of Alexandria. (117) The rigid sentence of Omar is repugnant to the sound and orthodox precept of the Mahometan casuists they expressly declare, that the religious books of the Jews and Christians, which are acquired by the right of war, should never be committed to the flames; and that the works of profane science, historians or poets, physicians or philosophers, may be lawfully applied to the use of the faithful. (118) A more destructive zeal may perhaps be attributed to the first successors of Mahomet; yet in this instance, the conflagration would have speedily expired in the deficiency of materials. I should not recapitulate the disasters of the Alexandrian library, the involuntary flame that was kindled by Caesar in his own defence, (119) or the mischievous bigotry of the Christians, who studied to destroy the monuments of idolatry. (120) But if we gradually descend from the age of the Antonines to that of Theodosius, we shall learn from a chain of contemporary witnesses, that the royal palace and the temple of Serapis no longer contained the four, or the seven, hundred thousand volumes, which had been assembled by the curiosity and magnificence of the Ptolemies. (121) Perhaps the church and seat of the patriarchs might be enriched with a repository of books; but if the ponderous mass of Arian and Monophysite controversy were indeed consumed in the public baths, (122) a philosopher may allow, with a smile, that it was ultimately devoted to the benefit of mankind. I sincerely regret the more valuable libraries which have been involved in the ruin of the Roman empire; but when I seriously compute the lapse of ages, the waste of ignorance, and the calamities of war, our treasures, rather than our losses, are the objects of my surprise. Many curious and interesting facts are buried in oblivion: the three great historians of Rome have been transmitted to our hands in a mutilated state, and we are deprived of many pleasing compositions of the lyric, iambic, and dramatic poetry of the Greeks. Yet we should gratefully remember, that the mischances of time and accident have spared the classic works to which the suffrage of antiquity (123) had adjudged the first place of genius and glory: the teachers of ancient knowledge, who are still extant, had perused and compared the writings of their predecessors; (124) nor can it fairly be presumed that any important truth, any useful discovery in art or nature, has been snatched away from the curiosity of modern ages.
Administration of Egypt.
In the administration of Egypt, (125) Amrou balanced the demands of justice and policy; the interest of the people of
the law, who were defended by God; and of the people of the
alliance, who were protected by man. In the recent tumult
of conquest and deliverance, the tongue of the Copts and the
sword of the Arabs were most adverse to the tranquillity of
the province. To the former, Amrou declared, that faction
and falsehood would be doubly chastised; by the punishment
of the accusers, whom he should detest as his personal
enemies, and by the promotion of their innocent brethren,
whom their envy had labored to injure and supplant. He
excited the latter by the motives of religion and honour to
sustain the dignity of their character, to endear themselves
by a modest and temperate conduct to God and the caliph, to
spare and protect a people who had trusted to their faith,
and to content themselves with the legitimate and splendid
rewards of their victory. In the management of the revenue,
he disapproved the simple but oppressive mode of a
capitation, and preferred with reason a proportion of taxes
deducted on every branch from the clear profits of
agriculture and commerce. A third part of the tribute was
appropriated to the annual repairs of the dikes and canals,
so essential to the public welfare. Under his
administration, the fertility of Egypt supplied the dearth
of Arabia; and a string of camels, laden with corn and
provisions, covered almost without an interval the long road
from Memphis to Medina. (126) But the genius of Amrou soon renewed the maritime communication which had been attempted
or achieved by the Pharaohs the Ptolemies, or the Caesars;
and a canal, at least eighty miles in length, was opened
from the Nile to the Red Sea. This inland navigation, which would have joined the Mediterranean and the Indian
Ocean, was soon discontinued as useless and dangerous: the
throne was removed from Medina to Damascus, and the Grecian
fleets might have explored a passage to the holy cities of
Arabia. (127)
Riches and populousness.
Of his new conquest, the caliph Omar had an imperfect
knowledge from the voice of fame and the legends of the
Koran. He requested that his lieutenant would place before
his eyes the realm of Pharaoh and the Amalekites; and the
answer of Amrou exhibits a lively and not unfaithful picture
of that singular country. (128)
"O commander of the faithful, Egypt is a compound of black earth and green plants, between a pulverized mountain and a red sand. The distance from Syene to the sea is a month's journey for a horseman. Along the valley descends a river, on which the blessing of the Most High reposes both in the evening and morning, and which rises and falls with the revolutions of the sun and moon. When the annual dispensation of Providence unlocks the springs and fountains that nourish the earth, the Nile rolls his swelling and sounding waters through the realm of Egypt: the fields are overspread by the salutary flood; and the villages communicate with each other in their painted barks. The retreat of the inundation deposits a fertilizing mud for the reception of the various seeds: the crowds of husbandmen who blacken the land may be compared to a swarm of industrious ants; and their native indolence is quickened by the lash of the task-master, and the promise of the flowers and fruits of a plentiful increase. Their hope is seldom deceived; but the riches which they extract from the wheat, the barley, and the rice, the legumes, the fruit-trees, and the cattle, are unequally shared between those who labor and those who possess. According to the vicissitudes of the seasons, the face of the country is adorned with a silver wave, a verdant emerald, and the deep yellow of a golden harvest." (129)
Yet this beneficial order is sometimes interrupted; and the long delay and sudden swell of the river in the first year of the conquest might afford some colour to an edifying fable. It is said, that the annual sacrifice of a virgin (130) had been interdicted by the piety of Omar; and that the Nile lay sullen and inactive in his shallow bed, till the mandate of the caliph was cast into the obedient stream, which rose in a single night to the height of sixteen cubits. The admiration of the Arabs for their new conquest encouraged the license of their romantic spirit. We may read, in the gravest authors, that Egypt was crowded with twenty thousand cities or villages: (131) that, exclusive of the Greeks and Arabs, the Copts alone were found, on the assessment, six millions of tributary subjects, (132) or twenty millions of either sex, and of every age: that three hundred millions of gold or silver were annually paid to the treasury of the caliphs. (133) Our reason must be startled by these extravagant assertions; and they will become more palpable, if we assume the compass and measure the extent of habitable ground: a valley from the tropic to Memphis seldom broader than twelve miles, and the triangle of the Delta, a flat surface of two thousand one hundred square leagues, compose a twelfth part of the magnitude of France. (134) A more accurate research will justify a more reasonable estimate. The three hundred millions, created by the error of a scribe, are reduced to the decent revenue of four millions three hundred thousand pieces of gold, of which nine hundred thousand were consumed by the pay of the soldiers. (135) Two authentic lists, of the present and of the twelfth century, are circumscribed within the respectable number of two thousand seven hundred villages and towns. (136) After a long residence at Cairo, a French consul has ventured to assign about four millions of Mahometans, Christians, and Jews, for the ample, though not incredible, scope of the population of Egypt. (137)
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