We need a wide range of dates to cover the conquest of Egypt because histories conflict so much as to when things happened and in what order.
General Amr ibn al-As, who had led his army to Gaza in the first wave of invasion, survived both the Battle of Yarmouk and the plague. As the others moved into the north, conquering Syria and Lebanon, he moved south to Gaza again, securing it. He really wanted to head south, as his friends were heading north. He moved down the Mediterranean coast to Arish, on the Egyptian border. There he sent word to Umar, asking permission to move on. Umar was understandably concerned that the Muslims were spread too thin. Amr would have no more than 4000 men to invade a place with serious forts and entirely unfamiliar geography.
But Amr gradually moved past Arish, and when Umar’s letter arrived, he found that it said “Don’t go into Egypt. But if you already did, don’t retreat, go forward.” Funny how that works, when you keep creeping forward while waiting for permission.
Egypt, a Roman stronghold since Caesar Augustus conquered the last Greek Pharaoh, Cleopatra, was the richest Roman province outside of Italy. It had been an early adopter of Christianity, and by now it was thickly dotted with churches and monasteries. Due to irrigation around Lake Fayoum, in addition to the regular Nile inundations, Egypt was able to grow enough wheat to essentially feed the Roman army. That’s why Heraclius had reacted so strongly to Persia’s seizure of Egypt, in the closing years of the 6th century. Without Egypt, he really could not feed his army.
But Rome’s defeat in Syria had been profound enough that even a threat to Egypt now could not move them. There were garrisons and officers in Egypt, and one of the best forts of the ancient world was near modern Cairo. But they didn’t have very many men in these garrisons. Egypt itself was underpopulated at this time, because of the multiple visitations of the bubonic plague, starting in 541. Additionally, some city walls and buildings had been ruined during the war between Persia and Rome, and they had not been rebuilt. Roman Egypt was caught up mainly in a sectarian struggle, as Constantinople tried to impose its control on the Egyptian church. They were not at all prepared for a new invasion.
There were some battles for the cities of the Delta. Amr was able to sweep out a few strongholds, but when he faced a difficult, potentially losing, situation at Heliopolis, Umar was able to send reinforcements to meet him. The first serious challenge was the siege of a very well-built fort, Fort Babylon. The name is confusing because the Babylon mentioned in the Bible was in Iraq, but this Babylon was built by Alexander the Great, much more recently. This Babylon was near modern Cairo, at the point where the Nile branches into the smaller rivers of the Delta.
Babylon’s defense was assisted by the annual Nile flooding, which kept the Muslims from coming close. During the waiting period, the Coptic Patriarch Cyrus sent to ask Emperor Heraclius if he could surrender, since no help was on the way. Heraclius demanded that he come in person, and there Cyrus found himself mocked and exiled. But back at Fort Babylon, the water began to recede, while the Romans tried to hold out. The Muslims were able to move a very small force onto a wall, where their archers kept the Romans away. It was only a matter of time until this small force got a gate unlocked. And with that, Fort Babylon surrendered.
The Roman general retreated. When Amr approached another city in the Delta, he retreated again, and then again. After a week of battles around a fort near Alexandria, the Romans retreated again. Morale was very low, since they knew no outside help was coming. The men in Alexandria were not willing to meet the Muslims in the field. They could not sustain serious loss of life, they could only hang on and see if conditions improved their lot.
But during this time, Heraclius died. Constantinople again lived through a rapid turnover of leadership, with competing sons and military coups. They wanted to send an army, but they weren’t able. Patriarch Cyrus was returned to Alexandria to calm the turmoil, but by then the turmoil inside the city amounted to a small civil war. Under such conditions, no city can defend itself well. And yet Alexandria was a city nearly impossible to besiege, since it sat so much on the water and was of vast size, impossible to circle. The Muslims were not able to get any grip on how to assault it.
Amr left a token force at Alexandria and went on to establish control over the other parts of Egypt, including the key regions of Lake Fayoum and the ancient capital of Thebes. There were small battles, but nothing serious like Yarmouk or Qadisiyah. In the stronghold of Babylon, Amr began setting up Egypt’s administrative offices to collect taxes.
The Patriarch Cyrus, exiled by Heraclius then returned by his son, now caught in a civil war in the city, traveled secretly to meet Amr. He offered peace terms that were beyond Amr’s imagining. Egypt would pay a poll tax of two dinars per person and the Roman forces in Egypt would leave unilaterally. And that was that, Alexandria came under Muslim rule without fighting—and without burning its library. Later Roman emperors sent ships to try to retake Alexandria, but the efforts did not succeed. Egypt was lost to Rome forever.
- The War of the Three Gods, by Peter Crawford.
- The Great Arab Conquests, by Hugh Kennedy