The Great Arab Conquests (26 page)
Read The Great Arab Conquests Online
Authors: Hugh Kennedy
In modern times the history of the conquest of Egypt was covered in Alfred Butler’s
The Arab Conquest of Egypt and the Last Thirty Years of Roman Domination
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In his expansive and orotund late Victorian prose, Butler provides a memorable picture of the dramatic but confused events. Butler was a great enthusiast for the Copts and felt able to make sweeping moral judgements about their enemies and those who cast aspersions on them in a way modern historians are very reluctant to do. He was also a great scholar, however, and even though he wrote before the original text of Ibn Abd al-Hakam became readily available, many of his insights and conclusions have stood the test of time.
The Arab Conquest of Egypt and the Last Thirty Years of Roman Domination
.
7
In his expansive and orotund late Victorian prose, Butler provides a memorable picture of the dramatic but confused events. Butler was a great enthusiast for the Copts and felt able to make sweeping moral judgements about their enemies and those who cast aspersions on them in a way modern historians are very reluctant to do. He was also a great scholar, however, and even though he wrote before the original text of Ibn Abd al-Hakam became readily available, many of his insights and conclusions have stood the test of time.
Egypt had been the land of the pharaohs, whose monuments and temples dominated much of the landscape, their pyramids as amazing and mysterious to medieval Muslims as they are to us today. No traveller or conqueror could fail to be impressed by the relics of ancient grandeur. Muslims knew of Egypt from the story of Joseph, which is retold, or rather commented on, in the Koran, and for them the pyramids were Joseph’s granaries.
But by the time the Muslim armies first crossed the Egyptian frontier, it was almost a thousand years since the last of the pharaohs had been deposed by Alexander the Great (the same span of time that separates us from the Battle of Hastings and the Norman conquest of England).
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In the intervening period, the country had been ruled by Alexander’s successors, the Ptolemies, and had then become a rich and valuable province of the Roman Empire, supplying much of the grain for the capital. Nowadays Egypt is a major importer of food, as the resources of the Nile valley cannot possibly feed 70 million inhabitants. In Roman times, however, there were probably no more than 5 million people living in the area: in the later Roman period, as a result of plague, it may well have been no more than 3 million.
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Properly managed, the rich lands along the river, irrigated and fertilized by the annual flood, could produce a regular surplus.
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In the intervening period, the country had been ruled by Alexander’s successors, the Ptolemies, and had then become a rich and valuable province of the Roman Empire, supplying much of the grain for the capital. Nowadays Egypt is a major importer of food, as the resources of the Nile valley cannot possibly feed 70 million inhabitants. In Roman times, however, there were probably no more than 5 million people living in the area: in the later Roman period, as a result of plague, it may well have been no more than 3 million.
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Properly managed, the rich lands along the river, irrigated and fertilized by the annual flood, could produce a regular surplus.
Despite this subservience to the interests of outsiders, many things in Egypt remained unchanged. The deified emperors were easily accommodated within the old Egyptian pantheon and, indeed, Egypt exported gods like Osiris along with corn to Rome. It was the coming of Christianity which marked the real break with the ancient past.
The fourth and fifth centuries were something of a golden age for Egyptian Christianity.
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The patriarchs of Alexandria now became some of the greatest officials of the eastern empire, immensely wealthy and influential. At the same time St Pachomius (d. 346) led the movement to establish large communal monasteries, the first in the Christian world, and it was in Egypt more than in any other area of the early Christian world that monasticism was first developed. Hermits like St Antony (d. 356) lived in the fearsome deserts that bordered the Nile valley and set an example for Christian ascetics everywhere.
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The patriarchs of Alexandria now became some of the greatest officials of the eastern empire, immensely wealthy and influential. At the same time St Pachomius (d. 346) led the movement to establish large communal monasteries, the first in the Christian world, and it was in Egypt more than in any other area of the early Christian world that monasticism was first developed. Hermits like St Antony (d. 356) lived in the fearsome deserts that bordered the Nile valley and set an example for Christian ascetics everywhere.
If it was a time of beginning and hope for the Christians, it was also the end of an era for ancient Egyptian paganism and the culture that went with it. In Hellenized Alexandria the famous Serapeum was sacked on the orders of the patriarch Theophilus (385-412) and was converted to a church dedicated to St John the Baptist while the temple and Serapeum at Canopus became a church dedicated to Saints Cyril and John. The last pagan intellectuals fled in fear of their lives, while monks took to squatting in the ruins of antique grandeur. The myth that the Arabs burned the library at Alexandria, and with it the great heritage of classical learning, has a long history and is still trotted out by those wishing to discredit early Islam. The sad reality is that the great library of the Ptolemies was probably destroyed in 48 BC when Julius Caesar fired the fleet in the harbour and the flames spread. The temple libraries that succeeded it were probably destroyed or dispersed by the Christians at the end of the fourth century.
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At the same time as the classical heritage was coming under sustained attack in Alexandria, the traditions of the more ancient Egypt of the pharaohs were finally coming to an end. The last dated hieroglyphic inscription, recording the birth festival of Osiris, was carved on 24 August 394 on the temple of Philae at Aswan.
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Long before the Muslims conquered the country, the knowledge of the old script, which had recorded the doings of pharaohs, their priests and their ministers, had been lost beyond recall and remained so, even to Egyptians, throughout the Middle Ages.
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Long before the Muslims conquered the country, the knowledge of the old script, which had recorded the doings of pharaohs, their priests and their ministers, had been lost beyond recall and remained so, even to Egyptians, throughout the Middle Ages.
The loss of the old pagan traditions did not mean that writing and recording disappeared from Egypt. The imperial administration operated in Greek, as it did throughout the eastern empire. Alongside it, the Church took to using a variation of the Greek alphabet to write the native Egyptian spoken language. This ‘Coptic’ became the vehicle through which the growing Christian literature and traditions of Egypt were preserved, and it gave its name to the local Church.
The establishment of Christianity as the sole official religion of Egypt, and the conversion of most of the population to the new religion, did not mean the end of ideological strife. The Monophysite schism that had so divided the church in Syria was, if anything, even more fiercely fought out in Egypt. The great majority of Egyptian bishops and monks adamantly rejected the decrees of the Council of Chalcedon in 451, which had established Diophisite Christianity as the state religion of the Roman Empire. From this point onwards, there was an open and often violent rift between the imperially appointed patriarchs in Alexandria and the rest of the Egyptian Church. The opposition, which can now be described as the Coptic Church, elected its own patriarchs and bishops. In the small towns and villages of the Nile valley and the numerous monasteries along the fringes of the desert, the imperial Church of Alexandria was regarded as alien, oppressive and above all heretical. Few were likely to rally to its support if it was attacked by an outside power.
As in other areas of the Middle East, Byzantine rule had been shaken by a series of catastrophes from the mid sixth century onwards. In 541 Egypt was the first country in the Mediterranean basin to be visited by the plague that caused such devastation throughout the area. The first outbreak was followed by others, and it has been suggested that the population declined to about 3 million as a result.
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Egypt became a half-empty land. The great Persian wars, which began in 602, also had their effect in Egypt. At first the campaigns were confined to northern Syria and Anatolia, but after the fall of Jerusalem to the Persians in May 614, Egypt was in the front line. The country was flooded by refugees escaping from the invaders. In 617 a Persian army entered Egypt along the coast road from Palestine. They took Pelusium, sacked the monasteries and then headed south to the apex of the delta. There are no reports of any resistance at the Roman fort of Babylon, which guarded this important strategic point, and the Persian armies then headed north-west along the western edge of the delta to Alexandria. Here they encountered the only serious military resistance of the entire campaign. The city walls were clearly in good condition. A contemporary Syrian source tells us that the city had been ‘built by Alexander in accordance with the advice of his master Aristotle, a city girt with walls, encircled with the waters of the Nile and furnished with strong gates’.
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These walls were actively defended and the Persian army settled down to besiege the city. They also took the opportunity to sack and pillage the suburban monasteries that surrounded it. The inhabitants may have been demoralized by the cutting off of food supplies from the rest of Egypt and the lack of any prospect of relief from Constantinople, but we also have a story of treachery and betrayal by one of the inhabitants. In the end, it seems that the Persians entered the city by the harbour and the water gates, which were less strongly defended than the land walls, and in 619 they made themselves masters of Alexandria. The Persian armies then marched south, pillaging the country and sacking numerous monasteries, until the whole of the Nile valley as far south as Aswan had been subdued.
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Egypt became a half-empty land. The great Persian wars, which began in 602, also had their effect in Egypt. At first the campaigns were confined to northern Syria and Anatolia, but after the fall of Jerusalem to the Persians in May 614, Egypt was in the front line. The country was flooded by refugees escaping from the invaders. In 617 a Persian army entered Egypt along the coast road from Palestine. They took Pelusium, sacked the monasteries and then headed south to the apex of the delta. There are no reports of any resistance at the Roman fort of Babylon, which guarded this important strategic point, and the Persian armies then headed north-west along the western edge of the delta to Alexandria. Here they encountered the only serious military resistance of the entire campaign. The city walls were clearly in good condition. A contemporary Syrian source tells us that the city had been ‘built by Alexander in accordance with the advice of his master Aristotle, a city girt with walls, encircled with the waters of the Nile and furnished with strong gates’.
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These walls were actively defended and the Persian army settled down to besiege the city. They also took the opportunity to sack and pillage the suburban monasteries that surrounded it. The inhabitants may have been demoralized by the cutting off of food supplies from the rest of Egypt and the lack of any prospect of relief from Constantinople, but we also have a story of treachery and betrayal by one of the inhabitants. In the end, it seems that the Persians entered the city by the harbour and the water gates, which were less strongly defended than the land walls, and in 619 they made themselves masters of Alexandria. The Persian armies then marched south, pillaging the country and sacking numerous monasteries, until the whole of the Nile valley as far south as Aswan had been subdued.
The initial Persian conquest in Egypt, as in Palestine, seems to have been very destructive of life and property, and especially of churches and their contents, but once they had established control, they seem to have ruled with a lighter touch: there are certainly no indications that they made any effort to force people to adopt Zoroastrianism, or even to encourage people to convert. The Persians must have remained a separate and alien minority without firm roots in the country.
We know little about the eleven years of Persian rule
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other than that it came to an end quite peacefully. In July 629 the emperor Heraclius, who had by this time invaded Persia and sacked Ctesiphon, met the Persian general Shāhbarāz at Arabissos in south-east Turkey and agreed on the peaceful withdrawal of all remaining Persian troops in Egypt.
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other than that it came to an end quite peacefully. In July 629 the emperor Heraclius, who had by this time invaded Persia and sacked Ctesiphon, met the Persian general Shāhbarāz at Arabissos in south-east Turkey and agreed on the peaceful withdrawal of all remaining Persian troops in Egypt.
The resumption of Roman control was not marked by an outbreak of peace and harmony. As often in this period, the real cause of conflict was the enmity between different Christian sects, in this case the majority Monophysite Coptic Church and the minority Chalcedonians, who enjoyed the support of the government in Constantinople. In the case of Egypt, matters were exacerbated by a vigorous personal rivalry. The Coptic patriarch Benjamin came from a wealthy landowning family.
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At Christmas 621, during the Persian occupation, he had entered a monastery near Alexandria and had soon distinguished himself by his piety and his learning. According to his admiring biographer, he was ‘handsome and eloquent, calm and dignified in his speech’.
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He soon moved to the city as chief assistant to the Coptic patriarch Andronicus, and before he died in about 623, Andronicus appointed Benjamin, then probably about 35 years old, as his successor. In the comparatively benign environment of Persian rule, the new patriarch set about the business of reforming his Church, going on a tour of inspection to Babylon and Hulwān, welcomed everywhere by popular acclaim.
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At Christmas 621, during the Persian occupation, he had entered a monastery near Alexandria and had soon distinguished himself by his piety and his learning. According to his admiring biographer, he was ‘handsome and eloquent, calm and dignified in his speech’.
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He soon moved to the city as chief assistant to the Coptic patriarch Andronicus, and before he died in about 623, Andronicus appointed Benjamin, then probably about 35 years old, as his successor. In the comparatively benign environment of Persian rule, the new patriarch set about the business of reforming his Church, going on a tour of inspection to Babylon and Hulwān, welcomed everywhere by popular acclaim.
The reimposition of Byzantine rule brought an end to this period of tolerance. As he had been in Syria, Heraclius was determined to reunite the Christian Church in Egypt under imperial authority. To achieve this, he appointed a man called Cyrus, known in the Arabic sources, for reasons that are quite unclear, as al-Muqawqis. Like many of Heraclius’s supporters, he came from the Caucasus, having previously been Bishop of Phasis. Unlike Benjamin, he had no roots in Egypt and no experience of the country. He was now appointed Patriarch of Alexandria and also civil governor of Egypt, a veritable viceroy. On Cyrus’s arrival in the autumn of 631, Benjamin fled the city, warned, it was said, by an angel in a dream. Before he did, he summoned the clergy and laity, exhorting them to hold fast to their faith, and he wrote to all the bishops, advising them to flee to the mountains and the deserts to hide from the wrath to come. He then left the city by night, at first heading west to the city of St Menas (Mina) and then along the western side of the delta, finally making his way to a small monastery near Qus in upper Egypt, which remained famous for centuries as his place of refuge.
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Cyrus arrived armed with the full weight of imperial authority and entrusted with the task of uniting Diophysite Chalcedonians and Monophysite Copts with the emperor’s ingenious Monothelite theological formula, which attempted to find a middle ground between the two. As far as we can tell, Cyrus was a determined but somewhat charmless man, to whom command came more naturally than persuasion. He held a council in Alexandria but the meeting was not a success. The Chalcedonians felt that too much had been surrendered and their support was only grudging; the Copts rejected it entirely. For them the formula was not a compromise at all, just another attempt to impose the hated doctrines of the Council of Chalcedon. Far from being smoothed over, the rift between the Greek-speaking ruling and military class in Alexandria and the majority Coptic population was as deep and unbridgeable as ever.
Roman garrisons were established throughout the country and Cyrus sought to impose imperial authority by force. The Coptic sources - the lives of saints and patriarchs - conjure up a vivid picture of ruthless and systematic persecution, with Cyrus in the role of those pagan emperors who had conducted the persecutions of the third century. The replacement of Persian by Christian rule was of no advantage to the Coptic Church. As Butler put it, ‘Chastisement with whips was to be followed by chastisement with scorpions.’
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Stories multiplied of the cruelty of Cyrus and the imperial authorities, and the heroic resistance of the Copts. Benjamin’s own brother, Menas, became a martyr, and the tortures he suffered for his faith were lovingly recalled. First he was tortured by fire ‘until the fat dropped down both his sides to the ground’. Next his teeth were pulled out. Then he was placed in a sack full of sand. At each stage he was offered his life if he would accept the decrees of the Council of Chalcedon; at each stage he refused. Finally he was taken seven bow-shots out to sea and drowned. Benjamin’s biographer left no doubt who the real victors were. ‘It was not they who were victorious over Menas, that champion of the faith, but Menas who by Christian patience overcame them.’
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Stories multiplied of the cruelty of Cyrus and the imperial authorities, and the heroic resistance of the Copts. Benjamin’s own brother, Menas, became a martyr, and the tortures he suffered for his faith were lovingly recalled. First he was tortured by fire ‘until the fat dropped down both his sides to the ground’. Next his teeth were pulled out. Then he was placed in a sack full of sand. At each stage he was offered his life if he would accept the decrees of the Council of Chalcedon; at each stage he refused. Finally he was taken seven bow-shots out to sea and drowned. Benjamin’s biographer left no doubt who the real victors were. ‘It was not they who were victorious over Menas, that champion of the faith, but Menas who by Christian patience overcame them.’
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The persecution was said to have lasted for ten years. Whether it was as cruel and unrelenting as the martyrologies claim we cannot know, but the accounts reveal a climate of fear and deeply held hostility to the imperial authorities. Many Copts must have thought that anything would be better than this.
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