Muslim Conquest of Egypt (639-642): Amr ibn al-As and Alexandria

The Muslim conquest of Egypt took place between December 639 and September 642, when Arab forces under Amr ibn al-As wrested the province from the Byzantine Empire. In less than three years the Arabs besieged the Roman fortress of Babylon, negotiated the surrender of Alexandria and founded a new capital at Fustat. Egypt, the richest province of the eastern Mediterranean, became a cornerstone of the Islamic caliphate.

Background

Egypt had been ruled from Rome and then Constantinople for nearly 700 years and supplied grain to the imperial capital. Between about 618 and 628 it had been occupied by Sasanian Persia, and Byzantine rule was restored only a decade before the Arabs arrived.

Religious division weakened the province. Most Egyptian Christians, the Copts, rejected the Council of Chalcedon of 451, while the imperial church upheld it. Emperor Heraclius sent Cyrus, a Chalcedonian bishop, as both patriarch of Alexandria and governor from 631. His efforts to impose a compromise doctrine led to persecution of the Coptic Church, whose patriarch Benjamin went into hiding.

By 639 the Arabs of the Rashidun caliphate had conquered Syria and Palestine after the Battle of Yarmouk. Amr ibn al-As, a Meccan commander who had campaigned in Palestine and had traded in Egypt before Islam, urged Caliph Umar to strike at Egypt.

The campaign begins

Amr crossed from Palestine with a small force, usually given as 3,500 to 4,000 men, in December 639. He besieged Pelusium (al-Farama), the eastern gateway to Egypt, which fell after about one to two months in early 640. He then took Bilbays and moved towards the head of the Nile Delta.

Umar sent reinforcements under al-Zubayr ibn al-Awwam, a prominent companion of the Prophet Muhammad, raising the army to perhaps 12,000 to 15,000 men. In July 640 the Arabs defeated the main Byzantine field army near Heliopolis, just north of modern Cairo.

The siege of Babylon

The surviving Byzantine troops withdrew into the fortress of Babylon, a strong Roman stronghold on the Nile at the southern edge of modern Cairo. The Arabs besieged it from around September 640. Negotiations between Amr and Cyrus, called al-Muqawqis in Arabic sources, failed when Heraclius rejected the terms and recalled Cyrus.

The death of Heraclius in February 641 left Constantinople in political turmoil and ended hopes of a relief army. The garrison of Babylon surrendered on terms around April 641. Amr then advanced down the Nile to Nikiu and on towards Alexandria, the provincial capital.

The surrender of Alexandria

Alexandria, protected by strong walls and open to supply by sea, could not easily be taken by storm. In Constantinople the new regime sent Cyrus back to Egypt, and on 8 November 641 he agreed a treaty with Amr. The Byzantines would pay tribute and evacuate their army within eleven months; the population would keep its churches and be protected in exchange for paying the poll tax (jizya).

The last Byzantine troops sailed away in September 642, and the Arabs entered the city. Cyrus had died in March 642. The Coptic patriarch Benjamin returned from hiding and was confirmed in office by Amr.

The main contemporary source is the chronicle of John, bishop of Nikiu, written in the late 7th century and surviving only in an Ethiopic translation. It gives a vivid but fragmentary Egyptian Christian view of the conquest, alongside later Arabic accounts.

Why Egypt fell so quickly

Egypt was rich and populous, yet a few thousand Arab soldiers, later reinforced to perhaps 15,000, took it in less than three years. Historians stress several reasons.

The Byzantine garrison was not large and was spread across many towns and forts. Command was divided between Cyrus and several military officers, who often disagreed about whether to fight or negotiate. Heraclius, old and ill, distrusted Cyrus and recalled him at a crucial moment, and his death in 641 led to a struggle for power in Constantinople that left Egypt without clear orders or reinforcements.

The religious conflict also mattered, although its importance is debated. Older histories claimed that the Copts welcomed the Arabs as liberators from Byzantine persecution. Modern historians, using John of Nikiu, describe a more mixed picture: many Egyptians suffered during the fighting, some local leaders cooperated with the invaders, and others resisted. What is clear is that few Copts were willing to fight hard for a regime that had persecuted their church.

The Arabs also offered terms that many communities found acceptable. Towns that surrendered kept their property, churches and local officials in return for tribute and the poll tax. For much of the population, daily life and taxation continued much as before, under a new ruler.

Key people

• Amr ibn al-As (died c. 664): commander of the conquest and first Muslim governor of Egypt, later a key ally of Mu’awiya.
• Umar ibn al-Khattab (caliph 634–644): approved the campaign and sent reinforcements.
• Cyrus of Alexandria (died 642): patriarch and governor who negotiated with Amr; generally identified with al-Muqawqis.
• Al-Zubayr ibn al-Awwam (died 656): led the reinforcements and is credited with a key role at Babylon.
• Benjamin I (Coptic patriarch 623–662): returned from exile after the conquest.

Consequences

Amr founded Fustat beside the fortress of Babylon around 641–642, with the Mosque of Amr ibn al-As at its centre. Fustat replaced Alexandria as Egypt’s capital, a shift away from the Mediterranean towards the Nile valley. Cairo, founded beside it by the Fatimids in 969, eventually absorbed it.

Byzantium tried to recover the province. In 645 a fleet under the general Manuel retook Alexandria, but Amr defeated the Byzantines in 646 and recaptured the city, this time pulling down part of its walls. Egypt’s grain now flowed to Arabia rather than Constantinople, and its shipyards later helped build the Arab fleet that won the Battle of the Masts around 655.

From Egypt, Arab armies advanced west into Libya and later conquered North Africa. Conversion to Islam among Egyptians was gradual, and Christians probably remained a majority for several centuries; Arabic slowly replaced Greek and Coptic as the language of government and daily life.

Myths and facts

The best-known legend says Caliph Umar ordered the books of the Library of Alexandria to be burned to heat the city’s baths. The story first appears in writers such as Ibn al-Qifti and Abd al-Latif al-Baghdadi around 1200, more than five centuries after the event. Contemporary sources, including John of Nikiu, do not mention it, and the library had largely disappeared long before. Most historians regard the tale as a legend.

Timeline

• 639, December: Amr ibn al-As crosses into Egypt.
• 640, early: Pelusium falls after a siege.
• 640, July: Arab victory over the Byzantine army near Heliopolis.
• 640, September: siege of Babylon fortress begins.
• 641, February: death of Emperor Heraclius.
• 641, April: Babylon fortress surrenders.
• 641, 8 November: treaty for the surrender of Alexandria.
• 642, September: the last Byzantine troops leave Alexandria.
• 645–646: Byzantine reoccupation of Alexandria is defeated by Amr.

Why it matters

The conquest of Egypt gave the caliphate its richest province, a major grain supply and a base for expansion across North Africa and into the Mediterranean. It ended almost seven centuries of Roman rule on the Nile and began Egypt’s long history as a central land of the Islamic world.