CHAP. VII.
Reading edition
Abstract of the history of Africa in general, and Egypt in particular, under the domination of the Arabs.
As this portion of history is little known, and may lend illustration to many topics discussed in these pages, I have been induced to insert a brief idea of it, abstracted chiefly, in what regards Africa, from the valuable work of Cardonne, a compilation which has saved me much research into the original writers[16].
Syria and Persia had already fallen under the rapid progress of the followers of Mohammed, and it was so early as the 19th year of the Hejira, the 640th of the Christian æra, that the Chalîf Omar commanded Amrû to subdue Egypt. Memphis, or Misr, submitted through the treason of the governor; but Alexandria stood a siege of fourteen months. The loss of the library has been much regretted; it was probably replete with the absurd philosophy and divinity of the times; and amid the number of libraries in the Greek empire, it is impossible to conceive, that the work of any truly valuable author should have existed only in one copy.
A.D. 643. A famine desolating Arabia, Amrû re-opened the canal, formed by the Romans from Memphis to the Red Sea. The capital seat of the Chalîfs being soon after removed from Medina to Damascus, it was neglected and went to ruin.
A.D. 647. Abd-ullah, governor of Egypt, proceeds to the conquest of Africa. He vanquishes the Greek patrician Gregory in the battle of Yakûb.