country where Amrou lay, with a considerable army. The weather was very
cold, and the Christians were quite disheartened, having been frequently
beaten and discouraged with the daily increasing power of the Saracens,
so that a great many grew weary of the service and withdrew from the
army. Constantine, having no hopes of victory, and fearing lest the
Saracens should seize Cæsarea, took the opportunity of a tempestuous
night to move off, and left his camp to the Saracens. Amrou, acquainting
Abu Obeidah with all that had happened, received express orders to march
directly to Cæsarea, where he promised to join him speedily, in order to
go against Tripoli, Acre, and Tyre. A short time after this, Tripoli was
surprised by the treachery of Youkinna, who succeeded in getting
possession of it on a sudden, and without any noise. Within a few days
of its capture there arrived in the harbor about fifty ships from Cyprus
and Crete, with provisions and arms which were to go to Constantine. The
officers, not knowing that Tripoli was fallen into the hands of new
masters, made no scruple of landing there, where they were courteously
received by Youkinna, who proffered the utmost of his service, and
promised to go along with them, but immediately seized both them and
their ships, and delivered the town into the hands of Kaled, who was
just come.
With these ships the traitor Youkinna sailed to Tyre, where he told the
inhabitants that he had brought arms and provisions for Constantine's
army; upon which he was kindly received, and, landing, he was liberally
entertained with nine hundred of his men. But being betrayed by one of
his own soldiers, he and his crew were seized and bound, receiving all
the while such treatment from the soldiers as their villanous practices
well deserved. In the mean time Yezid Ebn Abu Sofian, being detached by
Abu Obeidah from the camp before Cæsarea, came within sight of Tyre. The
governor upon this caused Youkinna and his men to be conveyed to the
castle, and there secured, and prepared for the defence of the town.
Perceiving that Yezid had with him but two thousand men in all, he
resolved to make a sally. In the mean time the rest of the inhabitants
ran up to the walls to see the engagement. While they were fighting,
Youkinna and his men were set at liberty by one Basil, of whom they give
the following account, viz.: That this Basil going one day to pay a
visit to Bahira the monk, the caravan of the Koreishites came by, with
which were Kadija's camels, under the care of Mahomet. As he looked
toward the caravan, he beheld Mahomet in the middle of it, and above him
there was a cloud to keep him from the sun. Then the caravan having
halted, as Mahomet leaned against an old, withered tree, it immediately
brought forth leaves. Bahira, perceiving this, made an entertainment for
the caravan, and invited them into the monastery. They all went, leaving
Mahomet behind with the camels. Bahira, missing him, asked if they were
all present. "Yes," they said, "all but a little boy we have left to
look after their things and feed the camels." "What is his name?" says
Bahira. They told him, "Mahomet Ebn Abdallah." Bahira asked if his
father and mother were not both dead, and if he was not brought up by
his grandfather and his uncle. Being informed that it was so, he said:
"O Koreish! Set a high value upon him, for he is your lord, and by him
will your power be great both in this world and that to come; for he is
your ornament and glory." When they asked him how he knew that, Bahira
answered, "Because as you were coming, there was never a tree nor stone
nor clod but bowed itself and worshipped God." Moreover, Bahira told
this Basil that a great many prophets had leaned against this tree and
sat under it since it was first withered, but that it never bore any
leaves before. And I heard him say, says this same Basil: "This is the
prophet concerning whom Isa (Jesus) spake. Happy is he that believes in
him and follows him and gives credit to his mission." This Basil, after
the visit to Bahira, had gone to Constantinople and other parts of the
Greek Emperor's territories, and upon information of the great success
of the followers of this prophet was abundantly convinced of the truth
of his mission. This inclined him, having so fair an opportunity
offered, to release Youkinna and his men; who, sending word to the
ships, the rest of their forces landed and joined them. In the mean time
a messenger in disguise was sent to acquaint Yezid with what was done.
As soon as he returned, Youkinna was for falling upon the townsmen upon
the wall; but Basil said, "Perhaps God might lead some of them into the
right way," and persuaded him to place the men so as to prevent their
coming down from the wall. This done, they cried out, "La Ilaha," etc.
The people, perceiving themselves betrayed and the prisoners at liberty,
were in the utmost confusion, none of them being able to stir a step or
lift up a hand. The Saracens in the camp, hearing the noise in the city,
knew what it meant, and, marching up, Youkinna opened the gates and let
them in. Those that were in the city fled, some one way and some
another, and were pursued by the Saracens and put to the sword. Those
upon the wall cried, "Quarter!" but Yezid told them that since they had
not surrendered, but the city was taken by force, they were all slaves.
"However," said he, "we of our own accord set you free, upon condition
you pay tribute; and if any of you has a mind to change his religion, he
shall fare as well as we do." The greatest part of them turned
Mahometans. When Constantine heard of the loss of Tripoli and Tyre his
heart failed him, and taking shipping with his family and the greater
part of his wealth he departed for Constantinople. All this while Amrou
ben-el-Ass lay before Cæsarea. In the morning when the people came to
inquire after Constantine, and could hear no tidings of him nor his
family, they consulted together, and with one consent surrendered the
city to Amrou, paying down for their security two thousand pieces of
silver, and delivering into his hands all that Constantine had been
obliged to leave behind him of his property. Thus was Cæsarea lost in
the year of our Lord 638, being the seventeenth year of the Hegira and
the fifth of Omar's reign, which answers to the twenty-ninth year of the
emperor Heraclius. After the taking of Cæsarea all the other places in
Syria which as yet held out, namely, Ramlah, Acre, Joppa, Ascalon, Gaza,
Sichem (or Nablos), and Tiberias, surrendered, and in a little time
after the people of Beiro Zidon, Jabalah, and Laodicea followed their
example; so that there remained nothing more for the Saracens to do in
Syria, who, in little more than six years from the time of their first
expedition in Abu-Beker's reign, had succeeded in subduing the whole of
that large, wealthy, and populous country.
Syria did not remain long in the possession of those persons who had the
chief hand in subduing it, for in the eighteenth year of the Hegira the
mortality in Syria, both among men and beasts, was so terrible,
particularly at Emaus and the adjacent territory, that the Arabs called
that year the year of destruction. By that pestilence the Saracens lost
five-and-twenty thousand men, among whom were Abu Obeidah, who was then
fifty-eight years old; Serjabil Ebn Hasanah, formerly Mahomet's
secretary; and Yezid Ebn Abu Sofian, with several other officers of
note. Kaled survived them about three years, and then died; but the
place of his burial--consequently of his death, for they did not use in
those days to carry them far--is uncertain; some say at Hems, others at
Medina.
FOOTNOTES:
[66] Those of Medina are called by that name because they helped Mahomet
in his flight from Mecca.
[67] Those that fled with him are called Mohajerins; by these names the
inhabitants of Mecca and Medina are often distinguished.
SARACENS CONQUER EGYPT
DESTRUCTION OF THE LIBRARY AT ALEXANDRIA
A.D. 640
WASHINGTON IRVING
Who shall estimate the loss to civilization and the world that has
been caused by the destruction of accumulated stores of books,
through the crass ignorance or stupid bigotry of benighted rulers?
The chronicles record a number of such vandal acts. Hwangti, one of
China's greatest monarchs, he who built the Great Wall of China,
attempted the complete extinction of literature in that country,
B.C. 213. That prince, being at one time strongly opposed by
certain men of letters, expressed his hatred and contempt, not only
of the literary class, but of literature itself, and resorted to
extreme measures of coercion. All books were proscribed, and orders
issued to burn every work except those relating to medicine,
agriculture, and science. The destruction was carried out with
terrible completeness. The burning of the books was accompanied by
the execution of five hundred of the _literati_ and by the
banishment of many thousands.
The destruction of the Alexandrian Library, by command of Omar, was
as complete as the extinction of literature in China by Hwangti, as
head of the Moslem religion.
Omar, using the intrepid Amru, was vicariously proselyting in true
Mahometan style--in one hand offering the _Koran_, the while the
other extended the sword.
After a successful campaign in Palestine, Omar's victorious banners
were planted in the historic soil of the Pharaohs. A protracted
siege of seven months found Amru master of the royal city of
Alexandria. The library there was famed as the greatest magazine of
literature. But this availed nothing with the ruthless Omar, for he
doomed it to annihilation.
Prof. Thomas Smith says: "The library had been collected at
fabulous expense of labor and money, from all countries of the
world. Its destruction was a wanton act; but its perpetrator
showed, like the loving spouse 'of another noted personage, that
'though on pleasure he was bent, he had a frugal mind.' He did not
consume the books on their shelves, or in whatever repositories
contained them, although doubtless they would have made a beautiful
blaze. He utilized them as fuel for heating the baths of the city;
and we are told that they sufficed to heat the water for four
thousand such baths for six months. With an average share of
persuasibility, when it is not against our will to be convinced, we
stagger at the statement that seven hundred and thirty thousand
furnaces could have been supplied with fuel from the contents of
even that magnificent palace, and therefore venture to suggest that
the papyri and palm-leaf manuscripts were used rather as
fire-lighters than as fuel. Even this is a rather large order; but
undoubtedly the collection was enormous. The reason tradition
ascribes to Omar for this act has never, so far as we know, been
disputed till quite recently, when 'historical criticism' has taken
it in hand. 'The contents of these books are either in accordance
with the teaching of the _Koran_ or they are opposed to it. If in
accord, then they are useless, since the _Koran_ itself is
sufficient; and if in opposition, they are pernicious and must be
destroyed.'
"But the piecemeal destruction of many hundreds of thousands of
manuscripts was no trifling task, even for a despotic caliph. A few
escaped their doom; how, we do not know. Perhaps some officer
annexed for himself some manuscript that struck him as specially
beautiful; or perhaps some stoker at some bath rejected one as slow
of ignition. At all events a few--probably very few--were
preserved, and among them must have been copies of the writings of
Euclid and Ptolemy, the _Elements_ of the one, the _Almagest_ of
the other."
A proof of the religious infatuation, or the blind confidence in
destiny, which hurried the Moslem commanders of those days into the most
extravagant enterprises, is furnished in the invasion of the once proud
empire of the Pharaohs, the mighty, the mysterious Egypt, with an army
of merely five thousand men. The caliph Omar himself, though he had
suggested this expedition, seems to have been conscious of its rashness,
or rather to have been chilled by the doubts of his prime counsellor
Othman; for, while Amru was on the march, he despatched missives after
him to the following effect: "If this epistle reach thee before thou
hast crossed the boundary of Egypt, come instantly back; but if it find
thee within the Egyptian territory, march on with the blessing of Allah,
and be assured I will send thee all necessary aid."
The bearer of the letter overtook Amru while yet within the bounds of
Syria; that wary general either had secret information or made a shrewd
surmise as to the purport of his errand, and continued his march across
the border without admitting him to an audience. Having encamped at the
Egyptian village of Arish, he received the courier with all due respect,
and read the letter aloud in the presence of his officers. When he had
finished, he demanded of those about him whether they were in Syria or
Egypt. "In Egypt," was the reply. "Then," said Amru, "we will proceed,
with the blessing of Allah, and fulfil the commands of the Caliph."
The first place to which he laid siege was Farwak, or Pelusium, situated
on the shores of the Mediterranean, on the isthmus which separates that
sea from the Arabian Gulf, and connects Egypt with Syria and Arabia. It
was therefore considered the key to Egypt. A month's siege put Amru in
possession of the place; he then examined the surrounding country with
more forethought than was generally manifested by the Moslem conquerors,
and projected a canal across the isthmus, to connect the waters of the
Red Sea and the Mediterranean. His plan, however, was condemned by the
Caliph as calculated to throw open Arabia to a maritime invasion of the
Christians.
Amru now proceeded to Misrah, the Memphis of the ancients, and residence
of the early Egyptian kings. This city was at that time the strongest
fortress in Egypt, except Alexandria, and still retained much of its
ancient magnificence. It stood on the western bank of the Nile, above
the Delta, and a little east of the pyramids. The citadel was of great
strength and well garrisoned, and had recently been surrounded with a
deep ditch, into which nails and spikes had been thrown, to impede
assailants.
The Arab armies, rarely provided with the engines necessary for the
attack of fortified places, generally beleaguered them, cut off all
supplies, attacked all foraging parties that sallied forth, and thus
destroyed the garrison in detail or starved it to a surrender. This was
the reason of the long duration of their sieges. This of Misrah, or
Memphis, lasted seven months, in the course of which the little army of
Amru was much reduced by frequent skirmishings. At the end of this time
he received a reinforcement of four thousand men, sent to him at his
urgent entreaties by the Caliph. Still his force would have been
insufficient for the capture of the place had he not been aided by the
treachery of its governor, Mokawkas.
This man, an original Egyptian, or Copt, by birth, and of noble rank,
was a profound hypocrite. Like most of the Copts, he was of the Jacobite
sect, who denied the double nature of Christ. He had dissembled his
sectarian creed, however, and deceived the emperor Heraclius by a show
of loyalty, so as to be made prefect of his native province and governor
of the city. Most of the inhabitants of Memphis were Copts and Jacobite
Christians, and held their Greek fellow-citizens, who were of the
regular Catholic Church of Constantinople, in great antipathy.
Mokawkas, in the course of his administration, had collected, by taxes
and tribute, an immense amount of treasure, which he had deposited in
the citadel. He saw that the power of the Emperor was coming to an end
in this quarter, and thought the present a good opportunity to provide
for his own fortune. Carrying on a secret correspondence with the Moslem
general, he agreed to betray the place into his hands on condition of
receiving the treasure as a reward for his treason. He accordingly, at
an appointed time, removed the greater part of the garrison from the
citadel to an island in the Nile. The fortress was immediately assailed
by Amru, at the head of his fresh troops, and was easily carried by
assault, the Copts rendering no assistance.
The Greek soldiery, on the Moslem standard being hoisted on the citadel,
saw through the treachery, and, giving up all as lost, escaped in their
ships to the mainland; upon which the prefect surrendered the place by
capitulation. An annual tribute of two ducats a head was levied on all
the inhabitants of the district, with the exception of old men, women,
and boys under the age of sixteen years. It was further conditioned that
the Moslem army should be furnished with provisions, for which they
would pay, and that the inhabitants of the country should forthwith
build bridges over all the streams on the way to Alexandria. It was also
agreed that every Mussulman travelling through the country should be
entitled to three days' hospitality, free of charge.
The traitor Mokawkas was put in possession of his ill-gotten wealth. He
begged of Amru to be taxed with the Copts and always to be enrolled
among them, declaring his abhorrence of the Greeks and their doctrines;
urging Amru to persecute them with unremitting violence. He extended
his sectarian bigotry even into the grave, stipulating that at his death
he should be buried in the Christian Jacobite church of St. John at
Alexandria.
Amru, who was politic as well as brave, seeing the irreconcilable hatred
of the Coptic or Jacobite Christians to the Greeks, showed some favor to
that sect, in order to make use of them in his conquest of the country.
He even prevailed upon their patriarch Benjamin to emerge from his
desert and hold a conference with him, and subsequently declared that
"he had never conversed with a Christian priest of more innocent manners
or venerable aspect." This piece of diplomacy had its effect, for we are
told that all the Copts above and below Memphis swore allegiance to the
Caliph.
Amru now pressed on for the city of Alexandria, distant about one
hundred and twenty-five miles. According to stipulation, the people of
the country repaired the roads and erected bridges to facilitate his
march; the Greeks, however, driven from various quarters by the progress
of their invaders, had collected at different posts on the island of the
Delta and the channels of the Nile, and disputed with desperate but
fruitless obstinacy the onward course of the conquerors. The severest
check was given at Keram al Shoraik, by the late garrison of Memphis,
who had fortified themselves there after retreating from the island of
the Nile. For three days did they maintain a gallant conflict with the
Moslems, and then retired in good order to Alexandria. With all the
facilities furnished to them on their march, it cost the Moslems
two-and-twenty days to fight their way to that great city.
Alexandria now lay before them, the metropolis of wealthy Egypt, the
emporium of the East, a place strongly fortified, stored with all the
munitions of war, open by sea to all kinds of supplies and
reinforcements, and garrisoned by Greeks, aggregated from various
quarters, who here were to make the last stand for their Egyptian
empire. It would seem that nothing short of an enthusiasm bordering on
madness could have led Amru and his host on an enterprise against this
powerful city.
The Moslem leader, on planting his standard before the place, summoned
it to surrender on the usual terms, which being promptly refused, he
prepared for a vigorous siege. The garrison did not wait to be attacked,
but made repeated sallies and fought with desperate valor. Those who
gave greatest annoyance to the Moslems were their old enemies, the Greek
troops from Memphis. Amru, seeing that the greatest defence was from a
main tower, or citadel, made a gallant assault upon it and carried it,
sword in hand. The Greek troops, however, rallied to that point from all
parts of the city; the Moslems, after a furious struggle, gave way, and
Amru, his faithful slave Werdan, and one of his generals, named Moslema
Ibn al Mokalled, fighting to the last, were surrounded, overpowered, and
taken prisoners.
The Greeks, unaware of the importance of their captives, led them before
the governor. He demanded of them, haughtily, what was their object in
thus overrunning the world and disturbing the quiet of peaceable
neighbors. Amru made the usual reply that they came to spread the faith
of Islam; and that it was their intention, before they laid by the
sword, to make the Egyptians either converts or tributaries. The
boldness of his answer and the loftiness of his demeanor awakened the
suspicions of the governor, who, supposing him to be a warrior of note
among the Arabs, ordered one of his guards to strike off his head. Upon
this Werdan, the slave, understanding the Greek language, seized his
master by the collar, and, giving him a buffet on the cheek, called him
an impudent dog, and ordered him to hold his peace, and let his
superiors speak. Moslema, perceiving the meaning of the slave, now
interposed, and made a plausible speech to the governor, telling him
that Amru had thoughts of raising the siege, having received a letter to
that effect from the Caliph, who intended to send ambassadors to treat
for peace, and assuring the governor that, if permitted to depart, they
would make a favorable report to Amru.
The governor, who, if Arabian chronicles may be believed on this point,
must have been a man of easy faith, ordered the prisoners to be set at
liberty; but the shouts of the besieging army on the safe return of
their general soon showed him how completely he had been duped.
But scanty details of the siege of Alexandria have reached the
Christian reader, yet it was one of the longest, most obstinately
contested, and sanguinary in the whole course of the Moslem wars. It
endured fourteen months with various success; the Moslem army was
repeatedly reinforced and lost twenty-three thousand men. At length
their irresistible ardor and perseverance prevailed; the capital of
Egypt was conquered and the Greek inhabitants were dispersed in all
directions. Some retreated in considerable bodies into the interior of
the country, and fortified themselves in strongholds; others took refuge
in the ships and put to sea.
Amru, on taking possession of the city, found it nearly abandoned; he
prohibited his troops from plundering, and, leaving a small garrison to
guard the place, hastened with his main army in pursuit of the fugitive
Greeks. In the mean time the ships, which had taken off a part of the
garrison, were still lingering on the coast, and tidings reached them
that the Moslem general had departed and had left the captured city
nearly defenceless. They immediately made sail back for Alexandria, and
entered the port in the night. The Greek soldiers surprised the
sentinels, got possession of the city, and put most of the Moslems they
found there to the sword.
Amru was in full pursuit of the Greek fugitives when he heard of the
recapture of the city. Mortified at his own negligence in leaving so
rich a conquest with so slight a guard, he returned in all haste,
resolved to retake it by storm. The Greeks, however, had fortified
themselves strongly in the castle and made stout resistance. Amru was
obliged, therefore, to besiege it a second time, but the siege was
short. The castle was carried by assault; many of the Greeks were cut to
pieces, the rest escaped once more to their ships and now gave up the
capital as lost. All this occurred in the nineteenth year of the Hegira,
and the year 640 of the Christian era.