Conquest of Egypt and Alexandria

فتح مصر والإسكندرية

20 AH

Al-Fustat → Al-Arish → Al-Farama (Pelusium)

Tabari records it under year 20 with dating dispute: Ibn Ishaq year 20, Sayf year 16 ^{1 2}, heading 'the report of the conquest of Egypt and Alexandria' ³. In al-Baladhuri: Amr ibn al-As (may God be pleased with him) was besieging Caesarea when the armies returned from Yarmuk; leaving his son over it he marched on Egypt on his own initiative with three thousand five hundred — or, some say, on Umar's written order — camping at al-Arish, then al-Farama where he fought its defenders and seized their camp, then pitched at Jinan al-Rayhan while Fustat's people ditched — the city being called al-Yuna, renamed al-Fustat by the Muslims as 'the people's encampment and gathering', or for the tent Amr pitched; al-Zubayr ibn al-Awwam (may God be pleased with him) joined him with ten thousand — or twelve, among them Kharija ibn Hudhafa al-Adawi and Umayr ibn Wahb al-Jumahi — fighting from one face while Amr fought from another, until Zubayr brought a ladder, mounted the fortress bare-sworded crying takbir, the Muslims echoing and following, and the fortress fell by force; Umar established its people as dhimma, jizya on their necks and kharaj on their land; Zubayr laid khittas at Misr and Alexandria, built his known house, and his ladder stayed in Egypt. On the manner of the conquest they differed: some said by force, others by treaty — the soundest in Abdallah ibn Amr's account being that his father fought al-Yuna's folk and took it by overpowering, then its king compounded with him on Syria's terms — two dinars on every free male save the poor, a dinar and three ardabbs of grain on the jarib, three ardabbs of wheat plus a qist each of oil, honey and vinegar per landholder as the Muslims' provision gathered in Dar al-Rizq, and for every Muslim yearly a wool jubba, a burnus or turban, drawers and boots or its worth in Coptic cloth — covenanting that their women and children be neither sold nor enslaved and their wealth and treasures remain theirs; al-Yuna's king then compounded for all Egypt on the same. Another chain has 'we opened Egypt without covenant', Amr himself preaching that no Copt held a pact with him save Antabulus's people; Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz wrote his governor Hayyan ibn Shurayh that Egypt was conquered by force without covenant or contract; Urwa ibn al-Zubayr — who dwelt there seven years — held Amr conquered it only by treaty, covenant and fixed levy; and Uqba ibn Amir al-Juhani testified that Egypt's people hold covenant and contract: secure in wealth, blood, women and children, none of them sold, a kharaj never to be increased, and protection from their enemy's fear.