Digging of the Canal of the Commander of the Faithful

After the food caravan from Egypt reached Medina, Umar summoned Amr ibn al-As with a group of Egyptians and told him it had come to his mind to dig a canal from the Nile flowing into the sea, since carrying food by camel was slow and fell short of what was needed. ¹

The Egyptians with Amr disliked the plan, fearing harm to Egypt, and urged Amr to make it seem a great matter to the commander of the faithful and tell him it could not be done. When Amr returned, Umar laughed and told him what they had said before he could report it, and Amr was astonished. ^{1 2}

Umar ordered him to press on and finish within the year. Amr dug the canal at the edge of al-Fustat known as the Canal of the Commander of the Faithful, leading it from the Nile to al-Qulzum; before the year was out ships were sailing in it, carrying food to Medina and Mecca. ² Food went by it until after Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz; later governors neglected it, sand took it over and it was cut. ²

In a report from Muhammad ibn Abd al-Rahman ("I think from Urwa", says the transmitter), Amr told Umar of a canal that had carried ships before Islam and then silted up, and the Coptic notables feared Egypt's grain would be carried to the Hijaz, to which Umar replied that only the food of the people of Medina and Mecca would go by it. ^{2 3} A third report says a Copt showed Amr its course in return for being freed from the jizya. ⁴