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فتح الإسكندرية
# Conquest of Alexandria (فتح الإسكندرية)
The conquest of Alexandria in 21 AH (641 CE) marked the fall of one of the ancient world's greatest cities to the Muslim forces under Amr ibn al-As رضي الله عنه. It was the culmination of a remarkable campaign through Egypt that had begun just two years earlier, transforming the wealthiest province of the Byzantine Empire into a land where Islam would eventually become the dominant faith.
Egypt was the breadbasket of the Mediterranean world. Its fertile Nile Delta fed Constantinople and much of the Byzantine Empire. Alexandria, founded by Alexander the Great in 331 BCE, had been for centuries one of the world's great centers of learning, commerce, and culture. Its harbor was among the most active in the ancient world. Its library (largely destroyed by the time of the conquest) had once been the greatest repository of knowledge in antiquity. The city's population was cosmopolitan — Greek-speaking Byzantines, Egyptian Copts, Jews, and merchants from across the Mediterranean.
Byzantine control of Egypt, however, was far from universally welcomed. The Coptic Christian majority had long chafed under Byzantine religious persecution. Constantinople enforced the decisions of the Council of Chalcedon (451 CE), which the Coptic church rejected as heresy. Coptic bishops had been deposed, Coptic clergy harassed, and the native Egyptians treated as second-class subjects in their own land. When the Muslim armies arrived, they came not merely as conquerors but, for many Copts, as liberators from a religious yoke.
Amr ibn al-As رضي الله عنه was one of the most capable commanders of early Islam — a man who had been a shrewd merchant and diplomat before his conversion, and who brought those qualities to military leadership. He requested permission from Caliph Umar رضي الله عنه to invade Egypt, and after initial hesitation, the Caliph authorized the campaign.
Amr crossed into Egypt in 639 CE with approximately 4,000 men — a force that appears almost absurdly small given the scale of what it accomplished. He was reinforced over the following months, but the Muslim forces throughout the Egyptian campaign were consistently outnumbered by Byzantine garrisons.
The Battle of Heliopolis in July 640 CE was the decisive engagement. Amr defeated the Byzantine general Theodore, who retreated north toward Alexandria. The ancient Babylon Fortress, a heavily fortified position at the apex of the Nile Delta near modern Cairo, held out for months before surrendering in April 641 CE. With Babylon in Muslim hands, the route to Alexandria lay open.
Alexandria's natural defenses were formidable. The city was situated on a narrow strip of land between the Mediterranean Sea to the north and Lake Mareotis to the south, making it approachable by land only from the east. Its walls were thick, its garrison substantial, and — in theory — it could be indefinitely supplied by sea as long as the Byzantine navy held the Mediterranean.
The siege lasted approximately fourteen months. It was a grinding affair marked by repeated sorties from the Byzantine garrison and equally determined Muslim attacks. The Byzantines made several attempts to break the siege, and the fighting was serious. But the Muslim forces maintained their investment of the city, cutting off land approaches while the Byzantine fleet, preoccupied with its own troubles, did not provide the sustained relief the garrison needed.
Amr's description of Alexandria in a letter to Caliph Umar رضي الله عنه has been preserved in historical sources: he wrote of a city with 4,000 palaces, 4,000 baths, 400 theaters, 12,000 dealers in green herbs, and 40,000 Jews. Whether these numbers were precise or rhetorical, they conveyed the city's staggering scale to a Caliph who had never seen anything like it.
The city surrendered on terms in 641 CE. The Byzantine garrison and civilian Greeks who wished to leave were permitted to depart by sea. Those who remained — and many of the Coptic population chose to stay — were granted the standard protections of the dhimmi system: security of life and property, freedom to practice their faith, and protection of their churches.
The Coptic response to Muslim rule was telling. The Coptic Patriarch Benjamin, who had been in hiding from Byzantine persecution for over a decade, returned to Alexandria after the Muslim conquest. Amr received him and restored his authority over the Coptic church. Benjamin reportedly declared that no enemy of Byzantine power had ever restored the Copts' rights as the Muslims had. This was not a conquered people lamenting their fate — it was a community that had found relief from a harsher ruler.
Caliph Umar رضي الله عنه, upon receiving news of the conquest, asked Amr for a description of Alexandria. Amr's response — that it contained uncountable wonders — prompted Umar to ask more practical questions: how were the local people being treated? Were the terms of surrender being honored? Were the Copts being protected in their faith?
This exchange reflects the Islamic understanding that conquest obligated governance, not merely exploitation. The wealth of Egypt was a trust, not a prize.
Under Muslim rule, Egypt continued its role as an agricultural powerhouse. The Nile's annual floods were as reliable under Muslim governance as they had been under any previous administration. The tax burden on Egyptian peasants was, by most historical accounts, lighter under early Muslim rule than under the late Byzantine administration, which had increasingly extracted resources to fund wars with Persia and the defense of Constantinople.
The Muslim conquest also opened Egypt to the broader Islamic world of scholarship and commerce. Alexandria's role as a center of learning did not end with the conquest — it transformed, as Arabic became increasingly the language of administration and later of culture, and as the Islamic scholarly tradition began to incorporate and build on the knowledge preserved in Egyptian centers.
The conquest of Alexandria in 641 CE effectively ended Byzantine power in Africa. Within a decade, Muslim forces would push westward into Libya and Tunisia, beginning the long campaign that would eventually reach Morocco and, by 711 CE, cross into Spain. Egypt itself would become one of the most important centers of Islamic civilization, producing scholars, Sufi masters, jurists, and theologians whose contributions shaped the faith for centuries.
Amr ibn al-As رضي الله عنه remained as governor and founded the city of Fustat — precursor to modern Cairo — as the administrative capital, preferring not to govern from Alexandria itself. He is remembered in Egypt to this day; the Mosque of Amr ibn al-As, which he built in Fustat after the conquest, is considered the first mosque built in Africa and still stands as an active place of worship.