Conquest of Alexandria

The conquest of Alexandria completed the Muslim takeover of Egypt, one of the wealthiest provinces of the Byzantine Empire and the breadbasket of the ancient world. Amr ibn al-As had entered Egypt in 639 CE with a relatively small force, winning a series of engagements culminating in the Battle of Heliopolis in 640 CE. After capturing Babylon Fortress (near modern Cairo), Muslim forces advanced on Alexandria, the imperial capital of Egypt. A fourteen-month siege ended when the Byzantine garrison negotiated a surrender and withdrew by sea. Amr entered the city peacefully and wrote to Caliph Umar ibn al-Khattab describing its vastness: 'I have taken a city of which I can only say that it contains 4,000 palaces, 4,000 baths, 400 theatres, 1,200 greengrocers and 40,000 tributary Jews.' The city's Christian Coptic population, long oppressed by Byzantine religious authorities, largely welcomed the change. Egypt's agricultural output then helped sustain the early Islamic state.