yet illustrious as the capital of a province or a kingdom; and the inhabitants, by anticipating their submission and pleading their poverty, obtained a moderate composition for their lives and religion. But the castle of Aleppo, distinct from the city, stood erect on a lofty artificial mound: the sides were sharpened to a precipice, and faced with freestone; and the breadth of the ditch might be filled with water from the neighbouring springs. After the loss of three thousand men, the garrison was still equal to the defence; and Youkinna, their valiant and hereditary chief, had murdered his brother, a holy monk, for daring to pronounce the name of peace. In a siege of four or five months, the hardest of the Syrian war, great numbers of the Saracens were killed and wounded: their removal to the distance of a mile could not seduce the vigilance of Youkinna; nor could the christians be terrified by the execution of three hundred captives, whom they beheaded before the castle wall. The silence, and at length the complaints, of Abu Obeidah informed the caliph that their hope and patience were consumed at the foot of this impregnable fortress. "I am variously affected," replied Omar, “by the difference of your success; but I charge you by no means to raise the siege of the castle. Your retreat would diminish the reputation of our arms, and encourage the infidels to fall upon you on all sides. Remain before Aleppo till God shall determine the event, and forage with your horse round the adjacent country." The exhortation of the commander of the faithful was fortified by a supply of volunteers from all the tribes of Arabia, who arrived in the camp on horses or camels. Among these was Dames, of a servile birth, but of gigantic size, and intrepid resolution. The forty-seventh day of his service he proposed, with only thirty men, to make an attempt on the castle. The experience and testimony of Caled recommended his offer; and Abu Obeidah admonished his brethren not to despise the baser origin of Dames, since he himself, could he relinquish the public care, would cheerfully serve under the banner of the slave. His design was covered by the appearance of a retreat; and the camp of the Saracens was pitched about a league from Aleppo. The thirty adventurers lay in ambush at the foot of the hill; and Dames at length succeeded in his inquiries, though he was provoked by the ignorance of his Greek captives. "God curse these dogs," said the illiterate Arab, "what a strange barbarous language they speak!" At the darkest hour of the night, he scaled the most accessible height, which he had diligently surveyed, a place where the stones q The Persian historian of Timur (tom. iii. 1. v. c. 21. p. 300.) describes the castle of Aleppo as founded on a rock one hundred cubits in height; a proof, says the French translator, that he had never visited the place. It is now in the midst of the city, of no strength, with a single gate, the circuit is about 500 or 600 paces, and the ditch half full of stagnant water. (Voyages de Tavernier, tom. i. p. 149. Pocock, vol. ii. part i. p. 150.) The fortresses of the east are contemptible to a European eye. r The date of the conquest of Antioch by the Arabs is of some importance. By comparing the years of the world in the chronography of Theophanes with the years of the Hegira in the history of Elmaciu, we shall determine, that it was taken between January 23d and Sep were less entire, or the slope less perpendicular, or the guard less vigilant. Seven of the stoutest Saracens mounted on each other's shoulders, and the weight of the column was sustained on the broad and sinewy back of the gigantic slave. The foremost in this painful ascent could grasp and climb the lowest part of the battlements: they silently stabbed and cast down the sentinels; and the thirty brethren, repeating a pious ejaculation, “O apostle of God, help and deliver us!" were successively drawn up by the long folds of their turbans. With bold and cautious footsteps, Dames explored the palace of the governor, who celebrated, in riotous merriment, the festival of his deliverance. From thence, returning to his companions, he assaulted on the inside the entrance of the castle. They overpowered the guard, unbolted the gate, let down the drawbridge, and defended the narrow pass, till the arrival of Caled, with the dawn of day, relieved their danger and assured their conquest. Youkinna, a formidable foe, became an active and useful proselyte; and the general of the Saracens expressed his regard for the most humble merit, by detaining the army at Aleppo till Dames was cured of his honourable wounds. The capital of Syria was still covered by the castle of Aazaz and the iron bridge of the Orontes. After the loss of these important posts, and the defeat of the last of the Roman armies, the luxury of Antioch trembled and obeyed. Her safety was ransomed with three hundred thousand pieces of gold; but the throne of the successors of Alexander, the seat of the Roman government in the east, which had been decorated by Cæsar with the titles of free, and holy, and inviolate, was degraded under the yoke of the caliphs to the secondary rank of a provincial town.' Flight of Hera clius, In the life of Heraclius, the glories of the Persian war are clouded on either hand by the disgrace and weakness of his more early and his later days. When the successors of Mahomet unsheathed the sword of war and religion, he was astonished at the boundless prospect of toil and danger; his nature was indolent, nor could the infirm and frigid age of the emperor be kindled to a second effort. The sense of shame, and the importunities of the Syrians, prevented his hasty departure from the scene of action; but the hero was no more; and the loss of Damascus and Jerusalem, the bloody fields of Aiznadin and Yermuk, may be imputed in some degree to the absence or misconduct of the sovereign. Instead of defending the sepulchre of Christ, he involved the church and state in a metaphysical controversy for the unity of his will; and while Heratember 1st of the year of Christ 638. (Pagi, Critica, in Baron. Annal. tom. ii. p. 812, 813.) Al Wakidi (Ockley, vol. i. p. 314.) assigns that event to Tuesday, August 21st, an inconsistent date; since Easter fell that year on April 5th, the 21st of August must have been a Friday. (See the Tables of the Art de Verifier les Dates.) His bounteous edict, which tempted the grateful city to assume the victory of Pharsalia for a perpetual æra, is given ev Artioxeig th μητροπολει, ἱερα και ασύλω και αυτονομῳ, και αρχουση και προκαθη Here the avatns. John Malala, in Chron. p. 91. edit. Venet. We may distinguish his authentic information of domestic facts from his gross ignorance of general history. clius crowned the offspring of his second nuptials, | the last time, his sister and mother: "It is not," he was tamely stripped of the most valuable part of | said he, “the delicacies of Syria, or the fading detheir inheritance. In the cathedral of Antioch, in lights of this world, that have prompted me to the presence of the bishops, at the foot of the devote my life in the cause of religion. But I seek crucifix, he bewailed the sins of the prince and the favour of God and his apostle; and I have people; but his confession instructed the world, heard from one of the companions of the prophet, that it was vain, and perhaps impious, to resist the that the spirits of the martyrs will be lodged in the judgment of God. The Saracens were invincible in crops of green birds, who shall taste the fruits, and fact, since they were invincible in opinion; and the drink of the rivers, of paradise. Farewell, we desertion of Youkinna, his false repentance and re- shall meet again among the groves and fountains peated perfidy, might justify the suspicion of the which God has provided for his elect." The faithemperor, that he was encompassed by traitors and ful captives might exercise a passive and more apostates, who conspired to betray his person and arduous resolution; and a cousin of Mahomet is their country to the enemies of Christ. In the hour celebrated for refusing, after an abstinence of three of adversity, his superstition was agitated by the days, the wine and pork, the only nourishment that omens and dreams of a falling crown; and after was allowed by the malice of the infidels. The bidding an eternal farewell to Syria, he secretly frailty of some weaker brethren exasperated the embarked with a few attendants, and absolved the implacable spirit of fanaticism; and the father of faith of his subjects.* Constantine, his eldest son, Amer deplored, in pathetic strains, the apostasy had been stationed with forty thousand men at and damnation of a son, who had renounced the Cæsarea, the civil metropolis of the three provinces promises of God, and the intercession of the proof Palestine. But his private interest recalled him phet, to occupy, with the priests and deacons, the to the Byzantine court; and, after the flight of his lowest mansions of hell. The more fortunate Arabs, father, he felt himself an unequal champion to the who survived the war, and persevered in the faith, united force of the caliph. His vanguard was were restrained by their abstemious leader from boldly attacked by three hundred Arabs and a the abuse of prosperity. After a refreshment of thousand black slaves, who, in the depth of winter, three days, Abu Obeidah withdrew his troops from had climbed the snowy mountains of Libanus, and the pernicious contagion of the luxury of Antioch, who were speedily followed by the victorious squa- and assured the caliph that their religion and virtue drons of Caled himself. From the north and south could only be preserved by the hard discipline of the troops of Antioch and Jerusalem advanced along poverty and labour. But the virtue of Omar, howthe sea-shore, till their banners were joined under ever rigorous to himself, was kind and liberal to his End of the Syrian the walls of the Phoenician cities: brethren. After a just tribute of praise and thanksgiving, he dropt a tear of compassion; and sitting down on the ground, wrote an answer, in which he mildly censured the severity of his lieutenant : "God," said the successor of the prophet, "has not forbidden the use of the good things of this world to faithful men, and such as have performed good works. Therefore you ought to have given them leave to rest themselves, and partake freely of those good things which the country affordeth. If any of the Saracens have no family in Arabia, they may marry in Syria; and whosoever of them wants any female slaves, he may purchase as many as he hath occasion for." The conquerors prepared to use, or to abuse, this gracious permission; but the year of their triumph was marked by a mortality of men and cattle; and twenty-five thousand Saracens were snatched away from the possession of Syria. The death of Abu Obeidah might be lamented by the christians; but his brethren recollected that he was one of the ten elect whom the prophet had named as the heirs of paradise. Caled survived his brethren about three years; and the war. Tripoli and Tyre were betrayed; and a fleet of fifty transports, which entered without distrust the captive harbours, brought a seasonable supply of arms and provisions to the camp of the Saracens. Their labours were terminated by the unexpected surrender of Cæsarea: the Roman prince had embarked in the night;" and the defenceless citizens solicited their pardon with an offering of two hundred thousand pieces of gold. The remainder of the province, Ramlah, Ptolemais or Acre, Sichem or Neapolis, Gaza, Ascalon, Berytus, Sidon, Gabala, Laodicea, Apamea, Hierapolis, no longer presumed to dispute the will of the conqueror; and Syria bowed under the sceptre of the caliphs seven hundred years after Pompey had despoiled the last of the Macedonian kings. The conquerors The sieges and battles of six cam of Syria, paigns had consumed many thousands A. D. 633-639. of the Moslems. They died with the reputation and the cheerfulness of martyrs; and the simplicity of their faith may be expressed in the words of an Arabian youth, when he embraced, for See Ockley, (vol. i. p. 308. 312.) who laughs at the credulity of his author. When Heraclius bade farewell to Syria, Vale Syria et ultimum vale, he prophesied that the Romans should never re-enter the province till the birth of an inauspicious child, the future scourge of the empire. Abulfeda, p. 68. I am perfectly ignorant of the mystic sense, or nousense, of this prediction. u In the loose and obscure chronology of the times, I am guided by an authentic record, (in the book of ceremonies of Constantine Porphyrogenitus,) which certifies that, June 4. A. D. 638. the emperor crowned his younger son Heraclius, in the presence of his eldest, Con stantine, and in the palace of Constantinople; that January 1. A. D. 639, the royal procession visited the great church, and on the 4th of the same month, the hippodrome. x Sixty-five years before Christ, Syria Pontusque monumenta sunt Cn. Pompeii virtutis, (Vell. Patercul. ii. 38.) rather of his fortune and power: he adjudged Syria to be a Roman province, and the last of the Seleucides were incapable of drawing a sword in the defence of their patrimony. (See the original texts collected by Usher, Annal. p. 420.) y Abulfeda, Annal. Moslem. p. 73. Mahomet could artfully vary the praises of his disciples. Of Omar he was accustomed to say, that tomb of the Sword of God is shown in the neigh- | materials and the subject of a trophy. A gigantic bourhood of Emesa. His valour, which founded in Arabia and Syria the empire of the caliphs, was fortified by the opinion of a special providence; and as long as he wore a cap, which had been blessed by Mahomet, he deemed himself invulnerable amidst the darts of the infidels. Progress of the The place of the first conquerors was Syrian conquer- supplied by a new generation of their A. D. 639-655. children and countrymen: Syria became the seat and support of the house of Ommiyah; and the revenue, the soldiers, the ships of that powerful kingdom, were consecrated to enlarge on every side the empire of the caliphs. But the Saracens despise a superfluity of fame; and their historians scarcely condescend to mention the subordinate conquests which are lost in the splendour and rapidity of their victorious career. To the north of Syria, they passed mount Taurus, and reduced to their obedience the province of Cilicia, with its capital Tarsus, the ancient monument of the Assyrian kings. Beyond a second ridge of the same mountains, they spread the flame of war, rather than the light of religion, as far as the shores of the Euxine and the neighbourhood of Constantinople. To the east they advanced to the banks and sources of the Euphrates and Tigris: the longdisputed barrier of Rome and Persia was for ever confounded; the walls of Edessa and Amida, of Dara and Nisibis, which had resisted the arms and engines of Sapor or Nushirvan, were levelled in the dust; and the holy city of Abgarus might vainly produce the epistle or the image of Christ to an unbelieving conqueror. To the west, the Syrian kingdom is bounded by the sea: and the ruin of Aradus, a small island or peninsula on the coast, was postponed during ten years. But the hills of Libanus abounded in timber; the trade of Phoenicia was populous in mariners; and a fleet of seventeen hundred barks was equipped and manned by the natives of the desert. The imperial navy of the Romans fled before them from the Pamphylian rocks to the Hellespont; but the spirit of the emperor, a grandson of Heraclius, had been subdued before the combat by a dream and a pun. The Saracens rode masters of the sea; and the islands of Cyprus, Rhodes, and the Cyclades, were successively exposed to their rapacious visits. Three hundred years before the christian æra, the memorable though fruitless siege of Rhodes by Demetrius, had furnished that maritime republic with the b if a prophet could arise after himself, it would be Omar; and that in a general calamity, Omar would be excepted by the divine justice. (Ockley, vol. i. p. 221.) Al Walkidi had likewise written a history of the conquest of Diarbekir, or Mesopotamia, (Ockley, at the end of the second vol.) which our interpreters do not appear to have seen. The Chronicle of Dionysius of Telmar, the Jacobite patriarch, records the taking of Edessa, Å. D. 637, and of Dara, A. D. 641. (Asseman. Bibliot. Orient. tom. ii. p. 103.) and the attentive may glean some doubtful information from the Chro nography of Theophanes, (p. 285-287.) Most of the towns of Mesopotamia yielded by surrender. (Abulpharag. p. 112.) a He dreamt that he was at Thessalonica, a harmless and unmeaning vision; but his soothsayer, or his cowardice, understood the sure omen of a defeat concealed in that inauspicious word Oes aλ viny, Give to another the victory. (Theophan. p. 286. Zonaras, tom. ii. I. xiv. p. 88.) statue of Apollo or the sun, seventy cubits in height, was erected at the entrance of the harbour, a monument of the freedom and the arts of Greece. After standing fifty-six years, the colossus of Rhodes was overthrown by an earthquake; but the massy trunk, and huge fragments, lay scattered eight centuries on the ground, and are often described as one of the wonders of the ancient world. They were collected by the diligence of the Saracens, and sold to a Jewish merchant of Edessa, who is said to have laden nine hundred camels with the weight of the brass metal: an enormous weight, though we should include the hundred colossal figures, and the three thousand statues, which adorned the prosperity of the city of the sun. EGYPT. life of Amrou. II. The conquest of Egypt may be explained by the character of the victo- Character and rious Saracen, one of the first of his nation, in an age when the meanest of the brethren was exalted above his nature by the spirit of enthusiasm. The birth of Amrou was at once base and illustrious: his mother, a notorious prostitute, was unable to decide among five of the Koreish; but the proof of resemblance adjudged the child to Aasi, the oldest of her lovers. The youth of Amrou was impelled by the passions and prejudices of his kindred his poetic genius was exercised in satirical verses against the person and doctrine of Mahomet; his dexterity was employed by the reigning faction to pursue the religious exiles who had taken refuge in the court of the Ethiopian king. Yet he returned from this embassy, a secret proselyte; his reason or his interest determined him to renounce the worship of idols; he escaped from Mecca with his friend Caled, and the prophet of Medina enjoyed at the same moment the satisfaction of embracing the two firmest champions of his cause. The impatience of. Amrou to lead the armies of the faithful was checked by the reproof of Omar, who advised him not to seek power and dominion, since he who is a subject to-day, may be a prince to-morrow. Yet his merit was not overlooked by the two first successors of Mahomet; they were indebted to his arms for the conquest of Palestine; and in all the battles and sieges of Syria, he united with the temper of a chief, the valour of an adventurous soldier. In a visit to Medina, the caliph expressed a wish to survey the sword which had cut down so many christian warriors: the son of Aasi unsheathed a short and ordinary scymitar; and as he perceived the surprise of b Every passage and every fact that relates to the isle, the city, and the colossus of Rhodes, are compiled in the laborious treatise of Meursius, who has bestowed the same diligence on the two larger islands of Crete and Cyprus. See in the third vol. of his works, the Rhodus of Meursius, (1. i. c. 15. p. 715–719.) The Byzantine writers, Theophanes and Constantine, have ignorantly prolonged the term to 1360 years, and ridiculously divide the weight among 30,000 camels. c Centum colossi alium nobilitaturi locum, says Pliny, with his usual spirit. Hist. Natur. xxxiv. 18. d We learn this anecdote from a spirited old woman, who reviled to their faces the caliph and his friend. She was encouraged by the silence of Amrou and the liberality of Moawiyah. (Abulfeda, Annal. Moslem. p. 111.) e Gagnier, Vie de Mahomet, tom. ii. p. 46, &c. who quotes the Abys sinian history, or romance of Abdel Balcides. Yet the fact of the em bassy and ambassador may be allowed. and he continued his march till his tents were unquestionably pitched on Egyptian ground. He there assembled his officers, broke the seal, perused the epistle, gravely inquired the name and situation of the place, and declared his ready obedience to the commands of the caliph. After a siege of thirty days, he took possession of Farmah or Pelusium; and that key of Egypt, as it has been justly named, unlocked the entrance of the country, as far as the ruins of Heliopolis and the neighbourhood of the modern Cairo. Omar, "Alas," said the modest Saracen, "the sword | had taught him to suspect the mutability of courts; itself, without the arm of its master, is neither sharper nor more weighty than the sword of Pharezdak the poet." After the conquest of Egypt, he was recalled by the jealousy of the caliph Othman; but in the subsequent troubles, the ambition of a soldier, a statesman, and an orator, emerged from a private station. His powerful support, both in council and in the field, established the throne of the Ommiades; the administration and revenue of Egypt were restored by the gratitude of Moawiyah to a faithful friend who had raised himself above the rank of a subject; and Amrou ended his days in the palace and city which he had founded on the banks of the Nile. His dying speech to his children is celebrated by the Arabians as a model of eloquence and wisdom: he deplored the errors of his youth; but if the penitent was still infected by the vanity of a poet, he might exaggerate the venom and mischief of his impious compositions." Invasion of From his camp, in Palestine, Amrou had surprised or anticipated the caliph's leave for the invasion of Egypt.h The magnanimous Omar trusted in his God and his sword, which had shaken the thrones of Chosroes and Cæsar: but when he compared the slender force of the Moslems with the greatness of the enterprise, he condemned his own rashness, and listened to his timid companions. The pride and the greatness of Pharaoh were familiar to the readers of the Koran; and a tenfold repetition of prodigies had been scarcely sufficient to effect, not the victory, but the flight, of six hundred thousand of the children of Israel: the cities of Egypt were many and populous; their architecture was strong and solid; the Nile, with its numerous branches, was alone an insuperable barrier; and the granary of the imperial city would be obstinately defended by the Roman powers. In this perplexity, the commander of the faithful resigned himself to the decision of chance, or, in his opinion, of Providence. At the head of only four thousand Arabs, the intrepid Amrou had marched away from his station of Gaza when he was overtaken by the messenger of Omar. are still in Syria," said the ambiguous mandate, "retreat without delay; but if, at the receipt of this epistle, you have already reached the frontiers of Egypt, advance with confidence, and depend on the succour of God and of your brethren." The experience, perhaps the secret intelligence, of Amrou "If you f This saying is preserved by Pocock, (Not. ad Carmen Tograi, p. 184.) and justly applauded by Mr. Harris. (Philosophical Arrangements, p. 350.) g For the life and character of Amrou, see Ockley (Hist, of the Saracens, vol. i. p. 28. 63. 94. 328. 342. 344. and to the end of the volume; vol. ii. p. 51. 55. 57. 74. 110-112. 162.) and Otter. (Mem. de l'Academie des Inscriptions, tom. xxi. p. 131, 132.) The readers of Tacitus may aptly compare Vespasian and Mucianus, with Moawiyah and Amrou. Yet the resemblance is still more in the situation, than in the charac ters, of the men. h Al Walkidi had likewise composed a separate history of the conquest of Egypt, which Mr. Ockley could never procure; and his own inquiries (vol. i. p. 344-362.) have added very little to the original text of Eutychius, (Annal. tom. ii. p. 296-323. vers. Pocock,) the Melchite patriarch of Alexandria, who lived three hundred years after the revolution. i Strabo, an accurate and attentive spectator, observes of Heliopolis, The cities of On the western side of the Nile, at a small distance to the east of the Pyra- Memphis, Babylon, and Cairo. mids, at a small distance to the south of the Delta, Memphis, one hundred and fifty furlongs in circumference, displayed the magnificence of ancient kings. Under the reign of the Ptolemies and Cæsars, the seat of government was removed to the sea-coast; the ancient capital was eclipsed by the arts and opulence of Alexandria; the palaces, and at length the temples, were reduced to a desolate and ruinous condition: yet, in the age of Augustus, and even in that of Constantine, Memphis was still numbered among the greatest and most populous of the provincial cities. The banks of the Nile, in this place of the breadth of three thousand feet, were united by two bridges of sixty and of thirty boats, connected in the middle stream by the small island of Rouda, which was covered with gardens and habitations. The eastern extremity of the bridge was terminated by the town of Babylon and the camp of a Roman legion, which protected the passage of the river and the second capital of Egypt. This important fortress, which might fairly be described as a part of Memphis or Misrah, was invested by the arms of the lieutenant of Omar: a reinforcement of four thousand Saracens soon arrived in his camp; and the military engines, which battered the walls, may be imputed to the art and labour of his Syrian allies. Yet the siege was protracted to seven months; and the rash invaders were encompassed and threatened by the inundation of the Nile. Their last assault was bold and successful: they passed the ditch, which had been fortified with iron spikes, applied their scaling-ladders, entered the fortress with the shout of "God is victorious!" and drove the remnant of the Greeks to their boats and the isle of Rouda. The spot was afterwards recommended to the conqueror by the easy communication with the gulf and the peninVUVI LEV Our esi πaveρημos ǹ woλis; (Geograph. 1. xvii. p. 1158.) but of Memphis he declares, πόλις δ' εςι μεγάλη τε και ευανδρος, δευτερα μετ' Aλefavopeiar: (p. 1161.) he notices, however, the mixture of inhabitants, and the ruins of the palaces. In the proper Egypt, Ammianus enumerates Memphis among the four cities, maximis urbibus quibus provincia nitet; (xxii. 16.) and the name of Memphis appears with dis. tinction in the Roman Itinerary and episcopal lists. k These rare and curious facts, the breadth (2946 feet) and the bridge of the Nile, are only to be found in the Danish traveller and the Nubian geographer, (p. 98.) 1 From the month of April, the Nile begins imperceptibly to rise; the swell becomes strong and visible in the moon after the summer solstice, (Plin. Hist. Nat. v. 10.) and is usually proclaimed at Cairo on St. Peter's day, (June 29.) A register of thirty successive years marks the greatest height of the waters between July 25. and August 18. (Maillet, Description de l'Egypte, lettre xi. p. 67, &c. Pocock's Description of the East, vol. i. p. 200. Shaw's Travels, p. 383.) sula of Arabia: the remains of Memphis were de- | heard without indignation the usual option of the serted; the tents of the Arabs were converted into permanent habitations; and the first mosch was blessed by the presence of fourscore companions of Mahomet. A new city arose in their camp on the eastward bank of the Nile; and the contiguous quarters of Babylon and Fostat are confounded in their present decay by the appellation of old Misrah, or Cairo, of which they form an extensive suburb. But the name of Cairo, the town of victory, more strictly belongs to the modern capital, which was founded in the tenth century by the Fatimite caliphs. It has gradually receded from the river, but the continuity of buildings may be traced by an attentive eye from the monuments of Sesostris to those of Saladin. Voluntary submission of the Copts or Jacobites, A. D. 638. Yet the Arabs, after a glorious and profitable enterprise, must have retreated to the desert, had they not found a powerful alliance in the heart of the country. The rapid conquest of Alexander was assisted by the superstition and revolt of the natives they abhorred their Persian oppressors, the disciples of the Magi, who had burnt the temples of Egypt, and feasted with sacrilegious appetite on the flesh of the god Apis. After a period of ten centuries the same revolution was renewed by a similar cause; and in the support of an incomprehensible creed, the zeal of the Coptic christians was equally ardent. I have already explained the origin❘ and progress of the Monophysite controversy, and the persecution of the emperors, which converted a sect into a nation, and alienated Egypt from their religion and government. The Saracens were received as the deliverers of the Jacobite church: and a secret and effectual treaty was opened during the siege of Memphis between a victorious army and a people of slaves. A rich and noble Egyptian, of the name of Mokawkas, had dissembled his faith to obtain the administration of his province: in the disorders of the Persian war he aspired to independence: the embassy of Mahomet ranked him among princes; but he declined, with rich gifts and ambiguous compliments, the proposal of a new religion. The abuse of his trust exposed him to the resentment of Heraclius; his submission was delayed by arrogance and fear; and his conscience was prompted by interest to throw himself on the favour of the nation and the support of the Saracens. In his first conference with Amrou, he m Murtadi, Merveilles de l'Egypte, 243-259. He expatiates on the subject with the zeal and minuteness of a citizen and a bigot, and his local traditions have a strong air of truth and accuracy. n D'Herbelot, Bibliotheque Orientale, p. 233. o The position of New and of Old Cairo is well known, and has been often described. Two writers, who were intimately acquainted with ancient and modern Egypt, have fixed, after a learned inquiry, the city of Memphis at Gizeh, directly opposite the Old Cairo. (Sicard, Nou. veaux Memoires des Missions du Levant, tom. vi. p. 5, 6. Shaw's Ob. servations and Travels, p. 296-304.) Yet we may not disregard the authority or the arguments of Pocock, (vol. i. p. 25-41.) Niebuhr, (Voyage, tom. i. p. 77-106.) and, above all, of D'Anville, (Description de l'Egypte, p. 111, 112. 130-149.) who have removed Memphis towards the village of Mohannah, some miles further to the south. In their heat, the disputants have forgot that the ample space of a metropolis covers and annihilates the far greater part of the con. troversy. p See Herodotus, 1. iii. c. 27, 28, 29. Elian. Hist. Var. I. iv. c. 8. Suidas in alxos, tom. ii. p. 774. Diodor. Sicul. tom. ii. 1. xvii. p. 197. Koran, the tribute, or the sword. "The Greeks," replied Mokawkas, "are determined to abide the determination of the sword; but with the Greeks I desire no communion, either in this world or in the next, and I abjure for ever the Byzantine tyrant, his synod of Chalcedon, and his Melchite slaves. For myself and my brethren, we are resolved to live and die in the profession of the gospel and unity of Christ. It is impossible for us to embrace the revelations of your prophet; but we are desirous of peace, and cheerfully submit to pay tribute and obedience to his temporal successors." The tribute was ascertained at two pieces of gold for the head of every christian; but old men, monks, women, and children, of both sexes, under sixteen years of age, were exempted from this personal assessment: the Copts above and below Memphis swore allegiance to the caliph, and promised an hospitable entertainment of three days to every mussulman who should travel through their country. By this charter of security, the ecclesiastical and civil tyranny of the Melchites was destroyed: the anathemas of St. Cyril were thundered from every pulpit; and the sacred edifices, with the patrimony of the church, were restored to the national communion of the Jacobites, who enjoyed without moderation the moment of triumph and revenge. At the pressing summons of Amrou, their patriarch Benjamin emerged from his desért; and, after the first interview, the courteous Arab affected to declare, that he had never conversed with a christian priest of more innocent manners and a more venerable aspect. In the march from Memphis to Alexandria the lieutenant of Omar intrusted his safety to the zeal and gratitude of the Egyptians : the roads and bridges were diligently repaired; and in every step of his progress, he could depend on a constant supply of provisions and intelligence. The Greeks of Egypt, whose numbers could scarcely equal a tenth of the natives, were overwhelmed by the universal defection; they had ever been hated, they were no longer feared: the magistrate fled from his tribunal, the bishop from his altar; and the distant garrisons were surprised or starved by the surrounding multitudes. Had not the Nile afforded a safe and ready conveyance to the sea, not an individual could have escaped, who by birth, or language, or office, or religion, was connected with their odious name. edit. Wesseling. Των Περσων ησεβηκότων εις τα ξερα, says the last of these historians. q Mokawkas sent the prophet two Coptic damsels, with two maids, and one eunuch, an alabaster vase, an ingot of pure gold, oil, honey, and the finest white linen of Egypt, with a horse, a mule, and an ass, distinguished by their respective qualifications. The embassy of Mahomet was despatched from Medina in the seventh year of the Hegira, (A. D. 628.) See Gagnier, (Vie de Mahomet, tom. ii. p. 255, 256. 303.) from Al Jannabi. r The præfecture of Egypt, and the conduct of the war, had been trusted by Heraclius to the patriarch Cyrus. (Theophan. p. 280, 281.) "In Spain," said James II. "do you not cousult your priests?" "We do," replied the catholic ambassador, "and our affairs succeed accordingly." I know not how to relate the plans of Cyrus, of paying tribute without impairing the revenue, and of converting Omar by his marriage with the emperor's daughter. (Nicephor. Breviar. p. 17, 18.) See the life of Benjamin, in Renaudot, (Hist. Patriarch. Alexandrin. p. 156-172.) who has enriched the conquest of Egypt with some facts from the Arabic text of Severus the Jacobite historian. |