ᏞᎥ . CHAP. youth of Amrou was impelled by the paffions and prejudices of his kindred: his poetic genius was exercifed in fatirical verfes against the perfon 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 "7. Yet he returned from this embaffy, a fecret profelyte; his reafon or his intereft determined him to renounce the worship of idols; he escaped from Mecca with his friend Caled, and the prophet of Medina enjoyed at the fame moment the fatisfaction of embracing the two firmeft 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 feek power and dominion, fince he who is a fubject to-day, may be a prince to-morrow. Yet his merit was not overlooked by the two firft fucceffors of Mahomet; they were indebted to nis arms for the conquest of Palestine; and in all the battles and fieges of Syria, he united with the temper of a chief, the valour of an adventurous foldier. In a vifit to Medina, the caliph expreffed a wish to furvey the fword which had cut down fo many Christian warriors: the fon of Aafi unfheathed a fhort and ordinary fcymetar; and as he perceived the furprise of Omar, "Alas," faid the modeft Saracen, "the fword itself, without the "arm of its mafter, is neither fharper nor more "weighty than the fword of Pharezdak the 97 Gagnier, Vie de Mahomet, tom. ii. p. 46, &c. who quotes the Abyf. finian history, or romance, of Abdel Balcides. Yet the fact of the embaffy and ambaffador may be allowed. poet." CHAP. poet After the conqueft of Egypt he was recalled by the jealoufy of the caliph Othman; ~ but in the subsequent troubles, the ambition of a foldier, a statesman, and an orator, emerged from a private station. His powerful fupport, both in council and in the field, established the throne of the Ommiades; the adminiftration and revenue of Egypt were restored by the gratitude of Moawiyah to a faithful friend who had raised himself above the rank of a fubject; and Amrou ended his days in the palace and city which he had founded on the banks of the Nile. His dying fpeech to his children is celebrated by the Arabians as a model of eloquence and wifdom: 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 mifchief of his impious compofitions 99. From his camp, in Palestine, Amrou had furprised or anticipated the caliph's leave for the invafion of Egypt The magnanimous Omar 100 trusted in his God and his fword, which had fhaken 98 This faying is preferved by Pocock (Not. ad Carmen Tograi, p. 184.), and juftly applauded by Mr. Harris (Philofophical Arrangements, p. 350.). 99 For the life and character of Amrou, fee Ockley (Hift. 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 Infcriptions, tom. xxi. p. 131, 132.). The readers of Tacitus may aptly Yet the compare Vefpafian and Mucianus, with Moawiyah and Amrou. refemblance is ftill more in the fituation, than in the characters, of the .men. 100 Al Wakidi had likewife composed a separate history of the conquest of Egypt, which Mr. Ockley could never procure; and his own inquiries (vol. i. LI. Invafion of Egypt, June. LI. CHA P. fhaken the thrones of Chofroes and Cæfar; but when he compared the flender force of the Moflems with the greatness of the enterprise, he con demned his own rafhness, and liftened to his timid companions. The pride and the greatnefs of Pharaoh were familiar to the readers of the Koran ; and a tenfold repetition of prodigies had been fcarcely fufficient to effect, not the victory, but the flight, of fix hundred thousand of the children of Ifrael the cities of Egypt were many and populous; their architecture was ftrong and folid; the Nile, with its numerous branches, was alone an infuperable barrier; and the granary of the Imperial city would be obftinately defended by the Roman powers. In this perplexity, the commander of the faithful refigned himself to the decifion of chance, or, in his opinion, of providence. At the head of only four thousand Arabs, the intrepid Amrou had marched away from his ftation of Gaza when he was overtaken by the meffenger of Omar. "If you are ftill in Syria," faid the ambiguous mandate," retreat without delay; but if, at the receipt of this epiftle, you have al"ready reached the frontiers of Egypt, advance "with confidence, and depend on the fuccour of "God and of your brethren." The experience, perhaps the fecret intelligence, of Amrou had taught him to fufpect the mutability of courts; 66 (vol. i. p. 344-362.) have added very litrle to the original text of Eutychius (Annal. tom. ii. p. 296–323. verf. Pocock) the Melchite patriarch of Alexandria, who lived three hundred years after the revolution. and He LI. and he continued his march till his tents were un- CHAP. questionably pitched on Egyptian ground. there affembled his officers, broke the feal, perused the epistle, gravely inquired the name and fituation of the place, and declared his ready obedience to the commands of the caliph. After a fiege of thirty days, he took poffeffion of Farmah or Pelufium; and that key of Egypt, as it has been juftly named, unlocked the entrance of the country, as far as the ruins of Heliopolis, and the neighbourhood of the modern Cairo. The cities of Memphis, Ba Cairo. "On the western fide of the Nile, at a fmall diftance to the east of the Pyramids, at a fmall distance to the south of the Delta, Memphis, one bylon, and hundred and fifty furlongs in circumference, difplayed the magnificence of ancient kings. Under the reign of the Ptolemies and Cæfars, the feat of government was removed to the fea-coaft; the ancient capital was eclipfed by the arts and opulence of Alexandria; the palaces, and at length the temples, were reduced to a defolate and ruinous condition: yet in the age of Auguftus, and even in that of Conftantine, Memphis was ftill numbered among the greatest and most populous of the provincial cities 101. The banks of the Nile, in this place of the breadth of three thoufand feet, for Strabo, an accurate and attentive spectator, obferves of Heliopolis FOR FLED OUR EST avenues modis (Geograph. 1. xvii. p. 1158.); but of Memphis, he declares, πολις δ' εσι μεγαλη τε και ευανδρος δεύτερα μετ Aheadpea (p. 1161.); he notices, however, the mixture of inhabitants, and the ruin 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 diftinction in the Roman Itinerary and epifcopal lifts. LI. CHAP. were united by two bridges of fixty and of thirty boats, connected in the middle ftream by the fmall island of Rouda, which was covered with gardens and habitations 12. The eastern extremity of the bridge was terminated by the town of Babylon and the camp of a Roman legion, which protected the paffage of the river and the fecond capital of Egypt. This important fortrefs, which might fairly be described as a part of Memphis or Mifrah, was invested by the arms of the lieutenant of Omar: a reinforcement of four thousand Saracens foon 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 fiege was protracted to feven months; and the rafh invaders were encompaffed and threatened by the inundation of the Nile 103. Their laft affault was bold and fuccefsful: they paffed the ditch, which had been fortified with iron fpikes, applied their fcaling-ladders, entred the fortrefs with the fhout of "God is victorious!" and drove the remnant of the Greeks to their boats and the ifle of Rouda.. The fpot was afterwards recommended to the conqueror by the eafy communication with the gulf and 102 Thefe 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.). 103 From the month of April, the Nile begins imperceptibly to rife: the fwell becomes strong and visible in the moon after the fummer folftice (Plin. Hift. Nat. v. 10.), and is yfually proclaimed at Cairo on St. Peter's day (June 29). A register of thirty fucceffive years marks the greatest height of the waters between July 25 and August 18 (Maillet, Defcription de l'Egypte, lettre xi. p. 67 &c. Pocock's Defcription of the East, vol. i. P. 200. Shaw's Travels, pi 383.) |