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The Arab conquest of Egypt, led by the army of Amr ibn al-As, took place between 639 and 642 AD and was overseen by the Rashidun Caliphate. [1] It ended the seven-century-long Roman period in Egypt that had begun in 30 BC and, more broadly, the Greco-Roman period that had lasted about a millennium.
The Byzantine Empire after the Arabs conquered the provinces of Syria and Egypt c. 650. The Byzantine province of Egypt held strategic importance for its grain production, naval yards, and as a base for further conquests in Africa. [51] The Muslim general Amr ibn al-As began the conquest of the province on his own initiative in 639. [59]
With an army of 17,000 men, Abu Ubaidah and Khalid set off from Jerusalem to conquer all of northern Syria. This ended with the conquest of Antioch in late 637. [30] In 639, the Muslims invaded and conquered Egypt. During his stay in Jerusalem, Umar was led by Sophronius to various holy sites, including the Temple Mount.
Arab chroniclers tell of a massive fleet and army sent by the Byzantines with the goal of retaking Alexandria. The imperial forces were led by a lower ranking imperial official named Manuel. After entering the city without facing much resistance, the Byzantines were able to regain control of both Alexandria and the surrounding Egyptian countryside.
The Islamization of Egypt occurred after the seventh-century Muslim conquest, in which the Islamic Rashidun Caliphate seized control of Egypt from the Christian dominated Byzantine Empire. Egypt and other conquered territories in the Middle East gradually underwent a large-scale conversion from Christianity to Islam , motivated in part by a ...
The "Arab nomads" were likely the indigenous Arab tribesmen of Syria, most of whom had converted to Christianity under the Byzantines and many of whom had retained their Christian faith during the early decades of Islamic rule. Mu'awiya's prayer at Christian sites was out of respect for the Syrian Arabs, who were the foundation of his power.
To gain time to prepare a defense of the rest of his empire, Heraclius needed the Muslims occupied in Syria. He thus sought help from the Christians (some of whom were Arabs) of Jazirah, mainly from Circesium and Hīt, who mustered a large army and marched against Emesa, Abu Ubaidah's headquarters. Abu Ubaidah withdrew all his forces from ...
The major source of information about the Muslim conquest of Egypt and the province's early Arab military generations, Ibn Abd al-Hakam (d. 871), [138] commends Amr for his leadership of the Egyptian conquest and as the upholder of the interests of Egypt's troops and their families against the central authorities in Medina and later Damascus. [137]