Episode 40: Life of Umar ibn al-Khattab
First Battles in Egypt:
When the Muslims entered Egypt under the command of Amr ibn al-A’as, the Egyptians were well aware that the Muslims were victorious in Persia and Ash-Sham.
Al-Muqawqis, the Egyptian ruler, wanted to surrender peacefully. However, the Byzantine representative in Egypt, Artabun, wanted to fight with the Muslims to keep control of Egypt.
A disagreement occurred between Al-Muqawqis and Artabun but under the order of Artabun, an army was sent to fight against the Muslims.
Amr ibn al-A’as placed his army in an area known as Fustat.
Artabun and Al-Muqawqis sent a small army hoping that it would be easy to defeat the Muslims.
Victory at Fustat:
Amr ibn al-A’as and the Muslim army easily defeated the army that Artuban and Al-Muqawqis sent.
Victory at Bilbeis:
The Christian army then fled to Bilbeis and they were also defeated there as well.
The Muslims continued to conquer city after city in Egypt.
Siege and Victory of Ain Shams:
The next step was the conquest of Ain Shams, which was a very important city in Egypt.
The siege of Ain Shams lasted a long time but eventually, Amr ibn al-A’as and the Muslim army were victorious and they killed 7,000 enemy soldiers and took many more as prisoners.
Amr ibn Al-A’as Granting the Citizens of Ain Shams a Guarantee of Safety:
Whenever Amr ibn al-A’as would conquer a city, he would grant the civilians of that city a guarantee of safety and would treat them fairly.
The local Christians in Egypt appreciated the Muslim treatment and began to compare how the Muslims treated them, in comparison to how the Byzantines treated them.
Muslim Justice vs Byzantine Oppression:
The local Egyptians were Coptic Christians and the Byzantines were from a different sect.
The Byzantine Christians considered the Coptic Christians as inferior to them and because of this, they oppressed them, treated them unfairly and took their wealth.
When the Muslims conquered these cities, they treated the local Coptic Christians with justice.
Siege of Babylon Fortress:
Amr ibn al-A’as continued with his conquest of Egypt until he reached the fortresses of Babylon.
This was a very strongly fortified city and this siege was the most difficult one yet in the conquest of Egypt, and it lasted for seven months.
Az-Zubayr ibn al-Awwam’s Brave Move:
After it had gone on for so long, Az-Zubayr ibn al-Awwam (the Prophet’s cousin) agreed to make a very bold, brave and courageous move.
In order to get inside the fortress of the city, Az-Zubayr ibn al-Awwam agreed to have the Muslims catapult him over the walls.
The Muslims catapulted Az-Zubayr over the walls and when he was inside the fortress, he managed to open the gate on the inside and let the Muslim army enter.
Victory at Babylon:
The Muslims were able to conquer the city of Babylon after a siege that lasted seven months.
Division Between Al-Muqawqis and Artabun:
Al-Muqawqis now seeing all of these victories that the Muslims had, knew that his idea was correct regarding the Egyptians surrendering. He still wanted to surrender but Artabun, the Byzantine commander, rejected this.
The fighting continued and the Muslims continued to conquer city after city until they reached Alexandria, which was the capital of Egypt at that time.
Al-Muqawqis Secretly Contacts Amr ibn al-A’as:
Alexandria was very heavily fortified and this was where both Al-Muqawqis and Artabun were based.
Al-Muqawqis really wanted to surrender because he knew that the Muslims would conquer Alexandria.
Another reason for why he wanted to surrender was because he saw the justice of the Muslims compared to the Byzantines, and he thought to himself, if the Muslims take over Egypt, that will actually be better for the Egyptians because the Muslims treat them fairly and the Byzantines oppress them.
Al-Muqawqis, without consulting Artabun, sent a message to Amr ibn al-A’as, which said: I and the Coptic Christians who are under me want to surrender peacefully.
Treaty with the Copts:
Amr sent a message to Umar ibn al-Khattab in Madinah notifying him that Al-Muqawqis wanted to surrender.
Umar gave Amr ibn al-A’as permission to accept the surrender and to sign a peace treaty with Al-Muqawqis.
Under the terms of this treaty, the local Christians were granted safety under the condition that they would pay the Jizyah.
The Coptic Christians accepted this and they surrendered and agreed to pay the Jizyah.
Artabun’s Reaction:
When the Byzantine military commander Artabun, found out about the treaty that they made without being consulted, he became very upset and refused to accept the surrender.
Artabun also refused to accept the terms of the peace treaty and Al-Muqawqis was now in a difficult position.
He agreed to the terms of Amr ibn al-A’as but technically he was still under the control of the Byzantines.
Al-Muqawqis Consults The Coptic Christians:
Al-Muqawqis consulted with his close advisers from the Coptic Christians, who said: The Muslims are better than the Byzantines. They don’t oppress us and treat us unfairly. They are just with us. It is better that we make this deal with the Muslims, forget about the Byzantines.
Al-Muqawqis Continues to Follow the Peace Treaty:
The Egyptian ruler. Al-Muqawqis upon hearing this advice, decided to stay true to the peace treaty.
He went to meet Amr ibn al-A’as and said: I will continue to stay true to the treaty even though the Byzantines want to continue fighting you.
Al-Muqawqis’ Three Requests:
Al-Muqawqis requested three things from Amr ibn al-A’as and said: if the Byzantines eventually do decide to surrender, don’t give them the same conditions that you gave us. Don’t give them the same good terms that you gave us.
Al-Muqawqis continued: if the Byzantines eventually make a treaty with you, but later on break that treaty, don’t blame us. Don’t blame the Coptic Christians. The third condition is that if I die, I want to be buried in a specific church in Alexandria.
Amr ibn al-A’as Response to the Three Requests:
Amr ibn al-A’as replied: As for your third request, if you die, and you want to be buried in that church in Alexandria, I will grant you that one. As for the other two, we have to see how things play out. I can’t give you any guarantees until we see how things play out.
Victory at Alexandria:
Eventually, the Muslims fought against the Byzantines and defeated them in Alexandria.
With this victory, the Muslims officially conquered Egypt and collected huge spoils of war.
Aftermath of the Conquest of Alexandria:
The Muslims also captured many prisoners and among those they captured after the battle of Alexandria, were the Byzantines and Coptic Christians.
After this great victory, Amr ibn al-A’as sent a message to Umar ibn al-Khattab informing him of the situation.
Umar ibn al-Khattab’s Instructions.
Umar ibn al-Khattab ordered for all of the Coptic Christians to all be freed. This was because, they were under the protection of the Muslims based upon the treaty that they agreed.
Also, Umar ordered that the wealth that was collected from the spoils of war that belonged to the Coptic Christians, had to be returned back to them.
The Coptic Christians were also handed a bonus. The Byzantines used to oppress them by imposing heavy taxes upon them and would send the taxes to Constantinople.
The main source of income for the Byzantine empire was Egyptian wealth and before the battle of Alexandria, the Byzantines had collected the taxes from the Coptic Christians.
However, they did not have the opportunity to send this back to Constantinople and it was still sitting in Alexandria.
When the Muslims won the battle, they had access to all of the taxes that the Byzantines collected and they returned them to the Coptic Christians.
Egyptian Reaction:
The Egyptians were so impressed by this as they had never seen such justice before.
This led to a huge number of Coptic Christians accepting Islam after seeing the justice and fairness of the Muslims.
Islamic Importance of Egypt:
Egypt became a great centre of knowledge and education and many of the greatest scholars throughout the centuries came from there.