THE GREAT CONQUESTS 33an unhappy affair that left the throne in the hands of weak and temporary
rulers. The empire was wracked with religious controversy. The Orthodox
Church in Constantinople decreed to be heretical any church that did not
completely adopt Orthodox doctrine. Heretics were ruthlessly persecuted.
The Muslims, with their mild tax, were generally welcomed as liberators,
not conquerors. Worst of all, the Arab attacks came at a time when the
empire was deeply in debt and when civil administration in Syria, Iraq,
and Egypt had been in Persian hands for ten years. Full bureaucratic con-
trol was not yet reestablished.
Thus, Egypt fell almost by default. It became a key part of the growing
Muslim Empire in 642, and so has remained a Muslim country for nearly
fourteen hundred years.
There was to be a footnote, though.
With Egypt subdued, Amr ibn al Aasi marched west, occupying the
coastline as far as Tripoli, with little opposition. Amr was clearly a capable
military leader, but like Khalid, he was relieved at the height of his power.
As in Khalid’s case, Amr was charged with corruption. These groundless
charges were believed by the caliph. The conqueror of Egypt might have
faded into obscurity, but he did not.
In 645 the new Caliph Othman demanded more taxes from his Egyptian
governor. The new governor, who had replaced Amr, went to work, and
soon Alexandria was seething with anger. A secret deputation was sent to
Constantinople, and in the fall of 645, a Byzantine fleet and army de-
scended on the city and captured it without difficulty. Amr was immedi-
ately recalled by Caliph Othman, and he promptly defeated the Byzantine
army when it sortied from the city. In the summer of 646 Alexandria was
retaken by Amr, who was, as a reward, then dismissed!
With the conquest of Egypt, Syria, and Persia, the new Islamic Empire
was firmly established. Persia was the springboard to Afghanistan and
northern India, Egypt was the base for the consolidation of North Africa
and Spain. The Muslims grew accustomed to their new power bases
quickly. As early as 649 an Egyptian fleet with Arab soldiers descended
on Cyprus. In 652 another fleet held back a Byzantine attack on Alexan-
dria. Thus the naval resources of Egypt and Syria brought to an end the
long era of Roman and Byzantine naval monopoly in the Mediterranean.
The wealth of men, money, and equipment that the new empire provided
made Muslim armies the material equal of any in the world. They had
already demonstrated their moral superiority in convincing terms.
The record of these conquests is simply astonishing. Between 633 and
646, a period of only thirteen years, the Arabs had completely defeated
one of the two greatest empires in history, and had eviscerated the power