Английская Википедия:Amr ibn al-As

Amr ibn al-As ibn Wa'il al-Sahmi (Шаблон:Lang-ar; Шаблон:Circa Шаблон:Snd664) was the Arab commander who led the Muslim conquest of Egypt and served as its governor in 640–646 and 658–664. The son of a wealthy Qurayshite, Amr embraced Islam in Шаблон:Circa and was assigned important roles in the nascent Muslim community by the Islamic prophet Muhammad. The first caliph Abu Bakr (Шаблон:Reign) appointed Amr as a commander of the conquest of Syria. He conquered most of Palestine, to which he was appointed governor, and helped lead the Arabs to decisive victories over the Byzantines at the battles of Ajnadayn and the Yarmuk in 634 and 636.

Amr launched the conquest of Egypt on his own initiative in late 639, defeating the Byzantines in a string of victories ending with the surrender of Alexandria in 641 or 642. It was the swiftest of the early Muslim conquests. This was followed by westward advances by Amr as far as Tripoli in present-day Libya. In a treaty signed with the Byzantine governor Cyrus, Amr guaranteed the security of Egypt's population and imposed a poll tax on non-Muslim adult males. He maintained the Coptic-dominated bureaucracy and cordial ties with the Coptic patriarch Benjamin. He founded Fustat as the provincial capital with the mosque later called after him at its center. Amr ruled relatively independently, acquired significant wealth, and upheld the interests of the Arab conquerors who formed Fustat's garrison in relation to the central authorities in Medina. After gradually diluting Amr's authority, Caliph Uthman (Шаблон:Reign) dismissed him in 646 after accusations of incompetency from his successor Abd Allah ibn Sa'd.

After mutineers from Egypt assassinated Uthman, Amr distanced himself from their cause, despite previously instigating opposition against Uthman. In the ensuing First Fitna, Amr joined Mu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan against Caliph Ali (Шаблон:Reign) due to promises of the governorship of Egypt and its tax revenues. Amr served as Mu'awiya's representative in the abortive arbitration talks to end the war. Afterward, he wrested control of Egypt from Ali's loyalists, killing its governor Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr, and assumed the governorship instead. Mu'awiya kept him in his post after establishing the Umayyad Caliphate in 661 and Amr ruled the province until his death.

Early life and military career

Amr ibn al-As was born in Шаблон:Circa.Шаблон:Sfn His father, al-As ibn Wa'il, was a wealthy landowner from the Banu Sahm clan of the Quraysh tribe of Mecca.Шаблон:Sfn Following the death of al-As in Шаблон:Circa, Amr inherited from him the lucrative Шаблон:Proper name estate and vineyards near Ta'if.Шаблон:Sfn Amr's mother was al-Nabigha bint Harmala from the Banu Jallan clan of the Anaza tribe.Шаблон:Sfn Шаблон:Sfn She had been taken captive and sold, in succession, to several members of the Quraysh, one of whom was Amr's father.Шаблон:Sfn As such, Amr had two maternal half-brothers, Amr ibn Atatha of the Banu Adi and Uqba ibn Nafi of the Banu Fihr, and a half-sister from the Banu Abd Shams.Шаблон:Sfn Шаблон:Sfn Amr is physically described in the traditional sources as being short with broad shoulders, having a large head with a wide forehead and wide mouth, long arms and a long beard.Шаблон:Sfn

There are conflicting reports about when Amr embraced Islam, with the most credible version placing it in 629/630, not long before the conquest of Mecca by Muhammad.Шаблон:Sfn Шаблон:Sfn According to this account, he converted alongside the Qurayshites Khalid ibn al-Walid and Uthman ibn Talha.Шаблон:Sfn According to Amr's own testimony, transmitted by his fourth-generation descendant Amr ibn Shu'ayb, he converted in Axum in the presence of King Armah (Najashi) and met Muhammad in Medina upon the latter's return from the Battle of Khaybar in 628.Шаблон:Sfn Amr conditioned his conversion on the forgiveness of his past sins and an "active part in affairs", according to a report cited by the historian Ibn Asakir (d. 1176).Шаблон:Sfn

Indeed, in October 629, Amr was tasked by Muhammad with leading the raid on Dhat al-Salasil, likely located in the northern Hejaz (western Arabia), a lucrative opportunity for Amr in view of the potential war spoils.Шаблон:Sfn The purpose of the raid is unclear, though the modern historian Fred Donner speculates that it was to "break up a gathering of hostile tribal groups" possibly backed by the Byzantine Empire.Шаблон:Sfn The historian Ibn Hisham (d. 833) holds that Amr rallied the nomadic Arabs in the region "to make war on [Byzantine] Syria".Шаблон:Sfn The tribal groups targeted in the raid included the Quda'a in general and the Bali specifically.Шаблон:Sfn Amr's paternal grandmother hailed from the Bali,Шаблон:Sfn and this may have motivated his appointment to the command by Muhammad as Amr was instructed to recruit tribesmen from the Bali and the other Quda'a tribes of Balqayn and Banu Udhra.Шаблон:Sfn Following the raid, a delegation of the Bali embraced Islam.Шаблон:Sfn Amr further consecrated ties with the tribe by marrying a Bali woman, with whom he had his son Muhammad.Шаблон:Sfn

Muhammad appointed Amr the governor of Oman and he remained there until being informed of Muhammad's death in 632.Шаблон:Sfn The death of Muhammad prompted several Arab tribes to defect from the nascent Medina-based Muslim polity in the Ridda wars. Muhammad's successor Caliph Abu Bakr (Шаблон:Reign) appointed Amr to rein in the apostate Quda'a tribes, and among those targeted were the Hejazi branches of the Bali.Шаблон:Sfn Amr's campaigns, which were supported by the commander Shurahbil ibn Hasana, succeeded in restoring Medina's authority as far as the northern frontier with Syria.Шаблон:Sfn

Governor of Palestine and role in the Syrian conquest

Amr was one of four commanders dispatched by Abu Bakr to conquer Syria in 633.Шаблон:Sfn The focus of Amr's campaign was Palestine, to which he had been appointed governor by Abu Bakr before his departure.Шаблон:Sfn As a Qurayshite merchant Amr was likely already well-acquainted with the routes to Gaza, a principle terminal for Meccan caravans.Шаблон:Sfn He took the coastal route of the Hejaz, reaching Ayla,Шаблон:Sfn a Muslim possession since 630,Шаблон:Sfn before breaking west into the Negev desert or possibly the Sinai.Шаблон:Sfn He arrived near the villages of Dathin and Badan in Gaza's environs where he entered into talks with Gaza's Byzantine commander.Шаблон:Sfn After the negotiations broke down, Amr's men bested the Byzantines at the Battle of Dathin on 4 February 634 and set up headquarters at Ghamr al-Arabat in the middle of the Wadi Araba.Шаблон:Sfn Шаблон:Sfn Most accounts hold that Amr's army was 3,000-strong; the Muhajirun (emigrants from Mecca to Medina) and the Ansar (natives of Medina), who together formed the core of the earliest Muslim converts, dominated his forces according to al-Waqidi (d. 823), while the 9th-century historian Ibn A'tham holds that Amr's army consisted of 3,300 Qurayshite and allied horsemen, 1,700 horsemen from the Banu Sulaym and 200 from the Yemenite tribe of Madh'hij.Шаблон:Sfn The historian Philip Mayerson considers the troop figures to be "unquestionably exaggerated" but still representing the largest Arab fighting force to have ever been assembled in southern Palestine and the Sinai until then.Шаблон:Sfn

Amr conquered the area around Gaza by February or March 634 and proceeded to besiege Caesarea, the capital of Byzantine Palestine, in July.Шаблон:Sfn He soon after abandoned the siege upon the approach of a large Byzantine army.Шаблон:Sfn After being reinforced by the remainder of the Muslim armies in Syria, including the new arrivals commanded by Khalid ibn al-Walid, Amr, with overall command of the 20,000-strong Muslim forces, routed the Byzantine army at the Battle of Ajnadayn, the first major confrontation between the Muslims and Byzantium, in July–August 634.Шаблон:Sfn Шаблон:Sfn Amr occupied numerous towns in Palestine, including Bayt Jibrin, Yibna, Amwas, Lydda, Jaffa, Nablus and Sebastia.Шаблон:Sfn Most of these localities surrendered after little resistance due to the flight of Byzantine troops; consequently, there is scant information about them in the traditional accounts of the conquest.Шаблон:Sfn Abu Bakr's successor Umar (Шаблон:Reign) appointed or confirmed Amr as the commander of the military district of Palestine.Шаблон:Sfn

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The ravines of the Yarmouk River where Amr kept the Byzantines confined at the decisive Battle of Yarmouk in 636

The Muslims pursued the Byzantine army northward and besieged them at Pella for four months.Шаблон:Sfn Amr may have retained overall command of the Muslim armies until this point, though other accounts assign command to Khalid or Abu Ubayda ibn al-Jarrah.Шаблон:Sfn In any case, the Muslims landed a heavy blow against the Byzantines in the ensuing Battle of Fahl in December 634 or January 635.Шаблон:Sfn Afterward, Amr and Shurahbil may have been sent to besiege Beisan, which capitulated after minor resistance.Шаблон:Sfn The Muslims proceeded to besiege Damascus, where the remnants of the Byzantine army from the battles of Ajnadayn and Fahl had gathered. Amr was positioned at the Bab Tuma gate, the Muslim commanders having each been assigned to block one of the city's entrances.Шаблон:Sfn By August–September 635, Damascus surrendered to the Muslims.Шаблон:Sfn Amr acquired several residences within the city.Шаблон:Sfn

In response to the series of defeats, the Byzantine emperor Heraclius (Шаблон:Reign) led a large army in person to confront the Muslims; its rout at the Battle of Yarmouk, in which Amr played a key role by confining the Byzantines between the banks of the Yarmouk River and the Yarmouk's ravine, in August–September 636, paved the way for the rest of Syria's conquest by the Muslims.Шаблон:Sfn Following Yarmouk, the Muslims attempted to capture Jerusalem, where Amr had previously sent an advance force.Шаблон:Sfn Шаблон:Sfn Abu Ubayda led the siege of Jerusalem, in which Amr participated, but the city only surrendered after Caliph Umar arrived in person to conclude a treaty with its defenders.Шаблон:Sfn Шаблон:Sfn Amr was one of the witnesses of the Treaty of Umar.Шаблон:Sfn From Jerusalem,Шаблон:Sfn Amr proceeded to besiege and capture the city of Gaza.Шаблон:Sfn

First governorship of Egypt

Conquest of Egypt

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Map detailing the route of Amr and al-Zubayr ibn al-Awwam's conquest of Egypt

From his base in southern Palestine, Amr launched the conquest of Byzantine Egypt. He had established trading interests there before his conversion to Islam, making him aware of its importance in international trade.Шаблон:Sfn Шаблон:Sfn The traditional Muslim sources generally hold that Amr undertook the campaign with Caliph Umar's reluctant approval, though a number of accounts hold that he entered the region without Umar's authorization.Шаблон:Sfn Шаблон:Sfn At the head of 4,000 cavalries and with no siege engines, Amr arrived at the frontier town of al-Arish along the northern Sinai coastline on 12 December 639.Шаблон:Sfn He captured the strategic Mediterranean port city of Pelusium (al-Farama) following a month-long siege and moved against Bilbeis, which also fell after a month-long siege.Шаблон:Sfn

Amr halted his campaign before the fortified Byzantine stronghold of Babylon, at the head of the Nile Delta, and requested reinforcements from Umar.Шаблон:Sfn The latter dispatched al-Zubayr ibn al-Awwam, a leading Qurayshite companion of Muhammad, with a 4,000-strong force, which joined Amr's camp in June 640.Шаблон:Sfn Amr retained the supreme command of Arab forces in Egypt.Шаблон:Sfn In the following month, his army decisively defeated the Byzantines at the Battle of Heliopolis.Шаблон:Sfn He captured Memphis soon after and besieged Babylon.Шаблон:Sfn During the siege, Amr entered truce negotiations with the Alexandria-based Byzantine governor Cyrus; Emperor Heraclius opposed the talks and recalled Cyrus to Constantinople.Шаблон:Sfn Though strong resistance was put up by Babylon's defenders, their morale was sapped after news of Heraclius' death in February 641.Шаблон:Sfn Amr made an agreement with the Byzantine garrison, allowing their peaceful withdrawal toward the provincial capital Alexandria on 9 April 641.Шаблон:Sfn Amr then sent his lieutenants to conquer different parts of the country.Шаблон:Sfn One of them, Kharija ibn Hudhafa, captured the Fayyum oasis, Oxyrhynchus (Bahnasa), Hermopolis (el-Ashmunein) and Akhmim, all in Middle Egypt, and an unspecified number of villages in Upper Egypt.Шаблон:Sfn Шаблон:Sfn

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Amr initially halted his campaign at the Babylon Fortress (pictured in 2008), but ultimately forced its Byzantine garrison to evacuate in April 641 after a lengthy siege.

In late 641, Amr besieged Alexandria. It fell virtually without resistance after Cyrus, who had since been restored to office, and Amr finalized a treaty in Babylon guaranteeing the security of Egypt's inhabitants and imposing a poll tax on adult males.Шаблон:Sfn The date of the city's surrender was likely November 642.Шаблон:Sfn Taking advantage of the uncertain political situation in the wake of Umar's death in 644 and the meager Arab military presence in Alexandria, Emperor Constans II (Шаблон:Reign) dispatched a naval expedition led by a certain Manuel which occupied the city and killed most of its Arab garrison in 645.Шаблон:Sfn Alexandria's elite and most of the inhabitants assisted the Byzantines; medieval Byzantine, Coptic and, to a lesser extent, Muslim sources indicate the city was not firmly in Arab hands during the preceding three years.Шаблон:Sfn Byzantine forces pushed deeper into the Nile Delta, but Amr forced them back at the Battle of Nikiou. He besieged and captured Alexandria in the summer of 646; most of the Byzantines, including Manuel, were slain, many of its inhabitants were killed and the city was burned until Amr ordered an end to the onslaught.Шаблон:Sfn Afterward, Muslim rule in Alexandria was gradually solidified.Шаблон:Sfn

In contrast to the disarray of the Byzantine defense, the Muslim forces under Amr's command were unified and organized; Amr frequently coordinated with Caliph Umar and his own troops for all major military decisions.Шаблон:Sfn According to the historian Vassilios Christides, Amr "cautiously counterbalanced the superiority in numbers and equipment of the Byzantine army by applying skillful military tactics" and despite the lack of "definite, prepared, long-term plans ... the Arab army moved with great flexibility as the occasion arose".Шаблон:Sfn In the absence of siege engines, Amr oversaw long sieges of heavily fortified Byzantine positions, most prominently Babylon, cut supply lines and engaged in long wars of attrition.Шаблон:Sfn He made advantageous use out of the nomads in his ranks, who were seasoned in hit-and-run tactics, and his settled troops, who were generally more acquainted with siege warfare.Шаблон:Sfn His cavalry-dominated army moved through Egypt's deserts and oases with relative ease.Шаблон:Sfn Moreover, political circumstances became more favorable to Amr with the death of the hawkish Heraclius and his short-term replacement with the more pacifist Heraklonas and Martina.Шаблон:Sfn

Expeditions in Cyrenaica and Tripolitania

After the surrender of Alexandria in 642, Amr marched his army westward, bypassing the fortified Byzantine coastal strongholds of Paraetonium (Marsa Matruh), Appolonia Sozusa (Marsa Soussa) and Ptolemais (Tolmeita), capturing Barca and reaching Torca in Cyrenaica.Шаблон:Sfn Toward the end of the year, Amr launched a second cavalry assault targeting Tripoli. The city was heavily fortified by the Byzantines and contained several naval vessels in its harbor.Шаблон:Sfn Due to his lack of siege engines, he employed the lengthy siege tactic used in the Egyptian conquest.Шаблон:Sfn After about a month, his troops entered Tripoli through a vulnerable point in its walls and sacked the city.Шаблон:Sfn Its fall, which entailed the evacuation by sea of the Byzantine garrison and most of the population, is dated to 642 or 643/44. Though the Arab hold over Cyrenaica and Zawila to the far south remained firm for decades except for a short-lived Byzantine occupation in 690, Tripoli was recaptured by the Byzantines a few years after Amr's entry.Шаблон:Sfn The region was definitively conquered by the Arabs during the reign of Caliph Abd al-Malik (Шаблон:Reign).Шаблон:Sfn

Administration

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Amr "regulated the government of the country [Egypt], administration of justice and the imposition of taxes", according to the historian A. J. Wensinck.Шаблон:Sfn During his siege of Babylon, Amr had erected an encampment near the fortress.Шаблон:Sfn He originally intended for Alexandria to serve as the Arabs' capital in Egypt, but Umar rejected this on the basis that no body of water, i.e. the Nile, should separate the caliph from his army.Шаблон:Sfn Шаблон:Sfn Шаблон:Sfn Шаблон:Efn Instead, following Alexandria's surrender, in 641 or 642,Шаблон:Sfn Amr made his encampment near Babylon the permanent garrison town (Шаблон:Transliteration) of Fustat, the first town founded by the Arabs in Egypt.Шаблон:Sfn Шаблон:Sfn Шаблон:Sfn Its location along the eastern bank of the Nile River and at the head of the Nile Delta and edge of the Eastern Desert strategically positioned it to dominate the Upper and Lower halves of Egypt.Шаблон:Sfn Fustat's proximity to Babylon, where Amr also established an Arab garrison, afforded the Arab settlers a convenient means to employ and oversee the Coptic bureaucratic officials who inhabited Babylon and proved critical to running the day-to-day affairs of the Arab government.Шаблон:Sfn Шаблон:Sfn

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Outline of the Seal of Amr ibn al-As from 643 CE

Amr had the original tents of Fustat replaced with mud brick and baked brick dwellings.Шаблон:Sfn Documents found in Hermopolis (al-Ashmunayn) dating from the 640s confirm official orders to forward building materials to Babylon to construct the new city.Шаблон:Sfn The city was organized into allotments over an area stretching Шаблон:Convert along the Nile and Шаблон:Convert inland to the east.Шаблон:Sfn The allotments were distributed among the components of Amr's army, with priority given to the Quraysh, the Ansar and Amr's personal guard, the 'Ahl al-Rāya' (People of the Banner),Шаблон:Sfn which included several Bali tribesmen as a result of their kinship and marital ties to Amr.Шаблон:Sfn An opposing theory holds that Amr did not assign the plots; rather, the tribes staked their own claims and Amr established a commission to resolve the ensuing land disputes.Шаблон:Sfn At the center of the new capital Amr built a congregational mosque, later known as the Amr ibn al-As Mosque; the original structure was frequently redesigned and expanded between its foundation and its final form in 827.Шаблон:Sfn Amr had his own dwelling built immediately east of the mosque and it most likely served as his government headquarters.Шаблон:Sfn

In the northwestern part of Alexandria, Amr built a hilltop congregational mosque, later called after him,Шаблон:Sfn before the Byzantine occupation of 645/46, after which he built a second called the Mosque of Mercy;Шаблон:Sfn neither mosque has been presently identified.Шаблон:Sfn Adjacent to the congregational mosque, Amr took personal ownership of a fort, which he later donated for government use.Шаблон:Sfn This part of the city became the administrative and social core of Arab settlement in Alexandria.Шаблон:Sfn Accounts vary as to the number of troops Amr garrisoned in the city, ranging from 1,000 soldiers from the Azd and Banu Fahm tribes to a quarter of the army which was replaced on a rotational basis every six months.Шаблон:Sfn

As per the 641 treaty with Cyrus, Amr imposed a poll tax of two gold dinars on non-Muslim adult males.Шаблон:Sfn He imposed other measures, sanctioned by Umar, that entailed the inhabitants' regular provision of wheat, honey, oil and vinegar as a subsistence allowance for the Arab troops.Шаблон:Sfn He had these goods stored in a distribution warehouse called Шаблон:Transliteration.Шаблон:Sfn After taking a census of the Muslims, he further ordered that each Muslim be annually supplied by the inhabitants a highly embroidered wool robe (Egyptian robes were prized by the Arabs), a burnous, a turban, a sirwal (trousers) and shoes.Шаблон:Sfn In a Greek papyrus dated to 8 January 643 and containing Amr's seal (a fighting bull), Amr (transliterated as "Ambros") requests fodder for his army's animals and bread for his soldiers from an Egyptian village.Шаблон:Sfn According to the historian Martin Hinds, there is "no evidence" that Amr "did anything to streamline the cumbersome fiscal system taken over from the Byzantines; rather, the upheavals of conquest can only have made the system more open to abuse than ever".Шаблон:Sfn

After entering Alexandria, Amr invited the Coptic patriarch Benjamin to return to the city after his years of exile under Cyrus.Шаблон:Sfn The patriarch maintained close ties with Amr and restored the monasteries of Wadi al-Natrun, including the Saint Macarius Monastery, which functions until the present-day.Шаблон:Sfn According to the historian Hugh N. Kennedy, "Benjamin played a major role in the survival of the Coptic Church through the transition to Arab rule".Шаблон:Sfn

Dismissal and aftermath

Amr acted relatively independent as governor and retained much of the surplus tax revenue of the province for the benefit of its troops despite pressure from Umar to forward proceeds to Medina.Шаблон:Sfn He also amassed significant personal wealth in Egypt, part of which was confiscated by Muhammad ibn Maslama on Umar's orders.Шаблон:Sfn At a certain point, the Caliph separated Upper Egypt from Amr's administration and appointed Abd Allah ibn Sa'd over the region.Шаблон:Sfn

Umar's successor Caliph Uthman (Шаблон:Reign) initially kept Amr in his governorship and forged marital links with him by wedding to him his maternal half-sister Umm Kulthum bint Uqba ibn Abi Mu'ayt.Шаблон:Sfn Uthman diluted Amr's power in 645/46 by transferring fiscal responsibilities to Ibn Abi Sarh, his own relative, leaving Amr in charge of military affairs.Шаблон:Sfn Amr and Ibn Sa'd lodged complaints to Uthman each alleging the other of incompetence, prompting Uthman to dismiss Amr entirely and replace him in his duties with Ibn Sa'd.Шаблон:Sfn Uthman's appointee established an effective fiscal system that largely preserved its Byzantine predecessor.Шаблон:Sfn Ibn Sa'd reduced the fiscal privileges of Egypt's original Arab military settlers, who had been shown favor by Amr, and secured the remittance of the surplus to Medina.Шаблон:Sfn This led to the consternation of the Arab garrisons and the native officials and elite, all of whom were "deprived of the opportunities for self-enrichment which they had hitherto enjoyed", according to Hinds.Шаблон:Sfn Open opposition to Ibn Sa'd and Uthman began under the leadership of the Qurayshite Muhammad ibn Abi Hudhayfa in 654/55.Шаблон:Sfn

Opposition to Uthman

Upon his return to Medina, Amr divorced Umm Kulthum and openly criticized Uthman.Шаблон:Sfn The Caliph and Amr engaged in a number of heated public exchanges and, according to a report in the Islamic traditional sources, Amr incited Muhammad's senior companions Ali, al-Zubayr and Talha ibn Ubayd Allah, as well as the Hajj pilgrims in Mecca, against Uthman.Шаблон:Sfn He lobbied Muhammad's wife A'isha for support and the latter pressed Uthman to reappoint Amr to Egypt citing its garrisons' satisfaction with his rule. In a sermon at the mosque in Medina in June 656 and a letter penned to the Muslim leaders in Syria, Uthman mentioned that he had intended to reappoint Amr but did not follow through as a result of the latter's excessive insult. According to the historian Wilferd Madelung, the insult Uthman cited was likely Amr's public reaction to the Caliph's statement that the mutinous Egyptian troops who had arrived in Medina to protest the Caliph's policies had withdrawn because they were misinformed: "Fear God, Uthman, for you have ridden over abysses and we have ridden over them with you. So repent to God, that we may repent".Шаблон:Sfn

After his last exchange with Uthman, Amr retired to his estate in southern Palestine.Шаблон:Sfn The estate was called "Ajlan" after one of his mawālī (non-Arab, Muslim freedmen) and was located in the vicinity of "al-Sab'", which had conventionally been identified with modern Beersheba, but more likely corresponds with Bayt Jibrin, according to the historian Michael Lecker;Шаблон:Sfn the medieval historians al-Baladhuri (d. 892) and Yaqut al-Hamawi (d. 1226) also suggest that Ajlan was located in the area of Bayt Jibrin.Шаблон:Sfn Шаблон:Efn Amr had likely become owner of the estate through a caliphal grant, though he possibly could have taken possession of it in the course of his conquest of Palestine and his ownership had been confirmed by the caliphs.Шаблон:Sfn He lived on the estate, where he derived agricultural revenue, with his sons Muhammad and Abd Allah.Шаблон:Sfn Шаблон:Efn

At his estate Amr received news of the siege of Uthman's house and the Caliph's subsequent assassination by Amr's Egyptian partisans.Шаблон:Sfn Шаблон:Sfn The roughly 400–600 Egyptian mutineers had protested Uthman's fiscal centralization policies in Medina and accused him of favoring his relatives over the early Muslim converts.Шаблон:Sfn The Caliph persuaded them to withdraw, but after they intercepted a letter on their departure ordering Ibn Abi Sarh to punish them, they turned back and assaulted Uthman in his home.Шаблон:Sfn In an anecdote cited by al-Baladhuri, Amr is quoted taking partial credit for Uthman's killing.Шаблон:Sfn Ali succeeded Uthman, but did not reappoint Amr to his post in Egypt.Шаблон:Sfn Amr was one of a number of figures held culpable for Uthman's death by the slain caliph's clan, the Banu Umayya (Umayyads), most prominently by Uthman's uterine brother and Amr's former brother-in-law al-Walid ibn Uqba.Шаблон:Sfn Nonetheless, the governor of Syria—which included Palestine—the Umayyad Mu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan, had left Amr on his estate undisturbed.Шаблон:Sfn As pressure from the Umayyads increased against him, Amr distanced himself from any role in Uthman's death and wrote Mu'awiya to execute or banish the participating Egyptian troops who had been apprehended when they passed through Mu'awiya's jurisdiction on their way back to Egypt.Шаблон:Sfn

Alliance with Mu'awiya

After Ali's victory against al-Zubayr, Talha and A'isha at the Battle of the Camel in Iraq, Mu'awiya, who maintained his opposition to Ali, became the focus of the Caliph's attention. Mu'awiya summoned Amr to discuss an alliance against Ali.Шаблон:Sfn In the ensuing negotiations, Amr pressed Mu'awiya for lifetime possession of Egypt, to which Mu'awiya ultimately acceded after being persuaded by his brother Utba ibn Abi Sufyan.Шаблон:Sfn The public agreement,Шаблон:Sfn composed by Amr's mawlā Wardan and made in Jerusalem,Шаблон:Sfn secured Amr's allegiance to Mu'awiya in return for the latter's assistance in gaining control of Egypt from Ali's governor.Шаблон:Sfn According to Madelung, the "alliance between Mu'awiya and Amr b. al-As constituted a formidable political force"; in forging the alliance, Mu'awiya sought to benefit from Amr's political acumen, "practical battle experience and sure judgement of military strategy and tactics", as well as his "expertise" and support base in Egypt.Шаблон:Sfn Amr became Mu'awiya's chief adviser.Шаблон:Sfn To secure the defense of his Syrian realm from Ali's loyalists in Egypt, Amr counseled Mu'awiya to secure the support of the Judhamite chief in Palestine, Natil ibn Qays, by ignoring his seizure of the district treasury; Natil subsequently joined Mu'awiya's cause.Шаблон:Sfn Amr then advised Mu'awiya to lead the Syrian army in person against Ali, who began his march toward Syria in late May 657.Шаблон:Sfn

When Ali's army set up camp around Siffin, south of the Euphrates town of Raqqa, in early June, Mu'awiya's advance guard led by Abu al-A'war refused them access to the watering places under their control.Шаблон:Sfn After Ali protested, Amr advised Mu'awiya to accept their request as preventing access to water might rally the hitherto demotivated Iraqis to a determined fight against the Syrians.Шаблон:Sfn Mu'awiya refused and the Iraqis subsequently defeated the Syrians led by Amr and Abu al-A'war in a skirmish known as the "Day of the Euphrates".Шаблон:Sfn As head of the Syrian cavalry,Шаблон:Sfn Amr held the overall field command for Mu'awiya's forces in the ensuing weeks-long Battle of Siffin and on occasion personally participated in direct combat, though without particular distinction.Шаблон:Sfn At one point in the battle, he raised a black fabric given to him by Muhammad at the tip of his spear, symbolizing the command role given to him by Muhammad.Шаблон:Sfn

As the Iraqis gained the battlefield advantage, Amr proposed to Mu'awiya that their men tie leaves from the Qur'an at the tips of their lances in an appeal to Ali's men to settle the conflict peacefully.Шаблон:Sfn Шаблон:Sfn It served as a successful ruse which ended the fighting as the battle turned in Ali's favor and sowed uncertainty in Ali's ranks.Шаблон:Sfn The Caliph heeded the majority will in his army to settle the matter diplomatically; an arbitration was agreed with Amr representing Mu'awiya and Abu Musa al-Ash'ari representing Ali.Шаблон:Sfn Amr met with Ali once and the two exchanged insults, but Ali ultimately agreed to Amr's condition that he omit his caliphal title, Шаблон:Transliteration (commander of the faithful), from the preliminary arbitration document drafted on 2 August.Шаблон:Sfn The omission effectively placed Ali and Mu'awiya on an equal political footing and thereby weakened Ali's leadership position over the Muslim polity.Шаблон:Sfn

Amr and Abu Musa likely met twice, at Dumat al-Jandal and then Adhruh, to forge an agreement.Шаблон:Sfn At Dumat al-Jandal, Amr succeeded in gaining Abu Musa's recognition that Uthman was wrongfully killed, a verdict opposed by Ali and which strengthened Syrian support for Mu'awiya, who had taken up the cause of revenge for the death of his kinsman Uthman.Шаблон:Sfn At the last meeting in Adhruh, the office of the caliphate was discussed, but the meeting ended in violence and without agreement; during the brawl, Amr was physically assaulted by a Kufan partisan of Ali, but the latter was fended off by one of Amr's sons. Abu Musa retired to Mecca, while Amr and the Syrians returned to Mu'awiya and recognized him as Шаблон:Transliteration before formally pledging allegiance to him in April/May 658.Шаблон:Sfn As a result, Amr was among those invoked in a ritual curse issued by Ali during the morning prayers and became the subject of derision among the Kufan core of Ali's supporters.Шаблон:Sfn

Reestablishment in Egypt

As early as 656/57, Amr and Mu'awiya persuaded Ibn Abi Hudhayfa, who had seized control of Egypt after Uthman's assassination, to meet them in al-Arish, where they took him captive in a ruse. Amr and Mu'awiya did not advance further than this point and Ibn Abi Hudhayfa was executed.Шаблон:Sfn Ali's second governor in Egypt, Qays ibn Sa'd, was dismissed in late 657 due to concerns that he would defect to Mu'awiya and his next appointee, Malik ibn al-Harith, died in Qulzum (Suez) on his way to the province.Шаблон:Sfn Шаблон:Sfn Malik's replacement was Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr, son of the first caliph and a foster son of Ali. Ibn Abi Bakr burned the homes and arrested the families of pro-Uthman mutineers from the Fustat garrison led by Mu'awiya ibn Hudayj and Maslama ibn Mukhallad.Шаблон:Sfn The latter two requested intervention by Mu'awiya, who dispatched Amr to Egypt with a 4,000–6,000-strong army.Шаблон:Sfn Шаблон:Sfn Despite his thirteen-year absence from Egypt, Amr nonetheless mustered the support of Egypt's original Arab military settlers and their sons.Шаблон:Sfn In July/August 658, his forces defeated Ali's troops at the Battle of al-Musannah between Heliopolis (Ain Shams) and Fustat. He subsequently captured Fustat.Шаблон:Sfn Ibn Hudayj pursued and captured Ibn Abi Bakr and had him executed over the objections of Amr, who had been lobbied by Ibn Abi Bakr's brother Abd al-Rahman to spare his life.Шаблон:Sfn

As per his agreement with Mu'awiya, Amr was installed as governor of Egypt for life and ruled as a virtual partner rather than a subordinate of Mu'awiya, who had become caliph after Ali's assassination and his son Hasan's abdication in 661.Шаблон:Sfn Шаблон:Sfn On 22 January of that year, Amr escaped an assassination attempt by the Kharijite Zadawayh or Amr ibn Bakr, who killed Amr's stand-in for the Friday prayers, Kharija ibn Hudhafa, mistaking the latter for Amr.Шаблон:Sfn Шаблон:Sfn When the Kharijite was apprehended and brought before him, Amr proclaimed "You wanted me, but God wanted Kharija!" and he personally executed him.Шаблон:Sfn

Amr was permitted by the Caliph to retain personally the surplus revenues of the province after the payment of the troops' stipends and other government expenses.Шаблон:Sfn He increased the original garrison at Fustat, numbering some 15,000 soldiers, with the Syrian troops he brought with him.Шаблон:Sfn According to the historian Clive Foss "Amr ruled the country successfully, and with considerable independence and privilege, until his death".Шаблон:Sfn

Death and legacy

A map of northern Africa, southern Europe and western and central Asia with different color shades denoting the stages of expansion of the caliphate

A map depicting growth of the Caliphate. The red-lined areas indicate the territories annexed by the Caliphate—namely most of Palestine, Egypt, Cyrenaica and Tripolitania—as a result of Amr's conquests

Amr died of natural causes over the age of 90.Шаблон:Sfn Accounts vary regarding the date of his death, though the most credible versions place it in 43 AH (663–664 CE).Шаблон:Sfn Шаблон:Efn He was buried at the foot of the Muqattam hills to the east of Fustat.Шаблон:Sfn Due to the early Muslims' reticence to mark the graves of their dead, Amr's burial place has not been identified.Шаблон:Sfn In a testament to the personal wealth that he accrued, at the time of his death he left seventy sacks of gold dinars. His sons Abd Allah and Muhammad refused inheritance of the sums, which were then confiscated by Mu'awiya.Шаблон:Sfn Abd Allah succeeded his father as governor for a few weeks until Mu'awiya replaced him with his own brother Utba.Шаблон:Sfn

The traditional Egypt-based Arabic and Coptic sources regard Amr positively.Шаблон:Sfn 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),Шаблон:Sfn 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.Шаблон:Sfn The Egyptian Arab tradition holds that Amr was personally praised by Muhammad and was a man of wisdom and piety on his deathbed.Шаблон:Sfn The nearly contemporary Coptic historian John of Nikiu (Шаблон:Floruit), who was generally critical of Arab rule, said of Amr that he "had no mercy on the Egyptians, and did not observe the covenant they had made with him",Шаблон:Sfn but also says of him that: "He exacted the taxes which had been determined upon but he took none of the property of the churches, and he committed no act of spoliation or plunder, and he preserved them throughout all his days."Шаблон:Sfn In the words of Kennedy, "Of his [Amr's] competence as a military commander and politician there can be no doubt—the results speak for themselves—but he also has a reputation for straight dealing and justice."Шаблон:Sfn Amr's roughly two-year conquest of Egypt was the quickest in the history of the early Muslim conquests.Шаблон:Sfn Though demographically Egypt remained largely non-Arab and non-Muslim for centuries after the conquest, the country has been continuously ruled by Muslims until the present day.Шаблон:Sfn

Descendants

Amr's estates in Palestine remained in the possession of his descendants as late as the 10th or 11th centuries.Шаблон:Sfn His granddaughter Umm Abd Allah bint Abd Allah married the Umayyad viceroy of Egypt Abd al-Aziz ibn Marwan (d. 705) and gave birth to his sons Suhayl and Sahl and daughters Sahla and Umm al-Hakam.Шаблон:Sfn Шаблон:Sfn Шаблон:Sfn The estates in Medina that Amr's descendants inherited from him were confiscated by the Abbasids after they took over the Caliphate from the Umayyads in 750.Шаблон:Sfn The estates were restored to Amr's family after the intercession of his great-granddaughter Abida al-Hasna bint Shu'ayb ibn Abd Allah, who married the Abbasid prince al-Husayn ibn Abd Allah ibn Ubayd Allah ibn Abbas (d. 758).Шаблон:Sfn

Notes

Шаблон:Notelist

References

Шаблон:Reflist

Bibliography

Шаблон:S-start Шаблон:S-bef Шаблон:S-ttl Шаблон:S-aft Шаблон:S-new Шаблон:S-ttl Шаблон:S-aft Шаблон:S-end

Шаблон:Governor of Egypt during Rashidun Caliphate Шаблон:Governor of Egypt during Umayyad Caliphate Шаблон:Authority control

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