Omar was no sooner seated on the throne, than he pre pared to prosecute with vigour the war which his prede cessor had so successfully begun. Abu Obeidah was appointed to command the Syrian army instead of Caled, whose cruel and untractable temper had rendered him obnoxious to the Caliph. Caled submitted to his dis grace with dignity ; and swore, that, though he had the utmost aversion for Omar, yet he would obey him as the lawful successor of the prophet. The principal fortresses of Syria soon yielded to the Moslem arms; and the em peror Heraclius trembled for the safety of his eastern possessions. An army of 240,000 men was sent to stop the cruel ravages of the ruthless Arabs, and to drive them from his dominions. The Moslem army, reinforced by 8000 believers, repaired to Yermouth, to wait the ap proach of the enemy ; and Abu Obeidah, confiding in Caled's tried courage and superior skill in military af fairs, resigned to him the chief command. Three times the Moslems were repulsed; but, rallied by the women, they again returned to the charge. Caled flew along the lines, encouraging his soldiers. He assured them that paradise was under the shadow of their swords, and that the devil and hell-fire were behind them. The numbers of the Christians withstood, for a time, the obstinate fury of the Moslems; but were at length compelled to retreat with precipitation, leaving 150,000 killed, and 40,000 prisoners. This bloody encounter determined the fate of Palestine and Syria. Jerusalem opened her gates to the conquerors; and Aleppo, the strongest for tress in Syria, was forced, after an obstinate resistance, to receive a Moslem garrison.
The fertile kingdom of Egypt now attracted the ava rice, or the ambition, of ?nrzt. With an army of only 4000 Arabs, he left the province of Palestine, and bat tened in search ol new conquests. The intrepid warrior was accused of temerity and arrogance, by his secret enemies at the court of Medina, in attempting to sub clue, with so slender a force, the granary of the Roman empire. Omar listened to their representations, and dispatched a messenger to stop the march of his lieute nant. The mandate of the caliph overtook Amru, when he had scarcely advanced a day's journey from Gaza. " If this epistle reach you before you enter Egypt, re turn ; if not, advance with confidence, and may the bles sing of God attend you. Succours shall be sent with. all possible dispatch." Amru, being led, by secret intelli gence, to suspect its contents, ordered the courier to follow the army, until he had leisure to read it, and ad vanced, by forced marches, to the confines of Egypt ; which he had no sooner passed, than he commanded his army to halt; and assembling the officers in his tent, he broke the seal of the royal mandate, in the presence of the messenger. Having perused it, he gravely inquired the situation of the place, and was answered, in Egypt ; "Then let us obey the commands of the caliph. Let us pursue our march, and make ourselves masters of the country." Farina, or Pelusium, soon yielded to his arms; and he halted not till he had crossed the Nile, and sat down with his little army before Misra, (the an cient Memphis) the second fortress in Egypt. For se
ven months, the military engines played against the walls of Misra ; and the assaults of the Arabs were repelled with bravery and resolution. A reinforcement of 4000 Moslems could not overcome the resistance of its inha bitants ; and the waters of the Nile threatened, and would probably have overwhelmed, the haughty inva ders, had not the 'treachery of the governor delivered the town and citadel into the power of Amru. From thence he proceeded to Alexandria, and the usual alter natives were offered to the Christians,—Islamism, or tri bute. The terms were rejected with disdain, and Amru laid close siege to the capital of Egypt. The sword of the Moslem general always shone in the front of the as sault; but the vigorous sallies of the besieged disheart ened and destroyed his followers. Amru, with a chosen band, attempted the citadel. They entered it, sword in nand ; but, after a severe contest, the Arabs were driven back ; and Amru, a friend, and a servant, were taken prisoners by the Greeks. When interrogated by the governor concerning the object of their invasion, the intrepid Amru forgot his situation : " We are come hither," said he, "to oblige you, either to profess Isla mism, or to pay an annual tribute to the caliph ; which you must submit to, or be all put to the sword." This haughty answer revealed the general of the Moslems ; and a battle-ax was raised to stop for ever the breath and the triumphs of Amru. But the address of his servant rescued him from danger, by giving him a box on the ear, and commanding him to be silent in the presence of his superiors. The governor was deceived by the arti fice, and the prisoners were dismissed. The safety of their general, whom they supposed to be lost, roused the resolution of the Moslems. The citadel was taken by storm ; and, after a siege of 14 months, the standard of Omar was raised on the walls of Alexandria, in the 20th year of the Hegira, (A. D. 641.) Amru describes, in his letter to the caliph, the riches and magnificence of the capital of Egypt. " I have taken the great city of the west. It contains 4000 palaces, 4000 baths, 400 royal cirei, or places of amusement ; 12,000 gardeners, and 40,000 tributary Jews." The request of John, the grammarian, and the fanatical answer of Omar, are well known in the history of literature. Aniru, at the desire of John, begged ot the caliph, the philosophical books in the Alexandrian library, as a present to the Greeks. "If the books you mention," returned Oniar, "agree with the book ot God, they are superfluous; if they are repugnant to the doctrines and tenets of that book, they are pernicious, and ought to be destroyed." The sentence was rigorously executed, and these precious volumes supplied the 40u0 baths of the city with fuel for six months. The conquest of Egypt proved of great advantage to the Moslems. Independent of the 4,00u,000, socipoo pieces of gold, which the tributaries annually brought into the treasury of the caliph, the abundant fertility of this country supplied the dearths of Arabia; and a train of camels, laden with corn and provisions, covered the long road from Memphis to Medina.