THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 689 



KSftw- ' ■' mi s^v 



CHAP. XVII. 



the fame Subjecl continued — Nilometer what. How divided and mea- 

 sured. 



IN the 7th century a revolution happened that flops our Gre- 

 cian account from proceeding farther, Egypt was con- 

 quered by an ignorant and barbarous enemy, theSaracen, and 

 Amru Ibn el Aas was governor of Egypt for Omar, the fecond 

 Caliph after Mahomet. Omar was a foreigner, conqueror, bi- 

 got and a tyrant; he deftroyed the Grecian Nilometer from 

 motives of religion, the fame which had before moved him 

 to burn the library of Alexandria ; and after, with the fame 

 degree o£ found judgment, determined to eftablifh his empire at 

 Medina, in the middle of the peninfula of Arabia, a country 

 without water, and'furrounded on all fides with barren lands ; 

 but he was neverthelefs defirous of feeding his famifhed Sa- 

 racens with the wheat of Egypt, a province he had fub- 

 dued ; for this purpofe he ordered Amru to begin a ca- 

 nal from the Nile to the Red Sea, to carry the wheat to the 

 Vol. III. 4 S Arabian 



