WARS OF THE CALIPHS. 351 



CHAPTER IX. 



WARS OF THE CALIPHS. 



Invasion of Egypt— Reduction of Farmah or Pelusium— Siege 

 and Capitulation of Memphis— Surrender of Alexandria — 

 Burning of the Library— Conquest and Description of Egypt — 

 Assassination of Omar — Accession of Othman— Capture of 

 Cyprus, Ancyra, and Rhodes — Invasion of Africa — Defeat of 

 the Prefect Gregory — Murder of Othman — Accession of Ali — 

 Political Disturbances— BattleofSeftein—Moawiyah. Founder 

 of the Omniiadan Dynasty, usurps the Caliphate — All assas- 

 sinated — Abdication of Hassan — Death of Moawiyah— Fate 

 of Imam Hossein at Kerbela — The Ommiades or Caliphs 

 of Damascus— Their Character— Expelled by the Family of 

 Abbas, who seize the Throne. 



Egypt was a country familiar to the readers of the 

 Koran ; but it was a land of romance, — for in their 

 €yes a cloud of superstitious wonders rested on its 

 actual condition. The pride and the fall of Pharaoh, 

 and the prodigies that attended the flight of 600,000 

 Israelites, were recorded in their sacred volume as 

 warnings to a disobedient people. Of its population, 

 its strong and numerous cities, its stupendous build- 

 ings and mysterious river, they had but obscure con- 

 ceptions, which tended rather to damp than stimu- 

 late their adventurous zeal. But the magnanimous 

 Omar had seen the diadems of Caesar and Khoosroo 

 laid at his feet, and he still trusted to God and the 

 sword. The conquest of this ancient and celebrated 

 kingdom, then in the hands of the Romans (or Greeks 



have no chiefs of any distinction, it having been the policy of 

 both the Tartars and Afghans to scatter and weaken them. 

 Though many of these tribes have presen'ed the name and ap. 

 pearance of Arabians, they have completely lost the language," 

 Maicolm's History of Persia, vol. i. p. 146. 



