In the first in a series of articles, Jill Kamil traces the historical amity between Muslims and Christians in Egypt As we recall banners with the symbols of the Bible and the Quran hoisted high by pro-democracy demonstrators in Tahrir Square in March 2011 and note the present concern by secular Muslims and Copts over the possible dominance of Islamists in the future, it is as well to remember that when the Arab General Amr Ibn Al-Aas invaded Egypt in the seventh century, his rule was marked by liberal policies. He was not bent on evangelism, but was more concerned with control over valuable sources of booty and raw material. Arab goodwill towards Christians came in virtue of Islam's traditional kinship through Hagar, the Egyptian mother of Ismail, the ancestor of the Prophet Mohamed. The fact that there were warring Christian factions in Egypt and that it was a country occupied by an alien force was not lost on the general. There were allegedly some 200,000 Melkites or "Emperor's men" supporting the Eastern Roman (Chalcedonian) bishop on the throne of Alexandria, and many million Egyptians formed the nucleus of a widespread national movement. Amr called the country Dar Al-Qibt, "Home of the Copts," or more correctly, "home of the Egyptians" since the word "Copt" is derived from the Greek Aigyptios, meaning Egyptian. The word Rumi (Roman) was adopted to identify the occupying forces. Arab accounts of the invasion, written centuries after the event, are contradictory. Nevertheless, they do agree on many points -- on the overcoming of the Melkite garrison at Al-Farama (Pelusiam), for example, the victory at Heliopolis, the subsequent occupation of Misr (an ancient word that referred to the whole country in pre-Islamic times), and the signing of a peace treaty. The chronicle of John of Nikiu, born about the time of the invasion, provides the most contemporary account. It is difficult to follow because sections have been lost, and it has suffered in the course of transmission from Greek into Arabic. Nevertheless, it provides evidence of Egyptians aiding Muslims and gives a clearer picture of the events leading to the departure of the Chalcedonian patriarch than can be obtained elsewhere. In his "The Muslim Conquest of Egypt," Nikiu wrote, "and after the capture of the Fajum with all its territory by the Moslems... [Amr] mustered all his troops about him in order to carry on vigorous warfare... and people began to help the Moslems..." (Ch. CXIII: 1). "But Amr was not satisfied with what he had already done, and so he had the Roman magistrates arrested, and their hands and feet confined in iron and wooden bonds. And he forcibly despoiled [them] of many of [their] possession[s]... (Ch. CXIII: 4). "And when the Moslems saw the weakness of the Romans and the hostility of the people to the emperor Hercalius... they became bolder and stronger in war" (Ch. CXV: 9). "And subsequently the [Chalcedonian] patriarch Cyrus ( Al-Muqawqas in Arabic) set out and went to Babylon to the Moslems, seeking by the offer of tribute to procure peace...[But] the Roman troops in Alexandria were... to carry off their possessions and their treasures and proceed [home] by sea, and no other Roman army was to return" (Ch. CXIX: 17, 18). Cyrus sailed out of Alexandria harbour with his priestly entourage on 17 September 642. His army began its withdrawal soon afterwards. And Benjamin, the patriarch of the Egyptians, returned to the city of Alexandria, took over the vacant throne, and, according to The History of the Patriarchs of Alexandria, was received with jubilation. General Amr set up his permanent garrison city, Al-Fustat, near the Roman/Byzantine fortress of Babylon. Strategically situated at the apex of the Delta, and central to caravan movements to and from Arabia, there he built the first mosque in Egypt, known as the Mosque of Amr, later Al-Jamea Al-Atik ("the most ancient mosque"). This was at first a simple mud-brick structure, rectangular in shape, its roof supported by columns and covered with palm trunks and branches. When no longer able to accommodate the growing garrison, it was replaced in 673 by the governor Maslama. The new mosque was designed with a minaret at each of the four corners and richly decorated in marble, mosaics and gilded Quranic inscriptions on a blue background. It served as a place of worship, council chamber, post office and lodging for travellers. Within 15 years of its foundation Al-Fustat had expanded to the north. Unlike in Palestine and Syria, there was no large Arab settlement in Egypt before the advent of Islam, and because the new rulers had neither practical knowledge nor aptitude in governing a country the size of Egypt, they came to depend on the local population for food, raw materials, construction and administrative expertise. The various provinces were kept much as they were, with Egyptian provincial governors and officials carrying out bureaucratic duties. Taxes were collected locally, either by large landowners or village notables under central supervision. Conversion to Islam was not as rapid as is generally supposed. The earliest converts were probably peasant farmers or those with small incomes who wished to avoid taxation. Among them were pagans, and perhaps some borderline Christians who had earlier wavered between loyalty to the foreign rulers and the national ones. Among the Coptic- and Greek-speaking lower administrators who formed a professional bureaucratic class, however, there is little evidence of conversion. No doubt Egyptians developed a collaborative response to the principles of Islam and its creed: God is eternal, God is one, God is great, there is no God but God, and Mohamed is the Prophet of God. The call to prayer five times a day from a minaret did not demand attendance at a mosque. Ablutions and prayers could be made in the privacy of a home, in the fields or at places of work. Islam sat easily on Egypt because the new faith came to a country traditionally tolerant of diverse beliefs and practices. The sympathetic attitude between Copts and Muslims was based both on shared religious concepts--the immortality of the soul, resurrection, future rewards and punishments in paradise or hell, good and evil spirits ( genii ), fasting, pilgrimage, and sacrifice. Alms-giving, an age-old practice in Egypt from Pharaonic times, and a Christian virtue, is an absolute duty under Islam. In and around Al-Fustat, churches and monasteries suffered various fates after the Arab invasion. Within the walls of the Roman/Byzantine fortress, the Church of Saint Sergius became the seat of the patriarchate of Misr, and the first patriarch to be elected there was Patriarch Isaac (681-692). The Church of the Virgin Mary known as Qasriyat Al-Rihan ("Castle of the pot of basil") remained in the hands of the Greek community. And, beyond the fortress walls, not far from the Mosque of Amr, the Church and Monastery of Saint Mercurius (a Roman legionary who died a martyr's death in Palestine), was first turned into a sugar-cane warehouse and later, in the ninth century, came into the possession of the Copts. The neighbouring Church of Saint Shenouda was likewise first used as a storehouse, then converted into a mosque, and only reconverted into a church under the Patriarch Benjamin II in the 14th century. In other words, in the expanding city of Al-Fustat, in and around Qasr Al-Sham (the Roman/Byzantine fortress), and the port of Babylon, Muslim and Coptic households were not separated, nor were their places of worship. Confirmation of Arabs mingling with the local population as part of the policy adopted by General Amr is provided in Ibrahim Ahmed al-Adawi's The History of the Islamic World. He points out that the general initiated the Nizam Al-Irtibaa, or "the spring tours system" which lasted for three months from the end of the winter to the beginning of summer when Arab tribes living in Misr were encouraged to travel around Egyptian villages for hunting and other recreational activities. The Islamic authorities decided on the places to be included on the tour, and the governor issued a booklet addressing each of the tribes with details of their destinations. At first, these were near the capital, but later they were extended to include the Delta and Upper Egypt. Al-Adawi quotes from a speech given by Amr prior to their departure each spring: "you should treat the Copts who are your neighbours well," and he reads into this statement encouragement to interact with members of the local population and not to cause harm or inconvenience to them. According to tradition, the Prophet Mohamed himself visited the Monastery of Saint Catherine in Sinai and never forgot the hospitality of the monks. When a delegation of monks went to him in 625 asking for his protection, he granted a Covenant to this effect. The charter which resulted, known as the "Covenant of the Prophet," was certified by his closest associates who are mentioned by name, and it is important in that it expresses Muslim policy after the Arab invasion, stating explicitly that there should be no coercion or change of status of the monks, nor pressure on Christians more generally. Part of the Covenant (an authenticated copy of which is in the Monastery), states: "if a priest or a hermit retires to a mountain, a hermitage, a plain, a desert, a town, a village or a church, I shall be his protector against every enemy, I personally, my troops and my subjects... It is not allowed to move a bishop from his diocese, nor a priest from his region, nor a hermit from his cell. None of the objects of the church must be used in the construction of mosques, nor even for the buildings of Muslims. He who does not conform to this would be going against God's Law and that of his Prophet..." (translation by O. Meinardus). Standing as evidence of the protection of the Monastery of Saint Catherine by the sultans of Egypt is a mosque, a simple rectangular building near the belfry of the Church of the Transfiguration, with two sturdy pillars upon which the arches of the roof rest. Today, it serves the religious needs of the Muslim servants in the monastery, as well as of Muslim visitors. Arabic, the language of the Quran and of communication and culture, slowly came into general use all over the country. The earliest administrative papyri after the Arab conquest were all in Greek. A half century later, a decree was tabled that government affairs should forthwith be compiled in Arabic, and Copts who wished to keep their posts in the administration learned the Arabic script. Bilingual Greek-Arabic tax registers, receipts and the like began to appear. The first known purely Arabic papyrus dates to 709. As for Coptic manuscripts, they too reflect the increasing Arabisation of the country. That is to say, Egyptians were Arabised not Islamised. The historian Masudi visited Egypt in the 10th century in the time of Ibn Tulun, the Turkish mercenary soldier of strong character who defied Baghdad by refusing to pay tribute. Ibn Tulun fostered trade, encouraged agriculture, looked after the needs of the rural population to a greater extent than many Muslim leaders before him, and under his rule Egypt became the seat of military and political power. No longer seeing its wealth drained to support the luxury of the Baghdad court, the country rapidly became prosperous. Architects, craftsmen and traders became wealthy, and the spirit of the age is echoed in Masudi's description of the cutting of the dam at the mouth of the canal that flowed though Al-Fustat. Translated by Stanley Lane-Poole in his A History of Egypt in the Middle Ages, it reads: "the Night of the Bath ( Leylat Al-Ghatas ) is one of the great ceremonies, and the people all go to it on foot... I was present in 350 (942) when the Ikhshid Mohammed (born Turgh) ordered the bank of the island [Al-Roda] and the [opposite] bank of Al-Fustat to be illuminated each with a thousand torches, besides private illuminations. Muslims and Christians by hundreds of thousands crowded the Nile on boats, or in kiosks overlooking the river, or [standing] on the banks, all eager for pleasure, and vying in equipage, dress, gold and silver cups, and jewellery." "The sound of music was heard all about, with singing and dancing. It was a splendid night, the best in all Misr for beauty and gaiety; the doors of the separate quarters were left open, and most people bathed in the Nile, knowing well that [on that night] it is a sure preservative and cure for all disease". The author's book Christianity in the Land of the Pharaohs was published by Routledge in the UK and USA in 2002 and is also available from the American University in Cairo Press.
