UNESCO Ancient Civilizations of Africa (Editor G. Mokhtar)

Ancient Civilizations of Africa
Byzantium. The Sassanids already dominated the southern part of Arabia
and were hindering Byzantine trade in the Red Sea. They struck in three
directions: towards Anatolia and Byzantium, towards Aleppo and Antioch,
and towards Aqaba and Egypt, reaching the Nile Delta in 615. The Persian
occupation was marked by the insurrection of the Jews, finallyliberated
from the long Roman oppression, and by the open reappearance of the
Monophysite church, which for some years became the only official church.
The reconquest of Egypt by Heraclius in 629 gave the Byzantines only
a brief respite, compelled as they were to exercise close surveillance over
a colony which had by then become virtually ungovernable. Terror reigned
in 632, under the Melchite Patriarch, when Byzantium decided to impose
a new orthodoxy which was neither that of the Council of Chalcedon nor
that of Rome nor yet Monophysitism. From 639 onwards the Muslims
adopted a threatening posture, and in 642 the Egyptians gave themselves
up to the new conquerors, who had promised to establish more equitable
economic and fiscalconditions. The Arab conquest marked the beginning
of a new era in Egyptian history.
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