Cambridge Ancient Hi.. - Index of

egypt 637
times by the charities of John III, ‘the Almsgiver’, the revered
Chalcedonian patriarch, 610–19. 129 Just before his patriarchate, Alexandria
was thrown into turmoil by the revolt of Heraclius against the unpopular
emperor Phocas. The very end of his patriarchate was attended and followed
by the Persian invasion and occupation of 619–29. 130 This in turn
was prelude to the Arab invasion and the final occupation of Egypt,
639–42, under �Amr ibn al-�Asi. In these last-mentioned years began the
process whereby Egypt and its people adopted the Arabic language and
became overwhelmingly Islamic in faith. So also began the process
whereby Greek culture in Egypt disappeared and the indigenous Coptic
culture was much eclipsed. 131 As a result of the Arab conquest, in addition
to the magnificent city of Alexandria, the Byzantine empire forever lost
Constantinople’s principal source of food and a substantial portion of the
annual imperial revenues. 132 The human toll, especially at the beginning of
this transformation, was, by all accounts, enormous. The story of what
happened in that period was, at the beginning of the twentieth century, brilliantly
reconstructed and retold, but in an old-fashioned, largely prepapyrological
way. 133 That story, which continues the one sketched above,
now begs retelling with a full accounting for the papyrological evidence. 134
129 Monks (1953).
130 The Coptic Encyclopedia vi.1938–41, s.v. Persians in Egypt (R. Altheim-Stiehl).
131 MacCoull (1989) (�MacCoull (1993b) ch. xxvi); and see also Samir (1986).
132 Haldon, Byzantium in the Seventh Century esp. 10–11; Haas (1997) 337–51; Fraser (1993) [1995].
133 Butler (1978), cf. The Coptic Encyclopedia i.183–9, s.v. Arab conquest of Egypt (P. M. Fraser).
134 For the evidence see Fraser’s extensive ‘Additional Bibliography’ in Butler (1978), with Bagnall’s
review, Classical Journal 75 (1979–80) 347–8; also: MacCoull (1986a) (�MacCoull (1993b) ch. xii). An
important, recently published seventh-century document: Gascou (1994).
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