The history of Egypt during the Middle Ages is a captivating narrative of conquest, cultural transformation, and the rise and fall of powerful dynasties. This era, spanning from the 7th to the 16th centuries, witnessed Egypt's transition from Greco-Roman rule to Islamic dominance, marking a profound shift in its cultural, political, and religious landscape.
The Greco-Roman domination of Egypt came to an end in 639 AD, when Egypt came under the rule of the Rashidun Caliphate originating from Arabia. This brought an age of over 1000 years in which Egypt was dominated by Muslim rulers until the French invasion of Napoleon in 1798. Most of these dynasties originated from Arabia itself, ending with the Ottoman Empire which ruled from Turkish origin.
The Early Islamic Period (639-969 AD)
Under the command of Caliph Umar, Amr ibn al-'As invaded Egypt with over 9,000 men from 639-640 AD. They first took the city of Heliopolis, then moved on to take Alexandria which surrendered in 641 AD. The Byzantine Empire would try multiple times to retake the nation, but with failed results. Amr established his capital at the city of Fustat, renamed from the Roman fort Babylon dating back to Persian times.
Following the Islamic conquest in 641-642, Lower Egypt was ruled at first by governors acting in the name of the Rashidun Caliphs and then the Umayyad Caliphs in Damascus, but in 750 the Umayyads were overthrown. Throughout Islamic rule, Askar was named the capital and housed the ruling administration.
After the conquest, the country was initially divided in two provinces, Upper Egypt (al-sa'id) and Lower Egypt with the Nile Delta (asfal al-ard). In 643/4, however, Caliph Uthman appointed a single governor (wāli) with jurisdiction over all of Egypt, resident at Fustat. The governor would in turn nominate deputies for Upper and Lower Egypt. Alexandria remained a distinct district, reflecting both its role as the country's shield against Byzantine attacks, and as the major naval base.
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The main pillar of the early Muslim rule and control in the country was the military force, or jund, staffed by the Arab settlers. These were initially the men who had followed Amr and participated in the conquest. The followers of Amr were mostly drawn from Yamani (south Arabian) tribes, rather than the northern Arab (Qays i) tribes, who were scarcely represented in the province; it was they who dominated the country's affairs for the first two centuries of Muslim rule. Initially, they numbered 15,500, but their numbers grew through emigration in the subsequent decades. By the time of Caliph Mu'awiya I (r. 661-680), the number of men registered in the army list (diwān al-jund) and entitled an annual pay (ʿaṭāʾ) reached 40,000. Conversions of Copts to Islam were initially rare, and the old system of taxation was maintained for the greater part of the first Islamic century.
During the First Fitna, Caliph Ali (r. 656-661) appointed Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr as governor of Egypt, but Amr led an invasion in summer 658 that defeated Ibn Abi Bakr and secured the country for the Umayyads. Amr then served as governor until his death in 664. From 667/8 until 682, the province was governed by another fervent pro-Umayyad partisan, Maslama ibn Mukhallad al-Ansari.
During the Second Fitna, Ibn al-Zubayr gained the support of the Kharijites in Egypt and sent a governor of his own, Abd al-Rahman ibn Utba al-Fihri, to the province. The Kharijite-backed Zubayrid regime was very unpopular with the local Arabs, who called upon the Umayyad caliph Marwan I (r. 684-685) for aid. In December 684, Marwan invaded Egypt and reconquered it with relative ease. Marwan installed his son Abd al-Aziz as governor.
Abd al-Malik ibn Rifa'a al-Fahmi in 715 and his successor Ayyub ibn Sharhabil in 717 were the first governors chosen from the jund, rather than members of the Umayyad family or court. Both are reported to have increased pressure on the Copts, and initiated measures of Islamization. The resentment of the Copts against taxation led to a revolt in 725. In 727, to strengthen Arab representation, a colony of 3,000 Arabs was set up near Bilbeis. Meanwhile, the employment of the Arabic language had been steadily gaining ground, and in 706 it was made the official language of the government. Egyptian Arabic, the modern Arabic accent and dialect of Egypt, began to form. Other revolts of the Copts are recorded for the years 739 and 750, the last year of Umayyad domination.
The Abbasid period was marked by new taxations, and the Copts revolted again in the fourth year of Abbasid rule. At the beginning of the 9th century the practice of ruling Egypt through a governor was resumed under Abdallah ibn Tahir, who decided to reside at Baghdad, sending a deputy to Egypt to govern for him.
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A major change came in 834, when Caliph al-Mu'tasim discontinued the practice of paying the jund as they nominally still formed the province's garrison-the ʿaṭāʾ from the local revenue. Al-Mu'tasim discontinued the practice, removing the Arab families from the army registers diwān and ordering that the revenues of Egypt be sent to the central government, which would then pay the ʿaṭāʾ only to the Turkish troops stationed in the province.
In 868, Caliph al-Mu'tazz (r. 866-869) gave charge of Egypt to the Turkish general Bakbak. Bakbak in turn sent his stepson Ahmad ibn Tulun as his lieutenant and resident governor. This appointment ushered in a new era in Egypt's history: hitherto a passive province of an empire, under Ibn Tulun it would re-emerge as an independent political centre.
The first years of Ibn Tulun's governorship were dominated by his power struggle with the powerful head of the fiscal administration, the Ibn al-Mudabbir. The latter had been appointed as fiscal agent (ʿāmil) already since c. 861, and had rapidly become the most hated man in the country as he doubled the taxes and imposed new ones on Muslims and non-Muslims alike. By 872 Ibn Tulun had achieved Ibn al-Mudabirbir's dismissal and taken over the management of the fisc himself, and had managed to assemble an army of his own, thereby becoming de facto independent of Baghdad.
As a sign of his power, he established a new palace city to the northeast of Fustat, called al-Qata'i, in 870. The project was a conscious emulation of, and rival to, the Abbasid capital Samarra, with quarters assigned to the regiments of his army, a hippodrome, hospital, and palaces. The new city's centrepiece was the Mosque of Ibn Tulun. Ibn Tulun continued to emulate the familiar Samarra model in the establishment of his administration as well, creating new departments and entrusting them to Samarra-trained officials.
His regime was in many ways typical of the "ghulām system" that became one of the two main paradigms of Islamic polities in the 9th and 10th centuries, as the Abbasid Caliphate fragmented and new dynasties emerged. These regimes were based on the power of a regular army composed of slave soldiers or ghilmān, but in turn, according to Hugh N. Kennedy, "the paying of the troops was the major preoccupation of government". It is therefore in the context of the increased financial requirements that in 879, the supervision of the finances passed to Abu Bakr Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Madhara'i, the founder of the al-Madhara'i bureaucratic dynasty that dominated the fiscal apparatus of Egypt for the next 70 years.
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The peace and security provided by the Tulunid regime, the establishment of an efficient administration, and repairs and expansions to the irrigation system, coupled with a consistently high level of Nile floods, resulted in a major increase in revenue. Ibn Tulun's rise was facilitated by the feebleness of the Abbasid government, threatened by the rise of the Saffarids in the east and by the Zanj Rebellion in Iraq itself, and divided due to the rivalry between Caliph al-Mu'tamid (r. 870-892) and his increasingly powerful brother and de facto regent, al-Muwaffaq.
Open conflict between Ibn Tulun and al-Muwaffaq broke out in 875/6. The latter tried to oust Ibn Tulun from Egypt, but the expedition sent against him barely reached Syria. In retaliation, with the support of the Caliph, in 877/8 Ibn Tulun received responsibility for the entirety of Syria and the frontier districts of Cilicia (the Thughūr). Ibn Tulun occupied Syria but failed to seize Tarsus in Cilicia, and was forced to return to Egypt due to the abortive revolt of his eldest son, Abbas. Ibn Tulun has Abbas imprisoned, and named his second son, Khumarawayh, as his heir.
In 882, Ibn Tulun came close to having Egypt become the new centre of the Caliphate, when al-Mu'tamid tried to flee to his domains. In the event, however, the Caliph was overtaken and brought him back to Samarra (February 883) and under his brother's control. This opened anew the rift between the two rulers: Ibn Tulun organized an assembly of religious jurists at Damascus which denounced al-Muwaffaq a usurper, condemned his maltreatment of the Caliph, declared his place in the succession as void, and called for a jihād against him. Al-Muwaffaq was duly denounced in sermons in the mosques across the Tulunid domains, while the Abbasid regent responded in kind with a ritual denunciation of Ibn Tulun.
Ibn Tulun then tried once more, again without success, to impose his rule over Tarsus. At Ibn Tulun's death, Khumarawayh, with the backing of the Tulunid elites, succeeded without opposition. Ibn Tulun bequeathed his heir "with a seasoned military, a stable economy, and a coterie of experienced commanders and bureaucrats". Khumarawayh was able to preserve his authority against the Abbasid's attempt to overthrow him at the Battle of Tawahin and even made additional territorial gains, recognized in a treaty with al-Muwaffaq in 886 that gave the Tulunids the hereditary governorship over Egypt and Syria for 30 years.
The accession of al-Muwaffaq's son al-Mu'tadid as Caliph in 892 marked a new rapprochement, culminating in the marriage of Khumarawayh's daughter to the new Caliph, but also the return of the provinces of Diyar Rabi'a and Diyar Mudar to caliphal control. Domestically, Khumarawayh's reign was one of "luxury and decay" (Hugh N. Kennedy), but also a time of relative tranquility in Egypt as well as in Syria, a rather unusual occurrence for the period. Nevertheless, Khumarawayh's extravagant spending exhausted the fisc, and by the time of his assassination in 896, the Tulunid treasury was empty.
Following Khumarawayh's death, internal strife sapped Tulunid power. Khumarawayh's son Jaysh was a drunkard who executed his uncle, Mudar ibn Ahmad ibn Tulun; he was deposed after only a few months and replaced by his brother Harun ibn Khumarawayh. Harun too was a weak ruler, and although a revolt by his uncle Rabi'ah in Alexandria was suppressed, the Tulunids were unable to confront the attacks of the Qarmatians who began at the same time. In addition, many commanders defected to the Abbasids, whose power revived under the capable leadership of al-Muwaffaq's son, Caliph al-Mu'tadid (r. 892-902). Finally, in December 904, two other sons of Ibn Tulun, Ali and Shayban, murdered their nephew and assumed control of the Tulunid state. Far from halting the decline, this event alienated key commanders in Syria and led to the rapid and relatively unopposed reconquest of Syria and Egypt by the Abbasids under Muhammad ibn Sulayman al-Katib, who entered Fustat in January 905.
In 935, after repulsing another Fatimid attack, the Turkish commander Muhammad ibn Tughj became the de facto ruler of Egypt with the title of al-Ikhshid. After his death in 946, the succession of his son Unujur was peaceful and undisputed, due to the influence of the powerful and talented commander-in-chief, Kafur. One of the many Black African slaves recruited by al-Ikhshid, Kafur remained the paramount minister and virtual ruler of Egypt over the next 22 years, assuming power in his own right in 966 until his death two years later.
The High Islamic Period (969-1253 AD)
In the High Islamic Period, lasting until 1253, Egypt exerted itself as having more dominant autonomy, particularly under its own native Caliphate descended from Fatima, as well as the great jihadist Salah al-Din Ayyub (Saladin).
Originating from Africa, the Fatimid general Jawhar as-Siqilli led the conquest of Egypt and established a new capital, now the modern city of Cairo, including a royal palace and mosque. At the same time as this conquest, however, the Qarmations had also invaded Egypt from Syria, besieging the Caliph in his own city. Meanwhile, the caliph in 2 al-Muizz had been summoned to enter the palace that had been prepared for him, and after leaving a viceroy to take charge of his western possessions he arrived in Alexandria on May 31 973, and proceeded to instruct his new subjects in the particular form of religion (Shiism) which his family represented.
Jawhar as-Siqilli immediately began the building of a new city, Cairo, to furnish quarters for the army which he had brought. A palace for the Caliph and a mosque for the army were immediately constructed, which for many centuries remained the centre of Muslim learning.
The Carmathians were gradually forced to retreat from Egypt and then from Syria by some successful engagements, and by the judicious use of bribes, whereby dissension was sown among their leaders. Al-Muizz also found time to take some active measures against the Byzantines, with whom his generals fought in Syria with varying fortune.
Under the vizier al-Aziz, there was a large amount of toleration conceded to the other sects of Islam, and to other communities, but the belief that the Christians of Egypt were in league with the Byzantine emperor, and even burned a fleet which was being built for the Byzantine war, led to some persecution. Al-Aziz attempted without success to enter into friendly relations with the Buwayhid ruler of Baghdad, and tried to gain possession of Aleppo, as the key to Iraq, but this was prevented by the intervention of the Byzantines.
His successor al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah came to the throne at the age of eleven, being the son of Aziz by a Christian mother. His conduct of affairs was vigorous and successful, and he concluded a peace with the Byzantine emperor. A more reputable expedient with the same end in view was the construction of a great library in Cairo, with ample provision for students; this was modelled on a similar ins... During the rule of Caliphs al-Aziz and al-Hakim, there was a great deal of toleration for various Muslim sects within Egypt, including some sects of more heretical background such as the Druze and Nizari. However, at the same time there was more rigorous and systematic persecution of Coptic Christianity, which was felt to be in league with Byzantium. Al-Hakim destroyed the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in 1009, and the library of Cairo in 1020. During this apex of Muslim piety, there was much less concern for the well being of Egyptian monuments.
The Seljuk Turks invaded the Middle East and took Baghdad in 1059, followed by an invasion of Egypt from 1068-1074. Damascus was permanently lost at this time. Desperate to drive out the Turks, Caliph al-Mustafa invited the French to invade Syria. After the First Crusade (1096-1099) successfully took Jerusalem, al-Mustafa attempted to retaliate by sending his Vizier al-Afdal. Al-Afdal was defeated at the Battle of Ascalon, and many successive battles after that with the Crusaders, until eventually he was executed by the Caliph.
Saladin restored Sunni Islam to Egypt, replacing the venerated name of the Fatimid Caliph with that of the Abbassid. Damascus was the capital of his empire, appointing a governor over Egypt.
In 1174, Egypt came under the rule of the Ayyubids, who ruled from Damascus and not from Cairo. This dynasty fought against the Crusader States during the Fifth Crusade. Ayyubid Sultan Najm al-Din recaptured Jerusalem in 1244. He introduced Mamluk forces into his army in order to hold off the crusaders. This decision would be one he regretted.
Under the reign of al-Adil, the Sultanate worked tirelessly to protect the Levant from Crusader invasion during the Fifth Crusade (1218-1221). During the Siege of Damietta, al-Adil succumbed to disease and died. Al-Kamil almost lost Cairo to the forces of Pelagius, except for some unforeseen luck. However, he did lose the port of Damietta until 1221, and permanently relinquished trading rights with Alexandria. It was during this campaign that Rome took possession of the Tabula Rashida, ultimately leading to the translation of hieroglyphics.
The Sultan Najm al-Din introduced Mamluk ("white slave") forces into the military in 1240, and took Jerusalem in 1244. In 1249 Louis IX of France invaded again in the Seventh Crusade (1248-1254).
Rise of the Mamluks - Animated Medieval History DOCUMENTARY
The Mamluk Dynasties (1250-1517)
There were two different families of Mamluks that successively ruled over Egypt. the Bahri Dynasty ruled until 1382. Qutuz defeated an invasion of the Mongols under Hulagu Khan in 1260. Baybar, who succeeded him and ruled until 1277, was a famous military leader. It was under this first dynasty that Cairo turned into a major city, particularly as it became the seat of the Abbassid Caliph after the destruction of Baghdad in 1253.
Starting in 1347, a massive decline began in the Mamluk Sultanate, primarily caused by the Black Death that hit Egypt worse than any other nation in Europe. The Burji Dynasty saw continual decline as the Bubonic plague came back in frequent times over the decades. Tamerlane invaded in 1398, reducing the already-unstable Mamluk rule to virtual anarchy.
Map of the Mamluk Sultanate around 1350 AD
Ottoman Rule (1517-1798)
The Ottoman rule of Egypt was administrated abroad from Istanbul. Initially, the Grand Vizier Yunus Pasha was made governor of the land. After Sultan Selim discovered Yunus as committing massive embezzlement, he changed the office to the Mamluk ruler of Aleppo. Due to the Ottoman millet system, the registry of dividing land between the Mamluk fiefs remained unchanged, allowing the former Mamluk nobles to quickly regain their power. The Mamluk Emirs were reorganized as a system of divans by Suleiman the Magnificent.
Starting in 1527, a survey of Egyptian land was made to divide property within four classes, depending on social status within the nobility. One thing that was most constant during Ottoman rule was the constant change of governors. However, this had profound affects on Egypt's infrastructure. The military quickly gained more de facto power over the region, and early on this manifested as frequent mutinies and assassinations.
From 1609-1610, a civil war broke out between the military, Mamluk nobles and Bedouin slaves. This was ultimately crushed by the Grand Vizier Kara Mehmed, who became governor briefly after. Even afterward, the growing power of the military shifted direct power over the nation, such that the local Emir Ridwan Bey became the de facto ruler of Egypt from 1631 until 1656.
Famine and pestilence also was a frequent problem during this period. In 1619, an epidemic is believed to have killed over 600,000 people. In the first half of the 18th century, the two most prominent offices in Egypt fell between the Shaykh Al-Balad and the Amir Al-Hajj, which was always held by Mamluks. In the first decade of the century, two factions of Mamluks emerged in rivalry for the office, Qasimites and Fiqarites.
From 1711-1714, the "Great Sedition" saw a religious rivalry cause an outbreak of violence across Egypt. Egypt was quickly deteriating as the Ottoman Empire declined in the 18th century. After several more incompetant rulers, Egypt fell under the joint rule of two adventurers, Ibrahim Bey and Ridwan Bey in 1743. They actually managed to hold power in a stable fashion for some time, putting down several failed attempts at sedition.
At that point, Egypt became under the control of Ali Bey Al-Kabir, a servant of Ibrahim, who ruled the nation more effectively for some time. He led many campaigns on behalf of the Ottomans, but mainly sought down the murderers of his master Ibrahim. From 1768-1773, Ali Bey was the most successful commander in the Russo-Turkish War, having many victories across Hejaz, Palestine, and the Causus. Ultimately, his success made the Ottomans suspicious of his intentions, and ultimatley ordered him executed.
Map of the Islamic World around 1800, showing Egypt under Ottoman rule
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