Egypt In Late Antiquity

Egypt was a district of the later Roman Empire (from 395 the Eastern Roman Empire), incorporating the provinces of Egypt and Cyrenaica(eastern coastal region of Libya). It's capital was at Alexandria, and its governor had the unique title of praefectus augustalis ("Augustal Prefect") instead of the ordinary vicarius.

Sphinx at Giza Cairo, Egypt With pharaoh Khafre Pyramid Behind.

The reign of Constantine the Great also saw the founding of Constantinople as a new capital for the Roman Empire, and in the course of the 4th century the Empire was divided in two, with Egypt finding itself in the Eastern Empire with its capital at Constantinople. During the 5th and 6th centuries the empire, today known as the Byzantine Empire, gradually transformed itself into a thoroughly Christian state whose culture differed significantly from its pagan past.

The fall of the Western Empire in the 5th century further isolated the Egyptian Romans from Rome's culture and hastened the growth of Christianity. The triumph of Christianity led to a virtual abandonment of pharaonic traditions: with the disappearance of the Egyptian priests and priestesses who officiated at the temples, no-one could read the hieroglyphs of Pharaonic Egypt, and its temples were converted to churches or abandoned to the desert.

St. Catherine's Monastery, Egypt

St. Cyril, the patriarch of Alexandria, convinced the city's governor to expel the Jews from the city in 415 CE with the aid of the mob, in response to the Jews' alleged nighttime massacre of many Christians. The murder of the philosopher Hypatia in March 415 CE marked the final end of classical Hellenic culture in Egypt.

St. Cyril of Alexandria

Another schism in the Church produced a prolonged civil war and alienated Egypt from the Empire. The new religious controversy was over the nature of Jesus of Nazareth. The issue was whether he had two natures, human and divine, or a combined one (from His humanity and divinity). This may seem an arcane distinction, but in an intensely religious age it was enough to divide an empire.

The Miaphysite controversy arose after the First Council of Constantinople in 381 and continued until the Council of Chalcedon in 451. The Church of Alexandria split from the Churches of Rome and Constantinople over this issue, creating what would become the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria, which remains a major force in Egyptian religious life today.  Egypt and Syria remained hotbeds of Miaphysite sentiment, and organised resistance to the Chalcedonian view was not suppressed until the 570s.

Council of Chalcedon

Egypt nevertheless continued to be an important economic center for the Empire supplying much of its agriculture and manufacturing needs as well as continuing to be an important center of scholarship. It would supply the needs of Byzantine Empire and the Mediterranean as a whole. The reign of Justinian (482 CE –565 CE) saw the Empire recapture Rome and much of Italy from the barbarians, but these successes left the empire's eastern flank exposed. The Empire's "bread basket" now lacked for protection.

Justinian I

The Persian conquest of Egypt, beginning in AD 619 or 618, was one of the last Sassanid triumphs in the Roman-Persian Wars against Byzantium. From 619 - 628, they incorporated Egypt once again within their territories, the previous (much longer) time being under the Achaemenids. Khosrow II Parvêz had begun this war in retaliation for the assassination of Emperor Maurice (582–602) and had achieved a series of early successes, culminating in the conquests of Jerusalem (614) and Alexandria (619).

Roman-Persian War

The Persian conquest allowed Miaphysitism to resurface in the open in Egypt, and when imperial rule was restored by Emperor Heraclius in 629, the Miaphysites were persecuted and their patriarch expelled. Egypt was thus in a state of both religious and political alienation from the Empire when a new invader appeared.

An army of 4,000 Arabs led by Amr Ibn Al-Aas was sent by the Caliph Umar, successor to Muhammad, to spread Islamic rule to the west. Arabs crossed into Egypt from Palestine in December 639, and advanced rapidly into the Nile Delta. The Imperial garrisons retreated into the walled towns, where they successfully held out for a year or more.

Mosque of Amr Ibn Al-Aas, Egypt

The Arabs sent for reinforcements, and in April 641 they besieged and captured Alexandria. The permanent loss of Egypt meant a loss of a huge amount of Byzantium's food and money. The loss of Egypt and Syria, followed later by the invasion of the Exarchate of Africa also meant that the Mediterranean, long referred to as the "Roman lake", was now contested between two powers: the Muslim Caliphate and the Byzantine Empire. 

An attempt was made in the year 645 to regain Alexandria for the Byzantine Empire, but it was retaken by 'Amr in 646. In 654 an invasion fleet sent by Constans II was repulsed. From that time no serious effort was made by the Byzantines to regain possession of the country. Thus ended 975 years of Græco-Roman rule over Egypt.