Page:William Muir, Thomas Hunter Weir - The Caliphate; Its Rise, Decline, and Fall (1915).djvu/190

 640–1] amidst groves of fig-tree and acacia, ʿAmr reached at last the obelisks and ruined temples of ʿAin Shems (ʿAun or Heliopolis). On the way he routed several columns sent to arrest the inroad; amongst them one commanded by his Syrian antagonist Arṭabūn, who was, it is said, slain in the encounter.

From Heliopolis ʿAmr crossed the Nile and (according to John of Nikiu) made a flying raid into the Faiyūm (Lake Mœris), and it appears to have been only on his return to the neighbourhood of Heliopolis that he was joined by the reinforcements which ʿOmar had sent after him under the command of Az-Zubeir. These may have brought his forces up to 15,000. The people of ʿAin Shems, mixed Copts and Nubians, now urged the Governor of Egypt, whom the Arab writers call the Muḳauḳis, to make peace and not expose them to destruction. "What chance," they said, “have we against men that have beaten both the Chosroes and the Kaiser?" An armistice of five days was agreed upon, but as soon as it had expired, an action took place. ʿAmr adopted the familiar plan of dividing his forces into three parts, one stationed near Heliopolis, one to the north of the Roman fortress of Babylon, and one near a place on the Nile called Ṭendūnyās or Um Dunein. When the Roman generals attacked the first, which was commanded by ʿAmr, the other divisions fell on their rear. The victory of the Arabs was complete. The Romans took to their boats and fled down the river. The battle of Heliopolis took place in July 640 (viii., 19 ).

By this victory the City of Miṣr (Memphis), in which