Islamic invasions and the fate of the great cities of late antiquity and in this case the great city of Alexandria part 2

Submitted by dhimmi no more (United States), May 19, 2020 at 09:21

Dr Pipes,

In the previous post I wrote:

>Haas in his book (see below) asks: "can we say that these new master (the Arabs) from the Hijaz significantly altered Alexandria urban evolution?"

He goes on to blame the shift of trade eastward for the decline of Alexandria. This could very well be true. However, Emmet Scott wrote: "the entire the Mediterranean world was utterly transformed in the 7th century. every where from Palestine in the east to Spain in the west the Roman style of life disappeared cities were destroyed or abandoned and life rapidly became more rural. the Roman system of agriculture which sustained the great cities of the classical age broke down".

The only thing that changed was the Arab invasions and the raids and piracy by the Arabs across the Mediterranean sea basin and targeting southern Europe. How could trade be conducted in such climate? And more reason to blame the Arab invasions for the decline of Alexandria and ushering the dark ages (Henri Pirenne)

Much more damaging to Alexandria was the exodus of Greeks as well as many Hellenized Egyptians to Greece following the Arab invasion of Egypt taking with them much of the best of those that made Alexandria such a great city with regard to the Greek learning. And by the 9th century Greek language was a dead language in Egypt. So even if you have the books of Greek learning, what would be the use if these books are not read anymore? And without the Greek language the city was not a power house anymore

Next? It was the assault of the Arab warlords in Egypt on the Egyptian language. Egyptians were forbidden from speaking their own language even a mother cannot speak to a child using the Egyptian language. The end result here was very significant because any language is a link to the past and an affirmation of the culture of the people. Egyptians could not read Manetho's history book about Egypt and its glorious past and had to depend on Arab historians that had no shame in pretending to know the history of Egypt. Here is an example mentioned by Emmet Scott about the Arab historian al-Mas'udi who wrote: "Surid ben Shaluk ben Termidum ben Tedresan ben Sal one of the kings of Egypt before the flood built two great pyramids ...."
Arab historians have no shame!

And more evidence that we should not trust the Arab/Muslim historians about what they tell us about not only their history but the history of others.

It was "Kuffar" the likes of Napoleon and his scholars that reconnected the Egyptian people with their history again.

And yes the language of Egypt was no longer a living language, thanks to the imperialism of the Arabs, after thousands of years being the spoken language of this great civilization.

More damage to Alexandria? It must have been the Jizya tax. al-Qurtubi tells us that the amount of this tax ranged between a dinar and sky was the limit.

In is shameful to absolve Islam and Muslim and the Arabs for the decline of this great city, Alexandria.

So much for the "opulence" of the Arabs and their imperialism

Next? The fate of the inhabitants of a small town in Upper Egypt and the Arab invasions

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