11/18/2023 0 Comments Egypt time converterOn Eid al-Adha, the Muslim army marched from Shajratein to El Arish, a small town lacking a garrison. When 'Umar received the reply, he decided to watch further developments and to start concentrating fresh forces at Madinah that could be dispatched to Egypt as reinforcements. The unanimous view was that as they had received the letter on Egyptian soil, they had permission to proceed. 'Amr then received and read 'Umar's letter and went on to consult his companions as to the course of action to be adopted. The army halted for the night at Shajratein, a little valley near the city of El Arish, which 'Amr knew to be beyond the Egyptian border. 'Uqbah, unaware of the contents of the letter, agreed and marched along with the army. Turning to 'Uqbah, 'Amr said that he would receive the caliph's letter from him when the army had halted after the day's journey. Guessing what might be in the letter, 'Amr ordered the army to quicken its pace. The messenger, 'Uqbah ibn 'Amr, caught up with Amr at Rafah, a little short of the Egyptian frontier. ![]() Accordingly, he wrote a letter to 'Amr ordering him to "return with all haste to the court of the Caliph, so that his soldiers might join additional campaigns being planned elsewhere", however there was a provision in the letter stating that 'Amr's first duty was the protection of his troops, and if he found himself on Egyptian soil by the time he received the letter, the Caliph would leave overall strategic command of movement to him, so as to not unduly burden troops already in the field. However, ' Umar, the Muslim caliph, reconsidered his orders to Amr and considered it foolhardy to expect to conquer such a large country as Egypt with a mere 4,000 soldiers. The Arab soldiers were also joined by some Roman and Persian converts to Islam. Most of the soldiers belonged to the Arab tribe of 'Ak, but Al-Kindi mentioned that one third of the soldiers belonged to the Arab tribe of Ghafik.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |