tates the city to have contained four thousand palaces,
five thousand baths, four hundred theatres and places of amusement,
twelve thousand gardeners which supply it with vegetables, and forty
thousand tributary Jews. It was impossible, he said, to do justice to
its riches and magnificence. He had hitherto held it sacred from
plunder, but his troops, having won it by force of arms, considered
themselves entitled to the spoils of victory.

The caliph Omar, in reply, expressed a high sense of his important
services, but reproved him for even mentioning the desire of the
soldiery to plunder so rich a city, one of the greatest emporiums of the
East. He charged him, therefore, most rigidly to watch over the
rapacious propensities of his men; to prevent all pillage, violence, and
waste; to collect and make out an account of all moneys, jewels,
household furniture, and everything else that was valuable, to be
appropriated toward defraying the expenses of this war of the faith. He
ordered the tribute also, collected in the conquered country, to be
treasured up at Alexandria for the supplies of the Moslem troops.

The surrender of all Egypt followed the capture of its capital. A
tribute of two ducats was laid on every male of mature age, besides a
tax on all lands in proportion to their value, and the revenue which
resulted to the Caliph is estimated at twelve millions of ducats.

It is well known that Amru was a poet in his youth; and throughout all
his campaigns he manifested an intelligent and inquiring spirit, if not
more highly informed, at least more liberal and extended in its views
than was usual among the early Moslem conquerors. He delighted, in his
hours of leisure, to converse with learned men, and acquire through
their means such knowledge as had been denied to him by the deficiency
of his education. Such a companion he found at Alexandria in a native of
the place, a Christian of the sect of the Jacobites, eminent for his
philological researches, his commentaries on Moses and Aristotle, and
his laborious treatises of various kinds, surnamed Philoponus, from his
love of study, but commonly known by the name of John the Grammarian.

An intimacy soon arose between the Arab conqueror and the Christian
philologist; an intimacy honorable to Amru, but destined to be
lamentable in its result to the cause of letters. In an evil hour, John
the Grammarian, being encouraged by the favor shown him by the Arab
general, reveale