from ʿUmar ibn-ʿAbd-al-ʿAzîz:—The latter said, "Not a town in al-Maghrib did we take by capitulation except three: Alexandria, Kafarṭîs and Sulṭais. ʿUmar used to say, 'Whosoever of the inhabitants of these places accepts Islâm will be set free together with his possessions'."
How the dwellings were divided. ʿAmr an-Nâḳid from Yazîd ibn-abi-Ḥabîb:—ʿAmr ibn-al-ʿÂṣi conquered Alexandria, and some Moslems took up their abode in it as a cavalry guard. Later, they withdrew, after which they made an assault and hastened to secure dwellings. Some of them would come to the houses they once occupied and find them already held by a fellow Moslem. Regarding this, ʿAmr remarked, " I am afraid the dwellings would fall into ruins if different ones of you should occupy them in turn." Consequently, when the invasion was made and the Moslems arrived in al-Kiryaun, he said, "Go with Allah's blessing. Whosoever of you sticks his lancet into a house, that house is his and his father's sons'." Thus, the Moslem would enter a house and stick his lancet into some apartment of it; then another would come and stand his lancet in the same house. The same house would thereby be in the possession of two or three persons,[1] which they would occupy until their withdrawal, at which the Greeks would come and occupy it.
Yazîd ibn-abi-Ḥabîb used to say, "No money from the rent of these houses is legal.[2] They can neither be sold nor bequeathed, but they are dwelling-places for the Moslems during the time they hold their post as guard."
The second conflict. During the second conflict with Alexandria, when Manuwîl, the Greek eunuch, came, the people closed the gates; but ʿAmr reduced it and destroyed its wall.
