456 THE DECLINE AND FALL their faith, and to content themselves with the legitimate and splendid rewards of their victory. In the management of the revenue he disapproved the simple but oppressive mode of capi- tation, and preferred with reason a proportion of taxes^ deducted on every branch from the clear profits of agriculture and com- merce. A third part of the tribute was appropriated to the annual repairs of the dykes and canals, so essential to the public welfare. Under his administration the fertility of Egypt supplied the dearth of Arabia ; and a string of camels, laden with corn and provisions, covered almost without an interval the long road from Memphis to Medina. ^^'^ But the genius of Amrou soon re- newed the maritime communication which had been attempted [A.D. 343-4] or achieved by the Pharaohs, the Ptolemies, or the Caesars ; and a canal, at least eighty miles in length, was opened from the Nile to the Red Sea. This inland navigation, which would have joined the Mediterranean and the Indian ocean, was soon dis- continued as useless and dangerous ; the throne was removed from Medina to Damascus ; and the Grecian fleets might have explored a passage to the holy cities of Arabia.^*" Riches and Of his new conqucst, the caliph (>mar had an imperfect know- ledge from the voice of fame and the legends of the Koran. He requested that his lieutenant would place before his eyes the realm of Pharaoh and the Amalekites ; and the answer of Am- rou exhibits a lively and not unfaithful picture of that singular country. ^^^ " O commander of the faithful, Egypt is a compound of black earth and green plants, between a pulvei'ised mountain ^** Eutychius, Annal. torn. ii. p. 320. Elmacin, Hist. Saracen, p. 35. 147 On these obscure canals, the reader may try to satisfy himself from d'Anville (M6m. sur I'Egypte, p. 108-110, 124, 132), and a learned thesis maintained and printed at Strasburg in the year 1770 (Jungendorum marium fluviorumque molimi- na, p. 39-47, 68-70). Even the supine Turks have agitated the old project of joining the two seas (Memoires du Baron de Tott, torn. iv.). [The canal from Bubastis to the Red .'^ea was begun by Necho and finished by Darius. Having become choked up with sand, it was cleared by Ptolemy II. and again by Trajan. The canal of Amr, beginning at Babylon, ran north to Bilbeis, then east to Heroopolis, and then southward, reaching the Red Sea at Kulzum (Suez). John of Nikiu states that the Moslems compelled the Egyptians to e.xecute the work of clearing the " Canal of Trajan," tr. Zotenberg. p. 577.] I'lSA small volume, des Merveilles, &c. de I'Egypte, composed in the xiiith century by Murtadi of Cairo, and translated from an Arabic Ms. of Cardinal Mazarin, was published by Pierre Vatier. Paris, 1666. The antiquities of Egypt are wild and legendary ; but the writer deserves credit and esteem for his account of the conquest and geography of his native country (see the correspondence of Amrou and Omar, p. 279-289). [For the correspondence of Amr and Omar recorded by Ibn Abd al Hakam, see Weil, i. p. 124 sqq.'"-^ populousness
