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Document Details : Title: Caliph al-Ma'mūn and the Treasure of the Pyramids Author(s): VAN REETH, J. Journal: Orientalia Lovaniensia Periodica Volume: 25 Date: 1994 Pages: 221-236 DOI: 10.2143/OLP.25.0.583471 Abstract : Winter 216 A.H./832 A.D. a distinguished military expedition set on its way, departing from Damascus to Egypt. Caliph al-Ma'mūn was personally leading it. But we should first briefly recall the preceding events. Al-Ma'mūn had had to wait till the end of his reign before being able to launch an attack against the Byzantine Empire, for reasons of intern instability in his own state, and even now ill-omened tidings had reached him about an uprising in the heart of Lower Egypt. His brother the later caliph al-Mu'taṣim, then military governor appointed to keep Egypt under control, did not succeed in stabilizing the situation, on the contrary: his unfortunate fiscal policy provoked the Coptic population and called forth a dangerous alliance between the malcontents among the Arabs and the recently converted muslims from the Coptic christians on the one side, and the Copts on the other. So the caliph decided to take advantage of the winter-recess in his military operations in order to go and restore order in Egypt. |
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