November 8, AD 641

Muslim conquest of Egypt

Treaty of Alexandria arranges a delayed Byzantine evacuation

Alexandria did not fall in a final assault: the surrender agreement gave its defenders eleven months to pack their possessions and sail away.

A treaty signed at Babylon, not Alexandria

The date fixed to Alexandria's fall in 641 belongs to a negotiation, and it happened somewhere else. Cyrus, the Chalcedonian patriarch of Alexandria and imperial civil governor of Egypt, travelled to Babylon in Egypt to meet the Arab-Muslim commander Amr ibn al-As.

The two concluded a capitulation agreement fixing tribute and an eleven-month armistice. Muslim forces were to remain apart from Alexandria while the Byzantine garrison evacuated by sea with its possessions.

The precise date of 8 November is itself a scholarly reconstruction, associated especially with A. J. Butler, rather than a date stated by the chronicler John of Nikiu; some accounts give October, or simply late 641.

Two hundred hostages

Byzantine forces were to end hostilities and not return. Muslim forces were to refrain from seizing churches or interfering in Christian affairs, and Alexandria's Jews could remain in the city.

Performance was guaranteed by people: 150 soldiers and 50 civilians held as hostages.

The terms survive principally through John of Nikiu, a later seventh-century Egyptian bishop whose chronicle reaches us only in an Ethiopic version made from an Arabic intermediary.

September 642, when the city changed hands

The city was not physically handed over on the day of the treaty. Theodore and the Byzantine troops evacuated in September 642, after which Amr entered Alexandria without a battle.

Sources give 17 or 29 September 642 for that moment; the difference may distinguish the garrison's departure from the Muslim occupation.

The result was not yet permanent either — a Byzantine expedition retook Alexandria in 645, and Amr captured it again in 646.

Sources

Researched 23 Aug 2026 6 sources not yet audited Traditional date

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Traditional date. This date is the conventional one, not one fixed by a contemporary record.

What the sources leave uncertain

The exact date 8 November 641 is a scholarly reconstruction, especially associated with A. J. Butler, rather than a date stated directly by John of Nikiu. Some accounts give October or simply late 641.
Sources differ between 17 and 29 September 642 for the final evacuation and Amr's entry. The difference may distinguish the garrison's departure from the Muslim occupation.
The surviving Chronicle of John of Nikiu is not the original text; it survives through an Ethiopic version made from an Arabic intermediary, complicating exact readings.
Calling the preceding operations a continuous six-month siege is questionable. John describes fighting and pressure around Alexandria, but Amr also left a detachment and operated elsewhere.