He was already afflicted with a dropsy, and took
the loss of his Syrian and now that of his Egyptian dominions so much to
heart that he underwent a paroxysm, which ended in his death, about
seven weeks after the loss of his Egyptian capital. He was succeeded by
his son Constantine.
While Amru was successfully extending his conquests, a great dearth and
famine fell upon all Arabia, insomuch that the caliph Omar had to call
upon him for supplies from the fertile plains of Egypt; whereupon Amru
despatched such a train of camels laden with grain that it is said, when
the first of the line had reached the city of Medina, the last had not
yet left the land of Egypt. But this mode of conveyance proving too
tardy, at the command of the Caliph he dug a canal of communication from
the Nile to the Red Sea, a distance of eighty miles, by which provisions
might be conveyed to the Arabian shores. This canal had been commenced
by Trajan, the Roman emperor.
The able and indefatigable Amru went on in this manner, executing the
commands and fulfilling the wishes of the Caliph, and governed the
country he had conquered with such sagacity and justice that he rendered
himself one of the most worthily renowned among the Moslem generals.
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