Editing Alexandria (section)

===Islamic era===
In 619, Alexandria [[Sassanid conquest of Egypt|fell]] to the [[Sassanid Empire|Sassanid Persians]]. The city was mostly uninjured by the conquest and a new palace called ''Tarawus'' was erected in the eastern part of the city, later known as Qasr Faris, "fort of the Persians".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Butler |first=Alfred J. |url=http://archive.org/details/arabconquestofeg029678mbp |title=The Arab Conquest Of Egypt |date=1902 |publisher=Oxford At The Clarendon Press. |others=Osmania University, Digital Library Of India}}</ref> Although the [[List of Byzantine emperors|Byzantine emperor]] [[Heraclius]] recovered it in 629, in 641 the Arabs under the general [['Amr ibn al-'As]] invaded it during the [[Muslim conquest of Egypt]], after a [[Siege of Alexandria (641)|siege]] that lasted 14 months. The first Arab governor of Egypt recorded to have visited Alexandria was [[Utba ibn Abi Sufyan]], who strengthened the Arab presence and built a governor's palace in the city in 664–665.<ref>{{cite book |last=Kennedy |first=Hugh |author-link=Hugh N. Kennedy |title=Cambridge History of Egypt, Volume One: Islamic Egypt, 640–1517 |chapter=Egypt as a Province in the Islamic Caliphate, 641–868 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |editor-last=Petry |editor-first=Carl F. |location=Cambridge |year=1998 |isbn=0-521-47137-0 |pages=62–85 [69] |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=y3FtXpB_tqMC&pg=PA62 |access-date=11 May 2019 |archive-date=18 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210418011516/https://books.google.com/books?id=y3FtXpB_tqMC&pg=PA62 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Bruning |first1=Jelle |title=The Rise of a Capital: Al-Fusṭāṭ and Its Hinterland, 18-132/639-750 |date=2018 |publisher=Brill |location=Leiden and Boston |isbn=978-90-04-36635-0 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cGdjDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA50 |pages=50–52 |access-date=11 May 2019 |archive-date=4 February 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200204111251/https://books.google.com/books?id=cGdjDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA50 |url-status=live }}</ref>

In reference to Alexandria, [[Ibn Battuta]] speaks of a number of [[Muslim saints]] that resided in the city. One such saint was Imam Borhan Oddin El Aaraj, who was said to perform miracles. Another notable figure was Yaqut al-'Arshi, a disciple of [[Abu al-Abbas al-Mursi|Abu Abbas El Mursi]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |author=Ibn Batuta |title=The travels of Ibn Battuta in the Near East, Asia and Africa 1304–1377 |date=2009 |publisher=Cosimo |isbn=9781605206219 |location=New York |translator=Lee, Samuel |oclc=502998972}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=McGregor |first=Richard J. A. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rxTfHzlVrX0C&pg=PA33 |title=Sanctity and Mysticism in Medieval Egypt: The Wafāʼ Sufi Order and the Legacy of Ibn al-ʿArabī |publisher=State University of New York Press |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-7914-6011-5 |pages=33 |language=en}}</ref> Ibn Battuta also writes about Abu 'Abdallah al-Murshidi, a saint that lived in the Minyat of Ibn Murshed. Although al-Murshidi lived in seclusion, Ibn Battuta writes that he was regularly visited by crowds, high state officials, and even by the Sultan of Egypt at the time, [[al-Nasir Muhammad]].<ref name=":0" /> Ibn Battuta also visited the Pharos lighthouse on two occasions: in 1326 he found it to be partly in ruins and in 1349 it had deteriorated to the point that it was no longer possible to enter.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Clayton |first1=Peter A. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IQSBAAAAQBAJ&q=Ibn+battuta+pharos&pg=PA155 |title=The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World |last2=Price |first2=Martin |date=21 August 2013 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=9781136748103 |access-date=8 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210302191906/https://books.google.com/books?id=IQSBAAAAQBAJ&q=Ibn+battuta+pharos&pg=PA155 |archive-date=2 March 2021 |url-status=live |via=Google Books}}</ref>[[File:Alexandrie et phare.jpg|thumb|Alexandria in the late 18th century, by [[Luigi Mayer]]]]During the [[Middle Ages]], the [[Mamluk Sultanate]] provided amenities for European merchants to stay in the port cities of Alexandria and [[Damietta]], so [[hotel]]s were built and placed at the merchants' disposal so that they could live according to the pattern they were accustomed to in their country. Alexandria lost much of its importance in international trade after [[Portugal|Portuguese]] navigators discovered a new sea route to [[India]] in the late 15th century. This reduced the amount of goods that needed to be transported through the Alexandrian port, as well as the Mamluks' political power.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://en.unesco.org/silkroad/content/alexandria |title=Silk Roads Programme: Alexandria |publisher=[[UNESCO]] |access-date=August 9, 2023 }}</ref> After the [[Battle of Ridaniya]] in 1517, the city was conquered by the [[Ottoman Turks]] and remained under [[Egypt Eyalet|Ottoman rule]] until 1798. Alexandria lost much of its former importance to the Egyptian port city of [[Rosetta]] during the 9th to 18th centuries, and it only regained its former prominence with the construction of the [[Mahmoudiyah Canal]] in 1820.{{Citation needed|date=June 2023}}[[File:Louis-François Cassas, Alexandrie, nommée par les Arabes, Eskanderyeh.jpg|thumb|left|Map of the city in the 1780s, by [[Louis-François Cassas]]]]

Alexandria figured prominently in the military operations of [[Napoleon]]'s [[French Campaign in Egypt and Syria|expedition to Egypt]] in 1798. French troops stormed the city on 2 July 1798, and it remained in their hands until the arrival of a British expedition in 1801. The British won a considerable victory over the French at the [[Battle of Alexandria (1801)|Battle of Alexandria]] on 21 March 1801, following which they [[Siege of Alexandria (1801)|besieged the city]], which fell to them on 2 September 1801. [[Muhammad Ali of Egypt|Muhammad Ali]], the Ottoman governor of Egypt, began rebuilding and redevelopment around 1810 and, by 1850, Alexandria had returned to something akin to its former glory.<ref>"Modern"{{cite web |url=http://library.thinkquest.org/C0111760/modern.htm |title=The History of Alexandria|url-status=dead|access-date=24 May 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130524173744/http://library.thinkquest.org/C0111760/modern.htm|archive-date=24 May 2013}}</ref> Egypt turned to Europe in their effort to modernise the country. Greeks, followed by other Europeans and others, began moving to the city. In the early 20th century, the city became a home for novelists and poets.<ref name="FPAl"/>[[File:Bombardamento Alessandria 1882.jpg|thumb|Bombardment of Alexandria by [[Royal Navy|British naval forces]] (1882)]]In July 1882, the city came under [[Bombardment of Alexandria|bombardment]] from British naval forces and was occupied.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://digitalcollections.aucegypt.edu/cdm/landingpage/collection/p15795coll9 |title=Bombardment of Alexandria|access-date=11 September 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121113130102/http://digitalcollections.aucegypt.edu/cdm/landingpage/collection/p15795coll9|archive-date=13 November 2012|url-status=live}}</ref>

In July 1954, the city was a target of an Israeli bombing campaign that later became known as the [[Lavon Affair]]. On 26 October 1954, Alexandria's Mansheya Square was the site of a failed assassination attempt on [[Gamal Abdel Nasser]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.nmhtthornton.com/mehistorydatabase/nasser_assassination_attempt.php|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100105055521/http://www.nmhtthornton.com/mehistorydatabase/nasser_assassination_attempt.php|archive-date=5 January 2010 |title=Nasser Assassination Attempt, October 26, 1954|url-status=dead|access-date=24 May 2013 |first=Ted |last=Thornton |website=Middle East History Database}}</ref>

Europeans began leaving Alexandria following the 1956 [[Suez Crisis]] that led to an outburst of [[Arab nationalism]]. The nationalisation of property by Nasser, which reached its highest point in 1961, drove out nearly all the rest.<ref name="FPAl" />