A History of the Colonization of Africa by Alien Races by Harry Johnston

At the beginning of the 7th century of our era the condition of affairs in North Africa stood thus. In Egypt, which continued to be governed from Greek Alexandria, the semblance of Roman rule was wielded, in things temporal as well as spiritual, by the Greek Orthodox Patriarch, who was usually appointed by the Emperor at Byzantium to be Prefect as well. He occupied himself chiefly in persecuting non-orthodox Christian churches, such as the Monophysite or Jacobite Church, which, arising first in Syria, had become the national church of the Egyptians or Copts, as contrasted with the people of Greek race. The outposts of Upper Egypt were abandoned or left but feebly garrisoned; the Hamitic Blemmyes or Bisharin, the "Fuzzie-wuzzies" of the Red Sea coast-lands, and the negroid Nubians overwhelmed the Nabatean kingdom of Ethiopia and burst into Upper Egypt, and, although they were once or twice severely chastised, remained, and barbarized a land which at the beginning of the Roman empire over Egypt had attained a high degree of culture.

In 616 A. C. the Persian armies once more entered Egypt, assisted in their easy conquest by the disaffection of the Copts; at the same period they drove the Abyssinians out of western Arabia and even followed them up into eastern Abyssinia. Then the Persian power became paralysed in its turn. In 626 Heraclius sent an army into Egypt which drove out the Persians; and for a few years Egypt was fairly well governed by a Greek governor sent from Byzantium. Then once more the rule passed into ecclesiastical hands; and Kuros, the last Greek patriarch, ruled Egypt from 630 till the invasion of the Arabs, excepting for one short period of exile due to his fierce persecution of the Jacobite Copts. Cyrenaica had been practically abandoned to the Libyans after the terrible Jewish uprising and the massacre of Greek colonists in 117 A. C. Along the rest of the littoral of North Africa there were still flourishing Roman colonies and cities under Byzantine rulers or Berber chiefs, from Leptis Magna and Tripolis (Oea) on the east to Tangis (Tangier) on the west; while other Roman or Byzantine towns still persisted far inland in Tunisia and Algeria, notably Gafsa, Thala, Tebessa, and Timgad. Elsewhere, beyond the walls of the Roman cities, the Berber tribes had regained their independence and ruled over Romans and Berbers alike.