ABSTRACT
Egypt that is, the Nile Valley and Delta below Aswan, has traditionally been regarded as the exception to the African rule of a thin population in a barren land. City and countryside alike nevertheless remained firmly in the grip of the state, which was responsible not only for the location of the capital Fustat but also for its configuration, as the seat and personnel of government moved out to a series of palace cities away from the civilian population. Peasants and pagarchs alike, however, belonged to the Coptic Christian community, while the administrative language was Greek. Left in this way by the Arabs in the hands of their new subjects, this apparently centralised system was made to serve those subjects’ purpose. The lack of cultivators which it implies could theoretically be accounted for by a flight from the land into the cities; but the estimated size of the urban population makes this impossible.
