d Persian
merchants who visited his kingdom.[2]

[1] Pauli Silentianii Descripto Magnae Ecclesiae Sanctae Sophiae,
v. 379, 620.

[2] Acts of the Martyrs; Metaphrast. Ap. Sur. tom v. p. 1042.

After the reign of Justinian, it is not improbable that the repairs
necessary for maintaining the navigation of the canal open began to be
neglected, as we know that the population and industry of Egypt began to
decline. The tribute of grain to Constantinople, and the public
distributions to the people of Alexandria, appear to have exhausted all
the surplus produce of the country; and to facilitate their collection,
Justinian forbade the exportation of grain from any part of Egypt but
Alexandria, except under great restrictions.[1] This edict, doubtless,
ruined both the canal and the trade in the Red Sea, and may be looked
upon as one of the proximate causes of the increasing power of the
Arabs about the time of the birth of Mohammed. The Arabian caravans
became possessed of the commerce formerly carried on in the northern
part of the Red Sea; and as the wealth and civilization of the Arabs
increased, a demand for a new religion, and a more extended empire,
arose.[2] Had the complete abandonment of the canal not taken place
shortly after the publication of Justinian's edict, it must have been
completed during the universal anarchy which prevailed while Phocas
reigned at Constantinople. Shortly after Heraclius delivered the empire
from Phocas, the Persians invaded Egypt, and kept possession of it for
ten years; nor is it probable that Heraclius could have made any
efforts to restore the canal during the time he ruled Egypt, after
recovering it from the Persians. When the Saracens conquered Egypt,
they found the canal filled with sand.

[1] Edict xiii., Lex de Alexandrinis et Egyptiaciis provinciis.

[2] Transport, in some states of civilization, is cheaper by caravan
than by sea.

The principle of all Mohammedan governments places the supreme power of
the state in the person of the sovereign; and these sovereigns, in the
simplicity or barbarism of their political views, have always considered
the construction of wells, fountains, caravanseries, and mosques, as the
only public works, except palaces, (if palaces can be properly so
called,) worthy of a monarch's attention. Ports and canals they have
always utterly despised, and roads and bridges have been barely
tolerated. It is as difficult to civilize the mind of a true Mohamm