Just like the kingdom of Ancient Egypt, the Roman Empire was getting weak and its vast borders were attacked by a lot of raiders from new emerging nations and kingdoms. Eventually, the Roman Empire kept losing a lot of its trerritories and provinces to those new nations and kingdoms. At that time, Islam as the new religion was emerging and spreading fast from its origin in the Arabian Peninsula, mainly known now as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

        As Islam was spreading everywhere, it finally reached Egypt. The Arabs entered Egypt after the Prophet Mohamed (PBUH) sent an army with the leadership of one of his companions, Amr Ibn Al'as. The Arabic Muslim army managed to drive the Romans out of Egypt and eventually most of the Egyptians converted to Islam.

        

Arabic heritage is obvious in a lot of architecture in Egypt

        By the time when the Arab Muslims entered Egypt, the Barbary lion in Egypt was facing a serious threat of extinction because of the exceesive hunting of it by the Romans. Islam's teachings enhances the fact that any Muslim person should be merciful to all kinds of animals and banned the hunting of animals unless for a good reason like defending oneself or as a source of food. So, the excessive hunting of lions in Egypt eventually stopped, but the species was already on the count to extinction. At the time, the Barbary lion had already retreated only to the desert areas and abandoned a lot of its former habitats in the past around the Nile delta.

        Just like the Pharoes, Greeks, and Romans, the Arabs in Egypt were also imoressed and fascinated by the lion as a brave and noble creature. A lot of the Arabic tales, poems, portraits, architrecture, and historic records included lions in a way that shows hoe much Arabs were attracted to lions and charmed by its charisma. As originally desert inhabitants, the Arabs used to call the lion "Desert Beast", especially in the Arabian Peninsula where they originally came from.

Arabic art demonstrating the fascination with lions

        The fascination of the Arabs by the lions can even be noticed in the nicknames of a lot of Arabic leaders, explorers, travelers, etc. For example, the famous Arabic navigator Ahmed Ibn Maged whose maps were used by the Portugese Magellan to discover the Straits of Magellan and the Philippine Islands was referred to in the Arabic history as Asaad Albehar or the Lion of the Seas. Also, the famous patriot and freedom-fighter Omar Al-Mokhtar who fought against the Italians in Lybia for independence has been referred to in history as Asaad Al-Sahara or the Desert Lion. The fact that these eternal and respected figures in the Arabic history were related to lions shows that Arabs used to view lions as noble, brave, wise, and powerful.