master of Constantinople, the King[1] of Rome, whose opinions were those of the Melkites, whose number was about 300,000. The other part, consisting of the great mass of the people of Egypt, called Copts, was a mixed race, so that it is no longer possible to distinguish whether any one of them be of Coptic, Abyssinian, Nubian or Jewish descent. All these were Jacobites [he means Monophysites]; some of them were in Government offices,[2] others were tradesmen and merchants, others bishops, priests and such-like, others farmers and tillers of the soil, others servants and slaves. Between these and the Melkites, people of the State,[3] was so great enmity that they hurt each other by betrayals, and even mutual murders took place. Their number[4] was several hundred thousand,[5] for they were properly the people of the land of Egypt, of its upper part and of its lower part."[6] He tells us further: "The Copts sought to make peace with 'Amr on the condition of paying tribute; and he granted this, confirmed their possession of lands and other property, and they helped the Moslems against the Romans till God drove these in flight and expelled them from Egypt."[7]
The immediate result of the Moslem conquest was to secure for the Copts the position of recognized Christians in Egypt. They had long been persecuted by the Melkites. Now the position was reversed. The conquerors found them the vast majority and preferred them, as being already enemies of the Roman Empire. So they gave them every advantage over the Melkites. The Copts got back many churches out of which they had been driven; their Patriarch could now reside openly at Alexandria, or where he would. The Melkites for a time almost disappear. They are the avowed enemies of the new Government, and are trodden down, almost stamped out. Many of them flee to lands still held by the Emperor, some turn Moslem, some turn Copt. It is the darkest hour of the Orthodox Church in Egypt. We have seen that at this time, after the death of Peter II (c. 655), the Melkite Patriarchate was left vacant for more than seventy years (p. 221).
1 Malik ar-rūm. They always call the Emperor Malik. 2 Kuttāb al-mamlakah, "writers of the kingdom." 3 Ahl adDaulah.
6 Al-Maḳrīzī: Aḫbār ḳibṭ miṣr (ed. cit. p. 20 of the Arabic text).
