Egypt often interfere in these appointments; they insist on being consulted and demand a bribe from the Patriarch each time. The Christian King of Abyssinia to the south of their domain was always an object of suspicion to the Moslems. They did all they could to discourage and hinder communication between him and their Coptic rayahs.[1] In the 11th century we hear of Severus, Metropolitan of Aksum, obtaining his place by bribing the Fatimid Khalif and promising to persuade the Abyssinians to accept the Khalif's rule. So he succeeded in ousting a rival at Aksum. He turned out to be rather a good bishop, and took steps to put down the polygamy or concubinage which has always been the great stain on Ethiopic Christianity. The Egyptian Moslems were able to force the Abyssinian king to maintain a certain number of mosques in his country for the benefit of his subject Moslem tribes. These were occasionally torn down by the Christian Ethiopians. When Badr alǴamālī was mighty in Egypt (1073-1094, see p. 237) he heard of such a destruction of mosques in Abyssinia, and wrote threatening to destroy all Coptic churches unless the mosques were rebuilt. But the king answered that if the stone of a Coptic church were touched he would cross the sea to Mecca, grind up the Ka'ba and send it in powder to Cairo.[2] There were other occasions on which the Abyssinians interfered to protect the Copts. Thus, when a Mamlūk Sultan put the Patriarch Mark IV (1348-1363) in prison, the King of Abyssinia threatened various retaliations, which had the effect of setting Mark free. In the 13th century Abūna Kilus behaved badly; he had a priest flogged to death. He had to flee the country, came to Cairo, was tried and deposed by the Patriarch; and people paid three dirhems for the hire of one donkey to see it done.[3] Meanwhile the Copts had repeatedly prevented attempts of the Abyssinians to raise the number of their sees to twelve, so that they could ordain their own Metropolitan; indeed, for a long time there were no other bishops in the country except Abūna himself. Under the Coptic Patriarch Gabriel II (1131-1145) the king wanted Abūna Michael to ordain more suffragans, in order that they might themselves ordain his successor. The
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