As regards the two parties of Christians, the tables were turned. The orthodox, being the party of the Byzantine Empire, were in disfavour, and they were robbed of their swollen possessions, some part of which reverted to its rightful owners, the Copts. At first these people were leniently treated. Amr' received a deputation of monks begging for a charter of rights and the restoration of their patriarch Benjamin after an exile of thirteen years.[1] In reply he graciously granted the charter and invited the patriarch to return. His decree ran as follows: "Let every place, wherein Benjamin the patriarch of the Coptic Christians may be, possess full security, peace and trust from God: let him come with safety and fearlessness, and freely administer the affairs of his Church and people."[2] A little later the Copts were allowed to build a church behind the bridge at Fustât. Altogether the national Church in Egypt was at first much freer and happier under the rule of the unbeliever than it had been under that of the orthodox emperor. Benjamin was now able to conduct a thorough visitation of his churches unmolested. On the other hand, Amr' would allow no retaliation on the Melchites. The two Churches were to live together side by side. For the time being there was peace in Egypt. This is one of the few interludes between the many severe persecutions and the long weary ages of ill-treatment to which the Christian inhabitants have been subject.
Nevertheless, it is only by comparison with the more harsh government of later times that we can regard this early Arab period as pacific and lenient. In England or America we should think the tyranny of Islam even at its best simply intolerable. In accordance with the universal
- ↑ John of Nikiou, cxxi.
- ↑ Severus in Renaudot, pp. 163, 164. In the "Hist. of the Patriarchs" the decree is given as follows: "Amr' wrote to the provinces of Egypt—'There is protection and security for the place where Benjamin the patriarch of the Coptic Christians is, and peace from the governor. Therefore let him come forth secure and tranquil, and administer the affairs of his Church and the government of his nation,'" Patrologia Orientalis, tome i. fasc. 4, pp. 495, 496.
