fifty years, came to an end, and the old trouble caused by the rapacity of the emirs was vexing it again. The patriarch even had to sell the sacred vessels of his church to meet the demands of the civil governor. The Caliph Mutawekkil now lays down many vexatious regulations for the Christians. They are to wear honey-coloured cloth, or a distinguishing patch on their garments; the men are to have a girdle after the style of women; they are to put up a wooden image of a devil, an ape, or a dog over their doors; no crosses may be shown; neither may they have processions through the streets with lights; they may not ride on horses; nothing must be set up on their graves to mark them. Still annoying and insulting as all this is, it cannot be compared with the violent persecutions of earlier and of later periods. After the year 856 most of the emirs were Turks, since men of this race were now coming more and more to the front in the army and government of the caliphate, while the old vigour of the desert warriors was deserting the Arab families amid the luxury and sensuality of their life in cities. The Turkish emirs of Egypt were able men, and some of them mild and merciful rulers. During the patriarchate of Chenouda, a man of great influence in the Coptic Church, the governor Abdallah doubled or trebled the taxation of the Christians. His difficulty was with the monks, who owned no property, and he put a tax on their fruit and vegetables. Chenouda retired into seclusion for a time, but subsequently he came out and presented himself before the emir, who then came to terms with him. It was the same perpetual question of how much money could be squeezed out of the Christians which had so long disgraced the story of the emirs in Egypt. In this agreement between Abdallah and Chenouda it was settled that the Church of Alexandria should pay an annual tribute of 2,000 and the monasteries of 2,300 pieces of gold.
The greatest of the Turkish emirs was Ibn Tulun, who has left his name on a famous mosque at Cairo. This man was originally a Turkish slave. He married the
