378 HISTORY OF ARMENIA^
including the time during which he was a pri» soner at Damascus, twenty-six years and a few months. He left behind him many beautiful compositions, consisting of treatises on various subjects, and anthems for the use of the church. ^ Haicin EHah, bishop of the Buznunians, from the city of m 152. j^f cjj^gjj tij^Q became pontiff. By his influence
with the Saracens he caused the queen of the Aluans and Nierses their pontiff, to be banished, for having accepted the council of Chalcedon. He also persecuted all the Chalcedonians that lay within the compass of his power.
Some time after the election of Eliah to the pontificate, Abdullah, who was formerly governor of Armenia, was elevated to the caliphate of Damascus, and recollecting with shame the defeat he had formerly suffered at Vardanakert, he was not pleased at the continuation of the peace that was formed by Mohmat, and determined to seek some A. D. 704. occasion to harrass the Armenians. For this Jnibz.* purpose he appointed Cashm governor of Ar- menia, and directed him to do all in his power to destroy the chiefs and grandees of that nation. Cashm hereupon contrived' to decoy a number of the principal Armenian nobility into the church of Nakhjuan, to which he set fire and cruelly burnt them alive. On the perpetration of this infamous deed, he directed his troops to plunder
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