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228 3. Under the Sunni Khalifs (639-969)

We have seen that, at the moment of the Moslem conquest, the Coptic Patriarch Benjamin I had fled (p. 223). The last act of the Roman power in Egypt was a great attempt to force reunion on the Monophysites on the lines of Monotheletism (p. 223). Benjamin was a consistent Monophysite, and resisted this compromise on his side as thoroughly as Catholics did from theirs. He fled to the usual refuge of his sect, Upper Egypt, where everyone was Monophysite, where the Melkites could not get at him. One of the first things 'Amr did after the conquest was to send a letter to Benjamin, a safe-conduct with assurance of his protection. This is the first barā'ah (berat) given by a Moslem governor to a bishop in Egypt. It is tragically characteristic that the immediate result of the Moslem conquest should be to free a Christian bishop from the persecution he had suffered from a Christian Government. Benjamin came out of hiding, after thirteen years, saw 'Amr, accepted the usual humiliating conditions offered to him and his flock, and established himself at Alexandria. The Copts then obtained possession of all churches formerly held by Melkites.

Now for over two centuries Egypt was a province of the vast, still united Moslem Empire, whose head was the Khalif at Damascus. It was ruled by a governor (the Amīr of Egypt) who could be removed, imprisoned, slain at the Khalifs pleasure, but who meanwhile was an absolute tyrant over all the land, who (as long as he sent sufficient revenue to Damascus) was not likely to be disturbed, and could do much as he liked. 'Amr was considered not to have sent enough money to his master, so he