Page:The Greek and Eastern churches.djvu/604

578 drives the victims into the arms of the infidel But it is not proved against the Copts that they rendered any practical assistance to the Arab invaders. They were crushed and scattered by the Melchite persecution that had followed the issue of the Ecthesis and its enforcement by Gyrus. Benjamin their patriarch was in exile; his flock was in no condition to seriously influence public affairs. The action that was taken to smooth the way for the invader came from another source, and that a source the circumstances of which made it far more treasonable in character. A mysterious personage, known to the Arab writers as "the ," described as "the chief ruler of Egypt," has been accused as the chief traitor to Christianity at this juncture. Mr. Stanley Lane Poole suggests that the mystery of his personality may be explained en the hypothesis that two distinct persons are involved under the same name. He accepts the view that the title Mukaukas, as a form of a Greek word meaning "most glorious," appears to have been used for any Byzantine official. Now, in the year 628, a certain Egyptian official of the empire named George, and bearing this title, sent two slave girls, a white mule, and a pot of Benha honey as presents to Mohammed, and one of the slave girls, known as "Mary the Copt," became a concubine of the prophet. Twelve years later we meet a Byzantine official with the same name and title as Mohammed's friendly Mukaukas; possibly, however, it is suggested, he is not the same man, but perhaps a son. This George rendered the Arabs some assistance in taking Misr. In return he got these terms—(1) A moderate poll tax for the Christians, consisting of two dinars (about £1, 1s. 0d.) per head, a land tax, and the requirement of giving three days' hospitality to soldiers. (2) No peace with the Romans till they were all made slaves. (3) A promise that when George died he should be buried in the church of St. John at Alexandria.

If this view were adopted, we could not reckon the Mukaukas to be a very important person, and the difficulty