In Egypt the struggle between the adherents of Chalcedon, the "Melkites"
or Imperialists of the orthodox Greek rite, and the Eutychians or
Mono-physites, the followers of the patriarch Dioskoros, who rejected
Chalcedon, was going on with unabated fury, and was hardly stopped even
by the invasion of the pagan Persians. The last effort of the party of
Constantinople to stamp out the Monophysite heresy was made when Cyril
was patriarch and governor of Egypt. According to an ingenious theory
put forward by Mr. Butler, in his _Arab Conquest of Egypt_, it is Cyril
the patriarch who was the mysterious Mukaukas, the [Greek word], or
"Great and Magnificent One," who played so doubtful a part in the
epoch-making events of the Arab conquest by Amr in A.D. 639-41. Usually
this Mukaukas has been regarded as a "noble Copt," and the Copts have
generally been credited with having assisted the Islamites against
the power of Constantinople. This was a very natural and probable
conclusion, but Mr. Butler will have it that the Copts resisted the
Arabs valiantly, and that the treacherous Mukaukas was none other than
the Constantinopolitan patriarch himself.
In the papyri it is interesting to note the gradual increase of Arab
names after the conquest, more especially in those of the Archduke
Rainer 's collection from the Fayyum, which was so near the new capital
city, Fustat.
Pages:
454
455
456
457
458
459
460
461
462
463
464
465
466
467
468
469
470
471
472
473
474
475
476
477
478