stians in Persia, and another to the borders of Edessa, who founded
the Jacobites and with the assistance of Egyptian Monophysite bishops
continued the episcopal succession. In Egypt there arose the division
between the Melkites, who followed the imperial orders and accepted the
decisions of the Councils, and the Copts, who dissented. The
Monophysites of Syria, Egypt, and Armenia, with temporary and
superficial differences, remained practically at one. National
differences confirmed their divergence from the Roman Empire and the
Catholic Church. Thus while in Egypt, Syria, and elsewhere the Church
was still powerfully represented, though side by side with strong
sectarian organisations, there were, when the followers of Muhammad
came to add to the confusion, three nationalistic and heretical bodies,
separate from the Church--those of Persia and Armenia and Ethiopia. Of
the last something must now be said.

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[Sidenote: The Abyssinian Church.]

South of Egyptian territory, properly so called, lay the Ethiopians,
vassals of Egypt, tracing in a dim fashion their Christianity back to
one of those queens who bore the title of _Candace_. These wild and
warring tribes kept up continual conflict, and among the Blemmyes men
still worshipped Isis in the temple of Philae. In 548 began the
conversion of the Nobadae of the Soudan, of whose reception into the
Christian fold the great Monophysite missionary, John of Ephesus, gives
an account. Churches were built, and one inscription at least survives
with the name of a Christian king. Beyond them the Alodaei learnt the
faith from the same preacher, Longinus. Nubia, or Mugurrah, was also
visited by Christian missionaries at the same time. Under Justinian,
the temple of Philae was turned into a church, and the Blemmyes became
Christian. Christian remains long existed, even down to the
neighbourhood of Khartoum; and it was long before the Muhammadan
conquerors swept all the worship of Christ away. Further south
Christianity spread on both sides of the Red Sea. In Arabia Felix was
the kingdom of the Homerites or Himyarites, whose chief city was Safar,
and at different times they were ruled by the same king as the land of
Axum, "the farthest Ind" of the Greek chronicler Theophanes. After the
dispersion, Jewish colonies settled in Arabia, and in the fourth
century Christianity followed. At the end of the fifth century a
bishop is found among the Homerites, and a Trin