might be freed from
the yoke of the state religion imposed by the Eastern Roman Empire; but
Dr A. J. Butler has shown this view to be untenable, while admitting
that the religious feuds of the Christians made the task of the Arabs
easy. The mysterious Mukaukis, who treacherously handed over Alexandria,
impregnable as it was for Arab warriors, and then capitulated, was none
other than Cyrus, the Melkite patriarch and governor of Egypt; the
native Monophysite party, however, smarting under the persecution of the
Emperor Heraclius, seemed to have most to gain by a change of masters.
The prophet Mahomet himself had prescribed indulgence to the Copts
before his death, and 'Amr was mercifully disposed to them. Although
they offered resistance in some places, after the Roman forces had been
destroyed or had abandoned Egypt they generally acquiesced in the
inevitable; and when in 646 a Roman fleet and army recaptured Alexandria
and harried the Delta, the Copts helped the Moslems to cast out the
Christian invaders. Some of the Copts embraced Islam at once, but as yet
they formed practically a solid Christian nation under the protection of
the conquering Arabs, and the religious and political distinction
between the "true believers" and the Christians was so sharp that a
native Christian turning Moslem was no longer a Copt, i.e. Egyptian; he
practically changed his nationality.

The beginnings of Christianity in Egypt are obscure; the existence of it
among the natives (as opposed to the mixed "Greek" population of Egypt
and Alexandria which produced so many leading figures and originated
leading doctrines in the early church) can be traced back as far as the
Decian persecution (A.D. 249-251) in the purely Egyptian names of
several martyrs. St Anthony (c. A.D. 270) was a Copt; so also was
Pachomius, the founder of Egyptian monasticism at the beginning of the
4th century. The scriptures were translated into Coptic not later than
the 4th century. A religion founded on morality and with a clear
doctrine of life after death was especially congenial to the Egyptians;
thus the lower orders in the country embraced Christianity fervently,
while the Alexandrian pagans were lost in philosophical speculation and
Neoplatonism was spread amongst the rich "Greek" landowners; these last,
partly out of religious enthusiasm, partly from greed, annoyed and
oppressed their Christian peasantry. Egypt was then terribly
impoverished; the upper country