1^44 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



confirmed by much earlier writers. Makrlzi first relates tlie story 

 in brief, and tben gives a detailed narrative. Probably tbese two 

 accounts come from different sources, for it was the usual habit of 

 Arabic chroniclers to set down the different accounts one after the 

 other with little or no attempt to reconcile them. These two 

 accounts in Makrlzi, however, agree. The short account says that 

 after 'Amr had been reinforced by a body of 12,000 men under ez- 

 Zubeyr he laid siege to the fortress ; that ez-Zubeyr scaled the wall 

 and captxired the fort ( ^^.r- )>* and seized a gate ; and that el- 

 Mukawkis in alarm sued for peace, which was concluded on the basis 

 of a tribute of two dinars a head from the Copts. His is practically 

 Tabari's account. The longer narrative relates how el-Mukawkis, 

 after a month's fighting, discouraged by the perseverance and energy 

 of the Arabs, left the fortress of Babylon in company with the 

 leaders of the Copts, and took up his position in the opposite island, 

 now called er-E,awda, cutting the bridge of connexion. Then fearing 

 that the fortresses would fall, he opened negotiations with the Arabs. 

 He urged that the Romans were far more numerous and better 

 equipped than the Muslims ; that the Mle was high and hemmed in 

 the invaders ; and that their wisest course would be to come to terms 

 before the Komans overwhelmed them. His object was evidently to 

 get easy terms before the decrease of the inundation set the Muslims 

 free for wider operations. 'Amr kept the envoys two days and nights, 

 and then sent them back with the usual alternatives : embrace Islam 

 and be our brothers ; or pay the poll-tax and be our inferiors ; or 

 else fight till God decides the issue. El-Mukawkis asked the envoys 

 to describe what they had seen during their two days' visit to the 



* Xot necessarily the Castle of Babylon. 



