Lane-Poole — Mohammadan Treaties with Chrisfinns. 249 



acceptance of the assumed Greek title /Acyaux^s- Finally, foUowinp: 

 the lead of the Portuguese scholar Pereira, Mr. Butler, in his Arab 

 Conquest of Hgypt, after an elaborate examination of the authorities,* 

 has come to the conclusion that el-Mukawkis was none other than 

 Cyrus, the Melekite patriarch of Alexandria. 



The evidence he relies upon for this theory consists partly in state- 

 ments by Coptic writers ; partly in coincidences between acts attributed 

 to el-Mukawkis by one set of historians and acts attributed to Cyrus 

 by another set of authorities. The statements of Coptic writers are 

 these : 



1 . Severus, bishop of Ushmuneyn in the latter part of the tenth 

 century, in an Ai'abic work on the lives of the patriarchs, which 

 has not yet been printed, says, ' "When Heraclius had recovered his 

 territories, he appointed governors in every place. To us in the land 

 of Egypt Cyrus was sent to be governor and patriarch together.' 

 Eeferring to the ten years' persecution of the monophysites, he says, 

 * These were the years during which Heraclius and Al Mukaukas 

 were ruling Egypt ' ; and again, ' When the ten years of the reign of 

 Heraclius and the misgovemment of Al Mukaukas were over.' He 

 speaks of ' the misbelieving governor, who was both prefect and 

 patriarch of Alexandria ; ' and he makes the ex-patriarch Benjamin 

 speak of ' the time of the persecution which befell me when Al 

 Mukaukas drove me away." It should be added that the Greek 

 historian Theophanes (9th c.) also makes Cyrus at once patriarch and 

 prefect. 



2. The Coptic Synaxarium, quoted by AmeHneau, says, ' The 

 Mukaukas was head of the faith of Chalcedon, and had been made 



* Arab Conqrmt of Egypt, App. C, .508-526. He uses the Ethiopic vocalization 

 Mukawkas, instead of the Arabic Mukawkis. 



