Lane-Poole — Mohammadan Treatie>i ivith Christ iann. 251 



years than Bclrulhuri, and fifty or sixty years than Tabarl. By 

 himself, I do not think his evidence counts for much. The Synaxaria 

 are thus described by Mr. Butler * ' Every [Coptic] church has 

 specially attached to its service a book called in Coptic " synaxar,' 

 i.e. a-vva^dpiov, or lives of the saints, from which a portion is often 

 read at matins, in accordance with a very ancient custom sanctioned, 

 for instance, at the third Council of Carthage in 397 a.d. This book 

 corresponds closely to the passional of our English chui-ches, from 

 which the lessons at matins were sometimes taken, or to the martyi- 

 ology, which was read at the end of prime- song. The synaxar is 

 •confined within the sacred walls, and there is no copy of it in any 

 private person's possession. It has, of course, been rendered into 

 Arabic for use at service : and the legends printed at the end of this 

 work, which are from the Arabic version, will serve to give an idea of 

 the miraculous traditions to which the faithful still listen with un- 

 questioning reverence.' This does not give a very high position to the 

 synaxaria as historical authorities ; but, as in the case of Severus, it is 

 possible that genuine historical data may be included among much 

 legendary garbage. 



Such is Mr. Butler's positive evidence. The coincidences upon 

 which he also relies are the statements on the one hand that Cyi'us, 

 on the other that el-Mukawkis was Governor of Egypt under 

 Heraclius ; the statements of the Greek historians and John of Nikiu 

 that Cyrus made peace with the Arabs, and those of the Ai-abic 

 historians that el-Mukawkis made peace with them. But these 

 coincidences may be explained by the hypothesis that el-Mukawkis 

 was the sub-governor who made the peace, and Cyrus the patriarch 



* Coptic Churches of Eyypt, ii. 259, 260. 



