254 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



Moreover, if el-Mukawkis was Cyrus, who was not sent to Egypt 

 until 631, what hecomes of the mission which the Prophet Mohammad 

 sent in 628 to ' el-Mnkawkis, lord of Alexandria ' ?* Mr. Butler 

 thinks that this is merely a case of applying a later name to an 

 earlier governor by mistake ; but it must be remembered that in reply 

 to Mohammad's mission, el-Mukawkis sent him presents, including 

 two Egyptian girls, one of whom, Maiy, was received into the 

 Prophet's harim and bore him a son. There was every reason for 

 preserving accurately the name of the man who gave a wife (or 

 concubine rather) to the Prophet ; and Mary herself and her fellow- 

 slave would not be likely to forget it or to fail to make it known. 

 The Mukawkis of 628 may very well be the same person as the 

 Mukawkis of 640, but he cannot be Cyrus. 



Apart from this silence of the chief authorities, the inherent 

 improbability of the hypothesis must be considered. Cyrus was 

 patriarch and civil governor, but not military prefect : yet we find 

 him (if he be el-Mukawkis) commanding at the battle of Heliopolis. 

 When the treaty was repudiated by Heraclius, el-Mukawkis, accord- 

 ing to the Arabic tradition (reported by so early an authority as 

 Ibn-Lahi'a), threw in his lot with the Arabs ; but Cyrus, according to 

 the Greek historians, was recalled to Constantinople and castigated. 

 That he should have returned at all to Constantinople, knowing what 

 he had to expect, after making his peace with the Arab conqueror, 

 seems preposterous. Cp'us finally came back to Egypt, and arranged 

 the capitulation of Alexandria in October or !N^ovember, 641 ; he had 

 now accomplished the insidious plan attributed to him by Mr. Butler, 

 and he Uved five months longer : why do we hear nothing of his 



* Tabari, i. 1559-61, Ibn-Hisham, "Wiistenleld's trans., 318. 



