liquors and the finest perfumes. Love of music had grown into craze, which had stipulated
its development in the reign of Chosroes II. He was so fond of amassing wealth and artifacts
that when his treasures was transferred from an old building to a new one at Ctesiphon in
607-8 A.D., it consisted of 468 million Mithqals of Gold valued at 375 million gold sove-
reigns. In the thirteenth year of his reign, Chosroes II had 830 million Mithqals of gold in his
exchequer. The reign of Chosroes II lasted up to 37 years, after which his son Sherveh took
over.
MUQAUQIS
He was the Prefect as well as Patriarch of Alexandria acting as the Governor of Egypt on
behalf of the Byzantine Emperor. The Arab historians normally mentioned him by his title
'Muqauqis' but they hotly dispute his personal identity. Abu Salih who wrote in the sixth
century after Hijrah (12 century A.D.) gives his name as Juraid b. Mina al Muqauqis (which is
corruption of George, son of Mina). Ibn Khaldun says that the then Muqauqis was a Copt
while al-Maqrizi asserts that he was a Roman.
When the Persians conquered Egypt in 616 A.D., the Byzantine Prefect and patriarch was
John the Almoner who fled from Egypt to Cyprus and died there. George was appointed in
his place as the Archbishop of Merkite church who remained in office from 621 A.D. till his
death in 630 A.D. Known to the Arab historians as Juraij, they give the year of his appoint-
ment as 621 A.D. Alfred j. Butler is of the opinion that practically seized all the Arab histo-
rians about a person by the title of Muqauqis, appointed by the Byzantine Emperor Hercu-
lius after the recovery of Egypt from the Persians, who was both its Patriarch and Governor.
They have, therefore, identified George as Muqauqis. But he also says that Muqauqis was
only a title of the Patriarch since it was applied to the governor in the early Coptic manu-
scripts. It is also possible that some Coptic Patriarch might have assumed the ecclesiastical
and political powers after the conquest of Egypt by the Persians. However, as the treaty of
peace between the Romans and the Persians was executed in the year 628 A.D., the letter
of the Prophet (r) was more probably received by the Patriarch of Egypt when he was more
or less independent. This is why, it appears, that the Prophet (r) addressed him as the chief
of the Copts.
Egypt was the most fertile dominion of the Byzantine Empire, far exceeding other provinc-
es in population as well as in resources. It was also the granary of the Byzantine capital.
When 'Amr b. al-'as entered Egypt at the head of the conquering Arab force, fourteen years
after the Prophet (r) had sent his letter to Muqauqis, he wrote to Caliph 'Umar b. al-
Khattab about that land: "The country is exceedingly fertile and green. Its length covers a
journey of one month and its breadth is of about ten days." A census of Egypt taken by 'Amr
b. al-As in 20 A.H./640 A.D. to find out the number of persons on whom jizya could be le-
vied, showed that the population exceeded six million, one hundred thousand of which
being Romans. 'Amr b. Al- As also wrote to the Caliph: "I have taken a city of which I can but