Omar died in 644, and under his successor, Othman, the Arabian conquests were extended in Northern Africa.  Othman dying in 656, the claims of Ali were warmly supported, but not universally recognised, many looking to Muawia as an acceptable candidate for the caliphate.  This was especially the view of the Syrian Muham-medans, and in 661 Muawia I. was elected caliph.  He promptly transferred the capital from Medina to Damascus, and became in fact the founder of a dynasty known as the Ommayads, the new caliph being a descendant of the famous Arabian chieftain Ommayad.  Egypt acknowledged the new authority and remained quiet and submissive.  It furnished Abd el-Malik, who became caliph in 685, not only with rich subsidies and abundant provisions, but also with part of his troops.

The attachment of the Egyptians to their new masters was chiefly owing to the gentleness and wisdom of Abd el-Aziz ibn Merwan, who administered the country after Amr was put to death in 689.  He visited all the provinces of Egypt, and, arriving at Alexandria, he ordered the building of a bridge over the canal, recognising the importance of this communication between the town and country.

Benefiting by the religious liberty that Mussulman sovereignship had secured them, the Kopts no longer attended to the quarrels of their masters.  They only occupied themselves in maintaining the quiet peaceful-ness they had obtained by regular payment of their taxes, and by supplying men and commodities when occasion demanded it.  During the reign of Abd el-Malik in Egypt the only remarkable event there was the election, in 688, of the Jacobite Isaac as patriarch of Alexandria.  The Koptic clergy give him no other claim to historical remembrance than the formulating of a decree ordaining “that the patriarch can only be inaugurated on a Sunday.”

[Illustration:  335.jpg MOSQUE OF AMR]

Isaac was succeeded by Simon the Syrian, whom the Koptic church looks upon as a saint, and for whom is claimed the power of reviving the dead.  He nevertheless died from the effects of poison given him at the altar by some jealous rival.  Arab historians relate how deputies came to Simon from India to ask for a bishop and some priests.  The patriarch refused to comply with this request, but Abd el-Aziz, thinking that this relation with India might prove politically useful, gave the order to other and more docile priests.

The patriarchal seat was empty for three years after the death of Simon.  The Kopts next appointed a patriarch named Alexander, who held the office for a little over twenty years.  The Koptic writers who recount the history of this patriarch mention their discontent with the governor Abd el-Aziz.  The monks and other members of the clergy had grown very numerous in Egypt and claimed to be exempt from taxation.  Abd el-Aziz, whose yearly tax was fixed, thought it unjust that the poorest classes of the people should be made to pay while the priests, the bishop, and the patriarch, all possessing abundance, should be privileged by exemption.  He therefore had a census made of all the monks and put on them a tax of one dinar (about $2.53), while he exacted from the patriarch an annual payment of three thousand dinars, or about $7,600.  This act of justice was the cause of many complaints among the clergy, but they were soon suppressed and were without result.