Regarding al-Muqawqis' behavior in Islamic traditions, it is of note that when the general of the Arab conquest of Egypt 'Amr ibn al-'As (known to the East Romans as "Amru") threatened the Prefecture of Egypt, Cyrus of Alexandria as prefect was entrusted with the conduct of the war. Certain humiliating stipulations, to which he subscribed for the sake of peace, angered his imperial master so much that he was recalled and harshly accused of connivance with the Saracens. However, he was soon restored to his former authority owing to the impending siege of Alexandria, but could not avert the fall of the city in 640. He signed a peace treaty that surrendered Alexandria and Egypt on 8 November 641 before dying in 642. Explanation of the name The word muqawqis is the Arabized form of Coptic ⲡⲓⲕⲁⲩⲕⲟⲥ pi-kaukos (alternatively ⲡⲭⲁⲩⲕⲓⲁⲛⲟⲥ p-khaukianos), meaning "the Caucasian," the common epithet among the non-Chalcedonian Copts of Egypt for the Melchite (Chalcedonian) patriarch Cyrus, who was seen as the corrupter and foreign usurper to the throne of the Coptic patriarch Benjamin I. The word was subsequently used by Arab writers for some other patriarchs in Alexandria such as George I of Alexandria ("Jurayj ibn Mīnā" Georgios son of Menas Parkabios; alternatively, "Jurayj ibn Mattá"), Cyrus' predecessor. According to the opponents of the identification of al-Muqawqis as Cyrus and advocates of the view that he was rather the governor of Sassanid Egypt, the Arabic name referred to the inhabitants of a Persian empire that extended all the way to the Caucasus. Opposition to identification with Cyrus of Alexandria The widely held view of identifying al-Muqawqis with Cyrus has been challenged by some as being based on untenable assumptions. Considering historical facts, the opponents of the identification point out that Cyrus did not succeed to the See of Alexandria until 630 AD, after Heraclius had recaptured Egypt. After the Persian invasion, "The Coptic patriarch Andronicus remained in the country, experiencing and witnessing suffering as a result of the occupation (Evetts, 1904, p. 486, lines 8-11). His successor in 626, Benjamin I, remained in office well beyond the end of the occupation; during his time the Sassanians moderated their policy to a certain extent." Adherents to this state that al-Muqawqis was not a Christian patriarch but the Persian governor during the last days of the Persian occupation of Egypt. There must have been an abundance of Alexandrine women