Hello everyone and welcome to the history of Byzantium.

Episode 83.

The Leftovers.

Last time we followed the Islamic caliphate through its eight century developments.

Today we look a little closer at the lives of its citizens.

In particular, the former Roman Christians, who Heraclius, left behind.

Back in 700, you may remember that the situation for many Christians hadn't changed that drastically

with the Arabs in charge.

The conquerors usually confined themselves to their garrison towns and left the administrative

apparatus as they'd found it.

Only the top layer of officials were out of a job and many of them had fled to Byzantium.

If you were an offer site Christian, or even a low level bureaucrat, then the arrival of

the Arabs might have been a positive development.

The orthodox authorities from Constantinople could no longer persecute you.

Your church met freely and openly and you could conduct your business with far less oversight.

The Arabs seemed to be pious enough and largely respected Christian practice and kept their

new faith to themselves.

So who are we talking about?

We have basically three provinces here, Syria, Palestine and Egypt, all with their own specific

experience.

Egypt, as you know, was the most decidedly, monophysite place in the Roman Empire.

The native Egyptian population, the cops, as they became known, were pretty united as

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