In all of this it would appear that the Arabs were actually assisted by the Copts, who found the Muslims more tolerant than the Byzantines. In return for a tribute of money and food for the troops of occupation, the Christian inhabitants of Egypt were excused military service and left free in the observance of their religion and the administration of their affairs.
During the period that elapsed between the Muslim conquest and the end of the Umayyad dynasty the nature of the Arab occupation had become a systematic colonisation. Conversions of Copts to Islam were at first rare, and the old system of taxation was maintained for the greater part of the first Islamic century. The old division of the country into districts (nomoi) was maintained, and to the inhabitants of these districts demands were directly addressed by the governor of Egypt, while the head of the community—ordinarily a Copt but in some cases a Muslim—was responsible for compliance with the demand.
brothers adn ssiters i have a major assignment on our beautiful history of islam.
