"After the Arab recapture of Alexandria [from the Byzantines in [A.D 646],
a number of Coptic [Egyptian Christian] villages complained
to `Amr ibn-al-'As [the governor] that they had not joined in the rebellion
but that, on the contrary, the Byzantine army from Alexandria had plundered
them and requisitioned food from them without repayment .The original treaty
signed with 'Amr after the first surrender of Egypt had, they pointed out,
imposed tributeupon them . They had not , however, been protected during
Manual's invasion, and, in consequence ,they had suffered heavy loses .'Amr
immediately admitted the justice of their complaint and ordered compensation
to be paid for the loses .It is just to record that the Arabs ,at this
period ,were extremely conscientious about the mutal obligation which
rested on them to protect the people who thereby came under their guardianship"(Lt.
Gen. Sir John Bagot Glubb,The Great Arab Conquest [London: Hodder and Stoughton,
Ltd., 1963] , pp. 284-285).