Head of the Coptic Church from 743 to 767
Michael I (or Khaʾil I ) was the 46th Coptic Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria from 743 to 767.
Bishop Moses of Awsim was instrumental in arranging the election of Michael as patriarch in a compromise between northern and southern factions.[1]
In 748, when Pope Michael was thrown into prison by Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan ibn Musa ibn Nusayr , King Kyriakos of Makuria marched north into Egypt at the head of an army said to number 100,000 men to free the Pope of Alexandria . Once the Makurian army reached Egypt, the Pope was released from prison.[2]
In 749, the governor of Egypt, Hawthara ibn Suhayl , held Michael hostage in Rosetta in an effort to force the rebelling Bashmurites to surrender. They instead sacked the city.[3]
Pope Michael opposed the enthroning of the Bishop Isaac as a Syriac Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch after the death of Iwanis I because he was already the bishop of the eparchy of Harran .[4]
References
^ Mark N. Swanson (2010), The Coptic Papacy in Islamic Egypt (641–1517) , Cairo: The American University in Cairo Press , p. 20.
^ Derek A. Welsby, The Medieval Kingdoms of Nubia (London, 2002), p. 73; B. T. A. Evetts (translator), The Churches and Monasteries of Egypt and Some Neighboring Countries attributed to Abu Salih, the Armenian , with added notes by Alfred J. Butler (Oxford, 1895), pp. 267ff
^ Mounir Megally (1991), "Bashmuric Revolts" , in Aziz Suryal Atiya (ed.), The Coptic Encyclopedia , vol. 2, New York: Macmillan Publishers, cols. 349b–351b .
^ "القوانين الكنسية لانتخاب بابا الإسكندرية... والأنبا شنودة" . Archived from the original on 2007-02-18.