Pope Benjamin I of Alexandria (590 – January 3, 661) was the thirty-eighth Pope of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria. He is regarded as one of the greatest patriarchs of the Coptic Church. During his tenure, he guided his followers through the Persian invasion of Egypt from 619 to 629, and the Byzantine-Arab Wars, and led the church to a renewed beginning side-by-side with the then growing power of Islam. His papacy witnessed three ruling systems in Egypt, beginning with the Sassanid Empire, followed by the Byzantines, under whose rule Benjamin went into exile, and finally by the Arabs upon their conquest. After the Arab conquest Pope Benjamin was allowed by the Arab rulers to come back to Alexandria and resume his work, after a period he had to go into hiding from the Byzantines.