Moses defended the Coptic church against the encroachments of the Muslim rulers of Egypt. Under the Abbasids who replaced the Umayyads in 750, Moses visited Fustat several times to plead for tax relief for church lands.[6] He secured lenient treatment for the Copts from the Abbasid governor Abū ʿAwn when, at the governor's request, he interceded with prayer and the waters of the Nile rose three cubits.[7] Late in Michael's patriarchate, Moses succeeded in bring back into the church some Melitians, remnants of a 4th-century schism.[8] Under Patriarch Mina I (767–774), Moses fought to keep Christian holy places. He also wrote a letter to Mina and all the Christians of Alexandria urging them to continue keeping the Lord's Day.[4]