73 Preface إِنّا آمَنّا بِرَبِّنا لِيَغفِرَ لَنا خَطايانا وَما أَكرَهتَنا عَلَيهِ مِنَ السِّحرِ ۗ وَاللَّهُ خَيرٌ وَأَبقىٰYusuf Ali“For us, we have believed in our Lord: may He forgive us our faults, and the magic to which thou didst compel us:1 for God is Best and Most Abiding.”The magic, mummery, and deceptions which pertained to Egyptian Pagan religion became a creed, a State article of faith, to which all citizens were compelled to bow, and to which its priests were compelled actively to practise. And Pharaoh was at the head of the whole system?the high priest or the supreme god. With justice, therefore, do the converted magicians lay the blame on Pharaoh, effectively negativing Pharaoh’s disingenuous charge that they had been in league with Moses. These falsehoods and deceptions?combined in many cases with horrid cruelties, open and secret? we common to many Pagan systems. Some of them have been investigated in detail in Sir John G. Frazer’s Golden Bough.