Anecdota Oxoniensia. Semitic series.

x CHURCHES AND IMONA'ASTERIES OF EGYPT.

bility, that the author of the work was Armenian by nationality. It is
surprising, however, that M. Amelineau says that 'Abou Selah (sic) visited
Egypt at the moment when the Armenians were all-powerful in that
country.' It is surely much more probable that Abf SAlih, if that was
his name, was not a mere visitor to Egypt, but rather a member of the
Armenian colony, the ancestors of which had settled there at the end of
the eleventh century of our era, under the protection of Badr al-Jamali, the
Armenian vizier to the caliph Al-Mustansir; and that our author had been
born and bred in the country. This would explain his Arabic name, the
fact of his writing in Arabic, and his familiarity with the history of Egypt.
As for his being in Egypt at a time of Armenian preponderance in the state,
the facts are precisely the contrary. There is no proof that the Armenians
were in special favour under the three last of the Fatimide caliphs, and
the greater part of our author's life must have been passed during a time
when the Armenians in Egypt had succumbed to the misfortunes which
overtook them at the time of the Kurdish invasion, and had been much
reduced in numbers. Of these misfortunes our author was an eye-witness.
The work itself affords sufficient internal evidence of the date of its
composition, for the author constantly refers to events which, he says,
happened in his own time, and to incidents in his own life, of which he
gives us the date. Thus on fol. 4b he tells us of an interview which he
had at Cairo with the physician Abu 'l-Kasim al-'Askalani, in A. H. 568
=A.D. I173. Again on fol. 61 a he mentions a visit which he paid in
A. H. 569 =A. D. I 174 to the monastery of Nahya. But the latest date
given in the book is that of the death of Mark ibn al-Kanbar in the
month of Amshir A.M. 924=Jan.-Feb., A. D. 1208. The composition
of the work, therefore, may confidently be assigned to the first years
of the thirteenth century of our era, when the writer had probably
reached a considerable age.
In spite of these distinct indications of date, however, M. Amelineau
speaks as if the work had been composed at a much later period,
for he begins his account of Abu Salih as follows: 'I must also
'speak of an author who wrote in Arabic, and who has left us a history
'of the churches and monasteries of Egypt, written in the year 1054 of
'the Martyrs, that is to say in the year 1338 of our era. He was called