Anecdota Oxoniensia. Semitic series.

92 CHURCHES AND.MONASTERIES OF EGYPT.

a kitchen1, which was pulled down by the Shaikh As-Sa'id Abu 'l-Fakhr
Sa'id ibn Busaiwah, who rebuilt it as a church dedicated to Our Lady
the Pure Virgin. When it was completed, it was consecrated by the
Fol. 26 a father and bishop, Anba Gabriel, bishop of Misr, in the presence of
Anba Peter, bishop of the Fayyum, on the fourth Sunday of the Holy
Fast, being the fifth of Barmahat2 in the year 903 of the Righteous
Martyrs, which is equivalent to the i9th of Dhu 'l-hijjah, in the year 582
(A.D. 1187). From the roof of this church a view is obtained of the
Pool of Karun3. The view from this church is agreeable, on account
of the gardens and pleasure-grounds and handsome buildings which
surround it. It is spacious and pleasant during both the high Nile and
the seed time, and there are many people in the gardens and pavilions
which surround it.
Among those who at any time have attacked this church there was
a body of blacks, called the Juyfishiyah4, who grew insolent and violent,
and whose hands were stretched out until they stopped the roads and
seized the money of travellers, or shed their blood. When the Ghuzz
and the Kurds obtained possession of Egypt, in Rabi' the Second of the
year A.H. 564 (A.D. 1169), a body of Armenian Christians overcame
the blacks, and drove them away and killed many of them; and the
quarter which they inhabited was left deserted: it was in the neighbourhood of Al-Hamra, as it has already been said. The quarter was
bought by Hatalba the Ghuzzi, wali of Cairo, from the Divan; and he
ploughed it, and made wells and waterwheels, and laid it out in gardens,
and sowed seeds of many plants, and was the first to make the ground
Fol. 26 b green with vegetation. The entrance to the church was altered, since there
was no door in this street, but it was at the side, in the road mentioned.
1 Probably one of the sugar manufactories, of which there were many in
Al-Fustat and Cairo at this time.
2 The Coptic Pharmouthi (c,&pJ.o''oi) = March 27-April 25.
3 This was one of the pools between Al-Fustat and Cairo, and its banks
were thickly peopled when Al-'Askar and Al-Kata'i' were flourishing, but were
desolated when Cairo superseded these suburbs. See Al-Malkrizi, ii. p..
This was one of the troops of which the army was composed; see fol. 54 a.