Anecdota Oxoniensia. Semitic series.

MONASTERY AND CHURCH OF SAINT MfENNAS. 105

Abu Sa'id, in the caliphate of Al-Adid, and the vizierate of Shawar.
The church of the Holy Nativity looks upon the courtyard of the Great
Church, and so does a very small church which was renewed by
Abu Ghalib ibn Abi 'l-Makarim al-Bilbaisi, and named after Saint
Mercurius.
In the Great Church' there is an ambon of coloured marble, the
greater part of which is red and transparent; it is supported by marble
pillars, of skilful workmanship. There is also an episcopal chair of
wood. Near [the ambon], on the north side, there is an altar, dedicated
to the martyr Mercurius, and provided by the Shaikh Abu 'l-Fadl, son Fol. 30 b
of the bishop, which has a wooden tablet2 upon it. Above the altar in
the sanctuary, there is a wooden cupola3, supported by marble pillars;
and upon this altar too there is a wooden tablet.
Near this church is the monastery, entered by a separate door;
and here there are a number of nuns, in separate habitations. In the
monastery there is a well of running water, which was dug and sounded
and furnished at the expense of the Shaikh Abu Zakari As-Sairafi, in
the caliphate of Al-Hafiz.
~ Within the sanctuary was [the entrance to] the bakehouse4, in
which is an ancient tomb. This bakehouse was selected by the Shaikh
Al-As'ad Salib ibn Mikha'il, the son of the hegumen5, who separated
We are still occupied with the church of St. Mennas.
2 The wooden tablet is a common feature of the Coptic altars to-day; see
Coptic Churches, ii. pp. 3-5, and the woodcut there given. (A. J. B.)
3 This is a reference to the baldakyn so often seen in the Coptic churches.
(A. J. B.)
4 The Bazi al-'Ajzn or ' House of Dough' is the chamber in which the
eucharistic breads are prepared. (A. J. B.)
6 The Greek qyovpevos, borrowed through the Coptic. A commoner form of
the word in Arabic is '4~ (kummus). The hegumen is properly, of course, the abbot
of a monastery; and the office of ordination of the hegumen refers entirely to the
duties of an abbot; see e.g. the office in MS. Bodl. II I. The title of hegumen,
however, is often given to priests of a superior rank, as, for instance, to the priest
in charge of the patriarchal church of Cairo. Cf.Vansleb, Hist. de l'1glhse d'Alex.
p. 178.

P

[II. 7.]