Anecdota Oxoniensia. Semitic series.

114 CHURCHES AND iMONASSTERIES OF EGYPT.

Fol. 34 a the construction of the Nilometer', in A. H. 2472 (A. D. 864), and his
body is in the church of Saint Coluthus, which was a separate church
in the caliphate of Al-Amir, and has already been mentioned, in
connection with the church of Saint Mennas in the Middle Hamra.
At the time of the fire already mentioned, the threshold of black
granite, which has been described, was removed and placed at the
outer entrance, near a well of running water, where there is a buryingground.
The garden which lies opposite to this church was its property,
until it was sequestrated by the Diwan of the government, in the
caliphate of Al-Amir. The material of all the houses in the neighbourhood, the property of Ibn Zanbur, was sold, and the ground was
turned into a single courtyard, in which was a well with a water-wheel,
skilfully constructed. All this property was bought, and devoted to
the use of the church, by the Shaikh Sani'at al-Mulk Abu 'l-Faraj,
This was in the caliphate of Al-Mutawakkil, the Abbaside, and under Yazid
ibn 'Abd Allah the Turk, governor of Egypt.
2 The date here given corresponds with that generally recorded by Arab
historians for the completion of the Nilometer. Some repairs were carried out
by Ahmad ibn Tfiln twelve years later, but Al-Makrizi, As-Suyfti, and Al-Islhaki
agree that the Nilometer had been very little altered up to their own time, and
there is no doubt that it remains substantially the same now. The pointed arches
used in the construction of this Nilometer are about sixteen years older than those
in the mosque of Ibn Tfilun, and they are of course much older than any example
of the pointed arch in Gothic architecture. Lane thinks it probable that both the
mosque and the Nilometer were built by the same architect. It was known that
the mosque of Ibn Tulun was built by a Copt, and if Lane's theory is correct, we
have his name in Ibn Katib al-Farghani, the Coptic architect of the Nilometer.
See Lane's Modern Egyptians, vol. ii. p. 341 (App. F); S. Lane Poole's Art of the
Saracens in Egypt, pp. 54-55; Murray's Egypt, vol. ii. pp. 174, 232 (6th ed.).
Pococke (vol. i. p. 29) gives a cut showing a plan and section of the Nilometer,
and claims special credit for its accuracy; but he exhibits circular, not pointed
arches. Norden's section is better; see his Voyag d pe ed' de e de ubie,
Copenhagen, 1755, fol., plate xxvi. (A. J. B.)