Anecdota Oxoniensia. Semitic series.

CHURCH OF SAINT AN6/B.

I23

the time of the promotion of AnbA Gabriel1 Abu 'l-'Ula, son of Tarik
the scribe, the seventieth in the order of succession, and after him
under Anba Jonas 2, the seventy-second. This Tafik was a priest, who
lost his wife, and then solicited the rank of bishop; but when the
patriarch demanded money of him, he refused to gain promotion to
a rank in the hierarchy by bribery. Then, since he had much wealth,
he built this church, and ceased to solicit the dignity of bishop. This Fol. 3Gs
was in the patriarchate of Anba Michael3 the Sinjarite4. The church
was restored by the Shaikh As-Sadid Abu 'l-Fada'il, known as Ibn
Sittumi'ah(?), the scribe of the Emir 'Ali ibn Ahmad, the Kurd, in the
caliphate of Al-Mustadi, the Abbaside, and in the vizierate of An-Nisir
Yusuf ibn Ayyfib, in the year 568 (A.D. I172); and it was solemnly
opened on the feast of the angel Michael, the 7th of Hatur, in the year
809 5 of the Blameless Martyrs, when the liturgy was said in it.
Church of Saint AnZb.
Adjacent to the last-named church, there is a church dedicated to
church of St. Anthony, built on the same site as Aba Nub. These, I think, were
separate buildings, i.e. not part of AbIf 's-Saifain; indeed this is proved by the fact
of St. Michael being the patriarchal Cell, and having its own courtyard, and by
the fact of Aba Nub being turned into a summer residence. But it is remarkable
that these three names are found attached to three chapels side by side in the
upper story of AbQ 's-Saifain: see Coptic Churches, i. p. 19, plan. There can
be little question that these three chapels are meant to preserve the names of
the three churches which have perished. (A. J. B.)
1 Occupied the see from A.D. 1131 to II46. See Renaudot, His.t Pair.
pp. 500-513.
2 Or John.
3 The sixty-eighth patriarch; he occupied the see from A.D. I093 to 1102.
See Renaudot, Hzst. Pair. pp. 471-483.
4 I. e. of Sinjar, the Coptic njyrItrepi, in the northern Delta, between Burlus
and the marshes. See Amrlineau, Ge'ogr. p. 375.
5 It would seem that this date should be 889=A. D. 11 72.
r 2