Anecdota Oxoniensia. Semitic series.

AL-FARMA
A L-~A RA 21rA*.

167

the liturgy in it by turns. It stands in the Wadi 'l-'Arabahl, near
the pool of Miriam; and it is near Mount Sinai, but divided from it
by the passage over the Salt Sea.
Al-'Arzsh.
~ The region of Al-'Arish. In this region there are two large
churches, which have stood here from ancient times, and are now in
ruins, but their walls remain up to our own time; and the wall of the
city2, which ran along the side of the Salt Sea, is still existing.
It is said that of all the marble and columns which are to be found
at Misr, the greater part and the largest specimens came from Al-'Arish.
Al-Faramnd.
~ The city of Al-Farama. This city was built by Pharaoh3, on
the river Nile, in the twenty-eighth year after the birth of Moses
The Wadi 'l-'Arabah is a valley running from west to east between the Nile
and the Red Sea. The 'pool of Miriam' is a name given by our author to
a spring which bursts out of the rock behind the monastery of St. Anthony and
supplies it with water, and in which Miriam, the sister of Moses, is said to have
bathed at the time of the Exodus (Makrizi, Khitat, ii. p. o. r; cf. Murray's Guide,
p. 324).
2 It is interesting to know that remains of the ancient Rhinocolura existed in
the time of Abu Salih. The columns at Misr would be mostly those used in the
construction of the Christian churches and of the mosques. These columns were
taken from classical buildings, and were not cut or designed during the middle
ages. The use of columns for building is illustrated by the well-known story
of Ibn Talfun and the Christian architect who built his mosque; see Al-Makrizi,
Khitat, ii. p. no ff., and S. Lane-Poole's Art of the Saracens in Egypt, p. 54.
(A. J. B.)
3 Champollion justly points out that the towns denoted by the modern Arabic
names are not as a rule on the actual site of the ancient towns which they represent, and argues that Al-Farama was rebuilt by the Arabs nearer to the sea than the
ancient Pelusium, which is said by Strabo to have been 2,040 yards from the sea,