Anecdota Oxoniensia. Semitic series.

CHURCHES IN THE PRO7VINCE OF AL-JIZA H.

75

The house of Fakhr al-Kufat1 stood by the river; and he feared lest
the river should destroy it, as it had destroyed the rest; so he pulled
it down, and carried away all the materials and the timber, and the
timber of the roof of the church which has been described, with its
materials, and rebuilt with them a church which had fallen into ruin,
and which was named after Mark2 the Evangelist. This building he
made wider and handsomer than the former church; and it remained
for several years in good order, until the Ghuzz and the mob of Muslims
attacked it and wrecked it; and after that no one restored it again; but
its walls are still standing, in a ruined state, and it is deprived of liturgies
and prayers. This destruction took place at the promotion of Anba
John, son of Abu Ghalib, the seventy-fourth patriarch.
~ There is a church of Saint Peter at Al-Jizah, on the bank of the
Nile, the foundations of which are in the river. It was in this church Fol. 60 a
that the Christians assembled, at a time when the Nile was slow in
rising; and they offered prayers on this account by night and by day,
and fasted for the space of a whole week; and at the end of the week
God filled up the measure of the waters of the Nile, and they increased
beyond that, after the rising of Arcturus, until they reached a height
of seventeen cubits or more; and the Life of Anba Michael states that
they reached3 eighteen cubits; and men ceased to despair of the
'Izz al-Kufat.
2 Mentioned by Al-Makrizi, and by the Copto-Arabic lists (Amelineau, Geogr.
pp. 578 and 580).
3 I have inserted these two clauses here instead of lower down, where the
copyist has misplaced them in the text. The history of this rise of the Nile in
answer to the prayers of the Christians is borrowed by our author from the Life of
Michael the forty-sixth patriarch, by John the Deacon, included in the patriarchal
biographies. This writer describes the assembly of bishops at Al-Fustat, according
to the custom which prescribed that all the bishops should meet the patriarch in
synod, twice in the year; and having stated that the Nile had not risen that year
above fourteen cubits, he adds:,S\ iJ l l, i JS i? j:1 a-f O 3 C:f5.U Li I j
*,\, t\ O Aa.ui '\; Yl. AH wM1 iaf jIl