Anecdota Oxoniensia. Semitic series.

254 CHURCHES A.ND MONASTERIES OF EGYPT.

a church of the martyr Saint Mercurius; a church of the martyr
Claudius; a church of the valiant martyr Theodore; a church of the
glorious prophet Daniel; and a church of Aba Fu, besides a second
church of the angel Michael.
~ Akfahs1. Here there are six churches, of which the following
is a list: a church named after the Lady and Pure Virgin Mary; the
church of the glorious angel Michael; a church of the glorious angel
Gabriel; a church of the martyr Theodore; a church of the martyr
Aba Siyun; the church of Julius2, the scribe and martyr of Akfahs.
[There is also] the monastery of Saint Philemon3, the martyr, which
contains several monks. Adjacent to it there is a keep and a garden.
This monastery lies to the south of the district.
Dalas4 was founded by Dalas, for a man who separated himself
Fol. 91 b from intercourse with the world; and it contained three hundred smiths,
who forged the bits of Dalas5. [Here is] the church of Saint Coluthus,
This town, the Coptic K&,a^C or X&c.c, is on the west bank,
a little to the north of Tunbudha and opposite to Fashn. It is included in the
district of the last-named town, and in the province of MIinyah, and in 1885 had
1,614 inhabitants. Akfahs is well known in Coptic hagiology on account of
Julius of Akfahs, the biographer of the martyrs. See Yakut, Geogr. Wort. i.
p. rrA,; Ibn Dukmak, v. p. r; Amelineau, Ge'ogr. pp. 56-58. Al-Makrizi, who
gives Akfas (cri\l) as an alternative form, speaks of a ruined monastery there.
2 This is the famous author of so many of the Coptic lives of saints now
existing. He became himself a martyr, and his death is commemorated on
Tut 22=Sept. 19. His body was taken to Alexandria, where the emperor
Constantine afterwards erected a church to his name. See Synaxarzum ad diem;
Am6lineau, Actes des M. l. 123 ff.
3 St. Philemon is said to have been a musician, and to have been martyred
in the persecution of Diocletian. His festival is on Barmahat 7= March 3. See
Synaxarium at that day; Am6lineau, Actes des MM. p. 63.
4 On the west bank, in the district of Az-Zawiyah in the province of Bani
Suwaif, and in I885 containing I,665 inhabitants. The Coptic name is -fXoX.
In the time of our author the place was in the province of Al-Bahnasa. See
Yakfit, Geogr. Wort. ii. p. oA I; Am6lineau, Geogr. pp. I36-138.
5 Al-Idrisi says (trans. by Jaubert): 'Delass est une petite ville ou l'on