Anecdota Oxoniensia. Semitic series.

326 CHURCHES AND MONASTERIES OF lEGYPT.
ACCOUNT OF THE CHURCHES OF TIIE
CHRISTIANS.
Al-Azhari says: The word Kanssah (church), or 'synagogue' of the Jews, in
the plural Kand's, is an Arabicised form, and the original form is Kunzshis. Even
the more ancient Arabs mention churches in their poems; thus Al-'Abbas ibn
Mirdas al-Sulaml says:
'They surround me in the shadow of every church;
as long as my people passed the night in the churches.'
And Ibn Kais ar-Rukayyat says:
'As if it were a picture painted in one of the churches.'
1. The Two Churches of Al-Kjhan'd ac, without Cairo; one of which is named
after the angel Gabriel; the other after Mercurius and also after Ruwais, the
well-known monk who lived after A.. 8oo. Near both of these churches the
Christians buried their dead, and the place is called the Burial-place of AlKhandal. Both of these churches were built in the time of Islam to take the
place of the churches of Al-Malks.
2. The Church in the Ifdrah Zawzlah in Cairo, a church revered by the
Jacobite Christians, bears the name of the Virgin; it is stated that it was formerly
known by the name of the physician Zabilfn, who lived about 270 years before
the appearance of the Islamitic religion, was learned in many sciences, and
possessed a great treasure reached through a well which exists here.
3. A Church known by the name of Al-llugfhihah in the fHdrat ar-Rum in Cairo
bears the name of the Virgin. These two are the only churches that the Jacobites
possess in Cairo. In the Harat ar-Rum there was another church, called the
Church of Barbara, but this was destroyed in A.1. 7I8. The cause of this
event was the Christians offered a petition to Al-Malik an-Nasir Muhammad
ibn Kala'un, in which they begged for permission to restore that part of this
church which had been ruined; he gave them permission, and they built the
church so that it became more beautiful than it was before. This angered
' As Wiistenfeld pointed out, Kunisht is the Persian word; but the true
original of the Arabic Kanzsah, i~-..-, is the Aramaic tl'.D='synagogue' or
'meeting-house,' from W:: 'to assemble.' (Syr. J].m; late Hebrew no..:).