Anecdota Oxoniensia. Semitic series.

10 CHURvCHES AND MONASTERIES OF EGYPT.

which was executed by Abti '1-Fath ibn al-Akmas, known as Ibn
al-Jlaufi the painter; and this work was finished in the month of
Amnshir, in the year 892-1 of the Blameless Martyrs (Jan.- Feb., A. D. I117 7).
~ There came a bishop from Armenia, accompanied by three priests,
and sent by the king' of Armenia and the patriarch. He brought
a despatch from both of them and two letters, one of which was from
Al-Malik Sala'h ad-D'in, and the other from Al-Malik Saif ad-D'in Abui
Bakr 3 his brother, to Al-Malik Talki ad-Din 4, and they recommended in
their letters that the bishop should be received with honour, and that the
two churches of the Armenians in Az-Zuhri5 and Al-Busan" should be
given up to him. So this bishop alighted at the church of John the
' Leo or Levon IL, the Rubenide, who reigned in Cilicia, not in Armenia
proper; he ascended the throne in xi i86. He was a great supporter of his own
church and of other Oriental churches. See Alishan, Le'on le Magn. p. 294, &c.
2 Saladin had left Egypt in A. H. 578, and was now in Syria, engaged in
wars and sieges; see Al-M-alkrizi, Kh4'tat, ii. p. rr'tc; Ibn al-Athir, Al-Kdnmzz (ed.
Tornberg), xi. p. r-ri; Ibn Shaddaid, Sf'rah ~Saldh ad-Dtn (ed. Schultens),
p. 38 ff.
3 AbO' Bakr Mulbammad ibn AbM 'sh-Shukr Ayyi~b ibn Sh~d'i ibn Marwa'n,
surnamed Al-Malik al_ Adil Saif ad-D'in, brother of Saladin, was born A. H. 530=
A. D. I1145 and died A. H. 615 = A. D. 121i8. He acted as Saladin's viceroy for
Egypt from A. H. 578 to 579, but was now ruling Aleppo, handed over to him by
his brother. In A. H. 596 = A. D. 1200 he became sultan of Egypt. See Jbn
Khallikan, Biogr. Dzcd. iii. P. 235; Ibn al-Ath'ir, Al-Kdrnil, xi. p. r~r-; Ibn
Shadda'd, St'rah Saldh& ad-Dzfn, P. 56; As-Suytitil, ~Iusn al-Mfuhddarah, ii. p. irv if.
4 Tak'i ad-Din 'Umar, surnamed Al-Malik al-Mu1tiaffar, nephew of Saladin,
had been appointed viceroy of Egypt by the latter, when he summoned Al-Malik
al-'Adil to Syria in A. H. 579 =A. D. i 183 (see fol. 6 b). Takli ad-Diin was recalled
to Syria towards the end Of A. H. 582 = A. D. i i86, so that it must have been in
this year that the envoys mentioned in the text arrived from Armenia. See Ibn
Khallika~n, Bi'ogr. Didt. ii. P. 391; Ibn al-Ath'ir, A1l-Kdmz7i, xi. p. rltc; Ibn Shadd ad,
St'rak Saldh ad-Dz/n, p. 64; As-Suy~iti, Ijusn al-M-u~d~arah, ii. P. 5o; Abfi 'I-Fida,
Ann. Mlusi. iv. p. 6o.,'See fol. 3b. See fol. i b.