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Persians In Egypt

PERSIANS IN EGYPT (619-629) The last great clash between the Eastern Roman Empire and the Sassanid empire (602-628), begun by Chosroes II Parvez (590-628) against Phocas (602-610) and continued against Heraclius (610-634), at first brought brilliant successes to the Sassanids. The culmination was the conquest of Egypt with its Byzantine administrative districts: Aegyptos, Augustamnike, Arkadia, …

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Pisentius, Saint

Eminent / By Armia FAYEZ

PISENTIUS, SAINT A seventh-century bishop of Qift who was noted as a preacher, letter writer, administrator, and servant of the poor (feast day: 13 Abib). He is among the most outstanding personalities of the Coptic church. Sources Texts written about Pisentius date from the seventh to the eighteenth centuries. They include three Sahidic Coptic texts …

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Papyrus Collections

Heritage / By Armia FAYEZ

PAPYRUS COLLECTIONS Since the seventeenth-century scholars and travelers to Egypt have brought manuscripts to Europe. The papyri, whether they came to light in spectacular finds or as individual discoveries, whether they were uncovered in scientific excavations or through the diggings of thieves, went into papyrus collections, either directly or through dealers (see PAPYRUS DISCOVERIES). Not …

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Qus

Places / By Armia FAYEZ

QUS A town known in the era of the pharaohs as Ksa or Ksi. From the Greek period onward (third century B.C.) it was known as Apollinopolis Parva. It evolved by taking advantage of the activities of QIFT, which the Greek kings had made the starting point for roads linking the Nile Valley and the …

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Monasteries Of The Upper Sa‘Id

Places / By Armia FAYEZ

MONASTERIES OF THE UPPER SA‘ID. The upper Sa‘id encompasses the southern third of the Nile Valley, according to its division (from Cairo to Aswan) into three sections by the ancient Greek geographers and their Arabic imitators (see Grohmann, 1959, pp. 21, 27). Left or West Bank The first site is at Abydos, which was greatly …

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Mysteries Of Greek Letters

Books / By Armia FAYEZ

MYSTERIES OF GREEK LETTERS A mystic treatise on the symbolical interpretation of the letters of the Greek alphabet possibly written by an Egyptian or Palestinian monk in the fifth or sixth century. The complete title of the work is given in Arabic: Sharh Ihtijaj qalahu al-qass anba Saba al-Sa’ih fi sirr falsafat Allah al-maknun fi …

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Nicaea, Arabic Canons Of

Events / By Armia FAYEZ

NICAEA, ARABIC CANONS OF A name applied to several series of canons that are missing in the Greek or Latin canonical collections. They appear to have been reworked from the Syriac, at least in part. In the latter language, the texts attributed to the Council of NICAEA in 325 are said to have come from …

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Inscriptions

Heritage / By Armia FAYEZ

INSCRIPTIONS Writing on long-lasting materials. Inscriptions, like texts written on papyrus (see PAPYROLOGY), are important primary sources of information about a society. In Egypt they appear on stone, plaster, clay, wood, metal, and textiles. They may be scratched, carved, engraved, stamped, painted or inked, or woven. Those written on clay sherds or limestone fragments are …

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Dayr Al-Saqiyah

Places / By Youssef Matta

DAYR AL-SAQIYAH This monastery, today in ruins, was situated on the left bank of the Nile 2.5 miles (4 km) north of the DAYR AL-NASARA, at the bottom of a large wadi that opened on the stony desert at the foot of the mountain. At the foot of a high cliff is a rectangular enclosure …

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