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Marqus

MARQUS A fourteenth-century Melchite bishop of Damietta. A manuscript of 206 sheets (Sinai Arabic 264) containing an Arabic translation of the typikon of Saint Sabas made by Abu al-Fath Qustantin ibn Abi al-Ma‘ali ibn Abi al-Fath was completed on 5 December A.D. 1355. This translator was the father of Bishop Marqus, as we learn from …

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Mercurius Of Caesarea, Saint

Eminent / By Armia FAYEZ

MERCURIUS OF CAESAREA, SAINT A Roman army officer who was martyred in the third century in Caesarea, Cappadocia, and is credited with many subsequent miraculous appearances. Known in Arabic as Abu Sayfayn, he is commemorated by the Coptic church on 25 Hatur. In addition, two other feast days are observed in memory of this saint: …

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Mikha’il Ibn Butrus

Eminent / By Armia FAYEZ

MIKHA’IL IBN BUTRUS The protopsaltis of the Greek Orthodox patriarchate of Alexandria in 1790. This position as “first singer” corresponds to the “precentor,” who directs the two choirs during the liturgical services (cf. Clugnet, 1895, p. 132). This was the position he occupied when he copied a manuscript containing the psalter and the biblical hymns, …

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Economic Activities Of Monasteries

Places / By Armia FAYEZ

ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES OF MONASTERIES Despite schisms, persecutions, occasional devastation by the barbarians, and the Persian and Arab conquests in 619 and 641, respectively, the history of the Egyptian monasteries from the fourth to the eighth centuries constitutes a whole. The period was one of expansion and material prosperity. Various categories of sources—literary, papyrological, and archaeological—indicate …

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Monasteries Of The Eastern Desert Of The Delta And Sinai

Places / By Armia FAYEZ

MONASTERIES OF THE EASTERN DESERT OF THE DELTA AND SINAI. A number of places are mentioned in the ancient sources as the abodes of monks in this vast region. Pelusium is today called Tall al-Farama, and is 2 miles (3 km) from the Mediterranean coast and 14 miles (23 km) east of the al-Tinah station …

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Oktokaidekaton

Places / By Armia FAYEZ

OKTOKAIDEKATON One of the monasteries of the coastal strip that separates the sea from the western tongue of Lake Mareotis to the west of Alexandria. The Oktokaidekaton is so called from its location in the neighborhood of the eighteenth milestone from Alexandria. Its site has not been located, but the Life of Saint THEODORA characterizes …

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Arabic Versions Of The Old Testament

Bible / By Armia FAYEZ

ARABIC VERSIONS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT The earliest Arabic translations of books of the Old Testament date to the Middle Ages. There are extant medieval manuscripts of the books of Chronicles, Ezra, Joshua, Judges, Nehemiah, the Pentabeuch, and Ruth. Books of Chronicles The Arabic versions of the two books of Chronicles have not been the …

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Coptic Missionaries In India

History / By Armia FAYEZ

COPTIC MISSIONARIES IN INDIA The story of the first Christian missionaries in the southern part of the Indian subcontinent is associated with the apostle Thomas. According to the apocryphal Acts of Thomas (Judas-Thomas in the Syriac version), written by Bardesanes, a famous author in Edessa, Syria, in the late second or early third century, Gondophernes, …

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Mikha’il Al-Misri

Eminent / By Armia FAYEZ

MIKHA’IL AL-MISRI A monk at the MOUNT SINAI MONASTERY OF SAINT CATHERINE at the end of the thirteenth century. He is known from a note he left at the end of an Arabic Pentateuch (Sinai Arabic 4, copied by Jibril ibn Musa al-Katib in A.H. 353/A.D. 963). This note (on fol. 281b) reads, “The servant …

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Mikha’il Ibn Ghazi

Eminent / By Armia FAYEZ

MIKHA’IL IBN GHAZI A Melchite priest known only from the manuscript he copied in Cairo and completed on 12 February 7204 of Adam/A.D. 1696 under the Melchite patriarch of Alexandria, Gerasimus II Palladas (1688-1710). The manuscript he copied is now the Sinai Arabic 59, which contains the Psalter including Psalm 151, the biblical odes, and …

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