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XX.—On the Coptic Churches of Old Cairo
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 January 2012
Extract
The site of El-Fustât, or Old Cairo, lies about a mile and a half from the modern city, on the plain between the Nile and the Mokattam hills.
With the exception of the Coptic churches and monasteries little of it now remains, and its site is covered by great heaps of rubbish full of fragments of pottery of various dates.
The Coptic churches are grouped together in “dayrs,” or inclosures surrounded by high walls, into which there is only one small entrance; these walls were to protect the Copts from the attacks of the Moslem population.
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- Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1885
References
page 397 note a It was from this fortress that the mediæval name for Cairo—Babylon—was derived. In romances of the Middle Ages the “Sultan of Babylon” usually means the Sultan of Egypt.
page 406 note a The present level of the nave of the upper church is now about ten feet below the ground outside the Roman bastions which form the enclosing wall of the dayr.
The pediment and architrave of one of the principal Roman entrances is still visible above the ground outside; the whole of the opening itself being buried in the sand, which, on the great plain where Old Cairo once stood, is always being heaped up by the driving wind, wherever any solid obstacle forms a check to its further movement. If we give a height of ten feet to this buried doorway (the width of which makes this a probable dimension) we shall make the ground level of the old Roman fortress coincide with the present level of the nave of the church: and this I believe to have been the case.
page 408 note a St. George of Cappadocia.
page 408 note b The British Museum possesses a very fine and interesting series of carved reliefs from a Coptic iconostasis very similar in style and date to those in Abou Sergeh.
page 411 note a The one altar in a Greek church is called the ἁγία τράπεζα or θυσιαστήριον: the prothesis which stands on the north was so called because on it was laid the oblation of bread and wine before consecration.
The southern table, or diaconicon, was so called because by it stood the deacons and other ministers of the altar; on it are placed the censers, service-books, vestments of the celebrant, and other things required for mass.
page 414 note a As a rule, the earlier the MS. the less the Arabic used.
page 415 note a Tradition says, that the custom of reservation was given up because a serpent once got into a Coptic church and devoured the Host.
page 417 note a The Society is indebted for these two illustrations to the courtesy of Messrs. Parker and Co. of Oxford. See also Smith's Dict, of Christ. Antiq. 1875, art. “Flabellum.”
page 418 note a For some early Coptic sacred vessels, see Archœol. Journ. vol. xxv. p. 242Google Scholar.
page 418 note b A fine example from a church in Old Cairo was presented to the British Museum by A. W. Franks, Esq. F.S.A.
page 419 note a A large amount of information on Coptic Churches and Ritual will be given in a work by A. J. Butler, Esq. F.S.A. shortly to be published by the Clarendon Press, Oxford.