(CE:822b)
DAYR AL-MALAK. This small monastery is situated on the right bank of the Nile in the part between Qina and Nag Hammadi where the river flows not from south to north but from east to west. The monastery is thus to the north of the Nile. It is 1 km west of DAYR ANBA PALAEMON and near the east side of the town of al- Dabbah.
For want of archaeological investigation, the date of the monastery's foundation cannot be fixed, and no ancient testimony about the monastery exists. It was briefly mentioned by L. T. LEFORT (1939, pp. 386-87). Doresse (1958, p. 148; 1960, p. 131) mentioned it, setting alongside it some tombs where the so-called NAG HAMMADI LIBRARY of Gnostic papyri is said to have been found. O. Meinardus (1965, p. 305; 1977, p. 417) described it briefly.
At present the monastery serves as a church for the Christians of the neighboring town of al-Dabbah and is inhabited by the clergy of
the town.
RENÉ-GEORGES COQUIN
MAURICE MARTIN, S.J.
