(CE:903b-904a)
DINUSHAR, town located in the middle of the Delta about 3.5 miles (5.5 km) southwest of al-Mahallah al-Kubra in the Gharbiyyah province. The HISTORY OF THE PATRIARCHS speaks in two different places about the building of a church to the martyr Ptolemaus in Dinushar. The account of the life of the patriarch COSMAS II (851-858) describes briefly the erection of the church and states that Cosmas was interred there. But the life of KHA’IL III (880-907) states that the patriarch Kha’il dedicated a church to Saint Ptolemaus in Dinushar. The SYNAXARION for 20 Baramhat recounts a conflict surrounding the dedication of the church at the time of the patriarch Kha’il. Though these accounts are somewhat disparate, it is clear that in the ninth century there were Christians and a church of the martyr Ptolemaus in Dinushar.
The name Dinushar appears in medieval Copto-Arabic scales, but in the absence of other evidence it is uncertain whether this means the city was at one time the seat of a Coptic bishop.
RANDALL STEWART
