(CE:2358a)
YUHANNA AL-MAQSI, fourteenth-century hieromonk at DAYR AL-BARAMUS in the Wadi al-Natrun. Yuhanna lived for a certain period at DAYR AL-QUSAYR, which was situated at Turah about 15 miles (24 km) south of Old Cairo at a monastery he calls "the mount of Saint Arsenios, known as the "cells.'" It was there in 1329 that he copied the NOMOCANON of al-Safi IBN AL-‘ASSAL, completing his work in June 1329.
The manuscript is now at the Monastery of Saint Macarius in the Wad al-Natrun. On folio 245v we find the colophon in Arabic, accompanied by a cryptogram in Coptic characters, which explains the ethnic surname of this monk. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the abbot ‘Abd al-Masih Salib al-Masu‘di al-Baramusi read it as al-Muqassi (with a shaddah, cf. note to fol. 1). The name indicates that the monk came from the port town of al-Maqs, outside the city of Cairo, the fortress of which forms the west corner of the north wall built by Saladin (Salah al-Din) between 1176 and 1193 in order to encircle the city of Cairo.
KHALIL SAMIR, S.J.
