(CE:330a-330b)
BAHJURAH, village in the Nag Hammadi district of Upper Egypt on the left bank of the Nile and the site of two monasteries, that of Saint Bidaba, which is still in existence, and that of Mar Jirjis. The first mention of the latter seems to have been made by the Capuchin fathers Protais and François in the seventeenth century. Their text is reproduced by S. Sauneron (1973, p. 95). It was copied by J. de Thévenot, then by J. Vansleb, who could not go beyond Jirja (1677, p. 413; 1678, p. 247).
S. Clarke, in his index of the churches of Egypt, indicated two churches dedicated to Mar Jirjis in this region and still extant, no doubt corresponding to the monastery noticed by the seventeenth-century travelers, that of Bahjurah and that of Nahiyat al-Jabal (1912, p. 214, nos. 44-45).
RENÉ-GEORGES COQUIN
MAURICE MARTIN, S.J.
