(CE:331a-331b)
BAKHANIS-TMOUSHONS, village situated on the left bank of the Nile, in the Nag Hammadi district, about 4 miles (7 km) to the northeast of FARSHUT. The ancient Arabic spelling was Makhanis, under which it is easy to recognize the Coptic name Tmoushons, the Coptic article T having been dropped and the sh sound having evolved into the Arabic kha, a development already perceptible in the Greek transcription Mouchonsis (Halkin, 1932, p. 462). The equivalence of these name forms is attested by the Coptic-Arabic scalae (Munier, 1939, p. 222; Ramzi, 1963, p. 196).
The fourth establishment of PACHOMIUS is placed at Tmoushons by both the Greek and the Coptic Lives. In fact, it was a certain Jonas, the superior of this monastery, who sought, and obtained, for himself and his monks affiliation with the Pachomian community(Halkin, 1932, p. 37; Lefort, 1943, pp. 116, 246). The identification of Tmoushons with Bakhanis is provided by the Arabic version, a faithful translation of the Sahidic recension S5, preserved in Vatican Manuscript Arabic 172, fol. 37r-v; it can also be deduced from the fact that the Arabic Life of Shenute speaks of "Jonas, master of the laura of Bakhanis, who loves the pure community" (Amélineau, 1886-1888, p. 460). When one went there on foot from PBOW (Faw al-Qibli), one passed by Sheneset (Chenoboskion or Qasr al-Sayyad), and there crossed the river on a ferryboat (Lefort, 1943, pp. 160-64).
Lefort (1939, pp. 399-401) wanted to place Tmoushons at the present site of Dayr Anba Bidaba, or 1.25 miles (2 km) west of Nag Hammadi and hence more than 6 miles (10 km) to the south of the present Bakhanis. Apart from the fact that the Arabic place-name clearly derives from the Coptic Tmoushons, the interpretation that Lefort gives of a single passage in the Coptic lives of Pachomius is forced: one cannot conclude from it that Tmoushons was only a six hours' walk from Pbow.
RENÉ-GEORGES COQUIN
