(CE:427b)
BUSH, town situated on the left bank of the Nile about 4 miles (7 km) north of Bani Suef. Nearby are the estates that supply the food for the monasteries of Saint Antony and Saint Paul (DAYR ANBA ANTUNIYUS and DAYR ANBA BULA) near the Red Sea. These two estates appear to be relatively recent. The ancient texts speak only of Dayr al-Maymun, which was situated on the right bank a little farther to the north and seems to have been replaced by Bush toward the end of the sixteenth century. In fact, J. VANSLEB was apparently the first European traveler to mention Bush, calling it "the farm of the religious of Saint Antony."
Formerly, one crossed the Nile at al-Maymun to take the road for Dayr Anba Antuniyus via Dayr al-Maymun, cited as such by d'Anglure in 1395 (1878, p. 68) and J. Coppin in 1638-1639 (1971, p. 204). But since that time, travelers cross the Nile at Bani Suef and take the road to Bayad al-Nasara on the east bank in order to reach the monastery (Vansleb, 1677, p. 295, and 1678, p. 178; Sicard, 1982, pp. 19, 23, 46). The HISTORY OF THE PATRIARCHS (Vol. 3, pt. 3, pp. 164-268) mentions that in 1718 a delegation went to Bush, where it seized a monk of Dayr Anba Bula and took him in chains to Cairo to be consecrated patriarch under the name of PETER VI.
RENÉ-GEORGES COQUIN
MAURICE MARTIN, S.J.
