(CE:693a)
DAQAHLAH, village in Egypt located in the northeast part of the Delta about 5.5 miles (8.5 km) south of Fariskur in the province of
Daqahliyyah.
The first reference to Daqahlah in Christian-Arabic literature is in the HISTORY OF THE PATRIARCHS where it is related that a great famine afflicted Egypt in the first years of Moorish rule in the tenth century. Many towns that were without a bishop because of the
depopulation of the land had to be joined to episcopal sees that were still occupied. In addition, colophons in two tenth-century Coptic
manuscripts attest to the presence of Christians in Daqahlah at this early date. The name of the town also appears in a medieval Copto-
Arabic list of Egyptian bishoprics (Munier, 1943, pp. 49-55).
RANDALL STEWART
