(CE:708b)
DAYR ABU MUSHA. Al-MAQRIZI mentions a Dayr Musha (1853, Vol. 2, p. 507), which he places "outside ASYUT, to the south of this town, built in the name of Thomas, the apostle of India, in the middle of the gardens, near Rifah. In the days of the Nile [flood] one can reach it only by boat."
The geographical situation is clear, for the village called Musha still exists to the south of Shutb (Upselis), to the east of Rifah, on the left bank. Under its Coptic name, Pmoushe, it is known as the place of the martyrdom of Victor of Shu (as in the typicon of the White Monastery, DAYR ANBA SHINUDAH, and the recension of the SYNAXARION from Upper Egypt at 5 Kiyahk). The Synaxarion (Basset, 1905, p. 380) specifies that this village of Shu is to the east of the village of Ibsdiyyah, where ABU SALIH THE ARMENIAN (1895, p. 251) places a monastery. Al-Maqrizi (1853, pp. 518-19) situates at Musha a church named for Victor, built above a bath. This Victor of Shu was martyred at Musha, being thrown into the roaring furnace of a bath. This church still exists (Clarke, 1912, p. 210, no. 9), but not the Monastery of Thomas. This was perhaps the one placed in Ibsdiyyah by Abu Salih (1895, p. 252).
RENÉ-GEORGES COQUIN
MAURICE MARTIN, S.J.
