(CE:714b-715a)
DAYR AL-‘ADHRA (Fayyum). ABU SALIH THE ARMENIAN (fol. 73a; 1895, p. 209) placed in the neighborhood of Saylah, to the west of the Fayyum, a monastery bearing the name of the Virgin and equipped with a tower of refuge that had been restored. He is the only author who mentions a monastery in the region other than the DAYR AL-IKHWAH. Al-Nabulsi (1899) indicates only a single monastery to the south of the town of Siyalah.
N. Abbott (1937, p. 57, n. 150) hypothesized that this Dayr al- ‘Adhra’ (Monastery of the Virgin) was "in all probability a Theotokos duplicate of the monastery of the Brothers at Siyalah [Dayr al-Ikhwah]," as was the case at SCETIS in the first half of the sixth century. In fact, besides the original monasteries of al- Baramus, JOHN COLOBUS, and Bishoi, three other monasteries were mentioned: "the Virgin of Baramus," "the Virgin of John Colobus," and "the Virgin of Bishoy."
EVELYN-WHITE (1932, pp. 232-35) thought that these duplicate monasteries were founded by Severian monks driven from their monasteries by Julianists, who dedicated their new monasteries to the THEOTOKOS to affirm the reality of the Incarnation. Evelyn- White's hypothesis seems to be derived from historical facts, but that of Abbott seems gratuitous, since the monastery at Siyalah dedicated to the Virgin was not called that of "the Virgin of the Brothers."
RENÉ-GEORGES COQUIN
