Dayr Anba Bakhum

              (CE:729b)
DAYR ANBA BAKHUM (Barjanus). ABU SALIH THE ARMENIAN (1895, p. 243) is the only ancient author to mention this dayr. He placed the village of Barjanus in the district of Taha (al-A‘midah). In the Arabic versions of this Life the place-name (Coptic: "percoush") is transcribed Brgush (National Library, Paris, Arabe 4787, fols. 196r-229r; Saint Antony, Hist. 67, fols. 2r-29v; Abu Maqar, Hag. 19, fols. 110r-131v).

The History of the Patriarchs (Vol. 2, pt. 1, pp. 32 [text], 45 [trans.]) related that about 866 the monasteries of Apa SHENUTE, of al-Qalamun, and of Saint PACHOMIUS in the nome of Taha (al-A‘midah) near the village of Barjanus were destroyed by the troops of al-Mu‘tazz and al-Musta‘in. Unfortunately the name of the village is not certain in the Arabic texts, for it is written without any diacritical points (Brjwas). Renaudot, who used the Paris manuscripts in his Historia (1713, p. 310), transcribed the name of the village Birhowas.

The monastery is also named, it seems, in Les Miracles de St. Ptolemée (Leroy, PO 5, pp. 782, 801). It appears that the monastery disappeared very early, for no author mentions it after Abu Salih. M. Ramzi (1953-1968, Vol. 2, pt. 3, p. 236) attempted to identify it with the kom (mound) of al-Rahib, but there is nothing to prove that the ruins of the monastery there discovered are those of Dayr Anba Bakhum.
RENÉ-GEORGES COQUIN
MAURICE MARTIN, S. J.