Severus of Al'Ashmunein (Hermopolis), History of the Patriarchs of the Coptic church of Alexandria (1904) Part 1: St. Mark - Theonas (300 AD). Patrologia Orientalis 1 pp. 105-211 (p.1-113 of text).
HISTORY OF THE PATRIARCHS OF THE COPTIC CHURCH OF ALEXANDRIA
The twenty-fifth biography of the biographies of the Holy Church. Abba Zacharias the patriarch, and he is the sixty-fourth of (their) number 6.
When it was the reign of al-Hakim bi Amr Allah who was called al-Imam al-Mansur, and the Throne of Alexandria had become vacant, the Synod assembled to appoint a patriarch. While they were taking counsel together, there was at Alexandria a rich man whose name was Abraham ibn Bisr (who) enjoyed the respect of
2 i. e. November-December.
6 Fol. 147 v. A marginal note in red, complete in MS. A, in red and black, reads: "This father, the strong champion and the victor through Christ, sat (on the Throne) in the reign (lit. kingdom) of al-Hakim, and he endured great adversities, and through his prayers his people was saved and overcame (them), and all of this is explained in this biography".
--- 175 ---
the walis, and everyone in the city listened to him and obeyed him. He was a wealthy merchant in the lands of Misr and he used to give gifts to and to honour the chiefs of Misr, and they did not contradict him in what he desired. He asked and prayed for the patriarchate until a decree was written for him. They (the walis) sent two masters in his company to Alexandria to assist him in what he wished (to do) and to oblige the Alexandrians to appoint him patriarch in the place of Philotheus the patriarch who had gone to his rest, since it was the turn of the Alexandrians this time to appoint the patriarch, and the Council was in Alexandria. The hearts of a number of its inhabitants were agreeable to his becoming patriarch, and they wrote to Misr to this effect. When the bishops were informed of this, they did not agree with them on this point of view, and the matter was difficult for them, because the Canon, as they said, would not allow them (the supporters of his candidature) (to do) this. They determined to stop the matter, and (that) everyone of them should go to his see.
At the time when they were assembled at the Church of my lord Mark the Evangelist (known as) al-Kamha, there was at Alexandria in the Church of Michael the Archangel a priest, an elder, whose name was Zacharias, and he was steward of all the churches of Alexandria, and the bishops were staying with him in the church, and he used to minister to them during their residence at Alexandria. He did not possess any qualifications in their eyes, nor was he held in esteem by the priests of Alexandria, and everyone used to make use of his services for what concerned him. But God, Who alone performs wonders, Who chose David from the pasture of the flocks to be a shepherd of Israel, His inheritance, Who raises up the poor from the earth and the wretched from the dunghill and seats him upon the throne of glory, (was) He Who chose this humble unnumbered man. It (was) that he (Zacharias) went up one
176
day to the upper (part) of the church to bring down a jar of vinegar for the cook who used to prepare what the bishops ate. While he was coming down the ladder, he slipped (and) fell and the jar was with him (and) it was not broken and nothing of it was spilled. When the bishops and all who were present saw this miracle, they said: "This is he who is worthy of the object for which we are assembled'. Thereupon, all of them said with joy (and) with one mouth: "This (one) in truth is a man of God". Then they asked the inhabitants of Alexandria about him and about his manner of life, and all of them said: "We have never heard an evil word about him, but he is poor, wretched and pure". They (the bishops) said: "It is well and good that he who is thus should be appointed (patriarch). He is better than he who comes to us with a strong hand by order of the Sultan, and we shall be as slaves to him all our time". They agreed with the Alexandrians on his consecration, and they took him and consecrated him patriarch. In the evening of that day on which they consecrated him, Abraham ibn Bisr arrived with the decree and accompanied by the two masters. When he arrived outside the city, one of his acquaintances met him and said to him: "A patriarch has already been consecrated". He said to him: "And who is he?" He said to him: "Zacharias the priest who (was) in the Church of Michael (known as) an-Nubah". When he heard this, a great trembling attacked him in his bones, and it did not depart from him for the rest of his life. He went to his house in great distress by reason of the violence of the trembling, and he became ill on account of this, and the news (of this) reached the bishops and they marvelled. Then they were afraid of the Sultan and they said: "We do not know what will happen to us". Then they counselled the father, the patriarch, Abba Zacharias to console him (Abraham) with a bishopric so that they should be safe from the wrath of the Sultan on his account, and they said to Abraham ibn Bisr: "This matter has indeed been (arranged) by God---praised be He! Now, the first see that
--- 177 ---
shall become vacant (through the death) of its bishop in this district, it is understood that it shall be for you, (and) you shall become bishop of it". Then they ordained him hegoumenos and clothed him in black. When the see of Minuf al-'Ulya became vacant, they made him (bishop) of it.
Abba Zacharias remained (in peace), after he had become patriarch, for seven years, and the Church was tranquil (and) in peace. After this, the Lord did not endure patiently the deeds of the shepherds who were at that time, and God brought down His wrath upon the churches on account of them. They were removed from them, for they were become as walis who lorded over the priests. They invented pretexts for collecting money by every means, and they trafficked in the Church of God on account of the love of silver and gold, and they sold the gift of God for money, but they lost and did not gain. If a man added to the Diyariah of any church a single dinar, they would fall upon the first steward who was in charge of the affairs of the church, as was incumbent (upon him), and they would drive him away from it and would hand it over, on account of the dinar which had been added, to him who was unfitted for its (the church's) service and (who) did not occupy himself with its affairs. Indeed, it was witnessed against a steward that he used to drink the clear wine and to mix the sediment with water and to clarify it and to present it to the priests to raise it in the sanctuary; and (it was testified) that the priests used to raise in the sanctuary sufficient oblation for the whole week, so that there might remain over from it a large amount, with the object of not inconveniencing (themselves) with celebrating the Liturgy. The oblation used to remain in the churches until it became corrupt, because the
--- 178 ---
bishops used to ordain to the priesthood him who was unfit and without understanding.
A trustworthy man related to me that Abba Menas, bishop of Tanah, of whom we already made mention in this biography, when we said that Philotheus, the patriarch, dwelt in his residence at Damru after his death, at the time of his (Menas') death, divided what he had collected in the way of money into four parts and buried them in four places. He (Menas) occupied the see for a number of years till he became old. He had a brother whose name was Macarius, bishop of Upper Minuf, secretary of the Synod. He sent to his brother a messenger that he should come to him (Menas) in haste. He was expecting his arrival and his eyes were looking out for him on the road, but he (Macarius) delayed two days and did not come to him. He (Menas) wrote four pieces of paper on which he mentioned the four places in which (was) the money, and he placed them in his hand till the moment of the arrival of his brother, that he might deliver them to him. Since he (Macarius) delayed (coming to) him (Menas), and the trouble and agony of death came upon him, he said to his disciple: "See, perhaps, if my brother has indeed arrived", and the disciple went out and returned to him and said to him: "He has not arrived". Then he (Menas) was troubled and he cast one of the four pieces of paper into his mouth and chewed it up and cast it (out). Then he said to the disciple: "Do you see my brother coming?" He went out again and returned and said to him (Menas) : "He has not arrived". Then he (Menas) chewed up the second piece of paper and cast it (out), and he did likewise with the third, and there remained in his hand one. Then he said to the disciple: "See if my brother has arrived". He (the disciple) went out to look for him, and he delayed (coming back) to him (Menas), and he (Menas) felt the pains of the suffering of death. Then he cast the fourth piece of paper into his mouth, but before he had chewed it up, the disciple entered to him in haste and said to him: "Lo, your brother has arrived". He (Menas)
--- 179 ---
brought out the piece of paper from his mouth, and when his brother entered, he delivered it to him and he said to him: "May the Lord not reprove you, but forgive you! You have indeed lost what was recorded on the three other pieces of paper on account of your absence from me", and when he had said this, his spirit left (him). Then he (Macarius) enshrouded him and buried him. Then he read the piece of paper and found in the place (mentioned) ten thousand dinars. His (Menas) brother Macarius was a good man. and he took the money and built with it a Skene in the name of Abba Macarius in Wadi Habib. It is the beautiful sanctuary to the south of the sanctuary of Benjamin. He spent on it three thousand dinars, and gave a great sum in alms, and he built many churches in the Rif of Misr. When his death was approaching, they asked him if he had any commands for them to perform. He said: "The Lord is a witness to me that I found that my brother had ten thousand dinars, and I acquired many things each year from the see and from what I received for (acting as) secretary to the Synod, and that I spent all that. The Lord is a witness to me that nothing remained to me save one dinar and my houses. Lo, I am being translated from this world and I adjure you to give it (the dinar) to the priests who shall read (the funeral service) over me".
This bishop Menas who bequeathed this large fortune was not content with that, but he repeopled a village between his see and the see of Samannud. Ten houses in it became inhabited, and they built there a small church five or six cubits long of bricks of mud. The village was between Basis and Subra Damanah.
--- 180 ---
When the bishop of Samannud heard (of this), he came to it (the village) and built in it (the church) a fine altar and consecrated it and went away, for Subra Damanah belonged to him, and it was a right of his see. When Abba Menas the aforesaid bishop heard of this, he came to the aforementioned church and demolished the altar which the bishop of Samannud had built, and he built another one. When the bishop of Samannud heard of this, he was greatly offended, and he came thither, and there was a multitude with him, and Abba Menas the bishop was there. They assembled and they quarrelled and fighting broke out between them, and they did not disperse until blood had been shed between them. Look now at that bishop who amassed the large fortune, how he fought for a thing of so little (value), so that God caused His wrath to descend upon that village and laid it (the village) waste until now, and the name of the village is S n d gra!
In their days, namely, those of the shepherds 3, instruction also ceased and no one warned another or said to him: "Cast out the mote from your eye", lest he should say to him: "Cast out the beam first from your eye". The heads of the Church used previously to look for a person in whom was learning and knowledge that they might make him a priest, if a number of trustworthy (people) witnessed to his conti-nency and learning from his childhood (upwards). Matters were (now) reversed, and the intelligent scholar was of no account, especially if he were a poor man, but the ignorant and he who was without intelligence was honoured and revered by them, especially if he were rich, that they might advance him to the exalted rank of the ranks of the priests. For that reason, the hand of the Lord came down upon them and His wrath descended upon the Church by reason of His knowledge that we were unworthy to enter her door, as at the time when He caused His wrath to descend upon Jerusalem until she was laid waste and her inhabitants and her sons and her daughters were made captive.
3 i. e. the bishops.
--- 181 ---
There was a monk whose name was John, a priest of the Skene of Abba Macarius, residing at the Church of Saint Abba Onuphrius, at the Skene which is at the north of the Church of Abba Macarius. He saw a number (of people) buying the episcopate for money, and Satan cast into his heart the fire of love for the episcopate, but he had nothing (wherewith) to pay for it. He presented himself to Abba Zacharias, the patriarch, and he said: "I desire only that you should clothe me with the vesture of the episcopate and make me (bishop) of a depopulated see, such as Dabakua, even though there be nothing in it save three minas, for I am not able to endure this (matter) on account of the idea which overpowered me, when I saw those whom you consecrated for money, and they were unworthy, whilst I am rejected on account of the fact that I am poor and have nothing, (although) you know me". The aforementioned patriarch was very modest, as a gentle lamb, and he had not done anything of what we have mentioned of his own accord. Even the bread which he ate, if they left him alone (and) did not give him to eat, he would not ask for it (the bread), and likewise (with) the water which he drank. He was as (one) dumb. His relatives and his disciples dominated him and they were directing him in everything. They were those who used to take money from him whom they presented to him (the patriarch), in order that he (the patriarch) might make of him (the candidate) what they wanted. If he (the patriarch) wished to feed a man with bread, he was not able (to do so) without their charity. If a man solicited anything from him (the patriarch) he would send him to them. He who solicited from him the priesthood, he would send to them that they might bargain with him, otherwise, they would not give him (the patriarch) the possibility to ordain him.
When this monk whom we have mentioned, came to him (the patriarch), he sent him to them as usual. He (the monk) went to them and he spoke
--- 182 ---
to them as he had spoken to the patriarch. One of them, namely, Abba
Khael, bishop of Sakha, who was the son of the brother of
the patriarch, insulted him when he learned from him that he desired the
episcopate for nothing. He said to him after the insult: "If you
mention with your mouth anything about this matter, I shall cause the
disciples to revile you". Wrath obtained the mastery over him (the
monk), and he rose up and he went to Misr and he complained of
his case to the Sultan. He wrote a number of letters against the patriarch
that they might be submitted to the king al-Hakim bi Amr Allah. When
the archons at Misr learned of this, they prevented him from
doing it, and they wrote for him letters to the patriarch, and he (the
patriarch) was at that time in Wadi Habib. When the letters reached
him (the patriarch), he gave them to the aforementioned son of his brother.
When he learned their contents, he slandered the monk, and he brought
the Arabs who were the guards of the monasteries, and he
delivered to them the monk. They (the Arabs) took him and cast him
into a well and they stoned him with stones to kill him. He (the monk)
found in the well a place (which was) a cleft and he entered it and hid
himself, and not a single stone reached him. When the patriarch
heard the news, he put dust on his head and he plucked out the hair
of his beard and he excommunicated the son of his brother on account
of what he had done with regard to the monk. He sent his disciples
to the well and they brought him (the monk) up out of it and they consoled
him and asked him to be comforted. The patriarch promised that he
would make him bishop of a see which would become vacant. He
(the monk) waited patiently till two sees had become vacant, but he
(the patriarch) did not make him (bishop) of either of them, but his
(the patriarch's) relatives and disciples used to speak to him (the monk)
of that which caused pain to his heart. Then he (the monk) was filled
with rage at their preventing him from (obtaining) the episcopate, the
love of which had entered his heart. This was the first pain which
Satan suffered, namely, pride, for it is written : "If the
lust should conceive, it brings forth sin, but if the sin should be
--- 183 ---
perfected, it brings forth death". John the monk went to Misr to set forth his complaint. From here we break off the account now about what he did until we recount it in its place. As for the king whom we mentioned previously, he was invested with the authority of the kingdom while still a very young child. He grew up and became big and became as a roaring lion seeking for a prey. He became more fond of shedding blood than a ferocious lion, so that a number (of people) counted them that were killed by his command and their number was eighteen thousand men. First of all, he began by killing the notables of his State and his secretaries, and by cutting off the hands of people. The first whom he killed was the master Barguwan who had brought him up, since he used to call him in his childhood the lizard. He (al-Hakim) sent to him a master from him and he (al-Hakim) said to him: "Say to him (Barguwan), the small lizard has become a great dragon and it calls you". The master went to him and told him what he (al-Hakim) had commanded him. He (Barguwan) came to him, being terror-stricken. He (al-Hakim) commanded that his head should be cut off. Likewise a great amir called Al-Kayid Fadl----a great and sincere intimacy existed between them---entered one day the palace, as (was) his custom, and he found the aforementioned king seated, and before him there was a comely child whom he had bought for a hundred dinars, and in his hand there was a knife with which he had slaughtered him, and he had extracted his liver and his intestines and was cutting them up. He (the amir) went out afraid and terror-stricken to his residence, and he
--- 184 ---
informed his relatives and he wrote his will. After an hour, he (al-Hakim) sent to him one who cut off his head. It happened, that if he (al-Hakim) wished to kill a man, he would bestow upon him money and robes of honour, and after this, he would send one who would cut off his head and bring it to him. He (al-Hakim) did not cease from doing this till he had destroyed his notables and the chiefs of his army. Then he turned again to the archons and the scribes and took from them ten from among their chiefs, (including) Abu Nagah al-Kabir who was an Orthodox Christian. He caused him to come to him and he said to him: "I desire that you should forsake your religion and turn to my religion, and I will make you my wazir, and you shall conduct the affairs of my kingdom". He (Abu Nagah) said to him: "Grant to me a delay until to-morrow that I may take counsel with myself". He (al-Hakim) granted to him a delay and let him go. He went to his residence and caused his friends to come and he made known to them what had happened to him with him (al-Hakim). He said to them: "I am ready to die for the Name of the Lord Christ. My purpose was not to delay until to-morrow in order to take counsel with myself, but I said this so that I might meet you and my relatives and that I might take leave of you and take leave of them, and that I might give my instructions to you and give my instructions to them. Now, O my brethren, seek not this transitory glory and lose the everlasting and eternal glory of the Lord Christ. He has satisfied our souls with good things of the earth. Behold through His mercy He has called us to the kingdom of the heavens. Strengthen then your hearts". He strengthened the hearts of all by his speech and confirmed (in) them (the intention) to die for the Name of the Lord Christ. He made for them on that day a great banquet and they remained with him till the evening and they went to their residences. When it was morning, he (Abu Nagah) went to al-Hakim bi Amr Allah. He (al-Hakim) said to him: "O Nagah, tell me, have you decided?". He said to him: "Yes". He said: "In what wise?". He said: "My remaining in my religion". Then al-Hakim endeavoured by every kind of inducement
--- 185 ---
and threat to turn him away from his religion, but he would not do (so), and he (al-Hakim) was not able to make him change his resolution with regard to his belief. Then he ordered that his garments should be removed from him and that he should be fastened to the rack and that he should be scourged. So they scourged him five hundred lashes on his soft body until his flesh was torn and his blood flowed like water. The thongs were of the sinews of bulls, of which a giant (could) not endure (one) lash, more especially that man who lived in luxury and ease. Then he (al-Hakim) ordered that he should be scourged (till) the completion of one thousand lashes. When he had been scourged another three hundred (lashes), he said: "I am thirsty". So they ceased from scourging him, and they informed al-Hakim of this. He said: "Give to him to drink after you have told him to turn to our religion". When they had brought to him water and had told him what the king had ordered them (to say), he said to them: "Return to him his water, for I have no need of it, because my Lord Jesus Christ has given me to drink". A number of assistants and others who were there bare witness that they saw water dripping from his beard. When he had said this, he gave up the ghost.
When they informed the hard-hearted king of this death, he ordered that he should be scourged (till) the completion of the thousand lashes, although he was dead, and on this wise his martyrdom was accomplished. May his blessings be with us!
Another among them (the ten chiefs) was known as the chief Fahd ibn Abraham. He (al-Hakim) had set him over all the secretaries and chiefs of the Diwans. He caused him to be brought into his presence and he said to him: "You know that I chose you
_ 186 ---
and set you over all those who are in my State. Listen to me and join me in my religion and I will exalt you higher than you are, and you shall be to me as a brother", but he did not answer his (al-Hakim's) words. He (al-Hakim) ordered that he should be beheaded and that his body should be burned with fire. The fire remained alight upon him for three days, but he was not burned. His right hand remained as if the fire had not approached it at all. This was a miracle (performed) by God---Praise be to Him!---for he was a pious man in whom there was great compassion. He did not at all turn away him who solicited anything from him, so that if he passed through the streets riding, and there met him one who solicited alms from him, he would stretch out his hand to his sleeve thinking that there was nothing in it, and he would find wherewith to give to him who asked. Wherefore this miracle was manifested in his right hand which he used to stretch out for almsgiving at all times, for he performed very kind deeds through God. May God grant to us all acceptation through the blessing of their prayers!
As for the remainder of those ten chief judges, when he (al-Hakim) asked them to forsake their religion and to depart from it, they did not do this, nor did they obey him. Then he (al-Hakim) commanded them to be tortured and they were scourged with thongs. When they had been scourged exceedingly, four of them (the chiefs) embraced Al-Islam. As for one of these four, he died the same night, and as for the other three, after the expiration of the time of the disturbance, they returned to the belief of Christianity. As for the remainder of the ten (chiefs), they died under the torture and obtained eternal life. This king (al-Hakim) did deeds which it was unheard of that any of the kings before him had done the like. He did not adhere to one opinion or to one belief. His aspect was as (that of) a lion, and his
-- 187 ---
two eyes were large (and) of a blueness in colour. If he (al-Hakim) looked at a man, he would tremble owing to the greatness of his awe (of him). His voice was loud and fearful. He used to observe the stars and (study) the false science 2. He used to serve the star called Saturn, as he imagined, and he used to continue turning round the eastern mountain 3 at Misr at night, and with him there were three riders. Satan used to take on for him the likeness of that star, and he (al-Hakim) used to converse with him (Satan) about many matters, and he used to offer to him (Satan) sacrifices. He gave up the attire of kings on account of this, and he wore a black woollen garment. He let his hair grow till it descended to his shoulders. He gave up riding on dromedaries and marked race-horses and decorated mules, and he rode a black ass. He used to walk alone in every place and often he took with him (only) a single rider. He used to walk in the streets at night also and to listen to what men said about him in their houses. He had many spies and informers going around night and day who brought to him information, and who did not hide from him anything of what happened in all the lands of Misr. Men thought that the power of God had descended upon him on account of the kingship which He had entrusted to him. He had a man called al-Hadi, and with him there were twelve men who became his disciples, and they used to call
2 i. e. astrology. Cf. S. Lane-Poole, op. cit., p. i3i.
3 i. e. the Mukattam Hills to the East of Cairo, cf. B. T. A. Evetts, Churches and Monasteries of Egypt, etc., pp. 114 and 62.
--- 188 ---
men to him, and they (the men) used to listen (to him). He used to say to those who were gathered together to him that al-Hakim was the Christ and many sayings which it is not permissible to mention. Al-Hakim used to go out many times from his castle at night borne in a litter on the shoulders of four servants. He ordered that a woman should not go out at all from her house, neither to the bath nor elsewhere. If he caught a woman who had gone out at night or in the day, he would hand her over to the chief of the watch who would chastise her with a chastisement that would lead to her death. He ordered that Jew's mallow 1 should not be eaten, and he was obeyed openly, but not in secret. He ordered that no one should drink nabidh, and he wrote concerning this decrees to the rest of the cities, and the vessels in which there was nabidh were broken in every place. Then (it happened) that he was passing along one day, and a dog jumped in front of him and the ass which was under him started, so he ordered that every dog in Misr should be killed. It is recorded that a dog howled exceedingly without the city, and there gathered to it many dogs and they climbed to the eastern mountain and they went away. He (al-Hakim) ordered the swine which were in the land of Misr to be killed and they killed all of them, and there were in it (Egypt) many swine, especially in al-Basmur. Then he (al-Hakim) ordered that the nakus should not be struck in the lands of Misr, and, after a little, he ordered that the crosses which were upon the domes of the churches should be pulled down, and that the crosses which were upon the hands of the people should be erased 8. Then he ordered that the Christians
1 i. e. Corchorus olitorius.
8 i. e. the crosses tattooed on the wrists. A practice still in force with many Copts and Eastern Christians.
--- 189 ---
should have a belt fastened round their waists and that they should wear black turbans on their heads and that they should ride with wooden stirrups and that none of them should ride with iron stirrups, and that they should wear crosses a span in length, then he ordered again to make them (the crosses) a cubit and a half (in length). (He ordered) that the Jews should dye the borders of their turbans and that they should wear belts and that they should make (for themselves) a wooden ball in the form of the head of the calf which they worshipped in the desert, and that none of the Christians and Jews should enter a bath with Muslims. He (al-Hakim) set apart for them baths and he placed (upon) the door of the bath of the Christians a wooden cross and upon the door of the bath of the Jews a wooden log. Then he ordered that raisins should be burned, and what was burned of them in Misr and its districts and (in) Syria was calculated, and it was six hundred thousand satarah, and likewise that which he seized in Misr. He broke (the vessels containing) honey and cast it (the honey) into the river. One of the merchants lost all (his) fortune, the price of the honey and the raisins, and he cited our lord, al-Hakim, before the Kadi al-Kudah, Ibn an-Nu‘man. He said to him (Ibn an-Nu‘man) that he had come to Misr with his merchandise which was raisins and honey for eating and for making sweetmeat, and that he (al-Hakim) had caused (the vessels containing it) to be broken and (the contents) to be cast into the river. The Kadi treated them both equally (in the matter of) seating (in the court) and (in) the trial. The merchant entreated al-Hakim for his money, the full price of his merchandise being one thousand
--- 190 ---
dinars. Then al-Hakim said to him: "You have brought this merchandise for doing something illicit (with it), otherwise, swear that you have brought it for making sweetmeat and for eating, and take its price". The merchant entreated that the money should be brought before he swore. Then al-Hakim ordered the money to be brought, and the merchant swore and received his money, and there was written with regard to him that he had taken it (the money) and had received his due (for his merchandise) in full. He (the merchant) entreated that a decree should be written for him to have charge of it and to keep it, and this was done for him. When judgment had been pronounced upon the matter which (was) between them, the Kadi stood before al-Hakim and saluted him with the salutation of the Caliph. The Kadi increased in dignity with him (al-Hakim) and he loaded him with great honours.
He (al-Hakim) used to walk (abroad) at night and he found sometimes those who roast (meat) heating the ovens to roast therein, and he cast some of them into the ovens so that they were burnt. He found on a certain night a man frying meat in a frying-pan and he ordered that his hands should be cut off and cast into the frying-pan. That man said to him: "Since when did the Commander of the Faithful learn frying? We knew him only as one who roasts, since when did he become one who frys?" He (al-Hakim) laughed at him and ordered him to be released.
A man brought to him (al-Hakim) once a silver dish 2 snatched away from the hand of its owner in the market. When they caused him (the man) to stand before him (al-Hakim) with the silver dish in his hand, he said to him: "I desire that you should run before me and show me how you ran when you snatched it (the dish) away from the hand of its owner". He (the man) did this, and he departed running, and no one dared to follow him.
He (al-Hakim) passed on a certain occasion through the store-
2 A dish for carrying cups, cf. R. Dozy, op. cit., vol. I, p. 822.
--- 191 ---
houses in which there was trefoil, firewood and reeds, and he ordered them to be burned. They were burned while he rode by (and) watched the burning of the fire in them until all of them were burned, and the price of them was lost for their owners.
On a certain night ten men furnished with arms met him (al-Hakim) and they asked him to give them money. He said to them: "Divide (yourselves) into two parties and fight before me. To him who vanquishes I will pay the money, because he will be worthy to receive honour". They did this and they fought until nine of them were killed and one remained. He (al-Hakim) said to him: "You, indeed, art worthy to receive honour, and he threw to him many dinars from his sleeve. He (the man) bent down to take them from the ground, and he (al-Hakim) made a sign to those who were riding with him, and they leaped upon him and killed him, and they gathered together those dinars, and he returned them to his sleeve.
There was constructed for him (al-Hakim) in his castle a marble basin and water was brought to it by means of a water-wheel and it (the water) ran into it (the basin) through a canal. Outside the basin there was an enclosure (hasar) of marble and there was sculptured upon it all (kinds of) birds. He ordered that there should be set in the wall a thin wooden arrow jutting out, and that its extremity should project out from it (the wall) as far as the basin of marble and should be level with its edge. It was (placed) very high at the top of the wall, as was related by him who saw it. Then he (al-Hakim) ordered that a public crier should proclaim that to him who walked upon this arrow and jumped (from it) into the basin and fell into the water there should be paid six hundred dirhams. He (al-Hakim) caused a number (of people) to be tempted by this, and through the love of dirhams a number of people walked upon it and jumped (from it) and fell upon the floor and were killed. Then he (al-Hakim) ordered that the crosses of the Christians should be of wood, and each cross weighing five Egyptian ratl (and) stamped with a leaden seal upon which
--- 192 ---
was the name of the king, and (he ordered) that they should hang it about their necks with ropes of palm fibres. Likewise, the weight of the ball which was about the necks of the Jews should be five ratl. He among them who was found without a seal should be contemned and should pay a fine for the offence. Many of the Christians and the Jews from their chiefs (down) to the lowest of them denied (their faith) on account of this, and they did not endure patiently this disgrace and affliction.
It is recorded that, when al-Hakim forbade the Cairene (Masriyat) women to go out in the daytime, they made likenesses of women from paper and bread and radishes, and they set them up for him in the way, where he walked outside Misr and in their hands (were) written papers in which they reviled him and defamed his sister. He (al-Hakim) used to order the papers to be taken from them (the likenesses) and he would read them and find them after this manner. This they did a number of times, and on account of this, he ordered Misr to be set on fire and he plundered it. He did not live in luxury as (other) kings, but he used to travel in the mountains and the deserts at night and in the day, and he shed in his days much blood.
We return now to finish (the account) of what the aforementioned monk John did in the way of abominable things in the days of this king (al-Hakim). This (was) that when he ascertained that he would not be consecrated bishop, he went to Misr and he wrote a letter
193 ---
in which he recounted every evil (thing) concerning the patriarch, and he went out to the mountain and stood before al-Hakim and said to him: "You are the Caliph of God on His earth, help me for the sake of God". He delivered to him (al-Hakim) the letter and he took it from him and in it there was written: 'You are the king of the earth, but for the Christians (there is) a king (who) does not accept you on account of the great amount of what he has stored up in the way of abundant riches, because he sells the episcopate for money, and he does not do what is agreeable to God the Exalted', and he mentioned in the letter many abominable things about him (the patriarch) such as this. When al-Hakim learned the contents of the letter, he ordered that the doors of the churches should be closed and that the patriarch should be brought (to him). He (the patriarch) had become old and was advanced in age. When he was brought, he (al-Hakim) imprisoned him for three months, and his imprisonment occurred on the twelfth day of Hatur (in) the year seven hundred and twenty-seven of the Martyrs. Then he (al-Hakim) ordered that he (the patriarch) should be cast to the lions to eat. When he was thrown to them, God changed their nature for him, and protected him from them and kept them away from him and restrained them from him, and they did not eat him. Al-Hakim reproached their keeper and said to him: "You have taken bribes from the Christians and have fed the lions abundantly and have satisfied them and have not starved them". He ordered that the lions should be starved again, and that, when their hunger became violent, a sheep should be slain and that the patriarch should be divested of his clothes and that his body should be smeared with its (the sheep's) blood, and that the lions should be set loose upon him. They did this to him (the patriarch), but they (the lions) did not harm him at all. John the aforementioned monk used to go most of his time to the patriarch, while he was in imprisonment for the sake of gloating over him. It happened on the second day of his imprisonment that al-Hakim ordered that a decree should be written to the wall of Jerusalem that
--- 194 ---
the Church of the Resurrection should be demolished. The scribe wrote to the wall a letter (and) this (is) a copy of it: 'An order of the Imam 1 has been issued to you to demolish the Rubbish Mound 2 and to make its heaven 3 an earth and its length a breadth'. The writer of the decree was a Nestorian Christian known as Ibn Sirin. When the aforementioned (scribe) had despatched the decree which he had written, he became as one drunk who awakes from his drunkenness, and he thought within himself about what he had done and he said: "I wrote with my hand that the Church of the Resurrection should be demolished. Why did I not endure death before doing this, and why did I not endure the cutting off of my right hand, and (then) I would not have written this? If I had refrained from writing it, what would have been done to me beyond beheading me, and I could not have wished for a martyrdom greater than this" 5. He used to say this and similar things to it and to repeat this by heart night and day. Through the intensity of his sorrow he became ill and was confined to a sick-bed, and he used to say: "O my right hand, how did you dare to do this terrible thing? I, also, shall do to you what you deserve, and I shall not cease from afflicting you". He began to lift up his hand and to strike the ground with it, and he did not cease from this throughout the days of his illness until his fingers were cut to pieces and he died.
After some days, al-Hakim sent forth decrees to all the districts of his kingdom that the churches should be demolished, and that there should be brought to his castle what (was) in them in the way of gold and silver vessels, and that the bishops in every place should be asked (for money), and that the Christians should not buy
1 The Fatimid Califs styled themselves Imams, i. e. leaders of the Faithful, hence the use here of the word Imamah.
2 Kimamah, a term of contempt applied to the Church of the Resurrection (Kiyamah).
3 i. e. its roof.
5 i. e. for the sake of the Church of the Resurrection at Jerusalem.
--- 195 ---
or sell in any place. A number of them denied their religion on account of this. Most of the Egyptian (Masriyin) Christians divested themselves of (their) distinctive dress and the cross and the girdle and the wooden stirrups, and they imitated the Muslims, and no one exposed them, and he who saw them thought that they had embraced Al-Islam.
There was a deacon whose name was Bukairah. He left the service in the Diwan to which he was (attached) and he wore his cross and he went to the Castle and cried at its gate, (saying): "Christ (is) the Son of God". When al-Hakim heard his voice, he ordered him to be brought (to him), and he endeavoured (to make him) deny his religion and to acknowledge al-Islam, but he did not do (so). He was as the firm rock which is not disturbed. The more he (al-Hakim) spoke to him, the more he cried out and said: "Christ (is) the Son of God". He (al-Hakim) commanded that a collar and an iron chain should be cast about his throat and that he should be cast into the Prison of Blood. A trustworthy man testified to me (that) he went to him to visit him in (his) imprisonment on account of the friendship (that) was between them, and that he found him in the following state, being fastened to a large peg driven into the ground. He was standing praying, and in his hand there was a small writing-book, and his face (was) towards the East, (and) he was reading and praying, in spite of the weight of that iron with which he was bound, and when he saw him, he rejoiced with him, as if he were at a marriage-feast.
This man said to me: "When I visited him and (afterwards) wished to separate from him, I said to him, 'What do you want me (to say) to your house and to your relatives?' He said, 'Go to them and say to them: I (shall be) with you (for) the remainder of the day before sunset, so be not grieved' ". This man who related this to me was chief engineer of those who worked at sawing, (and) his name was Menas and he was my uncle, the brother of my mother, and through his work be found the means to visit the aforesaid Bukairah. He (it was) who
--- 196 ---
brought me up, and he swore to me, saying: "I had not reached my home and started to go to the house of Bukairah, as he told me (to do), when al-Hakim sent and brought him (Bukairah) out from (his) imprisonment and wrote for him a decree that no one should hinder Bukairah al-Rasidi from buying and selling nor in any other affair.
When he (Bukairah) had received the decree, he went down to Misr, and he went around to the Christians who were alarmed, and he reassured them and swore to them that after three days all the disadvantages from which they were suffering would be removed from them. He used to purchase for them all that they were in need of in the way of water and food and he used to send it to them by his boys. He did this for three days, and on the morning of the fourth day an order (from) al-Hakim went forth that the Christians might buy and sell as was their custom. He (al-Hakim) wrote a decree that whosoever of the Christians in Misr wished to go to the lands of the Greeks (ar-Rum) or to the lands of Abyssinia and Nubia or to other (lands) should not be prevented (from doing so) by anyone. Before this, they were prevented from (doing) it.
When Bukairah was dismissed from the Diwan in which he was, he devoted himself to visiting the prisoners and to taking to them what they were in need of, and he used to visit those imprisoned (for the non-payment of) the poll-tax. If he found anyone who was asked (to pay) what he could not, he would go bail for him and would bring him out from (his) imprisonment, and he would go to the chiefs and to the rich men and he would take from them what he would have to pay on his account in going bail for him, and he would free him. He (Bukairah) trusted in the Lord Christ with (all) his strength (and) with all his heart. Likewise, if he knew that any of the brethren, the Faithful, were in need of food, he would give to them what was sufficient for them for each day. He performed very many good and fine deeds which we have not mentioned, but we have contented ourselves with
--- 197 ---
a few of them. From the beginning, when this affair happened in those davs. he (Bukairah) did not break his fast during the day, and on the days on which he communicated, he did not (even) break his fast on them till the night 1. All this I knew from him on account of the friendship (which) existed between us. Most of the time, I used to sleep at his home, and he would bring to me some book to read for a part of the night, (and) then I would sleep a little, but, as for him, he would remain erect till the morning. When it was the morrow, he would go to the work which he had chosen for himself, and it became for him like a profession and a way of life. (Once), when wheat and all food were lacking, it happened one day that he purchased bread and distributed it according to his custom to the hidden and the poor till there remained to him only one loaf with which to break his fast. He placed it (the loaf) upon the table and said grace and sat down to break his fast. He gave thanks and stretched forth his hand to eat, when he heard a knocking at the door. He said to his boy: "See (who is at) the door!" The boy went out and found a hidden man (who) said to him: "Say to the Shaikh Bukairah: 'You have forgotten me to-day and I have nothing wherewith to break my fast' ". The boy went in to him and informed him of what the man had said. He (Bukairah) gave to him the loaf and he remained fasting until the night of the next day.
There was, moreover, a man, high in rank among his people (and) very rich, (who) became poor and his money was exhausted, so that nothing remained to him, and he was in want, and shame caused him not to show his face nor to beg from anyone. He sold all that (was) in his house, so that nothing remained to him except the clothes which
1 It is customary in the Coptic Church for the communicant to drink a little water after communicating and to eat the antidoron.
--- 198 ---
(were) upon him (which) covered him. If he had had another (garment) in which to go to the church, he would have sold it. I do not know how Bukairah, the servant of the Lord Jesus Christ, knew about him. He (Bukairah) took ten sacks in which there were ten ardabs of wheat, and he sent them to him by his boy. He did not find him at that time in his dwelling-place, so he emptied out the wheat in his house (and left it) with his wife and said to her: "Inform the master of the house and say to him, 'So and so has sent you this blessing' ". He went to his friend and informed him of it. When the man came to his dwelling-place (and) perceived the wheat, he asked his wife about it. She informed him (and said): "It is a blessing which the Lord has sent to us in order that we may live through it". He said to her: "Who is it who has brought it?" She said to him: "(It is) from Bukairah ar-Rasidi the scribe". When he heard this, his bosom became contracted and he said: "As the Lord lives, I will sit in my dwelling-place till God shall take away my soul, but I will not take alms from anyone, nor will I be disgraced". He began to weep and to strike his face. His believing wife said to him:' 'God has provided us with our food to-day. Rise up now and wash your face, your hands and your feet, and pray and adore the Lord and thank (Him) for His mercy to you, break your fast, and when it is still early in the morning, return the wheat to its owner". He was comforted by her speech and his heart rejoiced and he ate his food and he sighed. When he was sleeping that night, he saw in his dream, as it were, the Lord Christ standing before him, and He said to him: "Why is your heart sorrowful?" He said to Him: "O Master, how should my heart not be sorrowful, (since) after those riches and the mercy which I and my fathers enjoyed (my) condition has ended in this poverty, so that I am brought to ask for alms? It is better for me to die of hunger in preference to this". He said to him: "Grieve not, for this wheat
--- 199 ---
belongs not to anyone save to Me, and I sent it to you by the hand of my minister". He said to Him: "O my Master, no minister of Yours came to me. but (it was) Bukairah ar-Rasidi (who) sent it to me". The Lord said to him: "As though you are not aware till now that Bukairah is My minister". When he heard this, he awoke and he informed his wife of his dream and their hearts rejoiced that they had not to return the wheat, but that they might live on it.
As for Abba Zacharias, he remained under arrest
for three months, and they were threatening him every day with burning
by fire and with throwing (him) to the lions, if he did not enter the
religion of al-Islam. They said to him: "If you will agree to this,
you shall receive great glory and al-Hakim will make you Kadi al-
Kudah, but he did not pay any attention to them nor did he incline
towards them. There was with him (Zacharias) in (his) imprisonment
an evil Muslim, and he said to him: "O Shaikh of evil, embrace Al-Islam
so that they may set you free and you shall receive from them great
honour". The patriarch said to him: "My reliance is in God Who
has power, and He will help me". When he had finished (this) speech,
one of the Turks came in to him and struck him on his mouth
with a club. The patriarch said to him: "As for the body, you have
power over it to destroy it as you will, but as for the soul, it is in the hand
of the Lord".
There was a man of the Arabs, a chief of the Two Villages, whose name was Madi ibn Makrab. He was the chief of his company and he was (held) in high esteem by al-Hakim. He had arranged with him (al-Hakim) to supply every day his wants whatsoever they might be. He had a Christian friend, an employee, who was in debt to the Diwan for three thousand dinars, and he was not in a position to pay them. He was imprisoned with the father, the patriarch Abba Zacharias. When news of him reached Madi of the Villages, he came to him that he might be informed correctly of his news, and he said: "Why did they imprison you?" He said: "There (still) remains for me (to pay) to the Diwan the three thousand dinars,
--- 200 ---
and I have nothing (wherewith) to pay them". He said to him: "I shall make it my business for to-day (to speak) with al-Hakim in order to free you". That pious Christian said to him: "I cannot go out and leave this father, the Shaikh, the patriarch". Madi said to him: "What is the crime of this patriarch, that they have imprisoned him?", and he informed him of the cause. Madi was afraid lest (in) the speech concerning his (Zacharias') affair there might be something of which the Sultan would not approve, and that he would not release him. He said: "I shall arrange something about this matter, that is, I shall make it my business (to speak) with him (al-Hakim) to-day, in order to entreat (him) to set free all who are in this chamber. If he orders this (to be done), you will be liberated and he (the patriarch) (will be) among all those set free". Then Madi went out and he met al-Hakim and he entreated him for all (who were in the chamber), and he caused them to be set free. When the patriarch was liberated, he went down to Misr, and all the Christians rejoiced greatly, but they advised him to depart to the desert, to Wadi Habib, for fear lest his release might have been (through) an oversight on the part of al-Hakim, or that he (al-Hakim) might forget that he (the patriarch) (had been) in that place from which Madi of the Villages had released him. He (Zacharias) accepted their advice and he departed immediately to Wadi Habib. He remained in it for nine years, since the churches which were there were safe from demolition. (The reason for) this was that al-Hakim had sent an amir from Misr and there had accompanied him workmen and surveyors (with) pick-axes in ships, to demolish all the churches which were in the desert. When they reached Tarnut, they said: "We are afraid of the Arabs who are in this mountain on account of their great number". For
--- 201 ---
this reason God brought to nothing their deliberations through something (which) was manifested to them from God, and He preserved all the churches of the desert. It is recorded that the Martyr George appeared to them and drove them back and terrified them, so that they returned, as it is written in the Apocalypse of John the woman who brought forth the male child, the dragon poured forth behind her a river of water. And the Lord gave to her deliverance from it in the place in which she abode. Thus, the churches which are in this mountain found rest, as though the earth had opened her mouth and swallowed up the water, and thus these churches were saved from the disturbance.
At that time a Turkish amir obtained the head of the father, the preacher, my lord Mark the Evangelist. It was said to him: "The Christians will pay to you whatsoever you desirest for it". Then he carried it (the head) to Misr. When Bukairah ar-Rasidi, the Cross-bearer, was informed of this, he took the head from him (the Turk) for three hundred dinars, and he carried it to the father, the patriarch, who (was) at that time in the Monastery of Abba Macarius, and most of the bishops were dwelling with him there through their fear of affronts and (on account of) fatigue. Most of the Christians also used to enter the desert twice in the year, namely, (at) the Feast of Epiphany and (at) the Feast of the Resurrection which is Easter. They used to long for the Eucharist as a babe longs for the milk of its mother's breast. There was for the Christians during these nine years great affliction, expulsion (from office) and execration and imprecation on the part of the Muslims, and they used to spit in their faces. Most of these (afflictions) happened at the city of Tinnis and (in) its districts. If a Christian passed through them, they (the inhabitants) would insult him and would say to him: "Break this cross and enter the all-embracing religion". If a Christian
--- 202 ---
were to forget his cross and were to walk without his cross he would meet with much disgrace.
I will acquaint you with another miracle about which my father according to the flesh informed me. His trade was building, and in him (there was) piety and affection. I, the wretched Michael, was a child at the time of this affliction. He took me with him one day, when he was going to a village to build in it. and I was learning from him the trade of carpentry, since he was a mason and a carpenter. (Suddenly), he stood still astonished and clapped his hands together. I said: "O my father, inform me of what has befallen you". He sat down and his eyes overflowed with tears, and he said to me: "O my son, sit down and listen to what happened. Three months ago I went out from Misr, and God caused a loss of memory to come upon me, and my tongue was tied so that I might not inform you about this, except at this hour, for God the Exalted has enlightened my understanding and He has caused my tongue to be loosened so that I remember this. It is, that I was working in Misr and that illness overtook me, and that I feared lest the illness might become severe and that I should not have anyone who would attend to me. I went out to walk little by little towards the shore and I found a ship going down to al-Mahallah, and I went on board her. She was overloaded with people and they were very crowded together in her. There was no Christian among them except a bishop and his disciple in the prow of the ship on a wood plane. I (was) in the midst of the people lying down in pain. The people crowded around me and buffeted me and said to me: "O dog, O vile one, O Christian, depart from us". They spat on me and inflicted on me every sort of torment. They imputed to me falsely what they did (themselves)
--- 203 ---
in the way of vices, and when their actions against me increased, I raised my eyes to heaven and said: "O my Master Jesus Christ, if You do not manifest to me something whereby to reassure my heart, and that I may know that I shall have a reward on account of what has happened to me through these (people), then I shall deny Your religion". The Lord testified to me, and the thought had not left my heart nor the speech my lips before I became, as it were, translated from this world, and it all vanished from me, and I was, as it were, in another world, and I was in a lofty luminous place. I am not able to describe with my tongue its beauty and its splendour, for there is not in this world anything like to it nor resembling to it. I saw the Lord Christ---to Him be glory---but I did not make out His real features and I was not able to distinguish Him clearly on account of the abundance of the light which was about Him. He said to me: "Why are you of little faith? This is the place of the Christians who endure trials patiently for My Name's sake. Is your heart (now) reassured?" On account of the intensity of (my) illness and joy, O my son, Michael, and of the splendour which I beheld, I cried out, saying: "I thank You, O Lord, my heart is reassured". All who were in the ship heard me when I said that. I was not, as it were, in a ship. After this, I arose from my sleep, and I saw the ship and the people, and I was actually among them, and what I had seen vanished from me. Those who were in the ship said to me: "Alas for you! What (is it) that has befallen you? You are mad and you have an evil spirit". I said: "I have not an evil spirit, but God knows what has happened to me". Then I saw this for the second time, as a likeness of Him, and the Master Christ said to me: "Was your heart strengthened?" and I cried out and repeated my first statement, so that all who were in the ship marvelled. Then I saw Him again for the third time, and then my heart was strengthened. When those who were in the ship heard me saying these words for the third time, some of them said to the others: "Perhaps, he has seen what it is not lawful for him to say
--- 204 ---
to us, but let us go with him to the bishop", and they went with me to him and they informed him of what had happened to me. He kissed me and strengthened my heart, and he was kind to me before I said to him what I had seen and what had befallen me. He spoke with me in Coptic, and those Muslims did not know what he was saying to me. When I opened my mouth to tell him, I became, the Lord is a witness. like to him whose tongue is tied, and I was not able to say a single word of what I had seen. I made an obeisance to him, and I said to him: "Absolve me, I am not able to say anything". When I reached my house, I wished to tell you, you and your brethren, but my tongue was tied and it would not make any mention of it (the matter), except at this hour, while I was walking with you. I have mentioned now this wonder on account of your love (for me), and because it is an order from God, and (that) for the Faithful, on hearing about it, (there may be) profit and strength of heart in the Faith". I do not doubt the words of my father---may God have mercy upon him!
Of these nine years during which there was chastisement from the Lord, there were three years during which no one was able to make the oblation in the lands of Misr, except in the monasteries alone. The virtuous Faithful could not endure to be away from the Holy Mysteries, and they used to beg the walis and to bribe them with many dinars and presents so that they might give to them a permit to communicate at night secretly in remote and ruined churches and to lodge in them on the nights of the great feasts in order that they might pray and communicate at night. The vestments and Church instruments were concealed in their houses, but the books had been
--- 205 ---
burnt. After this, after another three years, they began to restore the churches in the houses and to consecrate them secretly and to pray in them and to communicate (in them). The Possessor of the Order used to write to the Sultan who was al-Hakim, that the Christians had built churches in Misr and in the Rif secretly and that they were communicating in them, but he (al-Hakim) ignored them. After that, a number of Christians who had embraced Al-Islam stood before him (al-Hakim), and he said to them: "What do you want?" They said to him: "That you should let us return to our religion". He said to each one of them: "Where is your girdle your cross and your ghiyar?" They brought them out from under their garments and he (al-Hakim) ordered them to wear them in front of him. He despatched with each an equerry to write for him a decree to be kept with him that he should not be interfered with. Many of those who had embraced Al-Islam returned to their religion. There was amongst the number of those who had embraced Al-Islam a monk whose name was Poemen (who) returned to his religion and he begged al-Hakim to empower him to build a monastery outside Misr in the name of the martyr of Christ my lord Mercurius, and it is the monastery of Sahran. He built it and dwelt in it with his brother monks. Al-Hakim used to come to them many times, and to stay there and to eat of their humble food. All who wanted anything from al-Hakim used to go to Poemen the monk to speak with him about it at the time of his (al-Hakim's) presence at his monastery, and he used to settle it (the
--- 206 ---
matter) for him. When Poemen perceived that his words had become acceptable to him (al-Hakim). he reminded him of the case of Abba Zacharias the patriarch, and he begged him to allow the (re)building of the churches. He (al-Hakim) promised him (to do) this. Then he (Poemen) sent to bring the patriarch from the Monastery of Abba Macarius, and he concealed him with him in the Monastery of Mercurius at Sahran.
When al-Hakim came to him, as was his custom, he (Poemen) brought forth the patriarch to him. He (Zacharias) saluted him with the salutation of kings and he blessed him and prayed for him. Al-Hakim said to Poemen the monk: "Who is this?". He (Poemen) said: "It is our father, the patriarch, whom I sent to bring, as you commanded". He (al-Hakim) beckoned to him with his finger, and he saluted him. There was with him (Zacharias) a number of bishops. He (al-Hakim) said: "Who are these?" The monk Poemen said to him: "These are his vicars in the lands, namely, the bishops". Al-Hakim looked at him (Zacharias) attentively and he marvelled at him, because he was humble in appearance but was awe-inspiring in himself. He was small of stature, thin bearded and ugly by nature. He (al-Hakim) saw the bishops who were with him, elders of handsome aspect, splendid in appearance and of complete stature. He said to them: "Is this the chief of you all?" They said to him: "Yes, O our master. May the Lord establish your kingdom!" He marvelled and said to them: "Unto where does his judgment extend?" They said to him: "His judgment is executed in the lands of Misr, Abyssinia, Nubia, the Pentapolis, Africa and other places". His astonishment increased and he said: "How (is it that) all of these obey him without troops or money with which to spend on them? " They said to him: "All these tribes obey him by means of a single cross". He said to them: "And what is this cross?" They said to him: "It is a model of that upon which Christ was crucified. Whatsoever he (the patriarch) wants
--- 207 ---
from them, he writes to them and places it (the mark of the cross) between the lines of the letter in the place of the mark of the king, and he says to them 'Do thus and thus, lest the cross be upon you'. They obey his words and they do what he commands them without troops or warefare". He (al-Hakim) said: "In truth, there is not (such a) stable religion in the world as the religion of the Christians. Lo, we shed blood and spend money and send out armies, and yet we are not obeyed, but this elder of humble appearance and ugly by nature, the inhabitants of all these lands obey at a single word". Then he said to him (Zacharias) and to the bishops: "Remain here till I satisfy your desires", and he went out from them and they were delighted at what they had heard from him.
Then John the monk who had taken an action against the patriarch, learned where they were, and he came to them as swiftly as a bird, and they did not perceive him till he had entered and was among them. He said to the patriarch: "Lo, the Lord has restored to you your rank, and I desire that you should make me bishop". The patriarch said to him: "If the Lord will, I shall make you (bishop)". The son of his (Zacharias') brother, who was Khael, bishop of Sakha, was present there, and he was an adversary of John the monk. He again spoke words to him which angered him so that he went up on to a wall of the monastery and cried out: "I (ask help) of God and al-Hakim. I am wronged, I am wronged: obtain for me my rights!" The bishops became afraid and a great quarrel took place between them and Khael the bishop, and they said to him: "You are the cause of all this affliction and of all that has happened to us in the way of the demolition of the churches and of the wearing of the ghiyar and of the shame and of the other things. You are the root of it (all), and you desire also to begin again another affair so that the last (state) shall be worse than the first". They did not cease (from speaking) until the wrath of John the monk had subsided, and they compelled the patriarch to make him a hegoumenos
--- 208 ---
and to clothe him with the black hood and to promise (to treat him) with courtesy. Then the king al-Hakim came to them and he brought an important decree (authorizing) the (re)opening of all the churches which were in his kingdom and their restoration, and that there should be returned to them (the Christians) the timber, pillars and bricks which had been taken from them, and the lands and the gardens which belonged to them in all the land of Misr. The demolition of the churches was in the year seven hundred and twenty-seven of the Martyrs 3, and they were opened and their restoration was allowed in the year seven hundred and thirty-six of the Martyrs 4. In this decree he (al-Hakim) exempted them (the Christians) from wearing the ghiyar and from wearing the cross, and (allowed) them to strike the nawakis in all the churches in every place, as was their custom. O what joy was it on that day for all the Christians who were in the land of Misr In the year in which there was deliverance and the allowance to undertake restorations in the churches, a wonderful thing was manifested. (It was) that al-Hakim used to ramble about the mountains which are outside Misr at night and during the day, and with him (there were) three equerries or a single equerry. When, on a certain night, he had come to Hulwan, a single equerry (being) with him, he dismounted from his beast and he said to the equerry: "Hough this ass". He did what he was ordered. Then he (al-Hakim) said to him: "Go to the Castle and leave me here", and he went as he had commanded him. When it was morning, the occupants of the Castle did not find him (al-Hakim), and he was sought for in every place, but he was not found, and no news of him was known. He had a young son and a sister. She managed the kingdom for two years until his small son had grown up. Then they seated him (on the throne as) king, and they called him Az-Zahir li-‘Izazi-dini'llah, and his name by which he was known
3 i.e. A. D. 1010-1011.
4 i.e. A. D. 1019-1020.
--- 209 ---
was ‘Ali and his surname was Abu'l-Hasan. He did not interfere in anything of the affairs of his father, and there was in his days great tranquillity and peace, and he remained king for sixteen years 1. The religion of the Christians was in a good state and its people respected.
In his (Az-Zahir's) days the churches were (re)built till they returned to the state (in which) they had been, and (were even) better. The (re)building in them (the churches) did not cease and the restoration was continued till the year in which this biography was written, and it is the year seven hundred and sixty-seven of the Martyrs [A. D. 1050-1051].
The people did not cease from saying from the time of the disappearance of al-Hakim up to the end of the time of his son, that he was alive. Many used to dress themselves in his style, and each one of them used to say: "I am al-Hakim". They dressed themselves (thus, and appeared) to the people in the mountains so that they might take from them dinars. There was a man from Subra Kilsa (who was) called Surut, a Christian (who) afterwards embraced Al-Islam, and he learned magic and became skilled in it. Some people testified in his favour that he had walked with them and had suddenly disappeared from them, and that he resembled al-Hakim, even in his speech, but that he was a little taller than he. He called himself Abu'l-‘Arab and some people followed him (and) walked with him and became his disciples. He used to send them to the rich with letters from him to obtain for him money from them, and he used to say to them: "I shall make you amends when I return to my kingdom". He who met him and said to him: "You are our lord, the king", he (Abu'l-‘Arab) would strike him and say to him: "Take heed to your head". He remained at Misr thus for twenty years concealed so that most of the people at Misr thought that he was al-Hakim and that he hid himself on account of some secret affair
1 S. Lane-Poole, op. cit., pp. 116 and 134 gives the years A. D. 1021-1036.
--- 210 ---
which was not known to anyone save to him. He continued thus till the days of Ma‘add al-Mustansir bi'llah [A. D. 1036-1091]. Then he went out to al-Buhairah and sojourned with a Bedouin man of (the tribe) of Bani Kurrah. known as Mufarrig ibn Tammam, and the Bedouin man pitched a tent for him, and he remained with him for two years, and he pretended (to do) the deeds of the prophets by deception. He wore miserable garments as the ascetics. He used to give to the Bedouin rich garments and fine weapons, and if the Bedouin said to him: ''Why do you not wear these magnificent garments?" He would say to him: "so that I may escape the execution which I fear". By this speech he used to enter in to them to deceive them, namely, Mufarrig ibn Tammam of Kurrah and his troop and other people besides them, and they used to enter in to him and prostrate themselves before him and salute him, as the people salute the kings, the Caliphs. He forbade them (to do) this, and it was thought that he wished to conceal his affair until the time at which he willed to manifest it. News of him was spread in all the habitations of Misr so that the kingdom was in an uproar and disturbed. This Surut then feared for himself, and he fled from the Bedouin and disappeared in a place not known to anyone. He remained concealed until the days of the father Abba Shenouti the patriarch. Then he wrote to him (Shenouti) and deceived him so that he sent to him money.
As for the father Abba Zacharias the patriarch, he remained, after meeting al-Hakim, in tranquillity and peace for the rest of his days. The duration of his patriarchate was twenty-eight years, of which seven years were before the time of the persecution and twelve years after the (re)building of the churches. He went to his rest in the year seven hundred and forty-eight of the Martyrs [A. D. 1031-1032]. He was buried in
---211--
the Church of the Mistress at Bani Wayil, known as the Church of the Steps.
Then a great trial was stirred up for the Church of the Syrians who agree with us in the Orthodox Faith in the East, so that their patriarch was exiled from his throne and he died in exile. That is to say, there was on the throne of Antioch of the Syrian Jacobites (Ya'akibah), our brethren, a father, a saint, called John ibn ‘Abdun, in that he resembled the first saintly fathers, and he did what we shall record. That is to say, our fathers, the Syrian patriarchs, had not been able to dwell in the city of Antioch since the time of the father Severus for fear of the Greeks (ar-Rum), and they did not go near its districts at all. This saint was dwelling in a monastery near Malatya. At the beginning of his career he had been an anchorite in the Black Mountain. He was (held) in good repute by everyone, as it is written in the Holy Gospel: "A city is not hidden which is built upon a mountain".
There was in his neighbourhood a monk who was also devoted to the worship of God there, whose name was John. When Athanasius, patriarch of Antioch went to his rest in the time of Abba Philotheus, patriarch of Alexandria ---his deeds were like the deeds of his namesake Athanasius the Great in truth---he said at (the time of) his going to his rest that this saint John ibn ‘Abdun would sit after him on the Throne of Antioch. When he (Athanasius) went to his rest, they went around (seeking) for him (John), and the day before their arrival, his friend, the monk, who was in his neighbourhood knew of what the Holy Spirit had revealed (to him), and he said to him: "To-morrow
--- 212 ---
some people will come to us (and) take one of us to make him patriarch of the Throne. Should we not arise (and) go from here so that they won't find us?" The monk John said to him: "Why should we flee if the Lord has called one of us for this matter, and where shall we flee to from His presence?" That saintly father said to him: "As for me I (can) not bear this matter, and I am not suitable for it. But if you are able (to bear it), remain in your place. I am going to hide myself until this wrath which has come upon us to remove one of us from this blessed solitude which I prefer, passes us by". He went fleeing from there, and John the monk remained in his place. When the morning came, there arrived at the monastery those who were seeking for John the saint. They went around (looking) for him in the mountain, but they did not find him. When they reached the place in which that monk was living, they found him, since he was desirous of this. Then they took him, and while they were coming down from the mountain (and) going with him to where the congregation was, they saw on their way a tree, and they turned aside to it so that they might sit beneath its shade. A branch of the tree struck the eye of John the monk and tore it out, and he became one-eyed from that (hour). They marvelled and enquired of him (concerning) the matter of his case, and he confessed to them what had taken place between him and the saint John ibn ‘Abdun, and that he had desired this matter, but that that one (John the saint) had rejected it. When they were acquainted with the matter of the case, they left him and they went to the congregation and informed them of this. Their resolution was strengthened to seek for that saint wherever he was. They did not cease from going around and searching for him until they found him by the will of God, after they had become weary. He refused to go with them, so they took him by force, and they consecrated him patriarch and they seated him on the throne. During the time of his patriarchate he did not weary from his (acts of) humility and his devotions. Money used to be brought to him in the form of alms, but
--- 213 ---
he did not keep anything of it except for his daily sustenance, and he gave the rest to the hidden and the poor.
There came to him a woman one day and (she had) with her many dinars in a large bag, and she placed it at his feet and said to him: "O my lord father, I have brought these dinars for a blessing. Grant to me their acceptation and bless me and dispose of them for your requirements and for the hidden". He answered her in a quiet voice and said to her: "May the Lord accept this from you, O my daughter". She stood expecting that he would say to her something more in the way of prayer(s) and favour(s) than this (blessing) which he had invoked upon her, as was the custom of those, other than he, who collect money and are desirous of it, so that, even if a man bring to them a single coin, they respect and honour him, especially so much money as this. When her stay had been drawn out and she did not hear (anything) other than what he had said to her, she went away grumbling. The disciple who went out to shut the door, returned and said to the patriarch: "O my father, this money which this woman brought is much. Did she not deserve that you should make much prayer for her and that her heart should be reassured? As it is, she went out grumbling about us and said: 'Perhaps, the father did not know what I brought him' ". He said to him: "Go, bring her back!" He went and brought her back to him. He said to the disciple: "Bring me a balance". He brought it to him, and he took a piece of paper and he wrote on it 'May the Lord accept them (the dinars) from you', even as he had prayed for her with his mouth at first. He put the paper into (one) scale of the balance and he put the money into the other scale, and he said to the disciple: "Lift up the balance", and he lifted it up and the paper weighed more than the money, and the scale in which was the paper went right down. The patriarch said to the woman: "O my daughter, take from them (the dinars and the paper) what you wish". She threw herself before him and wept and said: "Forgive me, O my father. You believe in what pertains to God, while I believe in
i5
--- 214 ---
what pertains to men''. Then she took that paper and made it (a source of) strength for her.
It happened again that he (John) had gone out to the river to (re)-build a bridge over which the people used to cross which had been destroyed. Some good people besought him to stand on it at the beginning of its (re)building so that it might receive his blessing. If the people saw him there, they would assemble and assist in (re)building it. He did this and a great multitude assembled and they remained for three days (re)building it, and they worked with joy on seeing the patriarch. When it was completed on the third day, the multitude crowded (together) in passing over it, and a young man fell into the river, and the width of that river was about twenty cubits, and its current was very strong. The father went forward (and said) that he who knew how to swim should go down to take him out. A number of those present took off their garments and went down to look for him, but they did not find him. They did not cease from diving and searching (for him) from the sixth hour of the day till the ninth hour so that they became weary and annoyed. News of him (the youth) reached his mother and she came out shrieking and weeping, as the widow of the city of Nain. They found him after ten hours and brought him up dead, and they carried him to the tent of the father Abba John, the patriarch, and left him in front of him and went away. The saint arose and prayed and besought God on his account. Then the young man opened his eyes and arose and went forth from the tent alive, and the multitude was standing outside and they hastened towards him and crowded round him to see this marvellous miracle, and he could not get free from them, and he went away to his house, only after trouble and great exertion. This great miracle concerning him was noised abroad in all the lands of Syria and elsewhere so that news of it reached the lands of Misr, and he (John) became a boast of Orthodoxy and a grief for those who dissent (from us). Malatya was near to the monastery in wliich this saintly father dwelt and there was not in his see (a city) greater or more
--- 215 ---
populated by Christians than it. There were in it fifty-six churches filled with priests and many Syrian Orthodox people, and their number was sixty thousand Christians who bore arms, if they wished (to do so) or needed (to do) this, besides women 1.
When I, the wretched Michael, and I, Gabriel, bishop of Sa, reached this patriarch, the saint (John), with the Synodical Letter from Christodoulus, when he was seated on the Throne of Alexandria and its districts, we observed in him (John) great sanctity. When we parted from him, he honoured us and sent the son of his brother with us so that we might see the city and the people who were in it. He said to us: "I have no (city) like to it". We saw in it a number of Melkite Chalcedonians who had a metropolitan of it. The Orthodox Jacobites who were in the city used, out of their great love for this saintly patriarch, to go to him at all times to the monastery and to beseech him to be present with them on the great feasts and on Sundays so that they might receive the blessing from him and communicate from his hands. It happened that, if he came to them, they would meet him with gospels and crosses and censers and readings (from the Gospels) before him, from the gate of the city up to the church with great joy and love. They used to do this every time he came to them, and they would recount his virtues to everyone and narrate the miracles which God---praised be He!---performed by his hand. Satan (as-Sailan) found for himself an assistant in harming the aforesaid patriarch, a bishop dissenting (from us) of them who profess the Two Natures. He raised up against him a great trial, as says the Apostle: "All who desire to live by upright faith shall be persecuted by evil men, haters of the truth". This bishop was an enemy of his out of envy
1 'besides women' added on the margin. Part of this addition has been cut off, and it probably had 'and children'.
--- 216 ---
and without shame, because he used to see the veneration of the people for this saintly father and how they ministered to him on account of the strength of their faith in him, and he observed his entry into the city in the finest and most becoming manner. The aforesaid bishop used to go in and to go out (of the city) and no one paid attention to him or asked about him. His heart was sore with envy, and jealousy was engendered in him, and he was enraged against him (John). He went to Constantinople and complained about this saintly father, Abba John, to the king and said to him: "In your kingdom there is a man, a patriarch, who encroaches on your rights, and the people obey him more than you. They are Jacobites and they adhere to this dissident Jacobite, and he also prays for kings other than you and more than for you. A reputation is falsely ascribed to him that he raised the dead, and on account of this the hearts of the multitude are inclined towards him. Banish him now from your kingdom, and cause him to be brought hither, and your holiness shall judge between me and him". The king sent to bring him (John), and the bishop sat in the city of the patriarch with its patriarch. They were assembled to arrange about what they should do with the saint. The messengers found him (John) in Malatya. When the Faithful were informed of the news, all of them assembled and said: "We will die, all of us, but he (John) shall not be taken from us, but we will give ourselves in exchange (for him). All that we possess, it is for you!". He forbade them (to do) this. He spake to them soft words that 'he who resists the king sins, and he is as he who resists the ordinance of God'. "What should the king be able to do (to me) other than to kill my body, and if he does this to me, there will be a crown prepared for me. If he speaks to me on account of the Faith, it will be a contest and an honour for me. Thus shall I be like my Lord Who was reviled and slain". With this (speech) and what was similar to it he spake to them till they left him. He journeyed with the messengers and there were with him four bishops and
--- 217 ---
three monks, disciples of his, till they reached the dwelling of the king at Constantinople. They put him in confinement for some days till they had informed the king of his arrival. Then the patriarch of the Melkites appointed a free day for him (John) and for himself and for his bishops and for the bishop of Malatya who had complained about the patriarch John. They adorned themselves with hardness of heart and they put on garments of silk and sat upon decorated thrones and they ordered the saint John to be brought to them. He came to them in wretched garments, and he and those who were with him stood before them, and they did not cause them to be seated nor did they salute them, but they occupied themselves with reading, while they were standing for a time so that their bosoms became contracted. Thereupon, John the saint spake in the soft Syrian tongue and said: "Which of the Canons of the Church bids you to sit on your thrones and cause us to stand before you like assistants?" They said to him: "You and your congregation are dissidents, and it is not fitting that you sit with us as Orthodox bishops". He said to them: "If we are dissidents as you say, let us sit with you and let us talk about the Faith, and he to whom God shall give the victory shall be victorious, if we (can) find him who judges between us in truth and not by the authority of the kingdom". The bishop of Malatya had agreed with the patriarch of the Melkites and his bishops that they would not dispute with him (John) or his bishops, and he had said to them: "They are very learned. If you dispute with them, you will be put to shame before them, but overcome them by speech, by the power of the kingdom". Then they reviled them and they said to them: "You are heretics. We ought not to speak to you", and they said to the attendants: "Take them (away) till tomorrow". When the morrow was come, the king caused them all to be brought and he made them stand before him, and he appointed an interpreter for them. The king said to the interpreter: "Say
--- 218 ---
to the patriarch: they have informed me that you are a saint of God. Now I desire nothing of you save that you shouldst acknowledge the Council of Chalcedon, and I shall be happy, and I will exalt you and honour you and give you the authority over all the lands near to you". He (John) said to him: "O my master, the king, may the Lord preserve your kingdom and your authority!---He knows that I do not cease from prayer and supplication for your powerful kingdom, as the Holy Scriptures command us, 'so that our life may be in quietness and peace'. Your authority has not the right to force anyone to forsake his religion, as we have two kings, namely, the king of Abyssinia and the king of Nubia, and they do not force anyone of the people of your religion who is dwelling among them to change his faith. Now I beseech the Lord Christ to establish your kingdom without disturbance and to preserve all of us according as has been revealed to him". The interpreter interpreted all that he said except (about) the two kings, the Abyssinian and the Nubian, for he added to this and he said: "We have two kings greater than you", and this (was because) the bishop of Malatya had bribed the interpreter with money and had come to an agreement with him to turn the speech against him (John), whereby the king would be enraged against him (John), even though with a single word. When the king heard (this), his wrath and his rage and his imprecation(s) became intense, and he cursed his (John's) belief and his congregation and he said: "You are dissidents in truth". He commanded that he (John) should be returned to (his) confinement. There was one of the disciples of the saint John who knew the language, and he was his interpreter. When they came out, he informed him (John) of what the interpreter had done by turning the speech against him.
When the morrow was come, the king caused his patriarch and his congregation to be brought and he consulted them about what he should do. They advised him that he (John) should be banished to the islands which were near to him, he (John) and those who were with him until
--- 219 ---
they professed their (the Melkite) Faith, and then he should set them free. There were among them two aged metropolitans, and when they learned this, they acknowledged the Council of Chalcedon, and they thought that they would remain in their former rank, but the patriarch of the Melkites did not leave them in it, but made them both subdeacons. The two others (metropolitans) held fast to their faith, and they did not agree to what the king wished. The king strove, but he was not able to turn them from their Orthodox Faith. Then the king caused Abba John, the patriarch, to be brought, and he promised him great honours and advancement. He said to him: "Lo, I am standing before you and (am) under your authority. Your power is over my body, do with it what you think (fit) and as you will. Kill me, but I will never forsake my Orthodox Faith". Then he commanded him (John) to be exiled to a monastery on an island near to Constantinople. Between him and it (there was) a distance of one day. He did not allow (anyone) with him except one disciple to minister to him. He (John) had the illness of gout in his feet, and he remained there two years. There was in that island an anchorite of the Melkites, and he commanded the monks who were with him to go every day to the patriarch, the saint John, and to curse him and to spit in his face, and he placed an anathema upon them if they did not do this every day. They used to do this to him (John) during his stay there. There was in the monastery a youth, a servant, and he used to insult the patriarch still more. It happened that, whenever the disciple heated water for the feet of the patriarch in order that he might thereby find ease, that youth used to cast ash into it. The disciple used to weep, but the patriarch used to console him and say to him: "O my son, God will not forget us". The youth persisted in this deed, and an evil spirit leapt upon him and strangled him and belaboured him and tormented him. They brought him to the elder Abba John foaming and striking with his head and gnashing with his teeth. He remained
--- 220 ---
(thus) for three days, Satan tormenting him. Then he died an evil death.
There was in Constantinople a man who loved Abba John, and he came thither to visit him, but he was not able to reach him. Then he wrote to him a letter and went to a village near to the monastery, and he met in it a man known to him, and he said to him: "I desire greatly that you shouldst take this letter and deliver it to the patriarch secretly without that anyone knows about you". He gave to him a dinar and the letter, and there was not anything in it except an enquiry after him (John) and an excuse to him that he had not been able to reach him so as to visit him, and asking from him a blessing to place in his dwelling. He took the letter and went with it to the chief (of the village), as did Judas. He sent some people to the owner of the letter and they beat him and imprisoned him. The patriarch heard his weeping and his speech in Syriac and he called to his disciple and he desired to know of him the news, and he informed him of all what had happened. The patriarch marvelled and was grieved and sent to him to console him, and he said to him: "Let not your bosom be contracted. After three days, the Lord will remove all this (from you)". The disciple inquired about the meaning of the saying. Then he said to him confidentially: "After three days, God will take me to Him. Bury me not in the cemetery of the heretics, but place me in a place alone, for the day on which I shall fall asleep, the king will send (a messenger) to bring me out, and he will find me having gone forth from this body. He (the messenger) will take you and the other man to the king, and he (the king) will set you two free. I charge you to say to the people that they let not him who comes after me dwell in the lands of the Greeks (ar-Rum), but that he should dwell in Amid or in the city of Edessa". His disciple was considering how he could save his (John's) body after his
--- 221 ---
death from the dissidents, lest they should do with it what they wished. Then he said within himself 'yet, let God's will be (done)'. The patriarch knew in the spirit his (the disciple's) thought, and he said to him: "Why do you have doubts concerning my body? I believe that God is able to do all things". After three days, he went to his rest, as he said. When the monks learned of this, they assembled that they might bury him. The Superior of the monastery was away. The king sent to call the patriarch, but he found him dead. The messengers quarrelled with the monks who wished to bury him, and they prevented them (the messengers) from burying him there, and they said: "Take this heretic from the midst of the Orthodox". They took him and they brought him to the place of a rock, and they dug out a grave, and buried him far from them (the monks). As for the messengers of the king, they took the disciple and the man who came from Constantinople to visit the patriarch and wrote to him the letter, and they returned to the king and they announced to him his (John's) death. He (the king) set them both free, for he had suffered torment in his dream that night on account of the saintly patriarch. His going to rest in banishment was in the year seven hundred and forty-seven of the Righteous Martyrs [A. D. 1030-1031]. God Whose praise is great and Who is exalted did not hide from him anything of what he wished to know, on account of his sanctity and his purity.
It happened that, before his (John's) departure to the lands of the Greeks (ar-Rum), there fled to him Abba Abraham, bishop of Damietta on account of what had befallen him through his people, and of what had reached him (in the way of news) about his (John's) sanctity. He went and entered into his monastery, and he was clothed in wretched attire in the garb of monks with a white hood so that he might conceal his state, and he stood in a corner of the church in the midst of the congregation of the monks. It was a Sunday and the father Abba John, was inside the sanctuary. He said to his disciple: "Go to such and such a
-- 222 ---
place in the church and you will find there a bishop from the lands of Misr, standing with the monks in the garb of a monk, and bring him to me". This was a wonder similar to what befell Saint Basil the Great Doctor, Bishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia with the Saint, my lord Ephraem the Syrian. The disciple went thither, but he did not recognize him on account of the change of his attire. Then he returned to the father and said to him: "I did not find him". He said to him: "Yes, indeed, he is standing there and with him are two strange monks". The disciple went back to the place and said to the three: "Who of you is the bishop?" One of the two monks said: "He is this (one)". Then he said to him: "The father calls you". He came with him to him, and when he had entered in to him and had prostrated himself before him, the patriarch raised him and said to him: "Why have you fled from the grace which the Lord Christ has bestowed on you?" He said to him: "I am not fleeing (from it), but I have come to see you and to receive your blessing". He said to him: "Yes, indeed, you are fleeing from much speaking and from the fatigue which you have experienced', and he spoke to him words that reassured his heart. He remained with him for a time and he sent him back to his see with honour.
There sat on the Throne of Antioch, after this saint John, the son of his brother, and they called him John the patriarch. God grant to us (acceptation) of the intercession and blessing of both of them altogether.
His disciple informed me, I, Michael, the writer of this biography, about this, when I went to the Throne of Antioch, after I had become bishop of the see of the city of Tinnis and its districts, and with me there was Abba Gabriel bishop of Sa with the Synodical Letter which Abba Christodoulos, patriarch of Alexandria, wrote to Abba John the aforementioned, in the year seven hundred and sixty-five of the Martyrs [A. D.1048-1049]; for I asked this disciple and said to him: "Yes, did the
--- 223 ---
father Abba John really raise the dead?'' He described to me all what I have mentioned in this biography.
As for his story about Abba Abraham, bishop of Damietta, I heard it from his mouth in the year in which the father Abba Zacharias died in Misr. These two patriarchs experienced great trial and labour and they received a glorious crown through their endurance and their confession of the Orthodox Faith before the dissidents; Abba John, before the king of the Greeks (ar-Rum) and their patriarch and his communion, and Abba Zacharias, before al-Hakim, king of the Muslims and the inhabitants of the kingdom.
Abba Abraham, the aforementioned bishop of Damietta said: "I witnessed great miracles by the father, the saint John, the patriarch, while I was with him, among which I saw one of his disciples, and it was said to me that he had been blind and that Abba John had opened his eyes. I asked the disciple with an obeisance to recount to me his story. He said to me: "I was blind and I used to sit in the church by the basin of water from which the people covered their communion. I used to lay hold on the garments of those whose speech I recognized so that they might give me as alms some of their money. I pulled one day the garment of one of the brethren, and he went and complained about me to the father. He (the patriarch) had just finished communicating the people, and he gave them the peace and washed his hands and came out to me. He said to me: "O my son, what is this matter with you that you dost harm the people and tear their garments?"
--- 224 ---
I said: "O my father, I am blind and feeble, whilst they see. I beg of them to give me something as alms, but they do not (do so)". He said to me: "If the Lord Christ open your eyes, what will you do?" I said: "I will serve you until the day of my death". He (the patriarch) took with his hand water from that basin and said: "The Lord Christ Who made mud with His spittle on the ground and anointed with it the eyes of the completely blind and said to him: 'Go, wash both of them in the source of Siloam and they will be opened', may He open these two eyes of yours", (and) he sprinkled the water on my eyes and they were opened, as you see. I have served him till now. and I shall serve him also until I die beneath his feet".
Trustworthy (people) of the Faithful informed me of many miracles concerning the father Abba Zacharias, among which how the body of Abba Mercurius, bishop of Tilbanah, shone with leprosy, and an awful whiteness appeared in him. He came to the father, Abba Zacharias, at Damru on a Sunday, and the aforementioned father said to him with humility and quietness and a sore heart: "O my brother Abba Mercurius, I am a partner with you in what you suffer, and you know that God said to Moses: 'You shall not have regard to the face of anyone in judgment' The priesthood shall not be valid, except after the Lord Christ has removed from you this whiteness, for it is a defilement, as the Scripture calls it". He (Mercurius) wept and said: "Help me through your prayer, O my father, the saint". He departed from him and he went to a church in his see (dedicated) to the name of the Pure Mistress, my
--- 225 ---
lady Mary the Virgin, the Mother of God the Word. That church was in a village called Tmai. He entered it in the morning of a Monday, and there was in it an aged priest whose name was Farah. He (the bishop) said to his disciple: "When it is Wednesday evening, visit me here, and if you find me dead, help this priest to bury me here, and if you find me alive, I shall speak to you". The disciple went away from him. He (the bishop) stood before the picture of the Mistress, weeping (and) entreating on Monday, and the night of it (Monday), Tuesday, the day and the night of it (Tuesday), Wednesday, the day of it (Wednesday), and he was asking for her intercession, entreating her to examine that leprosy and to remove it from him. When it was the ninth hour of the day of Wednesday, he (the bishop) became dazed from fasting and fatigue, and he leaned against the wall on which was the picture, and he was dozing. Then he saw the hand of this picture, as if it wiped his body, and he woke up and was cured of his sickness. He summoned the priest and informed him of the news, and asked him to look at his whole body, and he (the priest) saw it, and it had become clean and free from leprosy. He rejoiced and thanked the Lord, the Saviour, and his weeping was grievous. Then the disciple came to him at the end of the day and he (the bishop) said to him: "O my son, the Lord Christ has granted (me) through the intercession of the Pure Mistress, his Mother, health (again). It is necessary that I remain in this place three days more to thank the Lord for what he has bestowed upon me. Come to me with a beast on Saturday". Then he partook of a little bread and water, and he remained there three days, as he had said. The disciple came to him on the evening of Saturday, and he (the bishop) went to Damru and he entered in to the father Zacharias on the morning of Sunday, while he was in the church, and he made known to him the news, and he
--- 226 ---
said: "O my father, this (is) through your prayers". He (the patriarch) said to him: "On the contrary, (it is) through your faith and your prayer". He (the patriarch) gave him the right to officiate, and he (the bishop) celebrated the Liturgy that day. He (the patriarch) said to him: "Truly you are more worthy than I (to celebrate) the Liturgy so that we may receive your blessing, after this great grace has been bestowed upon you". All those present glorified God Who performs miracles. There was a man, a deacon, a native of Minyati Milig (who was) very well known. He quarrelled with his wife, and she was pure (and) pious. He went out from her, and was filled with satanic fury, and he went (and) copulated with an effeminate man and fell with him into sin. Then he returned to his dwelling, and his wife became reconciled to him. When it was night, he sat down on his bed, and took off his garment to lie down to sleep. His wife saw his body and it all shone with leprosy. She rose up and was full of fear, and she said to him: "What (is it) that you has done, so that you have leprosy? Look at your body". He looked attentively at his body and he wept bitterly, and he said to her: "O my sister, when I quarrelled with you to-day, Satan played a trick on me, and I did so and so". Then he struck his face, and he plucked out the hair of his beard and he increased (his) weeping. His good (and) pious wife said to him, weeping over him: "You have sinned, O my brother, and have erred. Hasten to the father Abba Zacharias the Saint, and take hold of his feet and cling to them, until he beseeches God on your behalf, and you shall be healed". He rose up early and rode his beast and went to Damru and cast himself before the patriarch, and he increased (his) weeping and (his) entreating, and he clung to his feet and confessed to him what had happened to him. He (the patriarch) said to him: "O my son, is it in you to stand firm in labour before the Lord Christ?" He said to him: "O my father, judge me according to what you will, and I will do it with God's assistance to me, and through the blessing of your prayer". He took him into a dark house that he had, and he left him standing
--- 227 ---
in a satirah of tamarisk resembling a barrel, after he had put into the half of it salt, and had set his face towards the East, and had said to him: "O my son. continue in prayer and entreaty and weeping, and repent, that you return not again to sin". He used to feed him after three days and three nights with a little bread (measured out) with a balance and to give him water to drink also (measured out) with a balance until the end of fifteen days, and he came to him to visit him and he prayed for him. At the end of three weeks, he visited him again, and prayed for him, and at the end of the month, he came to him and examined his body, and he found the leprosy had diminished, and he was reassured. Then he announced to him the good news about this. Then at the end of forty days, he came to him and he looked at him attentively and found that he was clean and that nothing of the leprosy remained in his body. He rejoiced with him and he bathed him with hot water, and he anointed him and prayed for him, and he said to him: "O my son. you are cured and you know what you have vowed to yourself---return not to sin---and think not that I caused you to fast three days (and) then after them (another) three days, and that I myself broke my fast, but---as the Name of Christ lives---I did not feed myself during these forty days, except as I fed you, and I did not break my fast except at the time at which I caused you to break your fast (and) likewise (with) the same (amount of) bread and water with which I fed you. Then he blessed him and commanded him to depart to his dwelling, and he returned to his blessed wife, rejoicing and happy.
--- 228 ---
As-Shaikh ‘Alam al-Kafah Abu Yahya Istafan ibn Mina at-Turigi, the scribe, related that he went with his workman whose name was Zakir to Damru, and they saluted the father Abba Zacharias the patriarch---God grant to us (acceptation) of the blessing of his prayer! The father went out walking, without a beast, to Tumbarah so that he might salute a Nubian man, a monk, whose name was Sisih, and he (the patriarch) received his blessing before he blessed him (the monk), and he honoured him with much honour and humbled himself before him and venerated him. When he had departed from him, those who were with him, asked him and said to him: "What is the reason of your respect for the state of this (one), and for humbling yourself before him, and for giving him precedence over you in the blessing,---you, the patriarch of the land?" He said to them: "This (man) al-Hakim cast together with me to the lions after they had starved them, and the lions were obedient to him, and licked his feet before mine.
HISTORY OF THE PATRIARCHS OF THE COPTIC CHURCH OF ALEXANDRIA
The twenty-fifth biography of the biographies of the Holy Church. Abba Zacharias the patriarch, and he is the sixty-fourth of (their) number 6.
When it was the reign of al-Hakim bi Amr Allah who was called al-Imam al-Mansur, and the Throne of Alexandria had become vacant, the Synod assembled to appoint a patriarch. While they were taking counsel together, there was at Alexandria a rich man whose name was Abraham ibn Bisr (who) enjoyed the respect of
2 i. e. November-December.
6 Fol. 147 v. A marginal note in red, complete in MS. A, in red and black, reads: "This father, the strong champion and the victor through Christ, sat (on the Throne) in the reign (lit. kingdom) of al-Hakim, and he endured great adversities, and through his prayers his people was saved and overcame (them), and all of this is explained in this biography".
--- 175 ---
the walis, and everyone in the city listened to him and obeyed him. He was a wealthy merchant in the lands of Misr and he used to give gifts to and to honour the chiefs of Misr, and they did not contradict him in what he desired. He asked and prayed for the patriarchate until a decree was written for him. They (the walis) sent two masters in his company to Alexandria to assist him in what he wished (to do) and to oblige the Alexandrians to appoint him patriarch in the place of Philotheus the patriarch who had gone to his rest, since it was the turn of the Alexandrians this time to appoint the patriarch, and the Council was in Alexandria. The hearts of a number of its inhabitants were agreeable to his becoming patriarch, and they wrote to Misr to this effect. When the bishops were informed of this, they did not agree with them on this point of view, and the matter was difficult for them, because the Canon, as they said, would not allow them (the supporters of his candidature) (to do) this. They determined to stop the matter, and (that) everyone of them should go to his see.
At the time when they were assembled at the Church of my lord Mark the Evangelist (known as) al-Kamha, there was at Alexandria in the Church of Michael the Archangel a priest, an elder, whose name was Zacharias, and he was steward of all the churches of Alexandria, and the bishops were staying with him in the church, and he used to minister to them during their residence at Alexandria. He did not possess any qualifications in their eyes, nor was he held in esteem by the priests of Alexandria, and everyone used to make use of his services for what concerned him. But God, Who alone performs wonders, Who chose David from the pasture of the flocks to be a shepherd of Israel, His inheritance, Who raises up the poor from the earth and the wretched from the dunghill and seats him upon the throne of glory, (was) He Who chose this humble unnumbered man. It (was) that he (Zacharias) went up one
176
day to the upper (part) of the church to bring down a jar of vinegar for the cook who used to prepare what the bishops ate. While he was coming down the ladder, he slipped (and) fell and the jar was with him (and) it was not broken and nothing of it was spilled. When the bishops and all who were present saw this miracle, they said: "This is he who is worthy of the object for which we are assembled'. Thereupon, all of them said with joy (and) with one mouth: "This (one) in truth is a man of God". Then they asked the inhabitants of Alexandria about him and about his manner of life, and all of them said: "We have never heard an evil word about him, but he is poor, wretched and pure". They (the bishops) said: "It is well and good that he who is thus should be appointed (patriarch). He is better than he who comes to us with a strong hand by order of the Sultan, and we shall be as slaves to him all our time". They agreed with the Alexandrians on his consecration, and they took him and consecrated him patriarch. In the evening of that day on which they consecrated him, Abraham ibn Bisr arrived with the decree and accompanied by the two masters. When he arrived outside the city, one of his acquaintances met him and said to him: "A patriarch has already been consecrated". He said to him: "And who is he?" He said to him: "Zacharias the priest who (was) in the Church of Michael (known as) an-Nubah". When he heard this, a great trembling attacked him in his bones, and it did not depart from him for the rest of his life. He went to his house in great distress by reason of the violence of the trembling, and he became ill on account of this, and the news (of this) reached the bishops and they marvelled. Then they were afraid of the Sultan and they said: "We do not know what will happen to us". Then they counselled the father, the patriarch, Abba Zacharias to console him (Abraham) with a bishopric so that they should be safe from the wrath of the Sultan on his account, and they said to Abraham ibn Bisr: "This matter has indeed been (arranged) by God---praised be He! Now, the first see that
--- 177 ---
shall become vacant (through the death) of its bishop in this district, it is understood that it shall be for you, (and) you shall become bishop of it". Then they ordained him hegoumenos and clothed him in black. When the see of Minuf al-'Ulya became vacant, they made him (bishop) of it.
Abba Zacharias remained (in peace), after he had become patriarch, for seven years, and the Church was tranquil (and) in peace. After this, the Lord did not endure patiently the deeds of the shepherds who were at that time, and God brought down His wrath upon the churches on account of them. They were removed from them, for they were become as walis who lorded over the priests. They invented pretexts for collecting money by every means, and they trafficked in the Church of God on account of the love of silver and gold, and they sold the gift of God for money, but they lost and did not gain. If a man added to the Diyariah of any church a single dinar, they would fall upon the first steward who was in charge of the affairs of the church, as was incumbent (upon him), and they would drive him away from it and would hand it over, on account of the dinar which had been added, to him who was unfitted for its (the church's) service and (who) did not occupy himself with its affairs. Indeed, it was witnessed against a steward that he used to drink the clear wine and to mix the sediment with water and to clarify it and to present it to the priests to raise it in the sanctuary; and (it was testified) that the priests used to raise in the sanctuary sufficient oblation for the whole week, so that there might remain over from it a large amount, with the object of not inconveniencing (themselves) with celebrating the Liturgy. The oblation used to remain in the churches until it became corrupt, because the
--- 178 ---
bishops used to ordain to the priesthood him who was unfit and without understanding.
A trustworthy man related to me that Abba Menas, bishop of Tanah, of whom we already made mention in this biography, when we said that Philotheus, the patriarch, dwelt in his residence at Damru after his death, at the time of his (Menas') death, divided what he had collected in the way of money into four parts and buried them in four places. He (Menas) occupied the see for a number of years till he became old. He had a brother whose name was Macarius, bishop of Upper Minuf, secretary of the Synod. He sent to his brother a messenger that he should come to him (Menas) in haste. He was expecting his arrival and his eyes were looking out for him on the road, but he (Macarius) delayed two days and did not come to him. He (Menas) wrote four pieces of paper on which he mentioned the four places in which (was) the money, and he placed them in his hand till the moment of the arrival of his brother, that he might deliver them to him. Since he (Macarius) delayed (coming to) him (Menas), and the trouble and agony of death came upon him, he said to his disciple: "See, perhaps, if my brother has indeed arrived", and the disciple went out and returned to him and said to him: "He has not arrived". Then he (Menas) was troubled and he cast one of the four pieces of paper into his mouth and chewed it up and cast it (out). Then he said to the disciple: "Do you see my brother coming?" He went out again and returned and said to him (Menas) : "He has not arrived". Then he (Menas) chewed up the second piece of paper and cast it (out), and he did likewise with the third, and there remained in his hand one. Then he said to the disciple: "See if my brother has arrived". He (the disciple) went out to look for him, and he delayed (coming back) to him (Menas), and he (Menas) felt the pains of the suffering of death. Then he cast the fourth piece of paper into his mouth, but before he had chewed it up, the disciple entered to him in haste and said to him: "Lo, your brother has arrived". He (Menas)
--- 179 ---
brought out the piece of paper from his mouth, and when his brother entered, he delivered it to him and he said to him: "May the Lord not reprove you, but forgive you! You have indeed lost what was recorded on the three other pieces of paper on account of your absence from me", and when he had said this, his spirit left (him). Then he (Macarius) enshrouded him and buried him. Then he read the piece of paper and found in the place (mentioned) ten thousand dinars. His (Menas) brother Macarius was a good man. and he took the money and built with it a Skene in the name of Abba Macarius in Wadi Habib. It is the beautiful sanctuary to the south of the sanctuary of Benjamin. He spent on it three thousand dinars, and gave a great sum in alms, and he built many churches in the Rif of Misr. When his death was approaching, they asked him if he had any commands for them to perform. He said: "The Lord is a witness to me that I found that my brother had ten thousand dinars, and I acquired many things each year from the see and from what I received for (acting as) secretary to the Synod, and that I spent all that. The Lord is a witness to me that nothing remained to me save one dinar and my houses. Lo, I am being translated from this world and I adjure you to give it (the dinar) to the priests who shall read (the funeral service) over me".
This bishop Menas who bequeathed this large fortune was not content with that, but he repeopled a village between his see and the see of Samannud. Ten houses in it became inhabited, and they built there a small church five or six cubits long of bricks of mud. The village was between Basis and Subra Damanah.
--- 180 ---
When the bishop of Samannud heard (of this), he came to it (the village) and built in it (the church) a fine altar and consecrated it and went away, for Subra Damanah belonged to him, and it was a right of his see. When Abba Menas the aforesaid bishop heard of this, he came to the aforementioned church and demolished the altar which the bishop of Samannud had built, and he built another one. When the bishop of Samannud heard of this, he was greatly offended, and he came thither, and there was a multitude with him, and Abba Menas the bishop was there. They assembled and they quarrelled and fighting broke out between them, and they did not disperse until blood had been shed between them. Look now at that bishop who amassed the large fortune, how he fought for a thing of so little (value), so that God caused His wrath to descend upon that village and laid it (the village) waste until now, and the name of the village is S n d gra!
In their days, namely, those of the shepherds 3, instruction also ceased and no one warned another or said to him: "Cast out the mote from your eye", lest he should say to him: "Cast out the beam first from your eye". The heads of the Church used previously to look for a person in whom was learning and knowledge that they might make him a priest, if a number of trustworthy (people) witnessed to his conti-nency and learning from his childhood (upwards). Matters were (now) reversed, and the intelligent scholar was of no account, especially if he were a poor man, but the ignorant and he who was without intelligence was honoured and revered by them, especially if he were rich, that they might advance him to the exalted rank of the ranks of the priests. For that reason, the hand of the Lord came down upon them and His wrath descended upon the Church by reason of His knowledge that we were unworthy to enter her door, as at the time when He caused His wrath to descend upon Jerusalem until she was laid waste and her inhabitants and her sons and her daughters were made captive.
3 i. e. the bishops.
--- 181 ---
There was a monk whose name was John, a priest of the Skene of Abba Macarius, residing at the Church of Saint Abba Onuphrius, at the Skene which is at the north of the Church of Abba Macarius. He saw a number (of people) buying the episcopate for money, and Satan cast into his heart the fire of love for the episcopate, but he had nothing (wherewith) to pay for it. He presented himself to Abba Zacharias, the patriarch, and he said: "I desire only that you should clothe me with the vesture of the episcopate and make me (bishop) of a depopulated see, such as Dabakua, even though there be nothing in it save three minas, for I am not able to endure this (matter) on account of the idea which overpowered me, when I saw those whom you consecrated for money, and they were unworthy, whilst I am rejected on account of the fact that I am poor and have nothing, (although) you know me". The aforementioned patriarch was very modest, as a gentle lamb, and he had not done anything of what we have mentioned of his own accord. Even the bread which he ate, if they left him alone (and) did not give him to eat, he would not ask for it (the bread), and likewise (with) the water which he drank. He was as (one) dumb. His relatives and his disciples dominated him and they were directing him in everything. They were those who used to take money from him whom they presented to him (the patriarch), in order that he (the patriarch) might make of him (the candidate) what they wanted. If he (the patriarch) wished to feed a man with bread, he was not able (to do so) without their charity. If a man solicited anything from him (the patriarch) he would send him to them. He who solicited from him the priesthood, he would send to them that they might bargain with him, otherwise, they would not give him (the patriarch) the possibility to ordain him.
When this monk whom we have mentioned, came to him (the patriarch), he sent him to them as usual. He (the monk) went to them and he spoke
--- 182 ---
to them as he had spoken to the patriarch. One of them, namely, Abba
Khael, bishop of Sakha, who was the son of the brother of
the patriarch, insulted him when he learned from him that he desired the
episcopate for nothing. He said to him after the insult: "If you
mention with your mouth anything about this matter, I shall cause the
disciples to revile you". Wrath obtained the mastery over him (the
monk), and he rose up and he went to Misr and he complained of
his case to the Sultan. He wrote a number of letters against the patriarch
that they might be submitted to the king al-Hakim bi Amr Allah. When
the archons at Misr learned of this, they prevented him from
doing it, and they wrote for him letters to the patriarch, and he (the
patriarch) was at that time in Wadi Habib. When the letters reached
him (the patriarch), he gave them to the aforementioned son of his brother.
When he learned their contents, he slandered the monk, and he brought
the Arabs who were the guards of the monasteries, and he
delivered to them the monk. They (the Arabs) took him and cast him
into a well and they stoned him with stones to kill him. He (the monk)
found in the well a place (which was) a cleft and he entered it and hid
himself, and not a single stone reached him. When the patriarch
heard the news, he put dust on his head and he plucked out the hair
of his beard and he excommunicated the son of his brother on account
of what he had done with regard to the monk. He sent his disciples
to the well and they brought him (the monk) up out of it and they consoled
him and asked him to be comforted. The patriarch promised that he
would make him bishop of a see which would become vacant. He
(the monk) waited patiently till two sees had become vacant, but he
(the patriarch) did not make him (bishop) of either of them, but his
(the patriarch's) relatives and disciples used to speak to him (the monk)
of that which caused pain to his heart. Then he (the monk) was filled
with rage at their preventing him from (obtaining) the episcopate, the
love of which had entered his heart. This was the first pain which
Satan suffered, namely, pride, for it is written : "If the
lust should conceive, it brings forth sin, but if the sin should be
--- 183 ---
perfected, it brings forth death". John the monk went to Misr to set forth his complaint. From here we break off the account now about what he did until we recount it in its place. As for the king whom we mentioned previously, he was invested with the authority of the kingdom while still a very young child. He grew up and became big and became as a roaring lion seeking for a prey. He became more fond of shedding blood than a ferocious lion, so that a number (of people) counted them that were killed by his command and their number was eighteen thousand men. First of all, he began by killing the notables of his State and his secretaries, and by cutting off the hands of people. The first whom he killed was the master Barguwan who had brought him up, since he used to call him in his childhood the lizard. He (al-Hakim) sent to him a master from him and he (al-Hakim) said to him: "Say to him (Barguwan), the small lizard has become a great dragon and it calls you". The master went to him and told him what he (al-Hakim) had commanded him. He (Barguwan) came to him, being terror-stricken. He (al-Hakim) commanded that his head should be cut off. Likewise a great amir called Al-Kayid Fadl----a great and sincere intimacy existed between them---entered one day the palace, as (was) his custom, and he found the aforementioned king seated, and before him there was a comely child whom he had bought for a hundred dinars, and in his hand there was a knife with which he had slaughtered him, and he had extracted his liver and his intestines and was cutting them up. He (the amir) went out afraid and terror-stricken to his residence, and he
--- 184 ---
informed his relatives and he wrote his will. After an hour, he (al-Hakim) sent to him one who cut off his head. It happened, that if he (al-Hakim) wished to kill a man, he would bestow upon him money and robes of honour, and after this, he would send one who would cut off his head and bring it to him. He (al-Hakim) did not cease from doing this till he had destroyed his notables and the chiefs of his army. Then he turned again to the archons and the scribes and took from them ten from among their chiefs, (including) Abu Nagah al-Kabir who was an Orthodox Christian. He caused him to come to him and he said to him: "I desire that you should forsake your religion and turn to my religion, and I will make you my wazir, and you shall conduct the affairs of my kingdom". He (Abu Nagah) said to him: "Grant to me a delay until to-morrow that I may take counsel with myself". He (al-Hakim) granted to him a delay and let him go. He went to his residence and caused his friends to come and he made known to them what had happened to him with him (al-Hakim). He said to them: "I am ready to die for the Name of the Lord Christ. My purpose was not to delay until to-morrow in order to take counsel with myself, but I said this so that I might meet you and my relatives and that I might take leave of you and take leave of them, and that I might give my instructions to you and give my instructions to them. Now, O my brethren, seek not this transitory glory and lose the everlasting and eternal glory of the Lord Christ. He has satisfied our souls with good things of the earth. Behold through His mercy He has called us to the kingdom of the heavens. Strengthen then your hearts". He strengthened the hearts of all by his speech and confirmed (in) them (the intention) to die for the Name of the Lord Christ. He made for them on that day a great banquet and they remained with him till the evening and they went to their residences. When it was morning, he (Abu Nagah) went to al-Hakim bi Amr Allah. He (al-Hakim) said to him: "O Nagah, tell me, have you decided?". He said to him: "Yes". He said: "In what wise?". He said: "My remaining in my religion". Then al-Hakim endeavoured by every kind of inducement
--- 185 ---
and threat to turn him away from his religion, but he would not do (so), and he (al-Hakim) was not able to make him change his resolution with regard to his belief. Then he ordered that his garments should be removed from him and that he should be fastened to the rack and that he should be scourged. So they scourged him five hundred lashes on his soft body until his flesh was torn and his blood flowed like water. The thongs were of the sinews of bulls, of which a giant (could) not endure (one) lash, more especially that man who lived in luxury and ease. Then he (al-Hakim) ordered that he should be scourged (till) the completion of one thousand lashes. When he had been scourged another three hundred (lashes), he said: "I am thirsty". So they ceased from scourging him, and they informed al-Hakim of this. He said: "Give to him to drink after you have told him to turn to our religion". When they had brought to him water and had told him what the king had ordered them (to say), he said to them: "Return to him his water, for I have no need of it, because my Lord Jesus Christ has given me to drink". A number of assistants and others who were there bare witness that they saw water dripping from his beard. When he had said this, he gave up the ghost.
When they informed the hard-hearted king of this death, he ordered that he should be scourged (till) the completion of the thousand lashes, although he was dead, and on this wise his martyrdom was accomplished. May his blessings be with us!
Another among them (the ten chiefs) was known as the chief Fahd ibn Abraham. He (al-Hakim) had set him over all the secretaries and chiefs of the Diwans. He caused him to be brought into his presence and he said to him: "You know that I chose you
_ 186 ---
and set you over all those who are in my State. Listen to me and join me in my religion and I will exalt you higher than you are, and you shall be to me as a brother", but he did not answer his (al-Hakim's) words. He (al-Hakim) ordered that he should be beheaded and that his body should be burned with fire. The fire remained alight upon him for three days, but he was not burned. His right hand remained as if the fire had not approached it at all. This was a miracle (performed) by God---Praise be to Him!---for he was a pious man in whom there was great compassion. He did not at all turn away him who solicited anything from him, so that if he passed through the streets riding, and there met him one who solicited alms from him, he would stretch out his hand to his sleeve thinking that there was nothing in it, and he would find wherewith to give to him who asked. Wherefore this miracle was manifested in his right hand which he used to stretch out for almsgiving at all times, for he performed very kind deeds through God. May God grant to us all acceptation through the blessing of their prayers!
As for the remainder of those ten chief judges, when he (al-Hakim) asked them to forsake their religion and to depart from it, they did not do this, nor did they obey him. Then he (al-Hakim) commanded them to be tortured and they were scourged with thongs. When they had been scourged exceedingly, four of them (the chiefs) embraced Al-Islam. As for one of these four, he died the same night, and as for the other three, after the expiration of the time of the disturbance, they returned to the belief of Christianity. As for the remainder of the ten (chiefs), they died under the torture and obtained eternal life. This king (al-Hakim) did deeds which it was unheard of that any of the kings before him had done the like. He did not adhere to one opinion or to one belief. His aspect was as (that of) a lion, and his
-- 187 ---
two eyes were large (and) of a blueness in colour. If he (al-Hakim) looked at a man, he would tremble owing to the greatness of his awe (of him). His voice was loud and fearful. He used to observe the stars and (study) the false science 2. He used to serve the star called Saturn, as he imagined, and he used to continue turning round the eastern mountain 3 at Misr at night, and with him there were three riders. Satan used to take on for him the likeness of that star, and he (al-Hakim) used to converse with him (Satan) about many matters, and he used to offer to him (Satan) sacrifices. He gave up the attire of kings on account of this, and he wore a black woollen garment. He let his hair grow till it descended to his shoulders. He gave up riding on dromedaries and marked race-horses and decorated mules, and he rode a black ass. He used to walk alone in every place and often he took with him (only) a single rider. He used to walk in the streets at night also and to listen to what men said about him in their houses. He had many spies and informers going around night and day who brought to him information, and who did not hide from him anything of what happened in all the lands of Misr. Men thought that the power of God had descended upon him on account of the kingship which He had entrusted to him. He had a man called al-Hadi, and with him there were twelve men who became his disciples, and they used to call
2 i. e. astrology. Cf. S. Lane-Poole, op. cit., p. i3i.
3 i. e. the Mukattam Hills to the East of Cairo, cf. B. T. A. Evetts, Churches and Monasteries of Egypt, etc., pp. 114 and 62.
--- 188 ---
men to him, and they (the men) used to listen (to him). He used to say to those who were gathered together to him that al-Hakim was the Christ and many sayings which it is not permissible to mention. Al-Hakim used to go out many times from his castle at night borne in a litter on the shoulders of four servants. He ordered that a woman should not go out at all from her house, neither to the bath nor elsewhere. If he caught a woman who had gone out at night or in the day, he would hand her over to the chief of the watch who would chastise her with a chastisement that would lead to her death. He ordered that Jew's mallow 1 should not be eaten, and he was obeyed openly, but not in secret. He ordered that no one should drink nabidh, and he wrote concerning this decrees to the rest of the cities, and the vessels in which there was nabidh were broken in every place. Then (it happened) that he was passing along one day, and a dog jumped in front of him and the ass which was under him started, so he ordered that every dog in Misr should be killed. It is recorded that a dog howled exceedingly without the city, and there gathered to it many dogs and they climbed to the eastern mountain and they went away. He (al-Hakim) ordered the swine which were in the land of Misr to be killed and they killed all of them, and there were in it (Egypt) many swine, especially in al-Basmur. Then he (al-Hakim) ordered that the nakus should not be struck in the lands of Misr, and, after a little, he ordered that the crosses which were upon the domes of the churches should be pulled down, and that the crosses which were upon the hands of the people should be erased 8. Then he ordered that the Christians
1 i. e. Corchorus olitorius.
8 i. e. the crosses tattooed on the wrists. A practice still in force with many Copts and Eastern Christians.
--- 189 ---
should have a belt fastened round their waists and that they should wear black turbans on their heads and that they should ride with wooden stirrups and that none of them should ride with iron stirrups, and that they should wear crosses a span in length, then he ordered again to make them (the crosses) a cubit and a half (in length). (He ordered) that the Jews should dye the borders of their turbans and that they should wear belts and that they should make (for themselves) a wooden ball in the form of the head of the calf which they worshipped in the desert, and that none of the Christians and Jews should enter a bath with Muslims. He (al-Hakim) set apart for them baths and he placed (upon) the door of the bath of the Christians a wooden cross and upon the door of the bath of the Jews a wooden log. Then he ordered that raisins should be burned, and what was burned of them in Misr and its districts and (in) Syria was calculated, and it was six hundred thousand satarah, and likewise that which he seized in Misr. He broke (the vessels containing) honey and cast it (the honey) into the river. One of the merchants lost all (his) fortune, the price of the honey and the raisins, and he cited our lord, al-Hakim, before the Kadi al-Kudah, Ibn an-Nu‘man. He said to him (Ibn an-Nu‘man) that he had come to Misr with his merchandise which was raisins and honey for eating and for making sweetmeat, and that he (al-Hakim) had caused (the vessels containing it) to be broken and (the contents) to be cast into the river. The Kadi treated them both equally (in the matter of) seating (in the court) and (in) the trial. The merchant entreated al-Hakim for his money, the full price of his merchandise being one thousand
--- 190 ---
dinars. Then al-Hakim said to him: "You have brought this merchandise for doing something illicit (with it), otherwise, swear that you have brought it for making sweetmeat and for eating, and take its price". The merchant entreated that the money should be brought before he swore. Then al-Hakim ordered the money to be brought, and the merchant swore and received his money, and there was written with regard to him that he had taken it (the money) and had received his due (for his merchandise) in full. He (the merchant) entreated that a decree should be written for him to have charge of it and to keep it, and this was done for him. When judgment had been pronounced upon the matter which (was) between them, the Kadi stood before al-Hakim and saluted him with the salutation of the Caliph. The Kadi increased in dignity with him (al-Hakim) and he loaded him with great honours.
He (al-Hakim) used to walk (abroad) at night and he found sometimes those who roast (meat) heating the ovens to roast therein, and he cast some of them into the ovens so that they were burnt. He found on a certain night a man frying meat in a frying-pan and he ordered that his hands should be cut off and cast into the frying-pan. That man said to him: "Since when did the Commander of the Faithful learn frying? We knew him only as one who roasts, since when did he become one who frys?" He (al-Hakim) laughed at him and ordered him to be released.
A man brought to him (al-Hakim) once a silver dish 2 snatched away from the hand of its owner in the market. When they caused him (the man) to stand before him (al-Hakim) with the silver dish in his hand, he said to him: "I desire that you should run before me and show me how you ran when you snatched it (the dish) away from the hand of its owner". He (the man) did this, and he departed running, and no one dared to follow him.
He (al-Hakim) passed on a certain occasion through the store-
2 A dish for carrying cups, cf. R. Dozy, op. cit., vol. I, p. 822.
--- 191 ---
houses in which there was trefoil, firewood and reeds, and he ordered them to be burned. They were burned while he rode by (and) watched the burning of the fire in them until all of them were burned, and the price of them was lost for their owners.
On a certain night ten men furnished with arms met him (al-Hakim) and they asked him to give them money. He said to them: "Divide (yourselves) into two parties and fight before me. To him who vanquishes I will pay the money, because he will be worthy to receive honour". They did this and they fought until nine of them were killed and one remained. He (al-Hakim) said to him: "You, indeed, art worthy to receive honour, and he threw to him many dinars from his sleeve. He (the man) bent down to take them from the ground, and he (al-Hakim) made a sign to those who were riding with him, and they leaped upon him and killed him, and they gathered together those dinars, and he returned them to his sleeve.
There was constructed for him (al-Hakim) in his castle a marble basin and water was brought to it by means of a water-wheel and it (the water) ran into it (the basin) through a canal. Outside the basin there was an enclosure (hasar) of marble and there was sculptured upon it all (kinds of) birds. He ordered that there should be set in the wall a thin wooden arrow jutting out, and that its extremity should project out from it (the wall) as far as the basin of marble and should be level with its edge. It was (placed) very high at the top of the wall, as was related by him who saw it. Then he (al-Hakim) ordered that a public crier should proclaim that to him who walked upon this arrow and jumped (from it) into the basin and fell into the water there should be paid six hundred dirhams. He (al-Hakim) caused a number (of people) to be tempted by this, and through the love of dirhams a number of people walked upon it and jumped (from it) and fell upon the floor and were killed. Then he (al-Hakim) ordered that the crosses of the Christians should be of wood, and each cross weighing five Egyptian ratl (and) stamped with a leaden seal upon which
--- 192 ---
was the name of the king, and (he ordered) that they should hang it about their necks with ropes of palm fibres. Likewise, the weight of the ball which was about the necks of the Jews should be five ratl. He among them who was found without a seal should be contemned and should pay a fine for the offence. Many of the Christians and the Jews from their chiefs (down) to the lowest of them denied (their faith) on account of this, and they did not endure patiently this disgrace and affliction.
It is recorded that, when al-Hakim forbade the Cairene (Masriyat) women to go out in the daytime, they made likenesses of women from paper and bread and radishes, and they set them up for him in the way, where he walked outside Misr and in their hands (were) written papers in which they reviled him and defamed his sister. He (al-Hakim) used to order the papers to be taken from them (the likenesses) and he would read them and find them after this manner. This they did a number of times, and on account of this, he ordered Misr to be set on fire and he plundered it. He did not live in luxury as (other) kings, but he used to travel in the mountains and the deserts at night and in the day, and he shed in his days much blood.
We return now to finish (the account) of what the aforementioned monk John did in the way of abominable things in the days of this king (al-Hakim). This (was) that when he ascertained that he would not be consecrated bishop, he went to Misr and he wrote a letter
193 ---
in which he recounted every evil (thing) concerning the patriarch, and he went out to the mountain and stood before al-Hakim and said to him: "You are the Caliph of God on His earth, help me for the sake of God". He delivered to him (al-Hakim) the letter and he took it from him and in it there was written: 'You are the king of the earth, but for the Christians (there is) a king (who) does not accept you on account of the great amount of what he has stored up in the way of abundant riches, because he sells the episcopate for money, and he does not do what is agreeable to God the Exalted', and he mentioned in the letter many abominable things about him (the patriarch) such as this. When al-Hakim learned the contents of the letter, he ordered that the doors of the churches should be closed and that the patriarch should be brought (to him). He (the patriarch) had become old and was advanced in age. When he was brought, he (al-Hakim) imprisoned him for three months, and his imprisonment occurred on the twelfth day of Hatur (in) the year seven hundred and twenty-seven of the Martyrs. Then he (al-Hakim) ordered that he (the patriarch) should be cast to the lions to eat. When he was thrown to them, God changed their nature for him, and protected him from them and kept them away from him and restrained them from him, and they did not eat him. Al-Hakim reproached their keeper and said to him: "You have taken bribes from the Christians and have fed the lions abundantly and have satisfied them and have not starved them". He ordered that the lions should be starved again, and that, when their hunger became violent, a sheep should be slain and that the patriarch should be divested of his clothes and that his body should be smeared with its (the sheep's) blood, and that the lions should be set loose upon him. They did this to him (the patriarch), but they (the lions) did not harm him at all. John the aforementioned monk used to go most of his time to the patriarch, while he was in imprisonment for the sake of gloating over him. It happened on the second day of his imprisonment that al-Hakim ordered that a decree should be written to the wall of Jerusalem that
--- 194 ---
the Church of the Resurrection should be demolished. The scribe wrote to the wall a letter (and) this (is) a copy of it: 'An order of the Imam 1 has been issued to you to demolish the Rubbish Mound 2 and to make its heaven 3 an earth and its length a breadth'. The writer of the decree was a Nestorian Christian known as Ibn Sirin. When the aforementioned (scribe) had despatched the decree which he had written, he became as one drunk who awakes from his drunkenness, and he thought within himself about what he had done and he said: "I wrote with my hand that the Church of the Resurrection should be demolished. Why did I not endure death before doing this, and why did I not endure the cutting off of my right hand, and (then) I would not have written this? If I had refrained from writing it, what would have been done to me beyond beheading me, and I could not have wished for a martyrdom greater than this" 5. He used to say this and similar things to it and to repeat this by heart night and day. Through the intensity of his sorrow he became ill and was confined to a sick-bed, and he used to say: "O my right hand, how did you dare to do this terrible thing? I, also, shall do to you what you deserve, and I shall not cease from afflicting you". He began to lift up his hand and to strike the ground with it, and he did not cease from this throughout the days of his illness until his fingers were cut to pieces and he died.
After some days, al-Hakim sent forth decrees to all the districts of his kingdom that the churches should be demolished, and that there should be brought to his castle what (was) in them in the way of gold and silver vessels, and that the bishops in every place should be asked (for money), and that the Christians should not buy
1 The Fatimid Califs styled themselves Imams, i. e. leaders of the Faithful, hence the use here of the word Imamah.
2 Kimamah, a term of contempt applied to the Church of the Resurrection (Kiyamah).
3 i. e. its roof.
5 i. e. for the sake of the Church of the Resurrection at Jerusalem.
--- 195 ---
or sell in any place. A number of them denied their religion on account of this. Most of the Egyptian (Masriyin) Christians divested themselves of (their) distinctive dress and the cross and the girdle and the wooden stirrups, and they imitated the Muslims, and no one exposed them, and he who saw them thought that they had embraced Al-Islam.
There was a deacon whose name was Bukairah. He left the service in the Diwan to which he was (attached) and he wore his cross and he went to the Castle and cried at its gate, (saying): "Christ (is) the Son of God". When al-Hakim heard his voice, he ordered him to be brought (to him), and he endeavoured (to make him) deny his religion and to acknowledge al-Islam, but he did not do (so). He was as the firm rock which is not disturbed. The more he (al-Hakim) spoke to him, the more he cried out and said: "Christ (is) the Son of God". He (al-Hakim) commanded that a collar and an iron chain should be cast about his throat and that he should be cast into the Prison of Blood. A trustworthy man testified to me (that) he went to him to visit him in (his) imprisonment on account of the friendship (that) was between them, and that he found him in the following state, being fastened to a large peg driven into the ground. He was standing praying, and in his hand there was a small writing-book, and his face (was) towards the East, (and) he was reading and praying, in spite of the weight of that iron with which he was bound, and when he saw him, he rejoiced with him, as if he were at a marriage-feast.
This man said to me: "When I visited him and (afterwards) wished to separate from him, I said to him, 'What do you want me (to say) to your house and to your relatives?' He said, 'Go to them and say to them: I (shall be) with you (for) the remainder of the day before sunset, so be not grieved' ". This man who related this to me was chief engineer of those who worked at sawing, (and) his name was Menas and he was my uncle, the brother of my mother, and through his work be found the means to visit the aforesaid Bukairah. He (it was) who
--- 196 ---
brought me up, and he swore to me, saying: "I had not reached my home and started to go to the house of Bukairah, as he told me (to do), when al-Hakim sent and brought him (Bukairah) out from (his) imprisonment and wrote for him a decree that no one should hinder Bukairah al-Rasidi from buying and selling nor in any other affair.
When he (Bukairah) had received the decree, he went down to Misr, and he went around to the Christians who were alarmed, and he reassured them and swore to them that after three days all the disadvantages from which they were suffering would be removed from them. He used to purchase for them all that they were in need of in the way of water and food and he used to send it to them by his boys. He did this for three days, and on the morning of the fourth day an order (from) al-Hakim went forth that the Christians might buy and sell as was their custom. He (al-Hakim) wrote a decree that whosoever of the Christians in Misr wished to go to the lands of the Greeks (ar-Rum) or to the lands of Abyssinia and Nubia or to other (lands) should not be prevented (from doing so) by anyone. Before this, they were prevented from (doing) it.
When Bukairah was dismissed from the Diwan in which he was, he devoted himself to visiting the prisoners and to taking to them what they were in need of, and he used to visit those imprisoned (for the non-payment of) the poll-tax. If he found anyone who was asked (to pay) what he could not, he would go bail for him and would bring him out from (his) imprisonment, and he would go to the chiefs and to the rich men and he would take from them what he would have to pay on his account in going bail for him, and he would free him. He (Bukairah) trusted in the Lord Christ with (all) his strength (and) with all his heart. Likewise, if he knew that any of the brethren, the Faithful, were in need of food, he would give to them what was sufficient for them for each day. He performed very many good and fine deeds which we have not mentioned, but we have contented ourselves with
--- 197 ---
a few of them. From the beginning, when this affair happened in those davs. he (Bukairah) did not break his fast during the day, and on the days on which he communicated, he did not (even) break his fast on them till the night 1. All this I knew from him on account of the friendship (which) existed between us. Most of the time, I used to sleep at his home, and he would bring to me some book to read for a part of the night, (and) then I would sleep a little, but, as for him, he would remain erect till the morning. When it was the morrow, he would go to the work which he had chosen for himself, and it became for him like a profession and a way of life. (Once), when wheat and all food were lacking, it happened one day that he purchased bread and distributed it according to his custom to the hidden and the poor till there remained to him only one loaf with which to break his fast. He placed it (the loaf) upon the table and said grace and sat down to break his fast. He gave thanks and stretched forth his hand to eat, when he heard a knocking at the door. He said to his boy: "See (who is at) the door!" The boy went out and found a hidden man (who) said to him: "Say to the Shaikh Bukairah: 'You have forgotten me to-day and I have nothing wherewith to break my fast' ". The boy went in to him and informed him of what the man had said. He (Bukairah) gave to him the loaf and he remained fasting until the night of the next day.
There was, moreover, a man, high in rank among his people (and) very rich, (who) became poor and his money was exhausted, so that nothing remained to him, and he was in want, and shame caused him not to show his face nor to beg from anyone. He sold all that (was) in his house, so that nothing remained to him except the clothes which
1 It is customary in the Coptic Church for the communicant to drink a little water after communicating and to eat the antidoron.
--- 198 ---
(were) upon him (which) covered him. If he had had another (garment) in which to go to the church, he would have sold it. I do not know how Bukairah, the servant of the Lord Jesus Christ, knew about him. He (Bukairah) took ten sacks in which there were ten ardabs of wheat, and he sent them to him by his boy. He did not find him at that time in his dwelling-place, so he emptied out the wheat in his house (and left it) with his wife and said to her: "Inform the master of the house and say to him, 'So and so has sent you this blessing' ". He went to his friend and informed him of it. When the man came to his dwelling-place (and) perceived the wheat, he asked his wife about it. She informed him (and said): "It is a blessing which the Lord has sent to us in order that we may live through it". He said to her: "Who is it who has brought it?" She said to him: "(It is) from Bukairah ar-Rasidi the scribe". When he heard this, his bosom became contracted and he said: "As the Lord lives, I will sit in my dwelling-place till God shall take away my soul, but I will not take alms from anyone, nor will I be disgraced". He began to weep and to strike his face. His believing wife said to him:' 'God has provided us with our food to-day. Rise up now and wash your face, your hands and your feet, and pray and adore the Lord and thank (Him) for His mercy to you, break your fast, and when it is still early in the morning, return the wheat to its owner". He was comforted by her speech and his heart rejoiced and he ate his food and he sighed. When he was sleeping that night, he saw in his dream, as it were, the Lord Christ standing before him, and He said to him: "Why is your heart sorrowful?" He said to Him: "O Master, how should my heart not be sorrowful, (since) after those riches and the mercy which I and my fathers enjoyed (my) condition has ended in this poverty, so that I am brought to ask for alms? It is better for me to die of hunger in preference to this". He said to him: "Grieve not, for this wheat
--- 199 ---
belongs not to anyone save to Me, and I sent it to you by the hand of my minister". He said to Him: "O my Master, no minister of Yours came to me. but (it was) Bukairah ar-Rasidi (who) sent it to me". The Lord said to him: "As though you are not aware till now that Bukairah is My minister". When he heard this, he awoke and he informed his wife of his dream and their hearts rejoiced that they had not to return the wheat, but that they might live on it.
As for Abba Zacharias, he remained under arrest
for three months, and they were threatening him every day with burning
by fire and with throwing (him) to the lions, if he did not enter the
religion of al-Islam. They said to him: "If you will agree to this,
you shall receive great glory and al-Hakim will make you Kadi al-
Kudah, but he did not pay any attention to them nor did he incline
towards them. There was with him (Zacharias) in (his) imprisonment
an evil Muslim, and he said to him: "O Shaikh of evil, embrace Al-Islam
so that they may set you free and you shall receive from them great
honour". The patriarch said to him: "My reliance is in God Who
has power, and He will help me". When he had finished (this) speech,
one of the Turks came in to him and struck him on his mouth
with a club. The patriarch said to him: "As for the body, you have
power over it to destroy it as you will, but as for the soul, it is in the hand
of the Lord".
There was a man of the Arabs, a chief of the Two Villages, whose name was Madi ibn Makrab. He was the chief of his company and he was (held) in high esteem by al-Hakim. He had arranged with him (al-Hakim) to supply every day his wants whatsoever they might be. He had a Christian friend, an employee, who was in debt to the Diwan for three thousand dinars, and he was not in a position to pay them. He was imprisoned with the father, the patriarch Abba Zacharias. When news of him reached Madi of the Villages, he came to him that he might be informed correctly of his news, and he said: "Why did they imprison you?" He said: "There (still) remains for me (to pay) to the Diwan the three thousand dinars,
--- 200 ---
and I have nothing (wherewith) to pay them". He said to him: "I shall make it my business for to-day (to speak) with al-Hakim in order to free you". That pious Christian said to him: "I cannot go out and leave this father, the Shaikh, the patriarch". Madi said to him: "What is the crime of this patriarch, that they have imprisoned him?", and he informed him of the cause. Madi was afraid lest (in) the speech concerning his (Zacharias') affair there might be something of which the Sultan would not approve, and that he would not release him. He said: "I shall arrange something about this matter, that is, I shall make it my business (to speak) with him (al-Hakim) to-day, in order to entreat (him) to set free all who are in this chamber. If he orders this (to be done), you will be liberated and he (the patriarch) (will be) among all those set free". Then Madi went out and he met al-Hakim and he entreated him for all (who were in the chamber), and he caused them to be set free. When the patriarch was liberated, he went down to Misr, and all the Christians rejoiced greatly, but they advised him to depart to the desert, to Wadi Habib, for fear lest his release might have been (through) an oversight on the part of al-Hakim, or that he (al-Hakim) might forget that he (the patriarch) (had been) in that place from which Madi of the Villages had released him. He (Zacharias) accepted their advice and he departed immediately to Wadi Habib. He remained in it for nine years, since the churches which were there were safe from demolition. (The reason for) this was that al-Hakim had sent an amir from Misr and there had accompanied him workmen and surveyors (with) pick-axes in ships, to demolish all the churches which were in the desert. When they reached Tarnut, they said: "We are afraid of the Arabs who are in this mountain on account of their great number". For
--- 201 ---
this reason God brought to nothing their deliberations through something (which) was manifested to them from God, and He preserved all the churches of the desert. It is recorded that the Martyr George appeared to them and drove them back and terrified them, so that they returned, as it is written in the Apocalypse of John the woman who brought forth the male child, the dragon poured forth behind her a river of water. And the Lord gave to her deliverance from it in the place in which she abode. Thus, the churches which are in this mountain found rest, as though the earth had opened her mouth and swallowed up the water, and thus these churches were saved from the disturbance.
At that time a Turkish amir obtained the head of the father, the preacher, my lord Mark the Evangelist. It was said to him: "The Christians will pay to you whatsoever you desirest for it". Then he carried it (the head) to Misr. When Bukairah ar-Rasidi, the Cross-bearer, was informed of this, he took the head from him (the Turk) for three hundred dinars, and he carried it to the father, the patriarch, who (was) at that time in the Monastery of Abba Macarius, and most of the bishops were dwelling with him there through their fear of affronts and (on account of) fatigue. Most of the Christians also used to enter the desert twice in the year, namely, (at) the Feast of Epiphany and (at) the Feast of the Resurrection which is Easter. They used to long for the Eucharist as a babe longs for the milk of its mother's breast. There was for the Christians during these nine years great affliction, expulsion (from office) and execration and imprecation on the part of the Muslims, and they used to spit in their faces. Most of these (afflictions) happened at the city of Tinnis and (in) its districts. If a Christian passed through them, they (the inhabitants) would insult him and would say to him: "Break this cross and enter the all-embracing religion". If a Christian
--- 202 ---
were to forget his cross and were to walk without his cross he would meet with much disgrace.
I will acquaint you with another miracle about which my father according to the flesh informed me. His trade was building, and in him (there was) piety and affection. I, the wretched Michael, was a child at the time of this affliction. He took me with him one day, when he was going to a village to build in it. and I was learning from him the trade of carpentry, since he was a mason and a carpenter. (Suddenly), he stood still astonished and clapped his hands together. I said: "O my father, inform me of what has befallen you". He sat down and his eyes overflowed with tears, and he said to me: "O my son, sit down and listen to what happened. Three months ago I went out from Misr, and God caused a loss of memory to come upon me, and my tongue was tied so that I might not inform you about this, except at this hour, for God the Exalted has enlightened my understanding and He has caused my tongue to be loosened so that I remember this. It is, that I was working in Misr and that illness overtook me, and that I feared lest the illness might become severe and that I should not have anyone who would attend to me. I went out to walk little by little towards the shore and I found a ship going down to al-Mahallah, and I went on board her. She was overloaded with people and they were very crowded together in her. There was no Christian among them except a bishop and his disciple in the prow of the ship on a wood plane. I (was) in the midst of the people lying down in pain. The people crowded around me and buffeted me and said to me: "O dog, O vile one, O Christian, depart from us". They spat on me and inflicted on me every sort of torment. They imputed to me falsely what they did (themselves)
--- 203 ---
in the way of vices, and when their actions against me increased, I raised my eyes to heaven and said: "O my Master Jesus Christ, if You do not manifest to me something whereby to reassure my heart, and that I may know that I shall have a reward on account of what has happened to me through these (people), then I shall deny Your religion". The Lord testified to me, and the thought had not left my heart nor the speech my lips before I became, as it were, translated from this world, and it all vanished from me, and I was, as it were, in another world, and I was in a lofty luminous place. I am not able to describe with my tongue its beauty and its splendour, for there is not in this world anything like to it nor resembling to it. I saw the Lord Christ---to Him be glory---but I did not make out His real features and I was not able to distinguish Him clearly on account of the abundance of the light which was about Him. He said to me: "Why are you of little faith? This is the place of the Christians who endure trials patiently for My Name's sake. Is your heart (now) reassured?" On account of the intensity of (my) illness and joy, O my son, Michael, and of the splendour which I beheld, I cried out, saying: "I thank You, O Lord, my heart is reassured". All who were in the ship heard me when I said that. I was not, as it were, in a ship. After this, I arose from my sleep, and I saw the ship and the people, and I was actually among them, and what I had seen vanished from me. Those who were in the ship said to me: "Alas for you! What (is it) that has befallen you? You are mad and you have an evil spirit". I said: "I have not an evil spirit, but God knows what has happened to me". Then I saw this for the second time, as a likeness of Him, and the Master Christ said to me: "Was your heart strengthened?" and I cried out and repeated my first statement, so that all who were in the ship marvelled. Then I saw Him again for the third time, and then my heart was strengthened. When those who were in the ship heard me saying these words for the third time, some of them said to the others: "Perhaps, he has seen what it is not lawful for him to say
--- 204 ---
to us, but let us go with him to the bishop", and they went with me to him and they informed him of what had happened to me. He kissed me and strengthened my heart, and he was kind to me before I said to him what I had seen and what had befallen me. He spoke with me in Coptic, and those Muslims did not know what he was saying to me. When I opened my mouth to tell him, I became, the Lord is a witness. like to him whose tongue is tied, and I was not able to say a single word of what I had seen. I made an obeisance to him, and I said to him: "Absolve me, I am not able to say anything". When I reached my house, I wished to tell you, you and your brethren, but my tongue was tied and it would not make any mention of it (the matter), except at this hour, while I was walking with you. I have mentioned now this wonder on account of your love (for me), and because it is an order from God, and (that) for the Faithful, on hearing about it, (there may be) profit and strength of heart in the Faith". I do not doubt the words of my father---may God have mercy upon him!
Of these nine years during which there was chastisement from the Lord, there were three years during which no one was able to make the oblation in the lands of Misr, except in the monasteries alone. The virtuous Faithful could not endure to be away from the Holy Mysteries, and they used to beg the walis and to bribe them with many dinars and presents so that they might give to them a permit to communicate at night secretly in remote and ruined churches and to lodge in them on the nights of the great feasts in order that they might pray and communicate at night. The vestments and Church instruments were concealed in their houses, but the books had been
--- 205 ---
burnt. After this, after another three years, they began to restore the churches in the houses and to consecrate them secretly and to pray in them and to communicate (in them). The Possessor of the Order used to write to the Sultan who was al-Hakim, that the Christians had built churches in Misr and in the Rif secretly and that they were communicating in them, but he (al-Hakim) ignored them. After that, a number of Christians who had embraced Al-Islam stood before him (al-Hakim), and he said to them: "What do you want?" They said to him: "That you should let us return to our religion". He said to each one of them: "Where is your girdle your cross and your ghiyar?" They brought them out from under their garments and he (al-Hakim) ordered them to wear them in front of him. He despatched with each an equerry to write for him a decree to be kept with him that he should not be interfered with. Many of those who had embraced Al-Islam returned to their religion. There was amongst the number of those who had embraced Al-Islam a monk whose name was Poemen (who) returned to his religion and he begged al-Hakim to empower him to build a monastery outside Misr in the name of the martyr of Christ my lord Mercurius, and it is the monastery of Sahran. He built it and dwelt in it with his brother monks. Al-Hakim used to come to them many times, and to stay there and to eat of their humble food. All who wanted anything from al-Hakim used to go to Poemen the monk to speak with him about it at the time of his (al-Hakim's) presence at his monastery, and he used to settle it (the
--- 206 ---
matter) for him. When Poemen perceived that his words had become acceptable to him (al-Hakim). he reminded him of the case of Abba Zacharias the patriarch, and he begged him to allow the (re)building of the churches. He (al-Hakim) promised him (to do) this. Then he (Poemen) sent to bring the patriarch from the Monastery of Abba Macarius, and he concealed him with him in the Monastery of Mercurius at Sahran.
When al-Hakim came to him, as was his custom, he (Poemen) brought forth the patriarch to him. He (Zacharias) saluted him with the salutation of kings and he blessed him and prayed for him. Al-Hakim said to Poemen the monk: "Who is this?". He (Poemen) said: "It is our father, the patriarch, whom I sent to bring, as you commanded". He (al-Hakim) beckoned to him with his finger, and he saluted him. There was with him (Zacharias) a number of bishops. He (al-Hakim) said: "Who are these?" The monk Poemen said to him: "These are his vicars in the lands, namely, the bishops". Al-Hakim looked at him (Zacharias) attentively and he marvelled at him, because he was humble in appearance but was awe-inspiring in himself. He was small of stature, thin bearded and ugly by nature. He (al-Hakim) saw the bishops who were with him, elders of handsome aspect, splendid in appearance and of complete stature. He said to them: "Is this the chief of you all?" They said to him: "Yes, O our master. May the Lord establish your kingdom!" He marvelled and said to them: "Unto where does his judgment extend?" They said to him: "His judgment is executed in the lands of Misr, Abyssinia, Nubia, the Pentapolis, Africa and other places". His astonishment increased and he said: "How (is it that) all of these obey him without troops or money with which to spend on them? " They said to him: "All these tribes obey him by means of a single cross". He said to them: "And what is this cross?" They said to him: "It is a model of that upon which Christ was crucified. Whatsoever he (the patriarch) wants
--- 207 ---
from them, he writes to them and places it (the mark of the cross) between the lines of the letter in the place of the mark of the king, and he says to them 'Do thus and thus, lest the cross be upon you'. They obey his words and they do what he commands them without troops or warefare". He (al-Hakim) said: "In truth, there is not (such a) stable religion in the world as the religion of the Christians. Lo, we shed blood and spend money and send out armies, and yet we are not obeyed, but this elder of humble appearance and ugly by nature, the inhabitants of all these lands obey at a single word". Then he said to him (Zacharias) and to the bishops: "Remain here till I satisfy your desires", and he went out from them and they were delighted at what they had heard from him.
Then John the monk who had taken an action against the patriarch, learned where they were, and he came to them as swiftly as a bird, and they did not perceive him till he had entered and was among them. He said to the patriarch: "Lo, the Lord has restored to you your rank, and I desire that you should make me bishop". The patriarch said to him: "If the Lord will, I shall make you (bishop)". The son of his (Zacharias') brother, who was Khael, bishop of Sakha, was present there, and he was an adversary of John the monk. He again spoke words to him which angered him so that he went up on to a wall of the monastery and cried out: "I (ask help) of God and al-Hakim. I am wronged, I am wronged: obtain for me my rights!" The bishops became afraid and a great quarrel took place between them and Khael the bishop, and they said to him: "You are the cause of all this affliction and of all that has happened to us in the way of the demolition of the churches and of the wearing of the ghiyar and of the shame and of the other things. You are the root of it (all), and you desire also to begin again another affair so that the last (state) shall be worse than the first". They did not cease (from speaking) until the wrath of John the monk had subsided, and they compelled the patriarch to make him a hegoumenos
--- 208 ---
and to clothe him with the black hood and to promise (to treat him) with courtesy. Then the king al-Hakim came to them and he brought an important decree (authorizing) the (re)opening of all the churches which were in his kingdom and their restoration, and that there should be returned to them (the Christians) the timber, pillars and bricks which had been taken from them, and the lands and the gardens which belonged to them in all the land of Misr. The demolition of the churches was in the year seven hundred and twenty-seven of the Martyrs 3, and they were opened and their restoration was allowed in the year seven hundred and thirty-six of the Martyrs 4. In this decree he (al-Hakim) exempted them (the Christians) from wearing the ghiyar and from wearing the cross, and (allowed) them to strike the nawakis in all the churches in every place, as was their custom. O what joy was it on that day for all the Christians who were in the land of Misr In the year in which there was deliverance and the allowance to undertake restorations in the churches, a wonderful thing was manifested. (It was) that al-Hakim used to ramble about the mountains which are outside Misr at night and during the day, and with him (there were) three equerries or a single equerry. When, on a certain night, he had come to Hulwan, a single equerry (being) with him, he dismounted from his beast and he said to the equerry: "Hough this ass". He did what he was ordered. Then he (al-Hakim) said to him: "Go to the Castle and leave me here", and he went as he had commanded him. When it was morning, the occupants of the Castle did not find him (al-Hakim), and he was sought for in every place, but he was not found, and no news of him was known. He had a young son and a sister. She managed the kingdom for two years until his small son had grown up. Then they seated him (on the throne as) king, and they called him Az-Zahir li-‘Izazi-dini'llah, and his name by which he was known
3 i.e. A. D. 1010-1011.
4 i.e. A. D. 1019-1020.
--- 209 ---
was ‘Ali and his surname was Abu'l-Hasan. He did not interfere in anything of the affairs of his father, and there was in his days great tranquillity and peace, and he remained king for sixteen years 1. The religion of the Christians was in a good state and its people respected.
In his (Az-Zahir's) days the churches were (re)built till they returned to the state (in which) they had been, and (were even) better. The (re)building in them (the churches) did not cease and the restoration was continued till the year in which this biography was written, and it is the year seven hundred and sixty-seven of the Martyrs [A. D. 1050-1051].
The people did not cease from saying from the time of the disappearance of al-Hakim up to the end of the time of his son, that he was alive. Many used to dress themselves in his style, and each one of them used to say: "I am al-Hakim". They dressed themselves (thus, and appeared) to the people in the mountains so that they might take from them dinars. There was a man from Subra Kilsa (who was) called Surut, a Christian (who) afterwards embraced Al-Islam, and he learned magic and became skilled in it. Some people testified in his favour that he had walked with them and had suddenly disappeared from them, and that he resembled al-Hakim, even in his speech, but that he was a little taller than he. He called himself Abu'l-‘Arab and some people followed him (and) walked with him and became his disciples. He used to send them to the rich with letters from him to obtain for him money from them, and he used to say to them: "I shall make you amends when I return to my kingdom". He who met him and said to him: "You are our lord, the king", he (Abu'l-‘Arab) would strike him and say to him: "Take heed to your head". He remained at Misr thus for twenty years concealed so that most of the people at Misr thought that he was al-Hakim and that he hid himself on account of some secret affair
1 S. Lane-Poole, op. cit., pp. 116 and 134 gives the years A. D. 1021-1036.
--- 210 ---
which was not known to anyone save to him. He continued thus till the days of Ma‘add al-Mustansir bi'llah [A. D. 1036-1091]. Then he went out to al-Buhairah and sojourned with a Bedouin man of (the tribe) of Bani Kurrah. known as Mufarrig ibn Tammam, and the Bedouin man pitched a tent for him, and he remained with him for two years, and he pretended (to do) the deeds of the prophets by deception. He wore miserable garments as the ascetics. He used to give to the Bedouin rich garments and fine weapons, and if the Bedouin said to him: ''Why do you not wear these magnificent garments?" He would say to him: "so that I may escape the execution which I fear". By this speech he used to enter in to them to deceive them, namely, Mufarrig ibn Tammam of Kurrah and his troop and other people besides them, and they used to enter in to him and prostrate themselves before him and salute him, as the people salute the kings, the Caliphs. He forbade them (to do) this, and it was thought that he wished to conceal his affair until the time at which he willed to manifest it. News of him was spread in all the habitations of Misr so that the kingdom was in an uproar and disturbed. This Surut then feared for himself, and he fled from the Bedouin and disappeared in a place not known to anyone. He remained concealed until the days of the father Abba Shenouti the patriarch. Then he wrote to him (Shenouti) and deceived him so that he sent to him money.
As for the father Abba Zacharias the patriarch, he remained, after meeting al-Hakim, in tranquillity and peace for the rest of his days. The duration of his patriarchate was twenty-eight years, of which seven years were before the time of the persecution and twelve years after the (re)building of the churches. He went to his rest in the year seven hundred and forty-eight of the Martyrs [A. D. 1031-1032]. He was buried in
---211--
the Church of the Mistress at Bani Wayil, known as the Church of the Steps.
Then a great trial was stirred up for the Church of the Syrians who agree with us in the Orthodox Faith in the East, so that their patriarch was exiled from his throne and he died in exile. That is to say, there was on the throne of Antioch of the Syrian Jacobites (Ya'akibah), our brethren, a father, a saint, called John ibn ‘Abdun, in that he resembled the first saintly fathers, and he did what we shall record. That is to say, our fathers, the Syrian patriarchs, had not been able to dwell in the city of Antioch since the time of the father Severus for fear of the Greeks (ar-Rum), and they did not go near its districts at all. This saint was dwelling in a monastery near Malatya. At the beginning of his career he had been an anchorite in the Black Mountain. He was (held) in good repute by everyone, as it is written in the Holy Gospel: "A city is not hidden which is built upon a mountain".
There was in his neighbourhood a monk who was also devoted to the worship of God there, whose name was John. When Athanasius, patriarch of Antioch went to his rest in the time of Abba Philotheus, patriarch of Alexandria ---his deeds were like the deeds of his namesake Athanasius the Great in truth---he said at (the time of) his going to his rest that this saint John ibn ‘Abdun would sit after him on the Throne of Antioch. When he (Athanasius) went to his rest, they went around (seeking) for him (John), and the day before their arrival, his friend, the monk, who was in his neighbourhood knew of what the Holy Spirit had revealed (to him), and he said to him: "To-morrow
--- 212 ---
some people will come to us (and) take one of us to make him patriarch of the Throne. Should we not arise (and) go from here so that they won't find us?" The monk John said to him: "Why should we flee if the Lord has called one of us for this matter, and where shall we flee to from His presence?" That saintly father said to him: "As for me I (can) not bear this matter, and I am not suitable for it. But if you are able (to bear it), remain in your place. I am going to hide myself until this wrath which has come upon us to remove one of us from this blessed solitude which I prefer, passes us by". He went fleeing from there, and John the monk remained in his place. When the morning came, there arrived at the monastery those who were seeking for John the saint. They went around (looking) for him in the mountain, but they did not find him. When they reached the place in which that monk was living, they found him, since he was desirous of this. Then they took him, and while they were coming down from the mountain (and) going with him to where the congregation was, they saw on their way a tree, and they turned aside to it so that they might sit beneath its shade. A branch of the tree struck the eye of John the monk and tore it out, and he became one-eyed from that (hour). They marvelled and enquired of him (concerning) the matter of his case, and he confessed to them what had taken place between him and the saint John ibn ‘Abdun, and that he had desired this matter, but that that one (John the saint) had rejected it. When they were acquainted with the matter of the case, they left him and they went to the congregation and informed them of this. Their resolution was strengthened to seek for that saint wherever he was. They did not cease from going around and searching for him until they found him by the will of God, after they had become weary. He refused to go with them, so they took him by force, and they consecrated him patriarch and they seated him on the throne. During the time of his patriarchate he did not weary from his (acts of) humility and his devotions. Money used to be brought to him in the form of alms, but
--- 213 ---
he did not keep anything of it except for his daily sustenance, and he gave the rest to the hidden and the poor.
There came to him a woman one day and (she had) with her many dinars in a large bag, and she placed it at his feet and said to him: "O my lord father, I have brought these dinars for a blessing. Grant to me their acceptation and bless me and dispose of them for your requirements and for the hidden". He answered her in a quiet voice and said to her: "May the Lord accept this from you, O my daughter". She stood expecting that he would say to her something more in the way of prayer(s) and favour(s) than this (blessing) which he had invoked upon her, as was the custom of those, other than he, who collect money and are desirous of it, so that, even if a man bring to them a single coin, they respect and honour him, especially so much money as this. When her stay had been drawn out and she did not hear (anything) other than what he had said to her, she went away grumbling. The disciple who went out to shut the door, returned and said to the patriarch: "O my father, this money which this woman brought is much. Did she not deserve that you should make much prayer for her and that her heart should be reassured? As it is, she went out grumbling about us and said: 'Perhaps, the father did not know what I brought him' ". He said to him: "Go, bring her back!" He went and brought her back to him. He said to the disciple: "Bring me a balance". He brought it to him, and he took a piece of paper and he wrote on it 'May the Lord accept them (the dinars) from you', even as he had prayed for her with his mouth at first. He put the paper into (one) scale of the balance and he put the money into the other scale, and he said to the disciple: "Lift up the balance", and he lifted it up and the paper weighed more than the money, and the scale in which was the paper went right down. The patriarch said to the woman: "O my daughter, take from them (the dinars and the paper) what you wish". She threw herself before him and wept and said: "Forgive me, O my father. You believe in what pertains to God, while I believe in
i5
--- 214 ---
what pertains to men''. Then she took that paper and made it (a source of) strength for her.
It happened again that he (John) had gone out to the river to (re)-build a bridge over which the people used to cross which had been destroyed. Some good people besought him to stand on it at the beginning of its (re)building so that it might receive his blessing. If the people saw him there, they would assemble and assist in (re)building it. He did this and a great multitude assembled and they remained for three days (re)building it, and they worked with joy on seeing the patriarch. When it was completed on the third day, the multitude crowded (together) in passing over it, and a young man fell into the river, and the width of that river was about twenty cubits, and its current was very strong. The father went forward (and said) that he who knew how to swim should go down to take him out. A number of those present took off their garments and went down to look for him, but they did not find him. They did not cease from diving and searching (for him) from the sixth hour of the day till the ninth hour so that they became weary and annoyed. News of him (the youth) reached his mother and she came out shrieking and weeping, as the widow of the city of Nain. They found him after ten hours and brought him up dead, and they carried him to the tent of the father Abba John, the patriarch, and left him in front of him and went away. The saint arose and prayed and besought God on his account. Then the young man opened his eyes and arose and went forth from the tent alive, and the multitude was standing outside and they hastened towards him and crowded round him to see this marvellous miracle, and he could not get free from them, and he went away to his house, only after trouble and great exertion. This great miracle concerning him was noised abroad in all the lands of Syria and elsewhere so that news of it reached the lands of Misr, and he (John) became a boast of Orthodoxy and a grief for those who dissent (from us). Malatya was near to the monastery in wliich this saintly father dwelt and there was not in his see (a city) greater or more
--- 215 ---
populated by Christians than it. There were in it fifty-six churches filled with priests and many Syrian Orthodox people, and their number was sixty thousand Christians who bore arms, if they wished (to do so) or needed (to do) this, besides women 1.
When I, the wretched Michael, and I, Gabriel, bishop of Sa, reached this patriarch, the saint (John), with the Synodical Letter from Christodoulus, when he was seated on the Throne of Alexandria and its districts, we observed in him (John) great sanctity. When we parted from him, he honoured us and sent the son of his brother with us so that we might see the city and the people who were in it. He said to us: "I have no (city) like to it". We saw in it a number of Melkite Chalcedonians who had a metropolitan of it. The Orthodox Jacobites who were in the city used, out of their great love for this saintly patriarch, to go to him at all times to the monastery and to beseech him to be present with them on the great feasts and on Sundays so that they might receive the blessing from him and communicate from his hands. It happened that, if he came to them, they would meet him with gospels and crosses and censers and readings (from the Gospels) before him, from the gate of the city up to the church with great joy and love. They used to do this every time he came to them, and they would recount his virtues to everyone and narrate the miracles which God---praised be He!---performed by his hand. Satan (as-Sailan) found for himself an assistant in harming the aforesaid patriarch, a bishop dissenting (from us) of them who profess the Two Natures. He raised up against him a great trial, as says the Apostle: "All who desire to live by upright faith shall be persecuted by evil men, haters of the truth". This bishop was an enemy of his out of envy
1 'besides women' added on the margin. Part of this addition has been cut off, and it probably had 'and children'.
--- 216 ---
and without shame, because he used to see the veneration of the people for this saintly father and how they ministered to him on account of the strength of their faith in him, and he observed his entry into the city in the finest and most becoming manner. The aforesaid bishop used to go in and to go out (of the city) and no one paid attention to him or asked about him. His heart was sore with envy, and jealousy was engendered in him, and he was enraged against him (John). He went to Constantinople and complained about this saintly father, Abba John, to the king and said to him: "In your kingdom there is a man, a patriarch, who encroaches on your rights, and the people obey him more than you. They are Jacobites and they adhere to this dissident Jacobite, and he also prays for kings other than you and more than for you. A reputation is falsely ascribed to him that he raised the dead, and on account of this the hearts of the multitude are inclined towards him. Banish him now from your kingdom, and cause him to be brought hither, and your holiness shall judge between me and him". The king sent to bring him (John), and the bishop sat in the city of the patriarch with its patriarch. They were assembled to arrange about what they should do with the saint. The messengers found him (John) in Malatya. When the Faithful were informed of the news, all of them assembled and said: "We will die, all of us, but he (John) shall not be taken from us, but we will give ourselves in exchange (for him). All that we possess, it is for you!". He forbade them (to do) this. He spake to them soft words that 'he who resists the king sins, and he is as he who resists the ordinance of God'. "What should the king be able to do (to me) other than to kill my body, and if he does this to me, there will be a crown prepared for me. If he speaks to me on account of the Faith, it will be a contest and an honour for me. Thus shall I be like my Lord Who was reviled and slain". With this (speech) and what was similar to it he spake to them till they left him. He journeyed with the messengers and there were with him four bishops and
--- 217 ---
three monks, disciples of his, till they reached the dwelling of the king at Constantinople. They put him in confinement for some days till they had informed the king of his arrival. Then the patriarch of the Melkites appointed a free day for him (John) and for himself and for his bishops and for the bishop of Malatya who had complained about the patriarch John. They adorned themselves with hardness of heart and they put on garments of silk and sat upon decorated thrones and they ordered the saint John to be brought to them. He came to them in wretched garments, and he and those who were with him stood before them, and they did not cause them to be seated nor did they salute them, but they occupied themselves with reading, while they were standing for a time so that their bosoms became contracted. Thereupon, John the saint spake in the soft Syrian tongue and said: "Which of the Canons of the Church bids you to sit on your thrones and cause us to stand before you like assistants?" They said to him: "You and your congregation are dissidents, and it is not fitting that you sit with us as Orthodox bishops". He said to them: "If we are dissidents as you say, let us sit with you and let us talk about the Faith, and he to whom God shall give the victory shall be victorious, if we (can) find him who judges between us in truth and not by the authority of the kingdom". The bishop of Malatya had agreed with the patriarch of the Melkites and his bishops that they would not dispute with him (John) or his bishops, and he had said to them: "They are very learned. If you dispute with them, you will be put to shame before them, but overcome them by speech, by the power of the kingdom". Then they reviled them and they said to them: "You are heretics. We ought not to speak to you", and they said to the attendants: "Take them (away) till tomorrow". When the morrow was come, the king caused them all to be brought and he made them stand before him, and he appointed an interpreter for them. The king said to the interpreter: "Say
--- 218 ---
to the patriarch: they have informed me that you are a saint of God. Now I desire nothing of you save that you shouldst acknowledge the Council of Chalcedon, and I shall be happy, and I will exalt you and honour you and give you the authority over all the lands near to you". He (John) said to him: "O my master, the king, may the Lord preserve your kingdom and your authority!---He knows that I do not cease from prayer and supplication for your powerful kingdom, as the Holy Scriptures command us, 'so that our life may be in quietness and peace'. Your authority has not the right to force anyone to forsake his religion, as we have two kings, namely, the king of Abyssinia and the king of Nubia, and they do not force anyone of the people of your religion who is dwelling among them to change his faith. Now I beseech the Lord Christ to establish your kingdom without disturbance and to preserve all of us according as has been revealed to him". The interpreter interpreted all that he said except (about) the two kings, the Abyssinian and the Nubian, for he added to this and he said: "We have two kings greater than you", and this (was because) the bishop of Malatya had bribed the interpreter with money and had come to an agreement with him to turn the speech against him (John), whereby the king would be enraged against him (John), even though with a single word. When the king heard (this), his wrath and his rage and his imprecation(s) became intense, and he cursed his (John's) belief and his congregation and he said: "You are dissidents in truth". He commanded that he (John) should be returned to (his) confinement. There was one of the disciples of the saint John who knew the language, and he was his interpreter. When they came out, he informed him (John) of what the interpreter had done by turning the speech against him.
When the morrow was come, the king caused his patriarch and his congregation to be brought and he consulted them about what he should do. They advised him that he (John) should be banished to the islands which were near to him, he (John) and those who were with him until
--- 219 ---
they professed their (the Melkite) Faith, and then he should set them free. There were among them two aged metropolitans, and when they learned this, they acknowledged the Council of Chalcedon, and they thought that they would remain in their former rank, but the patriarch of the Melkites did not leave them in it, but made them both subdeacons. The two others (metropolitans) held fast to their faith, and they did not agree to what the king wished. The king strove, but he was not able to turn them from their Orthodox Faith. Then the king caused Abba John, the patriarch, to be brought, and he promised him great honours and advancement. He said to him: "Lo, I am standing before you and (am) under your authority. Your power is over my body, do with it what you think (fit) and as you will. Kill me, but I will never forsake my Orthodox Faith". Then he commanded him (John) to be exiled to a monastery on an island near to Constantinople. Between him and it (there was) a distance of one day. He did not allow (anyone) with him except one disciple to minister to him. He (John) had the illness of gout in his feet, and he remained there two years. There was in that island an anchorite of the Melkites, and he commanded the monks who were with him to go every day to the patriarch, the saint John, and to curse him and to spit in his face, and he placed an anathema upon them if they did not do this every day. They used to do this to him (John) during his stay there. There was in the monastery a youth, a servant, and he used to insult the patriarch still more. It happened that, whenever the disciple heated water for the feet of the patriarch in order that he might thereby find ease, that youth used to cast ash into it. The disciple used to weep, but the patriarch used to console him and say to him: "O my son, God will not forget us". The youth persisted in this deed, and an evil spirit leapt upon him and strangled him and belaboured him and tormented him. They brought him to the elder Abba John foaming and striking with his head and gnashing with his teeth. He remained
--- 220 ---
(thus) for three days, Satan tormenting him. Then he died an evil death.
There was in Constantinople a man who loved Abba John, and he came thither to visit him, but he was not able to reach him. Then he wrote to him a letter and went to a village near to the monastery, and he met in it a man known to him, and he said to him: "I desire greatly that you shouldst take this letter and deliver it to the patriarch secretly without that anyone knows about you". He gave to him a dinar and the letter, and there was not anything in it except an enquiry after him (John) and an excuse to him that he had not been able to reach him so as to visit him, and asking from him a blessing to place in his dwelling. He took the letter and went with it to the chief (of the village), as did Judas. He sent some people to the owner of the letter and they beat him and imprisoned him. The patriarch heard his weeping and his speech in Syriac and he called to his disciple and he desired to know of him the news, and he informed him of all what had happened. The patriarch marvelled and was grieved and sent to him to console him, and he said to him: "Let not your bosom be contracted. After three days, the Lord will remove all this (from you)". The disciple inquired about the meaning of the saying. Then he said to him confidentially: "After three days, God will take me to Him. Bury me not in the cemetery of the heretics, but place me in a place alone, for the day on which I shall fall asleep, the king will send (a messenger) to bring me out, and he will find me having gone forth from this body. He (the messenger) will take you and the other man to the king, and he (the king) will set you two free. I charge you to say to the people that they let not him who comes after me dwell in the lands of the Greeks (ar-Rum), but that he should dwell in Amid or in the city of Edessa". His disciple was considering how he could save his (John's) body after his
--- 221 ---
death from the dissidents, lest they should do with it what they wished. Then he said within himself 'yet, let God's will be (done)'. The patriarch knew in the spirit his (the disciple's) thought, and he said to him: "Why do you have doubts concerning my body? I believe that God is able to do all things". After three days, he went to his rest, as he said. When the monks learned of this, they assembled that they might bury him. The Superior of the monastery was away. The king sent to call the patriarch, but he found him dead. The messengers quarrelled with the monks who wished to bury him, and they prevented them (the messengers) from burying him there, and they said: "Take this heretic from the midst of the Orthodox". They took him and they brought him to the place of a rock, and they dug out a grave, and buried him far from them (the monks). As for the messengers of the king, they took the disciple and the man who came from Constantinople to visit the patriarch and wrote to him the letter, and they returned to the king and they announced to him his (John's) death. He (the king) set them both free, for he had suffered torment in his dream that night on account of the saintly patriarch. His going to rest in banishment was in the year seven hundred and forty-seven of the Righteous Martyrs [A. D. 1030-1031]. God Whose praise is great and Who is exalted did not hide from him anything of what he wished to know, on account of his sanctity and his purity.
It happened that, before his (John's) departure to the lands of the Greeks (ar-Rum), there fled to him Abba Abraham, bishop of Damietta on account of what had befallen him through his people, and of what had reached him (in the way of news) about his (John's) sanctity. He went and entered into his monastery, and he was clothed in wretched attire in the garb of monks with a white hood so that he might conceal his state, and he stood in a corner of the church in the midst of the congregation of the monks. It was a Sunday and the father Abba John, was inside the sanctuary. He said to his disciple: "Go to such and such a
-- 222 ---
place in the church and you will find there a bishop from the lands of Misr, standing with the monks in the garb of a monk, and bring him to me". This was a wonder similar to what befell Saint Basil the Great Doctor, Bishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia with the Saint, my lord Ephraem the Syrian. The disciple went thither, but he did not recognize him on account of the change of his attire. Then he returned to the father and said to him: "I did not find him". He said to him: "Yes, indeed, he is standing there and with him are two strange monks". The disciple went back to the place and said to the three: "Who of you is the bishop?" One of the two monks said: "He is this (one)". Then he said to him: "The father calls you". He came with him to him, and when he had entered in to him and had prostrated himself before him, the patriarch raised him and said to him: "Why have you fled from the grace which the Lord Christ has bestowed on you?" He said to him: "I am not fleeing (from it), but I have come to see you and to receive your blessing". He said to him: "Yes, indeed, you are fleeing from much speaking and from the fatigue which you have experienced', and he spoke to him words that reassured his heart. He remained with him for a time and he sent him back to his see with honour.
There sat on the Throne of Antioch, after this saint John, the son of his brother, and they called him John the patriarch. God grant to us (acceptation) of the intercession and blessing of both of them altogether.
His disciple informed me, I, Michael, the writer of this biography, about this, when I went to the Throne of Antioch, after I had become bishop of the see of the city of Tinnis and its districts, and with me there was Abba Gabriel bishop of Sa with the Synodical Letter which Abba Christodoulos, patriarch of Alexandria, wrote to Abba John the aforementioned, in the year seven hundred and sixty-five of the Martyrs [A. D.1048-1049]; for I asked this disciple and said to him: "Yes, did the
--- 223 ---
father Abba John really raise the dead?'' He described to me all what I have mentioned in this biography.
As for his story about Abba Abraham, bishop of Damietta, I heard it from his mouth in the year in which the father Abba Zacharias died in Misr. These two patriarchs experienced great trial and labour and they received a glorious crown through their endurance and their confession of the Orthodox Faith before the dissidents; Abba John, before the king of the Greeks (ar-Rum) and their patriarch and his communion, and Abba Zacharias, before al-Hakim, king of the Muslims and the inhabitants of the kingdom.
Abba Abraham, the aforementioned bishop of Damietta said: "I witnessed great miracles by the father, the saint John, the patriarch, while I was with him, among which I saw one of his disciples, and it was said to me that he had been blind and that Abba John had opened his eyes. I asked the disciple with an obeisance to recount to me his story. He said to me: "I was blind and I used to sit in the church by the basin of water from which the people covered their communion. I used to lay hold on the garments of those whose speech I recognized so that they might give me as alms some of their money. I pulled one day the garment of one of the brethren, and he went and complained about me to the father. He (the patriarch) had just finished communicating the people, and he gave them the peace and washed his hands and came out to me. He said to me: "O my son, what is this matter with you that you dost harm the people and tear their garments?"
--- 224 ---
I said: "O my father, I am blind and feeble, whilst they see. I beg of them to give me something as alms, but they do not (do so)". He said to me: "If the Lord Christ open your eyes, what will you do?" I said: "I will serve you until the day of my death". He (the patriarch) took with his hand water from that basin and said: "The Lord Christ Who made mud with His spittle on the ground and anointed with it the eyes of the completely blind and said to him: 'Go, wash both of them in the source of Siloam and they will be opened', may He open these two eyes of yours", (and) he sprinkled the water on my eyes and they were opened, as you see. I have served him till now. and I shall serve him also until I die beneath his feet".
Trustworthy (people) of the Faithful informed me of many miracles concerning the father Abba Zacharias, among which how the body of Abba Mercurius, bishop of Tilbanah, shone with leprosy, and an awful whiteness appeared in him. He came to the father, Abba Zacharias, at Damru on a Sunday, and the aforementioned father said to him with humility and quietness and a sore heart: "O my brother Abba Mercurius, I am a partner with you in what you suffer, and you know that God said to Moses: 'You shall not have regard to the face of anyone in judgment' The priesthood shall not be valid, except after the Lord Christ has removed from you this whiteness, for it is a defilement, as the Scripture calls it". He (Mercurius) wept and said: "Help me through your prayer, O my father, the saint". He departed from him and he went to a church in his see (dedicated) to the name of the Pure Mistress, my
--- 225 ---
lady Mary the Virgin, the Mother of God the Word. That church was in a village called Tmai. He entered it in the morning of a Monday, and there was in it an aged priest whose name was Farah. He (the bishop) said to his disciple: "When it is Wednesday evening, visit me here, and if you find me dead, help this priest to bury me here, and if you find me alive, I shall speak to you". The disciple went away from him. He (the bishop) stood before the picture of the Mistress, weeping (and) entreating on Monday, and the night of it (Monday), Tuesday, the day and the night of it (Tuesday), Wednesday, the day of it (Wednesday), and he was asking for her intercession, entreating her to examine that leprosy and to remove it from him. When it was the ninth hour of the day of Wednesday, he (the bishop) became dazed from fasting and fatigue, and he leaned against the wall on which was the picture, and he was dozing. Then he saw the hand of this picture, as if it wiped his body, and he woke up and was cured of his sickness. He summoned the priest and informed him of the news, and asked him to look at his whole body, and he (the priest) saw it, and it had become clean and free from leprosy. He rejoiced and thanked the Lord, the Saviour, and his weeping was grievous. Then the disciple came to him at the end of the day and he (the bishop) said to him: "O my son, the Lord Christ has granted (me) through the intercession of the Pure Mistress, his Mother, health (again). It is necessary that I remain in this place three days more to thank the Lord for what he has bestowed upon me. Come to me with a beast on Saturday". Then he partook of a little bread and water, and he remained there three days, as he had said. The disciple came to him on the evening of Saturday, and he (the bishop) went to Damru and he entered in to the father Zacharias on the morning of Sunday, while he was in the church, and he made known to him the news, and he
--- 226 ---
said: "O my father, this (is) through your prayers". He (the patriarch) said to him: "On the contrary, (it is) through your faith and your prayer". He (the patriarch) gave him the right to officiate, and he (the bishop) celebrated the Liturgy that day. He (the patriarch) said to him: "Truly you are more worthy than I (to celebrate) the Liturgy so that we may receive your blessing, after this great grace has been bestowed upon you". All those present glorified God Who performs miracles. There was a man, a deacon, a native of Minyati Milig (who was) very well known. He quarrelled with his wife, and she was pure (and) pious. He went out from her, and was filled with satanic fury, and he went (and) copulated with an effeminate man and fell with him into sin. Then he returned to his dwelling, and his wife became reconciled to him. When it was night, he sat down on his bed, and took off his garment to lie down to sleep. His wife saw his body and it all shone with leprosy. She rose up and was full of fear, and she said to him: "What (is it) that you has done, so that you have leprosy? Look at your body". He looked attentively at his body and he wept bitterly, and he said to her: "O my sister, when I quarrelled with you to-day, Satan played a trick on me, and I did so and so". Then he struck his face, and he plucked out the hair of his beard and he increased (his) weeping. His good (and) pious wife said to him, weeping over him: "You have sinned, O my brother, and have erred. Hasten to the father Abba Zacharias the Saint, and take hold of his feet and cling to them, until he beseeches God on your behalf, and you shall be healed". He rose up early and rode his beast and went to Damru and cast himself before the patriarch, and he increased (his) weeping and (his) entreating, and he clung to his feet and confessed to him what had happened to him. He (the patriarch) said to him: "O my son, is it in you to stand firm in labour before the Lord Christ?" He said to him: "O my father, judge me according to what you will, and I will do it with God's assistance to me, and through the blessing of your prayer". He took him into a dark house that he had, and he left him standing
--- 227 ---
in a satirah of tamarisk resembling a barrel, after he had put into the half of it salt, and had set his face towards the East, and had said to him: "O my son. continue in prayer and entreaty and weeping, and repent, that you return not again to sin". He used to feed him after three days and three nights with a little bread (measured out) with a balance and to give him water to drink also (measured out) with a balance until the end of fifteen days, and he came to him to visit him and he prayed for him. At the end of three weeks, he visited him again, and prayed for him, and at the end of the month, he came to him and examined his body, and he found the leprosy had diminished, and he was reassured. Then he announced to him the good news about this. Then at the end of forty days, he came to him and he looked at him attentively and found that he was clean and that nothing of the leprosy remained in his body. He rejoiced with him and he bathed him with hot water, and he anointed him and prayed for him, and he said to him: "O my son. you are cured and you know what you have vowed to yourself---return not to sin---and think not that I caused you to fast three days (and) then after them (another) three days, and that I myself broke my fast, but---as the Name of Christ lives---I did not feed myself during these forty days, except as I fed you, and I did not break my fast except at the time at which I caused you to break your fast (and) likewise (with) the same (amount of) bread and water with which I fed you. Then he blessed him and commanded him to depart to his dwelling, and he returned to his blessed wife, rejoicing and happy.
--- 228 ---
As-Shaikh ‘Alam al-Kafah Abu Yahya Istafan ibn Mina at-Turigi, the scribe, related that he went with his workman whose name was Zakir to Damru, and they saluted the father Abba Zacharias the patriarch---God grant to us (acceptation) of the blessing of his prayer! The father went out walking, without a beast, to Tumbarah so that he might salute a Nubian man, a monk, whose name was Sisih, and he (the patriarch) received his blessing before he blessed him (the monk), and he honoured him with much honour and humbled himself before him and venerated him. When he had departed from him, those who were with him, asked him and said to him: "What is the reason of your respect for the state of this (one), and for humbling yourself before him, and for giving him precedence over you in the blessing,---you, the patriarch of the land?" He said to them: "This (man) al-Hakim cast together with me to the lions after they had starved them, and the lions were obedient to him, and licked his feet before mine.
