# Syriac and Garshuni Graffiti at the Monastery of St. Macarius (Wādī al-Naṭrūn, Egypt)

Aaron M Butts, Martina Ambu, Perrine Pilette

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Aaron M Butts, Martina Ambu, Perrine Pilette. Syriac and Garshuni Graffiti at the Monastery of St. Macarius (Wādī al-Naṭrūn, Egypt). Journal of Eastern Christian Studies, 2025, 10.1163/17831520-bja00007. hal-05263549

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# Syriac and Garshuni Graffiti at the Monastery of St. Macarius (Wādī al-Naṭrūn, Egypt)

Aaron M. Butts | ORCID: 0000-0002-2768-3863
Universität Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany
aaron.butts@uni-hamburg.de

Martina Ambu | ORCID: 0000-0003-1214-0468
Université libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium
martina.ambu91@gmail.com

Perrine Pilette | ORCID: 0000-0003-1121-0073
CNRS, UMR 8167 Orient & Méditerranée (Islam médiéval)
perrine.pilette@cnrs.fr

Received: 20 January 2025 | Accepted: 13 June 2025 |
Published online: 12 September 2025

## Abstract

This article presents three Syriac-script graffiti – two in the Syriac language and one in Arabic – found at the Monastery of St. Macarius in the Wādī al-Naṭrūn (Egypt). These graffiti attest to periodic visits of Syriac Christians to this Coptic monastery at various times in the sixteenth century – when the graffiti were written – as well as probably in the fifteenth – with the report of a (future) Syriac patriarch's visit at that time. It is proposed that this patriarch is likely to have been Yuḥanon bar Shayullah, who was elected in 1484 and who is reported in other sources to have visited the Wādī al-Naṭrūn, including specifically the Monastery of St. Macarius, before he became patriarch.

## Keywords

Monastery of St. Macarius – Wādī al-Naṭrūn – Yuḥanon bar Shayullah – Syriac – Garshuni – Ethiopian
# 1 Introduction

That Syriac Christians spent time in Egypt – whether on shorter pilgrimages or extended stays – is well-documented.<fnref n="1" /> Especially useful for establishing the presence of Syriac Christians at particular locations throughout Egypt are graffiti and inscriptions in the Syriac script, both Syriac language and Garshuni (that is, Arabic language written in Syriac script).<fnref n="2" /> A Syriac graffito at the Monastery of St. Antony together with several in Garshuni, for instance, establish the presence of Syriac Christians among the Christian communities in the desert along the Red Sea.<fnref n="3" /> The same is the case, *mutatis mutandis*, for a Syriac graffito recently uncovered during conservation work at the Red Monastery in Middle Egypt.<fnref n="4" /> Further to the south, along the Nile, Syriac graffiti were discovered at the Monastery of Abū Ḩinnis (now in ruins) in the environs of Antinoopolis.<fnref n="5" /> South of that, a Syriac inscription of the Lord's Prayer was re-

<footnote n="1">1 See the overview in L. Van Rompay, "Syriac Contacts with Coptic Christianity," in *Gorgias Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Syriac Heritage*, ed. S. P. Brock, A. M. Butts, G. A. Kiraz, & L. Van Rompay (Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press, 2011), 103–106, where additional references can be found.</footnote>

<footnote n="2">2 For surveys of Syriac writing, including but not limited to graffiti and inscriptions, in Egypt, see W. M. Brashear, "Syriaca," *Archiv für Papyrusforschung* 44 (1998) 86–127 and L. Van Rompay, "Syriac and Related Scripts in Egypt," in *Journey of Writing in Egypt*, ed. Kh. Azab & A. Mansour (Alexandria: Bibliotheca Alexandrina, 2008), 104–153. On Garshuni (also called Karshuni), see F. Briquel-Chatonnet, "Un cas d'allographie: le garshuni," in *Écriture et communication*, ed. D. Briquel & F. Briquel-Chatonnet (Paris: Édition électronique du CTHS, 2015), 66–75.</footnote>

<footnote n="3">3 See S. H. Griffith, "The Handwriting on the Wall: Graffiti in the Church of St. Antony," in *Monastic Visions: Wall Paintings in the Monastery of St. Antony at the Red Sea*, ed. E. S. Bolman (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2002), 189, along with the more detailed treatment in A. M. Butts, "Syriac-Script Inscriptions and Graffiti at the Monastery of St. Antony (Egypt)," *Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies*, forthcoming.</footnote>

<footnote n="4">4 For the conservation work, under the direction of Nicholas Warner, see <https://arce.org/project/red-monastery-architectural-conservation/> (accessed 14 May 2024). The Syriac graffito is being edited by the first named author.</footnote>

<footnote n="5">5 See J. Jarry, "Les inscriptions syriaques de Deir Abu Hennes en Moyenne Égypte," *Bulletin de l'Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale* 68 (1969) 121–131; J. Jarry, "Nouvelles inscriptions coptes, grecques, arabes et syriaque de Deir Abou Hennes," *Bulletin de la Société d'Archéologie Copte* 21 (1971–1973) 55–81; A. Gasse, "Rapport préliminaire d'une mission épigraphique à Deir Abou Hennes," *Annales du Service des Antiquités de l'Égypte* 69 (1983) 95–102; G. J. M. van Loon & A. Delattre, "Patterns of Monastic Habitation on the East Bank of the Nile in Middle Egypt: Dayr al-Dik, Dayr Abū Ḩinnis, and al-Shaykh Saīd," *Journal of Coptic Studies* 16 (2014) 235–278; A. Delattre, J. H. F. Dijkstra & J. Van der Vliet, "Christian Inscription from Egypt and Nubia 2 (2014)," *Bulletin of the American Society of Papyrologists* 52 (2015) 297–314; A. Delattre, "Les rapports entre la ville d'Antinoé et le monastère du Deir Abou Hennis en Moyenne-Égypte," in *Itinerari mediterranei fra IV e IX secolo. Città-capitale e Deserto-mo-</footnote>
covered from the Monastery of Epiphanius in Western Thebes.⁶ Even at a location such as the Monastery of the Syrians, where evidence is more ample and of various types, inscriptions and graffiti provide crucial information.⁷ In this article, we present three Syriac-script graffiti – two in the Syriac language and one in Arabic – found at the Monastery of St. Macarius in the Wādī al-Naṭrūn with the goal of establishing the presence of Syriac Christians at this monastery.

nastico: Atti del convegno (Genova, 11-12-13 novembre 2010), ed. B. Astrua, Collana di studi del Centro Interdipartimentale di Scienze Religiose – Università di Torino (Turin: Accademia University Press, 2016), 39–54.

6 For the text, see W. E. Crum & H. G. Evelyn White, *The Monastery of Epiphanius at Thebes*, vol. 11: *Coptic Ostraca and Papyri; Greek Ostraca and Papyri* (New York, NY: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1926), 152, 343, pl. xvii. For the early date of discovery of Syriac materials in the Thebaid, see Brashear, "Syriaca," 88–89.

7 For overviews of the Monastery of the Syrians, see L. Van Rompay, “Al-Suryān, Dayr,” in *Gorgias Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Syriac Heritage*, 386–387; S. P. Brock & L. Van Rompay, *Catalogue of the Syriac Manuscripts and Fragments in the Library of Deir Al-Surian, Wadi al-Natrun (Egypt)*, Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta 227 (Louvain: Peeters, 2014), xiii–xv; K. C. Innemée, “Dayr Al-Suryan: New Discoveries,” in *Claremont Coptic Encyclopedia*, ed. K. Torjesen & G. Gabra (Claremont Graduate University, 2016); K. C. Innemée, L. Van Rompay & D. Zielińska, “The Church of the Virgin in Dayr Al-Suryān (Wadi al-Natrun): Architecture, Art, and History between Coptic and Syriac Christianity,” in *Worlds of Byzantium: Religion, Culture, and Empire in the Medieval Near East*, ed. E. Bolman, S. F. Johnson & J. Tannous (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2024), 281–322, all with additional references. After many years of work, under the direction of Karel Innemée, a multi-volume publication is currently being prepared on the Monastery of the Syrians, in which will appear a comprehensive treatment of the numerous inscriptions and graffiti, including the many in Syriac. Until then, see, *inter alia*, earlier publications in K. C. Innemée & L. Van Rompay, “La présence des Syriens dans le Wadi al-Natrun (Égypte). À propos des découvertes récentes de peintures et de textes muрараux dans l’Église de la Vierge du Couvent des Syriens,” *Parole de l’Orient* 23 (1998) 167–202; K. D. Jenner & L. Van Rompay, “New Syriac Texts on the Walls of the al-‘Adra Church of Dayr al-Suryān,” *Mitteilungen zur christlichen Archäologie* 4 (1998) 96–103; L. Van Rompay, “Deir Al-Surian (Egypt): Its Wall-Paintings, Wall-Texts, and Manuscripts. II. Syriac Inscriptions in Deir al-Surian: Some Reflections on Their Writers and Readers,” *Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies* 2 (1999) 189–202; L. Van Rompay & A. B. Schmidt, “A New Syriac Inscription in Deir Al-Surian (Egypt),” *Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies* 4 (2001) 109–114; L. Van Rompay, “Deir Al-Surian (Egypt): New Discoveries of 2001–2002. II. Syriac Texts,” *Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies* 5 (2002) 245–263; L. Van Rompay, “Les inscriptions syriaques du couvent des Syriens (Wadi al-Natrum, Égypte),” in *Les inscriptions syriaques*, ed. F. Briquel-Chatonnet, M. Debié & A. Desreumaux, Études syriaques 1 (Paris: Geuthner, 2004), 55–74; K. C. Innemée, G. Ochała & L. Van Rompay, “A Memorial for Abbot Maqari of Deir Al-Surian (Egypt): Wall Paintings and Inscriptions in the Church of the Virgin Discovered in 2014,” *Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies* 18 (2015) 147–190.
<figure><img src="image_3.png" /><figcaption>FIGURE 1 Plan of the second floor of the keep, Monastery of St. Macarius, Wādī al-Naṭrūn, based on H. G. Evelyn White, *The Monasteries of the Wādi 'n Natrūn*, ed. W. Hauser, Publications of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Egyptian Expedition (New York, NY: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1926–1933), III: plate VIII.</figcaption></figure>

The Monastery of St. Macarius is the south-eastern-most monastery in the Wādī al-Naṭrūn, a bit over 15 km east of the Monastery of the Syrians.<fnref n="8" /> The three Syriac-script graffiti at the Monastery of St. Macarius are found in the Chapel of St. Michael on the second floor of its keep (*qaṣr*). The area is divided into a number of rooms, with three individual chapels located along the east-ern side (see Figure 1). It is the northern-most chapel, which is dedicated to the Archangel Michael, that contains the three Syriac-script graffiti. On the south-ern wall of the Chapel of St. Michael, there is a large painting depicting five

<footnote n="8">8 For general overviews, see M. Al-Miskin, “Dayr Anba Maqar,” in *The Coptic Encyclopedia*, ed. A. S. Atiya (New York, NY: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1991), III:748b–756b and J. Le-roy, *La peinture murale chez les Coptes*, Vol. II: *Les peintures des couvents du Ouadi Natroun*, Mémoires publiés par les membres de l’Institut français d’archéologie orientale du Caire 101 (Cairo: Institut Français d’Archéologie Orientale, 1984), 3–15. For additional information, see H. G. Evelyn White, *The Monasteries of the Wādi 'n Natrūn*, ed. W. Hauser, Publications of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Egyptian Expedition (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1926–1933), *passim*.</footnote>
equestrian saints, Eusebius, Basilides, Macarius (brother of Eusebius – and not the namesake of the monastery), Justus, and Apoli (see Figure 2).<fnref n="9" /> An Arabic note on the history of the monastery states that this painting, along with others found in the three chapels on the second floor of the keep, were made by a certain Takla(s) al-ḥabašī (θκλσ αθκλσ αθκλσ) and consecrated in 1516/7 (1233 A.M.).<fnref n="10" /> That the paintings were produced by an Ethiopian is corroborated by their style – note especially that the pattern used to fill the space above the middle saint is strikingly similar to the decorative headpieces (Ethiopic ḥarag) that features in some Ethiopic manuscripts from this time (see Figure 3) – as well as by traces of Ethiopic writing that were once visible above the left-most figure.<fnref n="11" />

<figure><img src="image_4.png" /><figcaption>FIGURE 2 Painting of Five Equestrian Saints, in the Chapel of St. Michael, upper floor of the keep, Monastery of St. Macarius, Wādī al-Naṭrūn (photo 2024)</figcaption></figure>

<footnote n="9">9 For descriptions of this painting, see Evelyn White, *The Monasteries of the Wâdi 'n Natrûn, III: 74–75* and Leroy, *La peinture murale chez les Coptes*, Vol. II: *Les peintures des couvents du Ouadi Natroun*, 46–47, with pl. 94–97, the latter of which also includes a series of earlier pictures and some artistic renderings.</footnote>

<footnote n="10">10 The text is preserved in ms. Monastery of St. Macarius, Liturgy 207, pp. 444–446. The Arabic text is presented in Mattā al-Maskīn, *al-Rahbāna al-qubṭīyya fī ʻaṣr al-qaddīs 'an-bā Maqār* (Cairo: Dayr al-qaddīs 'anbā Maqār, 1972), 605–606 (in Arabic), and a French translation is available in J. Leroy, “Compléments à l’histoire des couvents du Ouadi Na-troun d’Evelyn White,” *Bulletin de l’Institut Français d’Archéologie Orientale du Caire* 70 (1971) 225–233. See also the discussion in M. Ambu, “Du texte à la communauté: Rela-tions et échanges entre l’Égypte copte et les réseaux monastiques éthiopiens (XIIIe–XVIe siècles),” Ph.D. Thesis (Université de Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, 2021), 365–366. A new edition of this document is currently in progress by the present authors, together with Markos al-Maqārī.</footnote>

<footnote n="11">11 The similarity of the pattern in the painting to Ethiopic ḥarag was noted already by Leroy, *La peinture murale chez les Coptes*, Vol. II: *Les peintures des couvents du Ouadi Natroun*, 47. Particularly good comparanda for the pattern in the painting are found in a group of Ethiopic manuscripts from the late fifteenth century that are discussed in J. Karlsson, J. Gnisci & S. Dege-Müller, “A Handlist of Illustrated Early Solomonic Manuscripts in</footnote>
<figure><img src="image_5.png" /><figcaption>FIGURE 3 Comparison of *harag*-like pattern from the painting of five equestrian saints, in the Chapel of St. Michael, upper floor of the keep, Monastery of St. Macarius, Wādī al-Naṭrūn, with Ethiopic manuscripts. Left: ms. Berlin, Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Petermann II Nachtrag 42, f. 2r (second half of the fifteenth century); Center: Close-up of painting from the Monastery of St. Macarius (photo 2024); Right: ms. Parma, Biblioteca Palatina, Parm. 3839 (olim Mordini 192), f. 1r.</figcaption></figure>

Graffiti 1 and 2 are located to the left of the painting of equestrian saints, outside of its frame and starting approximately one-third from the bottom. These two graffiti, the first in Syriac and the second in Garshuni, are written in close proximity to one another (see Figure 4). Graffito 3, in the Syriac language, is written in the upper-right quadrant of the painting, between the shoulders of the two right-most figures (see Figure 5). As is common with Syriac graffiti and inscriptions, as well as with Syriac writing more generally, all three graffiti are written in a vertical orientation.<fnref n="12" /> It should be stressed that the three Syriac-script graffiti presented here represent only a small fraction of the graffiti and inscriptions found on this wall, with many others in Coptic and especially Arabic as well as even in Armenian.<fnref n="13" />

British Public Collections,” *Aethiopica* 26 (2023) 161, 204–206. The Ethiopic writing in the painting is visible in plate 96 of Leroy, *La peinture murale chez les Coptes*, Vol. II: *Les peintures des couvents du Ouadi Natroun*. It should be further noted that Leroy linked the style of the paintings to that of bas-reliefs in Lalibela; see Leroy, *La peinture murale chez les Coptes*, Vol. II: *Les peintures des couvents du Ouadi Natroun*, 113, along with J. Leroy, *La pittura etiopica durante il medievo e sotto la dinastia di Gondar* (Milan: Electa, 1964). A new art historical analysis of the paintings by Takla(s) *al-ḥabašī* is a desideratum.

<footnote n="12">12 See A. Desreumaux, “Comment peut-on écrire en syriaque? Ou des problèmes du scribe devant sa page blanche,” in *Manières de penser dans l’Antiquité méditerranéenne et ori-entale. Mélanges offerts à Francis Schmidt par ses élèves, ses collègues et ses amis*, ed. C. Batsch & M. Vârtejanu-Joubert, Supplements to the Journal for the Study of Judaism 134 (Leiden: Brill, 2009), 105–126. The images in Figure 6–8 below have been, correspondingly, rotated ninety degrees clockwise.</footnote>

<footnote n="13">13 See fn. 38 below.</footnote>
<figure><img src="image_6.png" /><figcaption>FIGURE 4 Graffiti 1 and 2 in context (photo 2024)</figcaption></figure>
<figure><img src="image_7.png" /><figcaption>FIGURE 5 Graffito 3 in context (photo 2024)</figcaption></figure>

In his foundational study of the monasteries of the Wādī al-Naṭrūn, Evelyn White devotes three-quarters of a page to these three Syriac-script graffiti.<fnref n="14" /> The presentation there is, however, marred by a number of errors, including misidentification of language (all three are implied to be Syriac language), mis-

<footnote n="14">14 Evelyn White, *The Monasteries of the Wādi 'n Natrûn*, III: 76.</footnote>
reading of text (including one especially inopportune mistake – the date of Graffito 1), and even incorrectly implying that there are four graffiti instead of three (Graffito 3 is described twice). It is difficult to know how exactly these problems arose.<fnref n="15" /> Regardless, in what follows, we have only noted disagreements when they seem particularly relevant and have refrained from registering every difference.

## 2 Graffiti

### 2.1 Graffito 1

<figure><img src="image_8.png" /><figcaption>FIGURE 6 Graffito 1, Syriac (photo 2024)</figcaption></figure>

<footnote n="15">15 One factor may be that only the first of the three volumes was basically complete when Evelyn White tragically died in 1924, even if it was published posthumously in 1926, whereas the second and third volumes required significant revisions, carried out under the editorship of Hauser, before they were published in 1932 and 1933, respectively. A further complicating factor is that two footnotes thank the Syriac scholar Burkitt for his translations of the Syriac graffiti (Evelyn White, *The Monasteries of the Wâdi 'n Natrûn*, III: 76 fn. 3 and 4; on Burkitt, see the short biographical notice in S. P. Brock, “Burkitt, Francis Crawford,” in *Gorgias Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Syriac Heritage*, 89). The exact arrangement between these three scholars, however, is not further clarified, but it can be surmised that Burkitt had only limited access to the material, since it is otherwise difficult to account for the various problems – some quite basic – in the presentation of the Syriac-script graffiti.</footnote>
Text

1 آموزش مبنای تحقیق و مسالا مه سهیما

2 کلا دا حم و دنا هم یعما دع و دیلا دا

3 صح دا لوا و دنوب ده لیحیح و دنا هه [ه] وسا

4 سحید ده لی [د] و [ه] د عقید دا میتعلا و حا

5 صحن ده هه یه و هه ت [عا سد] ئةه یه یه و هه ت

6 د [عیدا] ده هیما و می

Translation

1 Remember, Lord, your servant, the weak and sinful,

2 Eliya, in name a monk and priest, from [Hesno] d-ªA(n)to,

3 from the area of Mardin. Present were we, the S[y]riac monk

4 Habib and I the wre[tched one] (?) (viz. Eliya), [at] the holy relics of Abba

5 Macarius and of his ho[ly comp]anions. These things happened

6 [in] the year 1867 of the Greeks (= 1555/6 CE).

Commentary

سیصا و دیلا دا, The place should probably be identified as Hesno d-ªA(n)to (سیصا و دیلا دا), a small village, now called Eskikale, about five kilometers east of Mardin.<fnref n="16" />

[هه ی]، [د]ه یه ی. The readings and reconstruction are far from certain, but there should be a second individual referenced here, and one expects it to be Eliya, given his earlier mention in the text.

<footnote n="16">16 For the place, see I. Bcheiry, *The Account of the Syriac Orthodox Patriarch Yühanun Bar Şay Allah* (1483–1492): *The Syriac Manuscript of Cambridge: DD.3.8(1)*, Gorgias Eastern Christianity Studies 34 (Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press, 2013), 31 fn. 52.</footnote>
This term, which is not infrequent in Syriac graffiti, refers to the “sphere of holiness that surrounds holy men and their relics”, as Van Rompay puts it.<fnref n="17" /> In this particular case, it should be noted that the *Vita* of Yuḥanon bar Shayullah – who, as discussed below, is reported to have visited the Monastery of St. Macarius sometime before his consecration as patriarch in 1484 – refers to the “the holy relics of Abba Macarius…” (ʿعَنْحَدَا بِمَغْدَا وَاحْمَدْهُمْ) with exactly the same wording as the graffito, and that this phrase is later resumed in the text by “the bones of the holy fathers” (خِتَّاهُمْ وَاحْتَهَاهُمْ).

## Historical Contextualization

Evelyn White, crediting Burkitt, reports the date as 1507, apparently reading ١٥٠٧; this is, however, incorrect. The reading of 1867 (اُصْ) is certain placing the graffito in 1555/6 CE, several decades after the paintings by Takla(s) *al-ḥabašī* are said to have been consecrated.<fnref n="18" />

## 2.2 Graffito 2

<figure><img src="image_9.png" /><figcaption>FIGURE 7 Graffito 2, Garshuni (photo 2024)</figcaption></figure>

<footnote n="17">17 See L. Van Rompay, Review of Harrak, *Syriac and Garshuni Inscriptions of Iraq*, 2010, Syria 89 (2012) 60, with references, especially to R. Duval, *Lexicon syriacum auctore Hassano bar Bahlule: Voces syriacas græcasque cum glossis syriacis et arabicis complectens e pluri-bus codicibus edidit et notulis instruxit*, Collection orientale 15-17 (Paris: Typographeo Reipublicae, 1888), 1976 with fn. 18.</footnote>

<footnote n="18">18 See the discussion in fn. 29 below.</footnote>
Text<fnref n="19" />

لا إِنْ مَنْ دَمَ امْحَدْ مَحْيَاهُ مَا

مَحْيَاهُ مَا حَاجَّهُ مَحَاجِحُهُ حَرْجُهُ ۚ

أَحَدٌ مَّمَّا يُحِبُّكُمُ الْمَكَانُ

Translation

1 Remember, o Lord, my mother, my father, my [brothe]rs,

2 and my sisters, in spirit and in body, by the prayers of

3 Abba Macarius and [all] the saints. Amen.

Commentary

Evelyn White implies that the language of this graffito is Syriac, but it is actually Arabic written in Syriac script, i.e. Garshuni.

(خوَّانِي = صَحْبِيَا) Evelyn White translates “my sister and my lady,” but the reading and translation of the latter as “my sisters” (in the plural) seems relatively certain, though note the slightly irregular orthography of for expected اصْحَابُي (اخواني = اصْحَابُ امْحَدِي), and therefore a translation of the first term with “my brothers” would seem to fit best.

(امين = اصْحَابُ) is written above the line and may be secondary.

We stress that this transcription is not intended to be of scientific value but only to make the text accessible to a greater readership, including in Egypt where the graffito is located. In this regard, note that we have arbitrarily transcribed Syriac *d* as the interdental ḏ /d/even though in similar texts in Arabic script this letter is often written without the diacritical dot, thus as the dental ḏ. This orthographic feature might, or might not, show that the sound was realized as /d/, as is the case in modern dialects; see J. Blau, *A Grammar of Christian Arabic, Based Mainly on South-Palestinian Texts from the First Millennium*, Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium 267, 276, 279 (Louvain: Secrétariat du CorpusSCO, 1966–1967), I: 107–108 (§ 15.2).

<footnote n="19">19 To aid accessibility for Arabists not familiar with the Syriac script, we provide here the text in Arabic script:</footnote>

<footnote>ا ذَكِّرْ يَا رَبِّ امْيَ وَإِيَّ [واخو]تِ</footnote>

<footnote>وخوَّانِي بِالْرُوحِ وَبِالْجَسَدِ بِصُلُوَاتِ ۚ</footnote>

<footnote>ابا مقاريوس و [كل] القديسين امين ۚ</footnote>
## Historical Contextualization

This graffito is undated. It is, however, written in close proximity to Graffito 1, which is dated to 1555/6. The ink and paleography of the two graffiti are also closely similar, suggesting that at the very least Graffito 2 may likewise stem from the sixteenth century. Moreover, it is possible – if not likely given their similarities – that Graffiti 1 and 2 were written by the same person. If so, the choice of language is worth a comment: Graffito 1 in the Syriac language is more formal and official, with names, places, and a date, whereas Graffito 2 in the Arabic language is more personal, with explicit mention of family.<fnref n="20" />

### 2.3 Graffito 3

<figure><img src="image_10.png" /><figcaption>FIGURE 8 Graffito 3, Syriac (photo 2024)</figcaption></figure>

<footnote n="20">20 For the use of both Syriac and Arabic by Syriac Christians, see the reflections in A. M. Butts, “Once Again, the Twin Histories of Arabic and Aramaic (with a Focus on Syriac),” in *Navigating Language in the Early Islamic World. Multilingualism and Language Change in the First Centuries of Islam*, ed. A. Borrut, M. Ceballos, & A. Vacca (Turnhout: Brepols, 2024), 365–401.</footnote>
Text

1 :ملىك حدهوا وننا احدها

2 مدن ل[ام]چنهم[هم] فان[ان]ما[وط]

3 [بحه وه]ما [عدس]ما وانهم صا

4 [...]محمص احده] مد[ني]...[...].

5 [...]عندما

6 كاف معحمدلا مفي

7 [...]

8 [...]

9 [...]

10 [...]

11 [...]صنیم[عمد...].

Translation

1 : Present at this monastery was our father

2 Mar [I]gnati[us], pat[riarc]h

3 [of] the ap[ost]olic [see] of Antioch

4 ... [in] the days of [our] father Mar ...

5 ... [in the year]

6 1783 [= 1471/2 CE]

7 ...
8 ...

9 ...

10 ...

11 ... our Lord Je[sus] ...

## Commentary

[... in ln. 2 could alternatively be reconstructed as [...] .]

[... in ln. 4 could again alternatively be reconstructed as [...] .]

## Historical Contextualization

Much of this graffito is illegible, but the reading of the date is quite certain as is the general sense of the initial lines that refer to the visit of a Syriac Orthodox patriarch Ignatius to the Monastery of St. Macarius. Most Syriac Orthodox patriarchs after the thirteenth century used the name Ignatius, and thus the question becomes which Ignatius of the many is intended here. Evelyn White cogently suggested that it is likely to be Yuḥanon bar Shayullah (1484–1493).<fnref n="21" /> Assemani reports, based ostensibly on the continuation of the *Ecclesiastical Chronicle* of Bar Hebraeus, that Yuḥanon bar Shayullah “bestowed many benefits upon the monastery in the Wādī al-Naṭrūn where the Syriac monks lived.”<fnref n="22" /> More information on Yuḥanon bar Shayullah’s relationship with the monasteries of the Wādī al-Naṭrūn can be gleaned from the patriarch’s *Vita* attested uniquely in ms. Cambridge, Cambridge University Library, Dd. 3.8.1.<fnref n="23" /> When

<footnote n="21">21 Evelyn White, *The Monasteries of the Wādi'n Natrûn*, II: 408 fn. 4; III: 76 fn. 4. On Yuḥanon bar Shayullah, see F. Y. Dolabani, *A Study in the History of Syriac Christianity in Persia and its Neighborhood* (Doha: Islamic Society in Qatar, 1990), 194–196 (in Syriac).</footnote>

<footnote n="22">22 J. S. Assemani, *Bibliotheca Orientalis Clementino-Vaticana, in qua Manuscriptos Codices Syriacos, Arabicos, Persicos, Turcicos, Hebraicos, Samaritanos, Armenicos, Æthiopicos, Græcos, Ægyptiacos, Ibericos & Malabaricos* ... (Rome: Typis Sacrae Congregationis de Propaganda Fide, 1719–1728), II: 386: in cœnobium Scetense ubi Syri monachi degebant, multa beneficia contulit. As Evelyn White has already pointed out, this sentence may be an addition, since it is not found in other manuscripts of the text; see J. B. Abbeloos and T. J. Lamy, *Grecorü Barhebraei Chronicon Ecclesiasticum* (Paris: Maisonneuve, 1872–1877), II: 841 note.</footnote>

<footnote n="23">23 A facsimile of the Syriac manuscript, together with an English translation, is available in Bcheiry, *The Account of the Syriac Orthodox Patriarch Yuḥanun Bar Śay Allah* (1483-1492). For the manuscript, see W. Wright, *A Catalogue of the Syriac Manuscripts Preserved in the Library of the University of Cambridge* (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1901), 982–984.</footnote>
still a monk, Yuḥanon bar Shayullah is said to have traveled to Jerusalem and then on to the Wādī al-Naṭrūn, where he resided for six months at the Monastery of the Syrians and was even ordained a priest, according to the text.<fnref n="24" /> The *Vita* places this particular sojourn in the Wādī al-Naṭrūn some indeterminate time before Yuḥanon bar Shayullah’s consecration as patriarch in 1484 – the text says only “when our glorious father was a monk…” (مِمَّا أَحَدَ بِرِسَا وَمَنَا).<fnref n="25" /> During this sojourn, Yuḥanon bar Shayullah is reported to have visited other monasteries in the Wādī al-Naṭrūn, including specifically those of St. Bishoy, of St. John, and – of particular importance to us here – of St. Macarius.<fnref n="26" /> This represents only one of multiple visits that the *Vita* reports Yuḥanon bar Shayullah made to Jerusalem; another one of these is also explicitly said to have extended further “to the barren desert of Scetis” (حَمَدَنَا حَمَدًا وَهَمَسَنَا).<fnref n="27" /> Given these variously reported activities of his in the Wādī al-Naṭrūn, and even at the Monastery of St. Macarius in particular, it seems possible, if not likely, that the patriarch mentioned in this graffito is to be identified as Yuḥanon bar Shayullah.

If this identification is accepted, the date found in the graffito introduces a couple of minor chronological problems.<fnref n="28" /> One is that Yuḥanon bar Shayullah was elected patriarch in 1484, whereas this graffito, which uses the title patriarch,

<footnote n="24">24 Bcheiry, *The Account of the Syriac Orthodox Patriarch Yūḥanun Bar Ṣay Allah* (1483-1492), 53 (ET) with a facsimile of the manuscript on p. 69. See also the remark in L. Van Rompay, “Le Couvent des Syriens en Égypte aux 15ᵉ et 16ᵉ siècles: L’apport des colophons syriaques de la Bibliothèque Nationale de France,” *Parole de l’Orient* 41 (2015) 550–551, which contextualizes Yuḥanon bar Shayullah’s trip to the Wādī al-Naṭrūn within the broader history of Syriac contacts with Egypt.</footnote>

<footnote n="25">25 Bcheiry, *The Account of the Syriac Orthodox Patriarch Yūḥanun Bar Ṣay Allah* (1483-1492), 52 (ET) with a facsimile of the manuscript on p. 68. Though not providing any of these details, Dolabani also mentions that Yuḥanon bar Shayullah studied in Egypt (as well as in Mardin and Syria) thereby corroborating that the patriarch was in Egypt when younger. See Dolabani, *Die Patriarchen der syrisch-orthodoxen Kirche von Antiochien*, 194 (in Syriac).</footnote>

<footnote n="26">26 Bcheiry, *The Account of the Syriac Orthodox Patriarch Yūḥanun Bar Ṣay Allah* (1483-1492), 52 (ET) with a facsimile of the manuscript on p. 69. The Monastery of St. John named in the *Vita* is probably to be identified with that of John the Little. If this identification is correct, then the *Vita*’s mention of Yuḥanon bar Shayullah’s visit might suggest that the Monastery of St. John the Little was still functioning sometime in the years before 1484.</footnote>

<footnote n="27">27 Bcheiry, *The Account of the Syriac Orthodox Patriarch Yūḥanun Bar Ṣay Allah* (1483-1492), 52 (ET) with a facsimile of the manuscript on p. 69. In addition, though not recorded in the *Vita*, Dolabani states that Yuḥanon bar Shayullah died of illness while on his way to Egypt via Jerusalem. See Dolabani, *Die Patriarchen der syrisch-orthodoxen Kirche von Antiochien*, 196 (in Syriac).</footnote>

<footnote n="28">28 Evelyn White was unaware of the date found in the graffito and so was not compelled to address these issues.</footnote>
includes a date of 1471/2. There are several possible solutions to this problem, but the most likely seems to be that this graffito was written later – probably sometime after 1516/7 when the paintings were consecrated<fnref n="29" /> – to commemorate the fact that the future patriarch had previously visited the monastery in 1471/2. Note in this regard that the visit is being reported not in the voice of the patriarch himself but in that of a different person, as shown by the use of “our father” (اپ). Our proposal is, thus, that this anonymous third-person report stems from at least half a century or so after the visit, and that the title of patriarch along with the name Ignatius reflect the date of the graffito and not that of the earlier visit, when Yuḥanon bar Shayullah was not yet patriarch. Another chronological problem is that Yuḥanon bar Shayullah is traditionally said to have been consecrated bishop of Ṣawro in 1470/1 (= 1782 A.G.) just before the date found in the graffito.<fnref n="30" /> There are again several conceivable solutions to this chronological problem, including simply that Yuḥanon bar Shayullah visited the Monastery of St. Macarius (again) in 1471/2 (= 1783 A.G.) shortly after his consecration as bishop in 1470/1 (= 1782 A.G.).<fnref n="31" /> Regardless of the preferred solutions to these minor chronological problems,<fnref n="32" /> it remains tempting to identify the patriarch in this graffito as Yuḥanon bar Shayullah, given his well-documented activities in the Wādī al-Naṭrūn, including specifically at the Monastery of St. Macarius, sometime in the second half of the fifteenth century.

If the identification of Yuḥanon bar Shayullah is correct, then lines four and five of the graffito will likely have once contained the name of his predecessor Khalaf Maʻdnoyo (1456–1484).<fnref n="33" /> It should be pointed out in this regard that the

<footnote n="29">29 For the date of the consecration of the paintings, see fn. 10 above. Graffito 3 likely dates to after the paintings. Nevertheless, it should be pointed out that Evelyn White has implied the opposite. He contends that the painting is “superimposed” on Graffito 3 and speaks further of the graffito being “partly covered by the painting of Apoli” (Evelyn White, *The Monasteries of the Wādi ‘n Natrūn*, II: 76). In our own physical examinations of the painting and graffiti, we have been unable to confirm the proposed stratigraphy of Evelyn White. Moreover, it seems far more likely to us that the graffito was made *after* the painting, since it would be difficult, if not impossible, for the graffito to appear somehow from underneath the painting given that there are no obvious distinctions in layers of plaster.</footnote>

<footnote n="30">30 Abbeloos and Lamy, *Gregorii Barhebræi Chronicon Ecclesiasticum*, II: 833–834. See also Dolabani, *Die Patriarchen der syrisch-orthodoxen Kirche von Antiochien*, 195 (in Syriac).</footnote>

<footnote n="31">31 We add “again” because this visit will not correspond, in this scenario, to that described in the *Vita*, if in fact Yuḥanon bar Shayullah was ordained as a priest during that early visit, as is reported in the *Vita*.</footnote>

<footnote n="32">32 Other solutions include that the date in the graffito is simply an error or that it refers to a different event, which is possible given the graffito’s deplorable state of preservation.</footnote>

<footnote n="33">33 On Khalaf Maʻdnoyo, see Dolabani, *Die Patriarchen der syrisch-orthodoxen Kirche von Antiochien*, 191–194 (in Syriac).</footnote>
*Vita* of Yuḥanon bar Shayullah reports that the two travelled together to Jerusalem on the trip when he was still a monk, though it is not made clear whether Khalaf Maʻdnoyo continued on to Egypt.<fnref n="34" /> In any case, it is noteworthy that the graffito, at least as we understand it, commemorates an earlier visit of a (future) patriarch during the days of the patriarch before him.

### 3 Conclusion

The three Syriac-script graffiti presented here attest to periodic visits of Syriac Christians to the Monastery of St. Macarius at various times from the later decades of the fifteenth century through the mid-sixteenth century. Dated to 1555/6, Graffito 1 witnesses the visit of at least a couple of Syriac Christians, Habib and Eliya from Mardin, to the monastery several decades after Takla(s) al-ḥabašī created the neighboring painting, which is reported to have been consecrated in 1516/7. Given its physical proximity and similarities in ink and paleography, Graffito 2 may have been written at the same time as Graffito 1, though other times in the sixteenth century (with a *terminus post quem* of 1516/7)<fnref n="35" /> cannot be ruled out. Due to its fragmentary nature, the interpretation of Graffito 3 is more uncertain. We have, however, proposed that this graffito was also written sometime after the first decades of the sixteenth century to commemorate an earlier visit, which took place in 1471/2, by a (future) Syriac patriarch. Following a suggestion of Evelyn White, we think that this person is likely to have been Yuḥanon bar Shayullah, who was elected patriarch in 1484 and who is reported in other sources to have visited the Wādī al-Naṭrūn, including specifically the Monastery of St. Macarius, before he became patriarch. The three Syriac-script graffiti presented here, thus, serve as evidence for the presence of Syriac Christians at the Monastery of St. Macarius in the sixteenth century – when the graffiti were written – as well as probably in the fifteenth – with the report of a (future) patriarch’s visit at that time.

More broadly, we are convinced that continued study of Syriac graffiti and inscriptions from other locations throughout Egypt will shed further light on the connected histories of Coptic and Syriac Christians.<fnref n="36" /> Connections are not, however, limited in this regard to these communities, since Egypt was a meet-

<footnote n="34">34 See Bcheiry, *The Account of the Syriac Orthodox Patriarch Yūḥanun Bar Šay Allah* (1483-1492), 52 (ET) with a facsimile of the manuscript on p. 69.</footnote>

<footnote n="35">35 See fn. 29 above.</footnote>

<footnote n="36">36 Again, in general, see Van Rompay, “Syriac Contacts with Coptic Christianity,” with additional references.</footnote>
ing place for Christians coming from all over the Mediterranean and Africa.<fnref n="37" /> Thus, a wider investigation of the many Christian graffiti and inscriptions, written in an array of languages and scripts (Arabic, Armenian, Coptic, Ethiopic, Georgian, Greek, Latin, Nubian, and Syriac Christians, to name only the most obvious), attested in numerous locations across Egypt promises to illuminate an especially crucial subsection – second perhaps only to Jerusalem – of the complex web of interactions and entanglements that characterizes the various Christian communities of the Eastern Mediterranean and beyond.<fnref n="38" />

## Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the following people who helped in various ways with this article: Sophia Dege-Müller, Karel Innemée, and Sergey Minov. We are especially grateful to Jonas Karlsson, George Kiraz, and Lucas Van Rompay for their helpful suggestions on the graffiti, several of which have been adopted here. Above all, we extend our heartful thanks to the monks of the Monastery of St. Macarius – and among them, Markos al-Maqārī – for supporting and encouraging this work. The research for this article was funded by the European Union (ERC, consolidator grant agreement no. 101044300, project 'BeInf – Beyond Influence: The Connected Histories of Ethiopic and Syriac Christianity', at Universität Hamburg [2022–2027]).

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<footnote n="37">37 For instance, the project “BeInf – Beyond Influence: The Connected Histories of Ethiopic and Syriac Christianity” looks to Egypt as a place where Ethiopian and Syriac Christians likely came into contact. For the project more broadly, see <https://www.aai.uni-hamburg.de/beinf.html> (accessed 14 May 2024). For Christian Ethiopians in Egypt, see Ambu, “Du texte à la communauté: Relations et échanges entre l’Égypte copte et les réseaux monastiques éthiopiens (XIIIe–XVIe siècles),” 356–368, where many references to the earlier literature can be found, as well as the recent study M. Ambu and P. Pilette, “Une nouvelle page de l’histoire des relations entre Égypte et Éthiopie: Étude d’un document bilingue du Dayr al-Muḥarraq (Paris BnF Éthiopien 32, f. 207 va–b),” in *Études coptes XVIII–Actes de la vingtième journée de l’association francophone de coptologie (Liège, avril 2022)*, Cahiers de la Bibliothèque Copte 25 (Louvain: Peeters, forthcoming).</footnote>

<footnote n="38">38 The present article serves as a prelude to a larger-scale project, currently being planned by the authors, on the many inscriptions and graffiti on this wall in the Chapel of St. Michael at the Monastery of St. Macarius.</footnote>
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