Vol.I - The Coptic Orthodox Church

232 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. iv.
probably to some sphinx or other figure
of ancient
Egyptian work, which had been placed at the portal
of the church : the dress and equipment are no doubt
purely
fanciful. But I think that without either
wresting or straining the sense of the legend one
may fairly gather, that at the time of the siege the
church had been already so long built as to date in
the rude imagination of an Arab from time imme-
morial.
For nearly two hundred and fifty years after the
of Kasr-ash-Shamm'ah I can find no further
taking
notice of Al Mu'allakah. The next mention of the
church is quite incidental, where Al Makrlzi states 1
that in the days of the Sultan Ahmad Ibn Tulun the
patriarch
Khail '
sold to the Jews the church adjoin-
ing Al Mu'allakah,' i.e. the church of St. Michael,
still used as a Jewish synagogue. This was about
the year 880 A.D. Tulun was the builder of the
superb mosque bearing his name and now standing
in ruins near the citadel of Cairo. About the year
1000 A.D. the wild fanatic and persecutor, called
Al Hakim bi'amr Illahi, is said 2 to have 'built a
wall round the church of Al Mu'allakah' what-
ever that means. Perhaps the precincts within the
Roman wall were enclosed, and the church turned
into a mosque, like Anba Shanudah. It is quite
certain that the same khalif sanctioned an indiscri-
minate persecution of the Christians and plunder of
their churches.
'
All the gold and silver vessels in
them were plundered, their endowments were forfeited
; and those endowments were splendid and
bestowed on wonderful edifices,' says
1
History of the Copts, p. 85.
the Arab his-
2 Id. p. 90.