Pbow

Pbow is a Coptic name. The Arabic "Faw" in "Faw al-Qibli" ("South Faw") derives from the Coptic Pbow.[1] Other names include "Bau", "Pboou", and "Phbow".[2][3]

Pbow was founded as administrative center for Pachomius's monastery in 336–337. Although not much is known about the traditions of these monks, we do know that they would annually meet two times a year at Pbow. Catechumens would often be baptized at this monastery on Easter.[4] Pbow would also go on to become the residence of Pachomius prior to his death.[4] The center included the Basilica of St. Pachomius. Pachomius died in Pbow in 347.[1]

Very little is known about the history of Pbow after the 6th century AD. Around the time of the reign of al-Hakim, Pbow was either destroyed by al-Hakim, or it was already ruined.[1]

The first descriptions of Pbow by Western archaeologists were from B.T.A. Evetts, Alfred J. Butler, Michel Jullien, and Louis Massignon, around the late 19th century and early 20th century. Louis-Théophile Lefort described Pbow in Les premiers monastères Pachômiens, published 1939.

Pbow was somewhat recently discovered buried underneath two newer churches in 1989. According to William Harmless, it was about twenty-four meters wide and forty-one meters long. This church included a section known as an apse, presumably meant for meetings of monks from affiliated monasteries.[4] Outside communal buildings for monks were further discovered on the grounds of the once standing monastery.

Peter Grossmann has been a primary investigator of the archaeology of Pbow, starting in the 1970s. According to Grossmann, three different primary churches were built at Pbow over time, superimposed one over the other.[1]

• Trilling, James; Kazhdan, Alexander P. (2005), Kazhdan, Alexander P. (ed.), "Pbow", The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium, Oxford University Press, doi:10.1093/acref/9780195046526.001.0001, ISBN 978-0-19-504652-6
• Grossmann, Peter (1991), "Pbow", in Atiya, Aziz Suryal (ed.), The Coptic Encyclopedia, Macmillan
• Mossakowska-Gaubert, Maria (2019). "Les assemblées de moines dans les congrégations monastiques en Égypte (IVe-VIe siècle)". In Delouis, Olivier; Mossakowska-Gaubert, Maria; Peters-Custot, Annick (eds.). LES MOBILITÉS MONASTIQUES EN ORIENT ET EN OCCIDENT DE L'ANTIQUITÉ TARDIVE AU MOYEN ÂGE (IVE-XVE SIÈCLE). Publications de l’École française de Rome. doi:10.4000/books.efr.4202. ISBN 9782728313884.
• Louis Théophile Lefort (1939). Les premiers monastères Pachômiens (exploration topographique). Imprimerie Orientaliste L. Durbecq.
• Abū Ṣāliḥ; B. T. A. Evetts; Alfred J. Butler (1895). The Churches & monasteries of Egypt and some neighbouring countries attributed to Abû Ṣâlih, the Armenian. Oxford University Press.
• Goehring, James E. (1999). Ascetics, society, and the desert : studies in early Egyptian monasticism. Harrisburg, PA. ISBN 1-56338-269-5. OCLC 40907656.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Harmless, William (2004). Desert Christians : an introduction to the literature of early monasticism. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-803674-6. OCLC 318458883.
• Brooks Hedstrom, Darlene L. (2017). The monastic landscape of late antique Egypt : an archaeological reconstruction. Cambridge, United Kingdom. ISBN 978-1-107-16181-8. OCLC 1012838137.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)

• Images of Pbow remains at modern Fāw Qiblī