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Pbow was a cenobitic monastery established by St. Pachomius in 336-337 AD. Pbow is about 100 km (62 miles) north of Luxor in modern Upper Egypt. It was one of the nine Pachomian monasteries.

Name

Pbow is a Coptic name. The Arabic "Faw" in "Faw al-Qibli" ("South Faw") derives from the Coptic Pbow. Other spellings include "Bau", "Pboou", and "Phbow".

History

Pbow was founded as an 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. Pbow would also go on to become the residence of Pachomius prior to his death. The center included the Basilica of St. Pachomius. Pachomius died in Pbow in 347.

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.

Archaeology

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. 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.

References

1. ^ Emmel, Stephen (2010). "The 'Coptic Gnostic Library of Nag Hammadi' and the Faw Qibli Excavations". In Gabra, Gawdat; Takla, Hany (eds.). Christianity and Monasticism in Upper Egypt: Volume 2: Nag Hammadi–Esna. American University in Cairo Press. ISBN 978-977-416-311-1.
2. Brooks Hedstrom, Darlene L. (2017-11-23). The Monastic Landscape of Late Antique Egypt: An Archaeological Reconstruction. Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/9781316676653.007. ISBN 978-1-316-67665-3.
3. Drew Bear, M. (16 December 2017). "Places: 756540 (Bau/Pboou)". Pleiades. Retrieved August 15, 2020.
4. Marilyn Dunn (15 April 2008). The Emergence of Monasticism: From the Desert Fathers to the Early Middle Ages. John Wiley & Sons. pp. 26–. ISBN 978-0-470-75454-2.
5. ^ 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.

Further reading

• 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)

External links

• Images of Pbow remains at modern Fāw Qiblī

v t e Monasteries in Egypt
Italics indicate defunct monasteries.
	Upper Egypt	Muharraq Monastery Monastery of the Martyrs Red Monastery White Monastery Monastery of Saint Epiphanius Monastery of Saint Matthew the Potter Monastery of Saint Fana Monastery of Saint Samuel the Confessor Pachomian Tabennesi Pbow Sheneset Tmoushons Tse Tkahshmin Tbew Tsmine Phnoum
	Middle Egypt	Monastery of Saint Parsoma
	Lower Egypt	Monastery of the Enaton Monastery of Saint Mina
	Eastern Desert	Monastery of Saint Anthony Monastery of Saint Paul the Anchorite
	Nitrian Desert	Nitria Kellia Wadi El Natrun Paromeos Monastery Monastery of Saint Macarius the Great Monastery of Saint Pishoy Syrian Monastery
	Sinai	Monastery of Saint Catherine
Category Christianity in Egypt Monasteries by country

• Christian monasteries established in the 4th century
• Archaeological sites in Egypt
• Coptic Orthodox monasteries in Egypt
• Pachomian monasteries
• Buildings and structures in Sohag Governorate