Ballas, Al-

ballas, al-, town located in the province of Qena on the west side of the Nile about 3 miles (5 km) northwest of qift. In Coptic documents the name of the town appears as pallac (Pallas). This town may have been the birthplace of Apa nob the Confessor. Although the synaxarion for 23 Ba’unah says he was born in Bala’us (also referred to as Balanas), an Arabic manuscript (National Library, Paris, no. 154) states that al-Ballas was his birthplace. There was a church of Apa Sansno in al-Ballas, and Muslim authors of the Middle Ages often mention a monastery in the area. Some sources call the monastery Dayr Kahmas and others Dayr Markis, but it is not known whose monastery this was.