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Masil

By Randall Stewart

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Author
Randall Stewart
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1561a–1561b

masil, a town in the northern Delta of Egypt. Though its exact location is uncertain, it appears that Masil lay somewhere within the area defined by Rashid to the northeast, Fuwwah to the southeast, Lake Idku to the northwest, and Abu Hummus to the southwest. In Coptic documents the name of the town was written me,/l or mele,, and in Greek sources as Melšthj (Meletes) or Metšlij (Metelis).

The synaxarion indicates that Masil was a bishopric at least as early as the end of the third century. Under the date 9 Tut we read that Bishop Bisura, who presided in the city of Metelis at the time of the emperor diocletian (284-305), was martyred during the persecutions of that era. The town was still a bishopric in the Middle Ages (Munier, 1943, p. 14).

Bibliography

Amélineau, E. La Géographie de l'Egypt a l'époque copte, pp. 243-46. Paris, 1893. Munier, H. Recueil des listes épiscopales de l'église copte. Cairo, 1943. Timm, S. Das christlich-koptische Ägypten in arabischer Zeit, pt. 4, pp. 1604-1610. Wiesbaden, 1988. RANDALL STEWART