saba yasa (perhaps an alternative orthography for Yassa), a hierodeacon (that he was a monk is evident from his title Anba) from the town of Dr‘, which remains unidentified; Yaqut al-Hamawi mentions nothing resembling it in his geographical encyclopedia called Mu‘jam al-Buldan.
In 1320, he was in Cairo, where he lived in the residence of the Melchite patriarch of Alexandria, Gregory II (elected c. 1315 and d. before 1335). His residence was situated "at Misr the well-kept." It is there that he read the four gospels contained in today's Sinai Arabic 102, on Friday 20 June of the year 28 of the world, which must be corrected to read 6828, that is, A.D. 1320.