Hurbayt

Place in Sharqia, Egypt

Hurbayt هربيط ⲫⲁⲣⲃⲁⲓⲧ
30°44′4.79″N 31°37′14.87″E / 30.7346639°N 31.6207972°E / 30.7346639; 31.6207972
Country	Egypt
Governorate	Sharqia
Time zone	UTC+2 (EST)

Hurbayt (Arabic: هربيط) is a town in Sharqia Governorate of Egypt.

It's an ancient town referred to in a stele of the 7th century BC,^[1] and described by Herodotus,^[2] Strabo,^[3] and Pliny.^[4]

It served as the capital of the nome of Pharbaethites/Lapt in Lower Egypt.^[5]^[1]

Etymology

The town's Arabic name comes from Coptic Pharbait (Coptic: ⲫⲁⲣⲃⲁⲓⲧ), which in turn is derived from Ancient Egyptian: Pr-Ḥrw-mr.ty, lit. 'house of the two eyed Horus'.^[6] It was also known as Sheten (Ancient Egyptian: Štꜣn).^[7]

In Ptolemaic and Roman Egypt it was known as Pharbaithos (Ancient Greek: Φάρβαιθος) or Pharbaethus. This name is reproduced under the form Karbeuthos in George of Cyprus.^[8]

Ecclesiastical history

The original diocese was a suffragan of Leontopolis, in Augustamnica Secunda, Egypt.

There is a record of Bishop Arbetion at Nicæa in 325,^[9] and Bishop Theodorus in 1086,^[10] but it is possible that the latter was bishop of another Pharbætus situated further to the west, and which according to Vansleb was equally a Coptic see. John of Nikiu^[11] relates that under the Emperor Phocas (602–10) the clerics of the province killed the Greek governor Theophilus.

It remains a Roman Catholic titular see under the name Pharbaetus.

References

^ ^a ^b Eugène Revillout, "Acte de fondation d'une chapelle à Hor-Merti dans la ville de Pharbaetus", Revue Égyptologique, 2:1:32 (1881) full text
^ II, 166.
^ XVII, i, 20.
^ Natural History V, 9, 11.
^ Karl Baedeker, Egypt: handbook for travellers : part first, lower Egypt..., 1885 (2nd edition), p. 33. full text
^ Peust, Carsten. "Die Toponyme vorarabischen Ursprungs im modernen Ägypten" (PDF). pp. 48–49.
^ Johnson, Janet H., ed. (2001). The Demotic dictionary of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago. Chicago: The Oriental Institute. p. 233.
^ "Descriptio orbis romani", ed. Gelzer, 706.
^ Gelzer, "Patrum nicænorum nomina", LX.
^ Renaudot, "Historia patriarcharum alexandrinorum", 458.
^ Chronicle, CV.

Sources

Charles, Robert H. (2007) [1916]. The Chronicle of John, Bishop of Nikiu: Translated from Zotenberg's Ethiopic Text. Merchantville, NJ: Evolution Publishing. ISBN 9781889758879.

Attribution

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Pharbætus". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. The entry cites:
- Heinrich Gelzer, Georgii Cyprii Descriptio orbis romani, 114–16;
- ROUGÉ, Géographie ancienne de la Basse Egypte (Paris, 1891), 66–74;
- Émile Amélineau, La Géographie de l'Egypte à l' époque copte (Paris, 1893), 330.