Horbit (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
- 1.[1.2]Eugène Revillout, "Acte de fondation d'une chapelle à Hor-Merti dans la ville de Pharbaetus", Revue Égyptologique, 2:1:32 (1881) full text
- 2.II, 166.
- 3.XVII, i, 20.
- 4.Natural History V, 9, 11.
- 5.Karl Baedeker, Egypt: handbook for travellers : part first, lower Egypt..., 1885 (2nd edition), p. 33. full text
- 6.Peust, Carsten. "Die Toponyme vorarabischen Ursprungs im modernen Ägypten" (PDF). pp. 48–49.
- 7.Johnson, Janet H., ed. (2001). The Demotic dictionary of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago. Chicago: The Oriental Institute. p. 233.
- 8."Descriptio orbis romani", ed. Gelzer, 706.
- 9.Gelzer, "Patrum nicænorum nomina", LX.
- 10.Renaudot, "Historia patriarcharum alexandrinorum", 458.
- 11.Chronicle, CV.