Bāṣūfān; Baṣoufan; Bâssoûfâne; Baṯūfān; Basufan Complete

Description

A ruined village in Jabal Simʿān registered in TIB 15 on pp. 991–992 as Bāsūfān. Also spelt: Bāṣūfān, Baṣoufan, Bâssoûfâne, Baṯūfān, and Basufan. It is important to stress its closeness to the sanctuary of St. Simeon the Elder at Qalʿat Simʿān for the architectural resemblance of both sites is striking. The most notable landmark of this site is a church dedicated to Saint Phokas, boasting finds of two large Syriac inscriptions. According to the first of them the church was built in 491/2 CE. In the checklist of buildings for this site, Klaus Peter Todt and Bernard Andreas Vest (TIB 15) also distinguished a monastery (possibly a non-Chalcedonian one). Literature (select bibliography after TIV 15, pp. 991–992): TIB 15 – Todt, K.P., Vest, B.A., Tabula Imperii Byzantini, vol. 15 (Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2014), pp. 991–992; Tchalenko, G. (ed.), Villages antiques de la Syrie du Nord: Le Massif du Bélus a l'époque romaine( Paris: P. Geuthner, 1953-1958), vol. 1, p. 231-233, 247; vol. 2, Pl. LXXIV; vol. 3, 88, 107, 166. Peña, I., Castellana, P., Fernandez, R., Les Reclus Syriens (Jerusalem: Franciscan Printing Press, 1980), 277; Paweł Nowakowski, Cult of Saints, E04386 - http://csla.history.ox.ac.uk/record.php?recid=E04386 Littmann, E., ‘Zur Topographie der Antiochene und Apamene’, Zeitschrift für Semitistik und verwandte Gebiete 1 (1922), 182; Inscriptions: Seyrig, H., "Inscriptions grecques", in: Tchalenko, G. (ed.), Villages antiques de la Syrie du Nord: Le Massif du Bélus a l'époque romaine, vol. 3 (Paris: P. Geuthner, 1958), 14–15, no. 11 (Barselamanes, son of Apolas buried his daughter Gore[. .]); E. Littmann (ed.), Publications of the Princeton University Archaeological Expeditions to Syria in 1905–5 and 1909. Division IV: Semitic Inscriptions. Section B: Syriac Inscriptions (Leiden: Brill, 1934), no. 50 (CSLA.E04386) = Pognon, H., Inscriptions sémitiques de la Syrie, de la Mésopotamie et de la région de Mossoul (Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1907), no. 21 = Aggoula, B., "Studia Aramaica III: III - Inscriptions syriaques de Syrie-Mésopotamie", Syria 69 (1992), 410–411, no. 6 [Syriac inscription for the church of St. Phokas, main building inscription]; Littmann, E., ‘Deux inscriptions syriaques’, in: G. Tchalenko (ed.), Villages antiques de la Syrie du Nord: Le Massif du Bélus a l'époque romaine, vol. 3 (Paris: P. Geuthner, 1958), p. 107, no. 1 = Jarry, J., ‘Inscriptions arabes, syriaques et grecques du massif du Bélus en Syrie du nord [avec 42 planches]’, Annales Islamologiques 7 (1967), no. 4 (from a squeeze) [Syriac inscription from the church of Saint Phokas, building inscription with a blessing, very disputable contents, hardly legible]. The site also yielded one medieval Arabic inscription (see TIB 15).