Nilopolis or Delas (

Coptic Coptic may refer to: Afro-Asia * Copts, an ethnoreligious group mainly in the area of modern Egypt but also in Sudan and Libya * Coptic language, a Northern Afro-Asiatic language spoken in Egypt until at least the 17th century * Coptic alphabet ...

: ϯⲗⲟϫ ''Tilodj'') was a city in

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...

situated on the left bank of the

Nile The Nile, , Bohairic , lg, Kiira , Nobiin language, Nobiin: Áman Dawū is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It flows into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile is the longest river in Africa and has historically been considered ...

, about forty-seven miles from

Memphis Memphis most commonly refers to: * Memphis, Egypt, a former capital of ancient Egypt * Memphis, Tennessee, a major American city Memphis may also refer to: Places United States * Memphis, Alabama * Memphis, Florida * Memphis, Indiana * Memp ...

. It was an

episcopal see An episcopal see is, in a practical use of the phrase, the area of a bishop's ecclesiastical jurisdiction. Phrases concerning actions occurring within or outside an episcopal see are indicative of the geographical significance of the term, mak ...

that a

suffragan A suffragan bishop is a type of bishop in some Christian denominations. In the Anglican Communion, a suffragan bishop is a bishop who is subordinate to a metropolitan bishop or diocesan bishop (bishop ordinary) and so is not normally jurisdictiona ...

of the metropolitan of Oxyrynchos, in the

Roman province The Roman provinces (Latin: ''provincia'', pl. ''provinciae'') were the administrative regions of Ancient Rome outside Roman Italy that were controlled by the Romans under the Roman Republic and later the Roman Empire. Each province was rule ...

Arcadia Aegypti Arcadia or Arcadia Aegypti was a Late Roman province in northern Egypt. It was named for one of the reigning '' Augusti'' of the Roman Empire, Arcadius () of the Theodosian dynasty when it was created in the late 4th century. Its capital was Oxyr ...

, and is included as such in the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

's list of

titular see A titular see in various churches is an episcopal see of a former diocese that no longer functions, sometimes called a "dead diocese". The ordinary or hierarch of such a see may be styled a "titular metropolitan" (highest rank), "titular archbish ...

s.''Annuario Pontificio 2013'' (Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2013, ), p. 941]

History

According to

Ptolemy Claudius Ptolemy (; grc-gre, Πτολεμαῖος, ; la, Claudius Ptolemaeus; AD) was a mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist, who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were of importanc ...

(IV, v, 26) the city was situated on an island of the Nile in the

Heraclean nome A nome (, from grc, νομός, ''nomós'', "district") was a territorial division in ancient Egypt. Each nome was ruled by a nomarch ( egy, ḥrj tp ꜥꜣ Great Chief). The number of nomes changed through the various periods of the history ...

Eusebius Eusebius of Caesarea (; grc-gre, Εὐσέβιος ; 260/265 – 30 May 339), also known as Eusebius Pamphilus (from the grc-gre, Εὐσέβιος τοῦ Παμφίλου), was a Greek historian of Christianity, exegete, and Christian ...

(''

Ecclesiastical History __NOTOC__ Church history or ecclesiastical history as an academic discipline studies the history of Christianity and the way the Christian Church has developed since its inception. Henry Melvill Gwatkin defined church history as "the spiritual ...

'', VI, xli) states that it had a bishop, Cheremon, during the persecution of

Decius Gaius Messius Quintus Traianus Decius ( 201 ADJune 251 AD), sometimes translated as Trajan Decius or Decius, was the emperor of the Roman Empire from 249 to 251. A distinguished politician during the reign of Philip the Arab, Decius was procla ...

; others are mentioned a little later. "The Chronicle of John of Nikiou" (559) alludes to this city in connection with the occupation of Egypt by the Muslims, and it is also referred to by Arabian medieval geographers under its original name of Delas. In the fourteenth century it paid 20,000 dinars in taxes, which indicates a place of some importance. In the

khedival Khedive (, ota, خدیو, hıdiv; ar, خديوي, khudaywī) was an honorific title of Persian origin used for the sultans and grand viziers of the Ottoman Empire, but most famously for the viceroy of Egypt from 1805 to 1914.Adam Mestyan"Khed ...

period, Delas was a part of the

moudirieh Mudiriyah (, plural ''Mudiriyat''), meaning "directorate" (from مدير ''mudir'', meaning "director"), is an administrative subdivision also known in English as mudirate,Nachtigal, Gustav (1971) ''Sahara and Sudan: Wadai and Darfur'' (Volume 4 of ...

Beni-Suef Beni Suef ( ar, بني سويف, Baniswēf the capital city of the Beni Suef Governorate in Egypt. Beni Suef is the location of Beni Suef University. An important agricultural trade centre on the west bank of the Nile River, the city is located 11 ...

in the district of El-Zaouiet, and had about 2500 inhabitants of whom nearly 1000 were nomadic

Bedouins The Bedouin, Beduin, or Bedu (; , singular ) are nomadic Arabs, Arab tribes who have historically inhabited the desert regions in the Arabian Peninsula, North Africa, the Levant, and Mesopotamia. The Bedouin originated in the Syrian Desert ...

References

* {{Catholic, wstitle=Nilopolis Catholic titular sees in Africa