Tanta

This town maintains its rural atmosphere despite being the fifth largest city in Egypt and having a major university. Although it is an interesting and quite charming city, where you can enjoy a taste of contemporary Egyptian life without the glories of past eras and masses of tourists, there is little or nothing to see in Tanta itself for most of the year. Plenty of stunning neglected colonial-era buildings remain, but probably not for much longer as no one seems to recognize their beauty or historical value and modern high-rises are gradually replacing them. Tanta really comes alive, however, in late October at the end of the cotton harvest, during the eight-day festival or Moulid of Sayid Ahmed El-Badawi when the population swells to nearly three million as pilgrims pour in from throughout Egypt and the Muslim world. Until the moulid was forced into a decline in the mid-19th century because it was so overly riotous and dangerous it was the largest moulid in the Muslim world, and in the early years of the 20th century important officials from both the Ottoman and British hierarchy attended the celebrations. It is still the largest moulid in Egypt even though in recent years festivities have been further calmed down, and any local can tell you tales of their youth when the crushes in the streets resulted in death on a daily basis. The day after the Big Night (Leila Kebir), the khalifa is a riot of camels, drums and circuses as the mounted sheikh leads the procession.

Sayid Ahmed El-Badawi (AD 1199-1276) was the founder of one of Egypt’s largest Sufi brotherhoods/orders (tariqas), which is known as the Badawiya. Born in Fes, Morocco, he emigrated to Arabia and then travelled to Iraq where he joined the Rifaiyah brotherhood. After being sent to Tanta in 1234 as its representative, he received permission to establish his own tariqa, which soon flourished. Although the mosque built by his successor and containing his tomb was demolished in the mid-19th century, a large, new, rather undistinguished one was built by pasha Abbas I (AD 1848-1854) and is the focus of Badawi’s annual moulid. Another moulid in July is held in honour of the female saint Sheikha Sabah.