This electronic edition published in 2019 by
The American University in Cairo Press
113 Sharia Kasr el Aini, Cairo, Egypt
200 Park Ave., Suite 1700 New York, NY 10166
Copyright © 2004 by Aubier, a department of Editions Flammarion, Paris First published in French in 2004 as Histoire d’un pélerinage légendaire en Islam: Le Mouled de Tantâ du XIIIe siècle à nos jours
English translation copyright © 2018 by Colin Clement
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
ISBN 978 977 416 8925
eISBN 978 1 61797 952 1
Version 1
To James Martone and the People of Zeitun
Contents
Introduction: ‘Popular’ Islam in Egypt
1. The Mulid of Tanta, October 2002
2. The Lives of Sayyid al-Badawi: Between Oral and Written Tradition
3. From Saint to Mulid: The Ahmadiya Brotherhood
5. The Nineteenth-Century Tanta Fair: From Carnival to Reform
6. The Mulid of Tanta in the Twentieth Century: The Metamorphosis of the Pilgrimage
7. Return to Tanta, October 2012
Acknowledgments
This book owes its existence to my Egyptian friends. I wish to thank all those who will never be able to read it: ‘Abd al-Latif ‘Abd al-‘Aziz Isma‘il, Amal (the lady downstairs), Ehab, Hamada, Mahmud, Muhammad ‘Abd al-Gawad, Umm Ahmad (the lady upstairs), Ahmad, ‘Abduh, and Sawsan; to all the people of the balad, Kafr al-Hagg Dawud; to the family of Muhammad Shakuku and the cassette salesgirls; to Umm Ahmad of Tanta and to Lamia’s family, and so many Egyptian friends I’m not able to mention here. Finally, my loving and grateful memory goes to the people of Bagur and to the late Sheikh Sa‘d Ragab al-Rifa‘i.
Alain Jaouen knows just what the adventure of the Tanta mulid means to me: thanks for everything.
For the French edition (2004), I would like to thank: Delphine Pagès-Karoui for kindly allowing me to reproduce the map of Tanta taken from her thesis; the photographer Denis Dailleux of Agence VU, who accompanied me to the mulid in October 2002; Edwige Lambert for her French translation of The Seven Days of Man; Maxime Catroux of Aubier-Flammarion for her editing work; Hélène Fiamma for her enthusiastic defense of the “petit livre alerte.”
For the English edition (2019), I would like to thank: The American University in Cairo Press and Nadia Naqib for her dynamic initiatives and wonderful work; the unknown reviewer for his/her energetic support; Aurélie Boissière for her maps; Samuli Schielke and Alain Jaouen for their photographs; Belal Darder for permission to use his wonderful photograph on the cover of this book; Colin Clement for his accurate translation; Lucy Hanna for her editing work; and the Institut Universitaire de France (IUF) and Centre National du Livre (CNL) for having funded this translation. I have, for this edition, updated the notes and bibliography, and added a final new chapter on the mulid in October 2012.
Chronology
| General chronology | Chronology of the Tanta mulid |
| 969–1171: Fatimid dynasty | |
| 1171–1250: Ayyubid dynasty | |
| 12th–13th centuries: Beginning of Sufi brotherhood organizations in the Middle East | 1236–37: Badawi arrives in Tanta |
| 1250: Fifth Crusade in Egypt. Louis IX of France at Damietta. | |
| 1250–1517: Mamluk period | 1276: Badawi dies at Tanta. Building of a zawiya over his grave. Presumed beginning of the pilgrimage. 1333: Death of ‘Abd al-‘Al, successor of Badawi and founder of the Sutuhiya Beginning of 15th century: First wave of hagiographic writings dedicated to Badawi |
| 1468–97: Qaytbay rules Egypt | 1447: Mulid of Tanta is banned 1495–96: Qaytbay builds the mausoleum of Badawi End of 15th century: The Sutuhiya becomes the Ahmadiya |
| 1517: Ottoman conquest of Egypt | 1526: Death of Muhammad al-Shinnawi 1565: Death of ‘Abd al-Wahhab al-Sha‘rani 1619–35: The two main hagiographies of Badawi are written |
| 1757–73: ‘Ali Bey rules Egypt | ‘Ali Bey’s waqf endowments for the mausoleum of Badawi and the mosque–university of Tanta Around 1780: Sheikh Mujahid dies and is interred in Badawi’s mausoleum |
| 1798–1801: Bonaparte’s expedition to Egypt | 7 October 1798: Uprising in Tanta against the French |
| 1805–48: Muhammad ‘Ali viceroy of Egypt | 1834: Female dancers officially banned at the mulid 1836: Tanta becomes the capital of Gharbiya 1856: The railway runs through Tanta |
| 1861–65: cotton boom | |
| 1863–79: Reign of Khedive Isma‘il | |
| 1869: Inauguration of the Suez Canal | |
| 1882: British occupation of Egypt | 13 July 1882: Massacre of Christians and Jews in Tanta Slave trade banned; decline of the fair 1893: Local Commission set up in Tanta 1900: al-Sikka al-Gedida connects the train station with the mausoleum 1915: Mulid of Tanta is canceled Around 1918: Date of the Great Mulid is changed to the month of October |
| 1919: Egyptian revolution | |