Ain Shams (also spelled Ayn or Ein - ar, عين شمس, , cop, ⲱⲛ ⲡⲉⲧ ⲫⲣⲏ) is a
suburb
A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area, which may include commercial and mixed-use, that is primarily a residential area. A suburb can exist either as part of a larger city/urban area or as a separate ...
of
Cairo
Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metro ...
,
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 ...
. The name means "Eye of the Sun" in
Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...
, referring to the fact that Ain Shams is built on top of the
ancient city of Heliopolis, once the spiritual centre of
ancient Egyptian sun-worship
A solar deity or sun deity is a deity who represents the Sun, or an aspect of it. Such deities are usually associated with power and strength. Solar deities and Sun worship can be found throughout most of recorded history in various forms. The ...
. Ain Shams is one of the oldest districts in Cairo and contains many historical sites.
10th-century Jewish biblical commentator,
Saadia Gaon
Saʻadiah ben Yosef Gaon ( ar, سعيد بن يوسف الفيومي ''Saʻīd bin Yūsuf al-Fayyūmi''; he, סַעֲדְיָה בֶּן יוֹסֵף אַלְפַיּוּמִי גָּאוֹן ''Saʿăḏyāh ben Yōsēf al-Fayyūmī Gāʾōn''; ...
, believed that Ain Shams was the location of the biblical Egyptian city of
Rameses
Ramesses may refer to:
Ancient Egypt Pharaohs of the nineteenth dynasty
* Ramesses I, founder of the 19th Dynasty
* Ramesses II, also called "Ramesses the Great"
** Prince Ramesses (prince), second son of Ramesses II
** Prince Ramesses-Merya ...
.
[Saadia Gaon, ''Judeo-Arabic Translation of Pentateuch'' (''Tafsir''), s.v. Exodus 21:37 and Numbers 33:3 ("רעמסס: "עין שמס); ''Rabbi Saadia Gaon's Commentaries on the Torah'' (ed. ]Yosef Qafih
Yosef Qafiḥ ( he, יוסף קאפח , ), widely known as Rabbi Yosef Kapach (27 November 1917 – 21 July 2000), was a Yemenite-Israeli authority on Jewish religious law (''halakha''), a dayan of the Supreme Rabbinical Court in Israel, and o ...
), 4th edition, Mossad Harav Kook
Mossad HaRav Kook ( he, מוסד הרב קוק, "Rabbi Kook Institute") is a religious research foundation and publishing house based in Jerusalem.
Mossad Harav Kook is named after Abraham Isaac Kook, the first Ashkenazi chief rabbi of the British ...
: Jerusalem 1984, p. 164 (s.v. Numbers 33:3) (Hebrew) . Avraham Ibn Ezra suggests that there may have actually been two distinct sites by the name of Rameses, based on the different Masoretic vowelization of "Rameses" in Exodus 1:11 and 12:37, one a store city and the other a district in or near Goshen, as implied by Genesis 47:11.
Ain Shams is one of the first areas to have natural gas supplied to all its residents. The Nature Gas was there since 1985.
See also
*
Ain Shams University
Ain Shams University ( ar, جامعة عين شمس) is a public university located in Cairo, Egypt. Founded in 1950, the university provides education at the undergraduate, graduate and post-graduate levels.
History
Ain Shams University was fou ...
External links
Egyptian temple found under Cairo market''
ABC News
ABC News is the news division of the American broadcast network ABC. Its flagship program is the daily evening newscast ''ABC World News Tonight, ABC World News Tonight with David Muir''; other programs include Breakfast television, morning ...
'', 27 February 2006.
Parts of King Nakhtanebu I's shrine uncovered in Cairo// Ahram Online, 4 October 2015.
Works cited
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