A Ṣa‘īdī (,
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 ...
: ⲣⲉⲙⲣⲏⲥ ''Remris'') is a person from
Upper Egypt (,
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 ...
: ⲙⲁⲣⲏⲥ ''Maris'').
Etymology
The word literally means "from Ṣa‘īd" (i.e. Upper Egypt), and can also refer to a
form of music originating there, or to
the dialect spoken by Sa‘idis. The Arabic word ''Ṣa‘īd'', as a geographical term, means "highland, upland, plateau". The
suffix
In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns, adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs. Suffixes can carry ...
"-i" denotes the adjective. The word ''Ṣa‘īdi'' is pronounced in the dialect itself as or and the plural is or , while pronounced in
Egyptian Arabic (Northern Egyptian) as and the plural is .
In the Sahidic (Upper Egyptian) dialect of Coptic, the name for a person from Upper Egypt is (pronounced rem/rīs) meaning "person of the South" or (pronounced rem/pma/rīs or rem/ma/rīs) "person of (the) place of the south (i.e. Upper Egypt)".
Stereotypes and jokes
Ṣa‘īdis and their dialect are the subject of numerous Egyptian stereotypes and
ethnic jokes, mainly from the
upper-class Egyptians who own
business
Business is the practice of making one's living or making money by producing or Trade, buying and selling Product (business), products (such as goods and Service (economics), services). It is also "any activity or enterprise entered into for pr ...
es in Egypt's major cities and used to hire Upper Egyptian workers in
construction fields. They are popularly assumed to be rural simpletons by other
Egyptians
Egyptians ( arz, المَصرِيُون, translit=al-Maṣriyyūn, ; arz, المَصرِيِين, translit=al-Maṣriyyīn, ; cop, ⲣⲉⲙⲛ̀ⲭⲏⲙⲓ, remenkhēmi) are an ethnic group native to the Nile, Nile Valley in Egypt. Egyptian ...
. An example of such
stereotyping is the popular 1998 film ''Ṣa‘īdi fil-Gama‘a al-Amrikiya'' ("A Ṣa‘īdi in the American University") starring
Mohamed Henedi, whose main character is portrayed as less fashionable than the other Egyptian students of the
American University in Cairo
The American University in Cairo (AUC; ar, الجامعة الأمريكية بالقاهرة, Al-Jāmi‘a al-’Amrīkiyya bi-l-Qāhira) is a private research university in Cairo, Egypt. The university offers American-style learning programs ...
.
Socioeconomic status
Approximately 40% of Egyptians live in Upper Egypt, and 80% of Egypt's severe poverty is concentrated in Upper Egypt. The settling of family disputes and blood feuds by firearms (often antiquated, such as
Mauser rifle) since at least the 1940s is a long cultural trend in the community, especially in the
Hamradoum and
Nag Hammadi areas. Weapons smuggling from Libya and Sudan is also notable in the area.
Religion in Upper Egypt
The Upper Egyptians follow
Islam
Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...
and Christianity as Upper Egypt has a significant Christian population and a rich
Coptic Christian history. For instance,
Sahidic was the leading Coptic dialect in the pre-Islamic period. In the last few decades the high proportion of Coptic Christians in Upper Egypt has enabled some Christians to hold prominent political posts there. For instance,
Qena Governorate had a Coptic Christian governor in 2011.
Sahidic dialect of Coptic is used as a
Liturgical language by the clergy and among Sa'idi
Copts
Copts ( cop, ⲛⲓⲣⲉⲙⲛ̀ⲭⲏⲙⲓ ; ar, الْقِبْط ) are a Christian ethnoreligious group indigenous to North Africa who have primarily inhabited the area of modern Egypt and Sudan since antiquity. Most ethnic Copts are C ...
.
See also
*
Fellah
*
Nubian people
Nubians () (Nobiin: ''Nobī,'' ) are an ethnic group indigenous to the region which is now northern Sudan and southern Egypt. They originate from the early inhabitants of the central Nile valley, believed to be one of the earliest cradles of c ...
*
Beja people
*
Upper Egypt
*
Sa'idi Arabic (the dialect spoken by Sa'idis)
*
Sahidic Coptic
Coptic (Bohairic Coptic: , ) is a language family of closely related dialects, representing the most recent developments of the Ancient Egyptian language, Egyptian language, and historically spoken by the Copts, starting from the third-century ...
*
Tahtib
Tahtib ( arz, تحطيب, taḥṭīb) is the term for a traditional stick-fighting martial art originally named ''fan a'nazaha wa-tahtib'' ("the art of being straight and honest through the use of stick"). The original martial version of tahtib ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:People, Saidi
Ancient peoples
Ethnic groups in Egypt
Upper Egypt