Shuhada ( ar, الشهداء) is a city and corresponding markaz in

Monufia Governorate Monufia Governorate ( ar, محافظة المنوفية ' ) is one of the governorates of Egypt. It is located in the northern part of the country in the Nile Delta, to the south of Gharbia Governorate and to the north of Cairo. The governorat ...

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 ...

. As of 2019, its estimated population is 358,486, with 72,895 people living in urban areas and 285,591 living in rural areas.

Name and history

The name "''al-shuhada''" means "the martyrs", referring to the presence of the shrines of martyrs of the

Islamic conquest of Egypt The Muslim conquest of Egypt, led by the army of 'Amr ibn al-'As, took place between 639 and 646 AD and was overseen by the Rashidun Caliphate. It ended the seven-century-long period of Roman reign over Egypt that began in 30 BC. Byzantine r ...

. The most prominent of these is the shrine of Sidi Shibl, said to be the son of the Companion Fadl ibn al-Abbas. Other tombs of martyrs are located in the same complex, including one called "Sidi al-Arba'in", or "the holy forty", as well as the "Sab'a banat", or "seven girls", traditionally held to be Sidi Shibl's seven sisters. Sidi Shibl's shrine is one of the most important pilgrimage destinations in the Nile Delta. It takes place one week before the

mawlid Mawlid, Mawlid an-Nabi ash-Sharif or Eid Milad un Nabi ( ar, المولد النبوي, translit=mawlid an-nabawī, lit=Birth of the Prophet, sometimes simply called in colloquial Arabic , , among other vernacular pronunciations; sometimes , ) ...

Ahmad al-Badawi Aḥmad al-Badawī ( ar, أحمد البدوى ), also known as Al-Sayyid al-Badawī (, ), or as al-Badawī for short, or reverentially as Shaykh al-Badawī by all those Sunni Muslims who venerate saints, was a 13th-century Arab Sunni Musl ...

Tanta Tanta ( ar, طنطا ' , ) is a city in Egypt with the country's fifth largest populated area and 658,798 inhabitants as of 2018. Tanta is located between Cairo and Alexandria: north of Cairo and southeast of Alexandria. The capital of Gharbia ...

. Nothing is known of Shuhada before the end of the Mamluk period. It had emerged as a local religious site by 916 AH (1510-11 CE), when rizaq registers mention it (under the name "Kafr al-Shuhada") as having an oratory and zawiya, with the term "zawiya" in this case presumably being used to refer to the tomb of Sidi Shibl. This is the earliest known veneration of Sidi Shibl's tomb. However, at this early stage, it was only a local religious center. Pilgrims are documented at this point coming from the neighboring village of Salamun, but not from further away. Moreover, contemporary hagiographies of the Tanta mawlid do not mention Shuhada or Sidi Shibl, indicating the local nature of its religious significance. The growth of Shuhada as a religious center dates to the first half of the 17th century. 17th century Egypt in general saw a booming interest in veneration of Sufi saints through mawlids and hagiographies, and Shuhada's growth as a pilgrimage site largely coincides with that trend. The Sufi saint Ahmad al-Ahmadi al-Misri, better known as al-Suhaymi, played an important role in popularizing the Shuhada mawlid over a larger region. Suhaymi, who died in 1043 AH (1633-34 CE), built a mosque next to the existing shrine and settled there to recite the

Qur'an The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation from God. It is organized in 114 chapters (pl.: , sing. ...

and train disciples. When he died, in accordance with his wishes, he was buried in a tomb next to Sidi Shibl's. A rizqa was assigned to finance Suhaymi's tomb soon after, in 1059 AH (1649 CE), reflecting his influence as a holy man as far away as

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 ...

. Shuhada prospered thereafter. As early as 1715, the larger town of Sirsina was called "Sirsina wa al-Shuhada", and by 1844, Shuhada had become a

nahiyah A nāḥiyah ( ar, , plural ''nawāḥī'' ), also nahiya or nahia, is a regional or local type of administrative division that usually consists of a number of villages or sometimes smaller towns. In Tajikistan, it is a second-level division w ...

(village), rather than the hamlet it had been in earlier periods. In 1846, the mosque was renovated at the behest of a local notable named Hasan Agha Sha'ir; the minister of

waqf A waqf ( ar, وَقْف; ), also known as hubous () or '' mortmain'' property is an inalienable charitable endowment under Islamic law. It typically involves donating a building, plot of land or other assets for Muslim religious or charitabl ...

in Egypt designated it as ''rabi' II'' on 10 August 1899. The

1885 Census of Egypt Events January–March * January 3–January 4, 4 – Sino-French War – Battle of Núi Bop: French troops under General Oscar de Négrier defeat a numerically superior Qing dynasty, Qing Chinese force, in northern Vietn ...

recorded El-Shuhada as a

under the district of

Menouf Menouf ( ar, منوف, from ) is a city in Egypt located in the Nile Delta. It has an area of 18.76 square kilometers. The city gave name to the Monufia Governorate that it is located in and it was the capital of the governorate until 1826. Menouf ...

; at that time, the population of the town was 2,873 (1,368 men and 1,505 women). In 1925, the minister of waqf had the mosque renovated again, as well as enlarged. In 1927, the mosque received a full inauguration which was attended by king Fu'ad I. In 1941, Shuhada became the district center (markaz), replacing Sirsina, which by now had become a village suburb of Shuhada.

References

{{Reflist Populated places in Monufia Governorate