Tanta ( ar, طنطا ' , ) is a city in

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 ...

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 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 ...

and southeast of

Alexandria Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandria ...

. The capital of

Gharbia Governorate Gharbia Governorate ( ar, محافظة الغربية ', ) is one of the governorates of Egypt. It is located in the north of the country, south of Kafr El Sheikh Governorate, and north of Monufia Governorate. Its capital is Tanta, which is 90&n ...

, it is a center for the cotton-ginning industry. One of the major railway lines goes through Tanta. Annual festivals are held in Tanta for one week beginning on 11 October celebrating the birthday of

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 ...

, a revered

Sufi Sufism ( ar, ''aṣ-ṣūfiyya''), also known as Tasawwuf ( ''at-taṣawwuf''), is a mystic body of religious practice, found mainly within Sunni Islam but also within Shia Islam, which is characterized by a focus on Islamic spirituality, ...

figure of the 13th century, who founded the

Badawiyya The Badawiyyah, Sufi tariqah, was founded in the thirteenth century in Egypt by Ahmad al-Badawi (1199-1276). As a tariqah, the Badawiyyah lacks any distinct doctrines. It was, however, extremely popular during both the Mamluk and Ottoman periods ...

Tariqa A tariqa (or ''tariqah''; ar, طريقة ') is a school or order of Sufism, or specifically a concept for the mystical teaching and spiritual practices of such an order with the aim of seeking ''haqiqa'', which translates as "ultimate truth". ...

in Egypt and is buried in

Ahmad Al-Badawi Mosque Elsayyed ElBadawi Mosque ( ar, مسجد أحمد البدوي) is the largest mosque in the northern city of Tanta, Egypt. It is a Sunni Sufi mosque and contains the tomb of Ahmad al-Badawi. History The mosque A mosque (; from ar, مَسْ ...

, the main

mosque A mosque (; from ar, مَسْجِد, masjid, ; literally "place of ritual prostration"), also called masjid, is a place of prayer for Muslims. Mosques are usually covered buildings, but can be any place where prayers ( sujud) are performed, ...

of Tanta. Tanta is known for its ''

sweet Sweetness is a basic taste most commonly perceived when eating foods rich in sugars. Sweet tastes are generally regarded as pleasurable. In addition to sugars like sucrose, many other chemical compounds are sweet, including aldehydes, ketones ...

'' shops and roasted chickpeas.

Overview

The older name of the city is Tandata () which comes from its Coptic name. With its large cotton plantations, in 1856, Tanta became a stop on the railway network, primarily for the benefit of exporting its cotton to European markets. The area around Tanta was mostly fields but Tanta had grown into a large crowded city. This city is a center of celebration in late October at the end of the cotton harvest. Three million people, from around the Delta and other parts of the Arab world, come for the

Moulid of Sayid Ahmed el-Badawi 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 Varieties of Arabic, colloquial Arabic , , among other vernacular pronuncia ...

, which is a colorful, religious, eight-day celebration. The moulid is centered around the mosque and tomb of Sayid Ahmad al-Badawi, who founded one of Egypt's largest Sufi orders known as Ahmadiyyah or

. He was born in Morocco, but emigrated to Arabia, and later was sent to Tanta in AD 1234 as a representative of the order from Iraq. He was granted permission to start a new order in Tanta and it soon flourished into one of Egypt's largest Sufi brotherhoods. Tanta is famous for its sweet candy made of gelatin, coconut, sesame, peanuts, and chickpeas. Large quantities are sold during the '' mulid'' ( ar, المولد) festivals when many Egyptians visit the city. The sweets have been considered a delicacy since the 1800s. Tanta has many cotton processing factories and textile industries, and is also a university town with

Tanta University Tanta University is an Egyptian university in the city of Tanta, Al Gharbiyah governorate, Egypt. The university is under the direct scientific supervision of the Ministry of Higher Education. It was founded first in 1962 as a branch from the ...

since 1972. The people of Tanta are called by Egyptian slang .

Sites

* Montazah garden *Tanta stadium *Tanta sporting club *Tanta teachers club *Tanta University *Virgin Mary Coptic Orthodox church, which is over 200 years old *Saint George Cathedral *Saint Peter Catholic basilica *The Museum of Tanta contains items from ancient nearby sites of

Sais Sais ( grc, Σάϊς, cop, Ⲥⲁⲓ) was an ancient Egyptian city in the Western Nile Delta on the Canopic branch of the Nile,Mish, Frederick C., Editor in Chief. "Saïs." '' Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary''. 9th ed. Springfiel ...

Naucratis Naucratis or Naukratis (Ancient Greek: , "Naval Command"; Egyptian: , , , Coptic: ) was a city and trading-post in ancient Egypt, located on the Canopic (western-most) branch of the Nile river, south-east of the Mediterranean sea and the city o ...

, and

Buto Buto ( grc, Βουτώ, ar, بوتو, ''Butu''), Bouto, Butus ( grc, links=no, Βοῦτος, ''Boutos'')Herodotus ii. 59, 63, 155. or Butosus was a city that the Ancient Egyptians called Per-Wadjet. It was located 95 km east of Alexandri ...

, such as pottery and statues. * El Mahallah is a large industrial town near Tanta, famous for its textiles. File:Tanta-1.jpg, Tanta's city center, Elgeish street. File:Mehata1-Tanta.jpg, Tanta's railway station at night File:Mosque of St. Ahmed El-Badawi.jpg, Mosque of Elsayyed Elbadawi File:كنيسة مارى جرجس بطنطا.jpg, Saint George Cathedral Church File:Tanta Railway Station.jpg, Tanta Railway Station File:TantaFerialPalace.jpg, palace in Tanta which was used as a primary school named flowers school File:TantaPark.jpg, Tanta Montaza park File:متحف أثار طنطا.jpg, Tanta museum File:صورة جامعة طنطا.jpg, Tanta university administration

Climate

As all of Egypt, has a

hot desert climate The desert climate or arid climate (in the Köppen climate classification ''BWh'' and ''BWk''), is a dry climate sub-type in which there is a severe excess of evaporation over precipitation. The typically bald, rocky, or sandy surfaces in desert ...

(BWh), according to Köppen-Geiger climate classification system.

Notable people

Magda al-Sabahi Magda Sabbahi or Magda ( ar, ماجدة; 6 May 1931 – 16 January 2020) was an Egyptian film actress notable for her roles from 1949 to 1994. Life Afaf Ali Kamel Sabbahi was born on 6 May 1931 in Tanta, Gharbia Governorate. She was one of th ...

or Magda Sabbahi = Magda (1931-2020)

actress An actor or actress is a person who portrays a Character (arts), character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek ...

Huda Sultan Huda Sultan or Hoda Sultan ( ar, هـدى سلطان, Birth name: Bahiga Abd El Aal ( arz, بهيجة عبد العال), (15 August 1925 – 5 June 2006) was an Egyptian actress and singer. She was mostly known for her mother roles in both Egy ...

(1925-2006) singer and

Kamal Amin Kamal Amin Awad ( ar, كمال أمين عوض) (1923–1979) was a pioneering Egyptian artist in the field of graphic arts. The artist, whose masterpieces and unique techniques impressed Egyptian modern art, was born in Tanta in 1923. He was in ...

(1923–1979), artist *

Mahmoud Zulfikar Mahmoud Qasdy Ahmed Mourad Zulfikar (18 February 1914 – 22 May 1970) was an Egyptians, Egyptian film director, producer, screenwriter, and actor. He started his career as an architect, before becoming an actor in 1939. He was a major figur ...

(1914-1970), Film director *

Khairy Beshara Khairy Beshara ( ar, خيري بشارة ; born June 30, 1947 in Tanta, Egypt) is an Egyptian film director active in the Egyptian film industry since the 1970s. He is considered one of the Egyptian directors who re-defined Realism in Egy ...

, film director *

Abdu al-Hamuli Abdu al-Hamuli ( ar, عبده الحامولي; 1836 – May 12, 1901) was an Egyptian musician. He married the Egyptian singer Sokaina, who went by the name of Almaz and formed together a very famous musical duet in Egypt at that time. See als ...

( ar, عبده الحامولى‎) (1836–1901), singer *

Mahmoud Khalil Al-Hussary Mahmoud Khalil al-Hussary ( ar, ٱلشِـيـْخ محمُود خَلِيـْل الْحُصـري), also known as ''Al-Hussary'', was an Egyptian Qari widely acclaimed for his accurate recitation of the Qur'an. Al-Hussary committed the entir ...

, (1917–1980) reciter of the Qur'an *

Mohamed Fawzi Mohamed Fawzi may refer to: *Mohamed Fawzi (general) (1915–2000), Egyptian general * Mohamed Fawzi (artist) (1918–1966), Egyptian composer and singer * Mohamed Fawzi (footballer) (born 1990), Emirati football player See also *Mahmoud Fawzi (190 ...

(1918–1966), composer, singer, and actor *

Naima Akef Naima Akef ( ar, نعيمة عاكف,‎ ; 7 October 1929 – 23 April 1966) was a famous Egyptian belly dancer during the Egyptian cinema's golden age and starred in many films of the time. Akef was born in Tanta on the Nile Delta. Her parent ...

(1929–1966), actress and circus player *

Doria Shafik Doria Shafik ( ar, درية شفيق‎; 14 December 1908 – 20 September 1975) was an Egyptian feminist, poet and editor, and one of the principal leaders of the women's liberation movement in Egypt in the mid-1940s. As a direct result of her ...

(1908–1975), leader of the Women's Liberation Movement in the early 1950s * Ahmed Hijazi (1936–2011), known as "Hegazy", a caricature artist *

Nasr Abu Zayd Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd ( ar, نصر حامد أبو زيد, ; also Abu Zaid or Abu Zeid; July 10, 1943 – July 5, 2010) was an Egyptian Quranic thinker, author, academic and one of the leading liberal theologians in Islam. He is famous for his proj ...

(1943–2010), thinker and liberal theologian *

Ahmed Khaled Tawfik Ahmed Khaled Tawfik Farrag (10 June 1962 – 2 April 2018), also known as Ahmed Khaled Tawfek, was an Egyptian author and physician who wrote more than 200 books, in both Egyptian Arabic and Classical Arabic. He was the first contemporary write ...

(1962–2018), author *

Amina Rizk Amina Rizk ( ar, أمينة رزق; April 15, 1910 – August 24, 2003) was a classic Egyptian actress who appeared in around 208 artworks including more than 70 movies between 1928 and 1996. She was calm in her later years, but described as a ...

(1910–2003), actress * El-Sayed Nosseir (1905–1977), Olympic Gold medal winner in weightlifting * Hilana Sedarous first female Egyptian doctor and first female Egyptian gynaecologist *

Maximos V Hakim Maximos V Hakim ( ar, ماكسيموس الخامس حكيم; May 18, 1908, in Tanta, Egypt – June 29, 2001, Beirut, Lebanon) was elected Patriarch of Antioch and All the East, and Alexandria and Jerusalem of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church i ...

, Melkite Greek Catholic Patriarch *

Nabil Farouk Nabil Farouk Ramadan Bayoumi Ramadan ( ar, نبيل فاروق رمضان بيومي رمضان ) (9 February 1956 – 9 December 2020) was an Egyptian novelist. best known for his books in the '' Rewayāt Masreyya Lel Gēb'' (''Egyptian Pocket ...

, novelist

References

External links

Egypt: Handbook for Travellers : Part First, Lower Egypt, with the Fayum and the Peninsula of Sinai by Karl Baedeker (1885)

Families as We are: Conversations from Around the World by Perdita Huston, 2001

The Encyclopædia Britannica: a dictionary of arts, sciences, literature and general information
by Hugh Chisholm, 1910
The Coptic Diocese of Tanta
{{Authority control Governorate capitals in Egypt Populated places in Gharbia Governorate Nile Delta Cities in Egypt Religious festivals in Egypt