{"product_id":"the-mulid-of-al-sayyid-al-badawi-of-tanta-egypts-legendary-sufi-festival-9789774168925","title":"The Mulid of Al-Sayyid Al-Badawi of Tanta: Egypt's Legendary Sufi Festival","description":"\u003cp\u003e • Author(s): Catherine Mayeur-Jaouen | Colin Clement\u003cbr\u003e • Publisher: American University in Cairo Press\u003cbr\u003e • Publisher Imprint: American University in Cairo Press\u003cbr\u003e • BISAC: Middle East - Egypt (see also Ancient - Egypt)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eEvery year, in the heart of the Nile Delta, a festival takes place that was for centuries the biggest in the Muslim world: the mulid of al-Sayyid Ahmad al-Badawi of Tanta. Since the thirteenth century millions of believers from neighboring regions and countries have flooded into Tanta, Egypt's fourth-largest city, to pay devotional homage to al-Badawi, a much-loved saint who cures the impotent and renders barren women fertile. This book tells for the first time the history of a mulid that for long overshadowed even the pilgrimage to Mecca. Organized by Sufi brotherhoods, it had, by the nineteenth century, grown to become the scene of a boisterous and rowdy festival that excited the curiosity of European travelers. Their accounts of the indecorous dancing and sacred prostitution that enlivened the mulid of al-Sayyid al-Badawi fed straight into Orientalist visions of a sensual and atavistic East. Islamic modernists as well as Western observers were quick to criticize the cult of al-Badawi, reducing it to a muddle of superstitions and even a resurgence of anti-Islamic pagan practices. For many pilgrims, however, al-Badawi came to embody the Egyptian saint par excellence, the true link to the Prophet, his hagiographies and mulid standing for the genuine expression of a shared popular culture. Catherine Mayeur-Jaouen shows that the mulid does not in fact stand in opposition to religious orthodoxy, but rather acts as a mirror to Egyptian Islam, uniting ordinary believers, peasants, ulama, and heads of Sufi brotherhoods in a shared spiritual fervor. The Mulid of al-Sayyid al-Badawi of Tanta leads us on a discovery of this remarkably colorful and festive manifestation of Islam.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"American University in Cairo Press","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":47889332568215,"sku":"9789774168925","price":4499.0,"currency_code":"INR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0666\/3471\/1191\/files\/9789774168925.webp?v=1781175827","url":"https:\/\/atlanticbooks.com\/products\/the-mulid-of-al-sayyid-al-badawi-of-tanta-egypts-legendary-sufi-festival-9789774168925","provider":"Atlantic Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}