Tanta
Sayyid Ahmad al-Badawi was born in Fez around 596 AH to a family of Husayni descent that had moved west from the Hijaz, and he grew up in Makkah before…
Sayyid Ahmad al-Badawi was born in Fez around 596 AH to a family of Husayni descent that had moved west from the Hijaz, and he grew up in Makkah before settling in Tanta in 634 AH. He became one of the four great saints of Egypt and the founder of the Ahmadiyya, or Badawiyya, way, and he passed away in Tanta in 675 AH. His student Abd al-Muta'al succeeded him and built a khanqah beside the grave, and in later centuries Sayyid Mujahid served as the first shaykh of the mosque. The great mosque that now stands over his tomb was rebuilt by Ali Bey al-Kabir in the eighteenth century and enlarged many times since. It lies in the heart of Tanta a short walk from the railway station, surrounded by markets selling the city's famous halawa, and his mawlid each October is one of the largest religious gatherings in Egypt.