{"product_id":"the-mulid-of-al-sayyid-al-badawi-catherine-mayeur-jaouen-9789774168925","title":"The Mulid of Al-Sayyid Al-Badawi of Tanta: Egypt's Legendary Sufi Festival","description":"Every 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.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Catherine Mayeur-Jaouen\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 9774168925\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9789774168925\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e American University in Cairo Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 07\/23\/2019\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 232\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.15lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.10h x 6.20w x 1.10d","brand":"Catherine Mayeur-Jaouen","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":43941377409279,"sku":"9789774168925","price":49.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/products\/img_684e17e1-8e88-455b-b485-f13a0077e8f5.jpg?v=1681452570","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/the-mulid-of-al-sayyid-al-badawi-catherine-mayeur-jaouen-9789774168925","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}