or maḥalla kabīr is the modern name of an important town in the Delta of the Nile at some distance to the west of the Damietta arm, north-east of Ṭanṭa. It ¶ lies on the Turʿat al-Milāḥ canal, a branch of the Baḥr S̲h̲ībīn.

In view of the large number of Egyptian geographical names compounded with Maḥalla (see these listed in Muḥammad Ramzī, al-Ḳāmūs al-d̲j̲ug̲h̲rāfī li ’l-bilād al-Miṣriyya , Cairo 1953-68, i, 404-9), the identification of the town with the names mentioned by earlier Arabic writers is a matter of some difficulty. Maspero and Wiet identify it wi…