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, name of a kūra and of a province (formerly ʿamal, now mudīrīya) in Egypt. 1. The kūra of al-S̲h̲arḳīya, which replaced the Byzantine pagarchy of Aphroditopolis, was one of the few districts which received an Arabic name; the latter is explained by its situation on the eastern bank of the Nile. It is difficult to estimate the extent of its territory, which lay immediately south of the capital of the country, Fusṭāṭ. The first capital of the kūra, situated on the right bank of the river, was Anṣinā (Antinöe), but the small number (17) of villages in the kūra of al-S̲h̲arḳīya allows us to supp…

, now Ṣān al-Ḥad̲j̲ar, a little village in lower Egypt, in the province of S̲h̲arḳīya in the district of al-ʿArīn to the south of Lake Manzala on the Baḥr al-Muʿiza (or Muwīs), the ancient Tanitic arm. The Arabic name corresponds to the Hebrew Ṣoʿan, the Greek ΤάνιΣ and the Coptic Ḏj̲ani. This town, which was the capital of the dynasty of the Shepherd Kings, had been long in ruins by the time of the Arab conquest. The ancient town, notably the temples, had fallen to pieces and no Arab author mentions them; their remains nevertheless still form t…

, a place celebrated in the Middle Ages, situated a few miles from Damietta, on the Western shore of the Lake of Tinnīs, now called Lake Manzala. This town existed before the Arab period, since it is mentioned as the see of the bishop (Σάτα). There is no reason for giving credence to the romantic story of the pseudo-Wāḳidī, which gives as the founder of this town a certain S̲h̲aṭā b. al-Hāmūk (var. al-Hāmirak), a relative of the famous Muḳawḳis. This S̲h̲aṭā is presented to us as a deserter from the garrison of Damietta w…

, a town in the Delta of Egypt, in the province of G̲h̲arbīya on the west bank of the Nile (Damietta arm), a railway station on the Ṭanṭa-Damietta line (11,550 inhabitants in 1884.) The Arabic name is based on the Greek ΣεβέννυτοΣ (which gave its name to the Sebennytic arm), in Coptic Ḏj̲emnuti, and Zab nutir in ancient Egyptian. The ancient town was perhaps built on both sides of the river; in any case there is a little town opposite Semennūd on the east bank of the Damietta arm called Mīt (Minya) Semennūd (4372 inhabitants in 1884), capital of a district ( markaz) of the province of Daḳablīya,…

or Ṣaʿīd Miṣr, the Arabic name for Upper Egypt. The region thus named extends from the south of Cairo to the cataract of Assuan: at the present day the expression has no administrative significance and, indeed, has not had since the time of the Mamlūks. Besides, the political frontier of Egypt now extends to within reach of Wādī Ḥalfā, thus including the whole of Lower Nubia. The expression, however, is still used, for it preserves a very marked geographical distinction, which contrasts the long n…

, a town in Upper Egypt, on the east bank of the Nile (23,357 inhabitants in 1917 against 17,485 in 1875, 15,402 in 1884 or 27,500 in 1897). It is the capital of the province ( mudīrīya) of the same name which is divided into seven districts ( markaz), namely: 1. Dis̲h̲nā, 2. Isnā, 3. Ḳenā, 4. Ḳuṣair, 5. Ḳūṣ, 6. Luḳṣur, 7. Nad̲j̲ʿ Ḥamādī. In 1897 the population of the province was 711,457 of whom 120,330 are in the province of Ḳenā. — The region produces cotton and cereals; in the town, cloth and sweet-stuffs are manufactured. But Ḳenā is especially noted for its porous pottery; the jars ( ḳulla) which …

, Abū S̲h̲ud̲j̲āʿ Mud̲j̲īr al-Dīn b. Mud̲j̲īr al-Saʿdī, a Fāṭimid statesman, vizier of the last caliph al-ʿĀḍid and in this capacity bore the honorific surname of Malik Manṣūr. At first in the private service of the vizier Malik Ṣāliḥ Ṭalāʾiʿ, S̲h̲āwar obtained from his master the government of upper Egypt with Ḳūṣ as his residence. This office was then the highest in the administrative service and the fact that S̲h̲āwar is said to have asked for it shows his ambition. On his deathbed Ṭalāʾiʿ is said to have expressly regr…

, Abū Muḥammad al-Ḥasan b. ʿAlī, vizier and chief ḳāḍī of the Fāṭimid caliph al-Mustanṣir bi ’llāh. His father was a citizen in comfortable circumstances of Yāzūr, a little town in Palestine near Ramla. It was in his native town that he began his administrative career in the office of ḳāḍī. In this capacity he attracted the attention of an officer in the service of al-Mustanṣir’s mother, by reporting to him an injustice done by the chief ḳāḍī of Egypt and it was probably as a result of this that he was transferred to the capital with a post in the official hierarchy. After the assassination of th…

, Abu ’l-Ḥārit̲h̲ Asad al-Dīn, son of S̲h̲ād̲h̲ī, and brother of Aiyūb b. S̲h̲ād̲h̲ī, the father of Saladin. At first a general of Nūr al-Dīn, prince of Aleppo and of Damascus, he became vizier of the last Fāṭimid Caliph al-ʿĀḍid, and in the last capacity bore the honorary title of Malik Manṣūr. We first meet with S̲h̲īrkūh at Takrīt, where his brother Aiyūb was governor in the name of the ʿAbbāsid Caliph, and it was after a murder committed by S̲h̲īrkūh that the whole family had to abandon the town, and offer its services to the prince of Aleppo…

, one of the southern groups of oases in the Libyan desert. The expression al-Wāḥāt al-Ḵh̲ār(i)d̲j̲a recalls the ῎ΟασιΣ ἡ ἐξωτέρω of the Greek writers, the word Wāḥ being a transcription of the Coptic . The oasis of Ḵh̲ārd̲j̲e consists of a large valley which runs from north to south for about 100 miles and averages 12 miles in breadth. Ḵh̲ārd̲j̲e was reached until quite recently from Esne or Fars̲h̲ūṭ; from the latter place the journey took four ¶ days by camel. A narrow-gauge railway (100 miles) now connects Fars̲h̲ūṭ with the little town of Ḵh̲ārd̲j̲e, the present capi…