Egypt’s current president, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi (b. 1954 and president since 2014) was born in Cairo. His family is from Monufia Governorate in Lower Egypt. What do we know of his genealogy? Are his roots Egyptian, meaning that he descends from the ancient Egyptians? Does he come from Coptic roots, meaning that his ancestors were converted Copts? Let’s try to find. This is a statement of facts.
There are many families after the name Sisi, and not all of them have similar roots. But President el-Sisi’s family and his roots are known. He is ethnically Arab, and his family’s history in Egypt dates from 1236 AD (634 AH), when his ancestor Muhammad al-Maghazi (or al-Ghazi), who was nicknamed al-Sisi arrived in Egypt, through the Red Sea city of el-Qoseir, from Hijaz in the Arabian Peninsula during the Ayyubid Period (1171 – 1250). He was called al-Maghazi, which means “invader” or “raider”, because of his many raids against non-Muslims.
Muhammad al-Maghazi is from al-Ashraf, meaning persons descending or claiming to descend from Muhammad, the Messenger of Islam, and his daughter Fatimah. He belongs to an Arab tribe called “Al-Ashraf al-Maghazia”, originally from Mecca in Hijaz. The tribe remained in rAabia until the Abbasids seized power in 750 AD when they emigrated to Maghreb (western part of North Africa). But in 1206/7 AD (603 AH), they returned to Hijaz, probably because of the famine that hit North Africa, including Egypt, then. They do not seem to have stayed in Hijaz for a long time, as in 1236 they crossed the Red Sea to Upper Egypt.
In Upper Egypt, we are told that:
When the Maghazia arrived … they found the Nasara (a derogatory term for Christians, in this context the Copts) revolting against the Arabs, so Muhammad al-Maghazi and his followers raided them, killing many and forcing many to convert to Islam, while many continued to fight. And Muhammad al-Maghazi made his son, al-Sayyid Shihaza the Younger, emir of the Arabs, and went to Cairo.[1]
We don’t know of any war launched by the Copts in Upper Egypt in that period, but we know of the severe persecutions against them by the Muslims in later period of the Ayyubid Period and then the Mamluk Dynasty. So, when we must understand that Muhammad al-Maghazi had shared in the attacks and persecutions on the Copts then. Muhammad al-Maghazi’s going to Cairo, does not seem to have happened until the demise of the Ayyubid Dynasty in 1250 and the ascension to power of the Bahri Mamluks, and until the sultanate of al-Zahir Baybars (1260 – 1277) for we read:
[After they left Upper Egypt and went to Cairo] … and they stayed at al-Moqattam Hill. When the king, al-Zahir Baybars got news of them [their arrival], he sent his courtiers, including his grand vizier, Ibrahim al-Sadiq, to Muhammad al-Maghazi. Nd they came to the king’s palace.[2]
Then we are told that Muhammad al-Maghazi wanted to visit Ahmad al-Basawi (or al-Sayyid al-Badawi) (1200 – 1276), a Moroccan Sunni mystic who arrived in Tanta, Lowe Egypt, in the same year Muhammad al-Maghazi arrived in Upper Egypt (1236). Al-Badawi later founded the Badawiyyah order of Sufism. It is likely that Baybars, the Turkic Kipchak, who hated the Arabs nd who was hated by them, was suspicious of Muhammad al-Maghazi’s arrival in Cairo.
And Muhammad al-Maghazi wanted to visit al-Sayyid al-Badawi, and the King gave him his horse, al-Kahil al-Ashab from Medina, [to ride to Tanta]. And after visiting al-Badawi, he returned to Cairo. And the King “asked” him to settle in Egypt, and he accepted that, and left for him where to settle [from which we must understand out from Cairo].[3]
And the tribe of Muhammad al-Maghazi dispersed throughout Egypt, in Upper Egypt, mainly in Sohag and Qina areas, and Lower Egypt. Most of them settled however in the latter. From Egypt they spread to Sudan and North Africa. Today, they have branches in almost every Egyptian governorate.
As stated above, this article states the facts. It does not mean that President el-Sisi is the same as his ancestor, Muhammad al-Maghazi al-Sisi. But history counts, and while the past does not necessarily dictate behaviour in the present, acknowledging its influence on the minds is importance for our understanding of how people view themselves, their loyalties, worldview and their behaviour.
See also:
- file:///C:/Users/Imad/Downloads/%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B1%D8%AD%D9%84%D8%A9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D8%BA%D8%A7%D8%B2%D9%8A%D8%A9-kutub-pdf.net.pdf
- https://www.alnssabon.com/t483.html
- https://www.facebook.com/%D8%AA%D8%AD%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%81-%D9%82%D8%A8%D9%8A%D9%84%D8%A9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D8%BA%D8%A7%D8%B2%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A7%D8%B4%D8%B1%D8%A7%D9%81-1456000994644462/
- https://ar.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D9%85%D8%B3%D8%AA%D8%AE%D8%AF%D9%85:%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D8%BA%D8%A7%D8%B2%D9%8A%D8%A9/%D9%85%D9%84%D8%B9%D8%A8
- https://www.alnssabon.com/t41122.html
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[1]https://ar.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D9%85%D8%B3%D8%AA%D8%AE%D8%AF%D9%85:%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D8%BA%D8%A7%D8%B2%D9%8A%D8%A9/%D9%85%D9%84%D8%B9%D8%A8
[2] Ibid.
[3] Ibid.