constitUtional revolUtion of 1906. A very small
number of Babis survive today in the Central Asian
republic of Uzbekistan.
See also imam; mahdi; shiism.
Further reading: Abbas Amanat, Resurrection and
Renewal: The Making of the Babi Movement in Iran
(Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1989); Denis
MacEoin, Rituals in Babism and Bahaism (London: Brit-
ish Academic Press, 1994).
al-Badawi, Ahmad (ca. 1200–1276) one of
the most popular Sufi saints in Egypt; honored every
year by two commemorative festivals
According to reverential accounts of his life,
Ahmad al-Badawi (the bedoUin) was born to a
family in Fez, morocco, that traced its ancestry
back to the ahl al-bayt, mUhammad’s family. This
is why many Egyptians call him al-sayyid (master),
which implies descent from the Prophet. Legends
portray him in two different ways in his youth: as
a saintly child who memorized the entire qUran
and studied Islamic law and as a noble Bedouin
horseman. Together with his parents, he traveled
on pilgrimage from Morocco to mecca. After
being instructed by a mysterious voice, he went
to iraq with his brother to visit the tombs of two
leading Sufi saints, abd al-qadir al-Jilani (d.
1166) and Ahmad al-Rifai (d. 1182). On his way
back to Mecca, according to legend, he defeated
a beautiful genie and her demon army and con-
verted her into a pious devotee, thus demonstrat-
ing his superior saintly power. While he was in
Mecca in 1238, a voice once again spoke to him
while praying in a cave as Muhammad used to
do. This time the voice told him to go to the delta
town of Tanta, egypt, where he resided for the
rest of his life, claiming to receive guidance from
Muhammad himself. In Tanta, Ahmad al-Badawi
surpassed all other rivals in his acts of asceticism
and demonstrations of his baraka (saintly power).
Egypt’s rulers honored him, and it is even said that
he battled Christian crusaders. After his death in
1276, his followers organized themselves into a
Sufi brotherhood known as the Ahmadiyya, one
of the largest in Egypt today, and they converted
his tomb into a shrine. He is considered to be one
of the four primary holy men (qutbs) of Egypt,
and he has been the subject of Egyptian folktales,
novels, and television dramas.
Every year millions flock to his shrine to par-
ticipate in his mulids (commemorative festivals).
Prior to the modern period, the main festival
was in August, at the height of the Nile flood
season. Now that dams and levees have ended
the annual inundation, it is in October, at the
end of the harvest season. The second festival is
held in the spring. Sufi brotherhoods gather in
Tanta to perform their dhikrs (religious chants)
and other rituals, while ordinary pilgrims come
to seek his blessing to cure an illness, become
successful in school or business, gain debt relief,
or satisfy some other personal need. Many have
their sons circumcised in booths near the Ahmadi
Mosque hoping to alleviate the danger of infec-
tion. Visitors return home with mementos of their
pilgrimage, such as trinkets, sweets flavored with
rosewater, and chickpeas. These are distributed to
friends and relatives in the belief that they contain
some of Sayyid Ahmad’s baraka. The Egyptian
government closely regulates the shrine and its
festivals, and despite the saint’s widespread popu-
larity, reform-minded and conservative Muslims
condemn the mulids and the practices associated
with them because they think it is bidaa, a corrup-
tion of what they believe is the true Islam.
See also circUmcision; crUsades.Further reading: Edward B. Reeves, The Hidden Govern-
ment: Ritual, Clientelism, and Legitimation in Northern
Egypt (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1990).Baghdad
Baghdad, the capital of iraq, is situated on the
Tigris River near the Euphrates River in the center
of a region that used to be known as Mesopotamia,Baghdad 83 J