With abstract undertones and a seducing presence, Egyptian filmmaker Seif Abdalla and photojournalist Mohamed Mahdy, in their newly released short film ‘Humaithara’, portray the people and religious traditions of Egypt’s remote Humaithara valley. Humaithara, a town, mountain and valley, located between Marsa Alam and Aswan, is known for its yearly celebration of the Mawlid, or birth, of venerated Sufi Sheikh Abul Hassan Al-Shadhili, who was buried there. Frederic Brusi, PhD researcher at Stockholm University focusing on Sufism in Upper Egypt and Sudan, spoke to Egyptian Streets about the importance of Humaithara as a site of pilgrimage, “in pre-industrial time, regional and local sites of pilgrimage were very important for Muslims… it’s possible that the practice of pilgrimage outside the hajj is again becoming more popular.” Brusi recorded some stories of pilgrimage by Muslims from El Qurna in Luxor governorate in 2012 and 2013. Al Shadhili is still considered to be one of the most important saints of Egypt together with Abul Abbas al-Mursi in Alexandria, Ahmad al-Badawi in Tanta, Al-Desoqi in Kafr El-Sheikh Governorate and Abu-l Hajjaj in Luxor. Every year, nearly half a million people from all over Africa congregate in the…
Video: Egyptian Short Film Captures Sufi Traditions and Daily Life in Egypt’s Humaithara Valley
October 2, 2017
