“Sidi al-Madbouli,” the First Claimant to Galaa Street

It is puzzling that the name “Sidi al-Madbouli,” followed by the word “formerly,” appears beneath the sign bearing the name “Galaa Street,” even though he has no presence on the street.

What is also intriguing is that “Sidi al-Madbouli” is used for the area overlooking Galaa Street, starting from Al-Ahram newspaper today and extending to Ramses Square. The current headquarters of the “General Authority for Health Insurance” and the “Nasser Comprehensive Health Insurance Clinic” at the corner of Galaa Street and Orabi Street also occupy the site of the old health center for the Madbouli area.

All these puzzling references suggest the extent of “Sidi al-Madbouli’s” control over this area of the street, as though he were the first to claim it. Adding to this is the fact that before its removal, his mausoleum, as shown in a photograph of its location at the end of the 19th century, stood in a garden overlooking Ramses Street, not Galaa Street. More specifically, it stood at the corner now opposite the Republic newspaper building in Ramses. Beside the garden that contained the mausoleum are now the Greater Cairo Sanitation Company and then the Red Crescent Hospital, all overlooking Ramses.
The mausoleum was small and modest, inside a wooden kiosk with doors and a pyramid-shaped roof, in a small garden on the corner. It was surrounded by a simple iron fence that appeared dilapidated in the photograph.

“Sidi al-Madbouli” was the Sufi Sheikh Ibrahim بن Ali bin Omar al-Ansari al-Matbouli al-Ahmadi. It should be noted that in Egyptian place names, the letter ta is commonly substituted with dal and vice versa, as in Boulak al-Dakrour, which appears in “Al-Khitat al-Tawfiqiyya” as Boulak al-Takrour and is now pronounced al-Dakrour.
Ali Mubarak noted in “Al-Khitat al-Tawfiqiyya” that his mausoleum was located beside the Iron Gate Bridge, now Ramses Square, and wrote: “He came from the town of Matbouli, north of Gharbia Governorate, to Tanta and then Cairo. The poor began visiting him, and he supported them from the produce of his fields, so his reputation spread and his generosity increased. He performed the pilgrimage several times and then moved to Barakat al-Hajj in Qalyubia Governorate, where he built the mosque and the fields known there. His followers multiplied and prominent people sought his blessing. He went to Jerusalem, died on the way, and was buried in Ashdod, Palestine, near Salman al-Farisi, in 880 AH (1475 AD), at the age of 80, as some firmly maintained. However, according to Al-Akhlaq al-Matbouliya, he lived for 109 years.”

Although accounts say that he has approximately five mausoleums in Egypt, in addition to his mausoleum in Palestine, they indicate that when his body was moved it was found intact and gave off the scents of roses and jasmine. They do not, however, say where it was moved.