Ahmad al-Badawi

Saint Aḥmad al-Badawī
The Mosque of Aḥmad al-Badawī in Tanta, Egypt, which contains the tomb of the saint within its precincts
Mystic, Jurist
Born	1200 CE (596 AH) Syria (?)
Died	1276 CE (674 AH) Tanta, Egypt
Venerated in	By all those traditional Sunni Muslims who venerate saints
Major shrine	Mosque of Aḥmad al-Badawī, Tanta, Egypt
Feast	A few days every October (mawlid)
Tradition or genre	Sunni Islam (Jurisprudence: Shafi'i)

Aḥmad al-Badawī (Arabic: أحمد البدوى‎‎ IPA: [ˈæħmæd elˈbædæwi]), also known as Al-Sayyid al-Badawī (السيد البدوى, [esˈsæjjed-, elˈsæjjed-]), or as al-Badawī for short, or reverentially as Shaykh al-Badawī by all those Sunni Muslims who venerate saints, was a 13th-century Moroccan Sunni Muslim mystic who became famous as the founder of the Badawiyyah order of Sufism. Originally hailing from Fes, al-Badawi eventually settled for good in Tanta, Egypt in 1236, whence he developed a posthumous reputation as "Egypt’s greatest saint." As al-Badawi is perhaps "the most popular of Muslim saints in Egypt," his tomb has remained a "major site of visitation" for Muslims in the region.

According to several medieval chronicles, al-Badawi hailed from an Arab tribe of Syrian origin. A Sunni Muslim by persuasion, al-Badawi entered the Rifa'iyya spiritual order (founded by the renowned Shafi'i mystic and jurist Ahmed al-Rifa'i [d. 1182]) in his early life, being initiated into the order at the hands of a particular Iraqi teacher. After a trip to Mecca, al-Badawi is said to have travelled to Iraq, "where his sainthood [is believed to have] clearly manifested itself" through the miracles he is said to have performed. Eventually, al-Badawi went to Tanta, Egypt, where settled for good in 1236. According to the various traditional biographies of the saint's life, al-Badawi gathered forty disciples around him during this period, who are collectively said to have "dwelt on the city’s rooftop terraces," whence his spiritual order were informally christened the "roof men" (aṣḥāb al-saṭḥ) in the vernacular. Al-Badawi died in Tanta in 1276, being seventy-six years old.