Sa'idi people
Top row (left to right)
Mustafa Lutfi el-Manfaluti • Abbas el-Akkad • Sheikh Mohamed Siddiq El-Minshawi • Youssef Wahbi • Amal Donkol Middle row (left to right) Hoda Shaarawi • Gamal Abdel Nasser • Gamal El-Ghitani • Abdulbasit Abdussamad • Abdel Rahman el-Abnudi Bottom row (left to right) Muhammad Sayyid Tantawy • Taha Hussein • Pope Shenouda III of Alexandria • Rifa'a el-Tahtawi • Ramesses II |
|
| Total population | |
|---|---|
|
ca. 32 million (2008) 40% of Egypt's total population |
|
| Regions with significant populations | |
 Egypt
|
ca. 21 million (2008 estimate) |
| Languages | |
| Sa'idi Arabic, Egyptian Arabic | |
| Religion | |
| Mainly: Islam, Coptic Orthodox Christianity and a very small minority of Bahá'ís. | |
ca. 32 million (2008)
A Ṣa‘īdi (Arabic: صعيدى) is a person from Upper Egypt (Arabic: صعيد مصر Ṣa‘īd). 40% of Egyptians live in Upper Egypt, and 80% of Egypt's poverty is concentrated in Upper Egypt. Millions of upper Egyptians have migrated to Lower Egypt for work opportunities. The Sa'idi people are traditionally rural.
The word literally means "from Ṣa‘īd" (i.e. Upper Egypt), and can also refer to a form of music originating there, or to the dialect spoken by Sa'idis. The Arabic word Ṣa‘īd, as a geographical term, means "highland, upland, plateau". The suffix "-i" denotes the adjective.
The word Ṣa‘īdi is pronounced in the dialect itself as [sˤɑˈʕiːdi] or [sˤɑˈʕiːdej] and the plural is [sˤɑˈʕɑːjda] or [sˤɑˈʕɑːjde], while pronounced in Egyptian Arabic (Northern Egyptian) as [sˤeˈʕiːdi] and the plural is [sˤɑˈʕɑjdɑ].
Ṣa‘īdis and their dialect are the subject of numerous Egyptian ethnic jokes. They are popularly assumed to be rural simpletons, physically stronger and more clever than other Egyptians. An example of such stereotyping is the box office hit Ṣa‘īdi fil-Gama‘a al-Amrikiya ("A Sa'idi in the American University", i.e. the American University in Cairo) (1998) starring Mohamed Henedi.
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