Menouf (, from ) is a city in

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

located in the Nile Delta. It has an area of 18.76 square kilometers. The city gave name to the

Monufia Governorate Monufia ( ' ) is one of the governorates of Egypt. Monufia’s name was derived from the hieroglyphic word “Nafr”, which means “The Good Land”. It is located in the northern part of the country in the Nile Delta, to the south of Gharbia ...

that it is located in and it was the capital of the governorate until

1826 Events January–March * January 15 – The French newspaper ''Le Figaro'' begins publication in Paris, initially as a satirical weekly. * January 17 – The Ballantyne printing business in Edinburgh (Scotland) crashes, ruining noveli ...

. Menouf is one of the several continually inhabited

ancient Egypt Ancient Egypt () was a cradle of civilization concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in Northeast Africa. It emerged from prehistoric Egypt around 3150BC (according to conventional Egyptian chronology), when Upper and Lower E ...

ian cities in the governorate.

Name

Menouf was formerly called ''Minuf al-Ulyah (''), which comes from (with variants ⲉⲛⲟⲩϥⲓ ⲣⲏⲥ and ⲁⲛⲟⲩϥⲉ). "The upper" in this case also means "southern", i.e. located upriver in relation to the

Nile The Nile (also known as the Nile River or River Nile) is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It flows into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile is the longest river in Africa. It has historically been considered the List of river sy ...

's flow (see

Upper Egypt Upper Egypt ( ', shortened to , , locally: ) is the southern portion of Egypt and is composed of the Nile River valley south of the delta and the 30th parallel North. It thus consists of the entire Nile River valley from Cairo south to Lake N ...

), which was used to differentiate it from Minuf as-Sufli (, ), modern

Mahallat Menouf Mahallat Menouf () is a village in the Gharbia Governorate of Egypt. Etymology The village was formerly known as ''Minuf as-Sufla (''). It's derived from its Coptic name ''Panouf Khit'' () and was used to indicate its location downriver in rela ...

. The Coptic name Panouf in turn is derived from . The city's

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

name Onouphis () comes from the Egyptian name as well.

History

Panouf was a

bishopric In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associate ...

by the middle of the fourth century as evidenced by the attendance of Bishop Adelphis of Onouphis at a synod in Alexandria in 362. During the Heraclean revolt the city was an important center of

the Blues Blues is a music genre and musical form that originated among African Americans in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues has incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narra ...

, loyal to the emperor

Phocas Phocas (; ; 5475 October 610) was Eastern Roman emperor from 602 to 610. Initially a middle-ranking officer in the East Roman army, Roman army, Phocas rose to prominence as a spokesman for dissatisfied soldiers in their disputes with the cour ...

. General Bonasus gave battle to the rebels east of Panouf and defeated them, but the city was captured by Nicetas in a short while. By the 19th century the city went into decline. It had no gardens, its streets were narrow and dirty, and its houses small and badly constructed. The people drank the Nile water.

Notable people

Abraham of Egypt Abraham of Egypt or Abraham of Minuf was a fourth-century monk and hermit of Egypt, is known only from the Synaxarion. He was a native of Minuf in the Delta, born of Christian parents who held an important position in the world. We do not know a ...

Pope Joseph I of Alexandria Saint Joseph I of Alexandria (Abba Yousab), 52nd Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of the See of St. Mark. He was the son of one of the rich nobles of Menouf, Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country span ...

References

Populated places in Monufia Governorate Cities in Egypt {{egypt-geo-stub

Name

History

Notable people

See also

References