PROFILBARU.COM

Upper Egyptians (Sa'idis)
صعايدة
ⲛⲓⲣⲉⲙⲣⲏⲥ
Saa’yda
	Luxor Alabaster Workers
Total population
	ca. 40 million (2020 estimate)[citation needed]
Languages
	Sa'idi Arabic; Egyptian Arabic (auxiliary)
Religion
	Predominantly Sunni Islam;; Coptic Orthodox Christian, Sufi and Baháʼí Faith minorities

A Ṣa‘īdī (Egyptian Arabic: صعيدى, Coptic: ⲣⲉⲙⲣⲏⲥ Remris) is a person from Upper Egypt (Arabic: صعيد مصر, Coptic: ⲙⲁⲣⲏⲥ Maris).^[2]

Etymology

The word literally means "from Ṣa‘īd" (i.e. Upper Egypt), and can also refer to a form of music originating there,^[3] or to the dialect spoken by Sa‘idis. The Arabic word Ṣa‘īd, as a geographical term, means "highland, upland, plateau".^[4] The suffix -i forms an 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].

In the Sahidic (Upper Egyptian) dialect of Coptic, the name for a person from Upper Egypt is ⲣⲉⲙⲣⲏⲥ (pronounced rem/rīs) meaning "person of the South" or ⲣⲉⲙ(ⲡ)ⲙⲁⲣⲏⲥ (pronounced rem/pma/rīs or rem/ma/rīs) "person of (the) place of the south (i.e. Upper Egypt)".^[5]

Socioeconomic status

Approximately 40% of Egyptians live in Upper Egypt, and 80% of Egypt's severe poverty is concentrated in Upper Egypt.^[6] The settling of family disputes and blood feuds by firearms (often antiquated, such as Mauser rifle) since at least the 1940s is a long cultural trend in the community, especially in the Hamradoum and Nag Hammadi areas. Weapons smuggling from Libya and Sudan is also notable in the area.^[7]

Stereotypes and jokes

Ṣa‘īdis and their dialect are the subject of numerous Egyptian stereotypes and ethnic jokes, mainly from the upper-class Egyptians who own businesses in Egypt's major cities and used to hire Upper Egyptian workers in construction fields. They are popularly assumed to be rural simpletons by other Egyptians. An example of such stereotyping is the popular 1998 film Ṣa‘īdi fil-Gama‘a al-Amrikiya ("A Ṣa‘īdi in the American University") starring Mohamed Henedi,^[8] whose main character is portrayed as less fashionable than the other Egyptian students of the American University in Cairo.

Religion in Upper Egypt

The Upper Egyptians follow Islam and Christianity as Upper Egypt has a significant Christian population and a rich Coptic Christian history. For instance, Sahidic was the leading Coptic dialect in the pre-Islamic period. In the last few decades the high proportion of Coptic Christians in Upper Egypt has enabled some Christians to hold prominent political posts there. For instance, Qena Governorate had a Coptic Christian governor in 2011. Sahidic dialect of Coptic is used as a liturgical language by the clergy and among Sa'idi Coptic Christians.

Relationship to other Egyptians

Egypt is a transcontinental country containing substantial ethnic, cultural, and linguistic diversity among its people. A paper in 2019 looking to characterize the genetic variation in Egyptians used 15 STR loci on 814 unrelated individuals from Northern Coast, Delta, Greater Cairo, Canal governorates, Northern Upper Egypt, Southern Upper Egypt, and Sinai. The most differentiated populations were found between Sinai and Southern Upper Egypt who plotted separately. In contrast, Northern Coast, Delta, Greater Cairo, Canal governorates and Northern Upper Egypt were all in a main Egyptian cluster. The lowest value for genetic distance was found between the Greater Cairo and Delta populations.^[9]

A different study which focused on 265 unrelated individuals inhabiting five governorates in Upper Egypt using similar methodology, found that based on the frequency of similar molecular data, no differences were observed in comparison with the general population from Cairo in any of the 9 loci compared, or with Coptic Christians from Cairo. However, 1 out of 8 loci showed a difference in comparison with a population from El-Minya. At the molecular data level, there was also a weak difference when Upper Egyptians were compared with Egyptian Muslims from Tanta, albeit with a non significant value in an exact test of population differentiation. However, highly significant differences were observed in comparisons with Berbers from Siwa and with a population sample from Adaima.^[10]

Mohamed, T et al. (2009) in their study on nomadic Bedouins featured a comparative study with a worldwide population database to infer genetic structure. Their analysis discovered that both Upper Egyptian populations (Muslim Egyptians and Coptic Christians), showed a distinct "North African" cluster at 63% and 65% respectively, when compared to other Arab populations in the Middle-East and Europeans.^[11]