Kafr El Sheikh
city in Egypt
Kafr El Sheikh (Egyptian Arabic: كفر الشيخ, lit. 'village of the Sheikh' pronounced [kɑfɾ eʃˈʃeːx]) is an Egyptian city and the capital of Kafr El Sheikh Governorate, Egypt, about 134 km north of Cairo, in the Nile Delta of lower Egypt. As of 2023, the city had a population of around 186,857.
Kafr El Sheikh was earlier known as Duminqun (Arabic: دمينقون), but was officially named Fuadiyah or Fouadiyah (Arabic: فؤاديه) in honour of King Fuad I of Egypt. After the 1952 coup d'état and the subsequent abolition of the monarchy, the governorate took the name of its capital city Kafr El Sheikh. This name, adopted in 1955, means "the village of the chief". In 2006 the University of Kafr El Sheikh was established.
Etymology
The modern name of the city means "village of the sheikh", and refers to sheikh Talhha at-Tilmisānī, who died here in 1234. The older name of the city, Dumaynaqun (Arabic: دُمِيْنقُون), is reconstructed from Coptic by Engsheden as ⲑⲙⲟⲩⲓ ("island") + a personal name. This pattern is widely represented in Egyptian toponymy, so the name is expected to be Egyptian, but he proposes Nikon (Ancient Greek: Νίκων), which is unattested in Coptic sources, unable to find a suitable Egyptian name. In fact, a personal name Akon (Coptic: ⲁⲕⲱⲛ) is contained in place names like Pmounakon (Coptic: ⲡⲙⲟⲩⲛⲁⲕⲟⲛ, lit. 'the well of Akon') in the Hermopolite nome and Tmounakon (Coptic: ⲧⲙⲟⲩⲛⲁⲕⲱⲛ, lit. 'the island of Akon') near Oxyrhynchus, the latter of which could share its etymology with Dumaynaqun.
The public source identifies “Kafr El Sheikh” as city in Egypt. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Kafr, Sheikh and city.
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Maps, plans, fabric surveys and administrative records can establish how the site’s name, extent and function changed over time. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 23, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q328176. VIAF identifies the subject as 127858152. The Library of Congress control number is n82004302. Authority coordinates are 31.100, 30.950. 2 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2023, 1952, 1955 and 2006.
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This entry incorporates text from “Kafr El Sheikh” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.