Rabaa Al-Adaweya Square, in northeastern Cairo's Nasr City, is one of the capital's best-known squares. It is located in an important military area: to the west of the square is the General Secretariat of the Ministry of Defence, housing estates for Armed Forces officers and a factory operated by the Ministry of Military Production. It is also home to an apartment block that housed army commanders — Field Marshall Ahmed Ismail, Field Marshal Al-Shamsi and Field Marshall Abu Ghazala — during the 6 October War. The square was named after an early Sufi mystic, Rabaa Al-Adaweya, the Mother of Goodness and founder of the Sufi doctrine of Divine Love. Born in Basra in 711 AD, she was the fourth daughter of Ismail Al-Adawi, hence the name Rabaa, meaning fourth. Her father was poor. After his death, and that of her mother, Rabaa and her sisters were left with no one to care for them. According to Fariduddin Attar, whose Tazkirat Al-Awliyā provides an account of the lives of celebrated Sufis, they managed to survive by using a boat left to them by their father to ferry people across the river. Not long after the death of Rabaa's parents, famine struck Basra, forcing the sisters to leave their home. Rabaa became separated from her sisters and was abducted by a bandit who sold her for six dirhams to a cruel merchant from the Atiq clan. Some scholars argue that this event gave rise to the name Al-Adaweya, for the Atiq clan belonged to the Beni Adawa tribe. Cinematic treatments of the devout mystic and Sufi saint have sensationalised her life. An eponymous Egyptian film portrays her as a young woman lured into a life of debauchery and sensual pleasure that she abandons in favour of obedience and devotion to God after an epiphany. The historical sources, however, are almost unanimous that she was raised in a pious environment, memorised the Quran at an early age, studied the Hadith and observed all prayer times. Despite many offers of marriage, Rabaa was determined to dedicate her life to worship and spiritual self-realisation and remained a virgin. Many maxims are attributed to Rabaa Al-Adaweya. “The pangs and yearnings of he who loves God do not rest until he rests with his Beloved” and “Conceal your virtuous deeds as you would your sinful ones” are among the most famous. Rabaa Al-Adaweya died at the age of 80. THE MOSQUE: The mosque dedicated to Rabaa and the doctrine of Divine Love was built in 1993. It soon began hosting the funerals of well-known people and became the home of one of the best-known charitable societies in Egypt. The society has a 12-member board and a 30-member general assembly, all of whom are volunteers. The mosque has several annexes: a hospital, founded in 1997, subsequently expanded to include external clinics; nurseries; and units providing first aid and kidney dialysis. There is a reception hall that can be used to receive condolences, the Zidni Centre for Human Development, a computer centre and an Islamic cultural centre. ISLAMIST LECTURES AND DEMONSTRATIONS: The mosque eventually became a gathering place for Islamists, the majority of whom were members of the Muslim Brotherhood. A lecture programme was begun, with speakers such as the Muslim Brotherhood preacher Youssef Al-Qaradawi and one-time presidential candidate Mohamed Selim Al-Awwa. Following the January 2011 Revolution, the Islamist presence at the mosque increased. Rabaa Al-Adaweya Square became a centre for Islamic cultural dissemination and for social, religious, cultural and healthcare services. As the political climate became ever more polarised, it also became a staging point for Islamist political activities such as the “Yes to Legitimacy” demonstration organised by the Muslim Brotherhood in December 2012. It came in response to the Ittihadiya protests against Mohamed Morsi's constitutional declaration and the railroading of the draft constitution. Islamists erected a large platform in front of Rabaa Al-Adaweya Mosque from which speakers would address slogan-chanting crowds. On Friday 21 June 2013, Islamists converged on the square for the “No to Violence” rally in support of Morsi. Events then began to escalate quickly. By the following Friday, 28 June, the rally had developed into an open-ended sit-in by the Muslim Brotherhood, supported by some Salafist quarters. Why did the Muslim Brothers and their supporters choose this square in particular for their sit-in? Observers have suggested several answers. Many senior Muslim Brotherhood members came from that district. Most Brotherhood leaders who were later brought to trial were arrested in apartments in Nasr City. To perpetuate their policy of mixing politics with religion the Brotherhood needed a square with a mosque. Rabaa Al-Adaweya provided this, as well as ample space to accommodate people who had travelled from outside Cairo. The square also became the focal point of the Brotherhood's supporters in Cairo's northeastern districts of Madinat Nasr, Ain Shams and Matariya. A second sit-in venue, in Giza, was selected to accommodate demonstrators arriving from Upper Egypt. The sit-in, which began as an attempt to derail the Tamarod petition drive that culminated in the millioniya marches of 30 June against Muslim Brotherhood rule increased in size from 28 June until the removal of Morsi, a little over a month later. As the crowd in the camp increased, so did the complaints of residents and demands that the sit-in be broken up. The rhetoric emerging from Rabaa had clear aims. They are exemplified by the blog penned by Al-Gamaa Al-Islamiya leader Assem Abdel-Maged that appeared under the title “From the Rabaa Podium.” In the fifth and last installment he wrote: “Our discourse, directed to the people, seeks to clarify that what has happened is a coup against a president with an Islamist outlook and that the coup-makers — Christians, apostates and practitioners of debauchery and corruption — are the enemies of faith.” The purpose of the sit-in, Abdel-Maged continued, was to arouse the people's religious fervour so that they remain steadfast in their resistance, “without recourse to force as we do not possess the force to confront an army that had prepared for this moment.” Abdel-Maged has stated that as far as the army was concerned the aim of the rhetoric emanating from the square was “not to antagonise them entirely, in the hope that a peaceful solution to the crisis could be found and army officers could be induced to break ranks in opposition to what was happening.” “The days passed and then came the request for a mandate” — a reference to then-defence minister Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi's call for millions to demonstrate in support of his campaign against terrorism. “I realised then that the army, or rather its leadership, had agreed among themselves to complete the task they had begun,” said Abdel-Maged. The Rabaa sit-in lasted 47 days. Towards the end, there reports of weapon caches in the camp and outbreaks of violence. On the morning of 14 August 2013, security forces were given the go-ahead to break up the camp. The process took 14 hours. Gunfire in and around the square continued throughout the day. There were conflicting reports about the number of dead and wounded on both sides. The mosque was badly damaged and ordered to close until repairs could be completed. On 10 November 2013 the team in charge of repairing the Rabaa Al-Adaweya Mosque, square and hospital finished its work. It had taken just three months. MARTYR HISHAM BARAKAT SQUARE: On 29 June 2015 Egypt woke to the news of that prosecutor-general Hisham Barakat, appointed to the post on 2 July 2013, had been killed in a bomb attack against his motorcade. It was the first direct attack against a member of the judiciary since 1948, the year that Judge Ahmed Al-Khazendar was assassinated after handing down a guilty verdict to the defendants in a case involving the Muslim Brotherhood. It was also the second assassination attempt using a booby-trapped car. The first, failed attempt was against former interior minister Mohamed Ibrahim. The bomb-makers had used between 70 and and 100 kilos of explosives, a mixture of TNT and C-4. Twenty people were wounded in the explosion, which occurred in a residential area, 500 metres from the home of the interior minister and 200 metres from that of Barakat. It was the first major terrorist attack outside Sinai for which Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis claimed responsibility and the second operation targeting the judiciary against the backdrop of the trial of Morsi and other Islamist leaders. On 16 May 2015, Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis staged an attack targeting four deputy prosecutors in Al-Arish. On 15 July 2015, in response to calls to commemorate the late public prosecutor, an official decree was issued to rename Rabaa Al-Adaweya as Martyr Hisham Barakat Square.
