27°12′N31°06′E / 27.200°N 31.100°E /27.200; 31.100Manqabad also spelledMankabad (Arabic:منقباد, fromCoptic:ⲙⲁⲛⲕⲁⲡⲱⲧ,romanized: place of cup[1]) is a town inUpper Egypt, near the city ofAsyut. A military station was located in the town which was referred to as "beyond civilization", being the last vestige of theNile River Valley before the southern desert. In the 1940s, the station had 3000 officers and soldiers, including a number of whom likeGamal Abdel Nasser,Khaled Mohieddin andAnwar Sadat who would become members of theFree Officers Movement.[2] In 1965, an ancientCoptic site was accidentally found at Manqabad and major excavations were undertaken there in 1976, 1984, and 1995. Several churches and chapels dating from the 7th to 8th centuries were excavated.[3]
Manqabad is also the town of origin of theManqabadi (sometimes spelled "Mankabady" or "Mankbadi") family, which was formerly one of the oldest Upper Egyptian nobilities.
Du Bois, Shirley Graham (1972),Gamal Abdel Nasser, son of the Nile: a biography, The Third Press,ISBN978-0-87395-080-0
Immerzeel, Mat (2004),Coptic studies on the threshold of a new millennium: proceedings of the Seventh International Congress of Coptic Studies, Peeters Publishers,ISBN90-429-1409-2