Prayer Times in Egypt

Muslims and mosques in Egypt

Egypt is the most populous Arab country, and about 90% of Egyptians identify as Muslim, according to the US State Department and the 90.4% found by the 2018 Arab Barometer survey. Christians, mostly Coptic Orthodox, are usually estimated at about 10%, though figures range from about 5% to 15%: the census of 1996 gave 5.6% and later surveys and church estimates are higher. Most Muslims are Sunni, and Egypt also has smaller Shia and Ahmadiyya communities, with estimates of Shia numbers ranging from 800,000 to at most 3 million. Some 11% of Egyptians identified as not religious in the 2018 Arab Barometer.

Egypt is the intellectual centre of Sunni Islam. Al-Azhar's mosque in Cairo was built around 971, and the Al-Azhar institution, a mosque and university in one, trains scholars from across the Muslim world; since 1961, under Gamal Abdel Nasser, it has been tied to the state. The Grand Mufti's office, Dar al-Ifta, is part of the Ministry of Justice and issued some 5,000 fatwas a week as of 2009. Dar al-Ifta also announces the start of each Hijri month after a crescent sighting, and its monthly statements are the source this site uses for Egypt's month starts.

The state controls much of mosque life. More than 110,000 mosques are registered with the state, and more than 40,000 independent mosques exist outside its control. In September 2013 only Al-Azhar graduates were allowed to give Friday sermons, a rule estimated to bar about 53,000 imams. Alongside the state institutions there is a rich popular Islam: Egypt has 74 Sufi orders and about 15 million registered Sufis, the Tanta moulid draws up to 3 million people each October and the Hussein moulid in Cairo more than a million. Salafi groups are estimated at between 5 and 6 million.

For prayer times, Egypt sits at about 22 to 31 degrees north, so the days are long in summer and short in winter, but not as extreme as in Europe, and Alexandria in the west has sunrise and sunset about 12 minutes later than Aswan in the east by the clock. Egypt brought back daylight saving time in 2023, so the clocks move forward in spring and back in autumn. Times here follow the Egyptian General Authority of Survey angles, which are widely used across the Arab world, and the start of each prayer is shown, since the congregation times are fixed by each mosque. Ramadan and Eid begin on the day announced by Dar al-Ifta.

Sources, checked 2026-10: Wikipedia: Islam in Egypt; Wikipedia: Al-Azhar Mosque; Dar al-Ifta al-Misriyyah.