title: El Sakkakini
text: # El Sakkakini
  
  El Sakkakini (Arabic: السكاكيني) is a small district (quarter) in Cairo, Egypt that neighbours the El Zaher and Abbaseya districts.
  
  El Sakkakini was originally part of El Zaher, but it was named after a huge building built by a prominent French architect, and was owned by patriarch (head of the family), Count Gabriel Habib Sakkakini Pasha (1841–1923), consisting of a palace and a church in the same area in 1897. In addition, Sakkakini Pasha, is known to have established the Roman Catholic Patriarchate in Faggala and the Roman Catholic Cemetery in Old Cairo.
  
  ## Famous residents
  
  * Taha Hussein
  * The Palestinian president Yasser Arafat was raised in Sakkikini in the 1930s.
  * The composer Halim El-Dabh was born in Sakkakini in 1921.
  