CAIRO — Cairo Gov. Atef Abdel Hamid announced Feb. 6 that the city will rename Selim I Street in eastern Cairo's El Zaytoun district. The new name is yet unknown, but it is unlikely to be that of another Ottoman sultan.

Selim I was the ninth ruler of the Ottoman Empire and the 74th Caliph of Islam who conquered Egypt in 1517 in the battle of Ridaniya. Also called Selim the Grim, he was known as much for his military success as for his rage that spared neither his ministers nor the residents of the cities he conquered. It is believed that the street was named between 1805 and 1848, during the rule of Muhammad Ali Pasha, who decreed that streets would take rulers' names.

The decision to rename the street came about after Mohammad Sabri ad-Dali, a professor of contemporary history at the Helwan University in Cairo, wrote a report about the problem and demanded a change from the governor's office. Dali said that it was not right to name a street after a man who conquered Egypt and left it a province of the Ottoman Empire for 400 years, killing thousands of Egyptians defending their land. Selim I also executed the last Memluk sultan, Tuman Bay, and dissolved the Egyptian army.

Maj. Gen. Hesham Abdel Hamid, the head of El Zaytoun, is currently holding community discussions with residents, intellectuals and historians to choose a new name.