In the last years of the Sadat's presidency, it was impossible to walk the streets of Cairo without hearing () stentorian voice. Climb into a collective service-taxi and the driver is listening to one of Sheikh Kishk's recorded sermons... They listen to Kishk in Cairo, in Casablanca, and in the North African district of Marseilles. A Saudi-funded magazine has dubbed him `the star of Islamic preaching`... none commands his incomparable vocal cords, his panoramic Muslim culture, his phenomenal capacity for improvisation, and his acerbic humour in criticizing infidel regimes, military dictatorship, the peace treaty with Israel, or the complicity of al-Azhar... So great was his fame that the Ministry of Waqf had to build several annexes to the mosque to accommodate the Friday crowds. In 1981, however, even these were insufficient to shelter the approximately 10,000 people who regularly attended.〔Kepel, Gilles, ''Le Prophete et Pharaon, '' English translation published in 1986, University of California Press. Original French edition published in 1984, Le Prophete et Pharaon, Editions Le Decouverte, p.172, 175〕