Ful medames (Arabic: فول مدمس, fūl midammis IPA: [fuːl meˈdammes]; other spellings include ful mudammas and foule mudammes, in Coptic: ⲫⲉⲗ phel or fel), or simply fūl, is a stew of cooked fava beans served with olive oil, cumin, and optionally with chopped parsley, garlic, onion, lemon juice, chili pepper and other vegetables, herbs, and spices.

[citation needed] A hypothesis by Adeeb Makar states that neither ancient Egypt nor Coptic languages and dialects used the word "ful"/"fūl" or a similar term, arguing instead that the ancient Egyptian name for beans is written in Egyptian hieroglyphs 𓅮𓏏𓈖, retranscribed swnw in Latin and سونو in Arabic, and pronounced "zonu" (زونو).

[1] In the Middle Ages, the making of fūl in Cairo was monopolized by the people living around the Princess Baths, a public bath in a tiny compound near today's public fountain of Muhammad ‘Ali Pasha, a block north of the two elegant minarets of the Mosque of Sultan al-Muayyad above the 11th century Bab Zuweila gate.

To take advantage of these precious fires, huge qidras were filled with fava beans, and these cauldrons were kept simmering all night, and eventually all day too, in order to provide breakfast for Cairo's population.

It is very similar to the Egyptian, Sudanese, and Saudi variants of the dish, but usually spicier due to Somalis' use of the xawaash spice mixture (cumin, coriander, sage, peppercorn, fenugreek, turmeric, ginger, cardamom, cloves, nutmeg, and saffron).

In Morocco ful is known as bissara and consists of fava beans and split green peas (known locally as jabbana) boiled together with garlic and served with cumin and seasoning.

The meal has also travelled as far as Malaysia, in particular the state of Johore, and Singapore where it has been adapted into the local recipe kacang pool, which incorporates ghee in place of oil and minced meat.

It typically consists of fava beans, chopped tomatoes, onion, parsley, lemon juice, olive oil, pepper and salt.