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The Al-Azhar University ( ; , , ) is a public university in Cairo, Egypt. Associated with Al-Azhar Al-Sharif in Islamic Cairo, it is Egypt's oldest degree-granting university and is known as one of the most prestigious universities for Islamic learning. In addition to higher education, Al-Azhar oversees a national network of schools with approximately two million students. over 4,000 teaching institutes in Egypt were affiliated with the university.

Founded in 970 or 972 by the Fatimid Caliphate as a centre of Islamic learning, its students studied the Qur'an and Islamic law, along with logic, grammar, rhetoric, and how to calculate the phases of the moon. Today it is the chief centre of Arabic literature and Islamic learning in the world. In 1961 additional non-religious subjects were added to its curriculum.

Its library is considered second in importance in Egypt only to the Egyptian National Library and Archives. In May 2005, Al-Azhar in partnership with a Dubai information technology enterprise, IT Education Project (ITEP) launched the H.H. Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum project to preserve Al-Azhar scripts and publish them online (the "Al-Azhar Online Project") to eventually publish online access to the library's entire rare manuscripts collection, comprising about seven million pages of material.

History

Beginnings under the Fatimids

Al-Azhar is one of the relics of the Isma'ili Shi'a Fatimid dynasty, which claimed descent from Fatimah, daughter of Muhammad and wife of Ali, son-in-law, and cousin of Muhammad. Fatimah was called ''al-Zahra'' (the luminous), and the institution was named in her honor. It was founded as a mosque by the Fatimid commander Jawhar al-Siqilli at the orders of the Caliph and Imam Al-Mu'izz li-Din Allah as he founded the city for Cairo. It was begun (probably on Saturday) in Jumada al-Awwal in the year AH 359 (March/April 970 CE). Its building was completed on the 9th of Ramadan in AH 361 (24 June 972 CE). Both Caliph al-Aziz Billah and Caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah added to its premises. It was further repaired, renovated, and extended by al-Mustansir Billah and al-Hafiz li-Din Allah.

The Fatimid caliphs always encouraged scholars and jurists to have their study-circles and gatherings in this mosque and thus it was turned into a madrasa which has the claim to be considered as the oldest such institution still functioning.Shorter Shi'ite Encyclopaedia, By: Hasan al-Amin, http://www.imamreza.net/old/eng/imamreza.php?id=574 The mosque provided teaching on a variety of subjects from a variety of scholars. According to Syed Farid Alatas, these subjects included Islamic law and jurisprudence, Arabic grammar, Islamic astronomy, Islamic philosophy, and logic. Under the Fatimids, Al-Azhar also notably promoted Shia Islam.

Saladin

In the 12th century, following the overthrow of the Isma'ili Fatimid dynasty, Saladin (the founder of the Sunni Ayyubid dynasty) converted Al-Azhar to a Shafi'ite Sunni center of learning. Therefore, "he had all the treasures of the palace, including the books, sold over a period of ten years. Many were burned, thrown into the Nile, or thrown into a great heap, which was covered with sand, so that a regular "hill of books" was formed and the soldiers used to sole their shoes with the fine bindings. The number of books said to have been disposed of varies from 120,000 to 2,000,000." Abd-el-latif delivered lectures on Islamic medicine at Al-Azhar, while according to legend the Jewish philosopher Maimonides delivered lectures on medicine and astronomy there during the time of Saladin though no historical proof has corroborated this.

Saladin introduced the college system in Egypt, which was also adopted in Al-Azhar. Under this system, the college was a separate institution within the mosque compound, with its own classrooms, dormitories and a library.

Mamluks

Under the Mamluks, Al-Azhar gained influence and rose in prestige.
The Mamluks established salaries for instructors and stipends for the students and gave the institution an endowment. A college was built for the institution in 1340, outside of the mosque. In the late 1400s, the buildings were renovated and new dormitories were built for the students.

During this time Cairo had 70 other institutions of Islamic learning, however, Al-Azhar attracted many scholars due to its prestige. The famed Ibn Khaldun taught at Al-Azhar starting in 1383.

During this time texts were few and much of the learning happened by students memorizing their teachers' lectures and notes. In fact, blind young boys were enrolled at Al-Azhar in the hopes that they could eventually earn a living as teachers.

Ottomans

During the Ottoman period, Al-Azhar's prestige and influence grew to the point of becoming the preeminent institution for Islamic learning in the Sunni Muslim world. During this time, the ''Shaykh Al-Azhar'' was established, an office given to the leading scholar at the institution; prior to this the head of the institution was not necessarily a scholar. In 1748, the Ottoman pasha tried to get Al-Azhar to teach astronomy and mathematics, to little avail.

During the time there wasn't a system of academic degrees, instead the ''shaykh'' (professor) determined if the student was sufficiently trained to enter a professor (ijazah). The average length of study was 6 years. Despite the lack of bureaucracy, the training remained rigorous and prolonged. Students were loosely organized into ''riwaq'' (a sort of fraternity) organized according to their nationality and branch of Islamic law they studied. Each ''riwaq'' was supervised by a professor. A rector, usually a senior professor, oversaw the finances.

Post-Ottoman

By the mid 19th century, al-Azhar had surpassed Istanbul and was considered the capital of Sunni legal expertise; a main centre of power in the Islamic world; and a rival to Damascus, Mecca and Baghdad.

When the Kingdom of Egypt was established in 1923, the signing of the new nation's constitution was delayed because of King Fuad I's insistence that Al-Azhar and other religious institutions were to be subject to him and not the Egyptian parliament. The King Fuad I Edition of the Qur'an was first published on 10 July 1924 by a committee from Al-Azhar UniversityStefan Wild, "basmallah" ''The Quran: an Encyclopedia'', Routledge Prominent committee members included Islamic scholar, Muhammad b. 'Ali al-Husayni al-Haddad. Noteworthy Western scholars/academics working in Egypt at the time include Bergsträsser and Jeffery. Methodological differences aside, speculation alludes to a spirit of cooperation. Bergsträsser was certainly impressed with the work.

In March 1924, Abdülmecid II had been deposed as Caliph, nominally the supreme religious and political leader of all Sunni Muslims across the world. The Grand Sheikh of al-Azhar repudiated the abolition and was part of a call from Al-Azhar for an Islamic Conference. The unsuccessful "caliphate conference" was held under the presidency of the Grand Chancellor of Azhar in 1926 but no one was able to gain a consensus for the candidacy across the Islamic world. Candidates proposed for the caliphate included King Fuad.

Modernization

The pioneering Pakistani journalist Zaib-un-Nissa Hamidullah became the first woman to address the university in 1955. In 1961, Al-Azhar was re-established as a university under the government of Egypt's second President Gamal Abdel Nasser when a wide range of secular faculties were added for the first time, such as business, economics, science, pharmacy, medicine, engineering and agriculture. Before that date, the ''Encyclopaedia of Islam'' classifies the Al-Azhar variously as madrasa, center of higher learning and, since the 19th century, religious university, but not as a university in the full sense, referring to the modern transition process as "from madrasa to university".Skovgaard-Petersen, Jakob. "al-Azhar, modern period." ''Encyclopaedia of Islam'', THREE. Edited by: Gudrun Krämer, Denis Matringe, John Nawas and Everett Rowson. Brill, 2010, retrieved 20/03/2010: Other academic sources also refer to al-Azhar as a madrasa in pre-modern times before its transformation into a university. An Islamic women's faculty was also added in the same year.

Recent years

Since assuming office in 2014, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has called on religious institutions, including Al-Azhar, to reform religious discourse in an effort to counter extremist ideologies that emerged in the aftermath of the Arab Spring uprisings.

In August 2021, Al-Azhar clerics stationed in Afghanistan since 2009 under an agreement with the Afghan Ministry of Education were evacuated after the Taliban takeover of Kabul.

Religious ideology

Historically, Al-Azhar had a membership that represented diverse opinions within Islam. The theological schools of al-Ash'ari and al-Maturidi were both represented. It has a long tradition of teaching all four schools of Sunni Islamic jurisprudence (Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi, and Hanbali). The chief mufti of each school of thought acted as the dean, responsible for the teachers and students in that group. During the time of the Ottomans, the Hanafi dean came to hold a position as ''primus inter pares''. It also had membership from the seven main Sufi orders. Al-Azhar has had an antagonistic relationship with Wahhabism. According to a 2011 report issued by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Al Azhar is strongly Sufi in character:

Adherence to a Sufi order has long been standard for both professors and students in the al-Azhar mosque and university system. Although al-Azhar is not monolithic, its identity has been strongly associated with Sufism. The current Shaykh al-Azhar (rector of the school), Ahmed el-Tayeb, is a hereditary Sufi shaykh from Upper Egypt who has recently expressed his support for the formation of a world Sufi league; the former Grand Mufti of Egypt and senior al-Azhar scholar Ali Gomaa is also a highly respected Sufi master.Carnegie Endowment for International Peace" "Salafis and Sufis in Egypt" by Jonathon Brown
December 2011, p 12

However, in the early 20th century, enlightened Modernist thinkers such as Muhammad Abduh led a reform of the curriculum, reintroducing a desire for legal reform through ijtihad. Subsequently, disputes were had between modernist intellectuals and traditionalists within al-Azhar. Al-Azhar now maintains a modernist position, advocating "Wasatiyya" (centrism), a reaction against the extreme textualism of many Wahhabi Salafi ideologues. Wasatiyya covers a range of thinkers, some of whom are liberal intellectuals with religious inclinations, preachers such as Yusuf al-Qaradawi and many members of the Muslim Brotherhood. Since the 2013 coup however, Al-Azhar has taken a position against the brotherhood.

The nineteenth and current Grand Mufti of Egypt and Al Azhar scholar, is Shawki Ibrahim Abdel-Karim Allam. The university is opposed to overt liberal reform of Islam and issued a fatwa against the liberal Ibn Rushd-Goethe mosque in Berlin because it banned face-covering veils such as burqa and niqab on its premises while allowing women and men to pray together. The fatwa encompassed all present and future liberal mosques.

Council of Senior Scholars

Al-Azhar University's Council of Senior Scholars was founded in 1911 but was replaced in 1961 by the Center for Islamic Research. In July 2012, after the law restricting Al-Azhar University's autonomy was modified by the incoming president Mohamed Morsi

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