Al-Azhar Mosque (970): Cairo's Mosque and University

Al-Azhar Mosque in Cairo was begun in 970 by the Fatimid dynasty as the main mosque of their new capital, al-Qahira. Within a few years it was also a place of teaching, and over the following centuries it became the most influential centre of Sunni religious learning in the world. Today the mosque stands at the heart of historic Cairo, linked to Al-Azhar University, one of the largest universities in Egypt.

Founding by the Fatimids

In 969 the Fatimid general Jawhar al-Siqilli conquered Egypt for the caliph al-Mu’izz li-Din Allah and laid out a new walled royal city north of Fustat, as described in the founding of Cairo. The city needed a congregational mosque for Friday prayers. Jawhar began building it in 970, and the first Friday prayer was held in June 972.

The Fatimid Caliphate was Ismaili Shia, and the mosque was intended to proclaim its faith. The name al-Azhar means “the most radiant”. It is often said to honour Fatima al-Zahra, the Prophet Muhammad’s daughter, from whom the Fatimids claimed descent, although this explanation is a tradition rather than a recorded fact.

The original building was smaller than today’s mosque. It had a courtyard surrounded by arcades and a prayer hall with five aisles running parallel to the qibla wall, which faces Mecca. Parts of the Fatimid stucco decoration, with Kufic inscriptions and plant motifs, still survive in the prayer hall.

From mosque to school

Teaching began early. In 975 the chief judge Abu al-Hasan Ali ibn al-Nu’man lectured at al-Azhar on Ismaili law, using a book written by his father, al-Qadi al-Nu’man. In 988 the vizier Ya’qub ibn Killis, under Caliph al-Aziz, arranged salaries and lodging for a group of about 35 scholars. Many historians see this as the beginning of al-Azhar as a permanent institution of learning.

Students sat in circles (halqas) around a teacher, usually beside a column in the prayer hall. There were no formal degrees in the modern sense. A teacher could grant an ijaza, a licence certifying that a student had mastered a text and could teach it.

The change to Sunni Islam

In 1171 Saladin ended the Fatimid caliphate and restored Sunni Islam in Egypt. Al-Azhar lost its official role. Under the Shafi’i school of law that Saladin favoured, only one mosque in a city was normally used for the Friday sermon, and the Mosque of al-Hakim took that role. Al-Azhar was neglected for almost a century.

The Mamluk sultan Baybars restored Friday prayers at al-Azhar in 1266 and repaired the building. Under the Mamluks the mosque revived as a Sunni centre of study. Patrons added madrasas (colleges) along its walls, among them the Taybarsiyya (1309) and Aqbughawiyya (1340). Sultan Qaytbay added a minaret in the 1480s, and Sultan al-Ghuri added the distinctive double-headed minaret in the early sixteenth century.

Students came from across the Islamic world. They lived in riwaqs, residential sections assigned to particular regions or communities, such as students from the Maghreb, Syria or West Africa.

The building through the centuries

Al-Azhar is not a single building from one period but a layered complex shaped by more than a thousand years of additions. The Fatimid core survives around the central courtyard and in the oldest part of the prayer hall, where keel-shaped arches, a type typical of Fatimid Cairo, rest on reused ancient columns. The Fatimid caliph al-Hafiz added a domed bay and decorated arcades in the twelfth century.

Mamluk patrons surrounded this core with colleges, gateways and minarets. Three minarets of different dates now rise above the complex, each reflecting the style of its period. The Ottoman-era extension of 1753 almost doubled the size of the prayer hall by adding a new section behind the old qibla wall, and new gates were opened to the surrounding streets.

Restoration work continued in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, sometimes changing older features. Because so many rulers left their mark, the mosque is often described as a museum of Cairo’s architectural history.

Ottoman and modern history

After the Ottoman conquest of Egypt in 1517, al-Azhar remained the leading institution of religious learning in the country. The office of Shaykh al-Azhar, the head of the institution, appeared in the late seventeenth century. In 1753 the Ottoman-era official Abd al-Rahman Katkhuda carried out the largest expansion in the mosque’s history, enlarging the prayer hall and adding gates.

During the French occupation of Egypt, al-Azhar was a centre of the Cairo revolt of October 1798, and French troops bombarded the area and entered the mosque. In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries reformers such as Muhammad Abduh pushed for changes to the curriculum. In 1961, under President Gamal Abdel Nasser, Law 103 reorganised al-Azhar as a state university with modern faculties, including medicine and engineering, and a faculty for women was opened soon after.

Al-Azhar also played a part in national politics. In 1800 the French commander Jean-Baptiste Kleber was assassinated in Cairo by Sulayman al-Halabi, a young Syrian who had been staying among al-Azhar’s students. During the Suez Crisis in November 1956, Nasser delivered a famous speech from the pulpit of al-Azhar, calling on Egyptians to resist the British, French and Israeli attack.

Al-Azhar today

The modern institution is much more than the historic mosque. It includes Al-Azhar University, with campuses across Egypt and hundreds of thousands of students, and a large network of primary and secondary schools. Students still come from Africa, Asia and Europe to study Islamic law, theology and Arabic.

Its leaders issue religious opinions and statements that are followed closely across the Sunni world. Because the Grand Imam is appointed by the Egyptian state, debates about the independence of al-Azhar from the government have continued throughout its modern history.

Key people

• Jawhar al-Siqilli (died 992): Fatimid general who founded the mosque.
• Al-Mu’izz li-Din Allah (ruled 953–975): Fatimid caliph who ordered the building.
• Ya’qub ibn Killis (died 991): vizier who endowed salaried teaching posts.
• Baybars (ruled 1260–1277): Mamluk sultan who restored Friday prayers in 1266.
• Muhammad Abduh (1849–1905): reformer who tried to modernise al-Azhar’s teaching.

Myths and facts

“Al-Azhar is the world’s oldest university.” Al-Azhar has a strong claim to being one of the oldest continuously operating places of higher learning. But it was a mosque-college for most of its history, and a university in the modern sense only from the twentieth century. The al-Qarawiyyin in Fez is often cited as older, while European universities such as the University of Bologna grew from a different, corporate tradition.

“Al-Azhar was always Sunni.” It was founded by Shia rulers and taught Ismaili doctrine in its first two centuries.

Timeline

• 970: Jawhar begins building the mosque in al-Qahira.
• 972, June: First Friday prayer held at al-Azhar.
• 975: Ali ibn al-Nu’man gives lectures on Ismaili law.
• 988: Vizier Ya’qub ibn Killis endows posts for about 35 scholars.
• 1171: Saladin ends the Fatimid caliphate; al-Azhar loses its Friday role.
• 1266: Sultan Baybars restores Friday prayers.
• 1753: Major expansion by Abd al-Rahman Katkhuda.
• 1961: Law 103 reorganises al-Azhar as a modern state university.

Why it matters

Al-Azhar shows how one building can outlast the dynasty that created it. Founded to spread Ismaili Shia teaching, it became the most respected voice of Sunni scholarship and still shapes religious education across the Muslim world.