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Al-Azhar (Islamic Studies)

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  1. Introduction
  2. The university-mosque of al-Azhar, situated in Cairo, Egypt, is the foremost center of Sunni religious learning in the Muslim world and plays a significant religious, intellectual, and political role in Egypt and beyond. From its inception, its history was tightly linked to the ebb and flow of Egyptian politics and to the attention (or lack thereof) given to it by Egypt’s political rulers and private patrons. Al-Azhar was built in 970 as a mosque in the beginning of the Fatimid era in Cairo, and it became a Sunni institution after Saladin’s 1171 conquest. It subsequently fell out of favor and regained its prominence between the end of the 13th century and the 14th century. However, there is no consensus among historians on when al-Azhar became a preeminent institution or when al-Azhar’s ulama, in addition to being important judicial and religious authorities, gained the role of mediators between the populace and the political elite. Some argue that this change took place under the Mamluk military state, while others say it occurred in the early Ottoman period. Historians of 19th- and 20th-century Egypt have studied al-Azhar’s history through the lenses of imperial domination, modernization, and secularization, generally assuming that the institution was bound to decline both politically and intellectually. The emergence of Political Islam in the 20th century also led students of Islam to view al-Azhar as an institution submitted to the Egyptian regime and unable to innovate intellectually and ideologically. However, a renewed interest regarding al-Azhar on the part of historians and political scientists began in the 1990s. As a result, al-Azhar is now viewed as an internally diverse religious institution helping the state regulate the expressions of Islam (and therefore playing an important role in shaping them), and as a diverse group of ulama whose function is to articulate the normative aspects of Islam through daʿwah, the production of fatwas, and education. Writings in this recent period underline the significance of the religious institution and the normative and public role of its ulama in preserving and reconfiguring the tradition of Islam, as well as its transnational reach.
  3.  
  4. General Overviews
  5. The following are general works pertaining to al-Azhar’s history as a mosque (its buildings and religious functions) and an institution of learning and teaching. They most often deal with institutional, religious, pedagogical, and political aspects of al-Azhar, whereas the less recent works, such as ʿInan 1958 and Dodge 1961, analyze its history in terms of political and intellectual influence, including its decline in relation to changes in political power.
  6.  
  7. Dodge, Bayard. Al-Azhar: A Millennium of Muslim Learning. Washington, DC: Middle East Institute, 1961.
  8.  
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  10.  
  11. The first history of al-Azhar in English. Particularly useful for late Ottoman times to the mid-20th century.
  12.  
  13. Find this resource:
  14.  
  15. ʿInan, Muhammad ʿAbd Allah. Tārīkh al-jāmiʿ al-Azhar. 2d ed. Cairo, Egypt: Muʾassasat al-Khanji, 1958.
  16.  
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  18.  
  19. A general history of al-Azhar from the Fatimids up to modern times. A few statistics of the student body and faculty in the 19th and early 20th century are presented at the end of the book, with budgets of al-Azhar. First edition published in 1942.
  20.  
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  22.  
  23. Jomier, Jacques. “Al-Azhar (al-Dj̲āmiʿ al-Azhar).” In The Encyclopaedia of Islam. 2d ed. Vol. 1. Edited by H. A. R. Gibb, et al. Leiden, The Netherlands: E. J. Brill, 1960.
  24.  
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  26.  
  27. Provides a broad introduction to the history of al-Azhar, from its foundation to the mid-1950s.
  28.  
  29. Find this resource:
  30.  
  31. Khafaji, Muhammad ʿAbd al-Munʿim. Al-Azhar fī alf ʿām. 3 vols. Cairo, Egypt: Al-Matbaʿa al-Muniriyah, 1954.
  32.  
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  34.  
  35. Volume 1 presents a broad history of al-Azhar from its foundation to the revolution of 1952. Volumes 2 and 3 present biographies of the grand imams of al-Azhar and other significant Azharite intellectual figures, as well as laws of reforms and the general evolution of its bureaucracy.
  36.  
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  38.  
  39. al-Shinnawi, ʿAbd al-ʿAziz Muhammad. Al-Azhar jāmiʿan wa jāmiʿatan. 2 vols. Cairo, Egypt: Maktabat al-Anjlū al-Misriyah, 1983–1984.
  40.  
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  42.  
  43. The history of al-Azhar from its foundation to the reign of Muhammad Ali. Argues against the idea that al-Azhar weakened under the Ottomans and reconsiders ʿInan’s negative evaluations of Muhammad ʿAli’s policies toward al-Azhar (see ʿInan 1958).
  44.  
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  46.  
  47. Skovgaard-Petersen, Jakob. “Al-Azhar, Modern Period.” In Encyclopaedia of Islam Three. Part 3. Edited by Gudrun Krämer, Denis Matringe, John Nawas, and Everett Rowson. Leiden, The Netherlands: E. J. Brill, 2007.
  48.  
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  50.  
  51. A succinct update to Jomier 1960, with an emphasis on the period of the 1980s and 1990s and the changes prompted by the emergence of Islamist movements.
  52.  
  53. Find this resource:
  54.  
  55. Vollers, K. “Azhar.” In The Encyclopaedia of Islam: A Dictionary of the Geography, Ethnography and Biography of the Muhammadan Peoples. Vol. 1. Edited by M. Th. Houtsma, T. W. Arnold, R. Basset, and R. Hartmann, 532–539. Leiden, The Netherlands: E. J. Brill, 1913.
  56.  
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  58.  
  59. A comprehensive summary of the history of al-Azhar’s buildings and endowments since its foundation, its internal organization and student life, the type and content of the knowledge transmitted, as well as its textbooks, classified by madhhab, and the attempts at reform in the modern period up to the first part of the 20th century.
  60.  
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  62.  
  63. Al-Zayātī, Sulaymān Raṣad al-Ḥanafī. Kanz al-Jawhar fī Tārīkh al-Azhar. Cairo, Egypt: Maktabat wa Matbaʿat al-Ghad, 1999.
  64.  
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  66.  
  67. An overview of the history of al-Azhar from the Fatimid era to the close of the 19th century. It provides information on the architectural development of al-Azhar mosque, the rectors of al-Azhar, the content of Azharite education, and late-19th-century reform efforts. This work draws heavily from the chronicles of al-Maqrizi and al-Jabarti. It was published for the first time around the year 1900 (precise date of publication is unknown).
  68.  
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  70.  
  71. Architecture
  72. The primary sources cited in Premodern History such as the chronicles by al-Maqrizi, al-Jabarti, and Mubarak contain invaluable information for the history of al-Azhar as a set of buildings that were transformed over the ages. Here, Creswell 1952–1959 and Rabbat 1996 provide concise descriptions of these transformations in English. Online resources that provide both historical and more recent images of al-Azhar’s building (and specific parts of it) include the Thesaurus Islamicus Foundation-Islamic Art Network and MIT’s ArchNet Digital Library.
  73.  
  74. ArchNet Digital Library. Al-Azhar Mosque.
  75.  
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  77.  
  78. Provides an overview of al-Azhar, with a thumbnail gallery.
  79.  
  80. Find this resource:
  81.  
  82. Creswell, K. A. C. Muslim Architecture of Egypt. 2 vols. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1952–1959.
  83.  
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  85.  
  86. Volume 1 (p. 36–64) provides a detailed history of al-Azhar’s architectural transformations since its foundation.
  87.  
  88. Find this resource:
  89.  
  90. Rabbat, Nasser. “Al-Azhar Mosque: An Architectural Chronicle of Cairo’s History.” Muqarnas 13 (1996): 45–67.
  91.  
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  93.  
  94. Provides an architectural history of the building’s transformations, additions, and restorations, from the Fatimid’s period up to its publication, as well as an analysis of al-Azhar’s history in relationship to Cairo’s changing urban topography and political history.
  95.  
  96. Find this resource:
  97.  
  98. Thesaurus Islamicus Foundation-Islamic Art Network.
  99.  
  100. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  101.  
  102. An online database on Islamic art that offers pictures and some basic information on al-Azhar.
  103.  
  104. Find this resource:
  105.  
  106. Premodern History
  107. The scholarship on the premodern history of al-Azhar tends to emphasize that al-Azhar became a major institution of learning and transmission of knowledge during Ottoman times. Walker 1997, in particular, denies that al-Azhar had a major educational or political role under the Fatimids.
  108.  
  109. Behrens-Abouseif, Doris. Egypt’s Adjustment to Ottoman Rule: Institutions, Waqf, and Architecture in Cairo, 16th and 17th centuries. Leiden, The Netherlands: E. J. Brill, 1994.
  110.  
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  112.  
  113. Argues that al-Azhar did not play a preeminent role as a teaching institution during the Mamluk period and actually began developing its status in the first half of the 16th century.
  114.  
  115. Find this resource:
  116.  
  117. al-Maqrizi, Ahmad ibn ʿAli. Kitāb al-khiṭaṭ al-maqrīziyya: al-musammā biʾl-mawāʿiẓ waʾl-iʿtibār bi-dhikr al-khiṭaṭ waʾl-āthār, yakhtaṣ ṣu dhālika bi-akhbār iqlīm miṣr waʾl-nīl wa-dhikr al-qāhirah wa-mā yataʿallaqu bi-hā wa-bi-iqlīmihā. 2 vols. Bulaq (Cairo), Egypt: Dar al-Tibaʿa al-Misriyah, 1853.
  118.  
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  120.  
  121. The Mamluk era historian al-Maqrizi (1364–1442), who also wrote about Fatimid Egypt, situates al-Azhar in a changing urban topography and social history and gives details about its architectural evolution.
  122.  
  123. Find this resource:
  124.  
  125. Petry, Carl. The Civilian Elite of Cairo in the Later Middle Ages. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1981.
  126.  
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  128.  
  129. Argues that despite the existence of significantly endowed competing madrasas, al-Azhar played a significant role, but not the most important one, within the civilian elite of Cairo in the 14th century.
  130.  
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  132.  
  133. Walker, Paul E. “Fatimid Institutions of Learning.” Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt 34 (1997): 179–200.
  134.  
  135. DOI: 10.2307/40000806Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  136.  
  137. A particularly important piece that deconstructs the myth of al-Azhar as a central institution of learning and a foundation for state Shiʿite propaganda under the Ismaʿilis.
  138.  
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  140.  
  141. Winter, Michael. Egyptian Society under Ottoman Rule, 1517–1798. London and New York: Routledge, 1992.
  142.  
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  144.  
  145. Chapter 4, in particular, deals with al-Azhar, its ulama, and the position of the Sheikh al-Azhar during the Ottoman period.
  146.  
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  148.  
  149. Al-Azhar in the 18th and 19th Centuries
  150. The scholarship dealing with this period generally develops the theme of the waning influence of al-Azhar as an institution producing legal and moral norms and transmitting religious knowledge, as illustrated by Marsot 1972. Al-Azhar is often viewed in comparison with newly established institutions of knowledge it had to compete with, as well as in the context of the creation of a modern state whose administration started to control and reform education and the legal system, as shown in Aroian 1983. However, some of the scholarship on this crucial period of deep transformations for al-Azhar also insists on the ways in which Azharite ulama coped with these changes while remaining intellectually productive. In particular, Delanoue 1982 offers a rare entry to some of the Azharite ulama’s intellectual production and lives, and Gesink 2010 shows how conservative ulama participated in and shaped the reforms of al-Azhar after 1872. Stolz 2018 also shows that, in the 19th century, the ulama of al-Azhar preserved and adapted traditional scholarly astronomy to the modern transformation of forms of piety.
  151.  
  152. ʿAli, Saʿid Ismaʿil. Al-Azhar ʿalā masraḥ al-siyāsah al-miṣriyah: dirāsa fī taṭawwur al-ʿalāqa bayna al-tarbiyah waʾl-siyāsah. Cairo, Egypt: Dar al-thaqāfa liʾl-ṭibāʿa waʾl-nashr, 1974.
  153.  
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  155.  
  156. A broad political and intellectual history of al-Azhar, with a more detailed perspective from the French occupation up to 1919 and focusing on the questions of religious and educational reform.
  157.  
  158. Find this resource:
  159.  
  160. ʿAli Mubarak, Basha. Al-Khiṭaṭ al-tawfīqīya al-jadīda li-miṣr al-qāhira wa-mudunihā wa-bilādihā al-qadīma wa-al-shahīra. Bulaq (Cairo), Egypt: al-Matbaʿah al-kubra al-amiriyah, 1886–1889.
  161.  
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  163.  
  164. A topographical encyclopedia of Cairo that the author viewed as an update of Maqrizi’s earlier work. Volume 4 contains a section devoted to al-Azhar’s history, architecture, and systems of learning. Presents an acerbic view of al-Azhar’s ulama during his time.
  165.  
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  167.  
  168. Aroian, Lois A. The Nationalization of Arabic and Islamic Education in Egypt: Dar al-ʿUlum and al-Azhar. New York: American University in Cairo, 1983.
  169.  
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  171.  
  172. A comparative analysis of the Dar al-ʿulum and al-Azhar curricula; particularly interesting for students of educational reforms in Egypt.
  173.  
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  175.  
  176. Bayram, Mustafa. Tārīkh al-Azhar. Cairo, Egypt: Matbaʿat al-Tamaddun, 1903.
  177.  
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  179.  
  180. Based on a lecture given by Azharite scholar Mustafa Bayram at a conference in Hamburg, Germany in September 1902. Bayram provides a brief overview of the history of al-Azhar before describing the current state of its education. He includes information on teachers’ salaries, student stipends, and statistics of the student population. The need for reform permeates throughout his lecture.
  181.  
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  183.  
  184. Crecelius, Daniel. “The Emergence of the Shaykh of al-Azhar as the Preeminent Religious Leader in Egypt.” In Colloque international sur l’histoire du Caire. Edited by André Raymond, Michael Rogers, and Magdi Wahba, 109–123. Cairo, Egypt: Ministère de la Culture, 1969.
  185.  
  186. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  187.  
  188. A history of the office of Shaykh al-Azhar since the 18th century and more generally of the offices linked to teaching, fatwas, and madhhabs (schools of law).
  189.  
  190. Find this resource:
  191.  
  192. Delanoue, Gilbert. Moralistes et politiques musulmans dans l’Egypte du XIXème siècle (1798–1882). Cairo, Egypt: Institut Français d’Archéologie Orientale, 1982.
  193.  
  194. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  195.  
  196. An extremely useful analysis of biographies of Egyptian ulama in the 19th century, showing that modernization of Egyptian education and the emergence of modern elites during that century did not necessarily weaken the intellectual influence of al-Azhar. Delanoue argues that the ulama could be part of, and even initiate, modern transformations in the religious, intellectual, and pedagogical domains.
  197.  
  198. Find this resource:
  199.  
  200. al-Fiqi, Muhammad Kamil. Al-Azhar wa-atharuhu fī al-nahḍah al-adabīyah al-ḥadīthah. 2d ed. Cairo, Egypt: Maktabat nahda misr, 1965.
  201.  
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  203.  
  204. A rare look at intellectual and literary life at al-Azhar during the nahḍa (renaissance).
  205.  
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  207.  
  208. Gesink, Indira. Islamic Reform and Conservatism: Al-Azhar and the Evolution of Modern Sunni Islam. London and New York: I. B. Tauris, 2010.
  209.  
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  211.  
  212. A study of the ulama who opposed aspects of the modernizing reforms of Al-Azhar between 1872 and 1911 (debates about the reform projects of 1872, 1885, 1896, and 1911 are examined). The author shows that conservative ulama did not systematically obstruct reforming efforts but adapted them to what they saw as an imperative of order and stability and therefore shaped the late-19th-century transformations of al-Azhar as much as their modernist colleagues. Conservative figures such as Shaykh Muhammad Illish, Maliki Chief Mufti of Egypt from 1854 to 1882, as well as better-known reformists such as Hassan a-Attar, Rifaa al-Tahtawi, and Muhammad Abduh are re-examined as protagonists in the debate over reform.
  213.  
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  215.  
  216. Heyworth Dunne, J. An Introduction to the History of Education in Modern Egypt. London: Luzac, 1939.
  217.  
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  219.  
  220. Describes transformations in Egypt’s educational system in the 19th century. Although most of this work focuses on the new schools established under Muhammad ‘Ali and his progeny, it also provides a comprehensive overview of 18th-century education at al-Azhar (pp. 36–84) with particular emphasis on the subjects and works that were studied. This work addresses the changing role and place of both Azharite scholars and the institution of al-Azhar within the new educational landscape of 19th-century Egypt (pp. 365–406).
  221.  
  222. Find this resource:
  223.  
  224. Al-Jabarti, ʿAbd al-Rahman. ʿAjāʾib al-āthār fīʾl-tarājim waʾl-akhbār. Cairo, Egypt: Lajnat al-āthār al-ʿarabī, 1958.
  225.  
  226. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  227.  
  228. Chronicles the political and social life of Egypt, particularly its ulama and al-Azhar before and in the times of al-Jabarti (18th and early 19th century). As a scholar who had studied at al-Azhar, al-Jabarti had a realistic view of the ulama of his times and described them with irony. Contains a depiction of the roles of al-Azhar’s ulama during Napoleon’s campaign.
  229.  
  230. Find this resource:
  231.  
  232. Marsot, Afaf Lutfi al-Sayyid. “The Ulama of Cairo in the 18th and the 19th Centuries.” In Scholars, Saints, and Sufis: Muslim Religious Institutions in the Middle East since 1500. Edited by Nikki R. Keddie, 149–165. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1972.
  233.  
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  235.  
  236. Describes the end of the “golden age” of the ulama of al-Azhar and the reasons for their political, economic, and intellectual decline in the 19th century.
  237.  
  238. Find this resource:
  239.  
  240. Raineau, Thomas. “‘Des tableaux noirs à l’ombre du minbar’: La réforme de l’université d’al-Azhar (1895–1913).” Cahiers de la Méditerranée 75 (2007): 90–104.
  241.  
  242. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  243.  
  244. An exploration of al-Azhar reforms in 1896, 1908, and 1911, essentially based on reform laws of al-Azhar in European languages, with an attempt to evaluate the gap between the laws and their concrete implementation.
  245.  
  246. Find this resource:
  247.  
  248. Al-Ṣaʿīdī, ‘Abd al-Mitaʿāl. Tārīkh al-Iṣlāḥ fī al-Azhar. Cairo, Egypt: al-Hayʾah al-ʿĀmah li-Quṣūr al-Thaqāfah, 2011.
  249.  
  250. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  251.  
  252. Part 1 tells a comprehensive history of reform at al-Azhar in the 19th century and first half of the 20th century. Part 2 includes newspaper articles published in Egypt in the 20th century calling for the reform al-Azhar. Published for the first time in 1943.
  253.  
  254. Find this resource:
  255.  
  256. Stolz, Daniel. The Lightouse and the Observatory. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2018.
  257.  
  258. DOI: 10.1017/9781108164672Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  259.  
  260. Studies the ulama’s understanding of the Islamic tradition of scholarly astronomy in late Ottoman Egypt. Stoltz shows that the ulama translated traditional astronomy into new standardized conceptions of piety and Muslim unity, therefore engaging with state reforms and using European astronomical knowledge when needed. A study that strongly qualifies the argument that the import of European science produced a deep rupture and crisis at al-Azhar.
  261.  
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  263.  
  264. Al-Azhar in the 20th Century
  265. One can distinguish two periods in the scholarship on al-Azhar in the 20th century. Until the mid-1980s, students of al-Azhar called into question the ability of the institution to survive as a central religious and educational entity, describing al-Azhar as challenged by secularizing trends and by the effects of modernization. Crecelius 1966, Crecelius 1972, and Eccel 1984 fall into this category. Since the 1980s, however, sociologists, historians, political scientists, and anthropologists have provided a more nuanced perspective by looking further into the instrumentalization of al-Azhar and its ulama on the part of state authorities (Rabiʿ 1992), and into al-Azhar’s capacity to negotiate with secular power. In addition, they have explored the internally diverse Azharite institutions and their multiple roles on the religious, intellectual, and political scene, from their local influence to their transnational reach (Zeghal 1996 and Skovgaard-Petersen 1997).
  266.  
  267. Crecelius, Daniel. “Al-Azhar in the Revolution.” Middle East Journal 20.1 (Winter 1966): 31–49.
  268.  
  269. DOI: 10.3751/62.4.1Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  270.  
  271. The first work to address the history of the relationships between Nasser’s regime and al-Azhar.
  272.  
  273. Find this resource:
  274.  
  275. Crecelius, Daniel. “Nonideological Responses of Egyptian Ulama to Modernization.” In Scholars, Saints, and Sufis: Muslim Religious Institutions in the Middle East since 1500. Edited by Nikki R. Keddie, 167–210. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1972.
  276.  
  277. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  278.  
  279. Refines the idea of the “decline” of al-Azhar in the 20th century by arguing that the ulama of al-Azhar were unable to intellectually respond to or converge with attempts to reform their institution, and that their only reaction to modernization was political obstruction.
  280.  
  281. Find this resource:
  282.  
  283. Eccel, Chris. Egypt, Islam, and Social Change: Al-Azhar in Conflict and Accommodation. Berlin: Klaus Schwartz, 1984.
  284.  
  285. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  286.  
  287. Provides a sociological perspective on the role of al-Azhar in the changing 20th-century Egyptian society, particularly in the context of secularizing trends.
  288.  
  289. Find this resource:
  290.  
  291. Hatina, Meir. Ulama, Politics, and the Public Sphere: An Egyptian Perspective. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 2010.
  292.  
  293. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  294.  
  295. Analyzes al-Azhar ulama’s engagement with politics from the 19th to the 20th century and historically extends previous arguments underlining the continuity of the ulama’s relevance in 20th-century Egyptian society.
  296.  
  297. Find this resource:
  298.  
  299. Luizard, Pierre-Jean. “Al-Azhar, institution sunnite réformée.” In Entre réforme sociale et mouvement national: Identité et modernisation de l’Egypte (1882–1962). Edited by Alain Roussillon. Cairo, Egypt: CEDEJ, 1995.
  300.  
  301. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  302.  
  303. Provides a succinct presentation of state reforms of teaching at al-Azhar in the modern period and argues that these reforms helped form a “political and religious system” under the authority of the Egyptian state.
  304.  
  305. Find this resource:
  306.  
  307. Nakissa, Aria. Islamic Law and Legal Education in Modern Egypt. PhD diss., Harvard University, 2012.
  308.  
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  310.  
  311. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in al-Azhar Faculty of Sharia and Cairo University’s Dar al-Ulum, as well as on archival research, the author examines the impact of state reforms of legal training on modes of legal reasoning and on ethical formation among students of Islamic law.
  312.  
  313. Find this resource:
  314.  
  315. Rabiʿ, MajidaʿAli Salih. Al-Dawr al-siyāsī liʾl-Azhar, 1952–1981. Cairo, Egypt: Cairo University, Department of Economics and Political Science, Center of Research and Studies of Politics, 1992.
  316.  
  317. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  318.  
  319. A political study of the views of Nasser and Sadat on al-Azhar, and of their instrumentalization of its ulama and institutions in the second half of the 20th century. Al-Azhar is studied mainly through its official statements.
  320.  
  321. Find this resource:
  322.  
  323. Skovgaard-Petersen, Jakob. Defining Islam for the Egyptian State: Muftis and Fatwas of the Dār al-Iftā. Leiden, The Netherlands: E. J. Brill, 1997.
  324.  
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  326.  
  327. Although this book deals with Dar al-Ifta, it also describes the productive role of Azharite ulama in the production of fatwas intended to provide responses to social and political questions raised in the context of the modern Egyptian state.
  328.  
  329. Find this resource:
  330.  
  331. Zeghal, Malika. Gardiens de l’Islam. Les oulémas d’Al Azhar dans l’Égypte contemporaine. Paris: Presses de la Fondation nationale des sciences politiques, 1996.
  332.  
  333. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  334.  
  335. A sociological study of al-Azhar based on ethnographic research within al-Azhar in the early 1990s. The author shows the coexistence of multiple understandings of the relationship between the ulama and the state within al-Azhar. Contrary to the received notion of a “weakening” of the ulama after the 1950s, the author shows the political and religious significance of al-Azhar in the public arena, in particular the role of “peripheral” ulama, as well as the self-representation of the ulama of al-Azhar as the custodians of Islam in Egypt and beyond.
  336.  
  337. Find this resource:
  338.  
  339. Zeghal, Malika. “Religion and Politics in Egypt: The Ulema of al-Azhar, Radical Islam, and the State (1952–1994).” International Journal of Middle East Studies 31.3 (1999): 371–399.
  340.  
  341. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  342.  
  343. Analyzes Nasser’s 1961 reform of al-Azhar and the subsequent emergence of affinities between ulama and Islamist ideologies.
  344.  
  345. Find this resource:
  346.  
  347. Al-Azhar and Transnational Networks
  348. Since the 1990s, research has focused on the transnational reach of al-Azhar, showing that although the institution is under the control of the Egyptian state, its reach extends beyond the Egyptian scene because of its foreign students (Abaza 1994 and ʿAbd al-Rahman 2004), the international mobility of its scholars, its intra-Muslim intellectual exchanges, its missionary endeavors, and its international reputation—all of which make it a reference for normative productions abroad, as shown by Zeghal 2007. Brunner 2004 provides a rare look into the failure of the ecumenical work of some Azharite ulama.
  349.  
  350. Abaza, Mona. Indonesian Students in Cairo: Islamic Education, Perceptions, and Exchanges. Paris: Association Archipel, 1994.
  351.  
  352. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  353.  
  354. A rare ethnographic study of Indonesian students at al-Azhar in the 1980s.
  355.  
  356. Find this resource:
  357.  
  358. ʿAbd al-Rahman, Mahmud ʿAbbas Ahmad. Al-Azhar wa Afrīqiya: dirāsah wathāʾiqiyah. Al-Haram (Giza), Egypt: Al-Dar al-ʿAlamiyah lil-nashr wa-al-tawziʿ, 2004.
  359.  
  360. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  361.  
  362. A particularly informative description of the presence of African students at al-Azhar in the 20th century.
  363.  
  364. Find this resource:
  365.  
  366. Brunner, Rainer. Islamic Ecumenism in the 20th Century: The Azhar and Shiism between Rapprochement and Restrain. Leiden, The Netherlands: E. J. Brill, 2004.
  367.  
  368. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  369.  
  370. A historical account of the Sunni-Shiʿi dialogue at al-Azhar in the 20th century.
  371.  
  372. Find this resource:
  373.  
  374. Laffan, Michael. Islamic Nationhood and Colonial Indonesia: The Umma below the Winds. London and New York: RoutledgeCurson, 2003.
  375.  
  376. DOI: 10.4324/9780203222577Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  377.  
  378. A historical analysis of the formation of Indonesian nationalism and its relation to Islamic ecumenism. Chapter 6 presents a useful view of the formation of a community of Indonesian students at al-Azhar and their engagement with Cairene intellectual life between the 1890s and the first two decades of the 20th century.
  379.  
  380. Find this resource:
  381.  
  382. Ryad, Umar. “Muslim Response to Missionary Activities in Egypt: With a Special Reference to the Al-Azhar High Corps of ʿUlamâ (1925–1935).” In New Faith in Ancient Lands: Western Missions in the Middle East in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries. Edited by Heleen Murre-van den Berg, 281–308. Leiden, The Netherlands: E. J. Brill, 2006.
  383.  
  384. DOI: 10.1163/9789047411406_015Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  385.  
  386. A rare description of the reaction of al-Azhar to missionary activities between the two world wars.
  387.  
  388. Find this resource:
  389.  
  390. Sulayman, Muhammad. Dawr al-Azhar fī’l-Sūdān. Cairo, Egypt: al-Hayʾah Al-ʿāmah al-Miṣrīyah li-l-Kutub, 1985.
  391.  
  392. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  393.  
  394. Describes al-Azhar’s role in Sudan by detailing the delegations of Sudanese students who studied at al-Azhar and the Egyptian Azharites who traveled to Sudan for purposes of teaching. It locates the beginning of these intellectual and educational exchanges in the 16th century and follows them through the first half of the 20th century. The author pays particular attention to the role of Azharites in Sudanese political events during the 19th century.
  395.  
  396. Find this resource:
  397.  
  398. Zeghal, Malika. “The ’Recentering’ of Religious Knowledge and Discourse: The Case of al-Azhar in Twentieth-Century Egypt.” In Schooling Islam: The Culture and Politics of Modern Muslim Education. Edited by Robert Hefner and Muhammad Qasim Zaman, 107–130. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2007.
  399.  
  400. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  401.  
  402. An analysis of the transnational role of al-Azhar at the end of the 20th century in relation to the presence of large Muslim communities in Europe.
  403.  
  404. Find this resource:
  405.  
  406. Biographies of Azharite Ulama
  407. A number of biographies of well-known 20th-century ulama have been published since the 1980s, providing a particularly useful lens to approach specific periods of the history of al-Azhar through the educational, religious, and political role of important figures within the institution. Some of them provide personal perspectives on the institution of al-Azhar, such as Bahi 1983 and Hussein 1997, which has become a classic of Arabic modern literature. Others look at individual figures as an entry into the history of al-Azhar within the larger sociopolitical context (Gran 1979) and amid modern socioeconomic changes (Costet-Tardieu 2005).
  408.  
  409. Bahi, Muhammad. Ḥayātī fī riḥāb al-Azhar: Ṭālib wa-ustādh wa-wazīr. Cairo, Egypt: Maktabat Wahba, 1983.
  410.  
  411. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  412.  
  413. The autobiography of a modernist Sheikh that provides an interesting perspective on al-Azhar under Nasser’s regime.
  414.  
  415. Find this resource:
  416.  
  417. Costet-Tardieu, Francine. Un réformiste à l’Université al-Azhar: Oeuvre et pensée de Mustafâ al-Marâghî (1881–1945). Paris: Karthala, 2005.
  418.  
  419. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  420.  
  421. This study of Maraghi, twice Grand Imam of al-Azhar between the two world wars, shows the often overlooked participation of its prominent ulama in the reflections on institutional and intellectual reforms.
  422.  
  423. Find this resource:
  424.  
  425. Fayyad, Sulayman. Ayyām Mujāwir. Cairo, Egypt: Dar al-Hilal, 2009.
  426.  
  427. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  428.  
  429. Autobiography of an Azharite student in the 1940s. Fayyad describes his experience as a primary and secondary student at an Azhar institute in al-Zagazig.
  430.  
  431. Find this resource:
  432.  
  433. Gran, Peter. Islamic Roots of Capitalism: Egypt, 1760–1840. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1979.
  434.  
  435. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  436.  
  437. Provides an innovative approach to the intellectual life of Azharite ulama, particularly that of Sheikh Hasan al-ʿAttar in the larger context of economic transformations in Egypt.
  438.  
  439. Find this resource:
  440.  
  441. Hussein, Taha. The Days. Translated by E. H. Paxton, Hilary Wayment, and Kenneth Cragg. Cairo, Egypt: American University in Cairo Press, 1997.
  442.  
  443. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  444.  
  445. An autobiographical novel that provides a unique perspective and a lively account of the life of students at al-Azhar in the first part of the 20th century.
  446.  
  447. Find this resource:
  448.  
  449. Spevack, Aaron. The Archetypal Sunni Scholar: Law, Theology, and Mysticism in the Synthesis of al-Bajuri. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2014.
  450.  
  451. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  452.  
  453. A study of the 19th-century Islamic scholar and rector of al-Azhar Ibrahim al-Bajuri. Through Spevack’s exploration of al-Bajuri’s legal, theological, and mystical thought, he challenges the view that the 19th-century intellectual milieu of al-Azhar was marked by decline and stagnation. His work provides a close look at the intellectual paradigm that later modernists and reformers so vehemently critiqued.
  454.  
  455. Find this resource:
  456.  
  457. Zebiri, Kate. Maḥmūd Shaltūt and Islamic Modernism. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993.
  458.  
  459. DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198263302.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  460.  
  461. An intellectual and political biography of Shaltut, Grand Imam of al-Azhar between 1958 and 1963; provides an entry into the history of the 1961 reform of al-Azhar, the design of intra-Islamic dialogue, and the integration of reformist interpretations of Islam in the milieu of al-Azhar in the 1950s and 1960s.
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