Al-Azhar: a history and background
Al-Azhar’s long and storied history can perhaps be divided into five distinct periods, each of which included its own share of changes and developments but was characterized by specific relations to authorities, particular structures of funding and patronage, and often a unique type of students, teachers, or clients.1 The beginning of this history and the first of the previously mentioned five periods starts with the founding of al-Azhar around 972 by the Fatimid general Jawhar al-Ṣiqillī (d. 992), who led the armies of the Fatimid Caliph and Imam Al-Muʿiz li-Dīn Allāh (r. 953–975) in the successful conquest of Egypt.2 At the conclusion of the conquest, Jawhar laid the foundations for a new Fatimid capital to the north of what was the capital region of the province since Islamic conquest.3 Al-Qāhirah (Cairo) was built as the Fatimid capital neighboring the original Islamic and Umayyad capital of al-Fusṭāṭ, which became the commercial suburb of the new city, the defunct Tulunid capital of al-Qaṭāʾiʿ (the Tulunids ruled Egypt semi-autonomously under Abbasid banners from 868 to 905), and the Abbasid capital of al-ʿAskar. The cornerstone of the new Fatimid capital was the Caliphal palace in its center, and a new mosque built close to the city’s eastern gate, and named al-Azhar in reference to the prophet’s daughter and the namesake of the dynasty, Fātimah al-Zahrāʿ.4 Similar to many other mosques in Islamicate domains, al-Azhar served as both a site for communal worship, including ceremonial sermons by the Caliph and Imam, as well as a site for teaching and education, where scholars held circles of study supported and patronized by the ruling Imams.5 With Cairo becoming the emerging center of the Ismaʿīlī universe at the time ruled by the reigning Imām, al-Azhar was indeed at the heart of Ismaʿīlī thought, where important figures in Ismaʿīlī intellectual life taught and preached. Moreover, it is likely that al-Azhar played an important role in the training and preparation of Ismaʿīlī missionaries who were sent to different destinations around the world to spread the message of the Ismaʿīlī Imam.6 Al-Azhar relied primarily on the support of the Fatimid’s Imams, who patronized the institution, provided salaries for the teachers and students, and continued to maintain and add new structures to its remarkable architecture. However, al-Azhar was not without rival. For one, there is no evidence that al-Azhar served as the site for majālis al-ḥikmah (councils of wisdom), where key discussions of Ismaʿīlī law and creed took place among the most prominent scholars in debates that were sometimes presided over by the Imam. These majālis, which represented the highest level of Ismaʿīlī thought, were held at the palace or the later House of Wisdom (Bayt al-ḥikmah), which was inaugurated in 1005.7 Similarly, majlis al-daʿwah, or the council of preaching, which was presided over by the chief missionary, was also held at the palace and not at al-Azhar. Finally, in 1012, when the Fatimid caliph al-Ḥākim bi-Amr Allāh (r. 996–1021) inaugurated his new mosque close to the Western gate of the city, the Friday communal prayers were moved from al-Azhar to the new mosque.8 Yet, al-Azhar continued to enjoy the patronage of al-Ḥākim and the following caliphs. While al-Azhar’s status and role changed during this first stage, it continued to enjoy the support and patronage of the Fatimid caliphs and to serve as a destination for many students from Egypt and beyond.
The second stage of al-Azhar’s life began by the reign of Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn al-Ayyūbī (r. 1174–1193). Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn arrived in Fatimid Egypt as a general in an army sent by Nūr al-Dīn Zankī of Aleppo and Damascus (r. 1146–1174) to ostensibly support the Fatimid caliph in the middle of internal strife between different factions in the army and bureaucracy. He climbed through the ranks of the Fatimid state and became the de facto ruler of the realm before he deposed the Fatimid Caliph and brought Egypt under nominal Abbasid suzerainty and his own direct rule. Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn’s growing empire soon extended to include the properties of his former master, Nūr al-Dīn Zankī, as well as significant territories formerly controlled by the Crusader states.9 In Egypt and the Levant, Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn implemented a number of policies that intended to strengthen or restore the Sunni nature of former Fatimid and Crusader territories. These policies included the construction of various madrasas and Sunni Sufi lodges (khānāqahs) and other charitable establishments that served to encourage the migration of Sunni scholars to the region and the flourishing of a Sunni scholarly community. In Cairo, Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn, followed by his successors who formed the Ayyunid dynasty (r. 1174–1254 in Egypt) looked to erase the Fatimid legacy of the city. He built new walls that incorporated former Islamic capitals into Cairo and that ended with a citadel, which symbolized his rule and served as the seat of rulership from the twelfth to the nineteenth century. He also dismantled the Fatimid palace complex, transforming one of its major halls to a charitable hospital (Bīmāristān) and giving other parts of the palatial complex to his emirs and generals. The Bīmāristān served to open the heart of the Ismaʿīlī Imams’ revered city to the commoners and poor, effectively desecrating the former seat of the Ismaʿīlī imams and their graves. Salāḥ al-Dīn and his successors built a number of madrasas and sufi Khānāqāhs, which slowly gave the now-Ayyubid capital a Sunni character.10
Al-Azhar struggled under the Ayyubid efforts to push Egypt’s intellectual and scholarly elite to Sunnism. Although the mosque survived in its structure, it was turned into a Sunni school, and ceased to teach Ismaʿīlī fiqh or thought. Moreover, al-Azhar lost its unique place in the city as well as much of its revenues and patrons as much of the Ayyubid patronage flowed to the newly established madrasas and mosques. In the same vein, and possibly as a consequence, al-Azhar lost its more brilliant scholars and students to the new madrasas and receded in importance in Cairo’s vibrant scholarly culture.11 Under the Mamluks (r. 1254–1517 in Egypt), who ousted and succeeded their Ayyubid masters, Cairo’s intellectual and scholarly culture grew and more madrasas were built across the city. Perhaps a century after the fall of the Fatimids changed how the political elites perceived al-Azhar as it slowly started to attract more attention, patrons, and resources. While most Mamluk sultans and major emirs built their own independent madrasas, some of them added structures to al-Azhar, or expanded and renovated some of its existing structures. They also augmented and strengthened its endowments.12
For instance, under the reign of al-Ẓāhir Baybars I (r. 1260–1277), the emir ʿIzz al-Dīn al-Ḥillī renovated parts of al-Azhar’s structures that had fallen into disre-pair, allowing for Friday prayers to briefly return to al-Azhar in 1266. Similarly, the emir Baylabak al-Khāzindār, the viceroy under Baybars’s son Barakah Qān (r. 1277–1279), built a new balcony at al-Azhar and instituted a new circle for the study of Shāfiʿī fiqh and ḥadīth. Other major emirs such as Salār (1302) and Bashīr al-Jamdār (1360) built additional structures and added to al-Azhar’s endowments. Even more prominently, the Mamluk Sultans al-Ashraf Sayf al-Dīn Barisbāy (r. 1422–1437), al-Ashraf Abū al-Naṣr Qāyitbāy (r. 1467–1496), and al-Ashraf Qānṣuwah al-Ghūrī (r. 1500–1516) sponsored significant renovations and added a number of new prominent structures. Qāyitbāy built one of the largest halls of residence, which was dedicated to Levantine students (riwāq al-shawām, or the hall of the Levantines) and al-Ghūrī built al-Azhar’s signature double minerate, which came to be the mosque’s defining architectural feature till today.13 The most significant additions and renovations during the Mamluk period included three madrasas, which were built alongside al-Azhar and came to be effectively affiliated with it. These were al-madrasa al-Ṭaybarasiyyah (b. ca. 1309), al-madrasa al-Āqbaghāwiyyah (b. ca. 1340), and al-madrasa al-Jawhariyyah (b. ca. 1440). All three schools enjoyed relative independence from al-Azhar but eventually came to be presided over by key figures at al-Azhar adding to its overall capacity and prestige.14 This level of Sultanic patronage brought al-Azhar closer to the center of Cairo’s scholarly life at the eve of the Ottoman conquest.
In short, al-Azhar regained some of its past glory but it continued to occupy a rather middling position within the hierarchies of Mamluk madrasas in Cairo, which were often dominated by the more richly endowed madrasas built by sitting or recent Sultans and their emirs. Some Mamluk madrasas were dedicated to a single school of law, with a growing number of new madrasas dedicated to the Ḥanafī School, to which a number of emirs belonged. Other madrasas offered instructions in all four schools of law. Al-Azhar continued to offer training in all four schools of law along with a number of other sciences, including astronomy, mathematics, and theology. Evidence suggests that it also hosted a regular lecture in medicine.15
After the Ottoman annexation of Egypt in 1517, and the end of the Mamluk sultanate, al-Azhar entered the third and possibly the more prosperous period of its history. Under the Ottomans, the Mamluk madrasas, most of which continued to carry the names of their Mamluk founders, lost a good deal of their prominent positions and a number of their endowments partly to legal rearrangement and mostly to disrepair.16 To the contrary of their predecessors the Ottomans patronized al-Azhar, increased its endowments, and assigned salaries to many of its teachers and students. By the middle of the seventeenth century, al-Azhar had become the key learning institution in Egypt and a central institution in the Arabic-speaking provinces of the Ottoman Empire.17 Cairo’s place as a major stop for pilgrimage routes from North Africa and its former status as the capital of the Mamluk empire facilitated the influx of scholars and students from different Arabic-speaking Ottoman provinces to Cairo and in turn, to al-Azhar. While each of the madrasas in Cairo had its own staff of teachers or shuyūkh (pl. of shaykh), and its own head teacher or shaykh al-shuyūkh, al-Azhar’s shaykh al-shuyūkh came to be the preeminent figure in the Cairene scholarly community, effectively presiding over and representing the expand...
