Al-Azhar Mosque is the most important mosque in Egypt at all, and one of the historical strongholds for spreading and teaching Islam. It is also one of the most famous ancient mosques in Egypt and the Islamic world. Its construction dates back to the beginning of the era of the Fatimid state in Egypt, after Jawhar al-Siqilli completed the conquest of Egypt in the year 969AD, and he set out to establish Cairo. The city has a recent establishment, similar to the Mosque of Amr in Fustat and the Mosque of Ibn Tulun in Al-Qata`, as well as it was prepared at the time to be an educational institute for the teaching and dissemination of the Shiite sect. Cairo Although the hand of reform and restoration continued over the centuries, it changed many of its Fatimid features, but it is considered the oldest existing Fatimid monument in Egypt. Historians differed as to the origin of the name of this mosque, and it is more likely that the Fatimids named it Al-Azhar after Fatima Al-Zahra, the daughter of the Prophet Muhammad. The mosque is considered the second oldest continuously existing university in the world after Al-Qarawiyyin University. Although the Amr Ibn Al-Aas Mosque in Fustat preceded him in the teaching job, where lessons were held voluntarily and by donation, Al-Azhar Mosque is the first in Egypt to play the role of regular schools and institutes. The first lesson in it was delivered in Safar in the year 365 AH / 975 AD by Ali bin al-Numan, the judge in Shiite jurisprudence, and in the year 378 AH / 988 AD, salaries were decided for the scholars of the mosque and a house was prepared for them to live next to him, and their number was thirty-five men. After the fall of the Fatimid state, the star of Al-Azhar fell at the hands of Salah al-Din al-Ayyubi, who aimed behind this to fight the Shiite doctrine and support the Sunni doctrine. During the era of the Mamluk state, Al-Azhar returned to perform its scientific mission and its vital role. He appointed jurists to teach the Sunni doctrine and the hadiths of the Prophet and was concerned with its renewal, expansion and maintenance. After that, the golden age of Al-Azhar, as rulers and notables in the following ages showed a remarkable interest in its restoration and maintenance, and many endowments were placed upon it. During the reign of King Fouad I, Law No. 46 of 1930 was issued to Al-Azhar, according to which the faculties of theology, Sharia, Language and Arabic were established later in 1933, and Al-Azhar officially became an independent university in 1961. Al-Azhar University was considered the first in the Islamic world to study Sunni doctrine and Islamic law. Al-Azhar remains to this day a beacon to spread the moderation of Islam, an institution that has a profound impact on Egyptian society, and a symbol of Islamic Egypt.
The city of Cairo was founded by Jawhar al-Siqilli, a Roman Fatimid commander of Greek origin from the island of Sicily. Naming the mosque after the city in which it was located was a common practice at the time, and with the entry of the Caliph Al-Muizz Li-Din Allah to Egypt, he named the city in Cairo, and thus the name of the mosque became the Cairo Mosque, according to the first copy of the historical Arab sources. The mosque acquired its current name, Al-Azhar, sometime between Caliph Al-Muizz and the end of the reign of the second Fatimid Caliph in Egypt, Al-Aziz Billah. Al-Azhar means bright and is the masculine form of the word Al-Zahra. Al-Muizz and the imams of the Fatimid state that they are from their predecessors; It is the only theory circulating about the reason for calling Al-Azhar by this name, however, this theory was not confirmed in any Arab source, and it was desirable to support it completely, and it was denied by Western sources at a later time. Others offer an alternative theory, which is that the name of the mosque was derived from the names given by the Fatimid caliphs to their palaces near the mosque. The name of the mosque was changed from Cairo Mosque to Al-Azhar. As for the derivation of the word mosque from the root of the Arabic word “collective”, which means “to gather”, and the word is used to express mosques that gather many people.
During the reign of the Fatimid Caliph Al-Muizz Li-Din Allah, the fourth Ismaili Imam, the Fatimid armies invaded Egypt under the leadership of Jawhar Al-Siqilli, who succeeded in wresting it from the Ikhshidid dynasty. The Ismaili Shi'a sect, which is located near the Sunni city of Fustat, Cairo became the center of the Ismaili Shi'a sect, and the seat of Fatimid rule. Accordingly, Jawhar ordered the construction of a large mosque for the new city. Work began on its construction in the year 970, and was completed in the year 972. The first Friday prayer was held there on June 22, 972, during the month of Ramadan. Soon, Al-Azhar became a center of education, from which official pronouncements came out and court sessions were held. The esoteric teachings of the Ismaili school, which had long been secret teachings, became available to the general public at Al-Azhar. , and some classes were taught in the Caliph’s palace, as well as in Al-Azhar, with separate courses for women, and during Eid al-Fitr in 973, the mosque was ordained as an official mosque for congregational prayer in Cairo by order of Caliph Al-Mu’izz and his son when he in turn became Caliph, and they made the Friday sermon during Ramadan in Al-Azhar . Ya`qub ibn Kils, the jurist and first official minister of the Fatimids, made al-Azhar a major center for teaching Islamic law in 988, and in the following year 45 scholars were employed to give lessons, turning al-Azhar into a leading university in the Islamic world. The mosque was expanded during the rule of Caliph Al-Aziz (975–996). According to al-Mufaddal, al-Aziz ordered the restoration of parts of the mosque that had been cracked, and the next Fatimid Caliph al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah completed the restoration of the mosque and provided a new wooden door in 1010. However, during the reign of the ruler saw the construction of his mosque, which was named after him, and the construction of the al-Hakim mosque lost al-Azhar Its status as the first congregational prayer mosque in Cairo. In May 1009, Al-Hakim Bi-Amr Allah Mosque became the only place for the Caliph's sermons and Friday sermons. After the reign of the ruler, Al-Azhar regained its place during the era of Al-Mustansir, and additions and renovations were carried out to the mosque, and many renovations were added during the era of the Fatimid caliphs who came after him. A huge library was established belonging to the Al-Azhar Mosque and the Fatimid Caliph gave it in 1005 thousands of manuscripts that gave an eloquent value to the library, and this was part of the Fatimids’ various efforts to spread the practice of the Ismaili doctrine among the people, but their efforts did not succeed, as many of these manuscripts were scattered in the chaos that followed the fall of " The Fatimid State", Al-Azhar later became a major Sunni institution
Salah al-Din, who overthrew the Fatimids in 1171, was hostile to the principles of Shiite teachings that were promoted in Al-Azhar during the Fatimid Caliphate, so the mosque was neglected during the rule of the Ayyubid dynasty of Egypt, and Sadr al-Din Ibn Derbas, a judge appointed by Saladin, and the reason for this The decree may be due to the Shafi’i jurisprudence, which sees the inadmissibility of two sermons in one country, and it may be due to a lack of confidence in the mosque as a Shiite institution, and the mosque of Al-Hakim by the command of God has become the mosque in which congregational prayers and Friday sermons are held in Cairo. In addition to stripping Al-Azhar of its status as a mosque for congregational prayer, Salah al-Din also ordered the removal of a silver band on which the names of the Fatimid caliphs were inscribed from the mosque's mihrab. He also ordered the removal of similar silver ribbons from other mosques, valued at 5,000 dirhams. Salah al-Din did not completely ignore the maintenance of the mosque, and according to al-Mufaddal, one of the mosque's minarets was restored during Saladin's rule. The star of Al-Azhar as a center for religious education also declined, student funding was withdrawn, jurisprudence lessons were no longer held in the mosque, and professors who became famous during the Fatimid era were forced to look for other means of earning a living. The mosque's huge library was neglected, and manuscripts of the Fatimid teachings that were taught at Al-Azhar were destroyed. However, Al-Azhar remained a place for teaching some other sciences throughout that period. While the official classes were suspended in the mosque, private lessons continued to teach the Arabic language. Some sources mention that Al-Baghdadi taught a number of subjects such as law and medicine in Al-Azhar, and Salah al-Din ordered to be paid a salary of 30 dinars, then raised to 100, by Saladin's successors, on the other hand the Ayyubids encouraged the teaching of Sunni jurisprudence in the subsidized schools, built throughout Cairo, and educational institutions established by Sunni rulers as a means of combating what they considered The heresy of “Shiite” teachings. These colleges ranged in size and focused on teaching the Sunni sect, and had a fixed and unified curriculum that included courses outside of purely religious subjects, such as rhetoric, mathematics, and science. Only 26 Sunni schools were built in Egypt during the reign of Salah al-Din And the Ayyubid rulers who came after him, including the Salhia school. Al-Azhar eventually adopted the educational reforms imposed by Saladin, and its fortunes improved under the Mamluks, who restored student salaries and the salaries of sheikhs.
The feast of the establishment of prayer in Al-Azhar during the rule of the Mamluks by order of Sultan Baybars in 1266, and with the rapid expansion of Cairo, and the need for the role of the mosque, Sultan Baybars ignored the history of Al-Azhar as an institution to spread the Ismaili Shiite doctrine, and ordered the return of the salaries of students and teachers, as well as the beginning of work to repair the mosque , which has been neglected for nearly 100 years. According to al-Mufaddal, Prince Izz al-Din Aidamor al-Hilli built his house next to the mosque, to monitor the repair work. Taqi al-Din al-Maqrizi mentioned that the emir repaired the walls and ceiling, and provided new mats. The first sermon was delivered since the reign of the Fatimid Caliph Al-Hakim on January 16, 1266, and the sermon was delivered on a new pulpit that had been completed five days before the sermon. In 1302 an earthquake caused great damage to Al-Azhar and a number of other mosques throughout Egypt. Responsibility for the reconstruction was divided between the princes of the Sultanate and the one in charge of the restoration of Al-Azhar was Prince Salar, to undertake the first repair work since the era of Baybars. The new building, and construction work began on another school, called the Tibersiya Madrasa in 1332-1333. This building was completed in 1339-1340, and also built the structure of the mosque, and a fountain for ablution. All schools and buildings complementing Al-Azhar were built, with separate entrances and prayer halls. Although the mosque had regained its position during the reign of the Mamluks, the repair and expansion works were carried out by orders of those in positions less than the Sultan. The Mamluks made improvements and additions by the Sultans Qaytbay and Qansuh al-Ghouri, and each of them supervised many reforms and construction of minarets. There was a common practice among the Mamluk sultans to build minarets, and it was seen as a symbol of strength and the most effective way to cement the image of the city of Cairo, and every sultan wished to have a touch of esteem in Al-Azhar. Although Al-Azhar Mosque was a leading university in the Islamic world and restored royal patronage, it was not overtaken by other schools, as a preferred place of education among the elite in Cairo. Al-Azhar's reputation as an independent place of education continued, while the religious schools built during the rule of Salah al-Din al-Ayyubi were fully integrated into the state's educational system. Al-Azhar continued to attract students from other regions in Egypt and the Middle East, and the number of students there exceeded the number of those attending other religious schools, and branches of Islamic law were studied with an average study period of six years. In the fourteenth century, al-Azhar achieved prominence as a center for studies of Sharia, jurisprudence, and the Arabic language, and became a magnet for students from all over the Islamic world. Until the number of those who studied it reached about a third of Muslim scholars in Egypt.
During the beginning of the era of the Ottoman Caliphate in 1517, the Turks showed great respect for the mosque and its college, despite the cessation of direct royal care for it. Sultan Selim I, after entering Egypt, attended the Friday prayer at Al-Azhar Mosque, during his last week in Egypt, as well as the princes attended The Ottomans regularly performed Friday prayers at al-Azhar, and the Ottomans provided salaries for students and teachers; Rarely, however, were any developments or expansions done in the mosque during the Ottoman era, unlike the Mamluk era, in which many expansions and additions were made. The Mamluks continued to have a special influence in Egyptian society, despite their defeat at the hands of Selim I and the Ottomans in 1517. They became beys and governors in the Ottoman Empire, instead of princes and owners of a state and empire. Khayyir Bey is considered the first ruler of Egypt during the reign of Selim I after Yunus Pasha, a Mamluk prince who defected to the Ottomans during the Battle of Marj Dabiq, and although the Mamluks made multiple revolutions to restore the Mamluk state, including two in 1523, the Ottomans did not carry out a complete extermination. The Mamluks Ali in Egypt. The Mamluks suffered losses - both economic and military - in the wake of the Ottoman victory, and this is reflected in the lack of financial aid provided to Al-Azhar in the first hundred years of Ottoman rule. In the eighteenth century, an elite of the Mamluks managed to regain much of their influence, and they carried out numerous renovations throughout Cairo and Al-Azhar. Many additions and renovations were made by the Mamluk Qazdugli Bey at the beginning of the 18th century. Under his administration a portico for blind students was added in 1735. He also reconstructed the Turkish and Syrian porticos, both of which were originally built during the reign of Qaytbay. Great expansions were then made by Abd al-Rahman Katkhuda, who was appointed Katkhuda (head of the Janissary) in 1749, and embarked on several projects throughout Cairo and Al-Azhar. Under his administration, three new gates were built for the mosque: Bab al-Muzainin (the Barber's Gate), so named because it is where students come out to shave their heads, which eventually became the main entrance to the mosque; And Bab al-Sa’ida, which is intended for the people of Upper Egypt to enter, and later on, Bab al-Shurba was established. Katkhuda also renovated or rebuilt many of the porticos that surround the mosque. Katkhuda was buried in Al-Azhar in 1776, and Katkhuda became the first (and last) person to be buried inside the mosque since Nafisa al-Bakriya, who died around 1588. During the Ottoman era, Al-Azhar regained its position as the largest educational institution in Egypt, bypassing the religious schools founded by Salah Al-Din Al-Ayyubi, and Al-Azhar expanded significantly with the efforts of the Mamluks. By the end of the eighteenth century, Al-Azhar had become closely associated with the scholars of Egypt, and the scholars had the ability to influence the government in an official capacity, and several sheikhs were appointed to advisory councils that reported to the Pasha. This period saw the inclusion of more educational courses to be taught at Al-Azhar, with the knowledge Logic and philosophy were included in the school curriculum. During this period, Al-Azhar witnessed the first sheikh of Al-Azhar who was not from the Maliki school of thought, Abdullah Al-Shabrawi Al-Shafi’i, and the position of Sheikh Al-Azhar did not return to the Maliki school until 1899, when Salim Al-Bishri became Sheikh of Al-Azhar. Al-Azhar was also a focal point for protests against the rulers during the Ottoman rule of Egypt, whether the protests were among scholars, students, or the general public. Student protests held at Al-Azhar were common among the general public, and shops were closed in the vicinity of the mosque in solidarity with the students, and scholars were also sometimes able to defy the government. Between 1730-1731, the aghas of the Ottoman Empire harassed the residents residing near Al-Azhar while chasing some fugitives, and the gates were closed in Al-Azhar in protest, and the Ottoman ruler ordered the aghas to refrain from going near Al-Azhar, for fear of a major uprising, and another disturbance occurred in In 1791 he was harassed by the governor near the Imam Hussein Mosque, then he went to Al-Azhar to justify his position. The governor was subsequently removed from office.
Napoleon invaded Egypt in July 1798, reaching Alexandria on July 2 and entering Cairo on July 22. In an attempt to appease the Egyptian population and the Ottoman Empire, Napoleon gave a speech in Alexandria in which he declared his respect for Islam and the Sultan: “The people of Egypt will be told that I have come to destroy your religion: I don't think so! And my answer to this is that I have come to restore your rights and punish the usurpers, and for the Mamluks, I respect God, His Messenger and the Qur’an... Aren't we the ones who have been over the centuries friends of the Sultan? » On July 25, Napoleon established a diwan consisting of nine Al-Azhar sheikhs, and assigned them to administer Cairo, which is the first official body of Egyptians since the beginning of the Ottoman rule, and formed the first council in Alexandria, and later included all parts of Egypt under French occupation. , which would provide for the permissibility of loyalty to Napoleon under Islamic law, but to no avail. Napoleon's efforts to dominate the Egyptians and the Ottomans were unsuccessful; The Ottoman Empire declared war on September 9, 1798, and a revolt against the French forces of Al-Azhar began on October 21, 1798, and the Egyptians armed with stones and spears only performed heroic deeds against Napoleon's army of tractors, and the next morning the Court met with Napoleon in an attempt to reach a peaceful end to the works Hostility, Napoleon was angry at first, but agreed to try to reach a peaceful solution, and asked the sheikhs of the court to organize talks with the revolutionaries, and the revolutionaries considered this step indicative of the weakness of the French and rejected it, and as a result of this Napoleon ordered to shoot the city from the Cairo Citadel, and correct Fire on Al-Azhar directly. During the rebellion, about three hundred French soldiers were killed, 3,000 Egyptians were wounded, and six scholars of Al-Azhar were killed after being sentenced to death. The French forces arrested every Egyptian who participated in the demonstrations and put him in prison, and if they found a weapon in his possession, he beheaded, and the French forces desecrated the mosque. On purpose, they walked in it with their shoes and the guns on display. Troops tied their horses to the mihrab, looted student quarters and libraries, and threw copies of the Qur'an on the ground. Then the leaders of the revolution tried to negotiate a settlement with Napoleon, and their request was refused. Napoleon lost the respect and admiration of the Egyptians after the revolution, after he was highly respected in Egypt, and after he was called the great sultan among the people in Cairo, and in March 1800, the French general Jean-Baptiste Kleber was assassinated by Suleiman Al-Halabi, a student at Al-Azhar. After the assassination, Napoleon ordered the closure of the mosque, and its doors remained closed until the arrival of Ottoman and British aid in August 1801, and the mosque lost many of its contents with the invasion of Napoleon. Al-Azhar benefited greatly from the invention of the modern printing machine, which in turn added another dimension to the field of education. The curricula were transformed from oral lectures and memorization of the lesson by text to printed lectures, and it acquired its own printing press in 1930. After the French withdrew, Muhammad Ali Pasha encouraged the introduction of non-religious education in Al-Azhar, such as the study of history, mathematics and modern sciences, and it was based on the curricula that were taught before 1872, under the supervision of Jamal al-Din al-Afghani, and European philosophy was added to the curricula. Muhammad Ali and the British Occupation After the withdrawal of the French, the governor Muhammad Ali appointed himself Khedive (Emir) of Egypt, and sought to consolidate his control over the modern Egypt that he had established. To this end, he took a number of steps to limit and eliminate the ability of Al-Azhar scholars to influence the government. He imposed taxes on Rizqa lands (which belong to mosques) and religious schools. He also took a large part of Al-Azhar’s income. In June 1809, he ordered the confiscation of all Rizqa lands and annexed them to state property in a move that sparked widespread anger among scholars, and as a result, Omar Makram revolutionized in July 1809, the revolution failed and Makram, an ally of the scholars, was exiled to Damietta. Muhammad Ali also sought to limit the influence of al-Azhar sheikhs by distributing positions within the government to those who had been educated outside al-Azhar. He sent students to France in particular, to grow up under a Western educational system, and he established an educational system based on and parallel to this model, thus bypassing the Al-Azhar system. Major public works projects were initiated under the rule of Ismail Pasha, grandson of Muhammad Ali, with the aim of transforming the city of Cairo into a European style. Forcing Ismail Pasha to pay it in 1879. The reign of Ismail Pasha also witnessed the return of the royal patronage to Al-Azhar, and Ismail restored Bab Al-Sa’ida (first built during the reign of Katkhuda) and the Al-Aqbghawi school, and Tawfiq Pasha bin Ismail, who in turn became the Khedive after he overthrew his father as a result of British pressure, continued to restore the mosque, Tawfiq renovated the prayer hall, which was added during the Katkhuda era, along the southeast facade of the hall and the street behind it, and reconfigured several other areas of the mosque. Ibn Tawfiq, Abbas II Khedive of Egypt and Sudan in 1892, succeeded in restructuring the main facade of the mosque and built the new portico. Renovations continued by his grandfather Ismail. Under his rule, the Committee for the Preservation of Arab Artistic Antiquities (initially formed under French occupation) was restored, as well as the original Fatimid courtyard. A large group of reforms that began under the rule of Ismail Pasha continued under the British occupation, and with the advent of the Sheikh of Al-Azhar, Muhammad Al-Mahdi Al-Abbasid, a set of reforms were put in place aimed at forming a teaching body an educational structure to unify students’ exams in 1872, and an effort was made to modernize the educational system Under Helmy's administration during the British occupation, manuscripts of the mosque were collected in AD