CHAPTER
SEVEN
THE
OLDEST THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY FOR
many centuries the world of Islam has had three A capitals and three centers of
religious life. Cairo is its literary capital, Mecca the centre of religious pilgrimage,
and at Constantinople political ambitions and aspirations once concentrated. But
the influence of Constantinople is no longer what it was in the days when the
caliphate existed and had political power; the influence of Mecca is felt only
with the coming and going of the pilgrims once a year, while Cairo for twelve
months in the year is still the real centre of Mohammedan propaganda through books,
newspapers, pamphlets, and graduate-preachers from every nation in the East.
The centre of Moslem thought in Cairo is the old Mohammedan University in the
"Jamia'-Al-Azhar" or "the Splendid Mosque." This university, sc-called, was founded
the same year as the city of Cairo, in 969 A.D. by the Fatimite Jowhar. It has,
therefore, lasted over one thousand years, endowed by succeeding caliphs, sultans
and khedives until now it contains some ten thousand students with two hundred
and fifty professors on its staff. During
the early years of its existence it never had more than one thousand students
within its walls, but since the Mohammedan revival and the British occupation
of Egypt the number of students has
largely increased so that the maximum number during the years I spent in Cairo
was given as 11,000 pupils and 325 professors not all resident.
This celebrated "University" is really in its origin, history, and influence the
most important school in the Moslem world for the training of theological teachers,
and the whole gamut of Islamic clergy, muftis, and qadhis. It became
the cynosure of orthodoxy and the mother of similar schools from Morocco to India
and Central Asia. Lord Cromer in his Modern Egypt refers to the enormous
power of this institution and its clergy. His long experience lends weight to
this opinion: "The
'Ulema-the learned men of the El-Azhar Mosque constitute a distinct religious
corporation, which is divided into grades, and which is officially recognized
by the Government. A University is attached to the Mosque. The number of 'ulema
is limited; in order to qualify for the rank of 'Alim - which carries with
it the right to wear a pelisse conferred by the Khedive, a candidate must have
studied at the University, and have passed certain examinations to test his knowledge
of the Koran, the Traditions (Hadith), and the Sacred Law of Islam." "Many
a Moslem may be learned in the ordinary acceptation of the term; he may, for instance
be a 'Hafiz', who can repeat the whole Koran by heart, or, at all events
is supposed to be able to do so; but unless he has undergone the necessary examination
at the El-Azhar University, he is not, technically speaking, considered an 'Alim.'
He may officiate at religious services but he will not have acquired
the right to expound either the tenets of Islam or the Sacred Law at any other
of the principal mosques."
"The three chief 'Ulema
are the Grand Mufti, the head of the El-Azhar University, and the Grand Qadi.
The last named takes what is the equivalent of his degree, not at Cairo but at
Constantinople. The head of the famous El Azhar University exercises a certain
degree of control in temporal matters over those of the 'Ulema' who lecture
in the mosques, and must himself be, par excellence, an 'Alim. The incumbent
of his office during the first years of my residence in Egypt was a worthy old
man, with whom I entertained excellent personal relations, although, as has been
already mentioned, our views as to the movements of planets were not identical."
In this connection he quotes a saying of Stanley Lane-Poole that "an educated
upper-class Moslem must necssarily be a religious fanatic or a concealed infidel,"
because any one "who recognizes the difference between the seventh and twentieth
centuries is, in the eyes of the orthodox, on the highroad to perdition
1."
The story of Al Azhar deserves a book and not a chapter. Its history of a thousand
years, the storm and stress of its politics, its buildings, libraries and relics,
its endowments, its sacred character together with the right of asylum, its courses
of study, its great rectors and theologians, the romance of its battles for the
faith, its brawls and rivalries, the attempts at reform-all these are recorded
in many books and pamphlets which we
list in part at the end of our chapter. There is no monograph in English on this
oldest Mohammedan University of Islam. Here
I can only give impressions and observations of what Al Azhar was during my seventeen
years in Cairo. There have been many reforms and changes since 1929. I first saw
it in 1890, then again in 1906 and later made very frequent visits and gained
the friendship of many sheikhs both within its sacred precincts and at our home.
On a
first visit one's impression is confusing. The Azhar is a very extensive building,
not very pretentious on the outside, nor beautiful in architecture, but surrounding
a huge square court. It has spacious porticoes on three sides divided into apartments,
each of which is intended for the natives of some particular country, and one
can judge of the importance of this school of Mohammedan faith from the fact that
in a single year one met students coming from as far north as Omsk in Siberia,
and as far south as Zanzibar; as far east as Calcutta, and as far west as Fulah
Town in Sierra Leone and the oasis of Tuat. During the recent Russo- Japanese
war quite a number came from the Moslem colony in Kazan and from near Moscow.
There were always a fair number of Javanese students and also a representation
from China. It is an international school.
Owing to the enormous court-yard and its colonnades, all crowded with groups of
students, one gets the impression like that of knocking the top off an ant-hill
and looking at myriads swarming in confusion. Sydney Low described it as he saw
it. "There
is no place like it anywhere and nothing in Cairo better worth
seeing. . . . Men
and boys were in heaps and knots and circles all over the ground. After passing
through the outer quadrangles you come upon the liwan, or great hall of
lectures. It is an immense covered shed, with a low roof supported by a forest
of columns of every shape and size. There
are nearly four hundred of them, all robbed from old churches and temples. The
classes and teachers are scattered over the floor, packed so close together that
it often is difficult to make your way between two of the groups. Here and there
the professor has a wooden chair and a table; but as a rule teachers and pupils
are alike sitting or squatting on the ground, with their robes gathered under
their bare feet and their shoes laid out in front of them. The
walls and pillars and planking are fairly clean, but not all the students are;
some are even filthy and ragged, and a reek of promiscuous humanity fills the
air. The din, too, is bewildering; for all the teachers are talking to their classes
at the same time and half the classes are repeating or reciting something, or
droning verses from the Koran or the service-books, bending their bodies up and
down in unison with the monotonous cadence 2."
Of Al Azhar before the recent reforms and as it had been for centuries I wrote:
"There
is no regular organization worthy of a university. All a student has to do after
he comes to Cairo is to give his name and address at headquarters, select a professor,
who is squatted on the floor at the base of some particular column, with whom
he talks for an hour or two every morning with or
without taking notes. A
professorial chair is also easily obtained, in fact any Mohammedan with some ideas
of Koran interpretation or a pet theory of grammatical science could go there;
find some unoccupied place and discourse according to his own pleasure on his
pet subject. The regular subjects of study, which have not changed since the Middle
Ages, are the following: grammar, syntax, rhetoric, versification, theology, the
exegesis of the Koran, the traditions of Mohammed and jurisprudence (fiqh).
The latter subject stands at the apex of the curriculum and occupies the attention
of at least three-fourths of the students who come to the university. Lectures
are also given on arithmetic, algebra, and the calculation of the Mohammedan calendar,
but pure science has no place in the Mohammedan University. Recently an attempt
was made to add geography and history, but the jealousy, prejudice and personal
antipathy toward the liberal-minded mufti who advocated this change thwarted all
his best efforts, and the old order remains unchanged."
The floor of the huge area is covered with palm matting - not too clean - the
walls are dingy and the whole appearance of the courtyard is untidy. Only the
place of public prayer on the southeast side and the library look respectable.
Tourists are told (and it is a fact) that Al Azhar is the oldest university in
the world. But they are not informed that only within a decade the condition for
matriculation and the curriculum were very primitive not to say primary-school.
Pierre Crabites wrote in 1925: "To
enter this temple of learning the requirements are of the most elementary character.
A
Khedivial decree, dated May 13, 1911, and still in force in 1925, reads as follows
(Article 60):
All candidates for admission to the University of the Mosque of Al Azhar must
fulfill the following conditions: They
must-
(1) have attained the age of ten and be not more than seventeen;
(2) know how to read and write sufficiently to study books;
(3) have memorized at least one half of the Koran;
(4) be of sound health and free of bodily ailments; and
(5) present a certificate of character if the applicant be fourteen years of age.
These regulations give the key to the whole problem of education as understood
at Al Azhar. They show that mathematics is treated with disdain; they indicate
that even the two ‘R's' play but a secondary part; they prove that a good
memory and a verbatim knowledge of the Koran are considered to be matters of primary
importance 3."
The graduate of Al Azhar is therefore
a Moslem theologian, a candidate for imam, qadi or mufti in any
part of the wide world of Islam. For if the institution is a fossil of
the thirteenth century it is true to type. If the 'ulema of Islam have
so much power and are presumed to be so erudite it must not be forgotten that
they are specialists. They consider all culture that does
not directly appertain to their vocation as being unworthy of consideration; their
scholastic vision is astigmatic; they see clearly everything that relates to Islam.
Nothing else comes within their focus.
Christian theological schools have been criticized for not making the Bible itself
the main subject of study. Islam has never erred in this respect. Islamic theology
is a vast ellipse with only two foci, the Koran and the teaching of Mohammed as enshrined in Hadith.
The mullahs
are therefore the living depositaries and custodians of the treasure of Islam,
they represent its moral authority. In their own domain they are supreme. Within
their province their fiat is law. As Pierre Crabites remarks: "No
one may validly impinge upon their preserves. No Haroun al Raschid may lawfully
curtail their monopolistic rights. Their authority, however, does not spring from
the purity or austerity of their lives. On the contrary, while the overwhelming
majority of them are men of exemplary morals, their dictatorial attributes, within
the limits of their jurisdiction, flow solely from the fact that the essence of
Islamic life is concentrated in their profound knowledge of Muslim lore 4."
In his erudite work on the Mohammedan universities of Egypt, M. Arminjon, a French
professor at the Cairo School of Law, reproduces an account given to him by an
El Azhar student, of the way in which his days were spent. (Quoted in Valentine
Chirol's The Egyptian Problem): "I
rise at dawn, and having made my ablutions and said my early prayers, I hurry
off to El Azhar
to attend the course on Traditions of the Prophet, which lasts until after sunrise.
As soon as that is over, the same teacher hears us on the Law and its philosophy
for another two hours or more. I then go back to breakfast on the bread or rice
and beans and lentils of which my family send me a provision every month. My repast
finished, I return to El Azhar to study calligraphy until the hour of mid-day
prayer, and then a course of grammar keeps me busy for another two hours, after
which I retire to a corner of the courtyard with my room-mate Ahmed, and whilst
we have a snack we rehearse the morning's lesson in law and prepare for the next
day's. By
that time it is the hour of afternoon prayer, and I go off to a neighbouring mosque
where, for the last year, a professor teaches us arithmetic in European fashion
with a blackboard. Then back to El Azhar to prepare for a lesson in logic which
a venerable sheikh, too infirm to move, gives us in his own house between the
hours of sunset and evening prayer. Having said the last prayer for the day at
El Azhar, I and my room-mates rush back to our house to eat our supper, sit for
a long while talking and then retire to sleep."
One of many theological schools in India is on the outskirts of Jullundur City.
Its course of study and the daily life of its pupils is based on the Al-Azhar
model in every detail. (See The Moslem World, Vol. xxxi, 1941, p.416.)
The Cairo
university of Islamic theology has had a long and chequered history. It began
as one of the largest mosques in Cairo for prayer. Five years later Makrizi
tells of its inauguration as a school of the prophets, with great pomp and a large
concourse of people 5. Thus
from the outset it had prestige. The Caliph Aziz-Billahi endowed it with a large
library and he is called the founder. His son added largely to the endowments
by his generosity. By the year 1000 A.D. it was known in all the world of Islam.
Pierre Crabites summarizes its later history.
"When Saladin dethroned
the Fatimites and led Egypt into the ranks of orthodoxy, Al Azhar suffered a long
eclipse. For practically an entire
century no prayers were said there on Fridays. The Mosque of Hakim, situated at
the other extremity of Cairo, became the favourite Madrassa of the official
world. It was not until A.D. 1268 that Al Azhar re-entered upon its mission as
a collegiate mosque. But its curriculum was no longer that of yore. It had ceased
to be a Fatimite citadel. It was converted into an orthodox stronghold. Each
of the four Sunnite rites sent their very best professors to make of 'the flourishing
mosque' once again a pillar of Islam. Thus re-established in favour, Al
Azhar had long years of prosperity. It grew in riches. Its sheiks became factors
in government circles. They constituted a solid block. They
were able to evolve a program, and, what is more important, to act in unison in
making it effective. It was they who in A.D. 1501 formed the nucleus of the movement
which made Kanso-al-Ghoury Sultan of Egypt. When Bonaparte entered Cairo, July
22, 1798, he dealt with the Grand Sheikh of Al Azhar. The constituted authorities
of the land had
vanished. The
Corsican therefore turned to- wards the head of the University as towards one
whose standing made of him a mandatory of the people of the conquered city. In
May, 1805, Al Azhar applied the lesson thus learned. It deposed Omar Makram and
made Muhammad Aly pasha of Egypt 6."
The Egyptians have never forgotten the invasion of the sacred precincts of Al
Azhar by Napoleon when he conquered Egypt. A Moslem wrote in 1924: "The
leading sheikhs of El Azhar went to the general of the French Army complaining
and imploring him to stop the attack. He agreed to an armistice. Immediately afterwards,
the Army was quartered throughout the city which they systematically plundered.
They entered El Azhar mounted on their horses, assembled there in the large court,
tied their horses to 'El Kiblah', destroyed lamps and chests, threw down the books
and the holy Koran and trod on them. In short, they reduced the holy place to
the level of a common barrack and generally wounded the religious susceptibilities
of the people."
This "holy place," however, has seen desecration of other sort by warring factions
and immoral practices down the centuries. The sacredness of the mosque explains
the fact that even in the Middle ages it is often mentioned as an asylum for refugees.
Further we hear that extracts from the Koran or Bukhari were publicly recited
from its pulpits to remove plague and famine. In the year 1758, the students begged
their professor to lecture on Bukhari's Traditions to avert a raging plague!
In spite of its sacred courts and sacred lore and learned theologians, we know
that: "The
chronicles of the Azhar are full of brawls and revolts among the students; sometimes
the quarrels arose from differences of nationality and sect, sometimes over the
grants in food and other gifts which an avaricious and unscrupulous administration
kept back from them. In accounts of the brawls among the students themselves,
the most frequently mentioned are the boorish Upper Egyptian, the restless Syrians
and the fanatic Magharba and lastly the occupants of the chapel for the blind
7." "When
on June 7, 1896, the Egyptian police commanded by Europeans attempted to enter
the Azhar during the cholera epidemic, to carry out most necessary sanitary measures,
they were bombarded with stones, beams, vessels, etc. by the students and had
to retreat. Those young people for whose spiritual guidance their teachers were
responsible, lived in the belief that dirt was inseparable from holiness and that
the inviolability of even the closets of the Azhar was a part of 'holding fast
to their religion' (altamassuk bi'l-Din). Incidents of this kind explain
the situation better than the mere letter of the statutes, or semi- or official
explanations. A great students' revolt took place in 1909
8."
For nearly nine hundred years this center of Moslem lore and theological learning
has propagated its ideals and methods not only in Egypt but in the Near East and
India. The Azhar has branches today in Alexandria, Tanta,
Dusuk, and Damietta, all supported by the funds (waqf) of the mother university.
The theological centers of orthodox Islam in India (Deoband and many others) and
in all Central Asia (Bokhara) are conducted by the same methods, use the same
textbooks, teach the same rigid theology, and have a similar attitude toward other
faiths than Islam. Only very recently has a course on comparative religion been
begun at Al Azhar! What it amounts to is polemic of the old school
9. As
Vollers remarks: "The
object of education here is not research, proof, comparison or correction, but
the true transmission of what their ancestors have left them. Each generation
is supposed to be inferior to the preceding; from the prophet there is a decline
to his companions and their successors; the independent inquirers and authorities
(al-Mudjtahidun) lie far behind us in the dim and distant past. The history
of the lands of Islam is regarded from this point of view of continued decline,
in this case not unjustly 10."
In spite of efforts at reform made by successive rulers in Egypt, Al Azhar stands
even today among the educational institutions, native and foreign, of Cairo like
an island in the turbulent waters of progress. There have been many attempts at
reform under Ismail, Tawfik Pasha, Abbas II, and more recently under the rulers
of independent Egypt King Fuad and King Furuk, as well as by enlightened leaders
of the educational department,
but passive, latent resistance has continued. How
many of the proposed reforms have suffered shipwreck on the rocks of conservatism
can not be easily told.' Many noble projects and resolutions
have remained dead letters. The zeal and goodwill of the reformers is not to be
doubted but force of circumstances, proved stronger than they.
This chapter is intended only as a description of the theological training and
environment of "the clergy and priesthood" as it was in the beginning, is now,
and still continues among the orthodox masses and majority of Islam. The bibliography
given will aid further study. BIBLIOGRAPHY
K. Voller
- Azhar in the Encyclopedia of Islam. Vol. I, pp. 532-539.
Achille S�kaly- L'Universite d'EI Azhar in Revue des Etudes Islamique.
1927. pp. 465-528 (Paris).
Baron Carra de Vaux - Les Penseurs de L'Islam. Vol. V, pp. 250-306. The
Reforms in the Azhar.
Goldziher- In G. Ebers, Aegypten, Vol.11, pp.71-90.
Jacoub Artin-L'Instruction publique en Egypte (1889); p. 34ff., 205f.
Muhammad Abu Bakr Ibrahim-The University of Al Azhar. Cairo. With illustrations.
A lecture delivered Aug.19, 1924, at Cambridge University, 1925.
W. H. T. Gairdner-El Azhar Collegiate Mosque and the Moslem propaganda, in "East
and West," London, 1912.
Pierre Arminjon-L'Enseignement, la doctrine et la vie dans les Universit�s Musulmanes
d'Egypte-Paris, 1907. Revue
du Monde Musulman (Titles given in English).
Rules for Admission, Vol. I, 277. Reforms, Vol. I, 421.
Strike at the Azhar and the troubles that followed in 1909, Vol. VII, 447-448.
Rules
and Religious Life, Vol. VI, 280-283.
Expulsion of Ali Abdul Raziq, Vol. LIX, 302.
The number of pupils, Vol. IX, 515.
Krymski and Miller, Wsiemusulmanski universitet pri meceti Azkhar (cf. Or. Bibl.,
xvii, No.5590).
M. b. Ibrahim al-Ahmadi al-Zawahin - al' Ilm wa 'l-'Ulama wa Nizam al-Ta'lim
(Tanta, 1904). al-Kanz
al-anwar fi Fada'il Djami al-Azhar (Kat. Landberg, Leiden, No.263).
Al-Makrizi - Khitat, ii, 273-277.
Al-Suyuti-Husn al-Muhidara (1299), ii, 181.
Al-Djabarti's Chronicle and Ali Mubarek's al-Khitat al-djadida, I iv, 19-44.
Mustafa
Bairam - Risala fi Ta'rikh al Azhar (Cairo, Tamaddun Press, 1321 A.H.).
Sulaiman
Rasad al-Hanafi al-Zayati - Kanz al-Djawhar fi Ta'riah al-Azhar (1322 AH.).
A'mal
Madjilis Idarat al-Azhar 1312-1322 (Cairo, 1323 A.H.).
Kanun El-Jamia El Azhar
(1911, Cairo). Go
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