The first time I walked into Al-Azhar’s courtyard, I genuinely stopped talking mid-sentence. Not for dramatic effect. There’s just something about standing somewhere that’s been continuously used for over a thousand years that shuts you up for a second. Students have been sitting in that same general space, arguing over the same texts, since before most of Europe’s oldest universities existed. That’s not an exaggeration, it’s just history.
Who Actually Built It, and Why
Al-Azhar was founded in 970 CE, under the Fatimid dynasty, shortly after they took Cairo and made it their new capital. The mosque’s name is generally believed to honor Fatimah az-Zahra, the Prophet’s daughter — “al-Azhar” meaning “the most radiant” or “the shining one.”
It wasn’t built as a tourist site or a monument. It was built as a working mosque, and it became a teaching center almost immediately, first for Fatimid Isma’ili scholarship specifically. That changes later, and it changes a lot, but the founding purpose was always education alongside worship. Two things happening in the same building, at the same time, which honestly still describes it today.
From Fatimid Foundation to Sunni Institution
Here’s where the story gets interesting, and a little messy, which real history usually is.
When Salah ad-Din (Saladin) ended Fatimid rule in Egypt in 1171, he shifted Al-Azhar’s orientation from Isma’ili teaching toward Sunni scholarship — actually suspending Friday prayers there for a period during the transition. It reopened later and gradually rebuilt itself as a center for Sunni Islamic learning, and that’s the identity that stuck and grew for the next several centuries.
By the Mamluk period, Al-Azhar had expanded significantly — new madrasas attached to the main structure, more scholars, students arriving from across the Islamic world. Ottoman rule after that kept the institution running and respected, even as political power moved around it.
What Makes Al-Azhar’s Role So Unique
A few things separate Al-Azhar from just being an old, impressive building.
It’s widely regarded as one of the oldest degree-granting universities still operating anywhere in the world, not just in the Islamic world. Students didn’t just memorize texts there, they debated them, in circles (halaqat) still echoed today in how Islamic seminars are taught.
Al-Azhar’s scholars, collectively known as the ulama of Al-Azhar, became a reference point for Sunni Islamic thought well beyond Egypt’s borders. A fatwa or scholarly opinion carrying Al-Azhar’s name still holds serious weight across much of the Muslim world.
And it survived. Empires changed. Rulers changed. Al-Azhar kept functioning as a place of learning through nearly all of it, which is honestly the more remarkable part when you think about how much Egyptian history happened around those walls.
Al-Azhar Today
Modern Al-Azhar is both a mosque you can visit and a full university system with faculties well beyond religious studies now — medicine, engineering, languages. But the historic core, the old mosque itself with its Fatimid arches and later Mamluk and Ottoman additions layered on top, still functions as a mosque and still draws students of Islamic scholarship the way it did a thousand years ago.
If you’re studying Arabic or Islamic studies in Cairo, visiting Al-Azhar isn’t optional, it’s basically part of the curriculum by osmosis. Our own Al-Azhar Preparatory track is built specifically around getting students ready for study connected to this institution, language-wise and academically.
Conclusion
Standing in that courtyard again more recently, I noticed something I’d missed the first time — a small group of students, maybe eighteen or nineteen years old, arguing quietly over a text the way students probably have there for centuries. Some things really don’t change. If Egypt’s living history is something you want to actually study rather than just read about, come explore the full picture with us at Studio Arabiya.
FAQs
Is Al-Azhar Mosque still open to visitors today? Yes, non-worship visitors are generally welcome during set hours, though modest dress is expected and some areas are reserved for students and worshippers.
What’s the difference between Al-Azhar Mosque and Al-Azhar University? The mosque is the original historic structure and remains a functioning place of worship, while the university grew from it over centuries into a much larger modern institution with campuses across Egypt.
Why is Al-Azhar considered so authoritative in Sunni Islam? Centuries of continuous, rigorous scholarship built its reputation, and its senior scholars are still widely consulted on religious matters across the Muslim-majority world.
