Al-Azhar University: Reorganization and Education in 1961

Al-Azhar University is in Cairo, Egypt. Law No. 103, issued on July 5, 1961 under Nasser, reorganized al-Azhar and its constituent institutions, marking a major expansion of the modern university system rather than the first appearance of the mosque or its teaching tradition. The final article separately stipulated implementation from publication, so the issue date and conditions of legal entry into force should also be distinguished.

Its early foundation was al-Azhar Mosque, built by the Fatimid dynasty in its new capital, Cairo. General Jawhar directed construction, and worship began in 972. It then served an Ismaili dynasty and only later gradually became a major Sunni scholarly center. Completion of the mosque, development of teaching and reorganization of a modern university were different historical processes.

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Legal teaching was already taking place at al-Azhar in the late tenth century. Drawing on medieval accounts, Nasser Rabbat noted that vizier Ibn Killis secured the caliph's support for thirty-five jurists to teach regularly and arranged accommodation beside the mosque. These scholars later moved their classes to another mosque, however, showing that the early teaching network's center was not fixed.

Religious endowments, or waqfs, supplied continuing income to the mosque, but cannot all be considered educational funding in the modern sense. An endowment arrangement in 1009 allocated a larger share to al-Azhar, with many listed expenses covering lamps, incense and other ritual supplies. As scholarly activity developed, students from different regions lived in attached residential porticoes, and accommodation, meals and teaching gradually became interdependent conditions of education.

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From the late nineteenth century, examinations, teacher qualifications and administration increasingly came under regulation. Reforms in 1930 established three principal colleges for theology, Islamic law and Arabic, which subsequently moved into new buildings at different locations in Cairo. The university's movement beyond the old mosque preceded 1961; no single decree completed all spatial and curricular change.

Law No. 103 retained Islamic and Arabic studies while listing areas including medicine, agriculture, engineering and industry, and commerce and administration. Bernard Botiveau interpreted the reorganization as further integration of al-Azhar into the state education system: religious training continued, while modern vocational disciplines enabled graduates to enter more social sectors. The law established an organizational framework; admissions, staffing and buildings still had to be implemented gradually.

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The university was only one part of al-Azhar's wider organization. The law provided for governance by a rector and university council, deans and councils for colleges, and departments responsible for teaching and research. The president appointed the rector through a procedure involving the responsible minister and the Sheikh of al-Azhar. The university managed research, curricula and examinations, bringing both religious leadership and state administration into governance.

The law allowed al-Azhar to accept endowments, bequests and donations and assigned budgetary and financial responsibilities. Article 38 proposed free education and equal admission opportunities for Muslim students from all countries, subject to capacity, budget and approved enrollment limits, and provided preparatory studies for foreign students. Free education depended on financial and teaching resources; it did not automatically grant every applicant a degree place.

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After the reform, al-Azhar girls' schools and the university's Islamic women's college appeared in Maadi, southern Cairo. Expanding access to higher education required secondary schools to supply students and women to teach them. Naoyoshi Uchida's paper connected establishment in the 1960s with expansion to more regions from the late 1970s, rather than treating creation of the women's college as an isolated event.

The study examined official Arabic documentary collections and contemporary newspapers and interviewed early students. Educational aims combined family roles such as mother and wife with responsibilities for social guidance. Some interviewees returned to girls' schools as teachers after university, showing that the new system could reproduce a pool of women educators. Yet generations differed in their views of school reputation and teaching conditions, so enrollment expansion cannot be equated directly with equal educational quality.

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Cross-border connections also depended on accommodation, scholarships and progression arrangements. Using Indonesian students around 1989 as an example, Botiveau found that they mainly entered religion-related colleges. Most lived in the new international student city in Cairo's Abbasiyya district, while a minority remained in the old mosque's porticoes. Students whose preparation was insufficient first took preparatory courses. These paths connected older student communities with a modern university campus.

Returning graduates might join mosques, religious courts or educational organizations, extending the university's influence beyond Egypt. The 1961 reorganization broadened subjects and access while strengthening the state's institutional involvement in al-Azhar. Its historical significance lay in rearranging relations among religious prestige, public resources and professional education, rather than simply assigning a founding year to a new school.

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