Al-Azhar Mosque From a Shiite edifice to the largest beacon for spreading the Sunni doctrine

Al-Azhar is one of the oldest and most prominent Fatimid Islamic monuments in the city of Cairo, which earned the title of a thousand minarets. Although it was established as a Shiite edifice by order of Al-Muizz Li-Din Allah, the first Fatimid caliph in Egypt in 972, it has been transformed since the Mamluk era to become a beacon for spreading the Sunni doctrine and its teachings.

During the reign of the Mamluk Sultan Al-Zahir Baybars, specifically on December 17, 1267, Friday prayers were held for the first time in Al-Azhar Mosque in Cairo, after Salah Al-Din Al-Ayyubi banned it after his conquest of Egypt in 1171, because of the Shafi’i teachings, to which Salah belongs. Al-Din and his successors, the Ayyubids, forbid holding the Friday sermon in more than one mosque in the same area.

The Al-Azhar Mosque, which historians say was suggested by the Fatimids, was named after Fatima al-Zahra, the daughter of the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, and in tribute to her memory. It was built by Jawhar al-Siqilli when he entered Cairo as the conqueror of the year 970, by order of al-Muizz Li-Din Allah, the first Fatimid caliph in Egypt.

To this day, Al-Azhar Mosque is considered one of the most important mosques in Egypt at all, and one of the most famous historical Islamic edifices in the world that is still concerned with spreading Islam and its teachings for more than a thousand years.

The oldest and most famous Shiite edifice

Following the entry of the Fatimid army into Egypt in 969, Jawhar al-Siqilli set out to establish the city of Cairo and build the Grand Palace in which the Caliph al-Muizz li-Din Allah would reside when he settled and settled in Egypt. To be completed and ready for prayer in the month of Ramadan in the year 972.

Immediately after its inauguration for worship at the beginning of the era of the Fatimid state in Egypt, Al-Azhar became a comprehensive mosque for the newly established city, similar to the Mosque of Amr in Fustat and the Mosque of Ibn Tulun in Al-Qata``. In addition to being a mosque, it was prepared at the time to be an educational institute for the teaching of the Shiite sect and its dissemination throughout Egypt.

Al-Azhar is considered, since its inception about 1049 years ago, as the second oldest continuously existing university in the world after the University of Al-Qarawiyyin. And a donation.

The decline of the star of Al-Azhar

After the Ayyubids entered Egypt in 1171 after the fall of the Fatimid state, Salah al-Din fought the Shiite sect and curbed its spread and began to support the Shafi’i Sunni sect, and for this reason the mosque was neglected and its star fell after the Ayyubid judge Ibn Derbas banned the establishment of prayer in it, as Shafi’i jurisprudence considers that it is not permissible Two sermons in one country, so it was replaced by the Al-Hakim Mosque by the command of God to hold the Friday prayer and sermon.

In the following years, Salah al-Din al-Ayyubi also ordered the removal of a silver band containing the names of the Fatimid caliphs from the mihrab of the mosque. Despite all this, Saladin did not completely ignore the maintenance of the mosque. According to some Islamic historians, one of the mosque's minarets was restored during the rule of Salah al-Din.

After the fall of the Fatimid state, not only did the mosque’s star decline, but also the star of Al-Azhar as a center for religious education, after the funding of teachers and students was withdrawn.

A beacon for spreading the Sunni sect

Al-Azhar’s fortunes improved during the Mamluk era, specifically during the reign of the Mamluk Sultan Al-Zahir Baybars, who ordered the establishment of Friday prayers for the first time in it after it was banned during the Ayyubid era for nearly a century, because the Hanafi school of thought to which the Mamluks belonged did not prohibit the establishment of prayer and sermon more than From a mosque, as well as the rapid expansion of Cairo increased the need to reuse the mosque and ignore its Shiite history.

Al-Azhar not only regained its fame as a mosque during the Mamluk era, but also returned to be a beacon for spreading the teachings of Islam according to the Sunni doctrine that prevailed at the time, as he ordered Baybars to return the salaries of teachers and students.

From the era of the Mamluks to the present day, everyone who ruled Egypt showed a remarkable interest in the restoration and maintenance of Al-Azhar, and many endowments were endowed on it, and due to the large number of maintenance and restoration works that the mosque was exposed to over the ages, many of its Fatimid features changed, and yet it is still considered the oldest existing Fatimid monument in Egypt.

It should be noted that King Fouad I issued a decree in 1930 establishing the faculties of Theology, Sharia, Language and Arabic, after which Al-Azhar became an independent university in 1961. Today, Al-Azhar University is considered the first in the Islamic world to study Sunni doctrine and Islamic law.