Al-Azhar university

Al Azhar university, Cairo

Al-Azhar Universityis an educational institute in Cairo, Egypt. Founded in 970~972 as a madrasa, it is the chief centre of Arabic literature and Islamic learning in the world.[1] It is the oldest degree-granting university in Egypt after Cairo University. In 1961 non-religious subjects were added to its curriculum.

It is associated with Al-Azhar Mosque in Islamic Cairo. The university's mission includes the propagation of Islamic religion and culture. To this end, its Islamic scholars (ulamas) render edicts (fatwas) on disputes submitted to them from all over the Sunni Islamic world regarding proper conduct for Muslim individuals societies. Al-Azhar also trains Egyptian government appointed preachers in proselytization (da'wa).

Its library is considered second in importance in Egypt only to the Egyptian National Library and Archives.[citation needed] In May 2005, Al-Azhar in partnership with a Dubai information technology enterprise, ITEP launched the H.H. Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Project to Preserve Al Azhar Scripts and Publish Them Online (the "Al-Azhar Online Project") with the mission of eventually providing online access to the library's entire rare manuscripts collection (comprising about seven million pages).

Al-Azhar is considered by one author the world's second oldest surviving degree granting university.[5] However, this claim on precedence appears to confound the distinct nature of madrasas and medieval universities which followed very different historical trajectories until the former were expanded to the latter in modern times,and fails to take into account that the Islamic Ijazah certificate deviated in concept and procedure from the medieval doctorate out of which modern university degrees evolved.