Al-Azhar Mosque in Cairo was founded by the Fatimids as a mosque for their mission, and in 378 AH the vizier Yaqub ibn Killis turned it into a university where the sciences and literature were taught 1. The commander Jawhar, general of al-Mu'izz li-Din Allah, built it with the palace inside the wall of Cairo 2 3. The Encyclopaedia of Islam says that building began on 24 Jumada I 359 AH (4 April 970) and lasted two years, and that it was inaugurated on 7 Ramadan 361 AH (22 June 972) 4. Al-Maqrizi says that it was called "the mosque of Cairo" and "al-Jami' al-Azhar" 5. The Encyclopaedia of Islam suggests that the name may allude to Fatima al-Zahra', although no ancient document confirms it 4.
Yeomans says that Salah al-Din removed al-Azhar's congregational status in 1171, that al-Zahir Baybars restored it in 1260 and renewed its role in learning, and that it afterwards became the principal centre of legal and theological studies in the Sunni world 6. The Encyclopaedia of Islam reports that al-Maqrizi, under the events of 818 AH/1415-16, mentions 750 people from the provinces and from foreign lands, from Maghribis to Persians, living in its riwaqs and studying law, hadith, Qur'an commentary and grammar 7. It regards al-Azhar, from the eighteenth century, as the principal religious university of the Islamic world 4. It gives the number of its pupils and students in 1953 as 30,000, of whom 4,500 were foreigners 4.
This narrative was written with AI help from the sources it cites, and has not yet been read by a human editor.