Azhar- Great university of Islam By Dr Khālid ibn ‘Alī ibn Muḥammad al-Mushayqiḥ

Azhar- Great university of Islam

By Dr Khālid ibn ‘Alī ibn Muḥammadal-Mushayqiḥ¹

Al-Azhar is considered one of the most important religious academic institutions in Islamic history. It has carried out its mission of spreading knowledge, serving scholars, and educating students of knowledge for over a thousand years. The continuity of Al-Azhar, by the grace of Allah, has been supported by the Islamic endowment (waqf), which provided it with economic support, protected it from political upheavals, and helped it withstand the successive trials throughout its long history.

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The Islamic endowments, which were allocated by generous rulers and wealthy individuals, served as a guarantee for its continued ability to fulfil its mission.

During the Fatimid period, several documents and records shed light on the primary sources of funding for Al-Azhar. The earliest and most important of these documents is a register issued by the ruler, al-Ḥākim bi-Amr Allāh Ibn al-ʿAzīzbi-Allah, in Ramadan of the year 400 AH. In this register, some of his properties, shops, and granaries in various areas were dedicated as endowments to Al-Azhar Mosque, the ruler’s mosque, the Grand Mosque of Jerusalem, and the House of Knowledge in Cairo. The register specifies the share allocated to each institution and outlines the beneficiaries.

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Among those beneficiaries were salaries for Al-Azhar Mosque staff, including the khaṭīb (Friday sermon-giver), the mushrif (overseer), and the aʾimmah (imams). The endowment also covered the cost of carpets for the mosque, its furnishings, lighting, and oil. It ensured the mosque’s repair, maintenance, and provision of supplies, food, and so forth. The register included a detailed section outlining all this, to the extent that al-Maqrīzī included its full text in his ‘Khiṭaṭ’ (his book on history).

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The earliest known endowment deed for Al-Azhar was issued by one of the Fatimid caliphs, which had organised for Al-Azhar some revenues. Al-Maqrīzī narrates from al-Musabbīḥī, the Fatimid historian -that in the year 405 AH- in the era of al-Ḥakim bi Amr Allah, that it was read in the month of Ṣafar that the list of endowments of a number of plots etc, for the qurrāʾ (reciters), fuqahāʾ (jurists), and teachers at Al-Azhar, who were the beneficiaries of these endowments.

Two further points

1. Types of Endowments for Al-Azhar:

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The endowments allocated to al-Azhar were either for al-Azhar in general, such as the aforementioned endowment which al-Ḥākim bi-AmrAllah endowed in the year 400 AH, which allocated funds to the different study lodges of al-Azhar, or to the professors of the four madhhabs (legal schools), or to support the teaching of a specific subject; especially the sciences of the Qur’an and Hadith.

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These dedicated resources continued to grow over the centuries, and endowments from generous individuals among the sultans, princes, and dignitaries flowed into al-Azhar Mosque throughout the ages. Rulers continued to reinforce them, generation after generation.

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These resources continued to grow steadily until they became substantial and vast. According to the 1267 AH / 1812 CE census, public Egyptian endowments amounted to 600,000 feddans, meaning they constituted more than a fifth of all Egyptian land. Since the 1813 CE land census had recorded the total area of Egyptian lands as 2,500,000 feddans.

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The state would appoint a supervisor over the endowments of al-Azhar. During the Mamluk and Ottoman periods, one of the Mamluks was typically responsible for supervising, managing, and disbursing al-Azhar’s endowments. Gradually, scholars themselves began taking on these supervisory roles over the endowments of al-Azhar and many private endowments designated for mosques, schools, and other religious institutions; especially toward the end of the Ottoman era.

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These endowments were a vital source of strength for al-Azhar Mosque, allowing it to maintain independence from political and sectarian influences.

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Nothing like that was ever known throughout its eras. Rather, the scholars of al-Azhar and its students lived in honour and dignity, far from subjugation to anyone. Its scholars practiced complete freedom in choosing the studies, research, and subjects to be taught to the students, and in selecting the books that the shaykhs would teach them, without supervision or direction from anyone.

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2.  The Scholars’ Efforts to Preserve the Resources of al-Azhar:

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‍The scholars of al-Azhar stood firmly against anyone who sought to encroach upon the endowments and livelihoods of the scholars.

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When endowments (awqāf) became numerous, some rulers sought to seize them. Sultanal-Ẓāhir Barqūq attempted to annul all that previous kings had endowed to mosques, schools, public water dispensers (sabīl), and other charitable causes. He claimed that these lands were taken deceitfully from the public treasury (Bayt al-Māl) and that they now made up half the lands of the state.

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He convened a large council of scholars to seek their opinion and legal verdict (fatwā) on the matter. Present at the council were Shaykh Akmal al-Dīn, the leading Ḥanafī scholar of his time, Shaykh Sirājal-Dīn ʿUmar al-Bulqīnī, Shaykh al-Burhān Ibn Jamāʿah, and others from among the scholars of the era.

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They unanimously agreed that what kings and emirs had endowed from wealth that came out of the public treasury could not be annulled.

The council concluded on this decision.

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And in the year 1121 AH, the scholars of the four madhhabs (legal schools)confronted the Turkish governor Ibrāhīm Pasha al-Qabūdān, because he sought to revoke the endowments made by the notable figures of Egypt for the benefit of zawiyas (Sufi lodges), mosques, and schools.

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They boldly issued a legal verdict (fatwa) stating that it is impermissible to annul what charitable individuals had endowed of lands, buildings, and sources of income, since those endowments were allocated for the benefit of scholars, the poor, orphans, and students of knowledge.

At theforefront of the scholars who stood up and issued this fatwa were:
Shaykh ʿAlī ibn al-Sayyid ʿAlī al-Ḥusaynī al-Ḥanafī,
Shaykh ʿAlī al-ʿUqdī al-Ḥanafī,
Shaykh Aḥmad al-Nafrawī al-Mālikī,
Shaykh Muḥammad Shanan al-Mālikī,
Shaykh Aḥmad al-Sharqī, the Shaykh of theMaghrebīs at al-Azhar,
Shaykh Muḥammad al-Zurqānī, the commentatoron al-Muwaṭṭaʾ,
Shaykh ʿAbd al-Bāqī al-Qalībī al-Mālikī,
Shaykh ʿAbd Rabbih al-Diyawī al-Shāfiʿī,
Shaykh Manṣūr al-Manūfī,
Shaykh Muḥammad al-Aḥmad al-Shāfiʿī,
and Shaykh Aḥmad al-Maqdisī al-Ḥanbalī.

The aforementioned scholars wrote their fatwās presented in the style of question and answer. They held a meeting at the house of "Qayṭās Bek al-Ghifārī", and in attendance were many of the prominent figures of Egypt — its rulers, scholars, and others.Shaykh ʿĪsā al-Ṣafṭī(?) read this fatwa aloud to those present,who found it compelling. Then, they sent it to the Turkish governor, Ibrahim Pasha, who did not accept it. The scholars and notable figures then wrote a petition to the Sultan.

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They sent the fatwa along with this petition to Sultan Aḥmad Khan, the Ottoman Caliph, who issued a firm decree maintaining the endowments and stipends as they were, without alteration or revocation. These imperial orders were sent to Egypt, siding with the scholars in defending their rights.

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Some scholars even assumed responsibility for overseeing the endowments and defending them from seizure before Muḥammad ʿAlī Pasha took power.

(Translator’s note: What follows are a list of scholars who had taken the role of oversight over various endowments).

Shaykh ʿAbd Allāh al-Sharqāwī, Shaykh of al-Azhar (d. 1227AH), assumed the oversight of the following endowments:

• The endowment of both ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ (may Allah be pleased with him), and by Ibrāhīm ibn Saʿd al-Jabāl on the 19th of Shawwāl, 1213 AH.
• The endowment of ʿAlī Bāshā on the 26th of Dhū al-Qaʿdah, 1213 AH.
• Oversight of the endowment of Ismāʿīl al-Muʿājinī on the 16th of Jumādā al-Ūlā, 1220 AH.
• Oversight of the endowment of the Shaqrūn al-Maghribī on the 26th of Rabīʿ al-Awwal, 1224 AH.

Shaykh Muḥammad al-Mahdī (d. 1230 AH), who lived during the time of the French campaign and afterward—reports mention that he assumed oversight of the following endowments:

• Oversight of the endowment of Nafīsa Khātūn bint Ḥusayn Jarūbajī(?) in Dhū al-Qaʿdah, 1205 AH.
• Oversight of the endowments of Sultan al-Ghawrī at the beginning of Dhū al-Ḥijjah, 1213 AH.
• Oversight of the endowment of Sultan Barqūq, his son Faraj, and their descendants on the 27th of Jumādā al-Ākhirah, 1214 AH.
• Oversight of the endowments of the two Imāms, al-Shāfiʿī and al-Layth, on the 6th of     Rajab, 1224 AH.

Shaykh Muḥammad al-Amīr (d. 1232 AH) assumed oversight of the following endowments:

• Oversight of the endowments of al-Jāmiʿ al-Azhar on the 13th of Ramaḍān, 1220 AH
• Oversight of the endowments of the Two Holy Sanctuaries (Makkah and Madīnah) on the 16th of Jumādā al-Ākhirah, 1207 AH
• Oversight of the endowment of Judge ʿAbd al-Karīm ibn Ghannām and his zawiyah (Sufi lodge) known as al-Ghannāmiyyah on the 18th of Jumādā al-Ūlā, 1221 AH.

Shaykh Muḥammad Abū al-Anwār Wafā al-Sādāt(d. 1228 AH) assumed oversight of:

• The endowment of al-Ḥusayn (may Allah be pleased with him) and his daughter Zaynab in Jumādā al-Ākhirah, 1202 AH.
• Oversight of the endowment of Ṭūmān Bāy on the 25th of Jumādā al-Ākhirah, 1214 AH.

The historian Shaykh ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Jabartī (1168–1240 AH) assumed oversight of the endowment of the Zāwiyah of Shaykh ʿAbd al-Karīm, known as al-Aḥmadiyyah Zāwiyah, on the 24th of Muḥarram, 1220 AH.

• Oversight of the endowment of Sultan Inyāl and Aḥmad ibn Inyāl on the 6th of Jumādā al-Ākhirah, 1207 AH.

Shaykh ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Sijīnī assumed oversight of theendowment of the Ṣāliḥiyyah School (the school of Ṣāliḥ Najm al-Dīn Ayyūb in Cairo) on the 10th ofRamaḍān, 1208 AH.

(Translator’s note: point of benefits):

• Waqf funds were designated not just for scholars, but also for students, the poor, orphans, and the needy
• The scholars defended these endowments fiercely against rulers who tried to repurpose or confiscate them.
• Senior scholars were appointed as overseers of the endowments, ensuring they were managed honestly and according to their purpose.
• They exercised their role with a sense of accountability to the public and to Allāh.)

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