The Azhar Is The Grand Collegiate Mosque Of This City,-The Christ
Church, In Fact, Of Cairo,-Once Celebrated Throughout The World Of
Al-Islam.
It was built, I was told, originally in poor style by one
Jauhar al-Kaid,[FN#20] originally the slave of a Moorish merchant, in
consequence of a dream that ordered him to "erect a place whence the
light of science should shine upon Al-Islam."
It gradually increased by "Wakf[FN#21]" (entailed bequests) of lands,
money, and books; and pious rulers made a point of adding to its size
and wealth. Of late years it has considerably declined, the result of
sequestrations, and of the diminished esteem in which the purely
religious sciences are now held in the land of Egypt.[FN#22] Yet it is
calculated that between 2000 and 3000 students of all nations and ages
receive instruction here gratis.
[p.103]Each one is provided with bread, in a quantity determined by the
amount of endowment, at the Riwak set apart for his nation,[FN#23] with
some article of clothing on festival days, and a few piastres once a
year. The professors, who are about 150 in number, may not take fees
from their pupils; some lecture on account of the religious merit of
the action, others to gain the high title of "Teacher in Al
Azhar.[FN#24]" Six officials receive stipends from the government,-the
Shaykh al-Jami' or dean, the Shaykh al-Sakka, who regulates the
provision of water for ablution, and others that may be called heads of
departments.
The following is the course of study in the Azhar. The school-boy of
four or five years' standing has been taught, by a liberal application
of the maxim "the Green Rod is of the Trees of Paradise," to chant the
Koran without understanding it, the elementary rules of arithmetic,
and, if he is destined to be a learned man, the art of writing.[FN#25]
He then registers his name in Al-Azhar, and applies
[p.104]himself to the branches of study most cultivated in Al-Islam,
namely Nahw (syntax), Fikh (the law), Hadis (the traditions of the
Prophet), and Tafsir, or Exposition of the Koran.
The young Egyptian reads at the same time Sarf, or Inflexion, and Nahw
(syntax). But as Arabic is his mother-tongue, he is not required to
study the former so deeply as are the Turks, the Persians, and the
Indians. If he desire, however, to be a proficient, he must carefully
peruse five books in Sarf,[FN#26] and six in Nahw.[FN#27]
[p.105]Master of grammar, our student now applies himself to its proper
end and purpose, Divinity. Of the four schools those of Abu Hanifah and
Al-Shafe'i are most common in Cairo; the followers of Ibn Malik abound
only in Southern Egypt and the Berberah country, and the Hanbali is
almost unknown. The theologian begins with what is called a Matn or
text, a short, dry, and often obscure treatise, a mere string of
precepts; in fact, the skeleton of the subject.
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