Al-Azhar Mosque
Al-Azhar Mosque (359~361 AH)/(970~975 AD) is the most important mosque in Egypt and the most famous in the Islamic world. It has been a mosque and university for more than a thousand years. Although it was established for the purpose of spreading the Shiite doctrine when Egypt was conquered by Jawhar al-Siqilli, the leader of al-Mu’izz li-Din Allah, the first of the Fatimid caliphs in Egypt, it currently studies Islam according to the Sunni doctrine, and after he founded the city of Cairo, he began establishing Al-Azhar Mosque was completed and the first Friday prayer was held there on Ramadan 7, 361 AH – 972 AD. It is thus the first mosque established in the city of Cairo and it is the oldest existing Fatimid monument in Egypt. Historians have differed on the origin of the name of this mosque, and the most likely opinion is that the Fatimids named it Al-Azhar after Fatima Al-Zahra, daughter of the Prophet Muhammad – may God bless him and grant him peace – and in tribute to her memory .
he Mamluk era was considered one of the most prosperous and best eras that Al-Azhar Al-Sharif lived through, as the Mamluk rulers competed to pay attention to Al-Azhar, students, sheikhs, and architecture, and they expanded their spending on it, paying attention, and even adding to its architectural structure.
As for the Ottoman era, the Sultans of the Othman family showed great respect for the mosque and its people despite his resistance to them and his side with the Mamluks during their war with the Ottomans. However, this respect was not translated into practice in the form of care and attention for its architecture or spending on its sheikhs and students.
However, during that period, the mosque became the best place for all Egyptians and the first to receive science and understanding of religion through it. It became a center for the largest gathering of Egyptian scholars, and it also began teaching some of the sciences of philosophy and logic for the first time
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