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Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology & the Ancient World
Brown University
Box 1837 / 60 George Street
Providence, RI 02912
Telephone: (401) 863-3188
Fax: (401) 863-9423
Joukowsky_Institute@brown.edu
Founded in 359/970 (see Madrasa article, p. 29) under the Fatimids, al-Azhar is the premier center for Sunni scholarship in the world. It is associated with the al-Azhar mosque in which it developed and both are located in the medieval quarter of Cairo. The rulings coming out of al-Azhar provide intellectual and religious leadership in the Islamic world, and the basic program of study at the university was and continues to be Islamic law, theology and the Arabic language.
Posted at Apr 10/2009 01:19PM:
ian: Marking the institutionalization of Islamic learning - though origins were for Ismaili Shiism.