Cairo - El-Azhar Mosque

Turning right at the Sharia Gohan el-Qaid intersection, we soon come into Shari el-Azhar, which runs east from the Midan el-Ataba to the square in front of the El-Azhar Mosque. Turning left, we soon reach that square, in which there are many Arabic bookshops.

The El-Azhar Mosque (the "most blooming"), the finest building of the Fatimid period, was completed in 972 by Gohar, and in 988 was given the status of a university by Caliph El-Aziz. It was rebuilt after destruction by an earthquake in 1303, and thereafter the rulers and great ones of Egypt including the wealthy Abd el-Rahman Kihya in the 18th C. and Said Pasha, Taufiq and Abbas II in more recent times emulated one another in maintaining and enlarging this venerable building. The rectangular ground plan of the original building is easily recognizable, however, in spite of later additions and alterations. The El-Azhar University is still the leading educational center of the Islamic World.