Al-Azhar University

Al-Azhar University (Arabic: جامعة الأزهر) is a public university in Cairo, Egypt, founded in 970 CE by the Fatimid Caliphate and associated with the Al-Azhar Al-Sharif religious institution in Islamic Cairo.爱资哈尔大学（Al-Azhar University，阿拉伯语：جامعة الأزهر）是埃及开罗的一所公立大学，由法蒂玛王朝于公元 970 年创办，与伊斯兰开罗的爱资哈尔谢里夫宗教机构相关联。

It is Egypt's oldest degree-granting university and one of the oldest universities in continuous operation in the world, and it is known as one of the most prestigious centres of Islamic learning.它是埃及最古老的学位授予大学，也是世界上持续办学最古老的大学之一，并以伊斯兰学术重镇享有盛誉。

It is placed in the 1001-1200 band of the QS World University Rankings 2027, the 801-1000 band of the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2027, 279th in the U.S. News Best Global Universities 2026-2027 and the 701-800 band of the Shanghai ARWU 2026.该校在 2027 年 QS 世界大学排名中位列 1001-1200 区间，2027 年泰晤士高等教育世界大学排名位列 801-1000 区间，US News 2026-2027 年度全球最佳大学排名第 279 位，2026 年软科世界大学学术排名位列 701-800 区间。

History

• The institution was begun as a mosque by the Fatimid commander Jawhar al-Siqilli on the orders of the Caliph al-Mu'izz li-Din Allah, probably in Jumada al-Awwal of AH 359, that is March or April 970 CE.该机构由法蒂玛王朝将领昭哈尔·西西里奉哈里发穆伊兹之命兴建为清真寺，动工时间约为伊斯兰历 359 年主马达·敖外鲁月，即公元 970 年三、四月间。
• Its construction was completed on 9 Ramadan in AH 361, corresponding to 24 June 972 CE, and it was named after Fatimah al-Zahra, daughter of the Prophet Muhammad.建筑于伊斯兰历 361 年赖买丹月 9 日、即公元 972 年 6 月 24 日竣工，并以先知穆罕默德之女法蒂玛·扎赫拉命名。
• Caliphs al-Aziz Billah and al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah both added to its premises, while al-Mustansir Billah and al-Hafiz li-Din Allah had it repaired, renovated and extended.哈里发阿齐兹·比拉与哈基姆·比阿姆尔·阿拉都曾扩建其院落，穆斯坦西尔·比拉与哈菲兹·里丁·阿拉则对其加以修缮、翻新与扩展。
• In 988 CE the first Fatimid vizier, Ya'qub ibn Killis, officially designated Al-Azhar as a centre of higher learning and hired a permanent staff of 35 scholars to teach Islamic jurisprudence and other sciences.公元 988 年，法蒂玛王朝首任维齐尔雅库布·伊本·基利斯正式将爱资哈尔定为高等学府，并聘请 35 名学者组成常设教席，讲授伊斯兰法学及其他学问。
• Students of the mosque studied the Qur'an and Islamic law together with logic, grammar, rhetoric and the calculation of the phases of the moon, and under the Fatimids the institution also promoted Shia Islam.该清真寺的学生研习《古兰经》与伊斯兰法，兼及逻辑、语法、修辞与月相推算，法蒂玛王朝时期该机构还推广什叶派伊斯兰教。
• In the 12th century Saladin, the founder of the Sunni Ayyubid dynasty, converted Al-Azhar into a Shafi'ite Sunni centre of learning.12 世纪，逊尼派阿尤布王朝的创立者萨拉丁将爱资哈尔转变为沙斐仪派的逊尼派学术中心。
• According to tradition, Saladin had the treasures and books of the Fatimid palace sold over ten years, with between 120,000 and 2,000,000 volumes said to have been burned, thrown into the Nile or buried under a hill of books.相传萨拉丁在十年间变卖了法蒂玛宫廷的珍宝与藏书，据称有 12 万至 200 万册书籍被焚烧、投入尼罗河或掩埋在「书丘」之下。
• Saladin introduced the college system in Egypt, under which Al-Azhar gained separate colleges within the mosque compound, each with its own classrooms, dormitories and library.萨拉丁在埃及引入学院制度，爱资哈尔因而在清真寺院落内拥有了独立的学院，各设教室、宿舍与图书馆。
• Under the Mamluks the institution rose in prestige, gaining salaries for instructors, stipends for students and an endowment, and a college was built for it outside the mosque in 1340.马穆鲁克时期该校声望上升，教师获得薪俸、学生获得助学金，学校还获赠瓦克夫产业，1340 年又在其清真寺之外建成一所学院。
• In the late 1400s the buildings were renovated and new dormitories were built for students, at a time when Cairo had some 70 other institutions of Islamic learning.15 世纪后期校舍得到翻新，并为学生新建宿舍，当时开罗另有约 70 所伊斯兰学府。
• Ibn Khaldun, the celebrated historian and philosopher, taught at Al-Azhar from 1383.著名历史学家与哲学家伊本·赫勒敦自 1383 年起在爱资哈尔任教。
• During the Ottoman period the office of Shaykh al-Azhar was created and given to the leading scholar of the institution, whose prestige grew to make it the preeminent centre of Sunni learning.奥斯曼时期设立了「爱资哈尔长老」一职，由该校资历最深的学者担任，其声望日隆，使该校成为逊尼派学术的首要中心。
• In 1748 an Ottoman pasha tried, with little success, to have Al-Azhar teach astronomy and mathematics in addition to its religious curriculum.1748 年一位奥斯曼帕夏曾试图让爱资哈尔在宗教课程之外增授天文学与数学，但收效甚微。
• In the absence of academic degrees, students were loosely organised into riwaq fraternities by nationality and school of Islamic law, each supervised by a professor, and the average length of study was six years.在尚无学位的年代，学生按国籍与所习教法学派组织成名为「里瓦克」的同乡团体，各由一名教授督导，平均修业年限为六年。
• By the mid-19th century Al-Azhar had surpassed Istanbul and was considered the capital of Sunni legal expertise and a rival to Damascus, Mecca and Baghdad.到 19 世纪中叶，爱资哈尔已超越伊斯坦布尔，被视为逊尼派法学之都，并与大马士革、麦加与巴格达比肩。
• When the Kingdom of Egypt was established in 1923, the signing of its constitution was delayed by King Fuad I's insistence that Al-Azhar and other religious institutions be subject to him rather than to parliament.1923 年埃及王国建立时，国王福阿德一世坚持爱资哈尔等宗教机构应受其本人而非议会管辖，致使宪法签署被推迟。
• The King Fuad I Edition of the Qur'an was first published on 10 July 1924 by a committee from Al-Azhar University.福阿德一世版《古兰经》于 1924 年 7 月 10 日由爱资哈尔大学的一个委员会首次出版。
• In March 1924 Abdülmecid II was deposed as Caliph, and the Grand Sheikh of Al-Azhar repudiated the abolition and joined a call for an Islamic conference, which met unsuccessfully in 1926 under the Grand Chancellor of Al-Azhar.1924 年 3 月阿卜杜勒-迈吉德二世被废去哈里发之位，爱资哈尔大长老否认废黜并参与呼吁召开伊斯兰会议，该会议于 1926 年在爱资哈尔大法官主持下召开但未果。
• In 1955 the pioneering Pakistani journalist Zaib-un-Nissa Hamidullah became the first woman to address the university.1955 年，巴基斯坦先驱女记者扎伊布·妮萨·哈米杜拉成为首位在爱资哈尔大学演讲的女性。
• In 1959 the Grand Sheikh of Al-Azhar, Mahmud Shaltut, issued a fatwa declaring that Al-Azhar recognised Shi'ism as a valid branch of Islam.1959 年，爱资哈尔大长老马哈茂德·沙尔图特发布教令，宣布爱资哈尔承认什叶派为伊斯兰教的有效分支。
• In 1961 Al-Azhar was re-established as a university under President Gamal Abdel Nasser when secular faculties such as business, economics, science, pharmacy, medicine, engineering and agriculture were added for the first time, together with an Islamic women's faculty.1961 年，在总统纳赛尔治下爱资哈尔被重建为大学，首次增设商学、经济学、理学、药学、医学、工程与农业等世俗学院，并同期设立伊斯兰女子学院。
• The Council of Senior Scholars was founded in 1911 but was replaced in 1961 by the Centre for Islamic Research, and it was reformed in July 2012 after the law restricting the university's autonomy was modified.长老学者理事会成立于 1911 年，1961 年被伊斯兰研究中心取代，2012 年 7 月在限制大学自治的法律被修改后重新组建。
• In 2013 the Council elected Shawki Ibrahim Abdel-Karim Allam as Grand Mufti of Egypt, the first time the office had been filled by election of scholars since it was created in 1895.2013 年理事会选举绍基·易卜拉欣·阿卜杜勒-卡里姆·阿拉姆为埃及大穆夫提，这是自 1895 年该职设立以来首次由学者选举产生。
• In August 2021, 43 Al-Azhar clerics who had been stationed in Afghanistan since 2009 under an agreement with the Afghan Ministry of Education were evacuated after the Taliban takeover of Kabul.2021 年 8 月，依据与阿富汗教育部协议自 2009 年起驻阿的 43 名爱资哈尔教职人员，在塔利班占领喀布尔后撤离。

Academics

• Al-Azhar University comprises 83 faculties and colleges that teach Arabic, Shari'ah and modern sciences including medicine, engineering, pharmacy, Fiqh and Islamic Da'wah.爱资哈尔大学下设 83 个学院，教授阿拉伯语、教法以及医学、工程、药学、教法学与伊斯兰宣教等现代学科。
• It has long taught all four schools of Sunni jurisprudence, the Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi'i and Hanbali, with the chief mufti of each school acting as its dean.该校长期讲授逊尼派四大教法学派——哈乃斐、马立克、沙斐仪与罕百里，各学派首席穆夫提兼任该学派院长。
• The university also admits members of the seven main Sufi orders, and a 2011 Carnegie Endowment report described Al-Azhar as strongly Sufi in character.该校也接纳七大主要苏非教团的成员，2011 年卡内基国际和平基金会的报告称爱资哈尔具有浓厚的苏非特质。
• Egypt's official statistics agency CAPMAS recorded about 340,000 students at Al-Azhar University in 2022-2023, the largest enrolment among Egyptian higher-education institutions.埃及官方统计机构中央公共动员与统计局记录，2022-2023 学年爱资哈尔大学约有 34 万名学生，是埃及各高等院校中规模最大的。
• Al-Azhar hosts more than 70,000 international students from more than one hundred countries, who study Sharia and Arabic sciences alongside modern subjects.该校接收来自一百多个国家的逾 7 万名国际学生，他们在学习现代学科的同时研习教法与阿拉伯学。
• In addition to higher education, the university oversees a national network of schools with approximately two million pupils.除高等教育外，该校还监管着一个拥有约两百万名学生的全国学校网络。
• About 4,000 teaching institutes in Egypt have been affiliated with the university.埃及约有 4,000 所教学机构隶属于该校。
• Its curriculum ranges from the Qur'an, Islamic law, Arabic grammar, rhetoric and logic to astronomy, philosophy and the modern sciences added after 1961.其课程涵盖《古兰经》、伊斯兰法、阿拉伯语语法、修辞与逻辑，以及天文学、哲学和 1961 年后增设的现代科学。
• The Fatimid-era curriculum included Islamic law and jurisprudence, Arabic grammar, Islamic astronomy, Islamic philosophy and logic.法蒂玛时期的课程包括伊斯兰法与法理学、阿拉伯语语法、伊斯兰天文学、伊斯兰哲学与逻辑学。
• Al-Azhar's library is considered second in importance in Egypt only to the Egyptian National Library and Archives.爱资哈尔的图书馆在埃及的重要性仅次于埃及国家图书馆与档案馆。
• In May 2005 Al-Azhar partnered with the Dubai IT enterprise ITEP on the Al-Azhar Online Project to publish online access to about seven million pages of rare manuscripts.2005 年 5 月，爱资哈尔与迪拜信息技术企业 ITEP 合作开展「爱资哈尔在线」项目，计划在线公开约七百万页珍本手稿。
• Modernist reformers such as Muhammad Abduh led a reform of the curriculum in the early 20th century, reintroducing legal reform through ijtihad.20 世纪初，穆罕默德·阿卜杜等现代主义改革者主导课程改革，通过「伊智提哈德」重新引入法律改革理念。
• Al-Azhar now maintains a modernist position advocating Wasatiyya, or centrism, as a reaction against extreme textualism.该校如今坚持现代主义立场，倡导「中间主义」以回应极端的文本主义。
• The Council of Senior Scholars consists of 40 members, with all four Sunni schools proportionally represented and voting on a majority basis.长老学者理事会由 40 名成员组成，逊尼派四大教法学派按比例分配席位，表决采多数决。
• The Council nominates the Grand Mufti of Egypt, elects the next Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Mosque and rules on whether new legislation complies with Islamic law.该理事会负责提名埃及大穆夫提、推选下一任爱资哈尔清真寺大伊玛目，并裁定新立法是否符合伊斯兰教法。
• An Islamic women's faculty was added in 1961, and the university today includes faculties of medicine, engineering, science, pharmacy, agriculture and business.1961 年增设伊斯兰女子学院，今天该校已设有医学、工程、理学、药学、农业与商学等学院。

Campus

• The historic core of the university is the Al-Azhar Mosque in Islamic Cairo, the Fatimid city founded in 970, at about 30.06 degrees north and 31.25 degrees east.该校的历史核心是伊斯兰开罗的爱资哈尔清真寺，即 970 年建立的法蒂玛之城，地理坐标约为北纬 30.06 度、东经 31.25 度。
• The mosque compound was extended by successive Fatimid caliphs and later housed the separate colleges, classrooms, dormitories and libraries of the college system.清真寺院落经历代法蒂玛哈里发扩建，后来容纳了学院制度下的独立学院、教室、宿舍与图书馆。
• A college was built for the institution outside the mosque in 1340, and in the late 1400s the buildings were renovated and new dormitories added.1340 年该校在清真寺之外建成一座学院，15 世纪后期校舍翻新并新增宿舍。
• The university's Faculty of Engineering has premises in Cairo and in Qena, reflecting the spread of faculties beyond the capital.该校工程学院在开罗与基纳两地设有场所，反映出各学院已超出首都范围分布。
• Al-Azhar's library holds a manuscript collection of about seven million pages, digitised in partnership with the Al-Azhar Online Project.爱资哈尔图书馆藏有约七百万页手稿，并通过「爱资哈尔在线」项目进行数字化。
• The institution's dormitory tradition dates to the riwaq system, in which students from the same country or legal school lived together under a professor's supervision.该校的住宿传统可追溯至「里瓦克」制度，来自同一国家或教法学派的学生在教授的督导下共同居住。
• Al-Azhar Al-Sharif, the religious institution associated with the university, shares the historic mosque complex in Islamic Cairo.与该校相关联的宗教机构「爱资哈尔谢里夫」共享伊斯兰开罗的历史清真寺建筑群。
• Faculties and institutes of the university are distributed across Cairo and several Egyptian governorates, in line with its national educational mission.该校的学院与研究所分布于开罗及埃及若干省区，与其全国性教育使命相适应。
• The mosque remains a working place of worship as well as a teaching site, with its minarets and courtyards forming the visual identity of the institution.这座清真寺至今仍是宗教活动与教学并用的场所，其宣礼塔与庭院构成了该校的视觉标志。

Reputation

• Al-Azhar University is placed in the 1001-1200 band of the QS World University Rankings 2027, a joint-band position in the global table.在 2027 年 QS 世界大学排名中，爱资哈尔大学位列 1001-1200 区间，这是其在该全球榜单上的并列区间位次。
• In the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2027 it stands in the 801-1000 band, its strongest placement among the global tables.在 2027 年泰晤士高等教育世界大学排名中该校位列 801-1000 区间，是其在各全球榜单中最好的名次。
• It was ranked 279th in the U.S. News Best Global Universities 2026-2027 and placed in the 701-800 band of the Shanghai ARWU 2026.该校在 US News 2026-2027 年度全球最佳大学排名中位列第 279 位，并在 2026 年软科世界大学学术排名中位列 701-800 区间。
• It is Egypt's oldest degree-granting university and one of the oldest universities in continuous operation in the world, predating Cairo University, which was founded in 1908.它是埃及最古老的学位授予大学，也是世界上持续办学最古老的大学之一，其历史早于创办于 1908 年的开罗大学。
• Al-Azhar is widely regarded as one of the most prestigious universities in the world for Islamic learning and as the chief centre of Arabic literature and Islamic learning.该校被普遍视为世界上最负盛名的伊斯兰学术重镇之一，也是阿拉伯文学与伊斯兰学术的首要中心。
• OpenAlex records 56,638 research works and 1,265,760 citations for the university, a large output for a religious and general university.OpenAlex 记录该校 56,638 篇研究成果与 1,265,760 次引用，对于一所宗教与综合性大学而言产出规模庞大。
• Its Council of Senior Scholars is expected to be the final authority on whether legislation complies with Islamic law, and it nominates the Grand Mufti of Egypt.其长老学者理事会被视为裁定立法是否符合伊斯兰教法的最终权威，并负责提名埃及大穆夫提。
• Launched as a madrasa and described by the Encyclopaedia of Islam as moving from madrasa to university after 1961, it now runs 83 faculties and colleges.该校最初为伊斯兰学堂，按《伊斯兰百科全书》说法在 1961 年后完成「从学堂到大学」的转型，现设有 83 个学院。
• Its library ranks second in importance in Egypt, and its manuscript holdings are among the largest in the Islamic world.其图书馆在埃及的重要性位居第二，手稿收藏规模在伊斯兰世界名列前茅。
• The university supervises a school network with about two million pupils, giving it a reach unmatched by other Egyptian universities.该校监管着约有两百万名学生的学校网络，其覆盖面在埃及高校中无可比拟。

Student life

• Al-Azhar University has no formal Latin motto, and its identity is instead expressed through the doctrine of Wasatiyya, or centrism, and its long Sufi tradition.爱资哈尔大学没有正式的拉丁校训，其身份改由「中间主义」教义与悠久的苏非传统来表达。
• The riwaq system housed students by nationality and school of Islamic law, each riwaq supervised by a professor and financed through an endowment.「里瓦克」制度按国籍与教法学派安置学生，每个里瓦克由一名教授督导并通过瓦克夫产业获得经费。
• Before the modern era students learned largely by memorising their teachers' lectures and notes, and blind boys were enrolled in the hope that they could earn a living as teachers.在近代以前，学生主要通过背诵教师讲授与笔记来学习，失明男童也被招收，希望能以教师职业谋生。
• The average length of study was six years, and a student was judged fit to become a professor by his shaykh, who issued an ijazah.平均修业年限为六年，学生是否具备成为教授的资格由师者评判，并向其颁发「伊贾扎」证书。
• Membership of the institution historically embraced diverse opinions, with the Ash'ari and Maturidi theological schools both represented.该校历史上包容多元观点，艾什尔里派与马图里迪派神学都曾在此占有一席之地。
• The university receives more than 70,000 international students from over one hundred countries, who bring a strong international character to campus life.该校接收来自一百多个国家的逾 7 万名国际学生，为校园生活带来浓厚的国际色彩。
• Scholarships, such as six offered to the children of the Muslim community in Japan, draw students from around the world.该校提供诸如面向日本穆斯林社群子弟的 6 个奖学金，吸引全球学子前来就读。
• The mosque of Al-Azhar remains a focal point of student religious life, where study circles have been held since the 10th century.爱资哈尔清真寺至今仍是学生宗教生活的中心，其研习圈自 10 世纪延续至今。

Notable people

• Jawhar al-Siqilli, the Fatimid commander, founded the mosque that became Al-Azhar in 970 on the orders of Caliph al-Mu'izz li-Din Allah.法蒂玛将领昭哈尔·西西里奉哈里发穆伊兹之命，于 970 年创建了后来成为爱资哈尔的清真寺。
• Ya'qub ibn Killis, the first Fatimid vizier, formally established Al-Azhar as a centre of higher learning in 988 and hired its first 35 scholars.法蒂玛王朝首任维齐尔雅库布·伊本·基利斯于 988 年正式将爱资哈尔定为高等学府，并聘请首批 35 名学者。
• Saladin, founder of the Ayyubid dynasty, converted Al-Azhar into a Sunni centre of learning in the 12th century.阿尤布王朝创立者萨拉丁于 12 世纪将爱资哈尔转变为逊尼派学术中心。
• Ibn Khaldun, the 14th-century historian and philosopher, taught at Al-Azhar from 1383.14 世纪历史学家与哲学家伊本·赫勒敦自 1383 年起在爱资哈尔任教。
• Muhammad Abduh, Grand Mufti of Egypt, was a co-founder of Islamic Modernism and a leading reformer of the Al-Azhar curriculum.埃及大穆夫提穆罕默德·阿卜杜是伊斯兰现代主义的共同创始人，也是爱资哈尔课程的主要改革者。
• Sayyid Jamal al-Din al-Afghani, activist and co-founder of Islamic Modernism, was associated with the reformist circle around Al-Azhar.活动家、伊斯兰现代主义共同创始人赛义德·贾迈勒丁·阿富汗尼与爱资哈尔周边的改革派圈子关系密切。
• Saad Zaghlul, leader of the 1919 Egyptian revolution and founder of the Wafd Party, was educated at Al-Azhar.1919 年埃及革命领袖、华夫脱党创始人萨阿德·扎格卢勒曾在爱资哈尔求学。
• Taha Hussein, the Egyptian writer and intellectual known as the dean of Arabic letters, studied at Al-Azhar.被誉为「阿拉伯文学泰斗」的埃及作家与思想家塔哈·侯赛因曾在爱资哈尔就读。
• Abdurrahman Wahid, the fourth President of Indonesia from 1999 to 2001, studied at Al-Azhar University.印度尼西亚第四任总统阿卜杜拉赫曼·瓦希德（1999 至 2001 年在任）曾在爱资哈尔大学求学。
• Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, the third President of the Maldives from 1978 to 2008, was a student and later a lecturer at Al-Azhar.马尔代夫第三任总统穆蒙·阿卜杜勒·加尧姆（1978 至 2008 年在任）曾在爱资哈尔求学并任教。
• Aliko Dangote, the Nigerian business magnate, studied business at Al-Azhar University.尼日利亚商业巨子阿利科·丹格特曾在爱资哈尔大学学习商科。
• Muhammad Ma Jian, the Chinese Hui scholar, translated the Qur'an into Chinese, studied at Al-Azhar in the 1930s and later taught Arabic at Peking University in China.中国回族学者马坚将《古兰经》译为中文，20 世纪 30 年代在爱资哈尔求学，后来在中国北京大学教授阿拉伯语。
• Scholars linked to Al-Azhar have founded or led institutions abroad: Timothy Winter founded the Cambridge Muslim College in England, Taha Jabir Alalwani was president of Cordoba University in the United States, Saeed-ur-Rahman Azmi Nadvi became chancellor of Integral University in India and Norarfan Zainal became rector of the Sultan Sharif Ali Islamic University in Brunei.与爱资哈尔相关的学者在海外创办或领导了多所机构：蒂莫西·温特在英格兰创办剑桥穆斯林学院，塔哈·贾比尔·阿拉瓦尼任美国科尔多瓦大学校长，赛义德-乌尔-拉赫曼·阿兹米·纳德维出任印度英特格拉尔大学校监，诺拉尔凡·扎伊纳尔任文莱苏丹沙里夫·阿里伊斯兰大学校长。