Catching up with Modern Egypt. Oldest University has ~~~~ look.: If the entry requirement of English universities were to know the Bible by heart the problem of finding enough places for aspiring students would vanish. Yet in the oldest university in the world. Al Azhar in Cairo every entrant until recently had to be able to recite the whole of the Koran, must still learn by heart long passages. Al Azhar has had a long ~story of prosperity and decline. Built in 972 A.D. by Jebal the Sicilian and since pa tially destroyed and rebuilt several times, it was once a flourishing centre of Islamic heresy, became in the 13th, 14th and 15h centuries a world-wide source of intellectual stimulation until its slow lapsing throughout the past few hundred years into old fashioned and thoughtless religious dome. Now things are changing rapidly. As part of a tenyear plan land has been reclaimed from the desert and a new campus is being medicine, have been added to the traditional ones of Islamic La Arabic Studies, Theology and Commerce, there will be a ~~~~~~~~ hospital and modern opportunities for racr ation, and as an even more radical step in a country where until a few years ago ~~~~~~ covered their faces and took ~~ part in public life, a faculty has been formed for girls to learn home king, religious teachings and secular subjects. In the beautiful old mosque where learned man used to stand and teach moslem philosophy to the students sitting at their feet, the lovely colonaded courtyard and living quarters surroundings the main courtyard, students from all over the world now walk barefoot on the holy ground, read the Korea and modern scientific techniques, will probably stay on as long as 22 years taking back their new knowledge and wisdom to 54 countries. Applications for entry increase and numbers next year will reach 40,000, makein Al Azher once again the leader of the intellectural Islamic world. The riwek, an old study or sleeping. Entered from the arcades of the great courtyard through fine curved wooden doorways. The other door used to lead out into the street where students went to the market to spend the small sums of money gives to the university by rich merchants wishing to show their religious fervour. Today money is fiven only to foreign students . The riwaks, once meant for grooups of students from one country of adjoing territories, this is the house of Algeria are no longer used except by pilgrims passing through on theri way to Mecca. or for chatting or studying. The boy in the picture is drinking from the traditional drinking pot.
Photo measures 8 x 10.25 inches.
Photo is dated --0000.
Photo back:
