Image Resource Bank

Image Gallery |  4 of 15

The al-Azhar mosque was built by the Fatimids in 969-971 CE in the city they founded, Cairo; in 988 a college (madrasa) was attached to it, making it the first institution of higher learning in Islamic history.

 Sultan Ahmed I Mosque

Name: Al-Azhar Mosque

Material: Marble, stucco, glass

Size: 7,800 square meters

Date: 970 CE

Place of Origin: Cairo, Egypt

Location: Cairo, Egypt

Source and Registration#:
Wikimedia Commons
(accessed April 30, 2010).

Wadad Kadi

Avalon Foundation Distinguished Service Professor of Islamic Studies, Emerita, Department of Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations, University of Chicago