Founded in 970, and the oldest continuously operating university in the world by most reckonings.
The Fatimids took Egypt in 969 and founded a new walled city they called al-Qahira — the Victorious — which is the origin of the name Cairo. Al-Azhar was its congregational mosque, begun in 970 and completed in 972.
Teaching began here in 975, and the institution has run more or less continuously since. That gives it a strong claim to be the oldest continuously operating university in the world, alongside al-Qarawiyyin in Fez, and it remains the most influential centre of Sunni religious scholarship anywhere.
The Fatimid problem
The Fatimids were Isma’ili Shia, and al-Azhar was founded to propagate Shia doctrine. When Saladin took Egypt in 1171 he abolished the Fatimid caliphate, restored Sunni practice and suppressed the mosque’s teaching function entirely for about a century.
It was revived under the Mamluks as a Sunni institution and has been Sunni ever since. The building you walk into is therefore Fatimid in origin, Sunni in doctrine, and heavily altered by every dynasty in between — which is a reasonable summary of Cairo generally.
What to see
The courtyard is the heart of it, white marble, with three minarets rising around it from different centuries. In term time students sit against the columns of the arcades reading, in a scene that has not changed in a very long time.
The prayer hall contains the original Fatimid mihrab. The Madrasa of Aqbughawiyya and the Taybarsiyya, off the courtyard, have fine Mamluk mihrabs.
The Gate of the Barbers, the main entrance, is named for the students who were shaved there before entering.
Practicalities
Entry is free. Shoes off; covers are provided. Modest dress is required — long trousers or skirt, covered shoulders, and a headscarf for women, which is provided at the door if needed.
Avoid prayer times, particularly Friday midday, when the mosque fills and visitors are not appropriate.
Photography is generally tolerated in the courtyard and not in the prayer hall during worship.
A small tip for the shoe attendant is normal.
Around it
Khan el-Khalili is directly opposite across the road, and Al-Muizz Street runs north from beside it — the densest concentration of medieval Islamic architecture in the world. The three together make a full day.
More Landmarks
The Pyramids of Giza
The only surviving wonder of the ancient world, on a plateau at the edge of the suburbs, with a hard sell attached.
The Citadel of Saladin
Eight hundred years of fortification on a spur above the city, crowned by an Ottoman mosque that looks like it wandered in from Istanbul.
The Mosque of Ibn Tulun
The oldest mosque in Cairo surviving in its original form, from 879, with a spiral minaret and almost nobody in it.