NOTES PERTAINING TO PUBLICATION, DISTRIBUTION, ETC.
Text of Note
Place of publication: United States, Ann Arbor; ISBN=978-1-321-15836-6
DISSERTATION (THESIS) NOTE
Dissertation or thesis details and type of degree
Ph.D.
Discipline of degree
History
Body granting the degree
Columbia University
Text preceding or following the note
2014
SUMMARY OR ABSTRACT
Text of Note
Founded by the Fatimids in 970 A.D., al-Azhar has been described variously as 'the great mosque of Islam,' 'the brilliant one,' 'a great seat of learning...whose light was dimmed.' Yet despite its assumed centrality, the illustrious mosque-seminary has elicited little critical study. The existing historiography largely relies on colonial-nationalist teleologies that are grounded in a strong centrifugal essentialism: positioning Cairo (and al-Azhar) at a center, around which faithfully revolve concentric peripheries.