By Omayma Abdel-Latif This Friday, worshippers and students from various parts of the world will go about their usual routine of reciting noon prayers in Al-Azhar Al-Sharif as their predecessors have been doing for the past 11 centuries. This time, however, things will be different, for they will be treated to a "new Azhar" which has had its decaying walls consolidated, its prayer carpets refurbished, its marble tiles replaced and its columns firmly planted on solid ground. Thanks to a comprehensive restoration plan, this mosque-cum-university standing in the heart of Fatimid Cairo is regaining its former glory. On Tuesday, President Hosni Mubarak, accompanied by Prime Minister Kamal El-Ganzouri, the Grand Sheikh of Al-Azhar Mohamed Sayed Tantawi, along with key cabinet ministers, toured the mosque and was briefed on the restoration scheme. Mubarak and his entourage of ministers recited prayers in the building which first received worshippers 1,026 years ago. It took a budget of LE38 million, 22 months of hard labour and 2,000 engineers, restorers and workers to remove signs of centuries of wear and tear which had taken their toll on every corner of the aging mosque. The foundation of the mosque was laid down in 969 AD by Gawhar Al-Siqilli, the army commander of Al-Muizz Liddin Allah, a Fatimid Caliph, as part of a master plan to develop Al-Qahira (Cairo) following his conquest of Egypt. The mosque was built in two years and prayers were performed inside it for the first time on 7 Ramadan in the Hijra year 361. Al-Azhar was first restored in the reign of the Mameluke commander Al-Zaher Baybars in 1266 AD. Later, in 1753, Prince Abdel-Rahman Katkhuda ordered that the mosque be expanded and additions made. These included erecting 50 marble columns and building two halls for Indian students. In the years that followed, the mosque has received only minimal maintenance. Not until the 1992 earthquake hit Cairo and caused serious damage to many of its Islamic monuments did officials wake up to the fact that the mosque was badly in need of restoration. Al-Azhar was the monument hardest hit. In 1995, President Mubarak ordered work to begin to save Sunni Islam's most prestigious learning institution. In the words of Sherif Lutfi, the project manager, the restoration of the mosque was tantamount to "a mission impossible." "The mosque was in such an appalling state that we thought it could never be restored. It seemed doomed to collapse at any moment, so precarious were the foundations," explained Lutfi. Documents show that cracks were permanent features of the mosque's walls, coloured inscriptions were disappearing and minarets were falling prey to decay. Some 65 columns were reinforced, 22 corridors restored, and six minarets and eight monumental gates repaired. Abdel-Latif Ghobara, an engineer involved in the project, went as far as to say that some parts of the mosque "had to be reconstructed from scratch." So a new Azhar has been unveiled to the world. But like the new education bill to reform Al-Azhar curricula which came under fire from conservative Azharites, so did the restoration programme. "You cannot use marble tiles on the floor of a Fatimid monument. It totally destroys the character of the monument because marble tiles were not known at the time," said an expert on Islamic monuments. "In the process of rebuilding a monument there is always something lost," he added. "The real legacy of the mosque is its architecture since it exemplifies a human activity, a place of prayer and learning; changing it means changing the character of the monument," the expert, who asked not to be named, explained. Defending his position, Lutfi said that the project was meant to restore the mosque to "its original state when it was built centuries ago." He added that the old marble that was taken off the mosque's floor was not "something of historic value." "When we deal with a monument like Al-Azhar, we are very cautious about the techniques used because we know what such a place means to the whole world," he said. The restoration of Al-Azhar is not just about preserving the place. According to Ahmed Omar Hashem, president of Al-Azhar University, it is part of an overall process to put the 1,000-year-old university on the threshold of a new millennium. Restoring the place is one thing, he says, but more importantly, Al Azhar now uses the most-up-to-date communication technique, the Internet, to convey the message of Islam to the whole world. The site titled Al-Azhar Al-Sharif provides a brief account of the history of the mosque and the university and its different departments "for those who find neither time nor opportunity to be apprised of its functioning or its long history." Defending the faith against all attempts to defame it is yet another mission Al-Azhar has set out to achieve through its website.
