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EI'Azhar, University of Mohammedan World 191
quadrangle and porter's lodge, the notice-board at the door
these were like Oxford, but the quadrangle, full of squatting
and reclining students, was more like a Japanese wrestling-
booth, and the fantastic minarets, the most fantastic in Cairo,
formed an incongruous element. It was very noisy, for the
Moslem boy repeats his lessons aloud while he is learning
them, and sways his head and body all the time. Some of
the classes were of very small boys, and there were both little
girls and little boys at them. The girls are on the increase ;
but they must not speak—they. are only allowed to listen.
The lecture-hours in the morning are from nine to one, and
they begin again at 1.30. Work, however, did not seem to
be proceeding arduously. Until the age of fifteen the
students are only allowed to learn to read the Koran.
After that they may take a scientific course. It is only
quite lately that the boys have been allowed to come in
tarbuskes instead of turbans. Most of the boys are dressed
in black, but a few wear white. The red-and-yellow slippers
of Islam are largely in evidence. All the students use the
brass Turkish inkpots. Their books, where they have any,
have only a narrow line of text on the right of the page ;
the
broad part on the left is commentary. Generally, as I have
said, they have to be content with a few leaves. Although
no one is allowed to wear boots in El-Azhar, the stone of
the pavement is as worn and as polished as ivory.
El-Azhar is an enormous building, as may be imagined,
and its buildings are of all ages, from that of Sultan Jauhar,
who founded the mosque in 970-972, to the present Khedive,
who has built rather a handsome mosque for it, which reminded
me of our school chapels. It is not much used : the
Mohammedan does not need a chapel. The oldest parts are
therefore getting on for a thousand years old. They are
built of the extraordinarily durable Arab plaster. The
inihrab is original, and probably the cupola of it also. Their
pldtre ajoicrd is almost filled up with the whitewash of many
centuries. There are some other pieces of plaster-work,
which appear to be of about the same age, scattered about
the liwdn. The courtyard, which is made rather picturesque
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