Foundation of al-Azhar

A year after taking Egypt for the Fatimid caliph al-Muʿizz, the general Jawhar al-Ṣiqillī broke ground for the congregational mosque of his new palace-city al-Qāhirah, on 24 Jumādā al-Ūlā 359 by al-Maqrīzī's account. Prayers opened in Ramaḍān 361, and the name al-Azhar — "the radiant" — attached to it early.

Founded as a Fatimid Ismāʿīlī institution, the mosque's teaching circles hardened into salaried colleges within decades. When Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn ended the Fatimid caliphate in 567, al-Azhar passed to Sunni teaching, and it has remained the Muslim world's most recognised seat of learning for a thousand years.

The founding date rests on al-Maqrīzī's Fatimid-era sources; the entry records the institution's own history across traditions plainly.