Word: chaltout
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...school, mired for centuries in rote teaching of the Koran, is already in the midst of a thriving renaissance. Mamoun's predecessor, Sheikh Mahmoud Chaltout, a leading scholar of the Koran who died in December, opened a school of commerce, made the study of English compulsory, revised the medieval law curriculum, established a separate college for girls. The government built an ultramodern "City of Islamic Missions" where Al Azhar's 3,600 foreign students, including six Americans, live in national dormitories with their own kitchens and common rooms...
...Chaltout's changes aimed at making Al Azhar into a new university, while preserving its ancient eminence as a religious center. Mamoun intends to keep the combination. This fall, Al Azhar opens three new faculties of medicine, engineering and agriculture. And the three towering minarets that once cast their shadows on a courtyard of ragged students kneeling on straw mats now look down on modern classrooms and a swimming pool...
...theological split has long kept Shiite Iraq, Iran and Yemen apart from the rest of the Moslem world, which generally adheres to Sunnite doctrine. Last week Sheik Mahmoud Chaltout, 66, Nasser-appointed rector of Cairo's revered al-Azhar University (TIME, May 11), was dramatically pressing a drive to reconcile the two sects. Sheik Chaltout years ago began wooing ulamas (Koranic scholars) of both sides with learned societies and a liberal theological monthly that is still going strong. Striking now with Nasser's support at the very root of the schism-the university itself, which for centuries condemned...
Said one Western scholar last week: "As pious Moslems, al-Azhar men don't drink, smoke or go out with loose women. And they are content with low pay." Says Rector Chaltout: "For ten centuries, al-Azhar has interpreted the Koran and taught its language. Now it will widen the Scope and knowledge of its graduates so that they may paint a true picture of Islam wherever they travel...
Into the World. Hoping to put al-Azhar on a par with modern universities, Chaltout stepped up a foreign-language program, made English a compulsory course, reorganized the library. Above all, Rector Chaltout accelerated al-Azhar's ancient work of propagating the faith. Under this program, the university...