Word: chaltout
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...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...
Late last year, Nasser appointed a new rector: Sheik Mahmoud Chaltout, 66, himself a product of al-Azhar and a top Koranic scholar, who has long preached the need for Islam's religious awakening. In weekly radio talks, he demanded reform, urged that Arab countries give women an education. "It is written that women used to argue with the Prophet," he explains. "God heard those arguments and approved them." Long an antiCommunist, Chaltout last month appealed to his vast radio audience "in the name of the religion of Allah, to give serious thought to the danger which threatens...
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...