Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1909-06-04

Eight or nine hundred years ago 1t
was the center of that profound Ar
able culture which gave to Europe the
groundwork of nearly all its present.
day science and engineering skill. To-
day, in the brilliancy Of the twentieth
century when science has scaled to
heights before undreamed of, ElsA2har
knows nothing of the great advance.
Its curriculum consists of the Koran,
the sacred traditions and the sacred
law of Islam. These three branches of
learning are expounded to more than
ten thousand earnest students gath
cred from the four corners of the Mos
lem world. Early this year the gov
eminent, with the active participation
Of the khedive, attempted to institute
some educational reforms in the uni
versity. 1t was proposed to add
mathematics and rudimentary science
to the course of study. The Ulema,
the holy men who rule the university
objected to the innovation, but the
influence of the khedive caused them
to give reluctant consent.
But the English reformers of the
Moslem faith had reckoned without
their hosts. The ten thousand stu
dents of El-Azhar promptly went out
on a strike, picketed the sacred pre-
cincts of the mosque and declared a
DOyCOll Ou ScdD uOly men anu Ill
vinity students. The government re-
solved to compel obedience to its will,
and thousands of the striking students
were arrested SO far did the author
tiles go that Moslem soldiers and po-
licemen actually invaded the mosque
without removing their shoes, an I'M
precedented and horrible PROCLAMATION
of the sacred law.
Then rose the Faithful, young and
old, educated and ignorant. The gov
eminent had transgressed the law. The
khedive had been duped by the infidel
dogs of Christian English. The stu
dents were right Students harangued
the people from street corners. They
declared that they came to El-Azhar
TO learn the faith of Islam that they
might teach and preach in the mosques.
They were to be holy men, they did not
need to know science. They were not
to be mere clerks and counter jumpers;
what did they need with arithmetic?
They swore they would not receive any
of the infidel Christians contaminated
norance of the fact that ali Europe
knows of mathematics 1t learned from
the Arab scholars of that very univer-
sity nearly 1000 years ago.
The students won. The government
saw that its effort to reform the sacred
university would result in nothing but
trouble, and that it might precipitate
q fanatical agitation against the Chris
tians. Thus ended the great students
strike, and the curriculum at the seat
of learning and culture of Islam again
is restricted to the Koran, the Hadith
or sacred traditions, and the Sheriat or
sacred law True, the compromise eff
fected by the government provided for
an elective course in other branches of
learning, but it would be worth a stu
dents life to defy the will of his fell
lows and take it.
Lord Cromer, the British pro-consul
who ruled over Egypt for a quarter of
Azhar whether his professors taught
the sun round the earth. He replied
that he was not sure; that some ma
lions held one way and some another;
that his general impression was that
the sun went round the earth, but that
he had never paid much attention to
the matter and that the subject was
too unimportant to merit serious dis
cussion by anybody. He did not have
even the boldness Of the faith of the
Rev. John Jasper of Richmond, Va,
who proclaimed that "The sun do
move" proved it by the Bible, and de-
fled science.
Yet Moslem boys and girls are flock
ing to the schools provided by Ameri-
can missionaries. Those younger peo-
pie who do not intend to enter the
priesthood have keen desire for
knowledge, and even the conservatives
have permitted the introduction of pri-