The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1909-06-04

Cairo. Egypt.-The great center Of Mo-
hammeoan learning and culture is the
university OF Ei-Azhar in Cairo. More
than a thousand years old. deeply in
crusted with reyerential tradition, holding
to the ancient faith of the prophet OF
Arabia. El-Azhar commands the respect
OF every true believer in Islam. Men come
here from Morocco on the west and India
on the east from Russia at the north and
the Sulu islands at the south, to drink in
the faith and prepare themselves to be-
come teachers and holy men in the
mosques OF their distant homes. What
Mecca is to the devotion Of Islam. FL
Azhar is to its militant spirit. From this
university Islam hopes TO accomplish the
Intellectual conquest of the world.
The absurdity of these hopes and the
fact that the religion Of MOhammed is
moribund. is proved beyond the question
Of doubt to the Occidental who visits
El-Azhar The university was once a
really great institution Of learning Eight
or nine hundred years ago it was the
center Of that profound Arabic culture
which gave to Europe the groundwork
of nearly all its present-day science and
engineering skill. Today in the brilliancy
of the twentieth century. when science
has scaled to heights before undreamt Of,
El-Azhar knows nothing Of the great ad-
vance
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 gathered from
the four corners Of the MOslem world.
Early this year the government with the
active participation Of the khediVe, at
tempted to institute some educational re-
forms in the university 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 in
fluence Of the khedive caused them 70
give a reluctant consent.
But the English reformers of the Mos
lem faith had reckOned without their
hosts. The ten thousand students OF Ell
Azhar promptly went out on strike,
picketed the sacred precincts Of the
mosque and declared a boycott on 'sca0
holy men and divinity students. The gov
eminent resolved to compel obedience TO
its will. and thousands of the striking
students were arrested. So far did the
authorities go that Moslem soldiers and
policemen actually invaded the mosque
without removing their shoes. an unpre-
cedented and horrible proclamation Of the
sacred law.
Then rose the faithful, young and old,
educated and ignorant The government
had transgressed the law. The khedive
had been dUped by the infidel dogs OF
Christian English. The students were
right Students harangued the people
from street corners. They declared thai
they came to El-Azhar to learn the talth
of Islam that they might teach ana
preach in the mosques. They were TO DC
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 Christian S
contaminated learning. And all OF TINS
in sublime ignorance Of the fact that al
Europe knows of mathematics IS Learned
from the Arab scholars OF that very UNI
versity. nearly a thousand years ago.
The students won. The government saw
that its effort to reform the sacred uni
versity would result in nothing but trou'
BILE. and that it might precipitate a tenat
fcal agitation against the Christians. Thus
ended the great students strike, and the
curriculum at the seat OF learning anC
culture of Islam again is restricted 10 tht
Koran, the Hsrith or Sacred IradlIlonS
and the Sheriat or Sacred Law. True
the compromise effected by the govern
ment provided for an elective course II
other branches of learning but 1t Woulc
be worth a students life to defy the VII
Of his fellows and take II.
Lord CrOmer, the British pro-cohsul
who ruled over Egypt for quarter OF
| century, once asked the head or Ei-Aznal
whether his professors taught that th'
earth went round the sun, or tle 81,
| round the earth. He replied that he Wa
not sure that some nations held one way
| and some another. that his general I'M
preston was that the sun went rounC
the earth, but that he had never palI
much attention 10 the matter, and ina
the subject was too unimportant TO meTl
serious discussion by anybody. He dr.
! OF have even the holiness Of the talti
of the Rev. John Jaspar OF Rlchmond
Va, who proclaimed that the sun dI
move" proved it by the Bible and oeIle'
science. s,-,-s--
Yet Moslem boys and girls are. tlocklnl
to the schools provided by American ms
sionaries Those younger people VINO &c
not intend to enter the priesthood nav
a keen desire for knowledge, and ever
| the conservatives have permitted the IN
| PRODUCTION Of primary school studies lnt'
| the "kuttabs" or village schools at
| tached to the mosques, where nolilIhl
| INF me Koran was formerly taught Bu
| the same families which send their sOn'
| and daughters TO a foreign school TO &c
I a business education, Will resist WIZ
might and main the introduction OF III
/ fidel science into the great religious ~