Official al-Azhar versus al-Azhar Imagined: The Arab Spring and the Revival of Religious Imagination

Abstract

AbstractWhile the impact of the Arab Spring on the political imagination of the Egyptian youth has been well documented, scholars have largely ignored how the revolutionary fervour of the time also sparked the imagination of religiously inclined young people, especially the young scholars and graduates of al-Azhar. Spurred by the revolutionary spirit of the moment, these young Azharis not only questioned the official Azhari establishment, they also established two new religious institutions: Shaykh al-ʿAmūd and Dār al-ʿImād. Both institutions credited their origin to the Arab Spring; and, while they specialised in different aspects of Islamic scholarly tradition, both shared a similar critique of al-Azhar’s loss of authentic tradition. Engaging with their critiques and approaches informs our understanding of how the Arab Spring spurred creative imagination even within the religious sphere. The article contributes to the existing scholarship on how the 1961 reforms of al-Azhar have challenged its popular legitimacy.