Mahmud Shaltut
| Mahmoud Shaltut محمود شلتوت |
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| Grand Imam of Al-Azhar | |
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In office 1958–1963 |
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| Preceded by | Abd al-Rahman Taj |
| Succeeded by | Hassan Mamoun |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 23 April 1893 |
| Died | 13 December 1963 (aged 70) Cairo, Egypt |
| Religion | Sunni Islam |
Sheikh Mahmoud Shaltut (23 April 1893 - 13 December 1963) was a prominent Egyptian Sunni religious scholar and Islamic theologian best known for his work in Islamic reform. A disciple of Mohammad Abduh’s school of thought, Shaltut rose to prominence as Grand Imam of Al-Azhar during the Nasser years from 1958 until his death in 1963.
Born in Buhayra, a province in Lower Egypt, Sheikh Shaltut left his small village, Binyat Bani Mansur, in 1906 at age thirteen and enrolled in Ma’hd dini of Alexandria- a newly established Azhar- affiliated religious institute. Upon completion of his studies in 1918, Shaltut received his Alameya Degree (Azhar equivalent to the BA) and began teaching at the same institute in 1919. At age thirty four, he was called upon to lecture at the Higher Division of al-Azhar and subsequently transferred to Cairo in 1927.
In 1929 Sheikh Mohammad Moustafa al-Maraghi was chosen as rector of al-Azhar University. Al-Maraghi began creating his own reform program and was firmly supported by Shaltut whom, several years prior to his transfer to al-Azhar, created reform ideas of his own concerning al-Azhar. Shaltut’s reforms were ones specifically geared toward separating the religious institution from the state. However, not everyone was keen on change and it was al-Maraghi’s bold ideas that quickly brought him down. After a brief one-year posting, Sheikh al-Maraghi resigned as grand imam of al-Azhar and in his place came Sheikh Mohammad al-Ahmadi al-Zawahiri. Unlike al-Maraghi, who Shaltut viewed as being a proactive leader and reformer, Sheikh al-Zawahiri was perceived by Shaltut as being reactionary. Shaltut himself was a modernist disciple of Muhammad Abduh and Muhammad Rashid Rida and their influences on him are clearly discernible in his writings, actions, and ideas. Thus, it was inevitable Shaltut would harbor resistance against al-Zawahiri’s passive policies, and therefore, he was consequently dismissed from al-Azhar in September 1931 along with others in what can be conceived as a general purge of those associated with al-Maraghi’s reform faction. Shaltut spent his time spent away from al-Azhar working as a lawyer in the Shari’a courts. It was not until al-Maraghi’s second appointment in 1935 that Shaltut would return to al-Azhar.
During al-Maraghi’s second post at the helm of al-Azhar, which lasted ten years until 1945, Shaltut became Wakil (Vice Dean) of the Kulliyat al Shari’a, and in 1937 he attended the Deuxieme Congrès International de Droit Compare conference at The Hague where he was one of only three scholars selected to represent al-Azhar. His speech regarding the civil and criminal liability in Islamic law impressed those within al-Azhar circles and thus served to increase his status within the institute. Later in 1939, Shaltut was appointed as inspector of religious studies and went on to become a member of the Arabic Language Academy in Cairo as elected in 1946. Shaltut’s rise to prominence continued and in November 1957, he was selected as Vice-Rector and less than one year later, Shaltut was finally given the highest honor and made Sheikh al-Azhar by President Gamal Abdel Nasser in October 1958. Previously, al-Azhar scholars were granted the power to elect the grand imam, but in 1961, after nationalizing the religious institution, Abdel Nasser issued a new al-Azhar Law, limiting the power of the al-Azhar imams and giving the government power to appoint the grand imam. By deepening the ties between the regime and the institution, this allowed the post-1952 revolutionary government of Abdel Nasser to work to integrate education into a unified system and find an ally in Shaltut who would strive for modernization of curricula and a broader public-service function- at home and abroad- for al-Azhar.
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