Author Description

Shaykh Mahmud Shaltut (1897-1963) was a scholar and reformer who held the most senior position in Egypt open to Sunni Muslim religious scholars--that of Rector of the Azhar University in Cairo. His period of office (1958-63) was a turbulent time in Egypt and within the Azhar itself, with President Nasser's socialist government initiating a radical reorganization of that institution in accordance with its policy of exerting greater control over the forces of Islam in Egypt. By focusing on the work of an essentially traditional religious scholar, this study of Shaltut's life and thought will fill a serious gap in modern Islamic studies.