A Travelogue, Part Three: Scholarship Across Nations
Editor’s note: While on sabbatical, M.A.R. Habib, Distinguished Professor in the Department of English and Communication, chronicled his international travels, where he was invited to give multiple university guest lectures and collaborate on research abroad. Rutgers–Camden Faculty Blog will publish excerpts of his accounts, along with the images he took from the places he visited, as part of a multi-part series.
I was invited to talk at the University of al-Azhar, which is one of the most famous universities in the Islamic world. I was amazed to learn that they have around 300,000 students at various branches across Egypt and the world.
I am very fortunate in having a friend and colleague there, Dr. Ahmed Elezabi, whom I met through the gracious auspices of my host Magda when we visited Egypt in 2022. At that time, he was Director of the Translation Center at al-Azhar. He and his colleagues were working on the al-Azhar translation of the Qur’an, and Magda arranged for me to meet them.
I must admit that I was somewhat apprehensive. I had always imagined scholars at al-Azhar to be very conservative, and I was sure that they would not wish to spend any time with the likes of me. But what I found completely shattered these uninformed stereotypes.
What I encountered was a group of people elegantly dressed in suits, modest, respectful, soft-spoken and kind, and extremely articulate in English. We had a rich discussion for two and a half hours, and we have stayed in touch ever since.
Our friend Rehab drove me to the al-Azhar campus, which is huge; we drove around for a while trying to find the right gate. Eventually, we found Dr. Ahmed and he took me to meet the Dean and other colleagues, again all very kind and welcoming. Then I gave a presentation to combined classes of about 30 students, followed by a lively and entertaining discussion.
A few weeks later, I gave a lecture, again at al-Azhar, in front of a large audience of about 100 people on our translation of the Qur’an. While this was a great honor, I must admit that I was a little intimidated since there were so many distinguished Qur’anic scholars present. They asked some challenging questions and, of course, not everyone will always agree on one’s translation choices. But in general, they were extremely gracious and appreciative.
The University of Johannesburg in South Africa also invited me to speak to their English department. My wife Yasmeen has a brother who lives there, so we took the opportunity to go there. It is a country of breathtaking beauty, with stunning scenery. Notwithstanding its reputation for being desperately unsafe in many parts, we found the people there to be extremely warm and friendly, always ready to help with anything needed.
I met the members of the English department in a seminar room and gave a presentation on literary theory and the digital humanities. Of course, I’m no expert on the latter, but I just talked about the challenges posed to theory by recent developments.
Then they treated Yasmeen and me to a delicious lunch in a much more luxurious building that no doubt housed the administration. We had a fascinating conversation for about two hours. It’s one of the great pleasures of being an academic that, wherever we go, we don’t just end up sightseeing but actually get to talk to people—faculty, students, administrators, staff—about the issues that are important to them. And I find that English departments—which I have visited in many countries throughout the world—are basically the same, full of gentle people who are open-minded and “liberal” in the fullest sense.
In Part Four: Back in Egypt, a striking view of the pyramids.
