Islamic teaching mosques functioned as institutions of political authority over writing

Evidence

The great teaching mosques of Cairo and of other large towns in Egypt, like those elsewhere in the Islamic world, were centres not of education, or even learning per se, but of the art and authority of writing. They had been established in earlier centuries by those who held political power, as endeavours to secure and extend through those learned in law, language and philosophy the authoritative support of its word. The study and interpretation of this writing was a sina`a, a profession or craft. To stress the professional, political and economic aspects of this craft, I will refer to it as ‘the law’, though the word should be understood to include a large body of linguistic, philosophical and theological scholarship. Al-Azhar, the name of a particular mosque but also the general name for a group of mosques and lodgings gathered in the older part of Cairo, was not a school for law, but the oldest and most important centre in the Islamic world of law as a profession. As with other crafts and professions, one of the continuous and pervasive activities of those involved was the learning and teaching of its skills. Learning was a part of the practice of law, and it was from this practice, rather than from any set of codes or structures, that it took its sequence and its form. — Timothy Mitchell, Colonising Egypt, 288

Categorization

• DEFINE: Mitchell reframes ‘the law’ as a craft (sina’a) centered on authoritative writing, which is the key definitional move of the chapter.
• XREF: Connects to the general theme of writing/organization as technology of power emerging through this book; also parallels colonial schooling contrasts developed later in the chapter.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Timothy Mitchell, Colonising Egypt, 288