 After its dedication in 972 , and with the hiring by mosque authorities of 35 scholars in 989 , the mosque slowly developed into what is today the second oldest continuously run university in the world after Al <unk> in Umayyad Fes . Al @-@ Azhar University has long been regarded as the foremost institution in the Islamic world for the study of Sunni theology and sharia , or Islamic law . The university , integrated within the mosque as part of a mosque school since its inception , was nationalized and officially designated an independent university in 1961 , following the Egyptian Revolution of 1952 . 
