For over a thousand years, Al-Azhar University has been the center of Islamic scholarship, education, and thought. Muslims educated at Al-Azhar have extended Egypt's infl uence far beyond her borders. The article traces the main stages of reforming thisfamous university in the Arab East in the XIX – early XX centuries. Early in the nineteenth century, Egypt forged ahead of the rest of the Muslim world in secular education, after Mohammad Ali set up the fi rst modern medical, engineering, and military educational institutionsin the area. During British colonial rule of Egypt, state- controlled education was structured to serve British interests while Egyptians and non-English foreigners worked to expand private and religious education.During the early part of the twentieth century, Al-Azhar became the center for reformist views of Islam, mainly under the infl uence of Muhammad Abduh, who taught there. Although some of his views did not gain acceptance, a change in the intellectual climate had begun to take hold.