There is widespread scholarly agreement that al-Azhar rose to prominence as an Islamic center of learning in the sixteenth century, as Arab provinces were adjusting to Ottoman administration. This article examines the development of a locker system at al-Azhar, one of several structural changes that took place between the fourteenth and seventeenth centuries, in addition to the expansion of fraternities. I argue that this material infrastructure, which was supported by modest endowments, served as a crucial scaffold for teaching and learning at al-Azhar and contributed to its rising status as an educational institution. Shari‘a court records reveal that the growing importance of lockers was the result of (1) decisions made by ordinary men and women about the endowment, subdivision, and circulation of lockers and (2) Ottoman legal reforms and innovations. In this way, a seemingly peripheral material object may serve as a site for exploring al-Azhar’s development as an educational institution.

中文翻译：

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爱资哈尔储物柜系统的开发

学术界普遍认为，爱资哈尔在 16 世纪作为伊斯兰学习中心而声名鹊起，因为阿拉伯各省正在适应奥斯曼帝国的统治。本文考察了爱资哈尔储物柜系统的发展，这是 14 世纪和 17 世纪之间发生的几个结构变化之一，以及兄弟会的扩张。我认为，这种由适度捐赠支持的物质基础设施是爱资哈尔教学和学习的重要支架，并有助于其作为教育机构的地位上升。伊斯兰教法法庭记录显示，储物柜日益重要的原因是 (1) 普通男性和女性就捐赠、细分、(2) 奥斯曼帝国的法律改革和创新。这样，一个看似外围的实物就可以作为探索爱资哈尔作为教育机构发展的场所。