Mahmud Shaltt and Islamic Modernism

Mahmud Shaltt (1897-1963) was a leading Egyptian religious scholar and reformer, during one of the most turbulent and interesting periods in modern Egyptian history, just after the July Revolution in 1952. He held the most senior position open to Sunni Muslim religious scholars, that of Rector of the oldest and immensely powerful university of Azhar in Cairo. This is the first detailed study of the man and his thought, assessing the considerable influence Shaltt has held in the shaping of modern Islamic thought, especially Sunni Muslim theology, in Egypt and the Middle East.