Book Seen with Azhar Imam Renews Debate Over Enlightenment Concept

Circulated photo of Al-Azhar Sheikh with the book (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Circulated photo of Al-Azhar Sheikh with the book (Asharq Al-Awsat)
TT
20

Book Seen with Azhar Imam Renews Debate Over Enlightenment Concept

Circulated photo of Al-Azhar Sheikh with the book (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Circulated photo of Al-Azhar Sheikh with the book (Asharq Al-Awsat)

A photo of a book that appeared next to Al Azhar Sheikh Ahmed Al-Tayeb during his return flight from a European country, renewed on Sunday a debate over the concept of enlightenment among some of his supporters in Egypt.

The debate started when Dr. Khaled Montaser posted on his Twitter account the photo of Al-Tayeb during his return from a medical trip in Germany, with the book “The Decline of the West” by Moroccan thinker Hassan Aourid next to him.

Montaser tweeted that the book that the eminent Imam was reading while on the US jet is about the infidel West, adding in a sarcastic tone that if the Western civilization disappears, “we will not find a medicine tablet or a plane to return home.”

The tweet drew a wave of reactions, which considered that Montaser did not read the book.

Al-Azhar newspaper’s editor-in-chief Ahmed Al-Sawy defended the photo and responded to Montaser without naming him.

He said that The Decline of the West book had provoked the anger of the pretenders of knowledge and enlightenment who saw only their own superficial minds in the picture of Al-Azhar’s sheikh during the trip.

Al-Sawy stressed that important Western writers and thinkers are interested by the subject of this book.

Also, expert in political science and former deputy in the Egyptian Parliament, Dr. Omar Al-Shobaki, explained that the book “is not superficial, and does not deal with the West as infidel.”

He said the book carries a practical critical vision of the negative aspects of the Western civilization and its political system and it is part of the Western vitality to allow self-criticism, and review and correct its own mistakes.

Shobaki stressed that this critical vision should please any person seeking real enlightenment.

He also touched on the “concept of enlightenment” by saying that the required enlightenment calls for religious, political, social and cultural reform.



Scientists: Ancient Jawbone from Taiwan Belongs to Mysterious Group of Human Ancestors

This illustration provided by researchers in April 2025 depicts a Denisovan male in Taiwan in the Pleistocene era about 2.6 million to 11,700 years ago. (Cheng-Han Sun via AP)
This illustration provided by researchers in April 2025 depicts a Denisovan male in Taiwan in the Pleistocene era about 2.6 million to 11,700 years ago. (Cheng-Han Sun via AP)
TT
20

Scientists: Ancient Jawbone from Taiwan Belongs to Mysterious Group of Human Ancestors

This illustration provided by researchers in April 2025 depicts a Denisovan male in Taiwan in the Pleistocene era about 2.6 million to 11,700 years ago. (Cheng-Han Sun via AP)
This illustration provided by researchers in April 2025 depicts a Denisovan male in Taiwan in the Pleistocene era about 2.6 million to 11,700 years ago. (Cheng-Han Sun via AP)

An ancient jawbone discovered in Taiwan belonged to an enigmatic group of early human ancestors called Denisovans, scientists reported Thursday.
Relatively little is known about Denisovans, an extinct group of human cousins that interacted with Neanderthals and our own species, Homo sapiens.
“Denisovan fossils are very scarce,” with only a few confirmed finds in East Asia, said study co-author Takumi Tsutaya at the Graduate University for Advanced Studies in Japan.
So far, the only known Denisovan fossils include partial jawbones, a few teeth and part of a finger bone found in caves in Siberia and Tibet. Some scientists believe fossils found in a cave in Laos may also belong to Denisovans, The Associated Press reported.
The probable identification of the jawbone from Taiwan as Denisovan expands the region where scientists know these ancient people once lived, said Tsutaya.
The partial jawbone was first recovered when a fishing operation dredged the seafloor in the Penghu Channel near the Taiwan Strait. After it was sold to an antique shop, a collector spotted it and purchased it in 2008, then later donated it to Taiwan’s National Museum of Natural Science.
Based on the composition of marine invertebrates found attached to it, the fossil was dated to the Pleistocene era. But exactly which species of early human ancestor it belonged to remained a mystery.
The condition of the fossil made it impossible to study ancient DNA. But recently, scientists in Taiwan, Japan and Denmark were able to extract some protein sequences from the incomplete jawbone.
An analysis showed some protein sequences resembled those contained in the genome of a Denisovan fossil recovered in Siberia. The findings were published in the journal Science.
While the new research is promising, Rick Potts, director of the Smithsonian Institution’s Human Origins Project, said he would like to see further data before confirming the Taiwan fossil as Denisovan.
Potts, who was not involved in the new research, praised the study for “a fantastic job of recovering some proteins.” But he added, such a small sliver of material may not give a full picture.
At one time, at least three human ancestor groups — Denisovans, Neanderthals and Homo sapiens — coexisted in Eurasia and sometimes interbred, researchers say.
“We can identity Neanderthal elements and Denisovan elements" in the DNA of some people alive today, said Tsutaya.