Elementary education '' and the top floor held a
kuttab In the medieval Islamic world, an elementary school (for children or for those learning to read) was known as a "
kuttāb" or ''''. Their exact origin is uncertain, but they appear to have been already widespread in the early Abbasid period (8th-9th centuries) and may have played an early role in socializing new ethnic and demographic groups into the Islamic religion during the first few centuries after the
Arab-Muslim conquests of the region. Like madrasas (which referred to higher education), a was often attached to an endowed mosque.
Primary education , India wrote that children should be sent to a '''' school from the age of 6 and be taught primary education until they reach the age of 14. During which time, he wrote, they should be taught the Qur'an,
Islamic metaphysics, Arabic,
literature,
Islamic ethics, and manual skills (which could refer to a variety of practical skills).
Higher education , EgyptDuring its formative period, the term '''' referred to a higher education institution, whose curriculum initially included only the "religious sciences", whilst
philosophy and the
secular sciences were often excluded. The curriculum slowly began to diversify, with many later madrasas teaching both the religious and the "secular sciences", such as
logic,
mathematics and
philosophy. Some madrasas further extended their curriculum to
history,
politics,
ethics,
music,
metaphysics,
medicine,
astronomy and
chemistry. The curriculum of a was usually set by its founder, but most generally taught both the religious sciences and the physical sciences. Madrasas were established throughout the Islamic world, examples being the ninth century
University of al-Qarawiyyin, the tenth century
al-Azhar University (the most famous), the eleventh century Nizamiyya|, as well as 75 madrasas in Cairo, 51 in
Damascus and up to 44 in
Aleppo between 1155 and 1260. In the Ottoman Empire during the early modern period, "Madaris were divided into lower and specialised levels, which reveals that there was a sense of elevation in school. Students who studied in the specialised schools after completing courses in the lower levels became known as
danişmends." The topics of this higher education also expanded larger than the Islamic time and area. Arab translations of Greco-Roman classical texts were often examined for mathematical and grammatical discourse. Since the focus of theology and legal study was utmost, specified law schools began their own development. On the theological side however, these remained mainly at the general
madrasa since it was more common and easier for the lower-level students to approach. The requirement of competent teachers to keep a madrasa up and running was also important. It was not uncommon for these scholars to be involved in multiple fields such as
Abd al-Latif who was an expert in medicine, grammar, linguistics, law, alchemy, and philosophy. The choice of freedom in inquiry was also important. Muslim higher education at
madrasas offered not only mastery in specified fields but also a more generalized, broader option. The other
madrasa was the Nāṣiriyya, named after Nāṣir al-Dīn Maḥmūd and built by Balban. These two
madrasas bear importance as a starting point for higher education for Muslim India.
Babur of the
Mughal Empire founded a
madrasa in Delhi which he specifically included the subjects of mathematics, astronomy, and geography besides the standard subjects of law, history, secular and religious sciences.
Law school Madrasas were largely centred on the study of ''
(Islamic jurisprudence). The Ijazah|
("licence to teach and issue legal opinions") in the medieval Islamic legal education system had its origins in the ninth century after the formation of the madhhab|'' (schools of jurisprudence). George Makdisi considers the '
to be the origin of the European doctorate. However, in an earlier article, he considered the ' to be of "fundamental difference" to the medieval doctorate, since the former was awarded by an individual teacher-scholar not obliged to follow any formal criteria, whereas the latter was conferred on the student by the collective authority of the faculty. To obtain an '''', a student "had to study in a guild school of law, usually four years for the basic undergraduate course" and ten or more years for a
post-graduate course. The "doctorate was obtained after an oral examination to determine the originality of the candidate's theses", and to test the student's "ability to defend them against all objections, in disputations set up for the purpose." These were scholarly exercises practised throughout the student's "career as a graduate student of law." After students completed their post-graduate education, they were awarded
ijazas giving them the status of
faqih| 'scholar of jurisprudence',
mufti| 'scholar competent in issuing
fatwās', and '''' 'teacher'. Much of the study in the college centred on examining whether certain opinions of law were orthodox. This scholarly process of "determining orthodoxy began with a question which the Muslim layman, called in that capacity ''
, presented to a jurisconsult, called mufti, soliciting from him a response, called fatwa, a legal opinion (the religious law of Islam covers civil as well as religious matters). The mufti
(professor of legal opinions) took this question, studied it, researched it intensively in the sacred scriptures, in order to find a solution to it. This process of scholarly research was called ijtihad|'', literally, the exertion of one's efforts to the utmost limit." Toby Huff argues that no medical degrees were granted to students, as there was no faculty that could issue them, and that therefore, no system of examination and certification developed in the Islamic tradition like that of medieval Europe. However, the historians Andrew C. Miller, Nigel J. Shanks and Dawshe Al-Kalai point out that, during this era, physician licensure became mandatory in the
Abbasid Caliphate. He immediately ordered his
muhtasib Sinan ibn Thabit to examine and prevent doctors from practicing until they passed an examination. However, scholars like
George Makdisi, Toby Huff and Norman Daniel argue that the European
medieval university has no parallel in the medieval Islamic world. Darleen Pryds questions this view, pointing out that madrasas and European universities in the Mediterranean region shared similar foundations by princely patrons and were intended to provide loyal administrators to further the rulers' agenda. Some other scholars regard the university as uniquely European in origin and characteristics. Al-Qarawīyīn University in
Fez, present-day
Morocco is recognised by many historians as the oldest degree-granting university in the world, having been founded in 859 as a mosque by
Fatima al-Fihri. While the madrasa college could also issue degrees at all levels, the
jāmiʻahs (such as al-Qarawīyīn and
al-Azhar University) differed in the sense that they were larger institutions, more universal in terms of their complete source of studies, had individual faculties for different subjects, and could house a number of mosques, madrasas, and other institutions within them. and
University in
Cairo Al-Azhar University, founded in Cairo, Egypt in 975 by the Ismaʻīlī Shīʻī
Fatimid dynasty as a ''
, had individual faculties for a theological seminary, Islamic law and jurisprudence, Arabic grammar, Islamic astronomy, early Islamic philosophy and logic in Islamic philosophy. In the second half of the 19th century in Egypt, Muslim Egyptians began to attend secular schools, and a movement arose in the late 19th to the early 20th century to modernize'' al-Azhar. The postgraduate doctorate in law was only obtained after "an oral examination to determine the originality of the candidate's theses", and to test the student's "ability to defend them against all objections, in disputations set up for the purpose." Another early '''' was the
Niẓāmīyah of Baghdād (founded 1091), which has been called the "largest university of the Medieval world."
Mustansiriya University, established by the
ʻAbbāsid caliph al-Mustanṣir in 1227, Other academic subjects, including the natural sciences, philosophy and literary studies, were only treated "ancillary" to the study of the Sharia. For example, at least in Sunni madrasas, astronomy was only studied (if at all) to supply religious needs, like the time for prayer. This is why
Ptolemaic astronomy was considered adequate, and is still taught in some modern day madrasas. In contrast to the medieval doctorate which was granted by the collective authority of the faculty, the Islamic degree was not granted by the teacher to the pupil based on any formal criteria, but remained a "personal matter, the sole prerogative of the person bestowing it; no one could force him to give one". Although there is a sort of validity to what was just mentioned in this section, more specifically in the previous paragraph, other sources also convey that an emphasis on the teaching of sciences in madrasas, and the licensing of
ijāzahs to those who proved satisfactory in the knowledge of their specific scientific field of study, were indeed conducted. It is historically inaccurate to definitively mention that all forms of science were studied solely for the advancement/supplication of religious needs. This can be evident when one further examines the specific fields of secular sciences that have achieved an established position in madrasa curriculum. Such fields included the sciences of mathematics, medicine and pharmacology, natural philosophy, divination, magic, and alchemy (The last three being clumped up into one set of coursework). To support the claims mentioned earlier in this section, it has been noted that
ijāzahs are not issued to these sciences as much as they are to religious studies, yet at the same time, there is no evidence fully supporting that none were given to these subjects. Clear examples of the issuing of such
ijāzahs can be seen in numerous manuscripts, or more specifically, in
Shams al-Din al-Sakhawi's multiple collections of manuscript titles and biographies. Further evidence of this was illustrated by
al-Sakhawi. He mentioned that in places like Syria and Egypt, it has been suggested that public performances of knowledge, which its conduction was required for one to finally receive their
ijāzah, included mathematics in its content. There are plenty of other examples of the issuance of
ijazahs for scientific subjects.
Ali b. Muhammad al-Qalasadi, a prominent mathematician in his day, was mentioned to be responsible for giving his students an
ijāzah to teach his mathematical treatise on the dust letters.
Ibn al-Nafis gave an
ijazah to his student al-Quff for proving sufficient in knowledge of his commentary on the medical book,
On the Nature of Man. In addition, a copy of a commentary on
Hunayn b. Ishaq's,
Problems of Medicine for Students, managed to show that one of its readers had sufficient knowledge in the medical text,
Synopses of the Alexandrians. Later on in this commentary, an
ijazah, issued by a physician from Damascus, was present to confirm that one was indeed issued here for said student.
Qutb al-Din al-Shirazi was a student of
Nasir al-Din al-Tusi who was considered to be a proficient polymath, astronomer, philosopher, and physician who issued an
ijazah to Najm al-Milla wa-l-Din M. b. M. b. Abi Bakr al-Tabrizi. This license was very extensive, allowing him to teach religious, philosophical, and even medical texts like
Ibn Sina's first book in his
Canon of Medicine. These are just a few select/historical examples of the issuance of
ijazahs for scientific subjects, thereby proving that such licenses were indeed issued along with those regarding religious studies. There are many more examples of this that are not listed on this page, but can easily be found. When taking this evidence into account, one may then reasonably assume that the presence, teaching, and licensing of certain sciences in madrasas has been historically underrepresented. This information, along with some of what is discussed in the following sections/paragraphs on this page, may now hopefully help one in identifying whether or not madrasas can indeed be classified as "Universities". However, arguments for why they should not be classified as such will later be proposed as well. Medievalist specialists who define the university as a legally autonomous corporation disagree with the term "university" for the Islamic madrasas and
jāmi‘ahs because the
medieval university (from Latin
universitas) was structurally different, being a legally autonomous corporation rather than a
waqf institution like the madrasa and '
. Despite the many similarities, medieval specialists have coined the term "Islamic college" for madrasa and ' to differentiate them from the legally autonomous corporations that the medieval European universities were. In a sense, the madrasa resembles a
university college in that it has most of the features of a university, but lacks the corporate element. Toby Huff summarises the difference as follows: As Muslim institutions of higher learning, the madrasa had the legal designation of
waqf. In central and eastern Islamic lands, the view that the madrasa, as a charitable endowment, will remain under the control of the donor (and their descendant), resulted in a "spurt" of establishment of madrasas in the 11th and 12th centuries. However, in Western Islamic lands, where the
Maliki views prohibited donors from controlling their endowment, madrasas were not as popular. Unlike the
corporate designation of Western institutions of higher learning, the waqf designation seemed to have led to the exclusion of non-orthodox religious subjects such a philosophy and natural science from the curricula. The madrasa of al-Qarawīyīn, one of the two surviving madrasas that predate the founding of the earliest
medieval universities and are thus claimed to be the "first universities" by some authors, has acquired official university status as late as 1947. The other, al-Azhar, did acquire this status in name and essence only in the course of numerous reforms during the 19th and 20th century, notably the one of 1961 which introduced non-religious subjects to its curriculum, such as economics, engineering, medicine, and agriculture. Many medieval universities were run for centuries as Christian
cathedral schools or
monastic schools prior to their formal establishment as
universitas scholarium; evidence of these immediate forerunners of the university dates back to the sixth century AD, thus well preceding the earliest madrasas. George Makdisi, who has published most extensively on the topic The Islamic scholarly system of
fatwa| and
ijma|, meaning opinion and consensus respectively, formed the basis of the "scholarly system the West has practised in university scholarship from the Middle Ages down to the present day." According to Makdisi and Goddard, "the idea of academic freedom" in universities was also "modelled on Islamic custom" as practised in the medieval Madrasa system from the ninth century. Islamic influence was "certainly discernible in the foundation of the first deliberately planned university" in Europe, the
University of Naples Federico II founded by
Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor in 1224. Norman Daniel criticizes Makdisi for overstating his case by simply resting on "the accumulation of close parallels" while failing to point to convincing channels of transmission between the Muslim and Christian world. Daniel also points out that the Arab equivalent of the Latin disputation, the
taliqa, was reserved for the ruler's court, not the madrasa, and that the actual differences between Islamic
fiqh and medieval European
civil law were profound. a view shared by Hugh Kennedy. Toby Huff, in a discussion of Makdisi's hypothesis, argues:
George Saliba criticized Huff's views regarding the legal autonomy of European universities and limited curriculum of Madrasahs, demonstrating that there were many Madrasahs dedicated to the teaching of non-religious subjects and arguing that Madrasahs generally had greater legal autonomy than medieval European universities. According to Saliba, Madrasahs "were fully protected from interference in their curriculum by the
very endowments that established them in the first place." Examples include the Dakhwariyya madrasah in
Damascus, which was
dedicated to medicine, a subject also taught at
Islamic hospitals; the Madrasah established by Kamal al-Din Ibn Man`a (d. 1242) in
Mosul which taught astronomy,
music, and the
Old the
New Testaments;
Ulugh Beg's Madrasah in
Samarqand which taught
astronomy; and
Shi`i madrasahs in
Iran which taught astronomy along with religious studies. According to Saliba:
Female education Prior to the 12th century, women accounted for less than one percent of the world's Islamic scholars. However,
al-Sakhawi and
Mohammad Akram Nadwi have since found evidence of over 8,000 female scholars since the 15th century. al-Sakhawi devotes an entire volume of his 12-volume
biographical dictionary '''' to female scholars, giving information on 1,075 of them. More recently, the scholar Mohammad Akram Nadwi, currently a researcher from the
Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies, has written 40 volumes on the muhaddith| (the women scholars of hadith), and found at least 8,000 of them. was the first female
qawmi madrasa in
Bangladesh. From around 750, during the
Abbasid Caliphate, women "became renowned for their brains as well as their beauty". In particular, many well known women of the time were trained from childhood in
music, dancing and
poetry. Mahbuba was one of these. Another female (albeit probably fictional) figure to be remembered for her achievements was
Tawaddud, "a slave girl who was said to have been bought at great cost by Harun al-Rashid| because she had passed her examinations by the most eminent
scholars in
astronomy,
medicine,
law,
philosophy,
music,
history,
Arabic grammar,
literature,
theology and
chess". Moreover, among the most prominent feminine figures was Shuhda who was known as "the Scholar" or "the Pride of Women" during the 12th century in
Baghdad. Despite the recognition of women's aptitudes during the Abbasid dynasty, all these came to an end in
Iraq with the
sack of Baghdad in 1258. According to the Sunni scholar Ibn Asakir| in the 12th century, there were opportunities for
female education in the medieval Islamic world, writing that women could study, earn
ijazahs (academic degrees), and qualify as
scholars and teachers. This was especially the case for learned and scholarly families, who wanted to ensure the highest possible education for both their sons and daughters. Ibn ʻAsakir had himself studied under 80 different female teachers in his time. Female education in the Islamic world was inspired by
Muhammad's wives, such as
Khadijah, a successful businesswoman, and 'A'isha, a strong leader and interpreter of the Prophet's actions. According to a hadith attributed both to Muhammad and 'A'isha, the women of Medina were praiseworthy because of their desire for religious knowledge: Although female madrasas did exist before the 1970s large strides were made is regards to female education. After the 1970s a large increase in total female madrasas took place expanded very rapidly across the region. While it was not common for women to enroll as students in formal classes, it was common for women to attend informal lectures and study sessions at mosques, madrasas and other public places. While there were no legal restrictions on female education, some men did not approve of this practice, such as Muhammad ibn al-Hajj (d. 1336) who was appalled at the behaviour of some women who informally
audited lectures in his time: The term
Awrah| is often translated as 'that which is indecent', which usually meant the exposure of anything other than a woman's face and hands, although scholarly interpretations of the ''
and hijab| have always tended to vary, with some more or less strict than others. Royal women were also major patrons of culture and architecture in the Ottoman Empire, founding many külliye''s (religious and charitable complexes) that included madrasas. In the 20th century in Indonesia, madrasas founded by women played an important role in increasing educational standards in the country. In November 1923,
Rahmah el Yunusiyah opened a school located in Padang Panjang called or . This school is generally thought to be the first Muslim religious school in the country for young girls. El Yunusiyah, a deeply religious woman, believed that Islam demanded a central role for women and women's education. The school gained considerable popularity and by the end of the 1930s had as many as five hundred students. The scholar Audrey Kahin calls
Diniyah Putri "one of the most successful and influential of the schools for women" in pre-independence Indonesia. While madrasas continue to play a pivotal role in the education of many, including young girls, there are still some cultural norms that find their way into the hallways and classrooms of these institutions. In article from 2021,
Hem Borker, a professor at
Jamia Millia Islamia, had the opportunity to travel to India and see the daily life of girls at a residential madrasa. In these madrasas in Northern India, young girls have the ability to receive an education, however, many of the practices within these institutions can be seen as very restrictive or at least by Western standards. Many madrasas that enroll girls act as "purdah institutions." In Persian, purdah translates to curtain or cover. With respect to these madrasas in Northern India, a purdah institution is an institution in which there are several guidelines female students must adhere to as a way to cover themselves both physically and culturally, These restrictions are based on the students' gender and create a segregation of sorts. Girls are expected to wear veils over their faces and cover their entire bodies as a means of dressing modestly by cultural standards. In addition to the clothes that these girls wear, the physical building itself also adheres to the ideals of a purdah institution. Classrooms and hallways are separated by gender in order to prevent fraternization. Within many of these madrasas, even the windows are lined with metal grills in order to prevent students from looking to the outside as well as to prevent people on the outside to look inward. In addition to the physical layout of the building, there are a series of rules female students must adhere to. Some of these rules include girls must lower their head and their voice when addressing their male counterparts. As they pass windows, even with barriers blocking most of their view to the outside and blocking the view of those on the outside, they are expected to lower their gaze. Going back to the idea of clothing, they must wear a
niqāb in order to go outside. Within a cultural context, these rules are very appropriate. In addition to teaching specific subject academic content, institutions such as these purdah madrasas are also incorporating appropriate cultural and societal behavior outside the walls of the building. == Architecture ==