Higher Muslim schools in the past and today

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:46

The highest Muslim schools in the Arab Caliphate were called madrasahs, these institutions first appeared in the 9th century AD. The first of them was opened in 859 in Morocco. Madrasahs usually worked at mosques, they taught Arabic, the Koran, the history of Islam, hadith, Sharia (Muslim ethical code that forms the moral views of Muslims), kalam. In the Middle Ages, higher Muslim schools often had not only theological but also cultural significance.

Education in the Islamic world

The Arab Caliphate originates from the Prophet Muhammad, or rather, from the community he created in the Hijaz at the beginning of the 7th century. When, after the resettlement, the Muslims established themselves in Medina, the Prophet Muhammad ordered them to teach their children to read and write at mosques. Gradually, separate rooms appeared, analogues of an elementary school.

In the Islamic world, the first higher Muslim schools - Nizamiyya - also arose. Moreover, even in ancient times, education was free, and everyone could study - the children of nobles and merchants sat next to the children of peasants and artisans. They taught, in addition to the Koran, literature, mathematics, medicine, chemistry, history, linguistics and other sciences. In many ways, the ancient structure of education has been preserved inIslamic countries to this day.

The oldest madrasas in the world: Miri Arab

In the 16th century, the highest Muslim school Miri Arab was built in Bukhara. From the moment of its foundation until its closure (in the 20s of the XX century), it remained one of the most prestigious in Central Asia. For some period of Soviet times, Miri Arab was the only one in the entire USSR. Among the graduates are Mukhammedzhan Khusain, Miyan Mali, Sheikh Kazy-Askar, ex-president of the Chechen Republic Akhmad Kadyrov and others. The madrasah is still working, teaching more than 100 students at the same time.

The madrasah is part of the Poi Kalyan complex (“the foot of the Great”), the construction of which is attributed to Sheikh Abdallah Yamani, known as Mir-i Arab. The sheikh had a great influence on the Sultan of Bukhara Khan Ubaidulla. According to some reports, the madrasah was built with money received by the Khan for the sale of three thousand Persian captives (Ubaydullah Khan repeatedly led his troops on raids on Khorasan).

Zyndzhyrly and Al-Karaouin

Zyndzhyrly-madrasah (Bakhchisarai) is one of the oldest in Eastern Europe - in 2010, 510 years have passed since its foundation. This higher Muslim school was built in 1500 and worked until 1917. In 2006, a restoration project was launched for the madrasah itself and the tomb of Haji Giray, and by 2010 the buildings were put in order. In 2015, the school was transferred to the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of Crimea.

A woman stood at the origins of the Al-Karaouine school - in 859 she founded a madrasah and a mosque in memory of her father, a we althymerchant Muhammad al-Fihri. This is the oldest educational institution in Morocco and the oldest of the current ones. Leo Africanus, Maimonides, Ibn Khaldun studied there. The building has been rebuilt several times - now its prayer hall can accommodate more than 20,000 people. In 1947, this educational center turned into a university, in the European sense of the word.

Modern schools

In the 1960s, public education was reformed in many Islamic countries. As a result, two main types of madrassas appeared: spiritual ones, in which imams were trained, and secular ones, which played the role of a secondary or higher school with “ordinary” subjects (mathematics, languages, computer science and other disciplines). There is a third option - private schools.

Higher Muslim schools of the first and second type exist thanks to donations and support from sponsors. Most of them offer their students, in addition to tuition, free hostels (as well as meals and assistance with further education).

A few years ago, online schools appeared (one appeared in Russia in 2013) - upon graduation they provide a certificate, and in general, their courses are guided by programs used by "regular" higher Muslim schools.