Editing Madrasa (section)

==History==
{{See also|Nizamiyya|List of oldest madrasahs in continuous operation}}

=== Early history ===
[[File:29610-Fez (28134041211) (qarawiyyin crop).jpg|thumb|View of the [[University of al-Qarawiyyin|Qarawiyyin Mosque]] (marked by the green roofs and the white [[minaret]]) on the skyline of historic [[Fez, Morocco|Fes]]|alt=|250x250px]]

The first institute of madrasa education was at the estate of [[Zayd ibn Arqam]] near a hill called [[Al-Safa and Al-Marwah|Safa]], where [[Muhammad]] was the teacher and the students were some of his followers.{{Citation needed|date=June 2014}} After [[Hegira|Hijrah]] (migration) the madrasa of "Suffa" was established in [[Medina|Madina]] on the east side of the [[Al-Masjid an-Nabawi]] mosque. [[Ubada ibn as-Samit]] was appointed there by Muhammad as teacher and among the students.{{Citation needed|date=June 2014}} In the curriculum of the madrasa, there were teachings of The [[Qur'an]], The [[Hadith]], [[fara'iz]], [[tajweed]], [[genealogy]], treatises of [[first aid]], etc. There was also training in horse-riding, the art of war, handwriting and [[calligraphy]], and [[Athletics (physical culture)|athletics]] and [[martial arts]]. The first part of madrasa-based education is dated from the first day of "[[nabuwwat]]" to the first portion of the [[Umayyad Caliphate]].{{Citation needed|date=June 2014}} At the beginning of the [[Caliphate]] period, the reliance on [[Court (royal)|courts]] initially confined sponsorship and scholarly activities to major centres.{{Citation needed|date=March 2018}}

In the early history of the Islamic period, teaching was generally carried out in mosques rather than in separate specialized institutions. Although some major early mosques like the [[Umayyad Mosque|Great Mosque of Damascus]] or the [[Mosque of Amr ibn al-As]] in [[Cairo]] had separate rooms which were devoted to teaching, this distinction between "mosque" and "madrasa" was not very developed.<ref name=":0">{{Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition|volume=5|pages=1123–1154|article=Madrasa|last1=Pedersen|first1=J.|first2=G.|last2=Makdisi|last3=Rahman|first3=Munibur|last4=Hillenbrand|first4=Robert}}</ref> Notably, the [[University of al-Qarawiyyin|al-Qarawiyyin]] (''Jāmiʻat al-Qarawīyīn''), established in 859 in the city of [[Fes, Morocco|Fes]], present-day [[Morocco]], is considered the oldest university in the world by some scholars,<ref name="founding-1"> while other scholars have argued that this distinction belongs to the [[University of al-Qarawiyyin]], also founded in 859.

*{{cite book |last=Esposito |first=John |author-link=John L. Esposito |title=The Oxford Dictionary of Islam |year=2003 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=0-19-512559-2 |page=328 }}
*Kettani, M. Ali. ''Engineering Education in the Arab World''. Middle East Journal, 1974, 28(4):441.</ref> though the application of the term "university" to institutions of the medieval Muslim world is disputed.<ref>Makdisi, George: "Madrasa and University in the Middle Ages", ''[[Studia Islamica]]'', No. 32 (1970), pp.&nbsp;255–264</ref><ref name=":4">[[:fr:Jacques Verger|Verger, Jacques]]: "Patterns", in: Ridder-Symoens, Hilde de (ed.): ''A History of the University in Europe. Vol. I: Universities in the Middle Ages'', Cambridge University Press, 2003, {{ISBN|978-0-521-54113-8}}, pp.&nbsp;35–76 (35): {{blockquote|No one today would dispute the fact that universities, in the sense in which the term is now generally understood, were a creation of the [[Middle Ages]], appearing for the first time between the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. It is no doubt true that other civilizations, prior to, or wholly alien to, the [[medieval]] [[Western world|West]], such as the [[Roman Empire]], [[Byzantine Empire|Byzantium]], [[History of Islam|Islam]], or [[History of China#Ancient China|China]], were familiar with forms of higher education which a number of historians, for the sake of convenience, have sometimes described as universities.Yet a closer look makes it plain that the institutional reality was altogether different and, no matter what has been said on the subject, there is no real link such as would justify us in associating them with [[Medieval university|medieval universities]] in the West. Until there is definite proof to the contrary, these latter must be regarded as the sole source of the model which gradually spread through the whole of Europe and then to the whole world. We are therefore concerned with what is indisputably an original institution, which can only be defined in terms of a historical analysis of its emergence and its mode of operation in concrete circumstances.}}</ref> According to tradition, the al-Qarawiyyin mosque was founded by [[Fatima al-Fihri|''{{transliteration|ar|ALA|Fāṭimah al-Fihrī}}'']], the daughter of a wealthy merchant named {{transliteration|ar|ALA|Muḥammad al-Fihrī}}. This was later followed by the [[Fatimid Caliphate|Fatimid]] establishment of [[al-Azhar Mosque]] in 969–970 in Cairo, initially as a center to promote [[Isma'ilism|Isma'ili]] teachings, which later became a [[Sunni Islam|Sunni]] institution under [[Ayyubid dynasty|Ayyubid]] rule (today's [[Al-Azhar University]]).<ref>{{Cite book|last=Creswell|first=K.A.C.|title=The Muslim Architecture of Egypt I, Ikhshids and Fatimids, A.D. 939–1171|publisher=Clarendon Press|year=1952|pages=36}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Brett|first=Michael|title=The Fatimid Empire|publisher=Edinburgh University Press|year=2017|pages=104}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Behrens-Abouseif|first=Doris|title=Islamic Architecture in Cairo: an Introduction|publisher=E.J. Brill|year=1989|pages=58–62}}</ref><ref name=":6">Jonathan Berkey, ''The Transmission of Knowledge in Medieval Cairo'' (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992), ''passim''</ref> By the 900s AD, the Madrasa is noted to have become a successful higher education system.<ref name="Hilgendorf 63–75">{{Cite journal|last=Hilgendorf|first=Eric|date=April 2003|title=Islamic Education: History and Tendency|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1207/s15327930pje7802_04|journal=Peabody Journal of Education|volume=78|issue=2|pages=63–75|doi=10.1207/s15327930pje7802_04|s2cid=129458856|issn=0161-956X|access-date=2021-11-23|archive-date=2023-01-15|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230115132433/https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1207/S15327930PJE7802_04|url-status=live}}</ref>

=== The development of the formal ''madrasah'' ===
[[File:المدرسة المستنصرية في بغداد.jpg|thumb|The [[Mustansiriya Madrasah|Madrasa al-Mustansiriyya]] in [[Baghdad]], established in 1227, one of the only [[Abbasid Caliphate|Abbasid]]-era madrasas remaining today]]
In the late 11th century, during the late [[Abbasid|ʻAbbāsid]] period, the [[Seljuk dynasty|Seljuk]] vizier [[Nizam al-Mulk|{{transliteration|ar|ALA|Niẓām al-Mulk}}]] created one of the first major official academic institutions known in history as the [[Nizamiyyah|{{transliteration|ar|ALA|Madrasah Niẓāmīyah}}]], based on the informal ''{{transliteration|ar|ALA|majālis}}'' (sessions of the shaykhs). {{transliteration|ar|ALA|Niẓām al-Mulk}}, who would later be murdered by the [[Assassins (sect)|Assassins]] (''{{transliteration|ar|ALA|Ḥashshāshīn}}''), created a system of state madrasas (in his time they were called the Niẓāmiyyahs, named after him) in various Seljuk and ʻAbbāsid cities at the end of the 11th century, ranging from [[Mesopotamia]] to [[Greater Khorasan|Khorasan]].<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":5" /> Although madrasa-type institutions appear to have existed in Iran before Nizam al-Mulk, this period is nonetheless considered by many as the starting point for the proliferation of the formal ''madrasah'' across the rest of the Muslim world, adapted for use by all four different Sunni [[madhhab|Islamic legal schools]] and [[Tariqah|Sufi orders]].<ref name=":3" /><ref name=":5" /><ref name=":0" /> Part of the motivation for this widespread adoption of the madrasah by Sunni rulers and elites was a desire to counter the influence and spread of [[Shia Islam|Shi'ism]] at the time, by using these institutions to spread Sunni teachings.<ref name=":5" /><ref name=":0" /><ref name=":3" />

[[Dimitri Gutas]] and the ''[[Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy]]'' consider the period between the 11th and 14th centuries to be the "[[Islamic Golden Age|Golden Age]]" of Arabic and [[Islamic philosophy]], initiated by [[al-Ghazali]]'s successful [[Logic in Islamic philosophy|integration of logic]] into the {{transliteration|ar|ALA|madrasah}} curriculum and the subsequent rise of [[Avicennism]].<ref name="Stanford">{{cite web|author=Tony Street|title=Arabic and Islamic Philosophy of Language and Logic|publisher=[[Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy]]|date=July 23, 2008|url=http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/arabic-islamic-language|access-date=2008-12-05|archive-date=2019-04-17|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190417070103/https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/arabic-islamic-language/|url-status=live}}</ref> In addition to religious subjects, they taught the "rational sciences," as varied as [[Mathematics in medieval Islam|mathematics]], [[Astronomy in medieval Islam|astronomy]], [[Islamic astrology|astrology]], [[Geography and cartography in medieval Islam|geography]], [[Alchemy and chemistry in medieval Islam|alchemy]], and [[philosophy]], depending on the curriculum of the specific institution in question.<ref>{{citation|title=Between doubts and certainties: on the place of history of science in Islamic societies within the field of history of science|author=Sonja Brentjes|author-link= Sonja Brentjes |journal=NTM Zeitschrift für Geschichte der Wissenschaften, Technik und Medizin|publisher=[[Springer Science+Business Media|Springer]]|issn=1420-9144|volume=11|issue=2|date=June 2003|doi=10.1007/BF02908588|pages=65–79 [69]|pmid=12852421|s2cid=6271842}}</ref> The madrasas, however, were not centres of advanced scientific study; scientific advances in Islam were usually carried out by scholars working under the [[patronage]] of royal courts.<ref>{{citation | last = Sabra | first = A. I. | author-link = A. I. Sabra | editor-last = Shank | editor-first = Michael H. | contribution = Situating Arabic Science: Locality versus Essence | title = The Scientific Enterprise in Antiquity and the Middle Ages | place = Chicago | publisher = University of Chicago Press | orig-year = 1996 | year = 2000 | pages = 215–31 | isbn = 0-226-74951-7}}, pages 225-7</ref> During the [[Islamic Golden Age]], the territories under the Caliphate experienced a growth in [[literacy]], having the highest literacy rate of the [[Middle Ages]], comparable to [[classical Athens]]' literacy in [[Classical antiquity|antiquity]] but on a much larger scale.<ref>{{citation|title=Delivering Education|author=Andrew J. Coulson|page=117|publisher=[[Hoover Institution]]|url=http://media.hoover.org/documents/0817928928_105.pdf|access-date=2008-11-22|archive-date=2011-08-17|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110817054244/http://media.hoover.org/sites/default/files/documents/0817928928_105.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref> The emergence of the [[Kuttab|maktab]] and madrasa institutions played a fundamental role in the relatively high literacy rates of the medieval Islamic world.<ref>{{citation|author=Edmund Burke|title=Islam at the Center: Technological Complexes and the Roots of Modernity|journal=[[Journal of World History]]|volume=20|issue=2|date=June 2009|publisher=[[University of Hawaii Press]]|doi=10.1353/jwh.0.0045|pages=165–186 [178–82]|s2cid=143484233}}</ref>
[[File:Nur al-Din Madrasa.jpg|thumb|Courtyard of the [[Nur al-Din Madrasa]] in [[Damascus]], originally built in 1167 by [[Nur ad-Din Zengi]]]]Under the [[Sultanate of Rum|Anatolian Seljuk]], [[Zengid dynasty|Zengid]], [[Ayyubid dynasty|Ayyubid]], and [[Mamluk Sultanate (Cairo)|Mamluk]] dynasties (11th-16th centuries) in the Middle East, many of the ruling elite founded madrasas through a religious endowment and [[charitable trust]] known as a ''[[waqf]]''.<ref>Ira Lapidus, ''Muslim Cities in the Later Middle Ages'' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984), ''passim''</ref><ref name=":6" /><ref name=":5" /><ref name=":2">Behrens-Abouseif, Doris. 2007. ''Cairo of the Mamluks: A History of Architecture and its Culture''. Cairo: The American University in Cairo Press.</ref> The first documented madrasa created in Syria was the Madrasa of Kumushtakin, added to a mosque in [[Bosra]] in 1136.<ref name=":11">{{Cite book|last=Burns|first=Ross|title=The Monuments of Syria: A Guide|publisher=I.B. Tauris|year=2009|isbn=9781845119478|pages=|orig-year=1992}}</ref>{{Rp|27}}<ref name=":242">{{Cite book|last=|first=|title=The Grove Encyclopedia of Islamic Art and Architecture|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2009|isbn=9780195309911|editor-last=M. Bloom|editor-first=Jonathan|location=|pages=|chapter=Architecture; V. c. 900–c. 1250; B. Central Islamic lands|editor-last2=S. Blair|editor-first2=Sheila}}</ref> One of the earliest madrasas in Damascus, and one of the first madrasas to be accompanied by the tomb of its founder, is the [[Nur al-Din Madrasa|Madrasa al-Nuriyya]] (or Madrasa al-Kubra) founded by [[Nur al-Din Zengi]] in 1167–1172.<ref name=":11" />{{Rp|119}}<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Ettinghausen|first1=Richard|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=l1uWZAzN_VcC&pg=PP1|title=Islamic Art and Architecture: 650–1250|last2=Grabar|first2=Oleg|last3=Jenkins|first3=Marilyn|publisher=Yale University Press|year=2001|isbn=9780300088670|edition=2nd|access-date=2021-11-18|archive-date=2023-01-15|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230115132431/https://books.google.com/books?id=l1uWZAzN_VcC&pg=PP1|url-status=live}}</ref>{{Rp|225}} After [[Saladin|Salah ad-Din]] (Saladin) overthrew the Shi'a Fatimids in Egypt in 1171, he founded a Sunni madrasa near the tomb of [[al-Shafi'i]] in Cairo in 1176–1177, introducing this institution to Egypt.<ref name=":242" /> The Mamluks who succeeded the Ayyubids built many more madrasas across their territories. Not only was the madrasa a potent symbol of status for its patrons but it could also be an effective means of transmitting wealth and status to their descendants. Especially during the Mamluk period, when only former slaves (''[[Mamluk|mamālīk]]'') could assume power, the sons of the ruling Mamluk elites were unable to inherit. Guaranteed positions within the new madrasas (and other similar foundations) thus allowed them to maintain some status and means of living even after their fathers' deaths.<ref name=":2" /> Madrasas built in this period were often associated with the mausoleums of their founders.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":03">{{Cite book|last=Williams|first=Caroline|title=Islamic Monuments in Cairo: The Practical Guide|publisher=The American University in Cairo Press|year=2018|edition=7th|location=Cairo}}</ref>

Further west, the [[Hafsid dynasty]] introduced the first madrasas to [[Ifriqiya]], beginning with the [[Madrasa Ech Chamaiya|Madrasa al-Shamma῾iyya]] built in Tunis in 1238<ref name=":23">{{Cite book|last1=Binous|first1=Jamila|title=Ifriqiya: Thirteen Centuries of Art and Architecture in Tunisia|last2=Baklouti|first2=Naceur|last3=Ben Tanfous|first3=Aziza|last4=Bouteraa|first4=Kadri|last5=Rammah|first5=Mourad|last6=Zouari|first6=Ali|publisher=Museum With No Frontiers, MWNF|year=2002|isbn=9783902782199|edition=2nd}}</ref><ref name=":82">{{Cite book|last=Bloom|first=Jonathan M.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IRHbDwAAQBAJ&q=Islamic+Palace+Architecture+in+the+Western+Mediterranean&pg=PP1|title=Architecture of the Islamic West: North Africa and the Iberian Peninsula, 700–1800|publisher=Yale University Press|year=2020|isbn=9780300218701|location=|pages=|access-date=2021-10-07|archive-date=2023-01-15|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230115132432/https://books.google.com/books?id=IRHbDwAAQBAJ&q=Islamic+Palace+Architecture+in+the+Western+Mediterranean&pg=PP1|url-status=live}}</ref>{{Rp|209}} (or in 1249 according to some sources<ref name=":022">{{Cite book|last=Marçais|first=Georges|title=L'architecture musulmane d'Occident|publisher=Arts et métiers graphiques|year=1954|location=Paris}}</ref>{{Rp|296}}<ref name=":244">{{Cite book|title=The Grove Encyclopedia of Islamic Art and Architecture|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2009|isbn=9780195309911|editor-last=M. Bloom|editor-first=Jonathan|chapter=Hafsid|editor-last2=S. Blair|editor-first2=Sheila}}</ref>). By the late 13th century, the first madrasas were being built in [[Morocco]] under the [[Marinid Sultanate|Marinid dynasty]], starting with the [[Saffarin Madrasa]] in Fes (founded in 1271) and culminating with much larger and more ornate constructions like the [[Bou Inania Madrasa]] (founded in 1350).<ref name=":022"/><ref name=":13">{{Cite book|last1=Lintz|first1=Yannick|title=Maroc médiéval: Un empire de l'Afrique à l'Espagne|last2=Déléry|first2=Claire|last3=Tuil Leonetti|first3=Bulle|publisher=Louvre éditions|year=2014|isbn=9782350314907|location=Paris}}</ref>

During the [[Ottoman Empire|Ottoman period]] the ''medrese'' ([[Turkish language|Turkish]] word for ''madrasah'') was a common institution as well, often part of a larger ''[[külliye]]'' or a ''waqf''-based religious foundation which included other elements like a mosque and a ''[[Hammam (bath)|hammam]]'' (public bathhouse).<ref name=":8"/> The following excerpt provides a brief synopsis of the historical origins and starting points for the teachings that took place in the Ottoman madrasas in the Early Modern Period:{{blockquote|
Taşköprülüzâde's concept of knowledge and his division of the sciences provides a starting point for a study of learning and medrese education in the Ottoman Empire. Taşköprülüzâde recognises four stages of knowledge—spiritual, intellectual, oral and written. Thus all the sciences fall into one of these seven categories: calligraphic sciences, oral sciences, intellectual sciences, spiritual sciences, theoretical rational sciences, and practical rational sciences. The first Ottoman medrese was created in İznik in 1331, when a converted church building was assigned as a medrese to a famous scholar, Dâvûd of Kayseri. Suleyman made an important change in the hierarchy of Ottoman medreses. He established four general medreses and two more for specialised studies, one devoted to the ''{{transliteration|ar|ALA|ḥadīth}}'' and the other to medicine. He gave the highest ranking to these and thus established the hierarchy of the medreses which was to continue until the end of the empire.<ref name = "Ottoman"/>
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