First, the system of Education that arose

Islam came to an East that had already made sophisticated use of learning and in which the skill of thinking was already highly valued (especially in the cause of the maintenance of cities and empires). The first civilised cities and the very idea of writing had arisen in the Middle East before any Europeans including the illiterate ancestors of the Classical Greeks had left their metaphorical caves. Hellenic and Hellenistic civilisation later contributed to this Eastern learning-curve before even the ancestors of the Romans had emerged from the mists of obscurity in the metaphorical steppes. Beside the advantages of city civilisation, the comparative wealth of empires permitted yet further opportunities for the leisure that enable the pursuit of learning (and also a further demand for it by rulers). This was the experience of the East immediately before the advent of Islam and in the very region over which Islamic rulers were now to rule.

Once 'Islam' came to rule over its own grand Empire, learning on a massive new scale was actually the result. Let's examine how it happened. Completely new cities such as Kufa, Basra, Fustat (which later became Cairo) and Baghdad and old cities such as Jerusalem and Damascus (and many more new and old cities besides) soon produced and/or extended their own thriving learning cultures. There really was a dramatic blossoming essentially because of the economics of building such a vast new and different Empire. The annual pilgrimage to Mecca and extensive regional trade networks importantly also gave legitimate opportunities for scholars from distant regions to relate their findings to each other directly. The Arabic language was soon also the language in which many books were written and into which many works were translated from many languagese over a vast Empire, as I've discussed, also given added impetus by the recent transmission to the Middle East of an invention known as paper. The Qur’an was a written work in virtually its current form from early in its human history that was a vital catalyst to study. Its new idea, Islam, required stout defence and its language too required a field of study so that this new idea could be brought to the world. So the impetus for the vast blossoming involved grand secular and also grand religious motivations.

Three sciences began to be widely studied in this vast milieu. Religious sciences were necessary to understand Islam most fully. The science of Arabic grammar served a similar purpose for as Allah had chosen the language, its full comprehension was necessary in order to understand Islam. Not all new Muslims spoke or understood Arabic and so this science was vitally important for their understanding of their new religion. Finally, the Arabs had access to the science of the Ancients, the learning of the Greeks and the Indians were especially studied in as much detail as possible. The Arabians now ruled Greek-speaking peoples and had novel access to and interest in all of the learning of the Near East and India.

In the Hadith, Muhammad specifically recommends seeking knowledge as far away as in China and the Qur’an recommended (in the first revelation of all) that Muhammad, who was traditionally illiterate, “read”, or at least "recite". In the same revelation, the pen is equated with knowledge and the Qur’an often enjoins reasoning. The so-called “People of the Book” (especially the Jews and Christians) were also the essential forebears of Islam and Islam naturally followed suit in valuing the book.

Arabic humanities were also important aspects of the new civilisation of the Arab-Islamic world. Being literate and especially the seeking of knowledge (talab al-‘ilm) and rational thought thus came to be seen as religious duties. Muhammad and the first Caliphs and their governments put this into practice.

Schools were needed to transmit this knowledge as required and scholars also were valued for their learning. Students studied with scholars and memorised the written work or oral teaching of often the same scholar in order to be qualified to teach that work or oral 'teaching' to others.

The Arabic script itself was early found to require reform in order to achieve more clarity and the language itself required expansion to become more than the mainly oral, poetic language it had formerly been.

Other languages of learning also continued to exist within the new Islamic world, of course, but Arabic was seen as necessary in order to follow Islam fully.

The first education in literacy, numeracy and reading the Qur’an was in the traditional “kuttab” or “maktab” school for children. Senior students would attend further lessons at a “majlis” school and a halaqa (circle of learning) possibly at the local mosque or a teacher’s home. Teaching hospitals provided specialised regular medical training in their medical schools from the early 9^th century. Major centres for the study of philosophy in the Hellenistic style existed at Alexandria, Antioch, Harran and Baghdad. Christian churches and monasteries continued to be centres for Christian learning in Syria, Palestine, Egypt and Iraq (usually in Arabic from around the 9^th Century) and major Jewish centres of learning continued to exist in Iraq and Egypt. Observatories also performed a specialised teaching role for astronomers. Arabic came to replace Syriac and Greek (generally) as the local language of learning from the early 9^th Century.

The teaching of the Islamic religion and law beyond the basic level discussed above came to be the function of a school called a madrasa in the major cities from the late 10^th Century. The madrasa thus pre-dated but was remarkably similar to the mediaeval Christian university in the West (e.g. Bologna, Paris and Oxford were founded between the late 11^th Century and the 12^th Century). The madrasa would often be near or later form part of a major mosque and was associated initially with hostels at which travellers were able to stay. Thus a promising student from a country area or less important regional town or city would be able to combine lodgings with advanced teaching more suited to (generally) his aptitude in a major city. Besides religious subjects that included especially jurisprudence and theology, the madrasa typically offered courses in logic, grammar, rhetoric, history and poetry.

A preponderance of these institutions occurred especially in Iran and Iraq but the madrasas associated with al-Azhar Mosque in Cairo also came to be especially highly regarded from the Mamluk period. Madrasas were generally endowed in perpetuity in a special kind of trust that developed as a kind of religious 'tax dodge' called a waqf by wealthy individuals or by the government itself. A waqf might be purely philanthropic or be designed to guarantee a future family income by assigning paid roles to descendents and family members in perpetuity. It might also directly pay the fees of some teachers at the madrasa and/or provide basic bread and board for students (and additional financial aid for especially needy students as required). Large madrasas would typically contain their own mosques and/or prayer halls and accommodation for students and staff. They might train students in one of the schools of jurisprudence or occasionally all four of the major Sunni schools might be taught in the one madrasa. Memorisation of a major text with demonstrated understanding via discussion was the general method of learning and assessment. The equivalent to the modern Western degree offered was the licence to teach (Ijazat at-Tadris). It was the certification of competence to teach specific matter by a suitably qualified senior scholar.

Once qualified, a scholar could legitimately teach and thus earn an income as a scholar. Suitably qualified scholars, many of whom already came from reasonably well-to-do backgrounds, also became available as advisors for government and wealthy individuals who valued their specialised skills.

Beyond the madrasa, it was possible to receive advanced training in specialised areas of learning privately in palaces and the homes of wealthy patrons and teachers.

Training in Sufi practices (I discuss Sufism further (and the schools of jurisprudence) in later posts) was also offered in what came to be centres for Sufi learning.

Also, libraries were often formed from private collections in scholars’ homes for the purposes of making important works available for interested students. Works and ideas might be studied, taught, read, discussed and copied by advanced scholars in these libraries (more or less formally). Many mosque, palace and madrasa libraries were available to the public or to specialised groups for research. Books were also available for sale, scholarly discussion and copying in bookshops.

The next posts will go into more detail about what was taught, why and what discoveries were made.