Schools 🏫

Invention/Contribution:

• Muslims established some of the earliest formal schools and universities in history.

• Madrasas (educational institutions) spread across the Muslim world by the 10th century, offering free education.

• Subjects included Qur’an, law, philosophy, medicine, mathematics, astronomy, and literature.

• Famous centers of learning: Al-Qarawiyyin University (Morocco, 859 CE), Al-Azhar (Cairo, 970 CE), and House of Wisdom (Baghdad, 9th century).

Why it matters:

• Preserved and expanded knowledge from Greek, Indian, and Persian traditions.

• Inspired the rise of European universities during the Middle Ages.

• Showed that education was a communal and spiritual duty.

Book Notes:

• The first school dedicated solely to the teach­ing of medicine was founded in Damascus in 1231 . Before this, medical teaching was carried out in hospitals and through apprenticeships. Medical schools were not widely established until the 16th century, during the reign of Suley­man the Magnificent, the Ottoman sultan.

• By the 15th century, the Ottomans had revo­lutionized schools by setting up learning com­plexes in towns like Istanbul and Edirne in Turkey. Their school system was called Kulliye, and constituted a campus like education, with a mosque, hospital, school, public kitchen, and dining area. These made learning accessible to a wider public while also offering free meals, health care, and sometimes accommodation.

"Stand up for your teacher and honor him with praise. For the teacher is almost a prophet. Did you see greater or more honorable than he who creates, fosters, and develops personalities and brains?

A verse from a Poem by Ahmed Shawki

"It was this great liberality which they [Muslims] displayed in educating their people in the schools which was one of the most potent factors in the brilliant and rapid growth of their civilization. Education was so universally diffused that it was said to be difficult to find a Muslim who could not read or write.

Educator E. H. Wilds