Universities in old Islamic World

[Mademoiselle]

Re: Universities in old Islamic World

@the_kaur

Mujhe laga aap french ho:D

haha non, mais je parle un petit peu le français :p

@muqawwee123

I think it may have a link to Sarandeep (now in Sri Lanka), because when we read about Arab conquests in Sindh, we read about the people kidnapped were on their journey to Sarandeep. Mali (Maldives) is near Sri Lanka.

I think you confused Mali with Maledives. Mali is a west-african country.

[muqawwee123]

Re: Universities in old Islamic World

yes me confused about Mali, Maldives and Sarandeep.

[khoji]

Re: Universities in old Islamic World

@Mademoiselle

Try this: Educational Inststutions in Golden Age of Islam

It’s a long article. I went through about half of it. Good information. But I really missed the critical analysis. This looked like someone wrote this piece to make Muslims “feel good”.
Secondly, I was looking more into universities which imparted knowledge of science. We all know already that religious learning has always been there in Islamic world. It is the scientific education system which is not known much. The author has listed many universities which were only imparting religious education. Well, some may have science subjects in their curriculum as well, but it is hard to tell. The author makes no attempt to specify if science was being taught there as well.

[khoji]

Re: Universities in old Islamic World

I am reading a book titled "Rise and Fall of the West" by an Australian author. Besides, Western civilization it also analyzes Chinese and Islamic civilizations. The analysis seems to be fair to everyone. One may disagree with some of his conclusions but there does not appear to be any hidden agenda by the author.
This book says that Islamic scientific education was at peak under Abbasids. After this time it almost vanished when Muslim scholars like Ghazali made a popular case that true knowledge is only religious and scientific knowledge is "foreign" knowledge.

The article we looked above supports this analysis.

If this is true then we can say that the "Golden Age" of Islam was the time of Abbasids. And this age ended in around 1200s when Mongols attacked and in reactions Muslim scholars created the distinction between the "true" Islamic knowledge of fiqh, law, etc.; and "foreign" knowledge of mathematics, physics, and chemistry.

Industrial Revolution happened in West later. But Muslims were at the cusp of such a revolution long time back. Yet they couldn't break the threshold due to that unfortunate distinction.
Having the educational system involving institutes of higher education (like universities) was the backbone of Western Renaissance.

[khoji]

Re: Universities in old Islamic World

@Mademoiselle

Sure These are the ones I could find.

Al Qarawiyyin in Fez, Morocco - 9th century
Al-Azhar University, Cairo, Egypt - 10th century
Cordova University, Spain - 10th century
University of Timbuktu, Mali - 11th century
Nizamiyah Universities of Neshapur and Baghdad- 11th century
Mustansariya University, Baghdad - 13th century
University of Granada, Spain - 14th century

Interesting. This is what I found about Qarawiyyin University.

http://www.lamppostproductions.com/files/articles/QARAWIYYIN.pdf

This link says that this university didn’t just make religious scholars but also mathematicians, astronomers, and physicians. It also says that this university was founded in 9th century. So this university follows the theory that universities before around 1200s were more not merely religious institutes.

[muqawwee123]

Re: Universities in old Islamic World

Peace Khoji

Here is an interesting piece of information about building a university by a Muslim woman in 9th Century:

Islam too recognised the key role women should play in implementing God’s instruction “to seek knowledge”. Hadiths recommended this as an activity for both women and men. Not only did Muslim women frequently found schools, but also one of the first recorded universities in the world — the Qarawiyyin University in Fez – was built in the ninth century by a Muslim Tunisian woman, Fatima al-Fihri.

[khoji]

Re: Universities in old Islamic World

Good to hear that.
In a nutshell, there is no comparison between the Muslims of those times and Muslims of today.