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Ulugh Beg Madrasa, Samarkand, ca. 1912

Madrasah (Arabic: مدرسة, madrasa pl. madāris) is the Arabic word for any type of school, secular or religious (of any religion). It has been loaned into various other languages. It is variously transliterated as madrasah, madarasaa, medresa, madrassa, etc. In common English usage the word "madrasah" has been taken to refer to an Islamic religious school.^[1]

Young madrasah pupils in Mauritania. They learn parts of the Qur'an from wooden tablets.

The word madrasah is derived regularly from the triconsonantal root د-ر-س (d-r-s), which relates to "learning" or "teaching," through the wazn (form/stem) (مفعل(ة mafʻal(a), meaning "a place where X is done"; therefore, "madrasah" literally means "a place where learning/teaching is done". The word is also present as a loanword with the same innocuous meaning in many Arabic-influenced languages such as Urdu, Hindi, Persian, Turkish, Kurdish, Indonesian, Malay and Bosnian.^[2] In the Arabic language, the word مدرسة implies no sense other than that which the word school represents in the English language, such as private, public or parochial school, as well as for any primary or secondary school whether Muslim, non-Muslim or secular. Unlike the understanding of the word school in British English, the word madrasah is like the term "school" in American English in that it can refer to a university-level or post-graduate Islamic school. The correct Arabic word for a university, however, is jamiʿah. The Hebrew cognate midrasha also connotes the meaning of a place of learning.

A typical Islamic school usually offers two courses of study: a hifz course; that is memorisation of the Qur'an (the person who commits the entire Qur'an to memory is called a hafiz); and an 'alim course leading the candidate to become an accepted scholar in the community. A regular curriculum includes courses in Arabic, Tafsir (Qur'anic interpretation), shari'ah (Islamic law), Hadith (recorded sayings and deeds of Prophet Muhammad), Mantiq (logic), and Muslim History. Depending on the educational demands, some madrasahs also offer additional advanced courses in Arabic literature, English and other foreign languages, as well as science and world history.

People of all ages attend, and many often move on to becoming imams. The certificate of an ‘alim for example, requires approximately twelve years of study. A good number of the huffaz (plural of hafiz) are the product of the madrasahs. The madrasahs also resemble colleges, where people take evening classes and reside in dormitories. An important function of the madrasahs is to admit orphans and poor children in order to provide them with education and training. Madrasahs may enroll female students; however, they study separately from the men. There are examples of all-female madrasahs.

In South Africa, the madrasahs also play an important socio-cultural role in giving after-school religious instruction to Muslim children who attend government or private non-religious schools. However, increasing numbers of more affluent Muslim children attend full-fledged private Islamic Schools which combine secular and religious education. Among Muslims of Indian origin, madrasahs also used to provide instruction in Urdu, although this is far less common today than it used to be.

Madrassa Osman ef. Redžović in Visoko, Bosnia was rebuilt shortly after the Bosnian war.

Madrasahs did not exist in the early period of Islam. Their formation can probably be traced to the early Islamic custom of meeting in mosques to discuss religious issues. At this early stage, people seeking religious knowledge tended to gather around certain more knowledgable Muslims; these informal teachers later became known as the shaykhs; and these shaykhs began to hold regular religious education sessions called majalis.

Established in 859, Jami'at al-Qarawiyyin (located in Al-Qarawiyyin Mosque) in the city of Fas (Fez), is considered the oldest madrasah in the Muslim world. It was founded by Fatima Al-Fihri, the daughter of a wealthy merchant named Mohammed Al-Fihri.

During the late Abbasid period, the Seljuk vizier Nizam al-Mulk created the first major official academic institution known in history as the Madrasah Nizamiyyah, based on the informal majalis (sessions of the shaykhs). Al-Mulk, who would later be murdered by the Assassins (Hashshashin), created a system of state madrasahs (in his time they were called, the Nizamiyyahs, named after him) in various Abbasid cities at the end of the 11th century.

During the rule of the Fatimid^[3] and Mamluk^[4] dynasties and their successor states in the medieval Middle East, many of the ruling elite founded madrasahs through a religious endowment known as the waq'f. Not only was the madrasah a potent symbol of status but it was an effective means of transmitting wealth and status to their descendants. Especially during the Mamluk period, when only former slaves could assume power, the sons of the ruling Mamluk elite were unable to inherit. Guaranteed positions within the new madrasahs thus allowed them to maintain status. Madrasahs built in this period include the Mosque-Madrasah of Sultan Hasan in Cairo.

The Guinness Book of World Records recognizes the University of Al Karaouine in Fez, Morocco as the oldest university in the world with its founding in 859.^[5] Al-Azhar University, founded in Cairo, Egypt in the 10th century, offered a variety of academic degrees, including postgraduate degrees, and is often considered the first full-fledged university.

This is a madarasaa of the Jamia Masjid mosque in Srirangapatna, India. This mosque dates back to the 1700s and is where Tipu Sultan used to pray.

In India, there are around 30,000 operating madrasahs.^[6] The majority of these schools follow the Hanafi school of thought. One of the most famous of madrasahs in India is Darul Uloom Deoband (Dar al-'Ulum), located in Deoband, a small town located in the Indian state Uttar Pradesh. In 1986, the Indian government expedited a project to modernize madrasahs by introducing other subjects including science, mathematics, English, and Hindi.^[7] Madrasah education is always provided for free. As a result, the madrasahs often have a multifarious student enrollment, including some Hindus and Christians.^[8]

Main article: Madrassas in Pakistan

.

There are more than 10,000 madrasahs currently (as of 1998?) operating in Pakistan.^[9] It is estimated that one to two million children are enrolled in madrasahs.^[10] Some media reports say that only 0.3 percent^{[citation needed]} of Pakistani school age children are enrolled in traditional madrasahs. This is according to Pakistan's 1998 Population Census The World Bank Group. The 1998 Population Census found only 150,000 children.^{[citation needed]} Orphans, migrants, and part-time students may explain the discrepancy. Regardless, percentage wise, the madrasah enrollment is relatively insignificant. There has been considerable intellectual disagreement about the linkages of madrasahs to conflict in Pakistan. A study conducted in 2005 by Saleem Ali for the United States Institute of Peace attempts to clarify some of these concerns by providing a detailed empirical comparison of rural and urban madrasahs (currently this study is being updpated and expanded as a book (expected to be completed in 2007), though an earlier draft is available online ^[11]. The project also included a web video on such schools titled Children of Faith.^[12]

In the English-speaking Western world, the word "Madrasah" has come increasingly to signify radical Quranic schools connected to Islamist movements, although this — as is made clear above — is far from the meaning of the word. The word madrasah literally means "school" and does not imply a political or even religious affiliation. To say islamic school in arabic the term "madrasa islamia" is used. For religious school, the term "madrasa deeneya" is used. A private school is called "madrasa ghasa". Madrasa is also used to describe schools anywhere in the world not just in muslim countries.^{[citation needed]}

1. ^ Definition of madrasah at Wiktionary.org
2. ^ Madarasaa. WordAnywhere. Retrieved on 2007-06-23.
3. ^ Jonathan Berkey, The Transmission of Knowledge in Medieval Cairo (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992), passim
4. ^ Ira Lapidus, Muslim Cities in the Later Middle Ages (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984), passim
5. ^ The Guinness Book Of Records, Published 1998, ISBN 0-5535-7895-2, P.242
6. ^ The Boston Globe: Indian madrasahs
7. ^ Reforming the Indian Madrassas: Contemporary Muslim Voices
8. ^ BBC News: Narapatipara High Madrassa
9. ^ FrontPage Magazine: Can Pakistan Reform?
10. ^ FrontPage Magazine: Can Pakistan Reform?
11. ^ Pakistani Madrassahs: A Balanced View
12. ^ Children of Faith Video by Dr. Saleem Ali, Ph.D.

• Hawza - used in Shi'a Islam
• Darul Uloom - another similar type of Islamic school
• Maktab - Elementary Islamic schools
• Dars-e Nizamiyyah - most common madrasah curriculum
• Fiqh - main subject of madrasah schooling
• Shari'ah - main subject of madrasah schooling
• Islamic architecture
• Mutawin
• Alim - Islamic scholar, usually a graduate of a madrasah or darul uloom
• Yeshiva and Midrasha - Jewish religious schooling.
• Seminary - Christian religious schooling
• Caferağa Medresseh

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Madrassas

• Wiktionary definition of the word "madrasah"
• Meaning of the word madrassah: [1]
• Madrassahs in Pakistan (A project of the United States Institute of Peace): [2]
• A traditional Afghan madrassa: Islam Way Online - Your Religion and Spirituality Portal

• About Islamic Religious Schools: Madrasas.info

• A discussion on the Mamluk-era madrasa of Khawand Baraka, from The Women Writers Archive

• Alexander Evans, Understanding Madrasahs, Foreign Affairs, Jan/Feb 2006: [3]
• Holy War 101 (Newsweek)
• Tariq Rahman, Denizens of Alien Worlds (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2004. Reprinted 2006), Chapter on 'Madrassas'.
• Islamic Seminaries (Madrassas) in Pakistan, Wikipedia entry,
• Lessons from God The Common Language Project
• "Madaris in Perspective", Waleed Ziad, The News, Pakistan
• "Revisiting the Madrasa Question - A talk given by Dr. Nomanul Haq (University of Pennsylvania) at LUMS", Bilal Tanweer, The News, Pakistan