Higher Muslim schools in the past and today

The highest Muslim schools in the Arab Caliphate were called madrassas, for the first time these institutions appeared in the 9th century AD. The first of them was opened in 859 in Morocco. Madrasas usually worked at mosques, there they taught Arabic, the Koran, the history of Islam, the hadith, the Sharia (the Muslim ethical code that shapes the moral views of Muslims), kalam. In the Middle Ages, the highest Muslim schools often had not only theological but also cultural significance.

Education in the Islamic World

The Arab caliphate is derived from the Prophet Muhammad, or rather from the community he created in the Hijaz in the beginning of the 7th century. When after the migration the Muslims established themselves in Medina, the Prophet Muhammad told them to teach their children to read and write at the mosques. Gradually there were separate rooms, analogues of primary school.

In the Islamic world there were also the first higher Muslim schools - Nizamiya. Moreover, even in ancient times, instruction was free, and everyone could learn - the children of nobles and merchants sat next to the children of peasants and artisans. They taught, besides the Koran, literature, mathematics, medicine, chemistry, history, linguistics and other sciences. In many ways, the ancient structure of education has been preserved in Islamic countries to this day.

The oldest medrese in the world: Miri Arab

In the XVI century, the highest Muslim school Miri Arab was built in Bukhara. Since its foundation and until its closure (in the 1920s), it remained one of the most prestigious in Central Asia. For some period of Soviet time Miri Arab was the only one in the whole USSR. Among the graduates are Muhammadjan Husain, Miyan Mali, Sheikh Kazy-Askar, former Chechen President Ahmad Kadyrov and others. The Madrasah is currently working, teaching more than 100 students at the same time.

Madrasah is part of the Poi Kalyan complex ("the foot of the Great"), whose construction is attributed to Sheikh Abdallah Yamani, known under the nickname Mir-i Arab. The Shaykh had a great influence on the sultan of Bukhara Khan Ubaidullah. According to some reports, the madrasah was built on the money earned by the khan for the sale of three thousand Persian prisoners (Ubaidullah-khan repeatedly led his troops into raids on Khorasan).

Zyndzhyrly and Al-Karaouine

Zyndzhyrly-madrasah (Bakhchisaray) - one of the oldest in Eastern Europe - in 2010 was 510 years from the day of its foundation. This higher Muslim school was built in 1500 and worked until 1917. In 2006, the project of restoration of the madrassah and the tomb of Hadji Giray was started, and by 2010 the buildings were put in order. In 2015, the school was transferred to the Spiritual Board of Muslims of Crimea.

At the origins of the Al-Karaouine school was a woman - in 859 she founded a madrasah and a mosque in memory of her father, rich merchant Muhammad al-Fikhri. It is the oldest educational institution in Morocco and the oldest of the existing ones. It was attended by Lev the African, Maimonides, Ibn Khaldun. The building was rebuilt several times - now its prayer hall accommodates more than 20 000 people. In 1947, this educational center became a university, in the European sense of the word.

Modern schools

In the 1960s, reform of public education was carried out in many Islamic countries. As a result, there were two main types of madrasah: spiritual, in which imams were prepared, and secular ones, which played the role of secondary or higher school with "ordinary" subjects (mathematics, languages, computer science and other disciplines). There is a third option - private schools.

Higher Muslim schools of the first and second type exist thanks to donations and support from sponsors. Most of them offer their students, in addition to training, free hostels (as well as food and assistance with further training).

Several years ago there were online schools (in Russia, such arose in 2013) - upon completion of training they provide a certificate, and in general their courses focus on programs that use "ordinary" higher Muslim schools.