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Discuss Islamic education in the middle ages.

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Islam – term Islam refers to surrender to god. Religion was founded by muhamed in Mecca 570-632 AD and medina in Arabian peninsular in 622 AD. Theory and practice of Muslims based on;

1. Quran – the holy book which was revealed to Mohamed by god through angel Gabriel and it contains the doctrines of the religion.

2. Hadithi contains the traditions of the prophet. It also contains clarifications of the Koran.
According to Islam, everyone is supposed to participate fully in their religion. It is therefore important for Muslims to be literate especially in Arabic which is the basic language for Islam literature
Two main aspects are emphasized in Islamic education aimed at 2 main things;
i. Preservation of quaint verses. There is a lot of memorization of the Quran.
ii. Produce balanced personalities whose spiritual, intellectual, emotional and physical growth was taken care of.

STRUCTURE

1. KUTTAB. For giving elementary education. These were started in mosques where they concentrated on quaint teacher. They were later moved to teachers houses. Emphasis was in reading and writing especially Arabic. The methods used were repetition and rote learning until children could memorize whole chapters of the Quran. Almost all children were expected to attend.

2. MADRASAH. Were privately owned. Were like high school. Attended by children of the wealthy because they had to pay. They leant Arabic literature

drama, mathematics, astronomy, metaphysics, chemistry and medicine. Some of the schools offered religion, law, rhetoric and history. These schools resembled the monastic and cathedral schools. The main purpose in these
schools was mainly interpretation. There was little innovation. Sometimes poor children could get sponsorship.

3. JAMI. These were colleges of liberal arts which resembled modern universities. Students and professors lived together. Some had medical schools, laboratories and teaching hospitals. They also had astronomy schools. Other schools taught mathematics, agriculture, music, navigation and physics.
The methods used were scientific. They made many discoveries. Between 9th and 12th century Islamic had their peak of civilization. They established what they called the golden age of learning science, architecture and art. During this time, the Arabs benefited a lot from the graeco roman china, India, Africa. They spread and interacted and leant from them. They translated the classical knowledge and shared it all over Islamic world. They leant a lot from medieval scholars especial Thomas Aquinas.

Their contributions to education
Islamic golden age lasted for over 500 years. It was founded on scientific and literary philosophy and therefore was able to produce scholars in almost any branch of knowledge. Western civilization owes a lot to the Islamic education as demonstrated
in the following examples;

1. Islam revived the study and development of science. In so doing they made many scientific inventions e.g. in chemistry they discovered potash, silver nitrate, nitric and sulphuric acid. In mathematics they introduced the Arabic numerals, decimal notification and advanced geometry. They invented algebra and developed spherical trigonometry especially the sine tangent and
cotangent. In physics they invented the pendulum. They also built several astronomic observatories and instruments.

2. In the 9th and 10th century Muslim scholars, compiled preserved and improved great works of Greeks and Romans. In their wide travels this was transmitted to the west through libraries, research bureaus and translation centers. The
work was therefore brought to Western Europe. This opened the way for the European renaissance.

3. They contributed to higher education because they had universities and institutions of scientific research long before the Europeans e.g. the first international conference of since was held in Baghdad in the 8th century. By the 10th century fully fledged universities had been established in these places; Cordova (Spain) Cairo (Egypt).

4. The Muslims practiced scientific farming and devised advanced systems of irrigation, land reclamation and flood control.

5. In arts and architecture, they were very advanced and it is shown by construction of mosques cities, palaces and tombs.

6. In medicine they studied physiology, hygiene methods of treatment, blood circulation and surgery.

The Muslims greatly influenced the western learning and education especially in availing the classical works in Spain where it was spread to other parts of Europe. They had the golden age while Europe had the dark ages.

marto answered the question on May 20, 2019 at 05:38

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