ISLAMIC EDUCATION IN THE INTELLECUAL

PANORAMA OF TURKEY’S HIGHER EDUCATION

Ottoman Heritage, Recent Developments and Challenges

INTERNATIONAL ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY MALAYSIA

Visiting Professor

KIRKHS-Usuluddin and Comparative Religion

THE OTTOMAN HERITAGE

Ottoman history cannot be separated from the general

history of Islamic civilization; as such it is just a period in the

history of this general Muslim achievement. For this reason I

shall refer to it as “the Ottoman Period” (al-’ahd al-Uthmânî).

Therefore, we will also take the Turkish experience in Islamic

education as part of this Islamic educational system.

OSMANLI (‘UTHMÂNÎ)

TURKISH EXPERIENCE IN ISLAMIC EDUCATION

The roots of Islamic education applied by Turkish people

go back to the educational system established by the

Prophet in the first century of Islam. All the way from the

beginning Muslim societies paid highest regard for the

pursuit of knowledge ('ilm) as required by Islamic

principles of learning. Education, on the other hand was

regarded as a religious duty which belonged to the

community rather than the state. However, the state is

supposed to provide the necessary environment. For this

reason in the early period there were only two forms of

teaching; regular Qur'an schools, or maktab; and higher

schools of learning, madrasah. Both institutions were

financed privately by donations or waqf, pious

foundations throughout the Muslim world.

Turkish people inherited this system from the Ottoman

educational tradition through the Seljuk Turks of Anatolia; a

system which was established right from the very beginning days

of Islam. Medrese as a higher education institution is the

touchstone of this tradition. That is why as soon as the

Ottomans were able to perceive themselves as a self-sustained

state, they established a medrese; the first one being the Iznik

Medrese founded by Orhan Gazi in 1331. The chief professor of

this first medrese was the well-known philosopher, Dâwud al-

Qaysarî, who was himself educated in a similar institution in

classical learning of Islam. Therefore, the Ottoman intellectual

history made a beginning as a continuation of the same tradition

that extended to them from the Abbasids, through the Saljuks.

But with the general course of the Ottoman history this system

was gradually transformed into an Ottoman milieu. As more

medreses were opened according to the needs of society, new

terminology concerning the intellectual system emerged.

THE OTTOMAN EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM

The complete form of the Ottoman

intellectual training began, as is the case today,

from elementary school, called ‘mekteb-i sibyan’, or simply mekteb and continued with

middle school, called ‘medrese-i ibtidaiye’. What may be characterized today as higher

education began at tetimme medresesi and

continued at medrese-i semaniye, or sahn-i seman, which can be classified as the true

university.

The early education as elementary school began by teaching

reading and writing especially for the purpose of being able

to read the Qur’an. Besides these, some basic subjects such

as mathematics, essentials of Islam and general courses on

religion and morality were taught. As the student continued

his education he would be introduced to new subjects such as

Arabic, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, logic, philosophy

(kalam), Qur’anic exegesis, hadith and fiqh (Islamic law,

jurisprudence and ethics). Natural and medical sciences were

usually not taught at medreses; they were taught at

specialized universities, which were established especially at

and after the time of Sulayman the Magnificent.

THE CURRICULUM OF THE OTTOMAN EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM

In the later periods this system was modified and

some other types of higher educational institutions

were added. But more radical changes were

introduced after the 18th century. These changes

were not only formal but they were concerned with

the contents of education as well.

This brought a major break from the classical

Islamic educational system. We need to explain this;

our question is why?

Negotiation of the Treaty of Karlowitz 1699 Pope XI. Innocentius in 1684 formed a Holy League in Europe against the

Ottomans: (German) Holy Roman Empire, the Polish–Lithuanian

Commonwealth, the Republic of Venice and Russia

It marks the end of Ottoman control in much of Central

Europe and the beginning of the phase of stagnation, with

first major territorial losses after centuries of expansion

After the eighteenth century new engineering schools were

also opened. This brought new conflicts into the Ottoman

intellectual life; since students were educated under different

schemes of thought. There came to exist in the society three

types of intellectuals. First, there were those who were

educated in the medrese system and were inclined to

legalistic or theological type of studies. Secondly, there were

those who were trained at mystic lodges and had an ascetic

mindset; and finally those who were trained at the newly

established universities who had a secularist mindset

belittling traditional learning. Later Ottoman thought was the

field mainly of this struggle between these three types of

mindsets. We shall try to examine more closely how this

development took place as this leads to present day Turkey.

The beginning of this transformation from classical Islamic intellectualism to what is known today as ‘modernization’ or more radically ‘Westernization’ can be seen first in a period called in Ottoman history ‘Lale Devri’ (The Tulip Period). The Grand Vezir Damad İbrahim Paşa (1718-1730) began the construction of a large pleasure palace named, appropriately, Sa’dabâd (Place of Happiness) for the Sultan and his entourage. It was built at one of the most beautiful places in Istanbul, on the right tip of the Golden Horn. İbrahim Paşa is also the first Ottoman official to realize after the terrible defeats at the Western military fronts that Europe was now more advanced in certain fields of knowledge which the Ottomans lacked. He thus began a series of reforms and re-organization. He sent permanent ambassadors for the first time to major European capitals. This way the European ways of living and culture also began to infiltrate into Ottoman society.

At this time the printing press was already available for the non-

Muslim subjects of the Ottomans and works in Hebrew, Greek,

Armenian, and Latin had been printed. Together with Sait Mehmet

Paşa, İbrahim Müteferrika (1674-1745) initiated the establishment of

the first Turkish printing press in Istanbul. This helped in turn to

transmit many of the artifacts and ideas of the West into the empire.

The scribes, who feared the lose of their jobs and position in the

Ruling Class, at first strongly opposed this new invention. But the

Şeyhulislam issued a compromising fatwa, allowing the printing of all

books except the traditional religious books. Müteferrika was thus

free to print whatever he wanted on history, languages, mathematics,

geography, and the sciences. But with the insistence of İbrahim Paşa

the very first works printed were maps of the Sea of Marmara and of

the Black Sea (1720-1725). Then until the death of İbrahim

Müteferrika in 1745, 16 works (in 20 volumes) were printed. Six of

these were on the exact sciences, and the rest were on history and

geography. İbrahim Paşa also constructed a paper factory in 1746.

It is not difficult to infer that in the minds of the Ottoman

thinkers who read these newly published works a new

idea was gradually emerging:

They could survive only if they “borrowed not only the

military sciences but also the geographic knowledge and

governmental techniques developed in the modern world.”

This is clearly manifest in the publication of Katip Çelebi’s

Cihannuma which “used a Latin work by Edmund

Pourchot (1651-1734) as a basis for discussing the

theories of Descartes on vortexes and those of Galileo on

physics, magnetism, and the compass. In 1732 he

brought together translations of several English and Latin

works under the title Fuyuzat-i Miknatisiye (The

Enlightenment of Magnetism), adding information on the

use of the compass.”

Developments in the 19th century prepares the way for the Republican times in the 20th century. The first changes were seen in the engineering field. The traditional medrese system did not include technical subjects and natural sciences. As a result as early as 1734 a school of engineering was established in Istanbul. But the most comprehensive such schools opened in order to train the military personnel in 1776 were called Imperial Naval Engineering School (Mühendishane-i Bahr-i Hümayun) and Imperial Land Engineering School (Mühendishane-i Berr-i Hümayun). These military schools had mostly French officers and European textbooks most of which were translated into Ottoman Turkish. Such new schools with a totally different background brough a dilemma into the Ottoman educational system. For, there were two types of intellectuals: one with a traditional Islamic mind and the other a new Muslim mind filled with a variety of Western perspective of world conceptions. In order to lessen the gap between the two approaches Sultan Mahmud II (1801-1839) introduced a whole scale reforms in the Ottoman educational system.

ISLAMIC EDUCATION IN THE INTELLECUAL

PANORAMA OF TURKEY’S HIGHER EDUCATION

We thus see a notable number of higher schools established during the reign of Sultan Mahmud II: But these newly established higher institutions of learning had absolutely no relation whatsoever to the traditional education system at lower levels. In fact elementary and middle education schools had almost no changes at this early period of modernization. As a result students coming from the traditional schools had difficulty to understand the subjects at higher institutions. Therefore, eventually the new higher schools gradually began to develop their own elementary and secondary schools. At first the need was felt more at the higher elementary level and as a result the so called Rushdiye Schools (adult elementary schools) were established. For some time this fulfilled the need of the newly established higher schools. The early elementary schools, called mekteb-i sibyân continued to give its traditional education of Qur’an and Islamic education as it used to give.

Schools of medicine, an Imperial School of Music and the Military Academy (Harbiye),

School of Law (Mekteb-i Ma'ârif-i Adliye), School of Natural Sciences (Mekteb-i Ulûm-u

Fenniye) and School of Literary Sciences (Mekteb-i Ulûm-u Edebiyye)

The period right after Sultan Mahmud II is known in

Ottoman history as the period of whole scale reforms

called Tanzimât (Abdulmecid I) (1839-1876).

The new outlook in the Tanzimat Period was emphasizing the

fact that the state is intimately concerned with education. As a

result a new department was established in the government in

1845 in order to control and administer education. At first this

department was called Provisional Board of Education

(Muwaqqat Ma'ârif Meclisi) which was later named Ministry of

Public Schools (Mekâtib-i Umumiyye Nezareti). Thus the first

ministry of education was also established in the Muslim

world. This new state body introduced a set of regulations in

1846 to reorganize the entire educational system.

A new scheme was introduced with elementary school

called mekteb-i sibyan for children of ages 7-10 with four

grades; and secondary school called Rushdiye (Rüşdiye in

Turkish) as before with six grades for children between

ages 11-16. After the Rushdiye a student would choose any

higher school. Finally in 1869 the first Ottoman Education

Law was issued with a comprehensive reorganization of

the state school system. This law also allowed private

schools; as a result, many foreign schools and non-Muslim

educational institutions were opened. But the Ottoman

law did not allow mixed education of Muslims and non-

Muslims. The public schools, on the other hand, were

designed as Sibyaniyye (elementary school), Rushdiye

(lower middle school), I'dâdiyye (higher middle school)

and Sultâniyye (high school).

Then came the institutions of higher learning such as

technical schools, engineering and military schools.

The first modern university organized in Western

fashion came into existence at this time with its

Ottoman-Arabic name Dâr al-Funûn (1900). The

Ottoman Education Law made education mandatory

for boys between ages 7-11 and for girls between ages

6-10. However, new Rushdiyes were established for

girls also if they wanted to continue for higher

education. As a result education became more

widespread throughout the community.

After the Tanzimat Period during the reign of Sultan

Abdulhamid II the number of schools increased

remarkably and thus the rate of literacy tripled. More

schools were established with this modern approach to

other provinces such as Damascus, Baghdad and

Lebanon. He further opened new schools of finance, fine

arts, commerce, engineering, veterinary services, police

and schools for the blind and deaf. After the rule of

Sultan Abdulhamid II the educational system experienced

more reforms of secularization which paved the way for

the official introduction of secularization during the

Republican Era when the Ankara government introduced

the Law of Unity of Education (Tevhid-i Tedrisat Kanunu)

in 1920.

This way all educational institutions were put under the control of

the Ministry of Education which closed all the traditional

medreses, the number of which was estimated to be around 500

with about 18.000 students. In order not to attract negative

reaction because medreses were considered as representing

Islamic education for the common people, the government

provisionally established new higher education schools called

faculty of theology (Dâr al Funûn, İlahiyat Fakültesi) in Istanbul

and 26 new secondary schools for training religious personnel

such as imams and muftis. However when the new constitution

was introduced in 1928 Islam was no longer the official religion of

the state which was defined to be secular. The same year the

Arabic alphabet was replaced by the Latin alphabet used in

educational systems as well. As a result of these new

developments all Islamic schools were closed once again. This was

the period of religious subjugation especially during the Inonu

administration when no religious education at all was allowed.

Finally in 1950 when the new Democratic

Party came into power, the new government

began to allow Islamic education by

establishing the secondary Islamic schools,

called “imam khatib schools” and higher

institutions of Islamic learning at the university

level. It is this system which came to the

present times with some slight changes.

HIGHER ISLAMIC EDUCATION

• Today there are only universities representing this

kind of education. We can in this system single out

the İlahiyat Faculties as representing Islamic

education, but actually in the true Islamic sense, we

are not supposed to make such a distinction; namely

just because ilahiyat colleges have the curricula of

classical Islamic sciences we consider them Islamic

and the other ones we do not because like the ilahiyat

colleges they do not have the curricula of classical

Islamic sciences . In this sense all education is Islamic.

[After] we moved to Bukhara a teacher of the Qur’an and a teacher of

literature were provided for me, and when I reached the age of ten I had

finished the Qur’an and many works in literature (al-adab), so that people

were greatly amazed at me. Then he [my father] sent me to a vegetable

seller who used Indian calculation and so I studied with him. I had devoted

myself to jurisprudence, with frequent visits to Isma‘il the Ascetic about it. I

was a skillful questioner, having become acquainted with the methods of

prosecution and the procedures of rebuttal in the manner which the

practitioners of it [jurisprudence] follow. Then I began to read the Isagoge

Logic under Abu ‘Abd Allah al-Natili. As for Euclid I read the first five or six

figures under him; then I undertook the solution of the rest of the book in its

entirety by myself. Then I moved on to the Almagest, and when I had finished

its introductory sections and got to the geometrical figures, commentaries--

in the natural sciences and metaphysics, and the gates of knowledge began

opening for me. Next I sought to learn medicine, and so I read the books

written on it. Medicine is not one of the difficult sciences. In addition I

devoted myself to jurisprudence and used to engage in legal disputations, at

that time being sixteen years old. Thus I mastered the logical, natural, and

mathematical sciences, and I had now reached the science metaphysics.

(Gohlman Translation)

SCIENTIFIC CONCEPTUAL

SCHEME

WORLDVIEW

LIFE STRUCTURE which is the worldview initially

SPECIFIC SCIENTIFIC

CONCEPTUAL SCHEME

The Stage of Worldview

The Stage of

Knowledge Structure

Scientific Stage

II.

ELEMENTARY

EDUCATION

I.

EARLY

EDUCATION

III.

MIDDLE

EDUCATION

IV.

HIGHER

EDUCATION

V.

GRADUATE

EDUCATION

KNOWLEDGE STRUCTURE

Stage of Specialization

The Initial Process of

Worldview Formation

MENTAL DEVELOPMENT EDUCATIONAL PHILOSOPHY EDUCATIONAL THEORY

Challenges and Future Prospects

The struggle for excellence in Islamic education in the experience of Turkish people represents perhaps the same experience throughout the Muslim world. In this struggle Muslims are left between an old system of Islamic education which is no longer able to cope with the requirements of our time and a new Western educational system built on solid ground and a philosophy of its own worldview. If Muslims adopt this new educational system they feel forced to accept with it its philosophical requirements at the same time. This necessarily brings the problem of philosophical secularism into the educational picture.

There seems to be only one way left: to develop a new

system of Islamic education for the future generations.

Unfortunately many Muslim intellectuals and government

policy makers in the Muslim world are not even aware of

the fact that without a well rounded philosophy of

Islamic education it is not possible to establish a system

of education; a philosophy of education that is built upon

the worldview of Islam, namely the Islamic vision of

reality and truth. This explains the fact that there is a dire

need for Muslim philosophers to work in this direction

until we come up with a philosophical expression of

reality and truth as depicted by the Qur’an and hadith. We

are hoping that on this basis we shall be able to establish

the Islamic philosophy of education.

THANK YOU VERY MUCH

Istanbul