Madrasah

In the first centuries of Islam, a mosque served as a madrasah. Regarding the time and place of origin of the madrasah as an independent organization, discussions are ongoing. It is believed that the first madrassas began to function in Maverannahr and Khorasan. The earliest madrasah is the madrasah in Bukhara, which is mentioned in the description of the fire of Bukhara in 937. The first attempts to create a centralized education system were made under the Abbasids ^[2] . It is widely believed that madrassas appeared in the state of the Seljukids (XI-XII centuries) as a reaction of the Sunnis to the creation by the Ishmaelite Fatimids in Egypt of the centers of Shiism propaganda - the Palaces of Wisdom (Dar al-hikma) and the Houses of Science (Dar al-ilm). An extensive network of madrassas helped the Seljukids popularize the postulates of Sunni Islam. The prototype of the madrasah as a state institution could be the House of Wisdom (Bayt al-hikma) in Baghdad, founded by the caliph Harun al-Rashid. In the walls of the House of Wisdom, better known as the al-Ma'amun Academy (813-833), ancient treatises on philosophy, astronomy, medicine, mechanics, etc. were translated into Arabic ^[1]

The Karakhanid ruler Maverannahra Tamgach-khan ordered the founding of “Madras in Samarkand, which will become a meeting place for people of science and religion and will include a mosque, classrooms, a school for teaching the Koran, a class for the Koran reader ... utility rooms, courtyard and garden” ^[1] . In the 11th century, the Nizam al-Mulk Seljukid vizier created a wide network of an-Nizamiyya madrasahs, which was funded by the state on the basis of the waqf system. Famous scholars and legal scholars taught them (e.g. al-Ghazali ). Along with the religious sciences, astronomy, philosophy, mathematics, history were taught. According to the Nizamiya model, madrassas were created in various cities, and funding from waqf made them almost independent. Teachers in the madrasah received a salary, students were provided with housing and meals ^[2] . Madrasahs were also founded by the Egyptian sultan Salah ad-Din (Saladin), the Zanggid ruler Nur al-Din (middle of the XII century) ^[1] .

Madrasahs received especially important institutional significance (along with the waqfs) as an instrument of ideological suppression in those regions where the newly arrived Muslim military elite was forced to struggle with the remnants of well-rooted, but economically weak Christian institutions (for example, in Anatolia, which was recaptured from the Byzantines, where after 1071 formed the Seljuk Sultanate ) ^[3] .

Madrassas and libraries with them usually existed on private donations ( waqfs ) ^[1] .

The system of Muslim education for many centuries was the most advanced, it influenced the formation of the college system in medieval Western Europe. However, later madrassas could not compete with the European education system. In modern times, madrassas fell into decay. Muslim reformers attempted to restructure the principles of the functioning of the madrasah ^[2] . In the last third of the 19th – 20th centuries, teaching methods and the traditional set of subjects and textbooks studied in them began to be updated (see Jadidism ). In the 2nd third of the 20th century, part of the madrasah became part of the universities ^[1] .

In connection with the reorganization of the public education system carried out in the Islamic countries in the 1960s , two main types of madrassas developed: secular, representing a secondary or higher secondary school, which is part of the public education system, and Qur'an reading madrasahs that train ministers of religion . In addition to state and confessional, there are a small number of private paid madrassas. In secular madrassas, the study of the Koran is necessary.

During the religious persecution in the USSR, all Muslim schools were closed - with the exception of the Miri-Arab Bukhara madrasah and the Tashkent Barak Khan (since 1971 Islamic University). They trained personnel of the Muslim clergy. After the collapse of the USSR, a network of madrassas began to recover in the countries ^[1] .

The main subject of study and teaching are:

• recitation of the Qur'an ( tajvid ) and its interpretation ( tafsir ),
• Islamic tradition ( hadith ) and history,
• Arabic language and literature
• Islamic law ( fiqh ),
• Islamic creed ( aqida and kalam ),
• some applied disciplines (mathematics, astronomy, medicine) ^[1] .

The training was conducted in the form of lectures ^[1] and on questions and answers between teachers and students. In the Ottoman Empire, state training programs for madrassas were compiled ^[2] . In the Middle Ages, madrassas were not only centers of Muslim theology , but also had a certain cultural significance.

As a type of architectural construction, the madrasah developed in the east of the Muslim world in the X-XII centuries (Farjek madrasah in Bukhara, the X century, did not survive); Nizamiyah in Hargird, Iran , 12th Century). From the XII-XIII centuries madrasahs were built in the Middle East (an-Nuriya al-Kubra madrasah in Damascus , the XII century, Mustansiriya in Baghdad , XIII century), from the XIII - XIV centuries - in the north of Africa (Saffarin madrasah in Fez , XIII century, Hassan in Cairo , XIV century).

With a general typology of madrasahs of different areas, they differ from each other in planning and designs. In Central Asia, the mosque and the audience are located in the building, on both sides of the portal (located on the axis of the main facade), in Syria and Egypt they occupy open loggias in the courtyard. In Asia Minor, the courtyard of the madrasah is usually covered with a large dome. In Asia, vaults serve as overlappings; in North Africa , rafters with tiled roofs. Madrasahs are decorated with carvings on knock , stone and wood, as well as carved terracotta and irrigation tiles. Among the outstanding examples of world architecture belong the Bu-Inania Madrasah in Fez (XIV century), Ulugbek in Bukhara ( XV century ), Miri-Arab in Bukhara ( XVI century ).

Early madrassas usually had no living quarters. Probably, in the 2nd half of the 11th century, rooms for teachers and students appeared. In the XII-XIII centuries, the type of building was developed, the basis of which was a square or rectangular courtyard with training, prayer, residential and utility rooms on the sides; part or all of the yard space was occupied by a garden ^[1] .

Living rooms were usually located on the upper floors or in areas between aivans, which served as auditoriums and a summer chapel (on the qibla side); classrooms and a library were located in the corner rooms and along the sides of the entrance. From the 12th-13th centuries, Egyptian and Syrian madrassas often formed a single complex with the tomb of the founder (Madrasah-mosque of the Sultan Hassan in Cairo, 1356-1333; an-Nuriya in Damascus, 1172). In the West of the Muslim world, madrassas were distinguished by their intricacy and the elaborate multi-color decor of courtyard interiors and facades (Madrasah Attarin in Fes, 1325) ^[1] .

In the era of great empires (Timurids, Safavids, Osmanovs), madrassas, as well as cathedral mosques, received elegant portals with ornaments and religious inscriptions, and occupied an important place in the composition of urban architectural ensembles (Registan in Samarkand - Ulugbek Madrasah, 1417-20, Shir- Dor, 1619-1635 / 36, and Tilla-Kari, 1646/47) ^[1] . Madrasahs have become an integral part of Muslim culture, urban and rural architecture ^[2] . The most famous historical madrassas also include al-Azhar in Cairo, az-Zeytun in Tunisia, Miri-Arab in Bukhara, Misbahia in Morocco, Bu-Inania in Fes. In the XVIII-XIX centuries, Muslim educational buildings were erected in traditional forms (Muhammad Amin Khan Madrasah in Khiva, 1851-54). Since the 2nd half of the 20th century, madrassah buildings have been built in modern architectural forms (Al-Mustansiriya Madrasah University in Baghdad, 1970s; a university campus near Doha, Qatar, late 1990s - early 2000s. ) ^[1] .

• Ali-zade, A. A. Madras // Islamic Encyclopedic Dictionary . - M .: Ansar , 2007.
• Madrasah / Bobrovnikov V.O. , Starodub T. Kh. // Manikovsky - Meotida. - M .: Big Russian Encyclopedia, 2012. - S. 519-520. - (The Big Russian Encyclopedia : [in 35 vols.] / Ch. Ed. Yu. S. Osipov ; 2004—2017, vol. 19). - ISBN 978-5-85270-353-8 .