Signs from Allah: History, Science and Faith in Islam 177. A Historical Perspective on Islamic Education - 3
By Professor Nazeer Ahmed
Concord, CA
The cosmopolitan culture of Mogul India included the Moguls, the Afghans, the Rajputs, the Persians, the Hindus and the Muslims. Akbar even started a Sufi tareeqa with himself at his head, called Deen e Ilahi which was misunderstood by the Muslims as a new religion. Through his policy of sulhe kul (peace between all groups) he sought to unify all the cultures of India under the Mogul banner.
The cosmopolitan character of the Moguls was reflected in the madrasas of the age. Gone was the narrow focus on the study of akhlaq and hadith. The Moguls instituted a broad-based curriculum which included not only the religious sciences but also advanced mathematics, engineering, sociology and history. According to Nadvi, the Mogul madrasa curriculum included the following subjects:
Akhlaq and its principles; Literature and grammar; Law; Philosophy; Mathematics; Astronomy; Medicine; Hadith; Kalam; Tasawwuf; The life of the Naqshbandi Shaikhs.
Along with the religious madrasas, there existed more secular schools run by the state. These schools trained the engineers, artisans, doctors and administrators for the state. The curriculum of these schools included the following subjects:
Akhlaq (good character, humility, respect for elders, etiquette. The text books used included Akhlaq e Nasiri and Akhlaq e Jalali); Arithmetic; Astronomy; Astrology; Mathematics; Geometry; History (Shahname Firdowsi, Zafar Nama of Sharfuddin Ali Tarmizi, Futuhat e Timuri, Akbar Nama, Iqbal Nama e Jahangeeri, Tareeq Feroqe Shahi, Warzam Nama, Mahabharata); Oration; Medicine; Economics; Sociology; Literature (prose, poetry, fiction); Tazkiya Nafs (Maktubat of Syed Shah Ashrafuddin Yahya Ahmed Muneeri, Nazhatul Arwah, Mathnawi Molvi Manavi, Hadeeqa Hakim Sinai)’ Planning; Goal setting; Operations Management; Politics; Health Maintenance; Mathematics; Religious Studies
The reforms introduced during the early Mogul period lasted well into the 18 th century. Akbar, in particular, was a patron of scholars. He invited Shah Fatehulla Shirazi, Mir Sadruddin, Mir Ghiyasuddin Mansur, and Mirza Jan Mir to come and settle in India. He conferred honorific titles and supported them with generous grants. For instance, Fatehulla Shirazi received the title of Asnul Mulk. Similar titles were conferred upon other scholars.
The Mogul schools had a high standard of excellence. It was these schools that produced the engineers and architects who built the Taj Mahal, the Red Fort, the Jami Masjid and the Agra Fort. It was also these same schools that trained the astronomers who built the observatories in Delhi and Jaipur in the 18 th century.
In addition to the madrasas and the state schools, there were the zawiyas wherein young men received a religious education as well as training in the arts. The graduates from the zawiyas were absorbed into different guilds such as metal working, wood working, weaving, embroidery, leather work, masonry, carpet making and ivory inlay work. The workmanship of the Mogul artisans was superb which attests to the quality of education and training they received in the madrasas and the zawiyas.
There were military academies as well. Attached to these academies were armament manufacturing centers wherein students learned the art of metal casting, forging, smithy, siege engine and cannon manufacture. Some of the instructors in these schools came from as far away as Istanbul and Ottoman influence in Mogul armaments was noticeable. The land-based Mogul artillery was a match for those of the Europeans well into the 16 th century. It was only in the latter part of the 17 th century that European gun-making caught on and overtook the armaments of Mogul and Ottoman dynasties.
In the waning years of the Mogul empire, Islamic orthodoxy displaced the cosmopolitan culture of the empire. Correspondingly, the study of textbooks on Akhlaq was replaced by the study of legal rulings such as Fatwa e Alamgiri.
In the 18 th century the Mogul empire declined. It was a period of general social and cultural disintegration. There was a need to reform the educational structure of the madrasas as well as the syllabus as a way to reform the society and arrest social decline. One of the most influential educational reformers of the era was Mullah Nazimuddin who was a contemporary of Shah Waliullah (d 1762). Mullah Nazimuddin enlarged the syllabus and added several books to the study of grammar and attempted to lay the foundation of a broad-based educational system so that the graduate could continue his studies on his own after completing school. The study of hadith was reinforced. The courses of study in this period were based on the Nizamiya syllabus and included:
Sarf (accounting); Nahau (grammar); Balagat (oration); Literature; Mantiq (logic as applied to language); Hikmat (wisdom, integrative knowledge; Riyazi (astronomy); Principles of fiqh (jurisprudence); Kalam (discourse on theology); Hadith (authentic sayings of the Prophet Muhammed); Faraez (religious obligations); Manazira (debate); Tafseer (commentaries on the Quran; Principles of Hadith
The limitations of this syllabus were:
- It had very little history, geography or sciences of nature.
- Philosophy was de-emphasized.
- It offered very little exposure to Hadith, Tafseer or Ilm Ijazul Qur’an.
- There was overemphasis on Mantiq.
The madrasas did not use the division of classes, as it is done in modern schools. Each student was allowed to learn at his own pace. When a student finished the introductory books, he moved on to the more advanced books. Three degrees were awarded: qabil, alim and fazil.
There were also specialized schools in the Punjab, Delhi, Rampur and Lucknow. Punjab specialized in sarf and Nahau, Delhi in hadith and tafseer, Rampur in mantiq and hikmat and Lucknow in fiqh and its principles.
As the British gained ascendancy in India, the education and instructional institutions correspondingly went into decline. The new rulers replaced Farsi with English, first in the court systems, then in the educational systems. Their requirements were for lower echelon administrative personnel to run the vast bureaucracy of the sprawling subcontinent. The study of science, technology and history was discouraged. The madrasa was marginalized. It could not compete with the European system in science and philosophy. These subjects in which the Islamic world once dominated, had gone West, and had returned to the East with a heavy dosage of Western flavor. The Muslims considered these subjects to be alien, a product of a secular Europe. The curriculum was marginalized and retracted unto itself. The syllabus evolved during this period was a poor imitation of the old Nizamiya syllabus.
The next period brings us to the modern age. After the collapse of political power in the 19 th century, political and social stagnation set in. Education in the madrasas reflects this stagnation. The syllabus has gone through a further contraction. Unable to innovate and cope with the challenge of Western education, Islamic education has fallen back to the basics. The Nizamiya syllabus has been resurrected with major deletions. Unlike the Nizamiya college of Nizamul Mulk in the 11 th century the curriculum of the modern madrasa does not include a study of history, science or philosophy. Mathematics has been reduced to elementary arithmetic and tasawwuf has been eliminated. Remaining in the curriculum are hifz (memorization of Qur’an), hadith, elementary Arabic, Urdu, akhlaq, recitation of the Qur’an and tafseer (Qur’anic interpretations). Only recently has there been a realization that in order to survive in the modern world, the syllabus of the madrasa must be expanded to include a study of the modern languages, Islamic and global history, science, mathematics and computer science.
(The author is Director, World Organization for Resource Development and Education, Washington, DC; Director, American Institute of Islamic History and Culture, CA; Member, State Knowledge Commission, Bangalore; and Chairman, Delixus Group)
