Обсуждение:Обучение
Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān
Teaching
- Article Table of Contents
- To teach, instruct, train
- God teaches prophets
- God teaches humankind common people
- God teaches the angels
- Prophets teach
- Humans teach
- Angels/devils teach
- Other terms
- Teaching principles
- Methods and techniques
- Pedagogical and didactic elements
- Bibliography
The act of instructing; imparting knowledge and information. Most of the numerous teaching-related passages in the Qurʾān are dedicated to the sound instruction of the believers in the faith (q.v.) and to their spiritual growth as individuals and members of the community (see belief and unbelief; knowledge and learning; ignorance). These passages include instruction on the creed, worship and other aspects of religious life. Some passages in the Qurʾān, however, also provide detailed instruction on secular matters (human relations; political, social, and legal affairs, etc.; see ethics and the qurʾān; virtues and vices, commanding and forbidding; law and the qurʾān).
Matters related to teaching are dealt with in the Qurʾān in a wide variety of ways and are to be found in passages containing the following lexemes and concepts: 1) ʿallama: to teach, instruct, train; to make somebody know; 2) other terms implying the idea of teaching; 3) teaching principles; 4) certain approaches and techniques promoting the Qurʾān's teaching(s), such as: a) passages devoted to specific instructions; b) language signs and literary devices used as didactic tools (see parable; similes; metaphor; symbolic language; nature as signs; literary structures of the qurʾān); and 5) pedagogical and didactic elements significant for a more general context.
- To teach, instruct, train
The verb ʿallama (with various subjects and objects) is found a total of forty-two times: ¶ as ʿallama (perfect active, twenty-two times), yuʿallimu (imperfect active, sixteen times), ʿullima (perfect passive, three times), and the passive participle muʿallam (once).
- God teaches prophets
God “taught Adam the names of all [things]” ( q 2:31; see adam and eve; animal life; creation; cosmology). After David (q.v.) slew Goliath (q.v.), David was given “the kingship, and the wisdom (q.v.), and he taught him such as he willed” ( q 2:251; see kings and rulers ). David was also taught “the fashioning of [armor]…, to fortify [his people] against [the] violence [q.v.; they directed against each other]” ( q 21:80). David's heir, Solomon (q.v.), “said, ‘People, we have been taught the speech of birds ( manṭiqa l-ṭayri)’” ( q 27:16; for this topic and for relevant biblical passages, see Speyer, Erzählungen, 384-5). Jacob (q.v.), ancestor of all the Israelites, “was possessed of knowledge for that we had taught him” (la-dhū ʿilmin li-mā ʿallamnāhu, q 12:68; see also israel ). Joseph (q.v.), one of Jacob's sons, was taught the interpretation of tales and events ( q 12:6, 21, 101; see news ) and of dreams ( q 12:36-7; see dreams and sleep ). Moses' (q.v.) servant (fatā, associated by most commentators with al-Khiḍr; see khaḍir/khiḍr ) “had [been] given mercy (q.v.) from us, and… taught… knowledge proceeding from us” ( q 18:65); thus Moses asked his servant: “Shall I follow you so that you teach me of what you have been taught?” ( q 18:66; see also Wensinck, al-Khaḍir). Jesus (q.v.) had been taught “the book (q.v.) and the wisdom, the Torah (q.v.), and the Gospel” (q.v.; q 5:110), in order to “be a messenger (q.v.) to the Children of Israel” (q.v.; q 3:48-9). To Muḥammad, God revealed “the book and the wisdom, and taught [him] that which [he] knew not [before]” ( q 4:113; see ummī; illiteracy; revelation and inspira-¶ tion). Muḥammad was “taught by one mighty in power” ( q 53:5), the archangel Gabriel (q.v.), “who brought [the Qurʾān] down upon [his] heart (q.v.) by the leave of God, confirming what was before it, and for a guidance and good tidings of the believers” ( q 2:97; see good news; astray). Muḥammad, however, had not been "taught poetry, [for] it [was] not seemly for him" ( q 36:69; see poetry and poets ).
- God teaches humankind common people
q 96 (Sūrat al-ʿAlaq, “The Clot”), which the Islamic tradition usually considers to be the very first revelation to Muḥammad, gives priority to the fact that God “taught man that which he knew not” ( q 96:5) and that God did so “by [the use of] the pen” ( q 96:4), possibly indicating that God taught humankind “the holy scriptures” or “writing” (cf. also q 2:282; see literacy; writing and writing materials; orality and writing in arabia; and Günther, Muḥammad, 4-5).
God taught humankind the Qurʾān ( q 55:2) and “the explanation” (al- bayān, q 55:4; see also names of the qurʾān ), i.e. “articulated speech” ( nuṭq; cf. Jalālayn and others on q 55:4; see also q 43:52, wa-lā yakādu yubīnu); or “the names of all things” (asmāʾ kulli shayʾin) or “all the languages” (al-lughāt kullahā; Qurṭubī, Jāmiʿ, xvii, 152-3; see language, concept of; arabic language). It is said to “remember God, as he taught you the things that you knew not [before]” ( q 2:239; see remembrance; memory; reflection and deliberation).
God orders Muḥammad to warn people about the previous generations (q.v.) who did not measure God “with his true measure” (see warner; punishment stories; weights and measures), denying that God had “sent the book… [to] Moses… as a light (q.v.) and a guidance to humankind ( bashar)…” (see lie ). The unbelievers are ¶ addressed directly: “you were taught what you knew not, you and your fathers” ( q 6:91; see also q 2:151, 239; 4:113; and q 2:282; 96:4). That God taught humans how to train (“teach”) animals is stated in q 5:4.
- God teaches the angels
God taught the angels (see angel ) so they said “We know not save what you have taught us” ( q 2:32). Nonetheless, the angels did not have Adam's knowledge, for God had taught him the names of all things—which resulted in God's setting Adam and humankind on the earth as his viceroy instead of the angels (see caliph ).
- Prophets teach
God's messengers (see prophets and prophethood ) were sent to the people to “teach them the book and the wisdom, and to purify them” ( q 2:129; cf. 2:151). Muḥammad was instructed “to recite his signs (q.v.) to them, and to purify them, and to teach them the book and the wisdom, though before that they were in manifest error” (q.v.; q 62:2).
Pharaoh's (q.v.) accusation that Moses taught sorcery is implied in Pharaoh's threat to his sorcerers: “Have you believed him (Moses) before I gave you leave? Why, he is the chief of you, the same who taught you sorcery” ( q 20:71; cf. 26:49; see magic; miracles; marvels).
- Humans teach
Certain humans (Muslims) are warned against wanting to “teach” God; this is evident in God's command to Muḥammad: “Say: ‘What! Would you (people) teach God what your religion (q.v.) is…?’” ( q 49:16).
The rabbāniyyūn, “masters (in the scripture), people of the lord (q.v.),” are reminded of their twofold obligation: to teach and to continue studying. It is stated: ¶ “Be you masters in that you teach the book [to your brethren in faith], and in that you [yourselves] study [it]” (kūnū rabbāniyyīna bi-mā kuntum tuʿallimūna l-kitāba wa-bi-mā kuntum tadrusūna, q 3:79). According to Ibn ʿAbbās (d. 68/687-8), “the father of qurʾānic exegesis” (Veccia Vaglieri, ʿAbd Allāh b. al-ʿAbbās; see exegesis of the qurʾān: classical and medieval ), the rabbāniyyūn are “scholars” and “teachers,” for he remarks: “Be rabbāniyyūn, wise, erudite and learned men; and it is said that a [good] rabbānī is someone who [starts] instructing people in simple [things], before [dealing with] complex ones” (kūnū rabbāniyyīna ḥukamāʾ, fuqahāʾ, ʿulamāʾ; wa-yuqālu: al-rabbānī lladhī yurabbī l-nāsa bi-ṣighāri l-ʿilmi qabla kibārihi; cf. Bukhārī, Ṣaḥīḥ, K. al-ʿIlm, bāb 10; Khan, Translation, i, 59-60). Rabbāniyyūn is also a synonym for “erudite men” (ḥukamāʾ; see Dārimī, Sunan, n. 329). A different nuance in meaning is stressed by al-Rāzī (d. 606/1210) quoting Sībawayhi (d. ca. 180/796): “A rabbānī is [somebody] belonging to the lord, in the sense of his being knowledgeable of him and being persistent in obeying him” (al-rabbānī l-mansūb ilā l-rabb, bi-maʿnā kawnihi ʿāliman bihi wa-muwāẓiban ʿalā ṭāʿatihi; Rāzī, Tafsīr, xviii, 119; and the etymology offered in Horovitz, Proper names, 57; ed. Ohio, 201). In q 5:44, 63, rabbāniyyūn is used in conjunction with the aḥbār (Jewish/non-Muslim doctors, teachers; see also Horovitz, ku , 63-4; Proper names, 53-4, 56-7; ed. Ohio, 197-8, 200-1; Paret, Kommentar 39, 122; for the Aramaic word rabb, rabbī, and the derived form rabbūnī, meaning “[my] master/teacher,” also a title of a Palestinian scholar, see Sokoloff, Aramaic, 511, 513, 514; Buttrick, Interpreter's dictionary, iv, 522-4). In this context, it is worth noting that al-rabb in the Qurʾān—when referring to God, mostly translated as “the lord”—implies the meaning of the “supreme master, divine teacher,” to whom humans feel close ¶ despite his omnipotence (see clients and clientage; power and impotence).
Humans shall “train, teach” animals as God has taught them before, as it is mentioned in the context of slaughtering animals and dietary rules (see slaughter; food and drink; lawful and unlawful): “The good things are permitted to you, and such hunting creatures you teach, training them as hounds, and teaching them as God has taught you (see hunting and fishing )—eat what they seize for you, and mention God's name over it!” ( q 5:4; see basmala ).
Furthermore, mention is made of Muḥammad's opponents (see opposition to muḥammad ) and of their attempts to discredit him and his message by claiming that he had not been receiving revelations but was being “taught” instead by a human teacher: “And we know very well that they say, ‘Only a human ( bashar) is teaching him’” ( q 16:103)—perhaps an allusion to a monk known as Sergius (Sargis Baḥīrā; cf. Günther, Muḥammad, 25-6, n. 124; see christians and christianity; monasticism and monks; informants). Along these lines, Muḥammad was accused of being a man “tutored ( muʿallam), possessed” ( q 44:14; see insanity ).
- Angels/devils teach
The Qurʾān refutes the idea that Solomon knew and taught sorcery: “Solomon disbelieved not, but the satans (al- shayāṭīn) disbelieved, teaching the people sorcery, and that which was sent down [from heaven] upon the two angels in Babylon, Hārūt and Mārūt (q.v.); they [the two angels] taught not anyone [sorcery] without saying, ‘We are but a temptation; do not disbelieve’” ( q 2:102), for Solomon was considered to be the originator of sorcery, an idea apparently prevalent among the Jews in Medina (q.v.; see Ṭabarī, Tafsīr, ii, 408; Fück, Das Problem, 5-6; Asad, The¶ message, 21 n. 82; for shayṭān meaning satan, cf. Ṭabarī, Tafsīr, ii, 405, and passim; abr. Eng. trans. Cooper, The commentary, 475-91; see devil; jews and judaism).
- Other terms
This account of Solomon includes the only two qurʾānic references to taʿallum, “learning,” the linguistic counterpart of taʿlīm, “teaching.” It is said that the people in Babylon “learned [from the two fallen angels Hārūt and Mārūt] how they might separate a man from his wife…; and they learned what hurt them, and did not profit them…” ( q 2:102; see also Fahd, Siḥr).
Also relevant here is the concept of dirāsa, “to investigate, search [the scriptures]” (see q 3:79; 6:105, 156; 7:169; 34:44; 68:37; also Horovitz, Proper names, 199, and the references given there; see also traditional disciplines of qurʾānic study; teaching and preaching the qurʾān).
Most of the numerous other expressions, implying more or less directly the idea of “teaching,” relate to the notion of “God teaching the prophet(s)” and “the prophet Muḥammad instructing the people”; examples are amara, “to order” (cf. q 3:80), dhakara, “to mention” (e.g. q 7:2), dhakkara, “to remind” (cf. q 14:5; 51:55), qaraʾa and talā, “to read aloud, recite” (e.g. q 11:17; 18:27; see recitation of the qurʾān ). Adrā, “to cause to know, to teach” (occurring seventeen times) is used in God's orders to Muḥammad and the Muslims to reply to those who doubt the message of the Qurʾān (see uncertainty ): “Say, ‘Had God willed, I would not have recited it to you, neither would he have taught you it’” ( q 10:16; see also the rhetorical questions introduced by mā adrāka, “What will teach you? What makes you conceive?” in q 69:3; 74:27; 77:14; 82:17, 18; 83:8, 19; 86:2; 90:12; 97:2; 101:3, 10; 104:5; and mā yudrīka, q 33:63; 42:17; 80:3; see exhortations ).¶
Further relevant terminology includes ta dabbara, “to ponder, contemplate, seek to understand” (e.g. q 4:82; 47:24), istaftā, “to ask for a legal opinion” (cf. q 4:127), the indicative designation “those who were given knowledge” from God (ūtū l- ʿilma, q 16:27; 17:107; 22:54; 28:80; 29:42; 30:56; 34:6; 47:16; 58:11), and terms for “explanation,” such as bayān, tabyīn, tafṣīl, tafsīr and the like.
In addition, the Qurʾān often employs ʿalima, “to know,” to mean “to gain knowledge of something, to receive knowledge of something.” Its qurʾānic counterpart, jahila, connotes “to be ignorant, not to know” (see age of ignorance ). Darā is often used figuratively in the Qurʾān to mean “to learn of something, to know,” while shaʿara connotes “to know, to realize,” and its counterpart ghafala, “not to know, to be unmindful” (for these latter terms, see Fück, Das Problem, 12-19). Tadrīs, “teaching,” and taʾdīb, “educating,” do not occur in the Qurʾān. While sharḥ can imply “explanation, explaining,” in the Qurʾān, derivatives of sh-r-ḥ connote “acceptance, opening, expanding,” so they are not included in this overview.
- Teaching principles
The Qurʾān seems to suggest a number of teaching principles, such as to be patient ( q 17:11; 18:60-82; 75:16; see trust and patience ), and to be attentive ( q 7:204; 50:37) while receiving instruction; to train the mind and improve the memory by reading aloud, repeating and pondering ( q 4:82; 38:29; 47:24; 87:6); to instruct people in their native language ( q 12:2; 14:4); to dispute only in matters of which one is knowledgeable ( q 3:66; see debate and disputation ); to argue in a courteous manner ( q 16:125; 29:46); and to instruct by use of examples and evidence, as the many biblical narratives (q.v.) in the Qurʾān illustrate (for instance, by ¶ suggesting that lessons be drawn from the past and the experiences of others; e.g. q 5:32; 11:89); similarly for the passages teaching humans confidence ( q 11:38, 120; see also Speyer, Erzählungen, 87, 462-92; al-Gisr, Islamic education, 18-21; Jamālī, Falsafa, 13; Siddiqi, Qurʾānic concept, 1-10).
- Methods and techniques
As for the question of what methods and techniques the qurʾānic text utilizes to promote its teaching(s), two points must be made. First, there are passages expressly dedicated to teaching; q 2:282-3 for example, provides detailed instruction on how to handle legal matters:
O believers, when you contract a debt (q.v.) one upon another for a stated term, then write it down! And let a writer ( kātib) write it down between you justly. And let not any writer refuse to write it down, as God has taught him (i.e. the art of writing). So let him write it down. And let the debtor dictate!… And if the debtor be a fool, or weak, or unable to dictate himself, then let his guardian dictate justly… (see maturity; guardianship). And be not loath to write it down, whether it (i.e. the amount) be small or great…! That is more equitable in God's sight… And take witnesses whenever you are trafficking one with another (see witnessing and testifying )! And let neither a scribe nor a witness suffer harm.… And if you are upon a journey (q.v.), and you do not find a writer, then a pledge ( rihān) in hand [should be required].
Second, there are textual characteristics and literary devices that emerge as sophisticated pedagogical and didactic tools. Examples are rhetorical questions, such as “Have you not seen…?” “Do you not know…?” (see rhetoric and the ¶ qurʾān ); textual elements that add force to already powerful passages (cf. Welch, Formulaic features, 77; see form and structure of the qurʾān ); notions of forensic activity, such as proving (see proof ), explaining, making manifest, and debating (cf. McAuliffe, Debate, 164); and literary signs, such as parallelism, repetition, metaphor, parable, simile (see also pairs and pairing ). The question as to how and to what extent the Qurʾān actualizes itself—as an aesthetic object—in the consciousness of its recipients seems to gain in significance in the context of “teaching and the Qurʾān” (see also Kermani, Gott ist schön, chap. 2; see language and style of the qurʾān; teaching and preaching the qurʾān).
- Pedagogical and didactic elements
If “teaching (and learning)” were to be understood in a wider sense, the pedagogical and didactic elements in the Qurʾān extend to issues such as the developmental stages, habits and socialization of the human being (for the child, see q 2:233; 40:67; 46:15; 65:6; see children; parents); ethical norms and values related to education (for orphans [q.v.], see q 2:215; 76:8; 90:15-16; 89:17; for piety [q.v.] towards parents, see q 2:83; 4:36; 6:151; 17:23-4; 18:80; 19:14; 29:8; 31:14-15; 46:15; see also Izutsu, Concepts, 207-10); human psychology ( q 3:135; 11:9-10; 12:53; 17:11; 21:37; 41:49; 96:6-7); and the appeal to the mind, reason and understanding (also in matters of faith) evident, for example, in the frequent phrase a-fa-lā taʿqilūna, “do you not understand?” ( q 2:44; see intellect ), and in the epitome of qurʾānic praise for the learned: “[Only] the erudite among his servants [truly] fear God” ( q 35:28).¶
Sebastian Günther
- Bibliography
- Primary
ʿAbd al-Bāqī
Bukhārī, Ṣaḥīḥ, ed. in Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī, Fatḥ al-bārī bi-sharḥ Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, 13 vols., Beirut 1992
Dārimī, Sunan
Jalālayn
Qurṭubī, Jāmiʿ, Cairo 1952-67
Rāzī, Tafsīr, ed. ʿA. Muḥammad, 32 vols., Cairo 1357/1938
Ṭabarī, Tafsīr, 12 vols., Beirut 1412/1992
abr. Eng. trans. J. Cooper, The commentary of the Qurʾān by Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad b. Jarīr al-Ṭabarī. Being an abridged translation of Jāmiʿ al-bayān fī taʾwīl al-Qurʾān, i, Oxford 1987
- Secondary
S. N. Al-Gisr, The Qurʾān on Islamic education, in ic 42 (1968), 1-24
M. Asad, The message of the Qurʾān translated and explained, Trowbridge 1997
I. J. Boullata (ed.), Literary structures of religious meaning in the Qurʾān, Richmond 2000
G. A. Buttrick (ed.) The interpreter's dictionary of the Bible, 5 vols., Nashville 1962
T. Fahd, Siḥr, in ei 2 , ix, 567-71
J. Fück, Das Problem des Wissens im Qurʾān, in S. Günther (ed.), Johann Fück. Vorträge über den Islam, Halle (Saale) 1999, 1-26
S. Günther, Muḥammad, the illiterate prophet.
An Islamic creed in the Qurʾān and qurʾānic exegesis, in Journal of qurʾanic studies 4/1 (2002), 1-26
ʿA. Y. Ḥamza, Maʿālim al-tarbiyya fī l-Qurʾān wa-l-sunna, Doha 1409/1989
L. Hicks, Teaching of Jesus, in G.A. Buttrick, The interpreter's dictionary of the Bible, 4 vols. plus Index, Nashville 1962, iv, 523-7
J. Horovitz, Jewish proper names and derivatives in the Koran, in Hebrew Union College annual 2 (1925), 145-227 [repr. Hildesheim 1964]
id., ku
Izutsu, Concepts
M. F. Jamālī, al-Falsafa al-tarbawiyya fī l-Qurʾān, n.p. 1966
H. E. Kassis, A concordance of the Qurʾan, Berkley 1983
N. Kermani, Gott ist schön. Das ästhetische Erleben des Koran, München 2000 (see also S. Günther's review in Journal of Arabic and Middle Eastern literatures 6/1 [2003], 113-17)
M. M. Khan, The translation of the meaning of Sahih al-Bukhari. Arabic-English, [Beirut 1979?]
J. D. McAuliffe, ‘Debate with them in a better way.’
The construction of a qurʾānic commonplace, in A. Neuwirth et al. (eds.), Myths, historical archetypes and symbolic figures in Arabic literature. Towards a new hermeneutic approach, Beirut/Stuttgart 1999, 163-88
Paret, Kommentar
P. Parker, Teacher, in G. A. Buttrick, The interpreter's dictionary of the Bible, 4 vols. plus Index, Nashville 1962, iv, 522-3
M. Siddiqi, The qurʾānic concept of history, Karachi 1965
M. Sokoloff, A dictionary of Jewish Palestinian Aramaic, Ramat-Gan 1990
Speyer, Erzählungen
L. Veccia Vaglieri, ʿAbd Allāh b. al-ʿAbbās, in ei 2 , i, 40-1
A. Welch, Formulaic features of the punishment stories, in I. Boullata, Literary structures of religious meaning in the Qurʾān, Richmond 2000, 77-116
A. J. Wensinck, al-Khaḍir, in ei 2 , iv, 902-5
- Cite this page
Günther, Sebastian, “Teaching”, in: Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān, General Editor: Jane Dammen McAuliffe, Georgetown University, Washington DC. Consulted online on 07 January 2017 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/1875-3922_q3_EQCOM_00200>
Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition / Tadrīs
(a.), the maṣdar of the form II Arabic verb darrasa “to teach”. One who teaches is known as a mudarris . In contemporary usage, the term is an unfocussed one, referring to instruction of different varieties. The term mudarris thus indicates a “teacher” in its most general sense, although it can also have a more specific meaning: in the hierarchy of modern Egyptian universities, for example, a mudarris is an instructor holding the Ph.D., but ranking below an ustād̲h̲ and ustād̲h̲ musāʿid —roughly analogous, therefore, to an assistant professor in an American university.
In the classical and mediaeval periods, the term tadrīs , as well as various other technical terms derived from the same root, had more precise connotations. Tadrīs usually referred specifically to the teaching of the religious law, that is, fiḳh [q.v.], and in this was distinct from other terms used to describe the transmission of knowledge: the relatively uncommon taṣdīr , for instance, when used to mean instruction, had a more general application, while taʿlīm , which also indicated teaching, usually referred to instruction at a more basic level (hence muʿallim , a primary school instructor or Ḳurʾān teacher). The term tadrīs could be used with regard to instruction in other subjects, especially when it was combined with a qualifying phrase; thus, for example, tadrīs al-tafsīr (“teaching Ḳurʾānic exegesis”), or even tadrīs al-ṭibb (“teaching medicine”).
The methodology of instruction in the law has ¶ been thoroughly studied in a number of works by G. Makdisi, and discussed more fully in other entries of this Encyclopaedia [see esp. madrasa ]. After an invocation, a class ( dars , pl. durūs ) consisted of lecture and dictation, with the instructor providing an exegesis of the text or question under discussion. At more advanced levels, instruction focused on disputation ( munāẓara ), in which the mudarris explored fine points of legal doctrine with his students and probed their understanding of the issues and their ability to solve difficult legal problems. As in all the traditional Islamic sciences (as, indeed, in pre-modern education more generally), memorisation played an important role. As the purpose of instruction in the law was the training of qualified jurists and professors, legal education culminated in the issuing to the student of an id̲j̲āza [q.v.] (the term was borrowed from the conventions for the transmission of ḥadīt̲h̲ [q.v.]) acknowledging his qualifications to teach the law himself ( id̲j̲āza li ’l-tadrīs ) or to issue fatwās ( id̲j̲āza li ’l-iftāʾ ), or sometimes one encompassing both practices ( id̲j̲āzat al-iftāʾ wa ’l-tadrīs ) (examples in al-Ḳalḳas̲h̲andī, Ṣubḥ al-aʿsh̲ā , xiv, 322 ff.).
The establishment of institutions devoted principally or exclusively to higher education (both mosques with endowments supporting organised classes, and, from the 5th/11th century, madrasas ) had little effect on the process of tadrīs itself. Methods of instruction remained the same, as did the measure of a pupil’s success (the id̲j̲āza, usually awarded by his teacher or teachers): no system of institutional degrees took root before the modern period. But the spread of educational institutions, and of the endowments which supported them, did have a profound impact on the social context in which tadrīs took place. Most importantly, tadrīs came to signify not merely an activity but an office, in effect, a professorship, one to which a learned individual could be appointed, and from which he might derive valuable emoluments. The reification of tadrīs is reflected in the appearance in the sources of a plural form, tadārīs , which was used to indicate the separate “professorships" in different fields (fiḳh, ḥadīt̲h̲, tafsīr , Arabic grammar, etc.) which an institution might support, or the multiple teaching posts held by a single individual (al-Ḳalḳas̲h̲andī, Ṣubh , iv, 39).
The social and even political consequences of this process of reification were enormous. Many of the new schools and endowed mosques were the creation of the ruling élite, and the founders might retain control of appointments to their institutions’ professorships. So, for example, when Niẓām al-Mulk called Abu Ḥāmid al-G̲h̲azālī to Bag̲h̲dād and appointed him to the tadrīs of S̲h̲āfiʿī fik̲h̲ in the Niẓāmiyya madrasa , bestowing on him the honorifics “Zayn al-Dīn” and “S̲h̲araf al-Aʾimma” (Ibn al-Ḏj̲awzī, al-Muntaẓam , ix, 55), his action was as much a political statement as an expression of personal piety. Sultans in Mamlūk Cairo routinely interfered in the appointment process, naming scholars to professorships not only in madrasas which they themselves had founded but in older institutions as well.
From the standpoint of academic instruction, a more important issue concerned the way in which scholars themselves learned to control and manipulate professorial posts. On one level, of course, the academic élite benefited from the proliferation of endowed professorships. Not only were they guaranteed a stipend for their instructional efforts, but a respected scholar might acquire and hold multiple positions simultaneously. In the mid 8 th/14th century, Taḳī al-Dīn al-Subkī held professorships in fiḳh in several institutions ¶ in Cairo, which he then passed on to his son Bahāʾ al-Dīn (Ibn Ḥad̲j̲ar al-ʿAsḳalānī, al-Durar al-kāmina , Cairo 1966-7, i, 225-6; Ibn Tag̲h̲rībirdī, al-Manhal al-ṣāfī , Cairo 1984, i, 409)—indicating that scholars, as well as sultans and viziers, had learned how to play the game of patronage. Another member of the Subkī family, Tād̲j̲ al-Dīn ʿAbd al-Wahhāb, was critical of scholars holding professorships in two or more schools ( Muʿīd al-niʿam wa-mubīd al-niḳam , ed. D.N. Myhrman, London 1908, 164), but in fact the practice was common, and led to the frequent appointment of substitutes to fulfill the duties of an absent or over-burdened mudarris . Alternatively, a lucrative professorship might be divided among several different scholars; the sources frequently report that some individual “held half the professorship” ( lahu niṣf al-tadrīs ) in a given institution. Moreover, the financial lure of a well-paid tadrīs could be deleterious to the quality of instruction by attracting unqualified individuals. Tād̲j̲ al-Dīn al-Subkī worried about lazy professors who would simply memorise two or three lines of a text, deliver them to the assembled class, and leave; such individuals, he said, were “not fit for a professorship [of law]” ( g̲h̲ayr ṣāliḥ li ’l-tadrīs ) and did not deserve a professor’s stipend (ibid., 153). Such problems did not necessarily pose a serious threat to the transmission of knowledge in mediaeval Islamic societies, but they did result from the transformation of tadrīs into an institutionalised and remunerative office.
(J.P. Berkey)
- Bibliography
- G. Makdisi, The rise of colleges. Institutions of learning in Islam and the West, Edinburgh 1981
- J. Berkey, The transmission of knowledge in medieval Cairo. A social history of Islamic education, Princeton 1992.
- Cite this page
Berkey, J.P., “Tadrīs”, in: Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition, Edited by: P. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C.E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel, W.P. Heinrichs. Consulted online on 10 January 2017 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/1573-3912_islam_SIM_7286>