Table Of ContentPRINCETON STUDIES ON THE NEAR EAST
THE TRANSMISSION OF
KNOWLEDGE IN
MEDIEVAL CAIRO
A SOCIAL HISTORY OF
ISLAMIC EDUCATION
Jonathan Berkey
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS
PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY
COPYRIGHT © 1992 BY PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS
PUBLISHED BY PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS, 41 WILLIAM STREET,
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ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
UBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGINC-IN-FUBUCATION DATA
BERKEY, JONATHAN PORTER.
THE TRANSMISSION OF KNOWLEDGE IN MEDIEVAL CAIRO : A SOCIAL
HISTORY OF ISLAMIC EDUCATION / JONATHAN BERKEY.
P. CM.—(PRINCETON STUDIES ON THE NEAR EAST)
INCLUDES BIBLIOGRAPHICAL REFERENCES (P. ) AND INDEX.
ISBN 0-691-03191-6
1. ISLAMIC RELIGIOUS EDUCATION—EGYPT—CAIRO—HISTORY. 2. EGYPT-
INTELLECTUAL LIFE. 3. CAIRO (EGYPT)—INTELLECTUAL LIFE.
I. TITLE. II. SERIES.
BP64.E32C353 1992 297'. 7—DC20 91-21262 CIP
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CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ix
NOTE ON TRANSLITERATION, NAMES, AND DATES xi
ONE
Introduction 3
TWO
Instruction 21
THREE
Institutions 44
FOUR
Professors and Patrons: Careers in the Academic World 95
FIVE
Religious Education and the Military Elite 128
SIX
Women and Education 161
SEVEN
Beyond the Elite: Education and Urban Society 182
BIBLIOGRAPHY 219
INDEX 229
NOTE ON TRANSLITERATION,
NAMES, AND DATES
I
N GENERAL, I have followed the system of transliteration of Arabic
names and words used by the Encyclopedia of Islam, with a few mi
nor but common variations: for example, "q" for "k" and "j" for "dj."
For certain Arabic words and personal and place names that are com
monly found in English texts or dictionaries, I have preferred to use the
less technical form: for example, Quran, not Qur an; muezzin, not
mu'adhdhin; ulama, not 'ulama; Cairo, not al-Qahira. I have also fre
quently indicated the plural of Arbaic nouns simply by adding an "s,"
rather than giving the correct Arabic form (e.g., madrasas, rather than
madaris). For the sake of convenience, dates are generally given accord
ing to the Western calendar. When an Islamic date is given for any rea
son, it is identified by the conventional abbreviation A.H.
INTRODUCTION
S
EEK knowledge, even as far away as China." So goes a famous in
junction of the Prophet Muhammad to the men and women of the
Islamic community. Relatively few would actually travel to what
was, for medieval Muslims, quite literally the ends of the earth, but the
"journey in search of knowledge" became almost a trope of the biogra
phies of merchants and princes as well as religious scholars. Whether or
not the attribution of the tradition to the Prophet is genuine, it accurately
reflects a principle generally held in the Islamic world, and which formed
a common theme of medieval literature: namely, that the pursuit of
knowledge (Him), and specifically religious knowledge, is an activity al
ways worthy of approbation and encouragement.1 Treatises praising
knowledge and its acquisition repeated didactic anecdotes aimed at fos
tering a proper sense of values among those who would be students. One
said of al-Shafi'i, the eponymous founder of one of the four principal rites
of Sunni law, that he paid no attention to the advances of a slave-girl
purchased for him by his students, much to her dismay. Frustrated after
vainly waiting for him throughout the night, she returned to the trader
who had sold her, complaining that he had bound her to a "crazy man."
The scholar, unfazed, responded simply and sincerely that "the crazy
man is he who knows the value of knowledge, and who then squanders
it, or hesitates so that it passes him by."2
Islam's high estimation of the value of knowledge translated naturally
into broad-based social and cultural support for education. All Muslims
are encouraged to acquire at least a functional familiarity with those
texts—in particular the revealed Quran and the traditions (hadith) that
embody sayings, commands, and stories handed down from the Prophet
Muhammad and his companions—that form the basis of Islam as a reli
gion and as an all-embracing way of life. This does not mean that every
Muslim will or should become a scholar of the religious and legal sci-
1 The tradition is cited in Shams al-Din Muhammad al-SakhawT, al-Maqasid al-hasana.fi
bayan kathir min al-ahadith al-mushtahara 'aid Ί-alsina (Cairo, 1956), 63. For general
remarks on the importance of knowledge in the Islamic tradition, see Franz Rosenthal,
Knowledge Triumphant (Leiden, 1970).
2 Abu 'I-Hilal al-Hasan al-'Askari, al-Hathth 'aid talab al-ilm tva'l-ijtihad, Hamidiye (Is
tanbul), Ms. 1464/3 [= Ma'had Ihya' al-Makhtiitat al-'Arabiyya, Ms. "Tasawwuf" No.
124], fol. 15r.
4 CHAPTER ONE
ences, or that all need be versed in the intricacies of the shari'a, the
Islamic law that is far more than a "holy law." On the other hand, accord
ing to a late twelfth- or early thirteenth-century treatise, "it is necessary
for the Muslim to strive for as much knowledge as he may have need in
his station, whatever that is." Every believer must know, for example,
what God requires of the faithful in terms of prayer, fasting, paying the
alms tax, or performing the pilgrimage. Merchants must know enough of
the law to avoid commercial practices abhorrent to it. The principles and
precepts of the law of Islam, as derived from the Quran, hadith, and the
consensus of the community, represent the revelation of God's will in its
widest possible sense. And since knowledge of God's will is the surest
means to avoid the sins of avarice, arrogance, profligacy, and more,
"learning is prescribed for all of us."3
Muslim sensibilities, at least as refracted through the writings of the
educated elite themselves, placed scholars of the religious and legal sci
ences at the pinnacle of society and at the vanguard of the forces it mar
shalled to defend itself against enemies and to bring order and meaning
to its members. Ahmad AmIn, the twentieth-century Egyptian scholar
and writer, described in his autobiography the difficulties he had in mar
rying, despite his good appearance, respectable pedigree, and comfort
able income: the turban he wore, which indicated to all his religious ed
ucation and orientation, acted as a social impediment, discouraging
prospective brides and their families.4 In earlier centuries, such preju
dices did not predominate, despite the contempt and ridicule apparent
in popular tales about inept schoolteachers, such as those found in The
Thousand and One Nights. True scholars, on the contrary, were revered,
and the sons and daughters of a prominent jurist or professor made suit
able spouses for the children of the political and military elite. A late
medieval treatise on education approvingly quoted the hadith that "noth
ing is more powerful than knowledge. Kings are the rulers of the people,
but scholars [al-'ulama] are the rulers of kings."5 This represented no
vague claim that the pen was mightier than the sword. The scholars of
the religious sciences, especially jurisprudence and the Prophetic
traditions, were guardians of an organic body of knowledge the transmis
sion of which largely shaped Muslim culture, and which in itself defined
the legitimacy of kings. Another tradition proclaimed that "one scholar
\faqlh] is more powerful against the Devil than a thousand worshippers."6
3 Burhan al-Din al-Zamujl, TarItm al-muta'allim, tariq al-ta'allum (Cairo, 1977), 9, 11,
trans. G. E. von Grunebaum and TTieodora M. Abel, Instruction of the Student, the
Method of Learning (New York, 1947), 21, 22.
4 Ahmad Amin, My Life-, trans. Issa J. Boullata (Leiden, 1978), 121.
5 Al-'Askari, al-Hathth 'aid talab Ol-tHmt fol. 6r-v.
β Specifically, a scholar of jurisprudence; the hadith reads faqth wahid ashadd 'aid
INTRODUCTION 5
It was knowledge that moved mountains, and the powers of this world,
whether human or diabolical, could not overcome it.
The point of a tradition extolling the power of learning, as opposed to
that of acts of piety and ritual, was not to belittle worship and prayer, the
outward manifestations of piety and submission to God by individuals and
the community. That knowledge which Muslim society treasured above
all else and transmitted from one generation to the next was not a dis
embodied collection of principles unrelated to the exigencies of daily life.
On the contrary, knowledge that mattered was to a large extent knowl
edge of the guidelines by which men and women should live, and thus
learning itself impelled Muslims to act according to the principles it pro
claimed.7 But the traditions that sing the praises of learning and of schol
ars do suggest the extraordinary emphasis that Muslim religion and civi
lization placed upon knowledge, specifically religious knowledge, and the
power inherent in the process and object of instruction. Traditions that
ascribe to the Prophet statements such as "the superiority of the learned
man [al-'alim] over the worshipper [al-'abid] is like my superiority over
the least of you" may reflect in part the self-interest of the scholars who
collected, edited, and commented upon the hadlth and who, in some
cases, admittedly fabricated them.8 On the other hand, they also reflect
the community's judgment that, in a very real sense, learning is worship,
that the study and transmission of the revealed word of God and the say
ings of His prophet, and of the system of law to which the revelation
pointed, are the fundamental service God demands of His creatures.
Its emphasis on knowledge and learning, perhaps more than any other
feature, sets Islam squarely within the Near Eastern monotheistic tradi
tion, and in particular links it to Judaism, whose own preoccupation with
study, with teaching, and with the book is well-known. Contemporaries
may have been aware of the broader tradition: a late medieval Muslim
treatise described "what appears in praise of knowledge in the word of
God as He handed it down in the Torah, the Gospel, and the Quran."9
Indeed, the education of Jews in the medieval Near East, as reflected in
the records of the Cairo Geniza, parallels that of Muslims in its curricular
Ί-shaytan min alf 'abid, as cited in Muhammad b. 'Abd al-Rahman al-'Uthmanl, Idah al-
ta'rif bi-ba'd fadail al-'ilm al-sharif, Princeton University Library, Yahuda Ms. No. 4293,
fol. 4v. Cf. Rosenthal, Knowledge, 247—48.
7 See Ira Lapidus' insightful discussion of 'ilm as a component of adab, "Knowledge,
Virtue, Action: The Classical Muslim Conception of Adab and the Nature of Religious Ful
fillment in Islam," in Moral Conduct and Authority, ed. Barbara Daly Metcalf (Berkeley,
1984), esp. 39.
8 This particular tradition is found in Muhammad b. 'Isa al-Tirmidhl, Sunan, "Kitab al-
'Ilm," No. 19; cf. 'Abd Allah b. 'Abd al-Rahman al-Dariml, Sunan, "Kitab al-'Ilm," No.
32.
9 Al-'Uthmanl, Idah al-ta'rif, fol. 3r.
6 CHAPTER ONE
emphasis on law, its pedagogy and institutions, and even in the language
and metaphors that the surviving documents use to characterize the
world of learning: the "wandering scholar" is as much a trope of Jewish
history and legend as it is of the Muslim historical and biographical rec
ord. 10 Islam's emphasis on learning and scholarship may also serve to dis
tinguish Islam from medieval European civilization. A fourteenth-cen-
tury Muslim writer could routinely assert the spiritual power of the
scholar against that of one thousand worshippers. How many contempo
rary Europeans would have made the same claim?
The Madrasa
From the beginning, then, Islam was a religion of the book and of learn
ing, a society that esteemed knowledge and education above almost ev
ery other human activity. It was several centuries, however, before Mus
lim societies developed a network of institutions specifically devoted to
religious knowledge and its propagation. In the medieval Muslim soci
eties of the Near East, the institution of education par excellence was the
madrasa, a noun of place derived directly from a verb meaning "to study"
and related etymologically to the Hebrew midrash, used in medieval
Egypt to refer to a variety of institutions devoted to traditional Jewish
learning.11 The madrasa has received considerable attention from histo
rians in recent years, and their research provides us with a composite
picture of the character of that institution.12
Islam, like Judaism, is very much a religion of the law, and scholars
10 S. D. Goitein, A Mediterranean Society: The Jewish Communities of the Arab World
as Portrayed in the Documents of the Cairo Geniza (Berkeley, 1971), 2:201-02 and passim.
u Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 2:199.
12 The most important work is that of George Makdisi, published in a number of articles
and in The Rise of Colleges (Edinburgh, 1981), which traces the rise of the madrasa from
its origins in Nishapur and the Islamic East through its phenomenal spread in Iraq and
Syria in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. Note especially his "Review of Previous Schol
arship," ibid., 292-311. See also Dominique Sourdel, "Reflexions sur la diffusion de la ma
drasa en orient du xie au xiiie sifecle," Revue des itudes islamiques 44 (1976), 165-84, and
Janine Sourdel-Thomine, "Locaux d'enseignements et madrasas dans Tislam m£di£val,"
ibid., 185-97. Gary Leiser studied the madrasa in Egypt during the Ayyubid period in "The
Restoration of Sunnism in Egypt: Madrasas and Mudarrisun, 495-647/1101—1249," disser
tation, University of Pennsylvania (1976); see also his article "The Madrasa and the Islam-
ization of the Middle East: The Case of Egypt," Journal of the American Research Center
in Egypt 22 (1985), 29-47. A. L. Tibawi challenged several aspects of Makdisi's early con
clusions in "Origin and Character of al-Madrasah," Bulletin of the School of Oriental and
African Studies 25 (1962), 225-38, an article to which we will have occasion to return. But
Makdisi's work remains the locus classicus for the institutional history of medieval Islamic
education. For a full bibliography of previous work on the madrasa, see Encyclopedia of
Islam7 2nd edition, s.v. "Madrasa," by J. Pedersen and George Makdisi.
INTRODUCTION 7
have identified the madrasa as necessarily, if not exclusively, an institu
tion for instruction in Islamic jurisprudence ifiqh). The model developed
by George Makdisi and others presents an institution specifically devoted
to the study of Islamic jurisprudence according to one or more of the four
"orthodox" rites of law in Sunni Islam, the ShafTi, Hanafi, Malik!, or
HanbalL Other subjects elemental to a religious education, such as Qur
anic exegesis (tafsir), hadlth, or the linguistic sciences might also form
part of the madrasa's curriculum, but only as ancillaries to the study of
law.13 Certainly the curriculum offered in the madrasa concentrated on
the traditional religious and legal sciences, to the exclusion of the so-
called "foreign" rational sciences inherited from the Hellenistic world.
Education in the madrasa, while traditional, was nonetheless of a
"higher" character, focusing on the textbooks and commentaries written
and compiled by Islamic scholars over the centuries, the students having
acquired a preliminary grounding in the Quran and the Arabic language
either in a primary school or from family members. These madrasas pro
vided endowed professorships and student stipends in one or more of the
religious and legal sciences, and, often, accommodations for both instruc
tor and instructed.
Much of the previous scholarly literature has focused on the origins of
the madrasa and its growth in Central Asia, Iraq, and Syria, and can only
be briefly summarized here.14 Originally, of course, most instruction in
the Islamic religious and legal sciences took place not in institutions for
mally devoted to education, but in mosques, where religious scholars
would sit in teaching circles (halqa, majlis) with their students. The sys-
tematization of Islamic law in the eighth and ninth centuries and the
gradual coalescence of the various rites resulted in the need for more
prolonged and intensive study than had formerly been the pattern. Be
ginning in Iraq and the eastern provinces of the Muslim empire in the
tenth century, hostelries (khans) began to be established next to mosques
prominent for the teaching that went on inside them. These khans served
as convenient accommodations for students and teachers who came to
Baghdad and elsewhere from other cities or outlying areas, allowing them
the opportunity to concentrate more intensively on their academic sub
jects.
The process that saw the growth of "mosque-khan complexes" culmi
nated in the tenth and eleventh centuries in the establishment of ma
drasas. Islamic governments themselves never assumed financial respon-
13 See Encyclopedia of Islam, 2nd edition, s.v. "Madrasa"; Makdisi, Colleges; cf. Leiser,
"Restoration," 410. On the emphasis on law and legal matters in medieval Jewish education
in the Near East, see Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 2:205-10.
14 Except where cited, most of the following material on the origin and spread of the
madrasa is drawn from Makdisi, Colleges, esp. 9-34.
