The Sources of Education in Medina in the Eleventh and Twelfth/Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries
i.) The Mosque of Medina as a Centre of Islamic Education
As was stated by Gibb and Bowen, "Medina and Mecca were still centres of some educational activity, maintained both by resident and by visiting Seyhs from other countries" (1). Many significant Muslim and Arab intellectuals travelled to Medina to receive their Islamic education from the famous Shaykhs of that time, as Shāh Walī Allāh al-Dihlawī (2) did when he visited the Hejaz between 1143 and 1145/1730 and 1732 and took the opportunity of studying with Shaykh Muhammad Abū al-Tāhir ibn Ibrāhīm al-Kūrānī al-ShāfiCī (3). So also, we have noticed in the previous chapter that Shaykh Muhammad ibn CAbd al-Wahhāb stayed in Medina seeking Islamic education under the Shaykhs CAbd Allāh ibn Sayaf and Muhammad Hayāt al-Sindī. In addition, during the eleventh/seventeenth century, some well-known intellectuals who settled in Medina toured around some Arab countries for the purpose of seeking knowledge. Among them was Safī al-Dīn Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Yūnus al-Madanī al-DaCJānī al-Qushāshī (4), who travelled with his father to Yemen in 1011/1602, where he studied with various religious teachers. According to al-Ansārī, he later changed his madhhab (school of jurisprudence) from Mālikī to ShāfiCī (5). After his tour he stayed in Medina, where he "attracted numerous studens, and enjoyed a ruputation for extraordinary humility. He is of particular importance because of the character of his transmission of the doctrines of the school of Ibn al-CArabī… particularly as reformulated by CAbd al-Karīm al-Djīlī… to various parts of the Muslim world, including Sumatra and Java" (6).
The attraction of Medina in that period for students from around the Islamic world to pursue there their education and broaden their knowledge in various religious subjects depended on the residence there of reliable Culamā' who had come to settle in the city. Similarly, Medinan society itself attracted some notable poets, like Fath Allāh ibn al-Nahhās (7), who was originally from Aleppo. He went on a tour between Damascus, Cairo, and the Hejaz, and settled finally in Medina Where he became a well-known poet of the eleventh/seventeenth century. We will notice later in this study how some of his poetical works (8) left their influence on some Medinan poets of the next century(9).
ii. Contact of Some Medinan Intellectuals with their Contemporaries in other Arab Countries
Alongside the contact achieved in Medina through its attraction by the circle of Culamā' which exchanged views between the city and the rest of the Arab Islamic world, this contact was also cultivated by a second means, for some Medinan intellectuals who felt the need to tour around some neighbouring Arab countries with the purpose of meeting their contemporaries in the places they travelled to. Thus we find in the biography of CAbd al-Qādir ibn khalīl kūduk zādah al-Rūmī al-Madanī (10) accounts of his travels to the city of zabīd(11) and Yemen (12) to teach isnād (ascription of the prophetic traditions), where he met al-Sayyid Murtadā al-Zabīdī (13) to whom he granted an authority to teach the traditions which kūduk had gained from the Culamā' of Bilād al-Shām. For the same reason kūduk entered Egypt, Gaza, Jerusalem, and Syria, meeting in Damascus CAlī ibn Muhammad al-Murādī (14), the father of the well-known author Muhammad Khalīl al-Murādī (15) Included in the cultural exchange between the khatīb (preacher) and poet kūduk, and his contemporary CAlī al-Murādī were poems which were recorded by the latter's son Muhammad Khalīl (16). This relationship between the two intellectuals from Damascus and Medina within the circle of the other intellectuals affected in some ways the character of literary creativity in both countries, the Hejaz and Bilād al-Shām of the eighteenth century, as we shall notice later in this study.
Another well-known Medinan intelectual of the eighteenth century, who made the tour to Yemen, was the historian CAbd al-Rahmān al-Ansārī (17), who visited the country in 1172/1783 (18) and met al-Imām al-Mahdī CAbbās (19) and his Vizier, Ahmad al-Nahmī (20). The visible result of al-Ansārī's tour was a book relating his journey to this country (21).
iii) Other Institutions of Medina as Sources of Education in the Eleventh and Twelfth/Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries
Al-Ansārī is the only source who provides us with a rather poor picture of these institutions which existed in Medina during this period of time. He referred to them as madāris (schools). Among these was al-Madrasat al-Shihābiyya, established for the followers of the four religious schools (22). It seems to have existed since the eighth/fourteenth century, since Ibn Farhūn mentioned this school in passing while recording some biographies of notable people in Medina for his unpublished work on Medina history. His remarks support the view of Al-Ansārī that this school existed for the benefit of various religious schools including Hanafī and ShāfiCī (23). However, al-Ansārī commented later in his book that the teaching in this school was later stopped and the school itself was transformed into a Sufi zāwiya (prayer-room) called al-Zāwiyyat al-Junaydiyya (24), where the dhikr (25) was performed and instruction according to Sufi doctrine was given (26). On the other hand, al-Shihābiyya school became more restricted in its teaching courses for the four Islamic religious schools. Another school, established in the eighteenth century especially for the immigrants from Bilād al-Rūm (27), was called the school of al-Sāqizlī (28) after its founder al-Sayyid Ahmad ibn al-Sayyid Ibrāhīm al-Sāqizlī, known as al-Khatīb (29). Yet another school was established in 1150/1737, called al-Madrasat al-Jadīda (30) ("the new school"). This was on the road via Bāb al-Salām ("the gate of peace") near the Prophet’s Mosque. From further hints provided by al-Ansārī, we may perhaps deduce that there was only one teacher working in this school (31). Other schools in Medina in the eighteenth century are known to us only by their names. These included the school of hasan Bāshā (32), the school of Shaykh al-Islām Fayd Allāh (33), the school of Muhammad Āghā Dār al-SaCāda (34), and the school of al-Rustumiyya (named after Rustum Bāsha, who was probably the Ottoman Vizier Rustum Pasha (A.D. 960 & 962-8). Grand Vizier of Sulaymān the Magnificent (35).
We naturally ask about the general state of education in the holy cities during the Ottoman reign. How these schools were financed and what sort of education was provided through them. In his studies of Meccan history, al-SibbāCī mentioned that the Ottomans gave little attention to the education in Mecca, as they only established four schools for fiqh (jurisprudence) in 972/1564 (36). Further, as Gibb and Bowen stated, there was no significant change in the standard of education in the eighteenth century from the previous centuries throughout the whole of the Arabic provinces, including Mecca and Medina: "There is no indication of serious decline in the standards or means of education in the Arabic provinces during the eighteenth century as compared with the seventeenth or sixteenth. It is true that there was a constant fluctuation in the fortunes of the madrasas, corresponding to the productivity of their endowments and the probity of their supervisors; but while some madrasas declined or shut their doors for these reasons, the wastage was made good on the whole by new foundations" (37). As the comment indicates, the productivity of the endowments played a part in financing some of Medina’s schools during the eighteenth century. Thus, in the case of al-Sāqizlī school, the benefactor bought the whole properties of CAmīra, and Bābayan Alley, a house in al-Sāha Road, and Zamzam Garden, and he endowed all off them to his school, entrance to which was restricted to the immigrants from Bilād al-Rūm (38). In Mecca, however, the schools depended only in part (39) on their endowments in Bilād al-Shām (40).
During Ottoman times, Medina schools were no exception to other Arab provinces in the customary method of disposing of teaching posts on a hereditary basis (41). Al-Ansārī (42) recorded that al-Sayyid JaCfar al-Barzanjī (43) dispossessed Yūsuf Efendi (44) of the teaching post in Muhammad Āghā Dār al SaCāda's school by a firman of the Sultan, on the ground of hereditary right through his father Hasan al-Barzanjī (45), who used to hold this post in the past. When, however, an individual had no right to a post by hereditary claim at a particular school, he might attempt to buy the post, as al-Ansārī recorded in the case of one teacher at the prophet's Mosque who failed to be appointed preacher or prayer-leader at the Mosque itself. It was so impossible for him to achieve his aim, that he was forced to buy the teaching-post at Muhammad Bāshā al-Shahīd's school (46). Others followed this same method in buying religious posts, as in the case of a poor Medinan who travelled with some Indian princes and came back to medina with a substantial amount of money with which he was able to buy many posts, one of them being that of the Hanafī school prayer-leader (47).
It has to be acknowledged that the type of learning in Medina in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries was mainly religious, whether pursued in the schools or as an individual interest, while some people travelled around the other Arab provinces seeking religious knowledge. Thus, Burckhardt, who visited the city in 1814, summarised the state of learning in Medina as follows: "As to the state of learning, I shall add that the Medinans are regarded as more accomplished olemas than the Mekkans; though… there are few, if any, public schools. Several individuals study the Muselman sciences at Damascus, and Cairo, in both of which cities there are pious foundations for the purpose" (48). Yet it is clear from the biographies of some Medinan intellectuals that there were at least some who were proficient in medicine, including al-Sayyid JaCfar al-Baytī (49) and his nephew al-Sayyid CAlawī ibn CAlī ibn al-Sayyid Muhammad al-Baytī (50). During Ottoman times, medicine was "the only non-religious science that was regarded with some favour by the more rigid of the CUlema… perhaps on account of its charitable aspect" (51). But studying medicine as a science in the eighteenth century had two disciplines. One was theoretical, dealing with the culture of that era, and would have interested the faqīh, the writer, and the poet. The other discipline of medical science was practical and to this some people devoted all their effort in order to obtain a thorough command of it and to become proficient (52). But the study of medicine underwent another phase. "During the latter part of the reign of Ahmed III (1703 – 30), when European influences were for a time relatively powerful, the medical theories of Paracelsus had a vogue among some Moslem physicians at Istanbul" (53). Hence, the Medinan intellectual al-Sayyid al-Baytī (1110-1182/1698-1768), whose fame was based on poetry and medicine, might have learnt the science of medicine during his stay in Istanbul (54), which he visited among other countries. Another Medinan intellectual identified with the sciences of medicines was Muhammad AsCad al-Uskudārī (55) (1089-1143/1677-1730) who had deep experience in medicine which enabled him to treat his patients and prescribe the medicines they required (56).
iv) The Private and Public Libraries of Medina as Sources of Education in the Eleventh and Twelfth/Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries.
Sayyid Mustafā Sālim informs us in his etudies of the Yemeni historians that Muhammad ibn abī Bakr al-Shillī (57), who emigrated to the Hejaz and settled in Mecca until his death in 1093/1682, decided to stay in Hejaz because Medina and Mecca were important educational centres throughout the whole Islamic middle ages and attracted students from all over the Islamic world because of the great numbers of Culamā’ and Islamic books in these cities (58). In tracing the history of the establishment of the libraries in Medina, we find that the traveller Ibn Jubayt, who visited the Prophet's Mosque in Medina in 580/1184, noticed to the eastern side of the Prophet's Chamber two large bookcases containing books and copies of the Qur'ān placed there as an endowment of the Mosque itself (59). When the Prophet's Mosque and its surroundings were damaged by the fire of 882/1477, the reigning Sultan Qāyitbay (60) ordered the establishment of a school near to the Mosque and endowed the school with books for the use of the students (61). In addition, during the eighteenth century, al-Ansārī recorded that al-Shaykh CAbd Allāh al-Jawharī al-Misrī (62) collected many books and endowed them for the students at the Prophet's Mosque (63).
Al-Batanūnī, who visited the city in 1327/1909, listed the libtaries which he saw during his stay there, calling them kutub-khāna (64). Judging by the names of these libraries, it would appear that they existed since the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, He listed the library of Bashīr Āghā (65), which contained 2,063 books (66), the library of Sultan Muhammad I (67), which contained 1, 659 books, and the library of Sultan Mahmūd (68). Al-Batanūnī calculated the total number of books in Medina’s libraries at 30,000(69). At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the traveller Burckhardt was able to see one of the private libraries in Medina and he stated that "there are said to be some fine private libraries; I saw one in the house of a Sheikh, where at least three thousand volumes were heaped up; but I could not examine them"(70). Sir Richard Burton recorded in the same century some information about the schools and their libraries which existed from the previous centuries, as well as about the other private libtaries: "Near the Harim are two Madrasah or colleges, the Mahmudiyah, so called from Sultan Mahmud, and that of Bashir Agha: both have large stores of theological and other works. I also heard of extensive private collections, particularly of one belonging to the Najib al-Ashrāf, or chief of the Sharifs, a certain Mohammed Jamal al-Layl, whose father is well-known in India. Besides which, there is a large Wakf or bequest of books, presented to the mosque or entailed upon particular families. The celebrated Mohammed Ibn Abdillah al-Sannusi has removed his collection, amounting, it is said, to eight thousand volumes, from Al-Madinah to his house in Jabal Kubays at Meccah" (71).
However, a significant portion of the books, especially the manuscripts, which had been collected in Medina's public and private libraries over many centuries, were removed from Medina to some Western countries, as in the case of Shaykh Amīn Hasan al-Halwānī al-Madanī (72), who sold some 600 manuscripts to the Brill establishment because of his financial difficulties. These important manuscripts on different subjects were represented in the cataloque drawn up in leiden, 10th Sept. 1883, by Carlo Landberg, whose preface to the catalogue described their importance; "The importance of this remarkable collection of more than 600 manuscripts will not go unnoticed by anybody. There are included in it unique works which are not known even in the West" (73). The manuscripts included some Yemeni works containing new light on this important part of the Arab world. its history, and literary activity, as the compiler of the catalogue explained: "One will be surprised to find here a series of respectable Yemeni works which are almost all of the utmost importance, either for the history or the literature of this little-known country"(74).
All this serves to demonstrate what we have already noted in this chapter regarding the relationship between the Medinan and Yemeni intellectuals during the eighteenth century, one of the results of which was that Medina's libraries preserved the works of Yemeni scholars until they were removed to Western establishements like the house of E.J. Brill. We also recognise the important role that Medina's libraries played among the other educational establishments in spreading Islamic knowledge ans encouraging the scholars of Medina to write in many fields of learning. This literary output may be classified into two categories: history (including literary history) and works of poetry.
Thus the background is now set for our further study of the ways in which the intelligentsia of Medina contributed to the furtherance of knowledge and education within the network of other Arab countries.
Ahmad ibn CAbd al-Rahim al-Faruqi al-Dihlawī al-Hindī, known as Shāh Walī Allāh, was born in 1110/1699. he became a faqih (jurisprudent) of the Hanafī school in Delhi and died in 1176/1762. See al-AClām, vol. I, p. 1149. His biography may be found in Hadiyya, vol. I, p. 178 (where the date of his birth is given as 1114/1702 and the date of his death as 1180/1769): & Gal, Suppl., Bd. II, p. 614 (where the date of his birth is given as 1114/1703 and different dates for his death are suggested: 1176, 1174, and 1180).
He was born in Medina on the 21st Rajab 1081/1670. He studied with his father Ibrāhīm al-Kūrānī, al-Sayyid Muhammad Rasūl al-Barzanjī, Hasan al-CUjaymī, CAbd Allāh Sālim al-Basrī, and Ahmad al-Nakhlī. He was Muftī of the ShafiCī school until his death on the 9th Ramadan 1145/1732. See Tarājim, p. 104. His biography may be found in al-Murādī, vol. IV, p. 27; al-AClam, vol. VI, . 195; & Tuhfat al-Muhibbīn, p. 459 (Where his date of birth is given as 1085/1674). On his father, Shaykh Ibrāhīm al-Kūrānī, see A.H. Jones, art. "al-Kūrānī", EI2, vol. V, p. 432f.
See his biography in al-Muhibbī, op.cit., vol. I, p. 343-6; Fahras, vol. II, p. 970f.; Tuhfat al-Muhibbin, p. 391f. (where the date of his birth is given as 992/1584); Hadiyya, vol. I, p. 161; & GAL, Bd. II, p. 514f. (where the date of his birth is as 991/1853).
Fath Allāh ibn CAbd Allāh, known as Ibn al-Nahhās, died in Medina in 1052/1642. See CAlī Sadr al-Dīn al-Madanī al-Husaynī al-Hasanī, know as Ibn MaCsūm, Sulafat al-CAsr fī Mahāsin al-ShuCara' bi-kull Misr (Cairo, 1324/1906) p. 276-86.
Ibn MaCsūm, in al-Sulāfa, mentioned that he was not able to consult Ibn al-Nahhās's Diwān, but as far as I know his poetical works still survive in manuscript in one of Medina's libraries.
He was born in Medina in 1140/1727 and also educated there. He later became preacher in the Prophet's Mosque. He died in Nablus in the house of the judge of the city, Shaykh Mūsā al-Tamīmī, in 1187/1773. See Fahras, vol. II, p. 772. His biography may be found in al-Murādī, vol. III, p. 56f. (where he is said to have died in 1189/1775 in Medina); Hadiyya, vol. I, p. 604 (where the date of his death is given as 1189/1775); & al-AClām, vol. IV, p. 164 (where it is said that he died in Medina).
"A town in the Tihāma of Yaman, on the road running from north to south from Mecca to CAden, halfway between the Yaman highlands and the Red Sea, about 16 miles from the coast". (R. Strothmann, art. "Zabīd", EI, vol. IV, p. 1183).
Kūduk recorded the details of his journey to Yemen in a book entitled al-Sirr al-Mu'taman fī Sharh al-Rihla ilā al-Yaman. See Ayman Fu'ād al-Sayyid, Masadir Ta'rikh al-Yaman fī al-CAsr al-Islāmī (Cairo, 1974) p. 275.
Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn CAbd al-Razzāq al-Husaynī al-Zabīdī, named Mutadā, was originally from Wasit in Iraq. He was born in India in 1145/1732 and died of the plague in Egypt in 1205/1790. See al-AClām, vol. VII, p. 297f.; C. Brockelman, art. "Muhammad Murtada," EI, vol. III, p. 691; I.U. Krachkivski, Ta'rīkh al-Adab al-Jughrafī al-CArabī, tr. S.D.CU. Hashim, vol. II (Cairo, 1965) p.774-6; GAL, vol. II, p. 371; Suppl., vol. II, p. 398; & Masādir, p. 281.
CAlī ibn Muhammad ibn Murād al-Muradi, originally from Bukharā, was born in Damascus in 1132/1720. He was a leading Cālim of his time and a poet, whose compositions were collected by his son Muhammad Khalīl. He died in Damascus in 1184/1771. See al-AClām, vol. V, p. 169; & al-Murādī, vol. III, p. 219-28.
Muhammad Khalīl al-Murādī, son of Sayyid CAlī, succeeded his uncle as Hanafī muftī and ra'īs of Damascus, and was appointed to the office of Nakib al-Ashraf there. He died in Aleppo in 1206/1791. See H.A.R. Gibb, art. "al-Murādī", EI, Suppl., p. 155f. His biography may be found in al-AClām, vol. VI, p. 352; Hilya, vol. III, p. 1393 – 1405; & GAL. Vol. II, p. 397; Suppl., vol. II, p. 404.
The title of al-Ansārī's book was Qurrat al-CUyūn fī al-Rihla ila al-Yaman al-al-Maymūn, See on this book Masadir, p. 277; & Tuhfat al-Muhibbin, p. 28.
This Zawiya was named after Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Junayd ibn Ahmad ibn Musā al-MushirriC, who was born in Bayt al-Faqih in Yemen in 921/1515. He emigrated to medina in 951/1544 and died in Medina in 991/1583. See Tuhfat al-Muhibbīn, p. 158f. On the founder of the Banū MushirriC family in Yemen, see Fahras, p. 852.
"Lit. 'Remembering'… The religious ceremony, or act of devotion, which is practised by the various religious orders of faqīrs, or Darweshes". (Hughes, op.cit., p. 703).
Attributed to Sāqiz, "the Tirkish name of the island of Chios (corrupted from the Greek eis Xiov) and at the same time the word for mastic (Mdơtixη) which is only found on this island". (J.H. Mordtmann, art. "Sakiz", EI, vol. Iv, p. 78).
Tuhfat al-Muhibbīn, p. 455f. (in the biography of Muhammad SaCid Efendi al-Mudarris, who took over responsibility for the teaching in this school after the death of its former teacher Muhammad Efendi al-Karkūkī in 1175/1761).
Ibid., p. 348. See E. von Zambaur, Manuel de Généalogie et de Chronologie pour l’Histoire de l’Islam (Hannover, 1927) p. 162. I was familiar with the site of al-Rustumiyya school in the quarter of al-Aghawāt in Medina which vanished in 1405/1985.
Mecca and Medina had some special grants from the government, as noted by Gibb and Bowen in discussing the financial methods of support for the teaching posts in some Arabic provinces: "The primacy of el-Azhar was derived from its wealth and variety of endowments, in addition to which it received certain grants from the government, an exceptional privilege shared only by Mecca and Madina". (I.S.A. the West, vol. I, pt. ii, p. 156).
Gibb and Bowen also noted this defective method in the educational system of the Ottoman Empire in selecting candidates for teaching posts: "Family connexions generally counted for more than the personal merits of the student. Nor were the teachers themselves exempt from the defects of a sem-hereditary system". (I. S. A. the West, vol. I, pt. ii, p. 159).
JaCfar ibn Hasan al-Barzanjī was born in Medina in 1128/1715. He became one of Medina's well-known literary people, a preacher, and a teacher. He was appointed Mufti of the ShafiCī school, but died in ShaCbān 1177/1763. See Tuhfat al-Muhibbīn, p. 89.
Yusuf Efendī ibn Ibrāhīm al-Sharwānī al-al-Rūmī settled in Medina in 1090/1679. where he became one of the city's Culamā' and a preacher. He was appointed to the post of Deputy Judge many times and also to the post of Deputy Mufti. He died in 1134/1721. See Tuhfat al-Muhibbīn, p. 299-301.
Al-Ansarī was apparently recording the case of a member of the family of al-Hājj Jibrīl al-Halabī. While he did not specify a particular name, he did record that the same person died in the month of Jumādā al-Ūlā 1156/1743. (Tuhfat al-Muhibbīn, p. 153).
See al-Murādī (vol. IV, p. 34f.), who called his father SaCd, while his correct name, according to his Medinan contemporary al-Ansārī, was AsCad. See Tuhfat al-Muhibbin, p. 35f.
Jamal al-Dīn Muhammad ibn abi Bakr ibn Ahmad al-Hasanī al-Shillī bā CAlawī al-Hadramī was born in 1030/1621 and died in Mecca in 1093/1682. (Masadir, p. 245). His biography may be found in Fahras, vol. II, p. 583; & GAL, Bd. II, p. 502.
He emigrated to Medina in 1140/1727. He also travelled to yemen, where he was able to contact many notable people. He died in Medina in 1155/1742. (Tuhfat al-Muhibbin, p. 147).
Bashīr Āghā was appointed Shaykh of the Prophet's Mosque in 1124/1712, but was dismissed in 1128/1715. He was known for his charities and endowments. (Tuhfat al-Muhibbīn, p. 63). According to Shaykh JaCfar Ibrahīm Faqīh, the school of Bashīr Āghā and its library still bear the same name, in the quarter of BudāCa.
Amin ibn Hasan al-Halwānī al-Madanī was a teacher at the Prophet's Mosque. He travelled to Europe, where he sold valuable manuscripts, and then to India, where he spent his time studying literature and published some books. He was killed by Bedouin in Tripoli of Bilād al-Shām in 1316/1898. (Al-AClām, vol. I, p. 357. See also on the man and his works, M.al-MatbuCāt, vol. II, p. 172; H. al-Jasir, Rihlāt (Riyadh, 1400/1980) p. 213f.; al-Manhal, vol. IV (RabiC al-Thāni 1372/Jan. 1952) p. 186 (where it was mentioned that he was killed because he was suspected of spying by the Bedouin); M.J. De Goeje & M.Th. Houtsma, Catalogus Codicum Arabicorum Bibliothecae Academiae Lugduno-Batavae, 2nd ed. Vol. I (Leiden, 1888) p.xxxi; School of Oriental & African Studies University of London, Library Catalogue, vol. I (1963) p. 180; & CUthmān ibn Sanad al-Basri, MataliC al-SuCūd bi-Akhbar al-Wālī Dā'ūd, summarised by A. B. H. Al-Halwanī al-Madanī (Cairo, 1371/1961).
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