NIZAMIYAH MADRASAS: CURRICULUM AND TEACHING METHODS

Abstract

Nizamiyah Madrasas were founded by Sultan Alp Arslan and the vizier Nizam al-Mulk during the Seljuq period. These Madrasas served as institutions under the state control, including free education services, meeting the needs of students and mudarrisses such as dining halls, dormitories, course materials, libraries, mosques, bathrooms, and supported by waqfs is also known as community endowments. The basis of the madrasa curriculum was religious sciences such as Shafi'i fiqh, Qur'an, hadith, tafsir, al-kalam, dialectic, al-khilāf (juridical disagreement), usûl, akaid, farā’id, madhhab, lughah, and syntax. The records on natural sciences like physics, mathematics, astronomy, and medicine are limited to the finding of books which are found by the authors of the period in the madrasah libraries. That indicates that mudarrisses and students likely engage with these sciences in madrasah libraries. Madrasas did not have a curriculum that all students had to follow. Instead, it was a curriculum determined by the madrasa's founder or professor (Mudarris) under Shafii madhhab rules. The education language was Arabic in the Nizamiyah Madrasas. Also, the education system was not based on a class system; instead, it gives permission to move on to the next book after reading and thoroughly learning certain books. Besides mudarrisses, madrasas have other academics such as Khatib, Arabic literature teachers, Teaching assistants (Muîd), Mufid and Syntax teacher responsible for teaching Arabic language. Muîd stayed with the teacher during the class, and at the end of the class, he would repeat the lecture and explain it to the students if needed. Mufid is the official who helps the students with their lessons and is the complement of Muîd. He is primarily responsible for teaching hadith lectures. As Mufids knew both muhaddiths and which sources of hadiths are reliable, he would help hadith students regarding which hadiths they should rely on during their education. Sheikh or Sheikh al-hadith is in charge of teaching hadiths. Also, they are listening to students who naqd al-hadiths. The teaching methods in Nizamiyah Madrasas are listed as memorization and repetition, debate, auditory sessions (sama’), certificate (ijaza) and recitation (qirâ'at). Memorization is an essential part of madrasah education. Before memorizing a book, students have to read or write it under the supervision of the mudarris or muîd, which helps students get better about how to do it accordingly. Following this, the students should memorize and repeat the book. In the repetition method, initially, the Muîd repeats the lecture to the students, then it turns to come students repeating the lesson by themselves to memorize. Memorizing and repeating are frequently used as effective teaching methods in hadith learning. With the joust (munadhara) method, it is aimed that the students reach a level where they can reveal their fiqh knowledge and defend their individual views against opposing views. In the imlā method, the mudarris or one of the students would read the text aloud, and then the teacher would explain the text. Meanwhile, the students were writing the text. In this way, they were slowly copying many books—this method was used in disciplines such as hadith, fiqh, tafsir, Arabic language, and literatüre. Auditory session (sama’) is a method used in hadith education in madrasahs. That allows the students to convey the hadiths by hearing. In the qira’at method, the students read the book or recite it, whereas Mudarris would compare and correct what was read by the student via following the book or doing it by his memory. Finally, with the ijazat method, students would write a book or commentary written by Mudarris in some diciplines including hadith, fiqh, tahsir, literatüre, ensab, and some other diciplines via auditory session (sama’) or qira’at. In this way, the Mudarris would write a certificate (ijaza) on the first or last page of the book, proving that the student successfully learned the book. In addition, a student who received permission to teach fiqh with ijazat was also qualified to give fatawa. In the present study, all these methods mentioned above in Nizamiyah Madrasahs show how the education system be continued between mudarris and students.