Islamic reformation: A history of Madrasa reform and legal change in Egypt

Comparative Education Review

Volumn 50, Issue 3, 2006, Pages 325-345

  Gesink, Indira Falk ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 33748539740     PISSN: 00104086     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1086/503878     Document Type: Review

References (126)

1. See, e.g., Salman Rushdie, "The Right Time for an Islamic Reformation," Washington Post, August 7, 2005, http://www.washingtonpost. com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/05/AR2005080501483.html;
2. Thomas Friedman, "Breaking the Circle," New York Times, November 16, 2001, http://www.nytimes.com/.
3. See, e.g., Michaelle Browers and Charles Kurzman, eds., An Islamic Reformation? (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2004).
4. Timothy Mitchell, Colonising Egypt, rev. ed. (1988; repr., Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991), 142-54.
5. Al-Maqrizi, summary of al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah's waqf charter, 1010 CE, reprinted in Mustafa Muhammad Ramadan, "Dawr al-awqaf fi da'm al-Azhar ka mu'assasa 'ilmiyya islamiyya" (paper presented at the Nadwat al-tatawwur al-tarikhi li-mu'assasat al-awqaf fi al-'alam al-'arabi wa al-islam, Baghdad, April 1983), 37-38.
6. Jonathan Berkey, The Transmission of Knowledge in Medieval Cairo: A Social History of Islamic Education (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1992);
7. James Heyworth-Dunne, An Introduction to the History of Education in Modern Egypt, rev. ed. (1939; repr., London: Frank Cass, 1968), 42, 66-75;
8. George Makdisi, The Rise of Colleges (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1981), 128-33.
9. See also Dale F. Eickelman, Knowledge and Power in Morocco (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1985), on differences in Moroccan context.
10. Hence the term used to refer to teaching was qira'a, "reading," and not ta'lim, "teaching" or "instruction," which came into common use in the nineteenth century. Within the religio-historical tradition of Islam, one might understand the oral transmission of knowledge as originating with the oral transmission of Qur'anic verses and hadith: from the Prophet to listeners who memorized his words, to those who heard it from them, and so on until they were written down and collected. Although Qur'ans were often vowelized, the meaning of many verses remained obscure except when orally read or interpreted, so the one-to-one transmission was still necessary to ensure that students received the "approved" readings. Mitchell, Colonising Egypt, 142-54.
11. See 'Abd al-Rahman al-Jabarti, Tarikh aja'ib al-athar fi al-tarajim wa al-akhbar (Beirut: Dar al-Jil, n.d.), vols. 1 and 2.
12. Mitchell, Colonising Egypt, x;
13. al-Jabarti, Tarikh aja'ib al-athar fi al-tarajim wa al-akhbar, 1:495,
14. Tarikh aja'ib al-athar fi al-tarajim wa al-akhbar, 2:86-87;
15. Afaf Lutfi al-Sayyid Marsot, Egypt in the Reign of Muhammad 'Ali (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984), 67, 140-43;
16. Gabriel Baer, A History of Land Ownership in Modern Egypt, 1800-1950 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1962), 3-5.
17. Heyworth-Dunne, Introduction to the History of Education in Modern Egypt, 72, 75, 157-58;
18. John W. Livingston, "Western Science and Educational Reform in the Thought of Shaykh Rifa'a al-Tahtawi," International Journal of Middle East Studies 28 (November 1996): 551.
19. Heyworth-Dunne, Introduction to the History of Education in Modem Egypt, 115-52.
20. Daniel Crecelius, "The Emergence of the Shaykh al-Azhar as the Pre-eminent Religious Leader in Egypt," in Colloque international sur l'histoire du Caire (Cairo: Ministry of Culture of the Arab Republic of Egypt, 1969), 109-123, 117;
21. Ehud R. Toledano, State and Society in Mid-Nineteenth Century Egypt (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990), 199;
22. Edward Lane, Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians, 2 vols. in one (London: Dent, 1842), 84-85;
23. J. A. St. John, Egypt and Nubia (London: Chapman & Hall, 1845), 245-48;
24. A. Chris Eccel, Egypt, Islam, and Social Change: Al-Azhar in Conflict and Accommodation (Berlin: Klaus Schwarz, 1984), 232.
25. Livingston, "Western Science," 551;
26. Eccel, Social Change, 158, 162, 165, 173, 205;
27. Heyworth-Dunne, Introduction to the History of Education in Modern Egypt, 115-52, 286;
28. Daniel Crecelius, "Nonideo-logical Responses of the Egyptian Ulama to Modernization," in Scholars, Saints, and Sufis, ed. Nikki Keddie (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1972), 184-85, 197-98.
29. Mitchell, Colonising Egypt, 69-71.
30. Al-'Attar, Al-Insha', rev. ed. (1835; repr., Cairo: Mahmud Tawfiq, 1936), 101-2,
31. quoted in Peter Gran, Islamic Roots of Capitalism: Egypt, 1760-1840 (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1979), 156.
32. Toledano, State and Society in Mid-Nineteenth Century Egypt, 66, 181-88, 197-99, 210, 217;
33. Baer, History of Land Ownership in Modern Egypt, 169;
34. Heyworth-Dunne, Introduction to the History of Education in Modern Egypt, 28-29, 293, 314, 397-98;
35. Mitchell, Colonising Egypt, 85;
36. Eccel, Social Change, 232, 236;
37. St. John, Egypt and Nubia;
38. 'Ali Mubarak, Al-Khitat al-tawfiqiyyah al-jadidah li-Misr al-qahirah, rev. ed. (1887; repr., Cairo: al-Hay'ah al-Misriyyah al-'Ammah lil-Kitab, 1983), 4:40;
39. Michael J. Reimer, "Views of al-Azhar in the Nineteenth Century: Gabriel Charmes and 'Ali Pasha Mubarak, " in Travellers in Egypt, ed. Paul Starkey and Janet Starkey (London: Tauris, 1998), 267-68;
40. Bayard Dodge, Al-Azhar: A Millennium of Muslim Learning (Washington, DC: Middle East Institute, 1961), 114;
41. Juan R. I. Cole, Colonialism and Revolution in the Middle East: Social and Cultural Origins of Egypt's 'Urabi Movement (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1993), 38.
42. Heyworth-Dunne, Introduction to the History of Education in Modern Egypt, 253-59;
43. Mitchell, Colonising Egypt, 71, 76-77.
44. Rifa'a al-Tahtawi, Murshid al-amin li al-banat wa al-banin, in Al-A'mal al-kamila li Rifa'a Rafi' al-Tahtawi, ed. Muhammad 'Imarah (Beirut: al-Mu'assasah al-'Arabiyyah li al-Dirasat wa al-Nashr, 1973), 1: 227 (translation mine, here and throughout article).
45. See also Cole, Colonialism and Revolution in the Middle East, 42-43;
46. for comparison to Indian madrasa reform, see Muhammad Qasim Zaman, "Religious Education and the Rhetoric of Reform: The Madrasah in British India and Pakistan," Comparative Studies in Society and History 41 (1999): 294-323.
47. Rifa'a al-Tahtawi, Kitab manahij al-albab al-Misriyya fi mabahij al-adab al-'asriyya, in 'Imarah, Al-A'mal al-kamila li Rifa'a Rafi' al-Tahtawi, 228.
48. In Sunni Islamic legal theory, there are four generally accepted categories of evidence or legal reasoning that a jurist may use in formulating a legal opinion or judgment. Of the evidentiary sources, the Qur'an is the first and most authoritative; the second is sunna, or the normative principles drawn from sayings of the Prophet and his Companions; and the third is ijma', rulings achieved by analogy or other methods but approved by consensus of the community of scholars in a particular legal school. Qiyas, analogy based on Qur'an or hadith texts, constitutes the fourth source. There are numerous less widely accepted sources, including varieties of customary practice, judgments about common good, etc.; the use of these in part distinguishes one legal school from another.
49. Wael Hallaq, "Was the Gate of Ijtihad Closed?" International Journal of Middle East Studies 16 (1984): 3-41,
50. and "On the Origins of the Controversy about the Existence of Mujtahids and the Gate of Ijtihad," Studia Islamica 63 (1986): 134-41.
51. Muhammad Fadel, "The Social Logic of Taqlid and the Rise of the Mukhatasar," Islamic Law and Society 3 (June 1996): 193-233.
52. Rifa'a al-Tahtawi, "Baqa' husn al-dhikr bi istikhdam al-fikr," Rawdat al-Madaris 1 (15 Safar AH 1287): 11-15,
53. and Al-Qawl al-sadid fi al-ijtihad wa al-tajdid (Cairo: Matba'at Wadi al-Nil, 1870), 1-24.
54. John W. Livingston, "Muhammad 'Abduh on Science," Muslim World 85, nos. 3-4 (1995): 222. Al-Afghani's influence in Egypt was considerable. Although he had no waqf-paid position at a madrasa, he had a government stipend that allowed him to read texts with students at his own home, and by all reports al-Afghani's private readings attracted many students from al-Azhar madrasa, among them men who would become the foremost journalists, jurists, and statesmen of their day.
55. Jamal al-Din al-Afghani, "Al-Radd 'ala al-dahriyyin," in Al-A'mal al-kamila li-Jamal al-Din al-Afghani, ed. Muhammad 'Imarah (Cairo: al-Mu'assasa al-Misriyya al-'Amma li al-Ta'lif wa al-Nashr, n.d.), 1:126-79, quote on 177.
56. See, e.g., Qur'an 2:170-71,
57. Qur'an 5:104-5,
58. Qur'an 7:70-72.
59. Al-Afghani, "Al-Radd 'ala al-dahriyin," 176.
60. Al-radd 'Ala Al-dahriyin, Ibid., 176-77.
61. Muhammad al-Makhzumi, Khatirat Sayyid Jamal al-Din al-Afghani al-Husayni (Beirut: al-Matba'a al-'Ilmiyya li-Yusuf Sadir, 1931), 176-79.
62. Muhammad Rashid Rida, Tarikh al-ustadh al-imam Muhammad Abduh (Cairo: Al-Manar, 1908), 1: 411.
63. Muhammad 'Abduh, "Al-Ma'arif, " in Al-A'mal al-kamila li al-Imam al-Shaykh Muhammad 'Abduh, ed. Muhammad 'Imarah (Beirut: Dar al-Shuruq, 1993), 3:38.
64. Muhammad 'Abduh, "Al-'Ulum al-kalamiyya wa al-da'wa ila al-'ulum al-'asriyya," in 'Imarah, Al-A 'mal al-kamila li al-Imam al-Shaykh Muhammad 'Abduh, 3:17.
65. Al-A 'Mal Al-kamila Li Al-Imam Al-Shaykh Muhammad 'Abduh, Ibid., 3:17-22.
66. Muhammad 'Abduh, Risalat al-tawhid, ed. Mahmud Abu Riyya (Cairo: Dar al-Ma'arif, n.d.), 183-84.
67. Risalat Al-tawhid, Ibid., 154.
68. 'Abduh, "Al-Ma'arif," 3:32.
69. Rida, Tarikh, 1:1031, 103;
70. Muhammad 'Abduh, "Mashru' islah al-tarbiya fi Misr" in 'Imarah, Al-A'mal al-kamila li al-Imam al-Shaykh Muhammad 'Abduh, 3:106-22;
71. Herbert Spencer, On Education, rev. ed. (1854-59; repr., Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1932);
72. Wilfred Scawen Blunt, My Diaries: Being a Personal Narrative of Events, 1888-1914 (New York: Knopf, 1921), 2:66-67.
73. Fatwas are nonbinding legal opinions on religious matters, usually in response to a petition; by issuing fatwas the chief mufti could set policy for members of his legal school.
74. Muhammad "Abduh, "Lubs al-baranit wa dhabihat ahl al-kitab: Wa salat al-shafi'i khalf al-hanafi," fatwa no. 625, December 25, 1903,
75. in Al-Fatawa al-islamiyya min dar al-ifta' al-Misriyya (Cairo: Wizarat al-Awqaf, 1981), 4:1298-99;
76. on modernist use of social good as an operating principle, see Felicitas Opwis, "Changes in Modern Islamic Legal Theory: Reform or Reformation?" in Browers and Kurzman, An Islamic Reformation ? 38-45.
77. Muhammad 'Abduh, "Surat al-nisa': Tafsir al-Qur'an," in 'Imarah, Al-A'mal al-kamila li al-Imam al-Shaykh Muhammad 'Abduh, 5:163-64;
78. see also Qasim Amin, Tahrir al-mar'a, in Qasim Amin: Al-A'mal al-kamila, ed. Muhammad 'Imara (Beirut: Dar al-Shuruq, 1989), 393-97.
79. Lord Cromer, dispatch no. 105 (June 6, 1899), Foreign Office 78/5023.
80. For example, 'Abduh was nevertheless roundly criticized for "making permitted that which is forbidden." See Muhammad Abu Shadi, "Ra'y Mufti al-diyar al-misriyya fi lubs al-qubba'a wa akl al-lahm al-ghayr al-madhki wa salat al-shafi'iyya khalf al-hanafiyya," Al-Zahir, December 29, 1903, and subsequent issues;
81. Mustafa Kamil, "Mas'alat al-ifta'," Al-Liwa', January 14, 1904, and subsequent issues.
82. Successive codes created examinations of candidates who wished licenses to teach and delineated subject areas (1872, 1885, and 1888), implemented formal registration procedures (1881 and 1885), and approved the study of mathematics, geography, and natural sciences (1888).
83. Lajnat Islah al-Azhar al-Ma'mur, Mashru' muqaddam li-Sahib al-'Atufa Muhammad Sa'id Pasha qa'immaqam al-hadrat al-khidiwiyya was ra'is al-nuzzar (Cairo: Al-Matba'a al-Amiriyya, 1910).
84. Reprinted in 'Ali Yusuf, "Ta'mim al-ta'lim," Al-Adab 3 (November 22, 1889): 485-87.
85. Muhammad Sulayman al-Safti, "Al-Azhar," Al-Islam 1 (January 27, 1895): 267-71.
86. Muhammad al-Hifni al-Mahdi, "Adab al-'ilm wa al-'ulama," Al-hlam 2 (October 20, 1895): 206-7.
87. Hasan Husni al-Tuwayrani, "Al-Azhar fi Misr," Al-Nil 4 (January 31, 1895): 4;
88. see also Ramadan, "Dawr al-awqaf," 37-38.
89. Ibrahim al-Muwailihi, "Mustahsan ghayr lazim," Misbah al-sharq, November 2, 1899.
90. 'Abd al-Rahman Salman, A'mal majlis idarat al-Azhar: Min ibtida ta'sisihi sanat 1312 ila ghayat sanat 1322, rev. ed. (AH 1322; repr., Cairo: Matba'at al-Manar, 1905), 19, 60-62.
91. Muhammad Rashid Rida, "Al-Muhawarat bayna al-muslih wa al-muqallid: Al-Muhawara al-sadisa; Al-ijtihad wa al-taqlid," Al-Manar 4 (May 5, 1901): 166-67.
92. Muhammad Rashid Rida, "Al-Muhawara al-sabi'a bayna al-muslih wa al-muqallid - al-ijtihad wa al-wahda al-islamiyya," Al-Manar 4 (May 19, 1901): 212.
93. Muhammad Rashid Rida, "Al-Muhawara al-tasi'a bayna al-muslih wa al-muqallid - al-taqlid wa al-talfiq al-ijma," Al-Manar 4 (July 17, 1901): 369-70.
94. Rida, "Al-Muhawara al-sabi'a," 212-13.
95. Muhammad 'Ilish, Fath al-'ali al-malik fi al-fatwa 'ala madhhab al-Imam Malik, rev. ed. (1882; repr. Cairo: Sharikat Maktaba wa Matba'a al-Babi al-Halabi wa Awladihi, 1958), 1:67-68, 70-71, 77, 89-93, 95-96, 104.
96. 'Abduh's autobiography as reported by Rashid Rida in Al-Manar 8 (July 19, 1905): 391.
97. For 'Ilish, a ruling was regarded as epistemologically certain if the community, represented by its scholars, achieved consensus on it, and acceptance of consensus was one of the fundamental principles that defined the Sunni community. Thus, someone who rejected rulings achieved by consensus was in effect excusing himself from the community and therefore a heretic. 'Ilish, Fath al-'ali, 92;
98. Wael B. Hallaq, A History of Islamic Legal Theories: An Introduction to Sunni usul al-fiqh (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997), 207-9.
99. Ibrahim al-Muwailihi, "Al-Im'an fi al-tafarnuj," Misbah al-sharq, October 4, 1901;
100. Muhammad Abu Shadi, "Hukm Allah fi ra'y al-Mufti" Al-Zahir, January 2, 1904.
101. Muhammad 'Abduh, "Sharikat mudaraba," fatwa no. 436, in Al-Fatawa al-islamiyya, 3:879-85.
102. Muhammad Tawfiq, "Darwish wa abu hashish wa ghayr keda ma fish," Humarat Munyati 3 (January 8, 1901): 502-5.
103. Muhammad Tawfiq, "Wa hadha al-ustadh al-'allama al-shaykh Muhammad 'Abduh mufti al-diyar al-Misriyya," Humarat Munyati 4 (July 28, 1901): 142-44.
104. Abu Shadi, "Hukm Allah fi ra'y al-Mufti," 1, "Hukm Allah fi fatwa al-Mufti . . . rabbuna Allah la ghayruhu," Al-Zahir, January 6, 1904,
105. and "Rabbuna Allah la ghayruhu: Mas'alat al-fatwa," Al-Zahir, January 7, 1904;
106. "A-la yakhjalu al-muhawwasun" Al-Zahir, January 6, 1904.
107. Abu Shadi, "Rabbuna Allah," 1.
108. Such public criticisms of 'Abduh also affected his relations with al-Azhar students, as one reported: "Our professors, may God forgive them, used to constantly criticize the Shaykh ['Abduh] in our presence and represent him as being dangerous for religion and for the religious - subtly dangerous. As a consequence, ... I used to flee from encountering the professor, for the sake of my religion, and to flee from listening to his lessons, even though he was a friend of my father." 'Abd al-Baqi al-Surur, quoted in Eccel, Social Change, 177.
109. 'Abd al-Rahman al-Shirbini, "Al-Azhar al-sharif wa al-gharad min islah turuq al-ta'lim fihi," in Rida, Tarikh, 1:502-4.
110. Muhammad Rashid Rida, "Irad[a] 'ala tark al-taqlid," Al-Manar 8 (June 19, 1905): 294-97.
111. Muhammad al-Ahmadi al-Zawahiri, Al-'lim wa al-ulama wa al-nizam al-ta'lim, rev. ed. (1904; repr, n.p., 1955), 27, 43, 233,
112. and "Ra'y al-tawasut fi mas'alat islah al-azhar al-sharif: Kitab maftuh ila sumuww mawlana al-khediw al-mu'azzam," Al-Mu' ayyad, March 11, 1905.
113. Ahmad Shafiq, Mudhakkirati fi nisf qarn (Cairo: Sharikat Musahima Misriyya, 1934-36), 2, bk. 2: 138,
114. and "Al-Azhariyyun wa mutalabatuhum," Al-Mu'ayyad, January 25, 1909. These demonstrations have often been misconstrued as demonstrations against reform; a simple reading of newspapers from the time shows that students supported the principle of the 1908 bureaucratic reforms and were demonstrating because their implementation was not planned well (e.g., some subjects required for degrees were not being taught).
115. Lajnat Islah al-Azhar al-Ma'mur, "Mashru' qanun al-Azhar," in Mashru' muqaddam ti-Sahib al-'Atufa Muhammad Sa'id Pasha qa'immaqam al-hadrat al-khidiwiyya was ra'is al-nuzzar, 36-39;
116. 'Abd al-Mit'al al-Sa'idi, Tarikh al-islah fil-Azhar wa safahat min al-jihad fil-islah (Cairo: Matba'at al-I'timad, 1951), 84-85, 88-89, 90, 94. Nevertheless, some students felt that the bureaucratization of the madrasa severed the spiritual connection between teacher and student, the sense that the act of reading itself was sacred, and as a result the students became increasingly motivated by material concerns.
117. Mohamed Abdulla 'Enan, foreword to Tarikh al-Azhar (Cairo: Lajnet al-Ta'lif, 1958).
118. For example, see comments on 'Abduh in Evelyn Baring Cromer, Modern Egypt (New York: Macmillan, 1908) ;
119. and Charles Adams, Islam and Modernism in Egypt: A Study of the Modern Reform Movement Inaugurated by Muhammad 'Abduh, rev. ed. (1933; repr., New York: Russell & Russell, 1968).
120. Gregory Starrett, Putting Islam to Work: Education, Politics, and Religious Transformation in Egypt (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998), 137-42.
121. Eickelman, Knowledge and Power, 168,
122. "The Art of Memory: Islamic Education and Its Social Reproduction," in Comparing Muslim Societies: Knowledge and the State in a World Civilization, ed. Juan R. I. Cole, 121-22, 125,
123. and "Who Speaks for Islam? Inside the Islamic Reformation," in Browers and Kurzman. An Islamic Reformation ? 23.
124. Quoted in Giles Kepel, Muslim Extremism in Egypt, trans. Jon Rothschild, rev. ed. (1984; repr., Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993), 79.
125. See also Starrett, Putting Islam to Work, 231.
126. Osama bin Ladin, interview by Peter Arnett, CNN, March 20, 1997.