Mahima Khan (QMUL) - 2024-25 Students
mahima.khan@qmul.ac.uk

Pedagogy and Ethics in Medieval Islamic Higher Educational Institutions (Madrasas), 1000-1400

This research will offer a historical analysis of educational methods and theories in medieval Islamic higher education, focusing on ethics (adab/akhlāq) during the eleventh to fourteenth centuries. Recent research on Islamic pedagogical manuals has been predominantly approached from the perspective of Islamic studies. Using a historical, comparative, and interdisciplinary approach, I shall identify changes in teaching methods with the establishment and popularisation of madrasas as loci of Islamic higher education and the shift to written culture. A selected corpus of late medieval pedagogical texts will be the focus of my research, allowing me to explore the institutionalisation of ethical norms. These late medieval ethical theories and practices will be compared with the interconnectedness of knowledge (ʿilm), ethics (adab), and practical application (ʿamal) emphasised by earlier Abbasid-era scholars. The research will also examine the effects of institutionalisation of madrasas on the attitudes towards women in educational settings, by acknowledging shifts in pedagogical manuals from omitting women to portraying them as distractions for men.

My research project will use a corpus of 11 Arabic pedagogical manuals and is designed to address several questions regarding the evolution and impact of medieval Islamic educational theories:

1. How did the establishment of madrasas influence the codification of ethics, the teacher-student dynamic in the context of professionalisation, state control, and shifting socio-political landscapes?
2. To what extent did the shift towards a predominance of written culture mark a departure from the Abbasid-era pedagogical theories?
3. Did the advent of madrasas introduce new ethical attitudes towards women in educational settings, representing a change from the perspectives of earlier periods in classical Islamic education?
4. How did the methods and theories of Islamic education compare with those in contemporary medieval European educational theories, especially regarding moral and ethical teachings and the rise of novel institutions of learning in late medieval Europe?

The proposed research on the evolution of moral education in medieval Islamic learning holds significant relevance both in and beyond the academic realm. Insights from this study could inform contemporary educational policy, by providing a historical perspective on current teaching methods and gender dynamics.

Furthermore, the growing interest in moral education among UK organisations such as the Association for Character Education, The Jubilee Centre for Character and Virtues, and the Templeton World Charity Foundation underscores the relevance of this research. These organisations stand to benefit from the study’s historical perspective on Islamic pedagogy and moral education.

The global interest in the history of Islamic education is apparent through the launch of the first international symposium on comparative education at the Hamad bin Khalid University, Qatar in 2024. Research of this nature is also suitable for dissemination at BRAIS and BRISMES conferences. Growing interest in this field in the UK is evident through a new postgraduate Education Studies module on Islamic pedagogy introduced in 2021 at the University of Warwick. Other relevant organisations include the History of Education Society UK, which would aid in disseminating my research to wider audiences from within disciplines of the History of Education.

Primary supervisor: Professor Yossef Rapoport