Encyclopedia of Islam

Further reading: H. B. Hansen and M. Twaddle, Religion 

and Politics in East Africa (London: Currey, 1995); John 

Middleton, The World of the Swahili, an African Mercan-

tile Civilization (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University 

Press, 1992); Randall L. Pouwels, Horn and Crescent: 

Cultural Change and Traditional Islam on the East African 

Coast (800–1900) (Cambridge: Cambridge University 

Press, 1987); J. S. Trimingham, Islam in East Africa

(London: Oxford University Press, 1964).

education

Muslims, like all peoples, have sought skills and 

knowledge in all aspects of life from different 

kinds of teachers to suit their various needs, aspi-

rations, and values. Until the modern era, much 

of their education was obtained orally and by 

memorizing or by imitating skills demonstrated 

by others. In traditional Muslim societies, parents 

and other elders provided 

children

 with their 

first lessons in morality and good manners. They 

trained them to help perform household chores 

such as food preparation, caring for and feeding 

animals

, fetching water, and collecting fuel for 

the domestic hearth. While boys learned to farm 

and tend the flocks, girls typically learned to bake 

bread, cook rice, care for children and the elderly, 

and weave textiles. Craftsmen such as potters, 

tanners, glass-makers, carpenters, smiths, and 

builders taught their skills to apprentices, while 

would-be merchants learned to buy and sell in the 

bazaar

. Soldiers trained in military garrisons and 

barracks, often located on the outskirts of a city.

Formal education for Muslims before the 19th 

century consisted of a curriculum based on the 

q

Uran

. Developing basic reading and writing skills 

was interwoven with learning how to submit to 

God’s will, worship him, and obey his commands 

and prohibitions. The importance of religious 

education in Islam is conveyed by what many 

accounts say was the first quranic verse revealed to 

Muhammad, “Recite, for your lord is most noble; 

who taught by the pen; he taught the human being 

what he did not know” (Q 96:3–5). In other words, 

God is the supreme educator. Elementary educa-

tion involved memorizing the Quran and hadith, 

learning the Arabic 

alphabet

, simple arithmetic, 

and beginning to read Arabic prose and poetry. 

calligraphy

 was sometimes taught, and Persian 

poetry was included in the curricula of schools 

in  i

ran

,  a

Fghanistan

, and Central Asia. At first, 

instruction occurred in homes and 

mosqUe

s, but 

eventually it shifted to the Quran school (a 

kut

-

tab

, maktab, or pesantren), which was located in or 

near a mosque. A male teacher called a mudarris or 

muallim presided in the classroom. He was a person 

who had obtained at least some advanced knowl-

edge in the religious sciences. He taught between 

10 and 20 students, sometimes with the help of an 

assistant teacher or an advanced 

stUdent

. During 

class, students sat on the floor with legs crossed in 

a semicircle (halaqa) facing the teacher. Discipline 

could be very strict, with corporal punishment 

used when students misbehaved or failed their 

lessons. Rote learning was standard in the Quran 

school; independent thinking and creativity were 

not encouraged.