Critical Madrasa Studies

Madrasa is the Arabic word for place of learning. Historically, it connoted any institution of education, whether religious or secular, Muslim or non-Muslim. In the Ottoman Empire, the madrasa became associated solely with the teaching of religious law, which has continued up until the modern age. Since 9/11, the Western media began to portray madrasas as places of religious revivalism and radicalism, which, in some cases, has been accurate. The aim of Critical Madrasa Studies is to recapture something of the spirit of the first madrasas in Islam, which were places where open and critical discussions and debates took place on all facets of Muslim faith and practice, and some of the greatest minds and spirited souls of Islamic history were produced. Critical Madrasa Studies offers two programmes of study.  The ‘Amimiyya Seminars, named after Mufti ‘Amim al-Ihsan (d. 1974) of Bangladesh, who was an ecumenical figure in Subcontinent traditionalism. He is a symbol of tolerance, conciliation and reason. The syllabus is an amalgamation of several syllabi taught across the Muslim world, including Morocco, Egypt and the Subcontinent. Qur’anic Arabic is an intensive but highly effective two-year programme of study which provides students the tools to be able to understand the Qur’an in the English language.