Session Information
ERG SES H 01, Higher Education
Paper Session
Contribution
How were European universities established and what factors had an impact on their development? How did Muslim universities/schools influence the evolution of European ones? What impact did colonial history writing have on the post-colonial history writing of education? Can Muslim universities be considered forerunners of European ones? If so, what are the implications? What are the conclusions of the discourse on the history of universities? Were there universities in Europe before the 13th century (e.g. the ones in Paris, Bologna or Oxford)?
The formation of universities was not widely discussed during colonisation: it gained focus through post-colonialism and the search for identity of emerging nations and cultures outside Europe in the 19th century: the demand for the recognition of their achievements and breaking with Eurocentrism and Ethnocentrism, which, in the East, materialised in a redefined orientalism and post-colonialist history writing (in response to colonialism).
This also provided the context of debates on the formation of universities focusing on the issues of the various, either narrow (with the criteria of autonomy/incorporation and academic freedom) or broad (not insisting on those criteria) definitions of universities in addition to their origins. The issue seemed to be trapped in debates revolving around definitions. The main trends of discussions about the formation of universities are defined by arguments for and against orientalism as well as more critical and more conciliatory approaches. At present, orientalists, many Muslim and non-European historians as well as some of the Europeans either consider Islamic universities the forerunners of European universities (and regard them as universities by definition, e.g. Said, 2005 and his followers) or equally important products of other large cultures and humanity (e.g. Meuleman, Davidov, Bulliet, Mokhtar, Lulat, Moutsios, Kéri, Simon, Maróth, Goldziher, Germanus).
Many aspects of education at its beginnings show a somewhat similar structure before the 13th century: religious institutions serving as places for teaching; the reasons for the emergence of literacy; the purpose, the structure and the system of education; the thesis and its defense; the examination system and earning degrees; mobility; the organization structure of the institutions; the autonomy and the local jurisdiction; the division of religious and non-religious legal rights and its later development in philosophy; the subjects taught and the faculties (schools of religious rites – denominations/nations/faculties); and the system of residential schools. However, due to the scarcity of sources, actual connections cannot be verified. Nevertheless, European universities were not created out of nothing; they must have been based on “models” in their environment, and it is likely that Muslim schools were their predecessors. It is proved that Europeans adopted several features of Islamic education that are now key elements of modern Western universities (e.g. the body of knowledge, rationalism, secular and scientific approach as well as exact sciences and disciplines).
Method
Expected Outcomes
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The birth of post-colonialism as a discipline was largely due to the book Orientalism (1978) by EDWARD SAID, a professor at Columbia University, considered to be the father of post-colonialism. In response, the most radical (and Zionist) member of the opposing camp, BERNARD LEWIS wrote his Islam and the West (1993). Some expressed more subtle criticism, including ROBERT IRWIN (For Lust of Knowing: The Orientalists and their Enemies, 2007). As opposed to orientalists and their opponents, authors relying on more precise information e.g. Richard W. BULLIET (The Case of Islamo-Chritian Civilization, 2004), Roger ARNALDEZ (À la croisée de troi monotheism: Une Communité de pensée au Moyen Age, 1993), the comparative historian of religion Karen AMSTRONG (Mohamed. Az iszlám nyugati szemmel, 1998) and W. MONTGOMER Watt (Islamic Surveys: The Influence of Islam on Medieval Europe, 1972) emphasised the equal recognition of both cultures (Muslim and European) and criticised orientalists and their opponents for their inaccuracy and their often personal disputes. LEWIS, whose fear about the “Arab danger” persisted later on, responded by the subtitle Western Impact and Middle Eastern Res¬ponse of his book titled What Went Wrong (LEWIS, 2002) to two chapters of WATT’s aforementioned writing (The distinctive character of the Islamic impact and Islamic presence and European response) (WATT, 1972: 9, 13).
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