Posted by “More than a millennium ago, as early as the 8th century, the original Abbasids, ruling as Caliphs in Baghdad, set up academies and libraries where new knowledge was honoured – independent of its source. The Fatimids continued this tradition – reaching out from their base in Cairo – established in the 10th century – to welcome learned figures from distant lands.”
Mawlana Hazar Imam Aga Khan IV
Cairo, Egypt, June 15, 2006, Cairo, Egypt
Speech
The first revelation to the Prophet was about knowledge and learning. The value placed on the pursuit of knowledge, the central message of Revelation, to strive toward a deeper understanding of God, became the foundation for the development of education among Muslims. Prophet Muhammad is said to have “instructed his followers to become lovers of knowledge, because doing so is compulsory for all Muslims, men and women” (Laugu, The Role of Mosque Libraries, p 93). “The acquisition of knowledge thus came to be perceived as part of one’s daily life and as a way of enhancing its practices; faith and learning were seen to be interactive and not isolated from each other” (Nanji, The Muslim Almanac p 409).
Initially, the learning involved memorising and understanding verses of Revelation and the sayings of the Prophet. Hence, the mosque was the earliest space of learning although other informal discussion circles evolved who gathered in mosques or in private residences. In time, dynastic powers established centres of learning connected to the mosque, the first of which was founded in Medina in 653 for the education of boys and girls (Zaimecha, Education in Islam p 3).
The al-Qarawiyyin in Fez Morocco, one of the oldest mosques, funded by a wealthy woman Fatima al-Fahiri and built in the year 859, had three libraries endowed by three patrons.
As Islam spread outside the Arabian peninsula, the new Muslim rulers came into contact with people who had relatively sophisticated ideas about theology, medicine, astronomy, and mathematics; the rulers incorporated these new ideas into their own way of looking at the world. A vast movement of translation took place in Baghdad at the Bayt al-Hikma, in the eight and ninth centuries, where scholars of diverse ethnic and religious backgrounds worked together to translate the works of the Greeks. Halm notes that the Bayt al-Hikma “was not so much a university as it was a library and the place of work for scholars, whose main task consisted of translating…” (Halm, The Fatimids and their Traditions of Learning p 72). Its library was famous until the end of the thirteenth century with a collection of several volumes on secular and religious sciences.
By the tenth century, Islamic civilisations were characterised by a diversity of intellectual and literary traditions in law, philosophy, arts, mysticism, natural sciences, among others. Islamic sciences developed into “an immensely rich, complex and very intriguing intellectual tradition” (Kennedy, Intellectual Traditions in Islam p 30). Hence libraries developed as a result of the commitment to learning and existed all over the Muslim regions.
The pursuit of knowledge was emphasised by the first Imam of the Shi’i Muslims, Hazrat Ali, and his descendants, who founded and endowed institutions of learning such as the Al-Azhar and Dar al-Ilm in their capital Cairo, a city founded by Fatimid Caliph-Imam al-Mu’izz (r. 953-975).
Al-Azhar is the earliest mosque/ university complex, named after the title al-Zahra (‘the luminous’), which is associated with Fatima, the daughter of the Prophet and the wife of Imam ‘Ali, from whom the Fatimids claimed direct descent. Initially founded as a congregational mosque for Friday prayers, it soon developed into a seat of learning, continuing to exercise this role throughout Muslim history.
Halm notes “the palace in Cairo acquired a library unmatched anywhere in the contemporary world.… When this palace library was plundered by Turkish soldiers in the year 1068 it consisted of forty rooms. The works of classical authors alone comprised 18, 000 volumes” (The Fatimids and their Traditions of Learning p 91)
Ibn Abi Tayyi (d. ca. 1228-33), a Shi’i poet and historian, described the Fatimid palace library:
“It was one of the wonders of the world, and it was said that in all the lands of Islam there had been no greater library than the one in the palace of Cairo…” (Halm, The Fatimids and their Traditions of Learning p 92).
At the Dar al-Ilm, a scientific academy founded by Fatimid Caliph-Imam al-Hakim in 1005, the historian al-Musabbihi (d. 1029) stated:
“Into this house they brought all the books that the commander of the faithful al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah ordered to bring there, that is, the manuscripts in all domains of science and culture, to an extent to which they had never been brought together for a prince…he granted substantial salaries to all those who were appointed by him there to do service – jurists and others… He also donated what people needed: ink, writing reeds, paper and inkstands…” (Cited in The Fatimids and their Traditions of Learning p 73).
When the fortress of Alamut was captured by the Mongols in 1256, Juwayni, the vizier of the ruler Hulagu reported in his work ‘The History of the World Conqueror’ that he was “desirous of inspecting the library, the fame of which had spread throughout the world” (Halm, The Fatimids and their Traditions of Learning p 95).
Several dynasties including the Mamluks, Safawids, Mughals, and others were renowned for their book collections. Other institutions such as hospitals as well as the ribat (retreat), and the khanqah (lodge) of the Sufi tariqah, also housed small libraries to support the needs of the patrons.
Libraries played an important role in the transmission of knowledge.
“This tradition of learning and the transmission of knowledge is at the heart of Islam and the practice of the faith.”
Mawlana Hazar Imam Aga Khan IV
Mopti, Mali, April 24, 2008
Speech
Sources:
Azim A. Nanji, “Education and Learning,” The Muslim Almanac, Gale Research Inc., Detroit, 1996
Francis Richard, “The Kitabkhana: An Institution in the Service of Culture and the Art of the Book,” Treasures of the Aga Khan Museum: Arts of the Book & Calligraphy
Heinz Halm, The Fatimids and their Traditions of Learning, I.B. Tauris in association with The Institute of Ismaili Studies, London, 1997
Hugh Kennedy, “Intellectual Life in the First Four Centuries of Islam,” Intellectual Traditions in Islam, Edited by Farhad Daftary, I.B. Tauris in association with The Institute of Ismaili Studies, London, 2000
Nurdin Laugu, The Roles of Mosque Libraries Through History
Ruth Stellhorn Mackensen, Four Great Libraries of Medieval Baghdad, Internet ArchiveSalah Zaimecho, “Education in Islam: The Role of the Mosque,” Foundation for Science Technology and Civilisation, June 2002
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