University Press, 2005, and E-book); Yvonne Y. Haddad
and Jane I. Smith, eds., Muslim Communities in North
America (Albany: State University of New York Press,
1994, and E-book); Yvonne Y. Haddad, Jane I. Smith, and
Kathleen M. Moore, Muslim Women in America: The Chal-
lenge of Islamic Identity Today (New York: Oxford Univer-
sity Press, 2006, and E-book); Aminah Beverly McCloud,
African American Islam (New York: Routledge, 1995);
Larry Poston, Islamic da’wah in the West: Muslim Mission-
ary Activity and the Dynamics of Conversion to Islam (New
York: Oxford University Press, 1992); Carolyn Moxley
Rouse, Engaged Surrender: African American Women and
Islam (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004,
and E-book); Jane I. Smith, Islam in America (New York:
Columbia University Press, 1999).
university
While the content and form of instruction has
dramatically changed with the introduction of
Western-style universities in the 19th and 20th
centuries, higher edUcation in the Islamic world
has had a long and venerable history. Important
institutions of learning associated with mosqUes
such as al-azhar in egypt, al-Zaytuna in Tunisia,
and al-Qarawiyyin in morocco arose during the
ninth and 10th centuries, preceding the develop-
ment of universities even in Europe. The madrasa,
or school of Islamic law, was the primary teaching
institution. Additional institutions such as the
khanqah or zawiya, two kinds of Sufi institutions,
later came to supplement the education available
from the madrasa. For information on any of these
traditional institutions of higher learning, please
see relevant encyclopedia articles, as this entry
will address the development of Western-style
learning in the Islamic world.
Increasing European dominance and encoun-
ters with colonialism led leaders in Muslim
lands to undertake educational reform. Technical
training schools, usually schools of medicine or
ones focused on military skills, were founded
during the first half of the 19th century. With the
introduction of Western-style institutions such
as these, often with help from European experts,
the way was paved for the establishment of other
colleges or faculties. These institutions often con-
tributed to the early founding of a national uni-
versity, as in the Ottoman Empire (1900), egypt
(1906), syria (1924), and iran (1934). Else-
where, as in South Asia, the colonial governments
themselves founded universities. The first three
universities in the region were founded in British
india in 1857, with three additional universities
established before the end of the century, includ-
ing one in Lahore. Missionaries, too, played a
role in founding universities, specifically in leba-
non in 1864 and 1875. However, the balance of
Muslim-majority countries did not witness the
establishment of Western-style universities until
the postwar period, for example, indonesia and
malaysia (1949), libya (1955), iraq (1956),
saUdi arabia (1957), and Kuwait (1960).
All of these universities were modeled on
Western-style teaching methods and university
curricula, and in some cases they offered instruc-
tion only in Western languages. In the 1970s a
movement began to establish Islamic universi-
ties, or to “Islamize” teaching at existing uni-
versities. At Saudi Arabia’s Islamic University of
medina, traditional subjects are taught by Western
teaching methods. The First World Conference
on Muslim Education in mecca, held in 1977,
prompted Malaysia and pakistan to begin the pro-
cess of founding specifically Islamic universities,
and bangladesh and Niger followed. Soon after,
Jordan, morocco, algeria, tUnisia, and other
states introduced courses in Islamic culture into
their required university curricula. Independently,
the textbooks and curricula of Iranian universities
were “Islamized” following the 1979 revolution.
See also abdUh, mUhammad; aligarh; kuttab;
reneWal movements; secUlarism; Westernization.
Shauna HuffakerFurther reading: H. H. Bilgrami and Syed Ali Ashraf, The
Concept of an Islamic University (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1985); George Makdisi, The Rise of theK 696 university