“Islamic civilization ” is the name given to a civilization that was born in Southwest Asia (known in the West as “the Middle East ”) and which spread during the Middle Ages: eastward to India , the Philippines, and the Central Asian steppes; and westward to Egypt , the deserts of North Africa , and as far as Spain . Islamic civilization’s point of origin was the cities of Mecca and Medina , located within the borders of today’s Saudi Arabia . This civilization arose in Mecca, established itself in Medina, and then began to spread in a very rapid manner into other wider areas such as Anatolia , the Balkans, and the Caucasus . During this period of expansion, interaction with very different cultures contributed to the enrichment of Islamic civilization and made possible the development of certain concepts and institutions. The understanding and conception of education are the most important elements of this development process (Arberry, 2008; Baltacı, 2010; Berkey, 2003; El-Hibri, 2004; Hodgson, 1974; Lapidus, 2003; Saliba, 2007).
In this chapter, first the foundations of Islamic civilization and Islamic classical curriculum theory are examined, and then the classical curriculum theory together with its scope and application, which form the understanding and thought of education what is perhaps the most important element of this civilization. The chapter ends with a discussion of the thinkers who contributed to the development of this curriculum theory and of these thinkers’ perspectives on the theory.
The Foundations of Islamic Classical Curriculum Theory
One of the most notable characteristics of Islamic civilization is the richness of its intellectual world. In fact, in the 150 years following the birth of Islam , the Islamic world made significant progress in the fields of philosophy , art, engineering, and medicine (Creswell, 1989; Hill, 1996; Pormann & Savage-Smith, 2007; Rosenthal, 1969; Saliba, 2007; Sezgin, 2003; Watson, 1983). The development of philosophical thought during this period is especially remarkable (Hitti, 2011; Hodgson, 1974; Zeydan, 2009). Muslim leaders had recognized, at a very early period, the function of educational establishment in the development of this unique resource and in its transfer to later generations. Moreover, Islamic thinkers conducted systematic investigations into the roots of human nature, human goodness, and human virtue as well as the components that have a role in raising virtuous humans and put these in writing. But what kind of impetus lay behind this highly intellectual and artistic progress and opened up the way to all of this philosophical development? How were a people, who until 150 years previously had subsisted on camel breeding and trade in the desert, able to penetrate the profundities of ancient Greek philosophy , to construct the bastions of a new civilization and to build the world’s first global university ? What was the driving force behind all this? Various answers to this question are possible, but we must accept that there was no single cause. We can argue that there are three important causes that stand out among the many causative factors. These are, in order of importance, the Qur’an , the Hadith , and social factors. These three factors form the basis of Islamic educational doctrine and, at the same time, underpin Islamic classical curriculum theory . To understand this classical curriculum theory that underpins the foundations of educational and pedagogical thought as the essence of Islamic civilization, it is necessary first to scrutinize the nature of these three factors.
The Qur’an
The Qur’an is the sacred book of the religion of Islam . It was revealed, in Arabic, from God (Allah) to the Prophet Muhammad between the years 610 and 632 AD. The role of the Prophet Muhammad was to convey these verses to humanity. The Qur’an is the original source of all the fundamentals of the religion of Islam. The Qur’an refers to principles that must be followed by people in their daily lives, including such matters as marriage law , calls for the arousal of human curiosity about one’s surroundings and the nature, and encourages observation of the sky and being in a continuous state of contemplation. At the same time, the Qur’an depicts the ideal type of human being. This ideal human being always tells the truth in all situations and under all conditions, stands by the oppressed, opposes injustice, observes nature, sees God’s varied manifestations in nature, accepts as his duty the care and protection of the natural surroundings in which he lives as entrusted by God, and accepts that learning is the highest value (Qur’an , 3:110-114/9:71/22:41/31:17/7:199/2:182-224-263/4:58-114-135-149/5:8/8:2/64:16/96: 4/68: 1/11:115).
The basic moral force underlying Islamic civilization ’s expansion of its borders from China to Spain and the evolution of its knowledge, technology , education, and the fine arts in what may be said an extremely short period of time is the broad and comprehensive perspective delineated in the Qur’an . In other words, just as the Qur’an was the driving force in the development of the fields of knowledge and technology, at the same time it also formed the basis of the educational philosophies of Islamic communities. Thus, the Qur’an constitutes the essence of the classical curriculum theory . Many verses in the Qur’an refer to human beings passing through various phases to maturity. The word “Rab ” in Arabic, another word for God, also carries the meanings of ripening or of cultivating something gradually to maturity. “Rab” is also the root of the Arabic word meaning “good upbringing.” The word “Rab” appears in the Qur’an 965 times, and such a dense repetition shows that the educational system in the religion of Islam rests on a belief in God and the first, absolute educator is God himself (Ayasbeyoğlu, 1991). This characteristic can be seen clearly when the basic educational programs of the schools founded within the Islamic world are examined. In the process of education and teaching, the principles of moral education that follows the teaching of reading, memorizing, and writing the Qur’an were all carried out in line with the perspective laid out by the Qur’an. While the Qur’an is the fundamental source of the educational philosophies of Islamic societies, it is possible to find practical applications of these philosophies in the Prophet Muhammad ’s words and deeds.
Hadith
The Hadith , in the broadest sense, are the words and actions of the Prophet Muhammad . The Hadith are the second fundamental source for the religion of Islam . In this context, they are the second original reference source for all the practices of the religion of Islam. All the words and deeds of the Prophet Muhammad during the period of his prophetic ministry between 620 and 632 AD were, as far as was possible, passed on to later generations through an oral tradition. It became possible for these words and deeds to be put into writing 150 years after the death of the Prophet Muhammad (Burton, 1994; Siddiqi, 1993). Before his prophetic ministry, it is said that the Prophet Muhammad was one of the leading members of the community in which he lived in terms of morality and virtue. We are told that many of the ideas and opinions he put forward concerning many areas of life were generally accepted by his community. Ideas about education had a very important place among these opinions. As a father and a grandfather, the Prophet’s views and actions concerning the education of children were exemplary, and he showed the way to Muslims on the matter of what kind of education was necessary for a person within the Islamic community (Adil, 2002; Armstrong, 1993; Hamidullah, 2010; Lings, 2006). His teachings regarding how a parent should behave toward his or her children, in addition to matters such as having a high moral understanding, thinking intently and continuously about goodness, and giving the highest importance to courtesy, constituted the foundations of Islamic educational thought and of its classical curriculum theory . The Prophet’s words, encouraging scholarly and technological developments, showed the way both to the improvement of the Islamic community and to the formation of scholarly activities in the schools that were opened. The Prophet’s words and actions, together with the Qur’an , formed an important source of encouragement in building a view on what knowledge is of most worth.
Social Factors
It is clear that social factors, alongside the exhortatory force of the Qur’an and the Hadith , played an important role in the advancement of Islamic civilization , in developments in the fields of knowledge, technology , and town planning, and, along with these, the progressive ascent of philosophical thought. Examples of these social factors include the institutionalization of the Islamic state, the beginning of relations with different cultures, and the incorporation of various cultures into Islamic territory. This process of social interaction also laid the foundations of the great scientific spurt forward in knowledge that occurred within Islamic civilization.
In 632 AD, following the Prophet Muhammad ’s death, Islamic armies began to make incursions into the Iranian and Byzantine territories. This broad campaign gathered speed, especially between the years 632 and 644 AD This period is notable as the era of the institutionalization of the Islamic state. Owing to the conquest of Iran and Egypt , and the campaigns in Eastern Roman territory, the Islamic community had the opportunity to become acquainted with new civilizations and cultures (Arberry, 2008; Baltacı, 2010; Hodgson, 1974; Kaegi, 1969, 1992; Kennedy, 2007). The conquests left the Islamic state, which was still in the process of being set up and organized, face to face with two important problems. The first of these was the criticism directed at Islam by members of various other religions regarding Islam’s relations with other cultures in the conquered areas and its reactions to those cultures. The second was the emergence of a wide variety of social, political, and cultural demands linked to the Islamic state’s entry into a period of imperialism associated with the conquests. During the period 632–661 AD, there were sophisticated cultural resources in conquered lands such as Egypt, Iran, Iraq , and Syria and these resources were intertwined with ancient cultures such as those of Ancient Greece , India , and Iran. 1 The encounters with these rich cultural resources played an important role in the development of Islamic scholarship. It can be seen that these two phenomena were tangible driving forces behind the scholarly and technological advances in the Islamic world. On the other hand, the institutionalization of the state brought with it new requirements. For the Islamic state, the period that starts in 661 AD became the beginning of a new spurt forward. It is evident that Islamic civilization advanced materially under the rule of the Umayyad administration between 662 and 750 AD. In this period, the Islamic state became an empire and the institutionalization of the state was completed. Philosophical thought, which was beginning to develop at this time, enjoyed its most brilliant phase under the Abbasid state which was founded after the overthrow of the Umayyads (Bennison, 2009; Chaudhuri, 2002; Lapidus, 2003).
The period of rule of the Abbasid state between 758 and 1258 AD was the culmination of the state formation process of the Islamic state (Bennison, 2009; Crone, 1980; Kennedy, 1981). It is evident that during Caliph Mansur ’s period, a system of law and ideology was settled that treated equally the A...