Ijazah
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
|
Part of a series on Islam |
|
| Fiqh | |
|
|
| Ahkam | |
| Scholarly titles | |
|
An ijazah is a certificate used primarily by Muslims to indicate that one has been authorized by a higher authority to transmit a certain subject or text of Islamic knowledge. This usually implies that the student has learned this knowledge through face-to-face interactions "at the feet" of the teacher.
In a paper titled Traditionalism in Islam: An Essay in Interpretation [1], Harvard professor William A. Graham explains the ijazah system as follows:
| “ | The basic system of "the journey in search of knowledge" that developed early in Hadith scholarship, involved travelling to specific authorities (shaykhs), especially the oldest and most renowned of the day, to hear from their own mouths their hadiths and to obtain their authorization or "permission" (ijazah) to transmit those in their names. This ijazah system of personal rather than institutional certification has served not only for Hadith, but also for transmission of texts of any kind, from history, law, or philology to literature, mysticism, or theology. The isnad of a long manuscript as well as that of a short hadith ideally should reflect the oral, face-to-face, teacher-to-student transmission of the text by the teacher's ijazah, which validates the written text. In a formal, written ijazah, the teacher granting the certificate typically includes an isnad containing his or her scholarly lineage of teachers back to the Prophet of Companions, a later venerable shaykh, or the author of a specific book. | ” |
[edit] Origins of academic degree
The Ijazah qualification appeared from the 9th century and is considered to be the first academic degree. The first higher education institutions to award an Ijazah in the 9th century, namely the Madrasah and Bimaristan institutions, are thus considered the first universities.[2] The University of Al Karaouine in Fez, Morocco is thus recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as the oldest degree-granting university in the world with its founding in 859 by the princess Fatima al-Fihri.[3]
The origins of the doctorate in particular dates back to the ijazat attadris wa 'l-ifttd ("license to teach and issue legal opinions") in the medieval Islamic legal education system, which was equivalent to the Doctor of Laws qualification and was developed during the 9th century after the formation of the Madh'hab legal schools. To obtain a doctorate, a student "had to study in a guild school of law, usually four years for the basic undergraduate course" and at least ten years for a post-graduate course. The "doctorate was obtained after an oral examination to determine the originality of the candidate's theses," and to test the student's "ability to defend them against all objections, in disputations set up for the purpose" which were scholarly exercises practiced throughout the student's "career as a graduate student of law." After students completed their post-graduate education, they were awarded doctorates giving them the status of faqih (meaning "master of law"), mufti (meaning "professor of legal opinions") and mudarris (meaning "teacher"), which were later translated into Latin as magister, professor and doctor respectively.[4]
[edit] References
- ^ Graham, William A. (Winter, 1993). "Traditionalism in Islam: An Essay in Interpretation". Journal of Interdisciplinary History 23 (3): 495–522. MIT Press. doi:.
- ^ Alatas, Syed Farid, “From Jami`ah to University: Multiculturalism and Christian–Muslim Dialogue”, Current Sociology 54 (1): 112-32
- ^ The Guinness Book Of Records, 1998, p. 242, ISBN 0-5535-7895-2
- ^ Makdisi, George (April-June 1989), “Scholasticism and Humanism in Classical Islam and the Christian West”, Journal of the American Oriental Society 109 (2): 175-182 [175-77]
[edit] See also
