Educational scholarships in Islamic civilization .. Music sponsors scientists and Christian sponsors medical students and $ 150 million for Mustansiriya

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In Jumada II in 630 AH; completed in Baghdad - before falling into the hands of the Mongols in 656 AH - the construction of the University of Mustansiriya, has allocated huge endowments to cover the educational burdens of the salaries of teachers and sponsoring students and others. The Imam al-Dahabi (d. 748 AH) estimated these allocations at about 900,000 gold dinars (about US $ 150 million now);

In our time, the Oxford Dictionary defines a scholarship as "a sum that helps a student to continue his education through merit or achievement." The first world countries are witnessing a fierce competition from their children for educational scholarships, especially students of academic levels, and allocates large amounts of money from official bodies and private institutions.For example, the total amount of colleges and universities and the Ministry of Education in the United States of these academic scholarships $ 46 billion annually.

Indeed, Muslims have turned to the idea of ​​funding and educational grants to support full-time knowledge, teaching and apprenticeship as an industry for which huge funds are allocated.In this article, we intend to present a part of the Islamic civilization's attention to science and spending it, using scientific scholarships, in its broad Islamic civilization concept, as evidence of this care.

The seed of the Prophet's era
The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) was sent to an illiterate nation. Historians differed in the first to learn; it was said that illiteracy bin Harb and took him his son Abu Sufyan, and the latter learned Omar bin al-Khattab (z) and a group of Quraish.

The author did not find anything specific in the costs of education in that era, other than what we know from the talk of the prisoners after the invasion of Badr, and therefore we estimate that the cost of primary education was about 400 dirhams for the student. The minimum amount of the redemption was four thousand dirhams. The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) used only some of the prisoners to teach ten boys of Ansar.

When the sun rises in Islam, the Qur'an came to favor the scholars over those who said in the Almighty saying: "Say those who know and those who do not know", and there were many prophetic sayings in the virtue of seeking knowledge and education, and he exhorted his companions - especially from the poor "people". - On learning, and vacates them to acquire where he took charge of their own education, in the hadeeth of Anas bin Malik that the Prophet peace be upon him was "read the owners of the capacity." Abu Naim al-Isfahani (d. 430 e) in the 'Awliya' ornament ': "Their work was to understand the book and learn."

The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) made them a bank for zakat, charity and gifts as "the hospitality of Islam", and allocated them daily food rations of "tide of passing between two men" (the tide of the Prophet equals about half a kilogram); as in the hadeeth of Tabarani (d. 360 AH) about Talha bin Amr al-Nadri (Z).

The number of people of the capacity was estimated at seventy men, and Abu Naim mentioned 52 names; among them a number of high scientific status such as Abu Huraira, Salman al-Farsi, Abu Said al-Khudari and Abu Dhar al-Ghafari, all of them are senior scholars of the Sahaabah and their jurists, who were terrified to them in learning and boys The days of the Sahaba and after them.

Early care of talent
The prophetic era was over; the tradition of scholarship began to be popular in Islamic culture, and the Muslim community knew that personal grants were offered to nurture a special talent that a donor would observe in a grantee such as multilingualism.

The imam al-Dhahabi came in his translation of Abu Jamra al-Daba'i saying the latter: "I was sitting with Ibn Abbas and was sitting with him on his bed, he said to me: Stay with me to make you an arrow from Mali, I stayed with him two months." Abu Jamra was the interpreter of Ibn Abbas scientific councils for those who speak Persian from the present. Ibn Abbas said that Hafiz ibn Hajar - in 'Fath al-Bari' - said that "some scholars [from him] have ... devised the permissibility of taking the wage for education."

In later epochs, we note that if the scholarships did not suffice the founders of the doctrines of jurisprudence in Islam - and they are still young - concern livelihood to work for the imamate in science, and would not have their doctrines as we know from the scientific richness and historical firmness. This Imam Abu Hanifa - the owner of the Hanafi school and was a merchant - touches his student Abu Yusuf genius and willingness to carry his knowledge, Vksh scientific grant and void to the request.

When the circumstances of poverty and the need of the parents forced the young father Abu Yusuf to stop asking the hadeeth and jurisprudence on his sheikh; Imam Abu Hanifa lost his condition until he knew the reason for his interruption from his council, and he gave him a “Sorra .. with a hundred dirhams”. This [Hub] Vlmni, Vlzmt episode, when it went a little while pushed to another hundred, and then was Taatahni ... until I was indispensable and financed. " Because of this care of Sheikh Imam; Abu Yusuf then became one of the pillars on which the school of Shaykh jurisprudence and people took him doctrine.

This Imam Shafi'i arises poor and does not find what does lead to primary education fees requested by the teacher of the boys, so he is forced to work as an assistant to his teacher to receive a "grant" in the form of exemption from fees, said Abu Bakr al-Humaidi (d. 219 e) and was a student of Shafi'i and Sheikh of Imam Bukhari: I heard Shafi'i He says: "I was an orphan in my mother's stone and had nothing to give me to the teacher, and the teacher had agreed to me on the boys if he missed and lightened him."

In his youth; joined Shafei ring Mohammed bin Hassan al-Shaibani (d. 189 e) in Baghdad, and saw Muhammad Nbug Shafei wanted to accompany him, he still gives him his money and increase him in the tender until he took a lot of science and wrote about him "carry a camel." The Golden quoted Abu Ubaid al-Herawi (d. 224 e) as saying: "I saw Shafi'i when Mohammed bin Hassan has paid him fifty dinars, has been paid before that fifty dirhams, and said: If I desire science is necessary."

Jurisprudential establishment of grants
Successive centuries over this care to spend on the students of science and sponsorship, and entrenched this in the collective conscience of the fatwas of the scholars, which amounted to the extent of the obligations of sufficiency on all the nation, and ruled that the right of duty is taken even by the power of power; has decided the Hanafi scholars - by Abu Mansour al-Matridi D. 333 e) - "Muslims were obliged to adequately seek the knowledge if he went out of the request; if they refrain from being sufficient, they are forced as they are forced into ... Zakat if they refrain from performing it," and stated that it is permissible to "transfer zakat from one country to another for the student of knowledge", Originally prevent the transfer as long as they need them.

Al-Nawawi (d. 676 AH) said that if a student of science is able to work if he works for him, he will collect some forensic sciences. The scholars also made the spending on the materials needed by the student of science - books, courses and supplies of ink and paper - from the banks of zakat, "because that is among the needs of the student of science, it is his expense." And circulated in the sciences to include everything in which "the interest of his religion and his world"; as the Imam Ibn Taymiyah (d. 728 e).

In addition, the jurists have made the care of science students and scientists a duty on the state, and proved to them a fact known in the items of its budget; Imam Ibn Abdeen Hanafi (d. 1252 e) in his book 'Responding to the Durr Al-Mukhtar' said Full-time science forensic science. Some scholars went to the permissibility of taking the knowledge of Zakat even if it was rich if he finished himself to benefit science and benefit; as stated in the 'Encyclopedia of jurisprudence'.

Thanks to this jurisprudential founding, scientific scholarships have taken various forms, and their purposes and objectives are varied, and the categories that have benefited from them are scientists and employers of various arts and disciplines; this is Khalid bin Yazid al-Umayyad (d. 84 AH) is interested in bringing scientists specialized in the heritage of other nations and emptied them to translate their books, in the first Scientific project for translation from foreign languages ​​to Arabic.

In this, al-Nadim says in the 'Index': "When Khaled came to mind, he ordered to bring a group of Greek philosophers who descended Egypt into Arabic, and ordered them to transfer books in the workmanship from the Greek and Coptic tongue to the Arab. Language to language. "

Isaac al-Musli (d. 235 AH), who was described by Al-Dhahabi as the "Imam al-Hafiz, the owner of the music", also drew attention to the rich scientific experience of Muhammad ibn Ziyad al-Kufi (known as Ibn al-'Arabi, d. It has links to empty it to teach Arabic and note what he took from the mouths of the Arab expressions of eloquent and correct methods.

Grants .. types and compete
The culture of grants has prevailed and the methods of submission and selection of beneficiaries have varied until it became one of the greatest gates of righteousness, and it leads from country to country and investigates secrecy sometimes; in the translation of Ibrahim bin Saeed Refai grammatical blind (d. A boy blind to the city of Wasit, Iraq, entered the mosque and joined the ring Abdul Ghaffar Hdini (d. 366 e) ... The pension of the people of the ring.

The updated Imam Ibrahim al-Harbi (d. 285 e) narrated by sapph al-Hamwi (d. 626 e) in the 'Dictionary of the Writers': "I sat once on the door of Dari - and it was the time of the pilgrim coming from Khorasan - and if Jamal leads two camels with a livelihood, he pushed them to me and said these Ibrahim al-Harbi, and the owner Isthlvni not to mention his name. " Sometimes the subsidy is in the form of clothing, in the year 831 AH arrived to Sheikh Alaa al-Din Ibn al-Bukhari of the Sultan of the city "Kalbarja - from the country of India - three thousand gauze, and a difference of them a thousand students accompanying him."

These grants have sometimes taken the form of cash prizes to be presented to those who study a scientific book and preserved and mastered, and awards may vary in size and type of criticism depending on the difference between the literature in scientific importance and sectarian status. Examples of this are reported by Al-Dhahabi that Sultan Al-Mu'azzam ibn al-Adil al-Ayyubi (d. 624 AH) "was fanatical for his sect [Hanafi]. .

The patronage of science students was an honor for the princes and scholars of merchants, scholars and associates of various sects and sects. C 569 e) who appointed a group of teachers to teach orphans Muslims in the cities under his rule, and paid salaries to them and their teachers as enough. Including Salah al-Din al-Ayyubi (d. 589 e) and his news in the construction of many schools, we will supply them later.

Among the ministers who were also known as the Abbasid Minister al-Fath ibn Khaqan (d. 247 AH), who was undertaking the imam of the Arab prose Abu Othman al-Jahez (d. 255 AH) and other senior writers give them a generous tender, so that he extracted from the state budget enough for a full year to spend For authorship. When the Minister of Education Baghdadi Abu al-Hasan Ibn al-Furat (d. 312 e) learned the need for students of literature to alimony prose them from his money and specialized expenses.

The Minister of the Ekhshidids in Egypt, Abu Fadl Ibn Hanzabah (d. 391 AH), a scientist "fond of science and the acquisition of books and alimony on scientists"; in the words of Imam al-Dahabi, who described him as "Imam al-Hafiz trust ... ... And got him a lot of money. "

Scientists sponsor their counterparts
Among the wealthy scholars who are famous for granting students of science and their aid Imam Abu Hanifa as he progressed in his story with his student Abu Yusuf, as well as the Imam of Egypt Laith bin Saad, who was a merchant dedicated a salary to Imam Malik bin Anas to ensure his full-time scientific teaching and jurisprudence in Medina, as do universities today With her producer professor when she provides them with enough livelihood.

Al-Dhahabi narrated from Haramah ibn Yahya al-Tjibi al-Masri (d. 243 AH) that he said: "Laith ibn Sa'd was an owner of 100 dinars (about 15,000 US dollars now) a year; Malik wrote to him in debt and sent him five hundred dinars."

Among them, the Imam of the Malikiyah, the son of Abu Zayd al-Qayrawani (d. 386 AH), Abu Zayd al-Dabbagh al-Ansari (d. 696 e), in his book 'Milestones of Faith in the Knowledge of the Kairouan People', stated that he was spending on "the students of science .. and wear them and visit them," and that He arrived Yahya bin Abdullah al-Maghribi when he gave Kairouan 150 dinars. He also appointed his fellow scholars; he was reportedly sent to Judge Abdul-Wahab al-Baghdadi al-Maliki (d. 422 AH) "one thousand dinars" (about US $ 150,000) because he was "living in Baghdad in distress."

Among them is Abu al-Hasan al-Nisaburi (d. 355 AH), whom al-Dahabi described in the 'ticket of preservation' as a “merchant of one of the imams”, and said that he was “spending on the students”. Among them, al-Khatib al-Baghdadi, said by Taj al-Din al-Subki (d. 771 e) in its layers: "The preacher [al-Baghdadi] a wealth of wealth and charity on the students of science Darah gold gives a lot to students." One of them was Adhad al-Din al-Aiji (d. 756 AH), who was "very much generous and very self-giving".

Interestingly, the scholarship grants and subsidies - as well as the beneficiaries - were not exclusively Muslims, but were also members of the Islamic civilization of religious minorities; this Secretary of State son of the Christian student Baghdadi (d. 560 AH) - which ended the medical profession of his time until he said About him, he is the "Sheikh of Medicine: Prakrath of his time and Galen of his time" - he spent about twenty thousand dinars (about three million US dollars) on science students and strangers. His house was attached to the regular school in Baghdad, and if one of the school scientists fell ill, he hosted him in his house, treated him and honored him, and then gave him two dinars before depositing him.

As we now see in contemporary scholarship systems, the scholarship was often linked to certain conditions. For example, the difference of religion or doctrinal doctrine may sometimes lead to the cessation of scholarships if issued from the grantor what offends the doctrine of the donor.

In the translation of Abu Zeid al-Balkhi in the 'glossary of writers' to Yakut al-Hamwi (d. 626 e) "Was Hussein bin Ali Almarroodi and his brother Saaluk conducting permanently known links to me, when I classified my book 'in the search for interpretations' cut it from me. Abu Ali Jihani had a neighborhood (= salaries ) When I dictated the book 'offerings and sacrifices' deprived me. Hussein was a Carmatian, and Jihani secondary. "

Mastered and conditional grants
The mastery of Muslims in allocating scholarships to science students to stop the funds to provide stationery and specialized libraries for science students and scientists, especially as the suspension of books spread in Islamic civilization since early to help science students to collect.

Al-Hamwi stated in the translation of al-Hafiz Abu Saleh al-Nisaburi al-Muezzin (d. 470 AH) that he was responsible for the deposits of the hadith books collected in the cupboards inherited from the sheikhs, which are held on the owners of the hadeeth, and that they preserve and pledge to preserve them, and take up the endowments of the modern ink and cagd Writing) and so on, and disperses them and delivers them to them. "

The books were based on students of science in the Western Dome of the Umayyad Mosque, which was built in the year 160 AH and called "Aisha dome"; as quoted by Imam Ibn Katheer (d. 774 AH) from his golden sheikh. Abu al-Qasim al-Mosli (d. 323 e) built a library he called 'Dar al-'alam and made books of all the sciences and stopped them on science students. The Seljuk Sultan Jalal al-Dawla built Malakshah (d. 485 AH), "Books that were put on waqf by the students of science, and collected ten thousand volumes in which only the origin is attributed, including four thousand paper calligraphy Ibn Muqla"; Searched 'Tags' for.

One of the kind in this section was what was stopped from medical books in hospitals, such as the book Sabor bin Sahl (d. 255 e) called 'Alqrabadin' (= science of pharmaceutical industry). The library of the translator Ali bin Yahya, known as "Ibn al-Munajjim" (d. 300 AH), provided additional services with books.

As long as we mention books; there is a funny story in the scholarship shows a good measure of the professor and his care for his pupil, and perhaps a civilized precedent for what is now known as funds or projects "investment for students"; let the linguistic imam Abu Ishaq al-Zajaj (d. 311 e) tell us this story that It took place with his Sheikh Imam grammar grammar (d. 286 e), when he wanted to read the book 'Sibawayh'.

The glass says as reported by Hamwi about: "I came Abu Abbas Ibn Yazid cooled when he entered Baghdad to read the 'Book' (= Sibawayh book) and said to me: What made you? I said: Zajaj, he said to me: how much you earn every day? I said: ten] He said, "I started reading the book, and whenever I came up with something I raised in the box. When I finished the book and closed it, he threw the key to me and said to me: Open and take what you left in it, opened and took all that is in it, and had met something very much great; God bless the father of Abbas, he has Asani and songs and taught me.

Schools and institutionalization of grants
Some of the grants that are common in Islamic civilization are the construction of schools that are independent of mosques, and financial grants to learners and teachers, with the budget of endowments monitored by community philanthropists, except what was established by these schools and funded in various parts of the Islamic countries; The various scientific schools (jurisprudence, modern, medicine, astronomy, engineering, etc.), where they were providing free education and provide them with fixed financial grants.

The two Imams Ibn Khalkhan (d. 681 AH) and al-Dahabi in their ratio of the establishment of independent schools to the Seljuk Minister Nizam al-Mulk (d. 485 AH) and the fact that he was the first to establish them. The latter replied to his disciple Sobki in his translation of the king's regime; he said: "Our golden sheikh claimed that he was the first to build schools; ".

It is said that the Nizam al-Mulk school was famous because it was the first to pay salaries to its teachers when "he wanted to know all people and conducted and stood on students and teachers"; Science and make connections to students. " This is not accurate; Baqout al-Hamwi stated that the school of Imam Abu Haban al-Basti (d.

Indeed, the establishment of schools independent of mosques was the idea of ​​the successors of the Bani Abbas, as the historian Al-Maqrizi (d. 845) tells us in his plans that the caliph al-Mu'tadidh Allah (d. Its space to build a role for the owners of industries, science and doctrines, and decided to make a living on them. "

If Sultan Nur al-Din Mahmoud Zanki was the first to establish a school for Hadith, which he set up in Damascus and stopped many endowments for the benefit of its clients; Sultan Salah al-Din al-Ayyubi built several schools in Cairo and stopped them on the owners of the four schools of jurisprudence In Jerusalem, she taught forensic science, astronomy and engineering.

The Andalusian traveler Ibn Jubayr (d. 614 AH) was surprised when he visited Egypt from the many schools built by Salah al-Din, and the huge financial allocations allocated to teachers and students there, both young and old. The teacher has what he is doing, and he spends on the boys what he is doing and wearing them; this is also one of the strangest things that happen to the feats of this country. When this jurist visited Baghdad in 580 AH, he mentioned that there are thirty schools, all with its eastern side only.

Mustansiriya .. Zeina minimum
Has founded the Abbasid Caliph Al-Mustansir Billah in 630 AH School Mustansiriya - which we have opened this article by mentioning - for the four sects, and was on the shore of the Tigris River next to the Palace of the Caliphate, a great school has no equal in Hassan and capacity and many endowments.

Has been described by the historian Imam Ibn Katheer saying: "There is a modern house and a bathroom and medicine, and make for the deserving of the Jawmak [= salaries] and foods, sweeteners and fruit what they need in his time, and stood by the great endowments ..., and stop the valuable books is not in the world have a counterpart This school was beautiful for Baghdad and the rest of the country. " The Iraqi historian Naji Marouf al-Obeidi (d 1977) the number of teachers specialized in jurisprudence, the ratio of students to professors: one teacher for every 12 students. This is a testament to the quality of education in this extravagant university.

In Yemen, for example, Baha al-Din al-Jundi (d. 732 AH) tells us that in Dar al-Damlwa bint al-Muzaffar al-Rasulli (d. 694 AH) She built two schools, one in Zabid and the other in Dhofar. Her sister Dar al-Asadiyya also stopped two schools in these two cities.

These schools have been of great benefit to science. They have made distinguished education among the people of the Islamic civilization of all sects and stripes, thus abolishing elitism in society and monopolizing science on a sub-category, and did not know what has become known today of the distinction between global universities, where The quality of education affluent affiliates, and without you rank the best universities in the world and registration fees.

Although these free schools became popular among Muslims, they became the dominant feature of their educational institutions; it is surprising that Andalusia, at the greatest of its attainment where it has reached a distant situation, did not achieve the endowment schools its presence in the metropolis of the East.

The translations of the flags of Andalusia testify that education was not free, until its historian Shihab al-Din al-Maqri (d. 1041 AH) said, "The people of Andalusia do not have schools to help them to seek knowledge. ). " Perhaps that personal spending on education - instead of receiving it for free - is one of the reasons for scientific excellence, known by the scientists of Andalusia until the bottom of its piercing star !!