Revue de l'Occident musulman et

de la Mditerrane

The Madrasa in Spain ; some remarks

Georges Makdisi

Citer ce document / Cite this document :

Makdisi Georges. The Madrasa in Spain ; some remarks. In: Revue de l'Occident musulman et de la Mditerrane, n15-16,
1973. Mlanges Le Tourneau. II. pp. 153-158;

doi : 10.3406/remmm.1973.1235

http://www.persee.fr/doc/remmm_0035-1474_1973_num_15_1_1235

Document gnr le 07/06/2016

 THE MADRASA IN SPAIN : SOME REMARKS

by George MAKDISI

It is often said that Spain did not see its first madrasa until late in the
historical development of this institution of higher learning. The date is generally
placed in the year A.H. 750 (A.D. 1349). This late date is of some interest to
historians of Muslim education since it represents a delay of about three centuries
after the appearance of the Madrasa Nizamiya in Baghdad (459/1066) and another
half-century or so after the latter's generally known precursors farther to the East.
Beginning apparently in the lands of the Eastern Caliphate, the movement of
the madrasa took a westward direction and made its appareance in Iraq, Syria,
Palestine, and Egypt whence it swept westward across North Africa and finally to
Spain. This westward movement, according to our presently available sources, is
generally correct if we further limit ourselves to speaking of movement in
quantity. For, here and there, a madrasa may have existed in a given country
sometime before it did so in another country east of it.
The available sources do not have much to say about madrasas in Spain. The
eighth/fourteenth century Madrasa Nasriya in Granada, said to be the most
famous of its day, stands out because of an inscirption which has come down to
us, and was edited and translated by Antonio Almagro Cardenas ( 1 ). The
inscription gives the name of the founder : the Nasrid Sultan Abu '1-Hajjj Yusuf
(2), son of Nsir ad-Dn Abu 'l-Wald 'Ism'l b. Faraj b. Nasr (3), as well as the
date of the completion of the madrasa's construction : Muharram of the year
A.H. 750 (= March-April, 1349 of our era) (4).
Ibn Farhn (5) and his continuator, Ahmad Bb at-Tinbukt (6) cite some
of the professors who taught in the Madrasa Nasrya : Abu 'Abd Allah al-Bayni

(1) See his Estudio s sobre las inscriptions arabes de Granada, con un apndice sobre su
madraza universidad arabe. (Granada : Venturea Sabatel, 1879), p. 205.
(2) Reign : 733-755/1333-1354.
(3) Reign : 713-725/1314-1325.
(4) Lisn ad-Dn b. al-Khatb cites the Nasrid vizier Ridwn as the founder of the first
madrasa in Granada ; see Ibn al-Khatb, al-Ihta fi akhbr Gharnta, vol. I, p. 330 ; cited in
Ghunaima, Trikh al-jmi't al-islmiya al-kubrd, with the Spanish title Historia de las grandes
universidades islamicas, but with Arabic text throughout (Tetuan ; Dr at-Tib'a al-Maghribya,
1953), p. 116.
(5) Ibn Farhn (d. 799/1397), ad-Dbj al-mudhahhab fi ma'rifat a'yn "ulam" al-
madhhab (Cairo : al-Ma'hid Press, 1351/1932).
(6) Ahmad Bb at-Tinbukt (d. 1036/1627), Nail al-ibtihj bi-tatrz ad-Dibj, on the
margins of the previously cited work.
154 G. MAKDISI

al-Gharnt (d. 753/1352), professor of law (7); Abu Sa'd Faraj b. Qsim
ath-Tha'lab al-Gharnt (d. 782/1380), cited as teaching there on the 18th of
Rajab 754 (= 20 August, 1353), perhaps the inaugural lecture of his professorship
(8) ; and Ibrahim b. 'All b. Muhammad ar-Rab' at-Tunis (d. 874/1469-70) (9).
Ribera tells us that Alfonso El Sabio (i.e. Alfonso X, 1221-1284), was the
one who founded the first Muslim school in Spain, in the city of Murcia. Ribera
refers to this school as an estudio (10). This institution is further said to have
been inaugurated with the courses of a Spanish Muslim by the name of
Muhammad b. Ahmad b. Bakr ar-Rqt al-Murs, the student-body being
composed of Muslims, Jews and Christians (11).
There is reason to believe, however, that the madrasa may have come to
Spain long before this time, if we can give credence to a passage in the Dibj. The
difficulty here is that the author, Ibn Farhn, who died in 799/1397, may have
been using the term madrasa*. anachronistically. In the biographical notice which
he devotes to Ibn Sukkara (12) he clearly cites "the madrasa of Murcia" in
connection with Ibn Sukkara's tenure there after his return from Baghdad. Ibn
Sukkara was born in A.H. 452 (A.D. 1060). In his youth, he went to study in the
Maghrib, in Cairo, in Mecca, and in Baghdad, in which last city he remained for
five years and taught traditions. His date of death is not known, since he is said
to have disappeared after resigning his, post as professor and as qadi in Murcia,
and was not heard from again. But his date of death may be assigned to the end of
the eleventh century or, more likely, to the first part of the twelfth century, since
among those whom he authorized to teach his collection of traditions are Silafi
(13) and Ibn Bashkuwal (14).
If we are safe in assuming that Ibn Sukkara returned from Baghdad in his
early thirties, judging from his studies of law in Baghdad and from his teaching of
traditions there, his return to Murcia and appointment to "the madrasa" of that
city could be tentatively placed at about the year 485/1092, or at least sometime
in the latter quarter of the fifth/eleventh century. This would place the
foundation of "the madrasa of Murcia" in the fifth/eleventh century, at some
unspecified time before the professorship of Ibn Sukkara, since Ibn FarhQn's
statement implies an already established institution of higher learning, and the

(7) See Ibn Farhn, op. cit., p. 297.

(8) See Ahmad Bb at-Tinbukt op. cit., p. 219.
(9) See Ibn Farhn, op. cit., p. 54.
(10) See Julian Ribera y Terrag, Disertaciones y opsculos (Madrid, 1928), vol. II, p.
244 : "Alfonso el Sabio fu el que fundo el primer estudio musulman de Espana en la ciudad
de Murcia" (italics mine). Perhaps Ribera meant, by estudio, a university, (= estudio general).
(11) Ribera, op. cit., p. 245 ; H. Prs, La Posie andalouse en arabe classique au
XIe sicle, 2e d. (Paris : Adrien-Maisonneuve, 1953), p. 27 and n. 1.
(12) See Ibn Farhn, Dbj, pp. 104-105.
(13) Born 472/1029 ; died 576/1180.
(14) Born 494/1101 ; died 578/1183.
 THE MADRASA IN SPAIN 155

only "madrasa" of that city. Ibn Farhn's text reads as follows (15): thumma
'da (Ibn Sukkara) il 'l-Andalus, was 'staqarra bi-Madrasat Mursya, wa-rahala
ilhaihi 'n-ns . . . ("then Ibn Sukkara returned to Andalusia, and took up his
residence in the Madrasa of Murcia, the students seeking him by journeying from
afar").
Thus, in our present knowledge of the sources, we cannot be certain as to
the date of the first madrasa in Spain. It could well be that Spain saw its first
madrasa in the same century as Baghdad saw its Madrasa Nizmiya and its
Madrasa of Abu Hanfa, in the second half of the eleventh century.
As for the number of madrasas, it is reasonably safe to say that there were
not many of them in Spain. The same statement may be made with regard to
North Africa. In fact, the statement would be true of Mlikite madrasas anywhere
in the Islamic world. The Mlikites, no matter where they resided, did not found
many madrasas. They were outstripped in the number of these institutions of
higher learning by each of the other three sunnite schools of law. In Baghdad,
when the other schools of law were founding their madrasas in the eleventh and
twelfth centuries, the sources make no mention of Mlikite madrasas. In Damascus,
Nu'aim tells of four Mlikite madrasas, two founded by Saladin in the twelfth
century, and two others founded in the fourteenth century. As for Egypt, a
perusal of Maqrz revealed one specifically Mlikite madrasa, though there were
others, few in number, shared with the Shfi'ite or Hanafite schools of law, and a
few others still where all four schools of law were individually represented
(following the model of the Madrasa Mustansiriya in Baghdad founded in
631/1234). In the rest of North Africa, Ghunaim lists four for Tunis, five for
Fez, one for Marrakech, one for Sal and one for Mekns, citing what he
designated as the most important (16).
No doubt, there were Mlikite madrasas other than those cited here, but
their numbers were far below those of the other schools of law.
The paucity of Mlikite madrasas may have been due, in part at least, to the
Mlikite law of waqf. In contrast to the other three sunnite shcools of law, the
Mlikite school prohibits the founder to appoint himself as trustee of the waqf
(17). Waqf was frequently resorted to as one of the ways in which to keep wealth

(15) See Ibn Farhn, Dtbj, pp. 104-105.

(16) Ghunaim, op. cit., pp. 107-114.
(17) Cf. Abdur Rahim, Muhammadan Jurisprudence (Lahore : Punjab Educational Press,
1958, reprint of the 1911 edition), p. 309, for the Hanafites ; Taql ad-Dn as-Subk; FatwS, 2
vols. (Cairo : al-Quds, 1355-6/1937-8), voL II, p. 133, for the Shafi'ites ; Mardawi, al-Insf fi
ma'rifat ar-rjih min al-Khilf, 12 vols. (Cairo : as-Sunna al-Muhammadya Press, 1375-
8/1956-8), vol. VII, p. 60 for the Hanbalites. W. Heffening, in his article "Wakf* in the
Encyclopaedia of Islam, brings out the fact that the administrator (nSzir) may be appointed by
the founder, and adds that "frequently he is the founder himself (among the Mlikis this
invalidates the foundation)" ; see esp. Shorter Encyclopaedia of Islam, ed. H. A. R. Gibb and J.
H. Kramers (Leiden : E. J. Brill, 1953), p. 625b, Unes 12-14. On the invalidation of a waqf by
the founder's stipulation reserving supervision (nazar) to himself, see KhaDl b. Ishlq, Mukhtasar
f 'l-fiqh 'alS madhhab al-Imm Mdlik, ed. G. Delphin (Paris : Imprimerie Nationale, 1 900), p.
201 (Une 8). David Santillana (Istituzioni di diritto musulmano malichita, con riguardo anche al
156 G. MAKDISI

in the family and to avoid its being easily confiscated. Those who adhered to the
other schools of law frequently resorted to waqf for this purpose. Mlikite law
did not allow this. It did, however, allow its adherents to institute a waqf
according to Hanafite law because the latter allows greater lattitude ( 1 8). But the
primary purpose of the madrasa being specifically for the teaching of law, the rule
could hardly apply in this instance : a college of law, it would seem, would be
administered by the law of the school it represents.
That the madrasa was not a familiar sight in Spain in the twelfth century is
reflected in the way the Spanish Muslim traveller of Valencia, Ibn Jubair, marvels
at the sight of the Madrasa Nizmiya in Baghdad. He writes as follows of this
Madrasa and others in Baghdad : (19)
. . . There are approximately thirty madrasas, all of which are on the East Side (of
Baghdad), and there is not a single one of them but that a magnificent palace falls short of it in
magnificence. The greatest and most famous among them is the Nizmya, which is the one
built by Nizm al-Mulk (20) and reconstructed in the year 504 (21). These madrasas have
considerable endowments and landed property tied up inalienably, the proceeds of which go to
the professors of law who teach there, who in turn grant scholarships from it to the students
for their subsistence. Great honor and perpetual glory devolve upon this city because of these
madrasas and hospitals. May God be merciful towards the first of their founders and those who
subsequently followed this pious practice.
Such was the reaction of Ibn Jubair who obviously had not seen the like nor
the number of such madrasas in his native Valencia.

sistema sciafiita, 2 vols. (Roma : Istituto per l'Oriente, 1938), voL II, p. 444 (last paragraph),
says that this prerogative is allowed in Hanafite law but not in Mlikite or Shfi'ite law : "In
diritto hanafita, il fondatore del "waqf" pu riservarsene l'amministrazione per un certo tempo,
od anche sua vita naturale durante". Here he cites Hanafite sources ; then continues : "I
Malichiti e gli Sciafiiti vietano, al contrario, al fondatore di costituirsi amministratore del
"waqf" da lui istituite". Here, he does not give any sources. The above cited Shfi'ite sources
show that the Shifi'ites allowed the founder to reserve to himself the supervision of his own
foundation ; and this is exactly what Th. W. Juynboll says : "Het toezicht op de stichting kan
de stichter . . . aan zichzelf voorbehouden" (Handleiding tot de Kennis van de Mohamme-
dansche Wet, volgens de Leer der Sjfi'itische School [Leiden : EJ. Brill, 1930], p. 281, Unes
18-19).
(18) D. Santillana, op. cit., voL I, p. 79, Unes 1-4 : ". . . un Malichita, nel costituire una
fondazione pia ("waqf"), dichiari di porla sotto il regime del diritto hanafita, perch questa
scuola consente maggiore ampiezza neUa disciplina di quest'istituto". Here he cites Wilson,
Digest of Anglo-Muhammadan Law, 4th edn. (London, 1912), p. 4, n. 14. Santillana gives this
as an example of taqid, showing that a Muslim of one of the sunnite schools of law could,
without renouncing the school to which he belongs, elect to foUow the law of another school
on a particular juridical matter, as, in this case, the foundation of a charitable trust (waqf).
(19) See Ibn Jubair, Rihla, ed. by William Wright under the title "The Travels of Ibn
Jubayr", Gibb Memorial Series, vol. V (Leiden : EJ. Brill, 1907), p. 229; French translation
by M. Gaudefroy-Demombynes : Ibn Jobair, Voyages, 2 vols. (Paris : P. Geuthner, 1949-51),
p. 262.
(20) Died 485/1092.
(21) A.D. 1110.
 THE MADRASA IN SPAIN 157

In contrast to Ibn Jubair, the fourteenth century Ibn Battta a native of

Tangier, was not as interested in the madrasas as such North Africa had them by
this time, though certainly not as many in a single city as he was in the Madrasa
Mustansirya, founded in 631/1233 by the Caliph al-Mustansir. Whereas the
Nizmiya was exclusively for Shfi'ite students of law, the Mustansirya consisted
of four separate madrasas, each one of which was exclusively for one of the four
sunnite schools of law, the Hanafite, Mlikite, Shfi'ite and Hanbalite. Ibn Battta
writes as follows regarding both madrasas (22) :
In the centre of this bazaar [the Tuesday bazaar] is the wonderful Nizmiya College, the
splendour of which is commemorated in a number of proverbial phrases, and at the end of it is
the Mustansirya College, named after the Commander of the Faithful al-Mustansir billah Abu
Ja'far ... All four schools are included in it, each school having a [separate] wn, with its own
mosque and lecture room. The teacher takes his place under a small wooden canopy, on a chair
covered with rugs ; he sits [on this] in a grave and quiet attitude, wearing robes of black and his
[black] turban, and with two assistants on his right and left, who repeat everything that he
dictates. This same system is followed in every formal lecture of all four sections. Inside this
college there is a bath-house for the students and a chamber for ablutions.
No doubt, Ibn Jubair would also have marvelled at the Mustansirya,
founded in the century after his death, and already a century old when Ibn
Battta saw it. Both he and Ibn Battta came from countries of predominantly
Mlikite adherence.

So much has been said of the madrasa as an institution of higher learning in

Islam that writers are usually hard put to explain the existence of a high level of
learning where madrasas are all but non-existent. The solution of the puzzle may
be found in the fact that the main difference between the mosque and the madrasa,
as institutions of learning, was one of a legal character, not a difference in the
organization of learning. The case of Spain is amply illustrative of this point.
Here, the madrasa was a rare phenomenon, if not totally non-existent, at a time
when arts and sciences were flourishing, as for instance in the eleventh century
(23). For, in Medieval Islam, institutions of higher learning continued to be
represented, alongside the madrasa, by the mosques, whether cathedral mosques
called jmV, masjid-jm, or small mosques called simply mas/id (24). This
development was in contrast to that of the institutions of higher learning in
Medieval Christendom. Here, the university replaced the cathedral and monastery
schools as institutions of higher learning. Professors became organized into

(22) Ibn Battta, Rihla or Tuhfat an-nuzzr fi ghara'ib al-amsr wa'ajb al-asfr (Beirut :
Dr Sdir, 1384/1964), p. 225 ; English translation by H.A.R. Gibb, 3 vols. (Cambridge :
Hakluyt Society, 1958-1972), vol. II (1962), p. 332 ; Gibb's translation is quoted here.
(23) Cf. H. Prs, op. cit.
(24) Cf. G. Makdisi, "Muslim Institutions of Learning in Eleventh Century Baghdad",
Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies (University of London), voL XXIV
(1961), pp. 1-56.
158 G. MAKDISI

faculties, admission to whose membership required the passing of examinations set

up by the faculties as such and the acquisition of degrees conferred by them as
such. In short, the university was organized into a self-governing corporation, with
local monopoly on higher learning, at a time when Islam, not recognizing the
corporation based on the concept of juristic personality, continued with its waqfs
in the form of madrasas, masjids, ribts, and other charitable trusts (25).
Thus the arts and sciences could flourish in Muslim Spain without the
proliferation of madrasas, because the mosques, as well as other institutions and
private homes, continued to perform, as they did in the East, instructional
functions at the level of higher learning. Higher learning was not a monopoly of
the madrasa.

George MAKDISI
University of Pennsylvania

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