Instruction of religious sciences in madrasas during their early periods of foundation: Instances of Nizamiyah and Mustansiriyyah madrasas

Religious/Islamic sciences can be thought of as the sciences emerging and developing through their own particular processes during the course of the history, on the basis of the interpretation of the Quran and the Hadith-Sunnah, the two basic pillars of Islam. In other words, by the expression of religious sciences, we actually mean the sciences originating from and thus based on the Holy Revelation. The sciences originating from the Holy Revelation can be listed as Quran ınterpretation and recitation, hadith, fiqh and theology. The term of "Nizâmiya Madrasas" is the generic name of the Baghdad-centered network established by Nizam al-Mulk in the second half of the XI. Century for the followers of Shafi'i-Ash'ari sect, of which the first one was set up Nishapur City. Müstansıriyya Madrasa was built in Baghdad in 631-32/1233-34 during the reign of Mustansir Billah, the Khalif at the time. Unlike the Nizâmiya Madrassas, this madrasa was allocated for all the four Fiqh sects of Islam. Another unique feature of the Müstansıriyya Madrasa distinguishing it from Nizâmiya Madrasas was that it also incorporated one each Hadith Department, Quran Department and Medical Department. The subject of our study was to determine the weight of religious sciences in the curriculum of Nizâmiya and Müstansıriyya Madrasas and to find out what other sciences were taught in the said institutions.