The Emergence of the Collegiate System in Classical Islam: 700-1200 A.D. ASHE Annual Meeting Paper.

Formal structures of higher education that evolved in Islamic culture are discussed, along with parallels to the rise of universities in Medieval Europe. Both Islamic communities and Western Christianity founded colleges through endowments. The structural form of higher education in Islamic education in Islamic regions developed from the efforts of the schools to educate students in a particular world view. A dedication and loyalty of students to one professor and his approach to the subject matter distinguished the Islamic college from its Latin counterpart. In Medieval Europe, the college supported several professors and a number of students bound together largely by a mutually shared dedication to a religious rule. In the Latin West, colleges drew support not from a single patron, but from a great number of benefactors. Islam offered no means of incorporation that would allow a group to ban together as a legal identity so that it could replenish funds or add to the original endowment. Islamic higher learning institutions have continued to emphasize religious sciences, mainly jurisprudence, and exclude the advanced knowledge in the sciences and social sciences. Twenty references are cited. (SW)