In Search of the Roots of the University: Islamic Knowledge, the Madrasa, Medieval Europe, and the Development of Academic Traditions
Main Article Content
Abstract
The university is conventionally traced to Europe in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, yet Islamic civilization contributed knowledge, institutions, and scholarly practices that informed Western higher education. This study examined these contributions through a comparative-historical review of classic and recent scholarship. The analysis distinguished three layers—knowledge transmission, institutions and scholarly practices, and corporate organization—and applied four evidentiary criteria to evaluate proposed connections. The review identified the Arabic–Latin translation movement as a well-documented channel through which mathematics, optics, astronomy, medicine, and natural philosophy entered Latin schools and shaped university learning for centuries. The madrasa, waqf endowment, teaching hospital, observatory, library, and certificate of authorization (ijāzah) constituted an organized infrastructure for teaching and inquiry. However, proposed connections between Islamic endowed colleges and their European counterparts remain plausible rather than established. The university as a corporation of masters and students was identified as predominantly European in origin. Overall, the strongest evidence concerns Islamic contributions to the content and practices of higher learning, while the extent of methodological and institutional influence requires differentiated assessment. The study concludes that understanding the university as an organized and certified community of learning reveals a documented debt to Islamic knowledge and plausible debts to Islamic scholarly methods and institutions. This distinction clarifies the relationship between intellectual contributions, institutional parallels, and corporate origins in the development of academic traditions.
Citation Metrics:
Downloads
Citation Metrics & Similar Scopus Articles
-
Rumpf L. (2027)Who lives where? Compositional roots of the rural–urban divide in far-right populist support across Western EuropeComparative European Politics, 25(1)
-
Tantray T.L. (2027)Pathways to peace: understanding the role of grassroots movements in countering radicalization and promoting stability in Jammu and KashmirSecurity Journal, 40(1)
-
Zhang P. (2027)Targeted Modulation of Zn Deposition Behavior toward High-Performance Stable Zn AnodesNano Micro Letters, 19(1)
Article Details
Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
References
Adam, T. (2020). The contribution of the Islamic wakf to the formation of the modern and Western institution of the foundation. Journal of Muslim Philanthropy & Civil Society, 4(1). https://scholarworks.iu.edu/iupjournals/index.php/muslimphilanthropy/article/view/1916
Arjomand, S. A. (1999). The law, agency, and policy in medieval Islamic society: Development of the institutions of learning from the tenth to the fifteenth century. Comparative Studies in Society and History, 41(2), 263–293. https://doi.org/10.1017/S001041759900208X
Asad, M. R., Almansour, M., Kazmi, S. Y., Alzahrani, R. E., Ahmed, M. M., & Nazeer, M. (2024). Educational paradigms in Islamic medical history: A review. Journal of Pharmacy and Bioallied Sciences, 16(Suppl. 1), S56–S59. https://doi.org/10.4103/jpbs.jpbs_969_23
Beckwith, C. I. (2012). Warriors of the cloisters: The Central Asian origins of science in the medieval world. Princeton University Press. https://doi.org/10.23943/princeton/9780691155319.001.0001
Berkey, J. P. (1992). The transmission of knowledge in medieval Cairo: A social history of Islamic education. Princeton University Press. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400862580
Bloom, J. M. (2017). Papermaking: The historical diffusion of an ancient technique. In H. Jöns, P. Meusburger, & M. Heffernan (Eds.), Mobilities of knowledge (pp. 51–66). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-44654-7_3
Burnett, C. (2001). The coherence of the Arabic-Latin translation program in Toledo in the twelfth century. Science in Context, 14(1–2), 249–288. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0269889701000096
Chamberlain, M. (1994). Knowledge and social practice in medieval Damascus, 1190–1350. Cambridge University Press.
El-Bizri, N. (2006). Ibn al-Haytham, or Alhazen. In J. W. Meri (Ed.), Medieval Islamic civilization: An encyclopedia (Vol. 1). Routledge. https://iis.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/ibn-al-haytham-el-bizri-2006-601109220.pdf
Encyclopaedia Britannica. (n.d.). Bayt al-Ḥikmah. Retrieved October 14, 2026, from https://www.britannica.com/place/Bayt-al-Hikmah
Fındıklı, B. (2022). Rethinking ancient centers of higher learning: Madrasa in a comparative-historical perspective. British Journal of Educational Studies, 70(2), 129–144. https://doi.org/10.1080/00071005.2021.1901853
Gaudiosi, M. M. (1988). The influence of the Islamic law of waqf on the development of the trust in England: The case of Merton College. University of Pennsylvania Law Review, 136(4), 1231–1261. https://doi.org/10.2307/3312162
Haskins, C. H. (1923). The rise of universities. Henry Holt and Company. https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/63574
Hasse, D. N. (2014). Influence of Arabic and Islamic philosophy on the Latin West. In E. N. Zalta (Ed.), The Stanford encyclopedia of philosophy (Spring 2014 ed.). Stanford University. https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2014/entries/arabic-islamic-influence/
Headlam, C. (1909). The Inns of Court. A. & C. Black. https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/55062
Høyrup, J. (2010). Fibonacci—Protagonist or witness? Who taught Catholic Christian Europe about Mediterranean commercial arithmetic? [Preprint]. Roskilde University. https://rucforsk.ruc.dk/ws/portalfiles/portal/34896490/Hoyrup_2010_e_Fibonacci_Protagonist_or_Witness_preprint.PDF
Kerr, A. (2023). The Oxford Convocation habit: An endangered species of academic dress. Transactions of the Burgon Society, 22, 46–61. https://doi.org/10.4148/2475-7799.1213
Khafagy, R. A. (2025). Islamic endowments (waqf) and Western philanthropic foundations: Historical institutionalist insights. Journal of Muslim Philanthropy & Civil Society, 9(1). https://scholarworks.iu.edu/iupjournals/index.php/muslimphilanthropy/article/view/5893
Koehler, B. (2010). Early Islamic charities as catalysts of institutional innovation. Economic Affairs, 30(3), 6–8. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0270.2010.02014.x
Leiser, G. (2022). The restoration of Sunnism: The early history of Islamic law schools and the professoriate in Egypt, 495–647/1101–1249. Lockwood Press. https://doi.org/10.5913/2022792
Makdisi, G. (1961). Muslim institutions of learning in eleventh-century Baghdad. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 24(1), 1–56. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0041977X0014039X
Makdisi, G. (1970). Madrasa and university in the Middle Ages. Studia Islamica, (32), 255–264. https://doi.org/10.2307/1595223
Makdisi, G. (1981). The rise of colleges: Institutions of learning in Islam and the West. Edinburgh University Press. https://www.fulcrum.org/concern/monographs/rx913q04n
Makdisi, G. (1985). The guilds of law in medieval legal history: An inquiry into the origins of the Inns of Court. Cleveland State Law Review, 34(1), 3–18. https://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/clevstlrev/vol34/iss1/4/
Makdisi, G. (1989). Scholasticism and humanism in classical Islam and the Christian West. Journal of the American Oriental Society, 109(2), 175–182. https://doi.org/10.2307/604423
Makdisi, G. (1999). Religion and culture in classical Islam and the Christian West. In R. G. Hovannisian & G. Sabagh (Eds.), Religion and culture in medieval Islam (pp. 3–23). Cambridge University Press. https://assets.cambridge.org/97805216/23506/sample/9780521623506wsc00.pdf
Makdisi, J. A. (1999). The Islamic origins of the common law. North Carolina Law Review, 77(5), 1635–1739. https://scholarship.law.unc.edu/nclr/vol77/iss5/2/
Miller, A. C. (2006). Jundi-Shapur, bimaristans, and the rise of academic medical centres. Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, 99(12), 615–617. https://doi.org/10.1177/014107680609901208
O’Connor, J. J., & Robertson, E. F. (1998, October). Leonardo Pisano Fibonacci. MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive, University of St Andrews. Retrieved October 14, 2026, from https://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Fibonacci/
Peters, M. A. (2019). Ancient centers of higher learning: A bias in the comparative history of the university? Educational Philosophy and Theory, 51(11), 1063–1072. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131857.2018.1553490
Ragep, F. J. (2007a). Copernicus and his Islamic predecessors: Some historical remarks. History of Science, 45(1), 65–81. https://doi.org/10.1177/007327530704500103
Ragep, F. J. (2007b). Ṭūsī: Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī. In T. Hockey, V. Trimble, T. R. Williams, K. Bracher, R. A. Jarrell, J. D. Marché, F. J. Ragep, J. Palmeri, & M. Bolt (Eds.), The biographical encyclopedia of astronomers (pp. 1153–1155). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-30400-7_1398
Rider, C. (n.d.). The Inns of Court and Inns of Chancery and their records. Honourable Society of the Inner Temple. Retrieved October 13, 2026, from https://www.innertemple.org.uk/who-we-are/history/historical-articles/the-inns-of-court-and-inns-of-chancery-and-their-records/
Saliba, G. (n.d.). Whose science is Arabic science in Renaissance Europe? Columbia University. Retrieved October 14, 2026, from https://www.columbia.edu/~gas1/project/visions/case1.html
Saliba, G. (2007). Arabic science in sixteenth-century Europe: Guillaume Postel (1510–1581) and Arabic astronomy. Suhayl, 7, 115–164. https://raco.cat/index.php/Suhayl/article/view/199951
Siddiqui, N. A., & Ali, A. Z. (2022). Could common law have Islamic roots? Testing John Makdisi’s hypothesis in the light of section 6 of the Indian Specific Relief Act, 1963. Manchester Journal of Transnational Islamic Law and Practice, 18(1), 8–29. https://pure.jgu.edu.in/id/eprint/4797/
Stewart, D. J. (1998). Ejāza. In Encyclopaedia Iranica (Vol. 8, Fasc. 3, pp. 273–275). https://doi.org/10.1163/2330-4804_EIRO_COM_8942
Thorndike, L. (1944). University records and life in the Middle Ages. Columbia University Press.
Tibawi, A. L. (1962). Origin and character of al-madrasah. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 25(2), 225–238. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0041977X00063709
Toomer, G. J. (2008). Al-Khwārizmī, Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad ibn Mūsā. In Complete dictionary of scientific biography. Charles Scribner’s Sons. https://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/DSB/Al-Khwarizmi.pdf
University of Oxford. (n.d.-a). Academic dress. Retrieved October 13, 2026, from https://www.ox.ac.uk/events/encaenia/academic-dress
University of Oxford. (n.d.-b). Our history. Retrieved October 13, 2026, from https://www.ox.ac.uk/about/the-university/history
Weisser, U. (1987). Avicenna xiii. The influence of Avicenna on medical studies in the West. In Encyclopaedia Iranica (Vol. 3, Fasc. 1, pp. 107–110). https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/avicenna-xiii/
Article Sidebar
Page Numbers:
410-437
Digital Object ID:
Viewed: 34 times
Downloaded: 11 times
LYAS Publisher cordially invites qualified professionals to serve as Editors or Reviewers. Your expertise will make an important contribution to maintaining and strengthening the academic quality of our publications. Interested applicants are kindly requested to complete the application form at the following link: Editors & Reviewers
Please feel free to contact us if you need any further information about the submission process or if you have any additional questions.
Authors:
Copyright :Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication.
Explore Our Journals
Find the journal that best fits your research. If this journal does not match your manuscript’s scope, explore our portfolio below to select a more suitable publication venue.