Key Texts in Classical Islamic Pedagogy

Translation and Analytical Commentary

Collaborative Research Project

 University of Göttingen, Germany, and Al-Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt

Financially supported by the German Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF)

 and  the Egyptian Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research (STDF)

Joint research and translation project directed by Professor Sebastian Guenther, University of Goettingen, Germany, and Dr. Mahmoud Haggag, Al-Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt.

 The project (Oct. 2013 - Summer 2016) has the following objectives:

1. Identification of medieval Arabic writings containing key ideas and major theories of classical Islamic pedagogy;
2. Translation of these texts, either in part or in toto, into English or German and scholarly analysis of their content;
3. Publication of these texts in a special series entitled “Classical Texts of Islamic Pedagogy: Annotated Translations along with Reprints of the Arabic Original.”

The project is based on a selection of important Arabic-language books on philosophy, theology, literature and jurisprudence, stemming from a period when medieval Arabic culture and scholarship were flourishing and produced original, often innovative concepts of classical Islamic thought that hitherto have not, or only insufficiently, been studied for their pedagogical content.

The publication of a special series of books is planned as a result of this project. This series will include annotated translations of certain major medieval Arabic works on Islamic education (either in full, in the case of shorter treatises, or excerpts of longer books), alongside the respective original Arabic text.

Thus, the results of this project are expected to be of particular interest, both in Europe and in the Arab and Islamic worlds, to researchers in the fields of Educational and Comparative Religious Studies as well as in Arabic and Islamic Studies. In addition, the project results will be of significant interest to wider circles of readers concerned with the history of ideas in general, as well as for those interested in the concepts of knowledge and education in Islam in particular. The anticipated annotated translations of medieval key texts of Islamic pedagogy will serve to provide unique access to “classics” of the rich Arabic-Islamic scholarly tradition devoted to pedagogy and education which up to now have been unavailable to modern audiences.