The Islamic Origins of European Modern Education with an Introduction to Baghdad’s Medieval Muslim Madrasah and Library

Abstract

In many respects, Islamic civilization contributed to Europe, partly through
original innovations made during the Islamic golden age, including various
fields such as the arts, sciences, medicine, research, agriculture, craft,
architecture, music, law, pottery, education, Islamic institutions, etc.
Medieval Islamic institutes and their systematic and well-structured
education created a background that played a significant role in developing
European educational institutions. This paper studies the history of medieval
Muslim madrasas and libraries to find Islamic origins in modern European
education systems. Madrasahs and libraries have been the most widespread,
oldest, active, and well-prepared institutions over the last thousand years. By
using historical qualitative research methods, this paper aims to find the
terminologies of medieval Muslim institutes still used in modern European
universities. This study finds that European education’s academic and
administrative systems were developed in the style of the Medieval Muslim Madrasah and the Baghdad Library. This study finds numerous academic and
administrative terminologies for modern European educational institutions
developed from Islam, much of which was used in the medieval Muslim
Madrasah of Baghdad. These two Muslim institutions encompassed many
aspects of their education system that were not limited to the Muslim land
but spread into modern Europe.

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