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.