Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
Islam Tetkikleri Dergisi, cilt.15, sa.1, ss.43-68, 2025 (Scopus)
This article examines the madrasa-madhhab relationship between the 5th (11th) and 10th (16th) centuries based on the book al-Dāris fī Tārīhi al-Madāris by the historian of Damascus, ͑Abd al-Qādir al-Nu͑aymī (d. 927/1521), and discusses the spread of madrasas in the city over a period of nearly five centuries by spatially analyzing the data on madrasas. In addition, while evaluating the different views on the madrasa-madhhab relationship put forward in modern studies on the history of madrasas, the article also includes classical sources that constitute the basis for these views. In this respect, it is pointed out that al-Dāris, who deals with the history of educational institutions in Damascus, especially the madrasas, has an important place in the tradition of Islamic scholarship. Nu͑aymī classifies the madrasas in Damascus according to the Sunnī schools of law and provides systematic information about their benefactors, the date of their foundation, their location in the city, their foundations, their mudarrises, and many other issues. Nu͑aymī mentions that between the 11th and 16th centuries, 56 madrasas were established for the Shāfi͑īs, 47 for the Hanafīs, 11 for the Hanbalīs and 3 for the Mālikīs. In addition to these, 6 madrasas were endowed for the joint use of Shāfi͑īs and Hanafīs, and 1 madrasa was endowed for the mutual use of the followers of the four madhhabs. In this article, the city of Damascus was divided into seven main regions in the article, and as a result of the spatial analysis of the madrasas, the concentration points of madrasas and fiqh schools in the city were sought to be identified. The study argues that the dominant madhhab culture in the city had a significant impact on the shaping of madhhab identitites of madrasas as well as the madhhab affiliation of their endowers. The analysis of the madrasas established by the ruling dynasties in Damascus and their madhhab identities enables us to trace the periods in which the institutionalization of madrasas intensified and declined, identify the madhhabs associated with this trend, and examine the geographical distributions of madrasas and madhhabs following changes in the ruling dynasties.