Abstract
The chapter traces a brief history of madrassas in Pakistan from the medieval Islamic period to current times. It employs the results of collected data to categorize madrassas as providers of informal social protection. Firstly, the chapter briefly explains the evolution and contributions of early madrassas. Secondly, the chapter analyzes the role of madrassas during the Mughal era in India and how the colonization of India affected them. Thirdly, the chapter presents a short history of the development of the madrassas in Pakistan and the impact on them of various events in Pakistani history, followed by a brief overview of the literature on the topic of madrassas to place this study in the body of scholarship. Lastly, the chapter utilizes the survey results and semi-structured interview data to classify the madrassas in Pakistan as providers of all three components of informal social protection.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsNotes
- 1.
- 2.
It is not the aim of this study to contest or accept any of these claims.
- 3.
Waqf is a private possession or asset in any form that has been put under an injunction from any form of the transaction, including sale, inheritance, grant, or will, while its physical source remains intact and unchanged. In Islam, endowment ownership is non-permanent because it has been entitled to GOD to benefit all Muslims (Masruki & Shafii, 2013).
- 4.
A detailed account of the conquest of Sind by Muhammad Ibn Qasim is provided by Gabrieli (1965).
- 5.
Jamat-i-Islami and the Islamicist political party followed the Deobandi sect, and their madrassa students took an active part in the Soviet Jihad.
- 6.
In 1986, the Zia Government passed the Blasphemy law, with the death penalty as punishment, for anyone (Muslim or non-Muslim) who insulted the Prophet Mohammad (Peace Be Upon Him), the last prophet. In 1991, the Federal Shariat Court declared blasphemy as an offence punishable by death with no possibility of pardon or mitigation of sentence. Since 1990, 62 people have been murdered on unproved blasphemy allegations.
- 7.
- 8.
The next chapter provides details about formal and informal welfare sources other than madrassas received by the households.
- 9.
The information was gathered during a visit to Jamia Ashrafia during fieldwork for the study.
References
Abbas, S. A., & Syed, S. H. (2021). Sectarian terrorism in Pakistan: Causes, impact and remedies. Journal of Policy Modeling, 43(2), 350–361.
Ali, N. (2010). Books vs Bombs? Humanitarian development and the narrative of terror in Northern Pakistan. Third World Quarterly, 31(4), 541–559.
Ali, H., Mashhadi, A. F., & Khan, E. A. (2015). Role of madrassa education in present globalized society: Perspectives of religious teachers of Southern Punjab. Pakistan Journal of Social Sciences (PJSS), 35(2).
Ahmed, M. (1987). Islamic education prior to the establishment of madrassa. Journal of Islamic Studies, 26(4), 321–348.
Ahmad, M. (2004). Madrassa education in Pakistan and Bangladesh. Religious radicalism and security in South Asia (pp.101–115).
Ahmed, Z. S. (2009). Madrasa education in the Pakistani context: Challenges, reforms and future directions. Peace Prints: South Asian Journal of Peace Building, 2(1), 1–13.
Al-Daffa, A. A. (2020). The Muslim contribution to mathematics. Routledge.
Alatas, S. F. (2014). Applying Ibn Khaldūn: The recovery of a lost tradition in sociology. Routledge.
Alavi, S. Z. (1988). Muslim educational thought in the middle ages. Atlantic Publishers.
Alvi, S. S. (1989). Religion and state during the reign of Mughal Emperor Jahǎngǐr (1605–1627): Nonjuristical perspectives. Studia Islamica, 95–119.
Andrabi, T. R. S., & Das, J. (2005). Religious school enrolment in Pakistan: A look at the data (Vol. 3521). World Bank Publications.
Anzar, U. (2003). Islamic education: A brief history of madrassas with comments on curricula and current pedagogical practices. Paper for the University of Vermont.
Armstrong, K. (2001). Islam: A short history. Phoenix.
Artz, F. B. (1980). The mind (p. 151). University of Chicago press.
Bano, M. (2007). Beyond politics: The reality of a deobandi madrasa in Pakistan. Journal of Islamic Studies, 18, 43–68.
Bansas, M. (2014). Impact of Persian language and literature in India during Mughal Period. Asian Journal of Research in Social Sciences and Humanities, 4(4), 133–144.
Bashir, M., & Ul-Haq, S. (2019). Why madrassah education reforms don’t work in Pakistan. Third World Quarterly, 40(3), 595–611.
Bhattacharya, S. (2014). Madrasa education in Pakistan: In the context of government policy.
Bryman, A., Stephens, M., & Campo, C. (1996). The importance of context: Qualitative research and the study of leadership. The Leadership Quarterly, 7(3), 353–370.
Berkey, J. (1992). The transmission of knowledge in medieval cairo: a social history of Islamic education. Princeton University Press.
Berkey, J. P. (2010). Madrasas medieval and modern: Politics, education, and the problem of Muslim identity. In Schooling Islam (pp. 40–60). Princeton University Press.
Bergen, P., & Pandey, S. (2006). The madrassa scapegoat. Washington Quarterly, 29(2), 115–125.
Bobrick, B. (2012). The caliph's splendor: Islam and the West in the golden age of Baghdad. Simon and Schuster.
Burke, P. (1997). The renaissance. Macmillan International Higher Education.
Butt, T. M. (2012). Social and political role of madrassa: perspectives of religious leaders in Pakistan. South Asian Studies, 27(2), 387.
Chandran, S. (2003). Madrassas in Pakistan. Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies.
Cohen, M. R. (2013). Prologue. The “Golden Age” of Jewish-Muslim relations: Myth and reality. In A history of Jewish-Muslim relations (pp. 28–38). Princeton University Press.
Cockcroft, A., Andersson, N., Milne, D., Omer, K., Ansari, N., Khan, A., & Chaudhry, U. U. (2009). Challenging the myths about madaris in Pakistan: A national household survey of enrolment and reasons for choosing religious schools. International Journal of Educational Development, 29, 342–349.
Cole, G. (2001). Organisations as systems. Understanding Business Processes.
Danto, E. A. (2008). Historical research. Oxford University Press.
Daud, M. W. (1989). The concept of knowledge in Islam (p. 32). Mansell.
Dash, K. (2012), Madrassas. In A. L. Stanton, E. Ramsamy, & P. J. Seybolt (Eds.), Cultural sociology of the Middle East, Asia, and Africa : An Encyclopedia. SAGE Publications.
Dodge, B. (1962). Muslim education in medieval times. The middle east institute Washington.
Falagas, M. E., Zarkadoulia, E. A., & Samonis, G. (2006). Arab science in the golden age (750–1258 CE) and today. The FASEB Journal, 20(10), 1581–1586.
Farnham, B. (2004). Impact of the political context on foreign policy decision-making. Political Psychology, 25(3), 441–463.
Farooq, M. A., & Hussain, M. (2017). A brief survey of Muslim education in pre-colonial India (1206–1857). Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities Research, 5(02), 12–15.
Freely, J. (2010). Light from the east: How the science of medieval Islam helped to shape the western world. Bloomsbury Publishing.
Gabrieli, F. (1965). Muḥammad ibn Qāsim ath-Thaqafī and the Arab conquest of Sind. East and West, 15(3/4), 281–295.
Government of Pakistan (GoP). (1970). The fourth five-year plan 1970–1975. Planning Commission of Pakistan.
Government of Pakistan (GoP). (1972). The education policy 1972–1980. Ministry of Education
Green, A. H. (1988). The history of libraries in the Arab world: A diffusionist model. Libraries and Culture, 454–473.
Hardy, P. (1972). The Muslims of British India. Cambridge University Press.
Hough, W. (1853). India as it ought to be under the new charter act.
Howlett, M., & Giest, S. (2012). The policy-making process. In Routledge handbook of public policy (pp. 35–46).
Inamullah, H. M., Hifazatullah, H., Sarwar, M., Khan, N., & Sultan, K. (2010). Reforming the madrassah system of education In Pakistan. Contemporary Issues in Education Research (CIER), 3(4), 43–46.
Kadi, W. (2006). Education in Islam—Myths and truths. Comparative Education Review, 50, 311–324.
Kazmi, S. F., & Pervez, T. (2011). Socio-economic and cultural perspectives of terrorism in Pakistan and the madrassa (Mosque) students. International Journal of Academic Research, 3(2), 578–581.
Kalhoro, J. A. (2018). Historical evolution of the educational system in the pre-partition Indian subcontinent. Pakistan Journal of History and Culture, 39(1), 159–183.
Khalil, U. (2015). The madrassa conundrum: State of religious education in Pakistan. HIVE.
Laugu, N. (2007). The roles of mosque libraries through history. Al-Jami'ah: Journal of Islamic Studies, 45(1), 91–118.
Mayhew, A. (1926). Education of India: A study of British educational policy in India, 1835–1920, and of its bearing on national life and problems in India to-day. Faber and Gwyer.
Makdisi, G. (1961). Muslim institutions of learning in eleventh-century Baghdad. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 24(1), 1–56.
Makdisi, G. (1970). Madrasa and university in the middle ages. Studia Islamica, 32, 255–264.
Makdisi, G. (1974). The scholastic method in medieval education: An inquiry into its origins in law and theology. Speculum, 49(4), 640–661.
Makdisi, G. (1979). The significance of the Sunni schools of law in Islamic religious history. International Journal of Middle East Studies, 10(1), 1–8.
Makdisi, G. (1981). The rise of colleges. Institutions of Learning in Islam and the West. Columbia University Press.
Makdisi, G. (1988). Schools: Islamic. Dictionary of the middle ages (Vol. 11, pp. 64–69). Charles Scribner’s Sons.
Makdisi, G., (1991), Religion, law, and learning in Classical Islam, Variorum, Brookfield, Vt.; Aldershot, Hampshire, Great Britain.
Malik, J. (2008). Madrasas in South Asia. Teaching Terror.
Masood, F. B., & Khan, U. A. (2018). The crisis of madrasa graduates: A search for identity in the Pakistani society. Dini Araştırmalar, 21, 27–38.
Masruki, R., & Shafii, Z. (2013). The development of waqf accounting in enhancing accountability. Middle East Journal of Scientific Research, 13(13), 1–6.
Mirakhor, A. (1987). The Muslim scholars and the history. American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences 4:2, 4(2), 245.
Mohanty, N. (2013). America, Pakistan, and the India factor. Palgrave Macmillan.
Meri, J. W. (2018). Medieval Islamic civilization: An encyclopedia. Routledge.
Mortel, R. T. (1997). Madrasas in Mecca during the medieval period: A descriptive study based on literary sources (pp. 236–252). University of London.
Mumtaz, Z. (2021). Informal social protection: A conceptual synthesis. Social Policy and Administration, 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1111/spol.12772.
Nakosteen, M. (1964). History of Islamic origins of western education. University of Colorado Press.
Nayyar, A. H. (2003). Madrassah education frozen in time. In P. Hoodbhoy (Ed.), Education and the state: Fifty years of Pakistan (pp. 215–250). Oxford University Press.
Nomani, S., & Nudvi, S. S. (1987) Serat-Un-Nabi of Prophet Muhammad (SAW) (6th ed.). BK officiest, Urdu Bazar (Translated from Urdu).
Nasr, S. H. (1987). Traditional Islam in the modern world. KPI Limited.
Palmer, A. W. (1992). The decline and fall of the Ottoman Empire. J. Murray.
Pedersen, J. (1929). Some aspects of the history of the madrasa. Islamic Culture, 3(04), 525–537.
Rahman, M. A. (2016). The forms and ecologies of Islamist militancy and terrorism in Bangladesh. Journal for Deradicalization, 7, 68–106.
Rahman, K., & Bukhari, S. R. (2006). Pakistan: Religious education and institutions. The Muslim World, 96(2), 323.
Raj, K. (2000). Colonial encounters and the forging of new knowledge and national identities: Great Britain and India, 1760–1850. Osiris (bruges), 15, 119–134.
Rao, P. V. (2016). Modern education and the revolt of 1857 in India. Paedagogica Historica, 52(1–2), 25–42.
Rayner, J., & Howlett, M. (2009). Introduction: Understanding integrated policy strategies and their evolution. Policy and Society, 28(2), 99–109.
Renima, A., Tiliouine, H., & Estes, R. J. (2016). The Islamic golden age: A story of the triumph of the Islamic civilization. In The state of social progress of Islamic societies (pp. 25–52). Springer.
Rezavi, S. A. N. (2007). The organization of education in Mughal India. In Proceedings of the Indian History Congress (Vol. 68, pp. 389–397). Indian History Congress.
Riaz, A. (2008). Faithful education. Rutgers University Press.
Riaz, A. (2011). Madrassah education in pre-colonial and colonial South Asia. Journal of Asian and African Studies, 46(1), 69–86.
Robinson F (2001). The ‘Ulama of Farangi Mahall and Islamic culture in South Asia. Permanent Black.
Sikand, Y. (2005). Bastions of the believers: Madrasas and Islamic education in India. Penguin.
Siddique, Q. (2009). Weapons of mass instruction? A preliminary exploration of the link between madrassas in Pakistan and militancy.
Siddikoglu, H. (2018). The Nexus between madrasa and politics: Analysing political role of madrasas in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Jurnal Islam Dan Masyarakat Kontemporari, 19, 91–111.
Shafiq, M., Azad, A. R., & Munir, M. (2019). Madrassas reforms in Pakistan: A critical appraisal of present strategies and future prospects. Journal of Educational Research, 22(2), 1027–9776.
Spahic, O. (2009). The history and character of the Islamic built environment. Arah Publications.
Struik, D. J. (2012). A concise history of mathematics. Courier Corporation.
Stebbins, R. A. (2001). Exploratory research in the social sciences. Sage Publications.
The World Bank. (2021). World development indicators. World Bank database. Available at http://www.data.worldbank.orgdatabase.
Vincent, A. S. (1920). The Oxford history of India: From the earliest times to the end of 1911. Clarendon Press.
Waardenburg, J. (1965). Some institutional aspects of Muslim higher education and their relation to Islam. Numen, 12(2), 96–138.
Whitehead, C. (2005). The historiography of British imperial education policy. Part i: India, History of Education, 34(3), 315–329.
Witkowski, T. H., & Jones, D. B. (2006). Qualitative historical research in marketing. Handbook of Qualitative Research Methods in Marketing, 70–82.
Zaman, M. Q. (1999). Religious education and the rhetoric of reform: The Madrasa in British India and Pakistan. Comparative Studies in Society and History, 41(2), 294–323.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2022 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Mumtaz, Z. (2022). Madrassas as a Provider of Informal Social Protection in Pakistan. In: Informal Social Protection and Poverty. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-6474-9_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-6474-9_5
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-19-6473-2
Online ISBN: 978-981-19-6474-9
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)