Academic literature on the topic 'Madrasa. Turkish language'

Muhammed Tayyip Okiç was born in 1902 in Gračanica, Tuzla, Bosnia. After completing his education at Okruzna Madrasa, Faculty of Islamic Law and Theology, he graduated from the University of Zagreb, Latin Language and Literature and the Faculty of Law in Belgrade. At the same time, he received his Arabic, Persian and Turkish Language and Literature degrees from Sorbonne University, Faculty of Letters, School of Oriental Languages. Although he completed his thesis titled Life, Works and Nizâmü’l-Ulema of Hasan Kâfî-i Bosnevî at this university, he could not use the PhD title because it was not published. Later, he completed his specialization in Arabic Language and Literature at Ez-Zitouna University in Tunisia. He worked as a professor at Belgrade University and taught in madrasas in Skopje. After the World War II, he came to Turkey and taught at Ankara University, Konya and Erzurum High Islamic Institutes between 1950-1977. He died on March 9, 1977 and his body was taken to Sarajevo and buried there. The most important of Tayyip Okiç’s works on Turkish culture and literature is his article about the translations of Süleyman Çelebi’s mevlid into various languages and especially its effects in the Balkans. It is also mentioned in this article that many mevlids were written in Bosnian and Albanian and recited in ceremonies held on various occasions, and he explains that Süleyman Çelebi’s mevlid is one of the mevlids recited in these meetings, giving examples from his own life. In this paper, the life of the author, Vesîletü’n-Necât translations, the authors who wrote mevlids in the Balkans, especially in Bosnia, and their works will be mentioned.

In the 1990s, Turkmenistan’s government dismantled Soviet educational provision, replacing it with lower quality schooling. The Başkent Foundation schools represent the concerted ef- forts of teachers and sponsors to offer socially conscious education grounded in science and math with an international focus. This case study of the Başkent Foundation schools in Turkmenistan establishes the vitality of Gülen schools outside of the Turkish Republic and their key role in offering Central Asian families an important choice in secular, general education. The paper discusses the appeal of the schools’ curriculum to parents and students, and records a decade-long success both in educating students and in laying the foundations of civil society: in Turkmenistan the Gülen movement offers the only general education outside of state provision and control. This is particularly significant as most scholars deny that there is any semblance of civil society in Turkmenistan. Notes: The author has been conducting interviews and recording the influence of Başkent schools in Turkmenistan since working as Instructor at the International Turkmen-Turk University in 1997. In May 2007 she visited the schools in the capital Ashgabat, and the northern province of Daşoguz, to explore further the contribution Gülen schools are making. The recent death of Turkmenistan’s president will most likely result in major reforms in education. Documentation of how a shift at the centre of state power affects provincial Gülen schools will enrich this conference’s broader discussion of the movement’s social impact. The history of Gülen-inspired schools in Central Asia reveals as much about the Gülen movement as it does about transition in the Muslim world. While acknowledging that transition in the 21st century includes new political and global considerations, it must be viewed in a historical context that illustrates how change, renewal and questioning are longstanding in- herent to Islamic tradition. In the former Soviet Union, the Gülen movement contributed to the Muslim people’s transi- tion out of the communist experience. Since USSR fell in 1991, participants in Fethullah Gülen’s spiritual movement have contributed to its mission by successfully building schools, offering English language courses for adults, and consciously supporting nascent civil so- ciety throughout Eurasia. Not only in Turkic speaking regions, but also as far as Mongolia and Southeast Asia, the so-called “Turkish schools” have succeeded in creating sustainable systems of private schools that offer quality education to ethnically and religiously diverse populations. The model is applicable on the whole; Gülen’s movement has played a vital role in offering Eurasia’s youth an alternative to state-sponsored schooling. Recognition of the broad accomplishments of Gülen schools in Eurasia raises questions about how these schools function on a daily basis and how they have remained successful. What kind of world are they preparing students for? How do the schools differ from traditional Muslim schools (maktabs or madrasas)? Do they offer an alternative to Arab methods of learning? Success in Turkmenistan is especially notable due to the dramatic politicization of education under nationalistic socio-cultural programmes in that Central Asian country. Since the establishment of the first boarding school, named after Turkish Prime Minister Turgut Ozal, in 1991 the Gülen schools have prospered despite Turkmenistan’s extreme political conditions and severely weakened social systems. How did this network of foreign schools, connected to a faith-based movement, manage to flourish under Turkmenistan’s capricious dictator- ship? In essence, Gülen-inspired schools have been consistently successful in Turkmenistan because a secular curriculum partnered with a strong moral framework appeals to parents and students without threatening the state. This hypothesis encourages further consideration of the cemaat’s ethos and Gülen’s philosophies such as the imperative of activism (aksiyon), the compatibility of Islam and modernity, and the high value Islamic traditions assign to education. Focusing on this particular set of “Turkish schools” in Turkmenistan provides details and data from which we can consider broader complexities of the movement as a whole. In particular, the study illustrates that current transitions in the Muslim world have long, complex histories that extend beyond today’s immediate questions about Islam, modernity, or extremism.