{{short description|Traditional elementary school in the Islamic world}} [[File:Cairo, sabil di muhammad 'ali pasha, scuola.JPG|thumb|Interior of a 19th-century kuttab in Cairo, Egypt]] {{cleanup lang|date=November 2021}}<!-- probably mostly {{transl}} --> A '''kuttab''' ({{langx|ar|كُتَّاب}} ''kuttāb'', plural: ''kataatiib'', {{lang|ar|كَتاتِيبُ}}<ref name="Team">{{Cite web|url=https://www.almaany.com/ar/dict/ar-ar/%D9%83%D9%8F%D8%AA%D8%A7%D8%A8/|title=تعريف و شرح و معنى كُتاب بالعربي في معاجم اللغة العربية معجم المعاني الجامع، المعجم الوسيط ،اللغة العربية المعاصر ،الرائد ،لسان العرب ،القاموس المحيط - معجم عربي عربي صفحة 1|last=Team|first=Almaany|website=www.almaany.com|language=en|access-date=2019-05-22}}</ref>) or '''maktab''' ({{langx|ar|مَكْتَب}})<ref name=":052">{{Cite book|last=Günther|first=Sebastian|title=Encyclopaedia of Islam, Three|publisher=Brill|year=2017|editor-last=Fleet|editor-first=Kate|location=|pages=|chapter=Education, general (up to 1500)|issn=1873-9830|editor-last2=Krämer|editor-first2=Gudrun|editor-last3=Matringe|editor-first3=Denis|editor-last4=Nawas|editor-first4=John|editor-last5=Rowson|editor-first5=Everett}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=The Oxford Dictionary of Islam|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2003|isbn=9780195125580|editor-last=Esposito|editor-first=John L.|chapter=Education: Educational Institutions}}</ref> is a type of elementary school in the Muslim world. Though the ''kuttab'' was primarily used for teaching children in reading, writing, grammar, and Islamic studies, such as memorizing and reciting the Qur'an (including ''Qira'at''), other practical and theoretical subjects were also often taught.<ref name=Asimov/> The kuttāb represents an old-fashioned method of education in Muslim majority countries, in which a sheikh teaches a group of students who sit in front of him on the ground. Until the 20th century, when modern schools developed, kuttabs were the prevalent means of mass education in much of the Islamic world.
== Name == Kuttab refers to only elementary schools in Arabic. This institution can also be called a ''maktab'' ({{Lang|ar|مَكْتَب}}) or ''maktaba'' ({{Lang|ar|مَكْتَبَة}}) in Arabic—with many transliterations. In common Modern Standard Arabic usage, ''maktab'' means "office" while ''maktabah'' means "library" or "(place of) study" and ''kuttāb'' is a plural word meaning "Writers".<ref name="M. S. Asimov 1999 34–5">{{citation|title=The Age of Achievement: Vol 4|last=M. S. Asimov|first=Clifford Edmund Bosworth|publisher=Motilal Banarsidass|year=1999|isbn=81-208-1596-3|pages=34–5}}</ref><ref name="Team"/> In Morocco, this institution can be referred to as a ''m'siid'' ({{Lang|ary|مْسِيد}}).
The Classical Persian word {{lang|fa|مکتبخانه}} ''maktabkhāna'' has been used in Iranian Persian ({{lang|fa|maktabkhâneh}})<ref>{{cite book|last=Hayyim|first=Sulayman|title=New Persian–English Dictionary|volume=2|page=969}}</ref> as well as in Azerbaijani ({{lang|az|məktəbxana}}<ref>{{cite dictionary|entry=məktəbxana|dictionary=Azərbaycan dilinin izahlı lüğəti|year=2009}}</ref>), in Ottoman Turkish ({{lang|ota|مكتبخانه}};<ref>{{cite book|title=Dictionnaire turc-français|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2gAUAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA987|year=1837|page=987}}</ref> modern Turkish: {{lang|tr|mektephane}}) and in Uzbek ({{lang|uz|maktabxona}}), often alongside {{lang|fa|مکتب}} ''maktab'' ({{langx|az|məktəb}}; {{langx|tr|mektep}}; etc.). ''Maktab'' is used in Dari Persian in Afghanistan as an equivalent term to school, including both primary and secondary schools. In Bosnian, it is called a ''mejtef'' or ''mekteb.''
==History== [[File:Ottoman miniature painters.jpg|200px|thumb|Scholars and students in an Ottoman maktab]] In the medieval Islamic world, an elementary school was known as a ''maktab'', which dates back to at least the tenth century. Like madrasas (which referred to higher education), a ''maktab'' was often attached to a mosque.<ref name=Asimov/> In the 16th century, the Sunni Islamic jurist Ibn Hajar al-Haytami discussed ''maktab'' schools.<ref>{{citation|title=Review: ''Law and Education in Medieval Islam: Studies in Memory of Professor George Makdisi'', Edited by Joseph E. Lowry, Devin J. Stewart and Shawkat M. Toorawa|author=Francis Robinson|journal=Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society|year=2008|volume=18|issue=1|pages=98–100|publisher=Cambridge University Press|doi=10.1017/S1356186307007912|s2cid=161594075}}</ref> In response to a petition from a retired Shia Islamic judge who ran a ''Madhab'' elementary school for orphans, al-Haytami issues a fatwa outlining a structure of ''maktab'' education that prevented any physical or economic exploitation of enrolled orphans.<ref>{{citation|title=Review: ''Law and Education in Medieval Islam: Studies in Memory of Professor George Makdisi'', Edited by Joseph E. Lowry, Devin J. Stewart and Shawkat M. Toorawa|author=R. Kevin Jaques|journal=Journal of Islamic Studies|year=2006|volume=17|issue=3|pages=359–62|publisher=Oxford University Press|doi=10.1093/jis/etl027}}</ref>
In the 11th century, the famous Persian Islamic philosopher and teacher, Ibn Sina (known as ''Avicenna'' in the West), in one of his books, wrote a chapter dealing with the ''maktab'' entitled "The Role of the Teacher in the Training and Upbringing of Children", as a guide to teachers working at ''maktab'' schools. He wrote that children can learn better if taught in classes instead of individual tuition from private tutors, and he gave a number of reasons for why this is the case, citing the value of competition and emulation among pupils as well as the usefulness of group discussions and debates. Ibn Sina described the curriculum of a ''maktab'' school in some detail, describing the curricula for two stages of education in a ''maktab'' school.<ref name=Asimov>{{citation|title=The Age of Achievement: Vol 4|last=M. S. Asimov|first=Clifford Edmund Bosworth|publisher=Motilal Banarsidass|year=1999|isbn=81-208-1596-3|pages=33–4}}</ref> [[File:Dharmadasa - Laylá and Majnun Fall in Love at School - Walters W62498A - Full Page.jpg|left|thumb|A Mughal maktab in Lahore. Painting by Dharmadasa {{circa}} 1597-1598.]]
=== Primary education === Ibn Sina wrote that children should be sent to a ''maktab'' school from the age of 6 and be taught primary education until they reach the age of 14. During which time, he wrote that they should be taught the Qur'an, Islamic metaphysics, language, literature, Islamic ethics, and manual skills (which could refer to a variety of practical skills).<ref name="Asimov" />
===Secondary education=== Ibn Sina refers to the secondary education stage of ''maktab'' schooling as the period of specialization, when pupils should begin to acquire manual skills, regardless of their social status. He writes that children after the age of 14 should be given a choice to choose and specialize in subjects they have an interest in, whether it was reading, manual skills, literature, preaching, medicine, geometry, trade and commerce, craftsmanship, or any other subject or profession they would be interested in pursuing for a future career. He wrote that this was a transitional stage and that there needs to be flexibility regarding the age in which pupils graduate, as the student's emotional development and chosen subjects need to be taken into account.<ref name="M. S. Asimov 1999 34–5"/>
===Literacy=== In medieval times, the Caliphate experienced a growth in literacy, having the highest literacy rate of the Middle Ages, comparable to classical Athens' literacy in antiquity.<ref>{{citation|title=Delivering Education|author=Andrew J. Coulson|page=117|publisher=Hoover Institution|url=http://media.hoover.org/documents/0817928928_105.pdf|access-date=2008-11-22|archive-date=2011-08-17|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110817054244/http://media.hoover.org/sites/default/files/documents/0817928928_105.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref> The emergence of the ''maktab'' and madrasa institutions played a fundamental role in the relatively high literacy rates of the medieval Islamic world.<ref>{{citation|author=Edmund Burke|title=Islam at the Center: Technological Complexes and the Roots of Modernity|journal=Journal of World History|volume=20|issue=2|date=June 2009|publisher=University of Hawaii Press|doi=10.1353/jwh.0.0045|pages=165–186 [178–82]|s2cid=143484233}}</ref>
== Architecture == In many regions of the Islamic world, kuttabs were historically built as part of religious and charitable complexes sponsored by rulers or local elites. In Egypt – especially Cairo – kuttabs were often paired with sabils (kiosks dispensing water to the public). They usually consisted of a room built above the sabil. These "sabil-kuttabs" were a common feature of the architectural complexes in Mamluk architecture and subsequent Ottoman Egyptian architecture.<ref name=":7">{{Cite journal|last=Mostafa|first=Saleh Lamei|date=1989|title=The Cairene Sabil: Form and Meaning|journal=Muqarnas|volume=6|pages=33–42|doi=10.2307/1602278|jstor=1602278}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite book|last=Behrens-Abouseif|first=Doris|title=Cairo of the Mamluks : A History of Architecture and Its Culture|publisher=The American University in Cairo Press|year=2007|isbn=9789774160776|location=Cairo}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite book|last=Williams|first=Caroline|title=Islamic Monuments in Cairo: The Practical Guide|publisher=American University in Cairo Press|year=2008|isbn=9789774162053|edition=6th|location=Cairo}}</ref> In Ottoman architecture, the ''mektep'' or ''sibyan mektebi'' (both Turkish terms for the kuttab/maktab) was a recurring element of ''külliye''s or religious complexes.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Goodwin|first=Godfrey|title=A History of Ottoman Architecture|publisher=Thames & Hudson|year=1971|isbn=0500274290|location=New York|pages=}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Kuban|first=Doğan|title=Ottoman Architecture|publisher=Antique Collectors' Club|year=2010|isbn=9781851496044|location=|pages=|translator-last=Mill|translator-first=Adair}}</ref> In Istanbul, ''mektep''s were included in the Fatih Mosque complex, the Süleymaniye complex, the Atik Valide Mosque complex, the Yeni Valide Mosque complex, among many other examples.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Sumner-Boyd|first1=Hilary|title=Strolling Through Istanbul: The Classic Guide to the City|last2=Freely|first2=John|publisher=Tauris Parke Paperbacks|year=2010|isbn=|edition=Revised|location=|pages=}}</ref> In Morocco, an ''m'sid'' (the local term for a kuttab) was included in some charitable complexes such as those of the Bab Doukkala Mosque and the Mouassine Mosque, both built in Marrakesh by the Saadi dynasty.<ref name=":3">{{Cite book|last=Salmon|first=Xavier|title=Marrakech: Splendeurs saadiennes: 1550-1650|publisher=LienArt|year=2016|isbn=9782359061826|location=Paris|pages=}}</ref><gallery> File:Cairo, moschea di al-ghouri, 03.JPG|A kuttab (above) and a sabil (below) at the Funerary complex of al-Ghuri in Cairo, Egypt File:Mektep of the Suleymaniye complex DSCF3416.jpg|''Mektep'' building at the Süleymaniye complex in Istanbul, Turkey </gallery>
==References== {{Reflist}}<!--added under references heading by script-assisted edit--> *[http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9050246/maktab/ Maktab] Encyclopædia Britannica
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Category:Arabic words and phrases Category:Islamic schools Category:Islamic terminology Category:Dhikr Category:Islamic education