A Reconsideration of Embodiment and Learning in Classical Islamic Schools In North and West Africa

• In Event: Cross-national perspectives on schooling and religious identities within institutions and individuals

Proposal

Memorization of the Qur’an has been characterized as a process whose only purpose is indoctrination into the practices and beliefs of Islam, and the promotion of sustained “discipline” over the child (e.g. Michaux-Bellaire, 1911, Zerdoumi, 1970, Eickelman, 1985). Strongly rooted predispositions toward a more “Western” educational epistemology cloud our ability to see the deeper educational meanings that inhere in Qur’anic memorization. The process of Qur’anic memorization facilitates Qur’anic embodiment, the fundamental goal of classical Quranic schools. While other ritual practices connected to Qur’anic schools—the drinking of water used to wash the slate upon which the Qur’an is copied or the licking of ink off of the slate—are used as visually apparent examples Qur’anic embodiment (Ware, 2014; Launay, 2016), memorization as a form of embodiment has been less explicitly discussed, especially in recent literature, as cited above. The internal process of memorization--inscribing or engraving divine words into the memory of a child, to be called forth in prayer and recitation--is ultimately a deeper, more permanent mode of embodying the word of God. While we can observe school children memorizing in Qur’anic schools, the ultimate fusion of mental and physical processes that facilitate embodiment is harder to observe. This fusion is also more reflective of an Islamic epistemology of education, which centers on lifelong learning, spiritual development, comfort, strength and guidance, as well as discipline (Brenner, 2001). The embodied Qur’an serves as a source of ongoing knowledge and protection—a compass—as a person journeys through life, rather than a source of sometimes forceful indoctrination. This paper suggest a more precise and stratified use of the term “embodiment” in the discussion of learning in classical Islamic schools, one that more explicitly recognizes the combined mental and physical aspects of Qur’anic memorization—embodiment—as a starting point for learning.

Brenner, Louis. 2001. Controlling Knowledge: Religion, Power, and Schooling in a West African Muslim Society. Bloomington, IN, USA: Indiana University Press.
Launay, Robert, ed. 2016. Islamic education in Africa: Writing boards and blackboards. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press.
Michaux-Bellaire, E. (1911). L'Enseignement Indigene au Maroc. Rev. du nomade musulman, 15, 422-453.
Ware, Rudolph T. 2014. The Walking Qur'an: Islamic Education, Embodied Knowledge, and History in West Africa. North Carolina, USA: University of North Carolina Press.
Zerdoumi, N. (1970). Enfants d'hier, l'education de l'enfant en milieu traditionnel Algerien. Paris: Francois Maspero.

Author

• Helen N. Boyle, Florida State University