User:EHAY0100/Ijazah

Hypothesis on origins of doctorate
Madrasas issued the ijazat attadris in the Islamic religious law of Sharia, mathematics, astrology, medicine, pharmacology, and philosophy. Though Sharia Law was the major subject at most of these madrasas the sciences were treated with the same value in Islamicate society, as many discoveries were made in fields such as medicine where the first hospital was invented and pulmonary blood flow was discovered .The Islamic law degree in Al-Azhar University, the most prestigious madrasa, was traditionally granted without final examinations, but on the basis of the students' attentive attendance to courses. However, the postgraduate doctorate in law was only obtained after "an oral examination." In a 1999 paper, Makdisi points out that, in much the same way granting the ijazah degree was in the hands of professors, the same was true for the early period of the University of Bologna, where degrees were originally granted by professors. He also points out that, much like the ijazat attadris was confined to law, the first degrees at Bologna were also originally confined to law, before later extending to other subjects.

Differences Between an Ijazah and a Diploma
The Western form of education is widely what is adapted today and used throughout the globe. This education system draws particular attention to a formal educational institution – the university. Groups of individuals are taught by a faculty composed of many professors, each recognized as experts in their respective fields, and upon completion of a curriculum students receive a diploma. The diploma is documentation verifying that the university institution as a whole recognizes a certain individual’s knowledge and capabilities within a particular field of study.

The Ijazah on the other hand has a much different approach in spreading knowledge. Emphasis is placed on one to one instruction rather than the institution as a whole. With the emphasis being on the relationship between student and the instructor the location is not necessarily of significant importance; much of where the education is being attained depends on the subject matter being taught, religious matters were largely thought in mosques, medicine in hospitals, while other subjects may have been taught in madrasas or other locations. Another distinction of an ijazah is that they could be more focused on a singular subject than a college diploma, where the student takes classes on a variety of subjects in order to become a more rounded scholar., an ijazah could be given to a student on a single book or the student could be given a general ijazah. Upon completion of education in a subject a student would be examined orally by their instructor, much like students are to present a thesis in the modern-day education system. If a student successfully completed examination, they were to receive certification stating the subject in which they had expertise through their individual instructor; this documentation was referred to as an Ijazah and unlike the diploma it was not associated with the institution it was attained but rather solely with the instructor.

Different Types of Ijazahs
Students could receive a number of different types of ijazahs based on what they were studying. The six different kinds of ijazahs were specific, non-specific, general, an ijazah on a book, ijazah by correspondence and an honorific ijazah. The specific ijazah was considered the highest form of an ijazah a student could receive because it stated that a specific student was permitted to teach a specific field by a specific teacher. The non-specific form stated the student and teachers name without giving the subject matter learned. The general ijazah only gave the teachers name and listed the students a group. An ijazah given over a certain book portrayed that the student had studied the book under the author and was able to recite the book by memory. An ijazah given by correspondence occurred whenever a teacher wrote down and sent a text to their students and gave them permission to teach only what they had written down. Finally an honorific ijazah was given as a form of respect to a prominent person, theses however did not hold much weight in regards to allowing said person to teach the subject material.

Ijazahs issued to a scribe vs student
Ijazahs were not only given to students as a form of "diploma" to acknowledge that a student fully understood the teachings of his/her teacher. They were also given to scribes as a form of permission to transmit a book from the author. An ijazah given to a scribe by an author was basically a stamp of approval from the author that the scribe could replicate the work in order to share and preserve knowledge. The process for transmitting an authors book started with the author reciting his rough draft to the scribe with the scribe writing it down, after this was finished the scribe would then read what he had written back to the author, the author would then comment on what changes he/she wanted to make and then once the author was satisfied with the final work that is when an Ijazah was given to the scribe. This process varies highly from what a student would go through in order to receive an ijazah, this process consisted of the student being selected by the teacher to learn under them then he/she would learn from the teacher for a number of years before taking a test where the student would have to recite all of the teaching they had learned and comment on them concurrently and if the teacher felt as if the student fully understood their teaching they would award an ijazah to the student which meant they not only understood the teaching but they themselves could teach other students.

Demographics of students
Students that attained ijazahs came from all walks of life, and access to knowledge was not known to be limited by age, gender, or race. While the majority of students earned ijazahs in their thirties or forties, there were many notable exceptions to this social norm. One example of these exceptions is children of wealthy families would often times be awarded ijazahs for the social status that it would bring. These children who were much too young to comprehend the subjects they were being given, if they attempted to learn the subject matter at all, and sometimes ijazahs were given out from a request by letter. Ijazahs related to hadith transmission were not limited to men. Female hadith scholars like Zaynab bint al-Kamal were known to not only earn ijazahs, but also to instruct other students.