Institutionalization of Muslim Scholarship and Professionalization of the 'Ulamā' in Medieval

Damascus
Author(s): Joan E. Gilbert
Source: Studia Islamica, No. 52, (1980), pp. 105-134
Published by: Maisonneuve & Larose
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 INSTITUTIONALIZATION
OF MUSLIM SCHOLARSHIP
AND PROFESSIONAITZATION
OF THE 'ULAMA'
IN MEDIEVALDAMASCUS

Introduction

Following the Islamic conquests, companions of Muhammad

(sahaba) left Mecca and Medina. As Muslims spread across
the world from Spain to Central Asia, scholars eager to keep
alive Muhammad's teachings traveled back and forth through
Islamic lands to discuss religious questions, to exchange inform-
ation, and to teach. The first generation of scholars of Islam
after the companions of Muhammad are designated followers
(tabi'iin), subsequent generations are called 'ulama'. Scholars
is the essential meaning of the word 'ulamd'. As generations
of Muslims sought to order society on the basis of the principles
of Islam, the term 'ulamd' came to connote scholars of religion
and religious law; and 'ulama' became a collective word referring
to all manner of scholars of religion, including the judges who
administered the law of Islam, professors of Islamic law, hadlth
transmitters, imams, preachers, legal advisers, sufts, and private
individuals with some proficiency in religious matters. In
each episode of Islamic history, 'ulama' have been a general
106 J. E. GILBERT

body of scholars of religion who filled one or more of the fore-

going specific religious roles.
Yet, when scholars of religion are considered in the context
of the whole of Islamic society, the general term 'ulama' fails
in precision, for the broader social roles of the 'ulama' have
varied over the centuries. During the course of Islamic
history 'ulamd' have been both proponents of social change and
preventers of it. In diverse times and places 'ulamd' have
either shunned or accepted state appointments. In the early
centuries of Islam private, independent scholars representing
all levels of society informally associated with one another.
In the later Islamic centuries 'ulamd' served as salaried bureau-
crats and permitted the incorporation of their scholarly organi-
zation into the state. The present article concentrates on the
'ulama' of medieval Damascus between the years 468/1076 and
658/1260. Throughout this period interaction between the
'ulama' and the ruling families of Damascus increasingly
promoted the endowment of religious establishments, the
institutionalization of Muslim scholarship, and the professional-
ization of the 'ulamd'-developments which mark a significant
change in Islamic social structure and Muslim community life.
During two separate epochs of Islamic history Damascus
served as a capital city and as the source of political, social,
cultural, and intellectual trends that influenced the entire
Islamic world. The first such era lasted approximately one
hundred years, from the mid-seventh to the mid-eighth century.
The second period of special importance for Damascus extended
through the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. In this period
Turkish and Kurdish rulers replaced local militias with imperial
troops for external defence and with a police force for internal
control. The city enjoyed growing agricultural and manu-
facturing activity and increased trade.
Expansion of the religious establishment was part of the
renaissance of twelfth and thirteenth-century Damascus.
Although 'ulama' were active in Damascus throughout previous
centuries, during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries they
enjoyed unprecedented opportunities. Scores of new religious
institutions were established, large numbers of salaried posts
 INSTITUTIONALIZATION OF MUSLIM SCHOLARSHIP 107
for teachers and stipends for students became available, and
increasing numbers of religious scholars from around the
Islamic world came to study, many to settle, in Damascus.

The International System of Scholarship

Before the crystallization of Muslim scholarship in twelfth

and thirteenth-century Damascus, and from earliest Muslim
times, companions of Muhammad, tabi'iin, and subsequent
generations of 'ulamd' journeyed throughout the Islamic
territories to pursue and disseminate religious knowledge.
This tradition of travel in search of learning continued to
dominate the educational and career patterns of later 'ulama'.
As conquest and conversion brought diverse ethnic and linguistic
groups into the original Arabo-Islamic empire, Muslim scholars
from areas as distant as Spain, North Africa, and Central Asia
sought personal communication with one another. A network
of scholarly contacts began to extend across the Islamic world.
Muslim scholars traveled as participants in a host of professional
and social as well as religious practices that grew up around
the exchange of religious information. These organized pur-
suits constituted an international system of Muslim learning.
Scholars of religion in the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth
centuries typically studied first in their native city and began
to travel, usually to several places, in order to continue their
education. When they had accumulated enough knowledge
and the documents certifying proficiency, they looked for
positions either at home or abroad. Wherever they lived they
both taught and carried forward their education, profitting
from both resident and traveling 'ulamd'. Scholars sought
to gain students and to increase their reputation, for future
employment might depend upon popularity and fame.
Contemporaries and biographers did not hesitate to compare
one scholar with another, and the numbers of students and sizes
of crowds in attendance were significant ingredients in a
scholarly reputation. In every generation two or three
scholars were acknowledged as outstanding, and others went
 108 J. E. GILBERT

to meet and study with these men. The biographies of

contemporary 'ulama' show that they traveled to the same
towns and that they nearly always studied with the same
famous individuals.
Religion was the basis of the system of international scholar-
ship and the overriding motivation for itinerant scholars. For
example, persons became muhaddiths for the sake of the religious
experience of being part of a continuous chain of transmitters
extending back to Muhammad. Scholars directed their travels
to study with the most noted men of their generation in order
to insure their place in chains of authorities stretching into the
past and, through their own students, into the future. They
were in their own estimation living links between generations
of scholars. (1) Pilgrimage and traveling to gain religious
knowledge were frequently combined.
Essential to the functioning of the international scholarly
system were personal contacts. Social connections integrating
the system included acquaintance with influential scholars at
home and around the Islamic world, contact with other students
engaged in similar careers, and the establishment of marriage
alliances. Some students studied with many professors; others
stayed with a single professor for years, holding a job or two
under him and acting as his companion or junior colleague.
In some cases a student studied with only one individual,
followed his professor from place to place, and settled himself
in the new locale to which his teacher had migrated. A scholar
might wed the daughter of a native-born or immigrant professor
in his home town or in the course of his travels, and a new
professor in town might marry into an established scholarly
family. Thus, inter-city marriage alliances began to exist,
further reinforcing the international association of scholars. (2)

(1) Ibn Khallikan, Ibn Khallikan's Biographical Dictionary, trans. by

Mac Guckin de Slane, 4 vols. (Paris, 1843-1871; reprinted Beirut: Librairie du
Liban, 1970), II, pp. 387-388.
(2) Ibn Rajab, Kitdb al-Dhayl 'ald Tabaqdt al-Hanabila, ed. by Muhammad
Hamid al-Fiqi, 2 vols. (Cairo: Al-Sunna al-Muhammadiyya, 1952-1953), II, pp. 294,
296, developed a formula for describing the scholar that studied, married, and
had children abroad: sami'a bihd, tafaqqaha bihd, tazawwaja bihd, wa wulida lahu.
 INSTITUTIONALIZATION OF MUSLIM SCHOLARSHIP 109

The strength of scholarly relationships explains how persons

could arrive alone or with a single companion (often father and
son or two brothers) and be accepted, cared for, and employed
in towns around the Islamic world.
'Ulama' corresponded about political events as well as about
religious matters and kept their colleagues in other parts of
the Islamic world informed about important military and
political events occurring in their region. When a famous
scholar died, people throughout the Islamic world mourned him.
Aspiring students who came from scholarly families might call
upon colleagues of their relatives for assistance in the course
of their travels; others struck out on their own. Traveling
in order to spread a particular religious doctrine or viewpoint
was additional motivation for participation in the international
scholarly system. New generations of scholars continually
restarted the process of traveling for education, increased
reputation, job opportunities, and social, professional, and
family ties. In addition to religious fulfillment, the inter-
national system of scholarship resulted in strong social bonds
and a coherent, satisfying life of travel, adventure, and learning.
The international scholarly system provided the mechanism
for standardization of portions of Islamic education, society,
and culture. In an environment where scholars in Khurasan
and Spain read books by muhaddiths of Iraq, Damascenes filled
law professorships in Baghdad, and scholars from all over the
Islamic world were journeying to meet and study with one
another, the result was the creation of a strong, cosmopolitan,
influential elite. The international system of scholarship also
contributed to the homogeneity of medieval Islamic secular
literature and poetry, for almost without exception the 'ulamd'
were poets and belletrists; sometimes they were historians; and
they exchanged literary information as well as religious knowledge
when they met.
Three of the most famous muhaddith-historians of medieval
Islam, al-Khatib al-Baghdadi, Ibn 'Asakir, and al-Sam'ani, were
the compilers of the great biographical dictionaries of the
eleventh and twelfth centuries, and their careers and writings
illustrate the far-reaching connections among 'ulama' and the
110 J. E. GILBERT

workings of the international system of scholarship. Al-

Khat.ib al-Baghdadi (392/1001-463/1070) was a celebrated
muhaddith from Baghdad, Ibn 'Asakir (499/1105-571/1175) was
a distinguished legal scholar and muhaddith and member of a
prominent Damascene family of 'ulama', and al-Sam'ani (506/
1112-562/1167) was a noted scholar from Marv. All three
scholars resided in or traveled to Syria, Iraq, and Khurasan,
and Ibn 'Asakir journeyed to Marv, where he met al-Sam'ani.
Al-KhatIb al-Baghdadi visited Damascus twice, writing and
teaching his works, from 444/1052 to 445/1053 on his way to
Mecca and for eight years between 451/1059 and 459/1066. (1)
Al-Khatib al-Baghdad!'s major work was the Ta'rlkh Baghdad,
a combination city description and alphabetical biographical
dictionary. The form in which al-Baghdadi put his work was
his original contribution to the historiography of Islam. (2)
Although al-Baghdadi died thirty years before Ibn 'Asakir was
born, the teachers of Ibn 'Asakir were scholars who studied with
al-Baghdadi while he was in Damascus. They also had
traveled to Baghdad and studied al-Baghdadi's work with
al-Baghdadi's colleagues and students, for Ta'rTkh Baghdad
enjoyed immediate renown. Ibn 'Asakir composed Ta'rikh
Madlnat Dimashq in the same format. In 535/1140 al-Sam'ani
came to Damascus. He renewed his acquaintance with
Ibn 'Asakir, whom he had met when Ibn 'Asakir was traveling
in Khurasan. After leaving Damascus, al-Sam'anI sent Ibn
'Asakir a book of his fond memories of Damascus. Ibn 'Asakir
replied in poetry. (3) Al-Sam'ani wrote Ta'rzkh Marw, as well
as a continuation of al-Khatib al-BaghdadI's Ta'rTkhBaghdad. (4)

(1) Ibn 'Asakir, Tahdhfb al-Ta'rikh al-Kabir (Ta'rfkh Madinat Dimashq), ed.
by 'Abd al-Qadir b. Badran and Ahmad 'Ubayd, 7 vols. (Damascus: Rawdat
al-Sham, 1911-1932), I, pp. 398-401; Ibn Khallikbn, I, pp. 75-76; al-Subki, Tabaqdt
al-Shfi'iyya al-Kubra, ed. by Muhammad al-Tannahi and 'Abd al-Fattah al-Halu,
8 vols. (Cairo: 'Isa al-BBbi al-Halabi, 1964-1971?), IV, pp. 29-39; al-Dhahabi,
Al- 'Ibar fE khabar man ghabar, ed. by Salah al-Din al-Munajjid and Fu'ad Sayyid,
5 vols. (Kuwait: Printing and Publishing Department, Government of Kuwait,
1960-1966), III, p. 253.
(2) Jacob Lassner, The Topography of Baghdad in the Early Middle Ages:
Texts and Studies (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1970), pp. 34-36.
(3) Al-Subki, VII, p. 222.
(4) Nikita Elisseeff feels that al-Sam'fni, who knew and admired the Ta'rfkh
 INSTITUTIONALIZATION OF MUSLIM SCHOLARSHIP 11

Thus, scholars around the eleventh and twelfth-century

Islamic world journeyed great distances to meet one another,
drew on the same scholarly sources, and wrote in similar formats.
The biographical histories of Baghdad, Damascus, and Mary,
as well as other works written by al-Khatib al-Baghdadi,
Ibn 'Asikir, al-Sam'ini, and others, are not merely expressions
of local pride but demonstrations of the involvement of each
of these cities, and many others, in worldwide scholarly develop-
ments. Damascus was one of the important way-stations in
an interchange of scholars and ideas traveling east and west,
and during the late eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth centuries
a variety of establishments appeared in the city that institution-
alized the international system of scholarship.

The 'Ulama' of Medieval Damascus

The 'ulama' residing in or passing through medieval

Damascus participated in the international system of Muslim
scholarship. Collection and analysis of all references to
'ulamd' in works by thirteen medieval Muslim authors yields
data on over one thousand scholars present in late eleventh,
twelfth, and thirteenth-century Damascus. (1) Between 468/

Baghddd, might have encouraged Ibn 'Asakir to write a similar work. Ibn 'AsBkir,
La Description de Damas d'Ibn 'Asdkir (historien mort d Damas en 571/1176),
trans. by Nikita Eliss6eff (Damascus: Institut Frangais de Damas, 1959), p. xxxvii.
(1) Ibn al-Qalanisi, Damas de 1075 a 1154: Traduction annotee d'un fragment
de l'Histoire de Damas d'Ibn al-Qaldnisi, trans. by Roger Le Tourneau (Damascus:
Institut Frangais de Damas, 1952) and History of Damascus, 363-555 A. H. by
Ibn al-Qaldnisi from the Bodleian MS Hunt. 125, ed. by H. F. Amedroz (Leyden:
E. J. Brill, 1908). Ibn 'Asakir, La Description de Damas d'Ibn 'Asdkir, Tahdhib
al-Ta'rikh al-Kablr (Ta'rikh Madinat Dimashq), and Ta'rikh Madinat Dimashq,
ed. by Salah al-Din al-Munajjid, 2 vols. (Damascus: The Arab Academy of
Damascus, 1951-1954). Sibt b. al-Jawzi, Mir'at al-Zamdn fl Ta'rikh al-A'ydn,
2 parts (Hyderabad: Osmania Oriental Publications Bureau, 1951). Abu Shama,
Kitdb al-Rawdatayn fi Akhbdr al-Dawlatayn al-Nuiriyya wa al-Salahiyya, ed. by
Muhammad Hilmi Muhammad Ahmad and Muhammad Mu?tafa Ziybda, 2 parts
(Cairo: Ministry of Culture, 1956-1962) and Tardjim Rijdl al-Qarnayn al-Sddis wa
al-Sdbi' al-Ma'rdf bi al-Dhayl 'ald al-Rawdatayn, ed. by Muhammad al-Kawthari
(Cairo: DBr al-Kutub al-Malikiyya, 1947). Ibn Khallikan, Ibn Khallikan's Biogra-
phical Dictionary. Al-Subki, Tabaqdt al-Shafi'iyya al-Kubrd. Ibn Abi al- Wafa',
Al-Jawdhir al-Mudiyya fi Tabaqdt al-Hanafiyya, 2 vols. (Hyderabad: Nizamia
112 J. E. GILBERT

1076 and 658/1260 scholars came to Damascus from over one

hundred different cities, towns, and villages and represented
all parts of the Islamic world from Spain and Morocco to Trans-
oxiana and Central Asia. (1) Syrians formed the greatest
number of immigrant and transient scholars, and Iraq, primarily
Baghdad, sent the next largest group. But Spain, North
Africa, Egypt, the Jazira, western Iran, and eastern Iran
supplied large numbers of scholars. 'Ulamd' from Sicily,
Arabia, Turkey, and Central Asia were less numerous. In the
second half of the thirteenth century, however, scholars in-
creasingly confined their educational and professional pursuits
to a Damascus-Cairo axis.
The 'ulamd' of medieval Damascus may be divided into
four categories: 1) native-born scholars, 2) immigrant scholars,
3) transient scholars, and 4) emigrant scholars. Native-born
scholars frequently left Damascus in order to secure credentials,
teaching experience, and reputation abroad, even if their
ultimate goal was to find a position at home. Slightly less
than half of the 1047 scholars surveyed were native-born 'ulama'.
A second category of 'ulama' were those who immigrated to
Damascus, took jobs, and adopted the city as their permanent
home. (2) Nearly one-half of the resident 'ulamd' of twelfth

Oriental Publications Bureau, 1914). Ibn Rajab, Kitub al-Dhayl 'ald Tabaqdt
al-Handbila. Al-Dhahabi, Al-'Ibar fl Khabar Man Ghabar and Kitdb Tadhkirat
al-Huffdz, 4 vols. (Hyderabad: Osmania Oriental Publications Bureau, 1955-1958).
Ibn Kathir, AI-Biddya wa al-Nihdya, 14 vols. (Beirut: Maktabat al-Ma'arif, 1966).
Ibn al-'Imad, Shadhardt al-Dhahab fl Akhbdr Man Dhahab, 8 vols. (Cairo: Maktabat
al-Qudsi, 1931-1932). Ibn Shaddad, Al-A'ldq al-Khatira fl Dhikr Umard' al-Sham
wa al-Jazira: Ta'rikh Madinat Dimashq, ed. by Sami al-Dahhan (Damascus:
Institut Francais de Damas, 1956). Al-Nu'aymi, Al-Ddris fl Ta'rikh al-Maddris,
ed. by Ja'far al-Hasani, 2 vols. (Damascus: Arab Academy of Damascus, 1948-
1951). Only scholars for whom some biographical information was obtained
beyond statement of name were analyzed. The tables presented in this article
are based on these sources.
(1) Compare tables 1, 2, 3, and 4, Joan E. Gilbert, "The Ulama of Medieval
Damascus and the International World of Islamic Scholarship," Ph. D. dissertation
(Ann Arbor: University Microfilms, 1977). These tables also support further
statements in this article on the geographical mobility of the 'ulamd' of late
eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth-century Damascus and the relative proportions
of native-born to foreign-born scholars.
(2) "He adopted Damascus as his home," istawtana Dimashq, a formula that
appears frequently in the biographies surveyed, describes this circumstance.
 INSTITUTIONALIZATION OF MUSLIM SCHOLARSHIP 113
and thirteenth-century Damascus were immigrants. These
immigrants included aspiring students and full-fledged scholars
who had established their reputations elsewhere. A third
category of scholars were those passing through town, seeking
to study with a particular individual while participating in the
system of professional advancement. (1) Approximately one-
fifth of all scholars present in Damascus during the late eleventh,
twelfth, and thirteenth centuries were transients. A handful
of native-born Damascenes left Damascus permanently, usually
simply moving on to better opportunities elsewhere. During
the twelfth century many scholars leaving Damascus emigrated
to Iraq; during the thirteenth century most emigrants went
to Egypt.
While visiting Damascus for brief or lengthy periods of time,
scholars learned hadiths and studied law or sufism and paused
long enough to write books and to make their own contri-
butions to the intellectual life of the city. Many of the fore-
most scholars of medieval Islam included Damascus in their
itineraries. Immigrant scholars and passersby were generally
not the product of temporary social and economic maladjust-
ments, such as wars, invasion, earthquakes, and drought,
although certain individual scholars were refugees from adverse
conditions at home. The far more important reason for travel
was to be a part of the international scholarly world, and
itinerant and native-born scholars made Damascus an influential
learning center in the medieval Middle East.

Institutionalization of International Scholarship

and Professionalization of the 'Ulama'

During the first five centuries of Islam 'ulam'f developed

their own practices and organizations independently of the
state. The Umayyad and 'Abbasid caliphs relied on scholars
as advisers and ambassadors and employed 'ulama' as judges,

(1) "He stopped over in Damascus," nazala Dimashq, and "he resided in
Damascus for a while," sakana Dimashq mudda, are repeated phrases describing
individuals living in Damascus for a period of time.
114 J. E. GILBERT

but they established no enduring institutions with staffs devoted

to the study of the religion and law of Islam. On an occasional
basis benefactors patronized particular scholars or specific
scholarly projects and institutions. Yet through the activities
of independent 'ulama' and the minority of scholars who
enjoyed personal or state patronage, the informal educational,
organizational, and social pursuits of Muslim scholars grew
into regularized practices and an international system of
scholarship during the early centuries of Islam. Then, this
older order of scholarly activity evolved further with institu-
tionalization of the international system of scholarship and
professionalization of the 'ulama'. Institutionalization meant
permanent provision of special places of instruction, residence,
and employment for a majority of scholars and lasting endow-
ments to pay the salaries of the personnel and building costs.
Professionalization required both maintenance of established
standards and procedures of scholarship and the availability
of pay for the practice of the profession. An enumeration
of the establishment of law schools, hadTlhacademies, and sufi
centers demonstrates the process of institutionalization of
international scholarship in twelfth and thirteenth-century
Damascus; a survey of the enactment of a regular system of
stipends documents the professionalization of the 'ulamd'.
At the end of the eleventh and in the early twelfth centuries
a variety of patrons, inspired by the presence of scholars of
international reputation, began to build the first madrasas,
schools of law, in Damascus (table 1). The rate of their
construction gradually increased during the next two centuries.
The first madrasa in Damascus was located in the Great Mosque
in the heart of the city, and most madrasas of the early twelfth
century were situated inside the city walls immediately around
the Great Mosque. The densest madrasa construction occurred
between the citadel and the Great Mosque in the northwest
section of the city. While madrasas continued to be built
within the city during the thirteenth century, they were also
constructed in the suburbs. The madrasas of the Salihiyya
suburb, northwest of Damascus, were established primarily in
the thirteenth century. Although the Hanbalis founded the
 INSTITUTIONALIZATION OF MUSLIM SCHOLARSHIP 115

TABLE 1

IN DAMASCUS,468/1076-658/1260
Madrasas ESTABLISHED

Inside
City Suburbs
Walls

o ed
0 CC
C
c ct

ar, O _ *r,Q
o0 5 7a
~:0

A.D. A. H.

1076 468-479
480-489 1
1100 490-499 1
500-509

510-519 1
520-529 3 1
530-539 1
1150 540-549 3

550-559 3
560-569 1 4 1
570-579 1 4 1
580-589 4

1200 590-599 6 1
600-609 1 1 2
610-619 3 1
620-629 3 2 8 1

630-639 5 3 2
640-649 1 4 1
1260 650-658 1 5 2

Salihiyya suburb, and this quarter is generally considered to be

a Hanbali section of town, there were an equal number of
Hanafi law schools located there as well as one or two Shafi'l
116 J. E. GILBERT

madrasas. Within the city walls madrasas were erected for

the major law schools, Shafi'i, Hanafi, Maliki, and Hanbali.
There was no Maliki madrasa outside the walls of the city.
During the second half of the twelfth century, ddr al-hadtlhs,
academies for the study and transmission of hadtlhs, originated
in the city (table 2). Eight of the ten ddr al-hadlths studied
were founded in the thirteenth century, and most were located

TABLE 2

IN DAMASCUS,468/1076-658/1260
Ddr al-Hadiths ESTABLISHED

Inside City
Walls~Walls~Suburbs

Sharaf Salihiyya

A.D. A.H.

1076 468-479
480-489
1100 490-499
500-509

510-519
520-529
530-539
1150 540-549

550-559
560-569 1
570-579
580-589

1200 590-599 1
600-609
610-619
620-629 2 (1) (1)

630-639 1
640-649 1
L
' _{ll
1260 650-658
II
II,_I
1 (1)
JII ,, I

NOTE: Figure in parenthesis represents a ddr al-hadrth located within a madrasa.

 INSTITUTIONALIZATION OF MUSLIM SCHOLARSHIP 117
inside the city walls. By the late eleventh century various
benefactors had slowly founded places of sifT education and
devotions, khdnaqdhs, ribd.s, and zdwiyas, and these buildings
increased in number in the period between 468/1076 and 658/
1260 (table 3). Construction of siifr institutions took place
mainly in the last half of the twelfth and during the thirteenth

TABLE 3

Khdnaqdhs, ribdts, AND zdwiyas ESTABLISHED IN DAMASCUS,

468/1076-658/1260

I
Inside
City Suburbs
Walls

Sharaf East of
'Uqayba Salihiyya
Salihiyya

A.D. A.H.

1076 468-479
480-489 R
1100 490-499 K
500-509

510-519
520-529 K
530-539
1150 540-549

550-559 R
560-569 KR K
570-579
580-589 K K

1200 590-599 R
600-609
610-619
620-629 K KZZ ZZ

630-639 RZ RZ
640-649 Z
1260 650-658 KZ Z

NOTE: Symbol K represents a khanaqah, R a ribat, and Z a zawiya.

118 J. E. GILBERT

centuries, with an acceleration of building in the 620's/1220's

and 630's/1230's. There were ten sufi establishments inside
the city walls, but over half were located in the suburbs.
The madrasas, ddr al-hadiths, khanaqahs, ribdts, and zdwiyas
housed local and visiting students and scholars and supported
them through special financial arrangements, including salaries
for professors and shaykhs and stipends for students. The
religious institutions of twelfth and thirteenth-century Damascus
provided regular means of livelihood for teachers and students
of law, hadlth, and siifism. This systematic support contrasted
with the earlier situation in which 'ulamd' sustained their
teaching and scholarly efforts through secular occupations and
occasional patronage and in which students depended upon
family income or odd jobs. By degrees specialized buildings
replaced common teaching sites such as mosques, libraries,
shops, private homes, and gardens, and served not only as
places of instruction, devotion, and employment, but also as
residences for professors and students. Both native-born and
immigrant scholars utilized these new facilities; newcomers no
longer had to seek accomodations in khans, mosques, or private
homes. A few of the most prominent teachers did not hold
jobs in institutions but received the patronage of a king, a
wazir, or an amir. Others combined both institutional and
personal patronage. Hence regularized salary provisions
emerged alongside continuing practices whereby an individual
patron directly subsidized a scholar. Patrons, in addition to
employing individuals directly, now endowed permanent insti-
tutions that sustained groups of scholars.
Between the years 468/1076 and 658/1260 one hundred and
twenty-one new religious institutions were established, and
there were over four hundred new job openings and turnovers
in professorships and shaykhships at these institutions (table 4).
Biographies report the specific types and locations of the
hundreds of professional posts now occupied by legal scholars,
muhaddiths, and sufTs in Damascus. Madrasas and ddr
al-hadiths possessed sufficient endowments, except in two or
three instances, to fill at least one professorship or shaykhship
throughout the period and in most cases for several centuries
beyond.
 INSTITUTIONALIZATION OF MUSLIM SCHOLARSHIP 119
TABLE 4

NEW RELIGIOUS ESTABLISHMENTS IN DAMASCUS AND TURNOVERS

IN PROFESSORSHIPS AND SHAYKHSHIPS, 468/1076-658/1260

No. No.
Type of Building BuildinJob
Turnovers

Shafiti madrasa ............................... 34 145

Hanafi madrasa ............................... 35 165
combined Shaflti-Hanafi madrasa ............... 4 25
HIanbali madrasa .............................. 9 40
Maliki madrasa ............................... 3 7
ddr al-hadith ......... .................... 7 14
ddr al-hadlths within 2 Hanbali madrasas and
1 Hanafi madrasa ........................... 3 3
khanaqdh ..................................... 11 8
rib t ......................................... 7 2
zawiya ....................................... 8 13

TOTAL............................... 121 422

Special legal arrangements funded these buildings and their

staffs, and these provisions, as well as the legal document
describing them, are known as waqf. After a new building
was constructed, or an existing building set aside, it was possible
to dedicate that building to a religious or charitable purpose
and to provide for the maintenance of the building and a
salaried staff, theoretically, in perpetuity. The funds to
support the building and its personnel came from the rents and
proceeds of private properties also set aside, in theory, forever.
Available, published waqf documents are scant and generally
do not provide full details of the endowments. In some
instances there are descriptions and locations of the houses,
shops, baths, khans, gardens, orchards, farms, villages, and
parcels of real estate whose rents and revenues were set aside
to sustain the institution. Rarely is there enumeration of
everyone employed in any given institution, the number of
students provided for, or exact salaries paid. However, the
founder of the Iqbaliyya Madrasa, established in 628/1230
120 J. E. GILBERT

inside the Faraj and Faradis gates of the city, stipulated that
there would be twenty-five faqlhs (legal scholars) furnished
with an ample monthly allowance, a daily food ration, sweet-
meats on holidays, fruit in season, and robes of honor for the
professors, their assistants, and the rest of the faqlhs on the
dedication day of the madrasa. (1) The waqf of the Madrasa
al-'Adiliyya al-Sughra, inside Bab al-Faraj, east of the gate
to the citadel, sustained a professor, an assistant, an imam,
a muezzin, doorkeepers, a guard, and twenty faqlhs. The
waqf paid for the upkeep of the building and for the expenses
of its residents. The building was a converted residence, part
of which was to be used as a madrasa and part as living quarters
and a tomb complex for the descendants of the founder. (2)
The waqf of the 'Asriniyya Madrasa, established in about 570/
1174 east of the citadel in the Hajar al-Dhabab quarter of Damas-
cus, stipulated that there would be no more than twenty faqThs,
Shafi'is, and others, and that the professorship would remain
in the family of the founder, the Baniu 'Asruin, as long as they
were capable of filling it. (3) The founder of al-Diya'iyya
al-Muhammadiyya Madrasa and Dar al-Hadith complex in
Salihiyya wished to arrange, among other things, a place for
youths to hear hadTihs. He built this ddr al-hadith for
muhaddiths and visiting scholars, no matter how poor or short
of resources. (4) The founder of the Khanaqah al-Mujahidiyya
in Sharaf, a suburb west of the city, in 650/1252 made provisions
for twenty sufls. (5) An institution might maintain about
twenty to twenty-five scholars.
One of the few published waqf documents from the period
under discussion is a portion of the waqf for the Dar al-Hadith
al-Ashrafiyya, dated 633/1235. The building was located
inside the city walls, just east of the citadel. The endowment
provided for a professor of hadith (90 dirhams per month), an

(1) al-Nu'aymi, I, pp. 159-160.

(2) al-Nu'aymi, I, p. 368.
(3) ai-Nu'aymi, I, p. 399.
(4) al-Nu'aymi, II, p. 94; H. Sauvaire, "La Description de Damas", Journal
Asiatique IV (November-December, 1894), p. 471.
(5) al-Nu'aymi, II, p. 169.
 INSTITUTIONALIZATION OF MUSLIM SCHOLARSHIP 121
imam who in addition to leading prayers was to offer Koran
instruction (60 dirhams per month), another instructor (60 dir-
hams per month), a caretaker of the mihrab (40 dirhams per
month), a hadth reader (24 dirhams per month), a muezzin
(20 dirhams per month), a librarian (18 dirhams per month),
two guards (30 dirhams per month between them), a gatekeeper
(15 dirhams per month), ten Koran reciters (10 dirhams per
month per individual), regular students (8 dirhams per month
each), and beginning students (3 to 4 dirhams each per month).
Additional clauses stipulated that if a renowned scholar arrived
in Damascus he could stay at the Dar al-Hadith al-Ashrafiyya
and receive two dirhams per day. When he left he was given
30 dinars. Scholars who came from other towns in Syria
received slightly smaller allowances. During the month of
Ramadan the waqf supplied the entire establishment with either
food or a sum of 1,000 dirhams, apparently to be divided among
the staff, students, and guests. If the waqf could not maintain
these payments, allocations to beginning students could be
lowered, but not those of the professor, the imam, the Koran
reciters, the muezzin, or the regular students. (1)
The madrasa, the dar al-hadUth,and the three types of suif
establishment, khanaqdh, ribdt, and zawiya, are physical evi-
dence of the institutionalization of the practices and special-
izations of international scholarship that had been developing
for centuries. Whereas the functions of ddr al-hadlths and
sufi establishments are obvious and agreed upon, modern
scholars continue to debate the educational, political, and
social functions of the madrasa. (2) Did madrasas exist to
train bureaucrats, to form cadres of partisans against Shi'ite

(1) E. Ashtor, "Salaires dans l'Orient medieval a la Basse-1poque", Revue

des 1ftudes Islamiques, XXXIX (1971), pp. 104-105, citing verbatim Muhammad
b. Tauln, Al-Lum'dt al-Barqiyya fl al-Nukat al-Ta'rlkhiyya (Damascus, 1348/1929),
pp. 20 ff.
(2) See George Makdisi, "Muslim Institutions of Learning in Eleventh-Century
Baghdad," Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, XXIV (1961),
pp. 1-56; A. L. Tibawi, "Origin and Character of al-Madrasah," Bulletin of the
School of Oriental and African Studies, XXV (1962), pp. 225-238; and Richard
Bulliet, The Patricians of Nishapur: A Study in Medieval Islamic Social History
(Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1972), pp. 48-60.
122 J. E. GILBERT

political aspirations and the Crusaders, or to manage and

control religious scholars? In my view, the primary function
of the madrasa system, in conjunction with other religious
institutions of the day, was to create a professional class of
scholars that would influence all of Muslim society. The
madrasa employed and trained scholars of religion and law and
was a positive outgrowth of the existing system of scholarship
rather than a reaction to Shi'ite movements or the pressures
of the Crusades. Nor was the education of state bureaucrats,
except for qadls and deputy qd.ds, who occupied a special
position between religious scholarship and state service, a
principal function of madrasas in twelfth and thirteenth-
century Damascus. Bureaucrats were a by-product, few in
number, and become noticeable only later in the period
surveyed (table 5). Madrasas produced the professional
scholars who brought Islamic law to the Muslim community of
Damascus on a one-to-one basis. Malik b. Anas, Ab Hianifa,
al-Shafi'i, and Ahmad b. Hanbal, the originators of the major
law schools of Islam, worked and wrote during the eighth and
ninth centuries. During the tenth and eleventh centuries
subsequent generations of scholars elaborated and systematized
the thought of the founders of the Maliki, HIanafi, Shafi'i, and
Hanbali law schools. Yet wholesale application of the
doctrines of the law schools necessitated significant numbers
of professional scholars devoted primarily to legal studies and
dissemination of religious and legal information. The madrasas
of the late eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth centuries produced
these large numbers of scholars who in turn popularized Islamic
law and promoted communal organization on the basis of law
school affiliation.
The endowment of scores of religious buildings and the
availability of salaried positions and stipends for students
made Damascus increasingly attractive to scholars during the
twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Throughout these two
centuries the international element in Damascus continued
to be important, and the roughly equal proportion of native-
born to immigrant scholars remained constant. Slightly less
than half of all Shafi'i scholars surveyed, 468/1076-658/1260,
 INSTITUTIONALIZATION OF MUSLIM SCHOLARSHIP 123

TABLE 5

DEATHDATES OF 'ULAMA' HOLDING POSTS IN THE STATE BUREAUCRACY

EXCLUDING THE POST OF QADI, 468/1076-658/1260

Legal Scholars, Muhaddiths, and Uifis

*- C - c.
xc
A.D. A.H.

1076 468-479
480-489
1100 490-499
500-509

510-519
520-529
530-539
1150 540-549

550-559
560-569 1 1
570-579 2
580-589 1

1200 590-599 1 1
600-609
610-619 1 1
620-629 1 1

630-639 1 1 2
1250 640-649 1 1 3
650-659 1 2 1 6
660-669 1 1 1

670-679 1 1
680-689 4 5
1299 690-699 8

were native-born Damascenes, although the Shafi'i madhhab

was to an appreciable extent in the hands of native-born
Damascenes after the initial period of institutionalization of
the school in Damascus. During the two hundred year period
124 J. E. GILBERT

under discussion almost twice as many IHanafi scholars were

immigrants as were native-born Damascenes. Native-born
Hanbalis, members of the Baniu Shirazi, the Banui Qudama, and
the Banui Munajja, families who were originally immigrants to
Damascus, controlled the Hanbali law school in this period.
With one or two exceptions, Maliki scholars studying and
teaching in Damascus were immigrants. Half of the total
number of muhaddiths studied were native-born Damascenes,
one-quarter were immigrants, one-quarter were passersby.
There were twice as many immigrant siifTsas either native-born
Damascene sufis or transient sufiTs. One-half of the qadis
appointed in this period were native-born Damascenes, the
other half were immigrants or short term residents.
A wave of scholars from Spain and Iran passed through
Damascus in the late eleventh and early twelfth centuries, but
later scholars were more inclined to stay. The number of
scholars living in Damascus during the thirteenth century was
at least double the number present during the twelfth century,
and the greater number of academic positions with remuner-
ation for teachers and students no doubt played a major part
in this expansion of the population of scholars.
Professionalization of the 'ulama' occurred concomitantly
with the institutionalization of international scholarship in
Damascus. During the twelfth and thirteenth centuries
'ulama' in Damascus evolved from part-time, private scholars
into full-time, paid professionals. Several studies have conclud-
ed that the 'ulamd' of the centuries prior to the twelfth and
thirteenth were primarily volunteer scholars of religion who
engaged in other occupations, mostly trade. (1) Biographical

(1) Munir-ud-Din Ahmed, Muslim Education and the Scholars' Social Status up
to the 5th Century Muslim Era (11th Century Christian Era) in the Light of Ta'rEkh
Baghdad (Zurich: Verlag "Der Islam," 1968), pp. 252-254; S. D. Goitein, Studies
in Islamic History and Institutions (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1968), pp. 8 and 219;
Hayyim J. Cohen, "The Economic Background and the Secular Occupations of
Muslim Jurisprudents and Traditionists in the Classical Period of Islam (until the
middle of the eleventh century)," Journal of the Economic and Social History of
the Orient, XIII (January, 1970), pp. 16-61, studies the religous scholars of the
first 470 years of Islamic history. (The present study begins in 468/1076.)
Cohen finds that during the first two centuries of Islam, that is, during the seventh
 INSTITUTIONALIZATION OF MUSLIM SCHOLARSHIP 125

information for the twelfth and thirteenth centuries indicates

a new trend in Damascus. Whereas a small, fairly constant
number of 'ulama' held various secular jobs, there was a dramatic
increase in the number of scholars holding paid, professional
positions. (1) Of the 156 Hanafi legal scholars examined in
this study none held outside jobs. Only 5 of the 195 Shafi'i
legal scholars engaged in secular pursuits. Two were mer-
chants, one was a fruit and vegetable dealer, one a lumber dealer
and one a foundry worker. (2) Merely 3 of 91 Hanbali legal
scholars were also merchants. (3) But one of 19 Maliki legal
experts was a merchant, and one an herbalist. (4) Of 102 stfifs
just 6 were in trade: one was a tailor, one an arrow maker, a
third was involved in silk craft, a fourth was an iron worker,

and eighth centuries, most scholars of religion found secular employment in

government service. Cohen concludes that during the ninth and tenth centuries
over 75 percent of the 'ulama' or their families engaged in commerce or handicrafts,
p. 39.
(1) Little information is available to determine whether professional 'ulamd'
of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries stemmed directly from earlier scholar-
merchant families, whether they represented all levels of society, and whether
there was any significant displacement of persons from business activities to
scholarly pursuits.
(2) Abu al-Nazzar al-Hasan b. Safiyy al-Baghdadi, Shafi'i faqih and merchant:
Ibn 'Asfkir, IV, pp. 166-170. Abu al-Faraj Jabir b. Muhammad al-Hamawi
thumma al-Dimashqi, Shafi'i faqlh and merchant: al-Dhahabi, 'Ibar, IV, p. 312;
Ibn al-'Imad, IV, p. 345. Abf 'Abd Allih Muhammad b. Isma'il al-Baghdfdi,
Shffi'i faqlh and fruit and vegetable dealer: al-Subki, VI, pp. 94-95. 'All b.
'Asakir al-Maqdisi thumma al-Dimashqi, Shafi'i faqlh and lumber dealer: al-Dhahabi,
'Ibar, IV, pp. 152-153; Ibn al-'Imfd, IV, pp. 167-168. Abf Tahir Ibrahim b.
al-Mutahhar al-Jurjini, Shffi'i faqlh and foundry worker: Ibn 'Asakir, II, p. 297.
These five Shafi'i legal scholars who were also involved in secular professions were
all immigrants to Damascus or passersby. All five died in the twelfth century,
and by the thirteenth century it was unlikely that a Shaf'i faqlh would also be a
merchant, businessman, or artisan.
(3) Sharaf al-Din Muhammad b. 'Abd al-Wahhab al-Shirazi al-Dimashqi,
Hanbali faqih and merchant: al-Nu'aymi, II, p. 69, Safiyy al-Din Abf Zakariyya
Yahya b. al-Muzaffar al-Baghdadi, Hanbali faqlh and merchant: Ibn al-'Imad, V,
p. 31. 'Izz al-Din Abf Amr 'Uthmbn b. As'ad b. al-Munajja al-Dimashqi,
Hanbali faqlh and merchant: Ibn Rajab, II, p. 226; Ibn al-'Imfd, V, pp. 211-212.
(4) Rashid al-Din Abf al-Husayn Yahyb b. 'Ali al-Nabulusi thumma al-Misri,
Maliki imam and perfume seller: al-Dhahabi, Huffaz, IV, pp. 1442-1443. Abi
al-Hasan 'Ali b. Ahmad, known as Ibn Qays, Maliki muftf and herbalist: Sibt
b. al-Jawzi, I, p. 159.
126 J. E. GILBERT

a fifth sold perfume, and a sixth was in the sawmill business. (1)
However, the ordinary muhaddith was in a different position.
Muhaddiths comprise slightly more than half of the scholars
studied, and they more commonly engaged in secular occup-
ations. Yet even in the case of muhaddilhs, the study and
teaching of hadlth tended to become a full-time paid profession
for increasing numbers of scholars in the second half of the
twelfth and during the thirteenth centuries.
New occupational opportunities appear to have furnished
livelihoods for a middle income group of professional scholars.
Biographies rarely designate a scholar as either wealthy or poor
in this period, and the evidence of the chronicles and bio-
graphical dictionaries suggests the hypothesis that the 'ulama'
of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries received moderate
incomes. There is no evidence to suggest that 'ulamd' were
large property owners, and many of the most prominent 'ulamd'
in this period were immigrants to the city. Only toward the
end of the Ayyiibid period during the mid-thirteenth century and
continuing into the Mamlfk era did increasing numbers of
religious scholars enter state service, receive multiple professor-
ships and political appointments, and acquire the wealth that
noted 'ulama' and renowned scholarly dynasties of all eras are
often presumed to possess.
The new religious establishments of medieval Damascus
institutionalized the international system of scholarship. With
the foundation of dozens of religious institutions that employed
hundreds of scholars, the 'ulama' of twelfth and thirteenth-
century Damascus exchanged nonprofessional status for full-time
scholarly employment.

(1) Ahmad b. Salamat al-Dimashqi, sffi and blacksmith-ironworker: al-Nu'aymi,

II, pp. 122-123; Ibn al-'Imfd, V, p. 360. (2) Taqiyy al-Din Abf 'Abd Allah
Muhammad b. Ahmad al-Yinini al-Ba'albakki, sufi and arrow maker: Ibn Rajab,
II, pp. 269-273; al-Dhahabi, Huff@d, IV, pp. 1439-1442 and 'Ibar V, p. 248.
(3) Abi Muhammad 'Ali b. 'Ali al-Dimashqi, sufi and engaged in silkcraft: Abi
Shbma, Dhayl, p. 180; al-Dhahabi, 'Ibar, V, p. 186; Ibn Kathir, XIII, pp. 173-174;
al-Nu'aymi, II, pp. 197-199; Ibn al-'Imad, V, pp. 231-232. (4) Abu al-Faraj
Yahya b. Mahmid al-Isbah5ni, blacksmith-iron worker in youth and sufi: al-
Dhahabi, 'Ibar, p. 254. (5) Abu al-Ijasan 'All b. Abi Bakr al-Baghdadi, sufZ
and perfume merchant: Ibn al-'Imad, V, p. 160. (6) Arslan b. Yaqut b. 'Abd
al-Rahman, sufi and engaged in the sawmill business: Henri Sauvaire, "La Descrip-
tion de Damas," Journal Asiatique, V (May-June, 1895), p. 404, note 9.
 INSTITUTIONALIZATION OF MUSLIM SCHOLARSHIP 127

The 'Ulama' and the Political Rulers of Damascus

The basic relationship between the 'ulama' and the political

rulers of medieval Damascus was one of cooperation in the
pursuit of stable community life. (1) Nevertheless, contests
for dominance of this two-party alliance occurred, and one
overriding political issue divided the rulers and the 'ulamd'.
Would the rulers or the 'ulama' direct the newly-institutionalized
madrasa system? Would the 'ulama' take charge of their own
organization or would the state? The answer to these questions
may be seen in an evaluation of the two stages in which
professionalization of the 'ulama' occurred in late eleventh,
twelfth, and thirteenth-century Damascus. During the first
stage, which corresponds with the period of Saljuiq and Biirid
control of Damascus (468/1076-549/1154), members of the
rulers' household and entourage, but not the rulers, established
madrasas. In the second phase, the Zengid and Ayyubid era
(549/1154-658/1260), the rulers themselves became directly
involved in patronizing the madrasa system. Political pa-
tronage did not deprive the 'ulamd' of their autonomy in the
first period. Increasing absorption of the 'ulama' and their
organization into the state system characterized the second
period.
During the eighty years of Saljuiq and Biirid rule Damascus
was an autonomous city-state, and its political and social
institutions reflected that status. Change of ruler under the
Saljfqs and Buirids involved family and court politics within
the city; the Crusader states were the major entities in the
foreign relations of Damascus at this time. In Saljiiq and
Buirid Damascus members of the rulers' households and court
officials were the principal builders of public monuments.
Between 468/1076 and 549/1154 women from the ruling family,

(1) Ira M. Lapidus, Muslim Cities in the Later Middle Ages (Cambridge, Massa-
chusetts: Harvard University Press, 1967), discusses the cooperative alliance of
the Mamlik rulers and the 'ulamd' of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries,
pp. 107-115.
128 J. E. GILBERT

amirs, and other officials of the court and household of the

ruler established waqfs for five Shafi'i madrasas, five Hanafi
madrasas, and one khdnaqdh. The members of the royal
family and the officials who endowed these eleven buildings
were part of the ruling elite. These eleven endowments
represent the great majority of the new types of religious insti-
tutions established in the Saljuiqand Buiridperiods in Damascus.
Saljuq and Burid rulers did not themselves create religious
foundations, although in 529/1134 Shams al-Mulk Ism5'il b.
Buir did build a khdnaqdh. Wealthy IHanbali merchants, not
Turkish amirs or royalty, built and endowed the two Hanbali
madrasas established in the Saljiq-Burid period.
The household of the ruler and the court patronized religious
institutions (though the rulers might be considered indirect
patrons) during the decades of Saljuq and Buirid rule, and
'ulania' in scholarly posts were not involved in government
service. In Saljuq and Burid Damascus law schools employed
and produced scholars, not bureaucrats. The most famous
teachers, who were also most often the leaders, ra'rses, of the
law schools, did not belong to the entourages of the rulers in the
sense of being clients, and they did not hold political or admi-
nistrative offices. They directed the law schools and sought
independence from the political system. One family, the
Banu Qurashi, was strong enough to dominate the qadiship of
Damascus in the Buirid period and to share control of the
qadiship, traditionally a political appointment, with the Birid
rulers. Thus, the scholars of the period 468/1076-549/1154
represent a first phase of the professionalization of the 'ulama'
in Damascus in which indirect political patronage, devotion to
scholarship, and 'ulama' control of their own organization
prevailed.
With the arrival of Nir al-Din and the Zengids in 549/1154,
Damascus became the capital of a Syrian-Jaziran empire.
Under the Ayyubids, who followed the Zengids, Damascus was
either the imperial capital or second city of a Syrian-Jaziran-
Egyptian empire. Change of ruler under the Ayyuibids meant
at least one blockade or siege of Damascus as an outside family
member tried to battle his way to control of the town. Rela-
 INSTITUTIONALIZATION OF MUSLIM SCHOLARSHIP 129
tions with the Crusader states continued to dominate foreign
policy. The Khwarizmians, sometime allies, and the Mongols
were special threats to the later Ayyubids. The approximately
110 years of Zengid and Ayyubid rule that followed the Saljuq-
Burid era inaugurated new political relationships between the
rulers and the 'ulamd'. When Nur al-Din arrived in Damascus,
he personally established religious foundations, systematically
giving state support for religious buildings, and began a second
phase of the professionalization of the 'ulama'. Of the Zengid
and Ayyuibid rulers Nur al-Din endowed the largest number
and the most diverse religious institutions. He provided
buildings, staffs, and salaries for the first two Maliki madrasas in
the city, two Shafi'i madrasas, one Hanafi madrasa, the first
dar al-hadtih in the city, and one khanaqdh. Nur al-Din also
sought to make use of and influence the 'ulamd' in two other
ways: first, through careful personal selection and recruitment
of appointees to established religious offices and, second, through
creation of new government offices that employed religious
scholars. The struggle for domination of the 'ulamd' began in
earnest. Nur al-Din preferred to appoint established scholars
to political and religious positions and to set up government
departments to supervise areas that had previously been in the
hands of the 'ulamd'. For instance, Nir al-Din created the
post of inspector of the suft establishments of Syria and
appointed a prominent sufi from Khurasan to the position. (1)
When Saladin, founder of the Ayyfbid dynasty, became ruler
of Damascus in 571/1174, he also sought to make political use
of the 'ulamd'. For example, Saladin appointed Ibn Abi 'Asrun,
ra'Tsof the Shafi'i law school, to the post of qddt of Damascus. (2)

(1! AbO al-Fath 'Umar b. 'Ali b. Muhammad al-Juwayni al-Sufi, known as

Ibn Harnmuwayh, immigrated with his son from Khurasan to Damascus and
filled this new position that NOr al-Din established. Sibt b. al-Jawzi, I, p. 272;
al-Nu'aymi, II, pp. 153-154; Ibn al-'Imad, IV, p. 259; H. L. Gottschalk, "Awlad
al-Shaykh," EI2, I, pp. 765-766.
(2) Ibn Abi 'Asrun was the only ra'is of the Shafi'i law school who also served
as qddi of Damascus in the period under discussion. Sharaf al-Din Abu Sa'd
'Abd Allih b. Muhammad al-Hadithi thumma al-Mawsili, known as Ibn Abl
'Asrun: Sibt b. al-Jawzi, I, p. 394; Ibn Khallikan, II, pp. 32-36; al-Subki, VII,
pp. 132-137; al-Dhahabi, Huffaz, IV, pp. 1357-1358 and 'Ibar, IV, p. 256; Ibn

5
130 J. E. GILBERT

Through this appointment Saladin sought to coopt the entire

Shafi'i organization of the city by making its leader a govern-
ment appointee. Several later rulers tried to secure equally
influential scholars as qadrs and failed. When the Ayyfibid
ruler al-'Adil invited Fakhr al-Din Ibn 'Asakir, ra'is of the
Shafi'i law school, to accept the qadiship, Fakhr al-Din
refused. (1) His refusal was not merely a matter of personal
conscience. It was the stand of the spokesman of the Shafi'l
law school, who wished to insure maximum control of the school
by the 'ulamd'. The Zengids, and Ayyuibids did not permit
a single family to hold the qadiship for more than two successive
terms.
Unlike Nur al-Din, Saladin did not complete any religious
monuments in Damascus, although he founded many religious
establishments in Cairo and Jerusalem. Ayyuibid rulers after
Saladin, on the other hand, imitated Nir al-Din's example in
Damascus, took the lead in the patronage of the madrasa
system, and substantially increased the number of religious
buildings. Lesser members of the royal family, court officials,
and amirs continued to found the bulk of the madrasas and
other religious institutions. For the first time, several bureau-
crats and'ulamd' holding important government posts established
Shafi'l madrasas and ddr al-hadiths. The most important
Ayyfibid rulers of Damascus usually built one significant
building. This royal endowment was normally large and
prestigious and often housed the tombs of the family. The
Hanbalis, except in two cases, continued to finance their own
buildings. Because they were not in the direct pay of the
ruler, even sensitive scholars did not hesitate to accept posts
in madrasas founded by rulers or appointments to professorships
made by rulers, but in fact they became more dependent on
the state for their posts and salaries. In addition, Saladin and
the Ayyubid rulers who followed him in Damascus did manage
to attract a minority of scholars into government service.

Kathir, XII, pp. 333-334; al-Nu'aymi, I, pp. 399-403; Ibn al-'Imad, IV, pp. 283-
284; Ibn Tailun, Qudat Dimashq, ed. by Saliah al-Din al-Munajjid (Damascus:
Arab Academy of Damascus, 1956), pp. 49-51.
(1) Aba Shama, Dhayl, pp. 137-138; Ibn Kathir, XIII, p. 101.
 INSTITUTIONALIZATION OF MUSLIM SCHOLARSHIP 131

Biographies of the late Ayyubid period describe house arrests,

confiscations, and even executions of 'ulamd' who became
involved in politics and accepted high government positions.
Previous generations of scholars in Saljiiq, Burid, Zengid, and
early Ayyiibid Damascus almost without exception lived long,
nonviolent lives.
Thus, in contrast to the rulers of Damascus during the
previous eighty years, the Zengid and Ayyibid rulers directly
patronized religious institutions. Later Ayyibid rulers conti-
nued to follow the examples of Nur al-Din and Saladin. They
created new state offices to supervise tasks that the 'ulama' had
previously carried out or appointed 'ulamd' to duties that
bureaucrats would normally perform. The later Ayyuibids
also extended their power of appointment to the hiring and
dismissal of professors of various madrasas and continued the
effort to make the 'ulama' and their organization subservient
to the ruler of Damascus and positions of the 'ulamd' conditional
upon the action of the state.

Conclusion

The rulers of late eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth-century

Damascus, who generally failed to achieve political or admi-
nistrative continuity, took advantage of the opportunity to
help shape social institutions. These rulers and their house-
holds institutionalized international scholarship and professional-
ized the 'ulama' in Damascus and then sought to bureaucratize,
hierarchize, and further dominate the 'ulama' by making areas
once in the hands of scholars dependent on government.
During the Saljfiq and Birid decades, the 'ulamd' were involved
in their own organization, not with the state bureaucracy, and
were supported only by indirect political patronage. In the
Zengid and Ayyibid periods rulers became concerned with
direct patronage of religious institutions, in controlling appoint-
ments to professorships, shaykhships, and qiadships, and in
fostering the bureaucratization of the 'ulama'. The law schools
lost ground in their confrontation with political rulers. Toward
132 J. E. GILBERT

the end of the Ayyfbid period individual scholars and members

of scholarly families began to seek government posts and the
wealth that these offices might bring.
In the ninth century the 'Abbasid caliphs had tried and failed
to gain control over religious doctrine and the content of
Islamic law. Earlier scholars, especially a number of ninth-
century 'ulamd', had rejected the qadiship in order to avoid
acquiescing in state control over religious law. (1) The Shi'ite
rulers in the tenth and eleventh centuries had endeavoured to
impose a new religious doctrine as a basis of government but
did not succeed. In twelfth and thirteenth-century Damascus,
however, the state did gain partial control of the 'ulama'.
There was no question of Niir al-Din or the Ayyubids seeking
to set doctrine, change the law, or prescribe a religious system.
Rather, they recognized the dominant socioreligious force and
tried to dominate it through professionalization of the 'ulami'
and bureaucratization of its members.
The rulers of twelfth and thirteenth-century Damascus
supported the establishment of law schools, ddr al-had[ths, and
suft institutions, as well as mosques, because they understood
the collective role of the 'ulama' in society. Although the
Saljuiq, Buirid, Zengid, and Ayyfubid rulers in general failed
to develop strong, innovative, or permanent political, bureau-
cratic, and military institutions, they did perceive the influence
of the network of international scholarship and the social and
political benefits of its institutionalization. These Turkish
and Kurdish rulers appreciated a chance to strengthen a working
system, while partially controlling it, and, instead of merely
binding various individuals to the state, the rulers of Saljtiq,
Buirid, Zengid, and Ayyuibid Damascus managed to patronize
a whole social-professional-educational system. They realized
that a strong bureaucracy combined with a standing army were
not the only avenues to stability. The madrasa system that
the rulers supported and expanded produced the personnel

(1) N. J. Coulson, "Doctrine and Practice in Islamic Law: One Aspect of the
Problem," Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, XVIII (1956),
pp. 211-226.
 INSTITUTIONALIZATION OF MUSLIM SCHOLARSHIP 133

necessary to provide authoritative and expeditious guidance

for the mass of the Muslim community. The increased pro-
fessionalization of the 'ulamd' perhaps balanced the decreased
institutional complexity of the bureaucracy and army in the
political and social structure of twelfth and thirteenth-century
Damascus. A second reason why the rulers of Damascus
supported institutionalization of the international system of
scholarship and professionalization of the 'ulamd' was that the
rulers could then enjoy the political benefit of closer association
with and influence over the only source of legitimation which
rivaled the authority of the caliph. (1)
Later Islamic states such as the Mamluik and Ottoman
empires built upon earlier traditions of Islamic religious scholar-
ship. In the Mamluk empire powerful and wealthy scholarly
families with vested interests in Cairo and elsewhere controlled
vast numbers of appointments. In the late thirteenth century
and during the fourteenth century individuals might be appoint-
ed at one time to seven or eight professorships, an accumulation
of offices unheard of in Saljuq, Burid, Zengid, or Ayyuibid
Damascus. In the Ottoman empire religion became a depart-
ment of state under the sultan and over which a hierarchized
bureaucracy of 'ulamd' presided. For example, in the second
half of the fifteenth and the first half of the sixteenth century
two major hierarchies led to the two top religious offices, that
of the chief qddl and the shaykh al-Isldm. In order to advance
to either position a candidate had to pass through a graded
succession of lower jobs, and there was no interchange between
the two hierarchies. (2) Offices that were general titles or ranks
in twelfth and thirteenth-century Damascus, such as shaykh
al-Islam or muftl of Damascus, evolved into precise offices of
the state bureaucracy during Mamliik and Ottoman times.
The 'ulama' of twelfth and thirteenth-century Damascus were

(1) George Makdisi, Ibn 'Aqll et la r6surgence de l'Islam Tradilionaliste au

XIe siecle (Ve siecle de l'Hdgire) (Damascus: Institut Francais de Damas, 1963),
p. 226.
(2) Richard Repp, "Some Observations on the Development of the Ottoman
Learned Hierarchy," Scholars, Saints, and Sufis, ed. by Nikki Keddie (Berkeley:
University of California Press, 1972), pp. 17-32.
134 J. E. GILBERT

nonspecialized and freely moved in and out of a variety of

professional posts.
Twelfth and thirteenth-century Damascus was the scene of
the institutionalization of international scholarship and marks
a turning point in the evolution of Muslim society and commun-
ity life. This period represents an intermediary stage in the
development of the 'ulama' from their volunteer beginnings to
a bureaucratized class of professionals. During the early
centuries of Islam the 'ulama' generated their own independent
scholarly procedures and usually combined scholarship with
secular professions. During the twelfth and thirteenth cent-
uries in Damascus, immigrant, transient, and native-born
scholars acquired salaried posts in the religious institutions
that were endowed at this time and presaged a fully professional-
ized and bureaucratized class of scholars which became greatly
specialized in later Islamic centuries.

Joan E. GILBERT
(Alaska)