Iraq and human development: culture, education and the globalization of hope

Arab Studies Quarterly (ASQ), Spring, 2004 by Jacqueline Ismael, Tareq Y. Ismael, Raymond William Baker

Educational standards during the Abbasid era were high. Elementary education, both for boys and for girls, flourished. Theological colleges were maintained, and extension courses from mosques as centers radiated outward to areas beyond. Private, as well as public, libraries were common and contained tens of thousands of books and manuscripts; many of them were available for external borrowing. In addition, one street alone in Baghdad was said to contain a thousand booksellers' shops. Paper, introduced from China via Samarkand, was manufactured in the provinces from vegetable fiber. Learning and education were available to all groups and classes, including slaves and street singers. In 1184, there were 30 independent schools in Baghdad, 20 in Damascus, in addition to an engineering academy and 3 medical schools. While the poor enjoyed free basic education, talented students were offered "state" scholarships large enough to pay for all living expenses in order that the students would concentrate only on learning and excellence. (24) Under the Abbasids, the Islamic educational system divided all subjects, many derived from Greek, Persian and Sanskrit models, into three streams: Islamic studies; humanities; and foreign sciences, which included foreign languages, medicine, mathematics and sciences. The golden age of knowledge was brought to an end with the Mongol destruction of Baghdad in the 13th century. Higher education was not really regenerated until the 20th century, and then only in diminished utilitarian economic and political forms, framed critically by the Abbasid legacy.

KNOWLEDGE IN THE SERVICE OF THE ECONOMY: UTILITARIAN HIGHER EDUCATION UNDER THE MANDATE/MONARCHY

During the Ottoman era, higher education in Iraq was devoted to Islamic religious disciplines, particularly Hanafi legal thought, which was taught in "The School of the Greatest Imam." In 1912, the enrollment was 100 students. (25) In 1922, under the British Mandate, the school was upgraded to a religious university which was called Al al-Bayt University. It was completed in 1924 for the explicit purpose of bridging the gap between the Sunni and Shi'i schools of thought and preparing graduates for posts in the Ministry of Endowments. (26) Similarly, a school of engineering was established to prepare technicians for posts in the Ministry of Public Works; a school of Law for legal clerks; and the school of teachers to prepare the teaching staff for the three basic levels of education: elementary, preparatory and secondary. In 1927, a school of medicine was established, followed by pharmacology, chemistry, and agriculture. All the schools were autonomous in curricula and administration. Attempts to bring them together in a university structure did not succeed until 1956, with the establishment of the University of Baghdad. (27) Throughout this period, the government provided generous support for graduate studies abroad, and thousands of Iraqis pursued advanced graduate studies in the West.