Abstract
ijāzah, meaning permission, license, or authorization, refers to several distinct types of academic certificates within Islamic education. Given the primacy of oral traditions and importance of reliability of ḥadīth, the license of audition (ijāzah al-sama‘) was established in order to guarantee the credibility of the transmission. Ijāzah al-riwāyah served as written records of the direct audition of a text on the part of the recipient from the transmitting authority, whether a single ḥadīth report, a work by the transmitting teacher himself, or a work by a third party. Accordingly, ijāzah al-iftā’ or ijāzah al-ijtihād was developed within fiqh as a method of authorization of the qualified ‘ulamā’ to respond to the changes within Muslim societies throughout fatwās. Through ijāzah li-al-tadrīs, a scholar was entitled to teach parts of a book or an entire subject. Independent from any social and political institutions, ijāzah was executed within a disciple-master relationship and developed into a literacy genre within Islamic education.
Keywords
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
References
al-Andalusī, I. H. (1987). Maratib al-'ulum (The categories of the sciences) (Vol. 4). Beirut: al-M'assissah al-Arabiah li-al-Drasat va al-Nashr.
al-Baghdādī, a.-K. h. a. (1938). al-Kifāyah fī ʿilm al-riwāyah. Ḥaydarābād.
al-Jawzi, I. (2014). Muntazam fi tarikh al-muluk. Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-'Ilmiyyah.
al-Qalqashandi, A. b. A. (1964). Subh al-a‘sha fi sina‘at al-insha. Cairo: al-Mu’assasah al-‘Ammah.
al-Sijistani, A. D. (1998). Sunan Abī Dāwūd. Riadh: Maktanah al-Ma'arif li-al-Nashr va al-Tawzi'.
al-Tirmidhi, A. ʿ. M. i. ʿ. (1998). Jāmi‘ al-Tirmidhī. Beirut: Dar al-Qarb al-Islami.
Chamberlain, M. (1994). Knowledge and social practice in medieval Damascus 1190–1350. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Gilliot, C. (2012). Education and Learning in the Early Islamic World: Introduction. In C. Gilliot (Ed.), Education and Learning in the Early Islamic World. Surrey: Ashgate.
Goldziher, I., & Bonebakker, S. A. (2012). Id̲j̲āza. In P. Bearman, T. Bianquis, C. E. Bosworth, E. von Donzel, & W. P. Heinrichs (Eds.), Encyclopaedia of Islam. Leiden: Brill.
Graham, W. A. (1993). Traditionalism in Islam: An essay in interpretation. The Journal of Interdisciplinary History, 23(3), 495–522.
Haneberg, D. (1850). Abhandlung über das schul und lehrwesen der Muhamedaner im Mittelalter (Treatise on the education and training of the Muhammedans in the Middle Ages). München: Akademie der Wissenschaften.
Huff, T. E. (2003). The rise of early modern science: Islam, China and the West (2nd ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Kamali, M. H. (2005). A textbook of hadith studies: Authenticity, compilation, classification and criticism of hadith. Markfield: Islamic Foundation.
Laoust, H. (1965). Les schismes dans l’Islam. Paris: Payot.
Makdisi, G. (1981). The rise of colleges: Institutions of learning in Islam and the West. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Mottahedeh, R. P. (1985). The mantle of the Prophet: religion and politics in Iran. New York: Simon and Schuster.
Mudir Shanechi, K. (1998). Ijazah. In M. K. Musavi Bojnurdi (Ed.), Daretat al-ma'arif-i bozorg-i Islami (Greater Islamic Encyclopedia) (Vol. 6, pp. 596–598). Tehran: Markaz-i Daretat al-Ma'arif-i Bozorg-i Islami.
Nashabi, H. (1985). The ijaza: Academic certificate in Muslim education. Hamdard Islamicus, VIII, 7–15.
Pakatchi, A., & Gorji, A. (1998). Ijtihad. In M. K. Musavi Bojnurdi (Ed.), Daretat al-ma'arif-i bozorg-i Islami (Greater Islamic Encyclopedia) (Vol. 6, pp. 599–611). Tehran: Markaz-i Daretat al-Ma'arif-i Bozorg-i Islami.
Ribera, J. T. (1928). Disertaciones y opúsculos. Edición colectiva que en su jubilación del profesorado le oferecen sus discípulos y amigos. Madrid: Imprenta de Estanislao Maestre.
Schmidtke, S. (2006). Forms and functions of ‘licences to transmit’ (Ijàzas) in 18th-Century-Iran: 'Abd Allàh al-Mùsawì al-Jazà"irì al-Tustarì’s (1112–73/1701–59) ijàza kabìra. In G. Krämer & S. Schmidtke (Eds.), Speaking for Islam: Religious authorities in Muslim societies (pp. 95–127). Leiden: Brill.
Shahrazuri, I. a.-S. (2006). Muqaddimah ibn al-Ṣalāḥ fī ‘ulūm al-ḥadīth (Introduction to the sciences of ḥadīth) (E. Dickinson, Trans.). Berkshire: Garnet.
Stewart, D. J. (2006). Degrees or ijaza. In J. W. Meri (Ed.), Medieval Islamic civilization: An encyclopedia (pp. 201–203). New York: Routledge.
Vajda, G. (2012a). Id̲j̲āza. In P. Bearman, T. Bianquis, C. E. Bosworth, E. von Donzel, & W. P. Heinrichs (Eds.), Encyclopaedia of Islam. Leiden: Brill.
Vajda, G. (2012b). The oral transmission of knowledge in traditional Islam. In C. Gilliot (Ed.), Education and learning in the early Islamic World. Surrey: Ashgate.
Witkam, J. J. (2012). The human element between text and reader: The ijaza in Arabic manuscripts. In C. Gilliot (Ed.), Education and learning in the early Islamic World. Surrey: Ashgate.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG
About this entry
Cite this entry
Arjmand, R. (2018). Ijāzah: Methods of Authorization and Assessment in Islamic Education. In: Daun, H., Arjmand, R. (eds) Handbook of Islamic Education. International Handbooks of Religion and Education, vol 7. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-53620-0_55-1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-53620-0_55-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-53620-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-53620-0
eBook Packages: Springer Reference EducationReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Education