What Is a Madrasa?

“A moving and complex portrait of Muslim schools. . . . Wide ranging and eminently readable.” — CHOICE

“A useful introduction to madrasas in India and Pakistan and contributes a South Asian perspective to the rich scholarship on Islamic education.” — Journal of the American Academy of Religion

“Riveting....A nuanced and richly textured account of the place and importance of Madrasas in Islam both historically and in the contemporary moment.” — New Books in Islamic Studies

“A captivating journey….Brilliantly elucidates the madrasa curriculum.” — Journal of the Society for Contemporary Thought and the Islamicate World

“This important book grapples with a large number of complex questions that pertain to the very core of the nature and role of Islam and its 14 centuries of tradition in today’s world.” — Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations

“A work of great effort and detailed scholarship, this book is a fine introduction to contemporary madrasa education.” — Word for Peace

“This splendid book is a wonderful primer on the world and culture of the madrasa. Given the importance of madrasas to American political interests in the Muslim world, I cannot imagine a more timely book. Ebrahim Moosa, with his firsthand knowledge of the madrasa culture in the Indian subcontinent, writes as very few people can about being an insider in a way that is highly accessible to general readers and students who don’t know about madrasas or Islam. Extraordinary.” — Amir Hussain, author of Oil and Water: Two Faiths, One God

“Offering a historically informed insider account of the madrasa, Ebrahim Moosa presents a view of the madrasa which is very different from what has often been purveyed by the media. Enriched by Moosa’s account of his return to several madrasas nearly four decades after he had first arrived at them — this time as a seasoned observer rather than as a young and impressionable student — the book puts the madrasa’s intellectual concerns in their historical context, dispels myths, and provides a critique of contemporary madrasas. Presuming no prior acquaintance with Islam or the madrasa, it is accessible to a broad readership and will be read with interest by general readers, college students, journalists, policy analysts, and by anyone else who wishes to understand this seemingly peculiar but key Muslim institution.” — Muhammad Qasim Zaman, author of Modern Islamic Thought in a Radical Age: Religious Authority and Internal Criticism

“Ebrahim Moosa takes us on a revealing tour of Madrasas past and present as well as his own alma mater. It is a truly eye-opening and informative analysis that we — Muslims and non-Muslims alike — will ignore at our peril. What is a Madrasa? should be on top of everyone’s reading list.” — Ziauddin Sardar, editor of Critical Muslim, and author of Desperately Seeking Paradise and Mecca: The Sacred City