ABSTRACT

The Calcutta madrasa was one of the many institutions which witnessed recurrent attempts at reform in Muslim societies during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Since the eleventh century, when madrasas first emerged as the principal institution of higher Islamic learning, it has undergone many changes, adapting in varying degrees to local cultures and changing times. Given the centrality of the Calcutta madrasa in the preservation and production of knowledge as well as in the formation of the religious elite, the madrasa was crucial to the construction of religious authority. This paper attempts to arrive at a deeper understanding of the origin and nature of the Calcutta madrasa. The first half explores the impact of British educational policies and conceptions of knowledge on the very “traditionalists” attempt to protect Islamic knowledge and learning from its feared extinction under colonial rule. The madrasa institution established by and during colonial rule emerges as a more complex entity that absorbed both colonialist and traditionalist conceptions, which continued to be renegotiated even after the madrasas, had been firmly established. This aspect will be discussed in the second part of this paper.

摘要

加尔各答宗教学校是见证 18 世纪和 19 世纪穆斯林社会改革反复尝试的众多机构之一。自 11 世纪以来，当伊斯兰学校首次成为伊斯兰高等学府的主要机构时，它经历了许多变化，在不同程度上适应了当地文化和时代的变迁。鉴于加尔各答宗教学校在知识的保存和生产以及宗教精英的形成方面的中心地位，宗教学校对宗教权威的建设至关重要。本文试图深入了解加尔各答宗教学校的起源和性质. 前半部分探讨了英国教育政策和知识观念对“传统主义者”试图保护伊斯兰知识和学习免受殖民统治下令人恐惧的灭绝的影响。由殖民统治和在殖民统治期间建立的伊斯兰学校机构作为一个更复杂的实体出现，它吸收了殖民主义和传统主义的概念，即使在伊斯兰学校牢固建立之后，这些概念仍在继续重新谈判。这方面将在本文的第二部分讨论。