Book: Hawza-yi ‘Ilmiyya, Shi‘i Teaching Institution

The current volume titled “Hawza–yi ‘Ilmiyya, Shi’i Teaching Institution: An Entry from Encyclopaedia of the World of Islam” is a translation of a series of article on the traditional system of Shia seminary sducation known as the hawza. After beginning with information about the hawza, the book begins by discussing the formative period of hawza in the early Islamic period and then traces the development of the hawza in historical centers of Shia scholarship in Iran,  Iraq, and Lebanon.

Hawza, a later designation for the organizations, institutions, and centers of methodological education of religious sciences among Imami Shia s.

Shia religious educational systems and tendencies are diversely categorized, but the most widespread and  the most inclusive categorization is historical periodisation, particularly owing to the fact that in each period one or two population centers often served as the main focus of the educational tradition and other centers functioned as subsidiary or affiliated subdivisions. It is also worthy of note that a distinction may be drown for each historical period. A number of characteristics are actually common in the educational traditional of shia religious sciences. Some others indicate a specific area nonetheless.

In this volume, the term educational system is employed in the sense of the tradition through which religious sciences are imparted and scholars receive their education and training at different levels whose main preoccupation or otherwise lie in studying and discussing religious topics in all domains (e.g. the Quran, Quranic exegesis, hadith, theology, jurisprudence, and ethics), those related to religious sciences (e.g. literature, history, transmission authorities, and philosophy), and at times those prevalent in Islamic civilization (e.g. medicine, astronomy, mathematics, and mysticism). Therefore, religious propagation traditions aiming at the general public were carried out within different forms at mosques and similar institutions and also supervision of the religious affairs of people for which hawza graduates have been responsible lie beyond studies of the educational system of hawza; nonetheless, such activities are the fruits of hawza education and are frequently interrelated to the same.

Based on the aforementioned remarks, this article falls into the following sections? Generalities; Qum, Rayy; Baghdad; Najaf; Hilla; Jabal al-Amil; Isfahan; Tehran; Mashhad.

Bibliographic Information

Title: Hawza–yi ‘Ilmiyya, Shi’i Teaching Institution: An Entry from Encyclopaedia of the World of Islam

Editors: Gholamali Haddad Adel‎ Hassan Taromi-Rad and‎ Mohammad Jafat Elmi

Publisher: EWI Press Ltd

 Language: English

Length: 341 pages

ISBN: 978-1908433060

Pub. Date: October 1, 2012