Al-ZARNŪJĪ AND THE METHOD OF LEARNING: A MEDIEVAL ISLAMIC TREATISE of EDUCATION
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Keywords:
Education, Learning, Religious Education, al-Zarnūjī, Ta‛līm al-Muta‛allim, Student-Centered EducationAbstract
The high esteem and reverence that knowledge and education are accorded in Islamic
Civilization is manifested in a number of treatises composed during Middle Ages by practioners,
instructors and philosophers alike. Burhān al-Dīn al-Zarnūjī is one of the medieval figures that offered
practical approaches in education informed by Qur’anic and prophetic injunctions, old-age proverbs and
wisdom sayings of the ancient masters and his immediate teachers. His student-centered approach to the
process of learning is replete with pedagogical premises and didactic narrative. Written in Arabic during
the early Middle Ages, this treatise has been translated into Latin and several modern languages. The
following survey examines al-Zarnūjī’s treatise on teaching the students the method of learning by
assessing and critiquing some of its premises. This study aims to demonstrate that according to al
Zarnūjī’s theoretical and practical framework the students should be made aware of the tools that they
possess and make use of them with proper methodology.
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