Tlemcen Scholars and the Question of Establishing Educational Schools during the Zayani Era: Between Support and Opposition

Abstract

The project of establishing schools in the Zayan capital of Tlemcen and other cities of central Morocco falls within what can be called the history of education during the eighth century AH (14AD). The adoption of schools there was a cultural aspect during the Zayan era, and the spread of this institution had political, scientific and religious reasons and objectives. Despite the great importance of the school’s institution in the educational and intellectual field, scholars and intellectuals of that period had stances on its establishment, which varied between those who supported the school project and those who opposed it for reasons ranging from scientific and political, and what increased the importance of the opposition position was the position it was given. Its companions are like “Al-Abli”, “Al-Muqari”, “Abdul-Rahman Ibn Khaldun” and others, but this position never negates the contribution of these scholars nor the contribution of the school institution to the scientific renaissance witnessed by the metropolis of Tlemcen during the Zayani era, and from here the study takes its legitimacy as an addition in Unveiling the positions of the scholars of Tlemcen regarding the establishment of educational schools during the Zayani era, in order to reveal the reasons behind their positions. To clarify this, the researcher used the historical-analytical method in tracking the positions of Tlemcen scholars regarding the establishment of educational schools during the Zayani era, and to reveal the reality and backgrounds of this rejection. One of the most prominent points of the research is that the view of the scholars who rejected the school building project was based on the negative aspect of the multiplicity of schools, where it produced an intellectual situation characterized by the rule of tradition and the predominance of transfer sciences at the expense of mental sciences, but the fruits of the educational work of the school institution, which appears in the birth of a large number from the scholars and jurists during the 08th century AH / 14 AD and throughout the nineteenth century AH / 15 AD, it was reflected in the positions of the scholars after that, so positions appeared in support of the project, which contributed to the establishment of several schools in Tlemcen and in most of the cities of central Morocco.