"Education has always been an important pursuit in Islam. The Prophet Muhammad enjoined his followers to "seek knowledge, even unto China."
Education was fostered for many reasons and at many levels. There were itinerant teachers who taught the fundamental tenets of the faith in exchange for lodging and other services, there were Qur'anic schools, often associated with the mosques, where masters of the Qur'an gathered a circle of pupils and tutored them, and there were centers of higher learning at Baghdad, Damascus, Alexandria, and elsewhere where Islamic theology and jurisprudence were developed and taught.
In this volume, Bradley J. Cook, with assistance from Fathi H. Malkawi, has drawn together and introduced selections from the writings of eminent Islamic thinkers, presenting them in a dual language format (translations side by side with the original texts) for the first time.
Each piece has been translated and annotated by a respected scholar of classical Islamic and Arabic literature."
