Education in Morocco, 1914
Education among the Moors is not complicated, nor do the girls profit by it. Leared sums it up as well and as briefly as any one.
From: 1910 C.E. To: 1914 C.E.
Location: Marrakech, Morocco
Note: This article has been excerpted from a larger work in the public domain and shared here due to its historical value. It may contain outdated ideas and language that do not reflect TOTA’s opinions and beliefs.
From Morocco the Bizarre: or, Life in Sunset Land by George E. Holt, 1914.
Education among the Moors is not complicated, nor do the girls profit by it. Leared sums it up as well and as briefly as any one.
"Education," he says, "belongs almost exclusively to the male sex. It is very rare to meet a woman who can even read. Boys are sent to school very early, and by a liberal allowance of the stick are forced to learn the Koran by heart, and to write a little. The taled or schoolmaster, receives a mozouna, less than half a penny, every Thursday; and two okeas, or threepence a month besides, from each pupil. Presents of corn or fowls are also usually given by the parents. When a certain amount of progress has been made, the pupil is mounted on a horse, led in triumph through the streets, and proclaimed a Bachelor of the Koran. If he desires further instruction, he is admitted into a madrasah, or college, where he learns the elements of arithmetic and geography, of history and the theology of Sidi Khalil. When he has passed some years in the madrasah he can go out taleb, man of letters; after this he becomes ‘adil, a lawyer; then a fahil, doctor; then alim, savant; and finally kadi, judge in matters civil and ecclesiastical."
Leo Africanus states that the mosque of El Karouin, at Fez, was the most celebrated resort of the pilgrims, and the finest Arabic university in the world during the sixteenth century. A once celebrated library is now only fragmentary.
Holt, George Edmund. Morocco the Bizarre: or, Life in Sunset Land. McBride, Nast & Company, 1914.
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