al-Katātīb al-Qurʼānīyah bi-ʻUmān wa-Dawruhā fī Ḥifẓ al-Lisān al-ʻArabī - Muḥrizī, ʻAbd Allāh ibn Saʻīd ibn Sālim; al-Muʼtamar al-Duwalī: al-Dawr al-ʻUmānī fī Khidmat al-Lughah al-ʻArabīyah (2015) (Kuwālā Lumbūr) (Kuwālā Lumbūr : Markaz Dhākirat ʻUmān, 2015)
The kuttāb appeared among Muslims from the time of the Prophet and spread with Islam across many lands. Established as a purely Islamic undertaking, it was the principal place in the Islamic world for teaching the young, and it held a position of great importance in Islamic life — above all because it was where boys learned the Qurʾan, and because of the standing of knowledge in Islam, where seeking it is an obligation upon every Muslim. The Prophet's own example urged this: after the Battle of Badr he required each prisoner of war to teach twelve Muslim children by way of ransom. This paper examines the Qurʾanic kuttāb, known in Oman as the maʿlāmah — the school of the Qurʾan and the teacher of generations, among the most important educational institutions concerned with teaching and memorising the Holy Qurʾan across successive generations, preserving the Arabic language and the soundness of Arabic speech, and serving as a shield for the heritage of the community. It traces the kuttāb system in Oman as part of the wider Arabian pattern of overcoming illiteracy.
Permanent citation identifier: MHF-ARABICLANG-004.
Conference theme (in Arabic): التطبيق والممارسة العملية.
Text in Arabic; title also romanized (ALA-LC); abstract and keywords in English.
Keywords: Kuttāb; Qurʾanic education; Oman; Arabic language preservation; History of education; Maʿlāmah