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About Symposium

International Symposium on

Ottoman Maktabs (Schools)

Mindset-Institutions-Effects

Madrasahs were shaped within the Islamic education tradition and contributed to the training of the qualified human resources of the society and state in the Ottoman period. However, their inability to compete with the developments in science, technique and industrialisation in Europe led to the establishment of new schools, called maktabs. These newly opened maktabs became the main instrument of Ottoman modernisation and Westernisation in education. They soon encompassed a wide range of schools, from military and technical schools to primary schools and higher education. The prestige of the maktabs increased as they became one of the dynamics of social transformation. This process gained momentum after Tanzimat (Reorganisation, a period of reform in the Ottoman Empire). With the opening of maktabs, the Ottoman Empire had three types of schools: madrasahs, maktabs and minority/foreign schools. Many statesmen and intellectuals who influenced Ottoman politics and bureaucracy after the Tanzimat were educated in these maktabs.

IIn the Ottoman educational tradition, madrasahs represented religious and conservative values, while maktabs represented an educational approach based on science, experiment and observation. Therefore, a transition from religious education provided in madrasahs to secular education offered in maktabs took place. In this context, maktabs had a different character from madrasahs in many important ways such as mentality, sources of knowledge, teaching methods, and teacher profile. These schools, which were established in the late Ottoman period, shaped the schools established in the Republic of Turkey, and triggered radical changes in politics, law, art and technique. With these schools, the Ottoman society encountered different thoughts, scientific paradigm and teaching methods and started to have a new type of intellectuals. On the one hand, these schools led to radical changes in the intellectual life of the Ottoman Empire, on the other hand, they educated and influenced the founders of the Republic of Turkey.

“International Symposium on Ottoman Maktabs” aims to cover all dimensions of maktabs which were one of the most important institutions of the late Ottoman period in terms of mindset, education, and politics. The symposium is open to all researchers and academics who want to examine the mentality, structure and functions of maktabs with an interdisciplinary approach.