Chair: Qianyi Zhang

Mahima Khan (QMUL)

Knowledge and Education in Medieval Islam: Pedagogical Treatises, from al-Māwardī (d. 1058 CE) to Ibn Jamāʿa (d. 1333CE)

Medieval Islamic education, like other contemporary traditions, developed its own pedagogical values, centred in part on the ethical formation of the learner through the concept of adab (ethics). Through a comparison of medieval Islamic pedagogical and ethical texts, this paper examines broader questions in the history of education: the purpose of schooling and learning; methods of instruction and the relationship between pedagogical ideals and educational practice; and the cultural transmission of values. It also addresses historiographical debates surrounding the role and development of the medieval madrasa through an analysis of pedagogical texts produced from the eleventh to the fourteenth centuries, spanning the period before and after the institutionalisation of the madrasa. Focusing particularly on al-Māwardī (d. 1058 CE) to Ibn Jamāʿa (d. 1033 CE), the paper considers how conceptions of knowledge, learning and ethical formation of students changed across this period, and what these changes reveal about the relationship between pedagogical thought and the medieval madrasa.

Thomas Mitchell (LSE)

Journey to the Capital of World Revolution: International Students in Interwar Moscow

My research explores inter-war Moscow as the nexus of a global revolutionary propaganda network that brought together an unprecedented number of anti-imperialists from around the world. In my presentation I will discuss the crucial role of the journey itself for students who travelled to inter-war Moscow to study at one of four Communist Universities established by the Comintern. Using the journey of the students to the capital of world revolution as a framework, I seek to trace their origins, witness their experiences, observe what they share in common and what makes them exceptional, and to understand what drove them to embark. These (usually) very young revolutionaries were both innocent and arguably naive about the nature of life in Moscow and certainly of Stalinist repression, but to travel to Moscow was a life-changing decision - an impressive education and an international network beckoned but all the while students lived under the sword of Damocles. I will discuss my wider trans-national approach alongside themes of nation-creation, travelling-nation makers, socialism and religion, while aiming in the limited time I have to convey a flavour of the global nature of the journey to study in Moscow - from the Middle East (especially Palestine and Egypt), Africa (especially South Africa), Asia (especially China), the Americas (especially the USA and Argentina), Europe (especially Germany), as well as revealing the anti-imperialist network that made it possible. I will use maps and graphs to that effect. My account draws on a significant number of published memoirs, archival research (especially in Moscow and Tashkent), and the work of a vast number of researchers.

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84202998877?pwd=S8WTskHghXI4qb7ZViARqohNBFCeHD.1