THE STUDY OF AQAID IN MADRASAS OF BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA IN THE FIRST HALF OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

Abstract

UDK: 28-184.3:373:28-78(497.6)

Madrasa, as one of the most significant legacies in the history of our education, has for centuries contributed to the development of Islamic theological thought, and at the same time almost continuously influenced the general culture and enlightenment of the region. In this article, we first present a brief history of madrasa as a well-known Muslim educational institution, and then we discuss the study of aqaid in madrasas of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the second half of the twentieth century. In our madrasas of that time, all the traditional Islamic studies including the study of aqaid were taught primarily on the bases of relevant works written on the subject in the Arabic language and to a smaller degree on the bases of those written in the Turkish language. Only after the first three decades appeared some works of significance in the Bosnian language and those were only sporadically used in teaching the subject. We here particularly stressed the fact that the study of Kalam in the first half of the twentieth century in Bosnian madrasas was taught in accordance with the most authoritative works of Hnefi-maturidi school, as was the case in all the renowned educational institutions in Ottoman Empire at the time.