| Chapter : | Introduction |
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away from textual philology as this approach would require a completely different work to one that is primarily sociohistorical.
As scholarly approaches to any subject matter are often influenced by, and impact, their respective contexts, this book does not only look at the views of medieval Muslim scholars on the motivation of children; it also explores how children might have been motivated to learn in practice and why the relevant scholarly opinions developed, or remained static, the way they did.
The time in history examined in this book, 750 to 1400 CE, produced some of the most profound Muslim educational theorists. The start of this period saw Ibn Sa
n
n, who appears to be at the forefront of Muslim education as one of the first scholars to have written a dedicated work, Adabu-l-Mu‘allim
n, on elementary education in the context of the kat
tb. This treatise is the oldest extant work of its kind.3 The famous al-J
i
(160/776–255/868–869), a contemporary of Ibn Sann, features prominently in early Muslim educational thinking. The start of the period also marks the dawn of the Abbasid era, which saw some of the greatest intellectual advancements in Muslim history. At the end of the period, there was the pioneering social scientist and historian Ibn Khaldn. His magnum opus, the Muqaddima to his Kitbu-l-‘Ibar, contains many of his major educational views and has considerable credence within Muslim circles and beyond.
Between Ibn Sann and Ibn Khaldn, one can find a range of Muslim scholars who theorised about the philosophy and methods of education and whose views are of great relevance to this study. They include, but are not limited to, al-Qbis
(324/935–403/1012),4 Ibn Sn, al-Ghazzl, Ibn al-Jawz (510/1116–597/1201), al-Zarnj (d. 602/1223), Ibn Jam‘a (639/1241–733/1333), Ibn al-
jj al-‘Abdar (656/1258–737/1336), Ibn Taymiyya (661/1263–728/1328), and Ibn al-Qayyim (691/1292–751/1350).
Main Sources Consulted
In writing this book, I consulted primary Arabic sources that are not specific to the field of Arab-Muslim education for two reasons. The