Educational and Non-Educational Madrasas in Early Modern Mecca

Although a considerable number of Muslim rulers, officials and merchants founded madrasas and madrasa complexes in Mecca between the late 6th/13th and the early 11th/17th century, the place never developed into a top-ranking centre of madrasa education comparable to other Islamic cities such as Damascus, Cairo or Istanbul. The present article looks into the causes of this seemingly paradoxical situation. By adducing evidence from local literary sources, it shows that several madrasas founded during this period never had an educational function, while others lost this function within a few generations after their establishment, because they were appropriated for personal use or alienated for other purposes. In the 18th century there was hardly any madrasa left in Mecca still operating as an educational institution. The limited importance of madrasas as educational institutions in early modern Mecca is also due to the fact that, at least in part, the Holy Mosque (al-masgid al-haram) fulfilled the function of such an institution. Since it was deemed one of the most sacred sites on earth, religious scholars generally preferred to hold lectures in its courtyard or in its arcades gathering thereby its blessing, rather than to sit on the profane ground of a madrasa. The article offers a general overview of the history of madrasas in Mecca in the early modern period and considers their function in the social and political life of the Holy City.