An Education Project During the Second Constitutionalist Period that was Never Realized: The Ashair Madrasa

Abstract

The history of education in the Ottoman Empire -which has transformed into a fi eld of intense modernization activities after the Tanzimat reform era - has witnessed the birth of the majority of today's educational institutions. In addition to the westernstyle educational institutions, which started emerging during Tanzimat and increased both in quality and quantity during the period of Abdülhamit, the diversifi cation of traditional education institutions, namely madrasas, by means of reform was only possible during the Second Constitutional Period. Despite the fact that many of the educational institution projects that have been designed during this period have been put into practice, some of these institutions have closed in a short period of time and some have remained in the project phase without ever being realized. During the Second Constitutional Period, it is observed that the reforms carried out in the madrasas were done by modeling western-style educational institutions with regard to their structure and curriculum. One of these madrasas is the Ashair Madrasa: it was designed after the example of Ashiret (tribal) schools - which were opened during the period of Abdülhamit II - but never became a reality. This madrasa, which was planned for a special purpose and resembled the Ashiret School with its organizational structure and curriculum, has taken its place in the archive as an important and unrealized project. This article is the fi rst study to reveal the establishment purpose, organization structure, syllabus, and curriculum of the aforementioned madrasa based on archive documents.