The Formation of the Curriculum of the Nizhamiyah Madrasah of Baghdad: The Politics of Knowledge and the Construction of Sunni Orthodoxy in the Time of Nizam al-Mulk (1067–1092)

Mu’amar Aziz; Arna  Saskia; Jamaludin  HS; Febrita Febrita; Fadriati Fadriati

doi:10.63922/ijevss.v5i03.4607

Mu’amar Aziz Mahmud Yunus Batusangkar State Islamic University, Indonesia
Arna Saskia STAI Solok Nan Indah, Indonesia
Jamaludin HS Institut Agama Islam Abuya Salek Sarolangun, Indonesia
Febrita Febrita Madrasah Aliyah Negeri 1 Solok, Indonesia
Fadriati Fadriati Mahmud Yunus Batusangkar State Islamic University, Indonesia

DOI: https://doi.org/10.63922/ijevss.v5i03.4607

Keywords: Curriculum, Madrasah Nizhamiyah, Nizam al-Mulk, Politics Knowledge, Sunni Orthodoxy

Abstract

Departing from the problem that the study of Nizhamiyah has tended to stop at historical descriptions of the establishment of institutions, teaching figures, and their contribution to the development of classical Islamic education, this study places the curriculum as a strategic arena where knowledge is selected, sorted, legitimized, and distributed. This study aims to explain: first, how the curriculum formation of Madrasah Nizhamiyah Baghdad was formed; second, how the politics of knowledge affects the selection and hierarchy of disciplines in it; and third, how the curriculum functions in the construction of Sunni orthodoxy and the reproduction of Islamic scientific authority in the Saljuk era. This research method is a qualitative literature study with an intellectual history approach and knowledge genealogical analysis inspired by Michel Foucault. Primary sources include Nizam al-Mulk's Siyasatnama, al-Ghazali's works, and classical historical sources; while secondary sources include the work of George Makdisi, Jonathan Berkey, Marshall Hodgson, Michael Chamberlain, Ira Lapidus, and contemporary studies of madrassas and Sunni orthodoxy. The findings of the study show that the Nizhamiyah curriculum is not neutral and is not solely in the form of a list of subjects. The curriculum was formed through the political patronage of Saljuk to produce Sunni orthodoxy that could function as a discipline, authority, and reproduction system of the elite of scholars.

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