The St. Johns herald., 1890-04-17
GARAOUIN UNIVERSITY.
An Educational Institution in 5gorOccs
 wi.h Seven Hundred Students.

An Educational Institution in NorOccs
 wi,h Seven Hundred Students.
 The greatest native educational ceE ter in North Africa is the Universit, of Garaouin at Fez. in Morocco. Hithe. flock students not only from all part of Morocco, but also from Algeria an, Tunis, because the religious edu- cation given in the mosques il the latter countries is not, would appear, all it should be, ant hence students go to Fez to complete their studies. M. Dolphin, professor of Arabic in thu University of Gran. communicates to the Revue Francais some details respecting the lives le- by Mussulman students there, whicl were communicated to him by native professor at the great mosque of Hem cen. They number about seven hun dred, and usually devote themselve5t t some special subject under particular professors. Of these latter there are about forty, each following a daily course which might be only the con- mentary on particular work on Mus sulman theology. But students come from afar to study this work, as they do to study rhetoric, dialectics. logic, eloouence. grammar and law. Stu dents belonging to Fez live al home or in certain medersas or homes reserved for them; those who come from other places and have no friends in the town live in such medersas as they please, usually with druggists or vendors of copper-ware After morning prayer they all repair to the university, where they attend lectures until midday, when they re- turn for food and ablutions, resuminG work at one o'clock and continuing until three or four, when they agail return home. At sunset, after tn usual prayer, those who are attachef to the mosques as public readers c the koran repair to their duties After this there are supplement2r,. discourses at different mosques q which the students attend, and at S:3. they arc free. Those who are sup ported by an inhabitant of the tow, pay their evening visit to their patron; the rest do much as they please, but after the last meal they are not allowed to leave their medersa. The breakfasts are provided by certain mosques and are distributed by thc caretaker of the medersa, who il student is absent, casts his little loat out into the street. On Tuesday there is no work, and the students nus fast, their little allowance of food be ing stopped on that day. But th charitable people of Fez supplement the meager official fare. happii. for the students. Each one follow what course he pleases. Wo. k be gins at 2:30 a. m. to five a. m., accord ing to the season, the first series 0. lectures being devoted exclusively tC the explanation of commentators or the koran, the text of which Is al ready known to each student. Al sunrise a second batch of professors, nutAUCIlliS cb OONCu, oiI Ohu O1o- course on exegesis, law and dogmas. The afternoon is given to grammar and rhetoric, the later hours to logic, astronomy, arithmetic, geography, history. medicine, literature and the talismanic numbers, or the deter. imitation by calculation of the infu- ences of angels, spirits and stars, of the names of the conQueror and the conquered, and of other future events. The difficulty experienced in obtain ing professor intimate with the principles of this latter science and able to impart his information is said to be incredible. The tolbas, or students, have no examinations. Each professor knows how to distinguish those of his hearers whose qualities render them worthy of diplomas, which are bestowed on them in more or less eulogistic terms. The diploma is very highly valued, and gives those possessing it a ve itab!e prestige in the Mussulman world.