The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1899-08-21
AN ARAB UNIVERSITY.

LF'rom the Pail Mall Gazette.l
sir Harry Johnston devotes section
OF ms new report on Tunis to an ac-
count of the measures taken there for
educating the native population. In
the course of this he gives a very in
terestlng account of the Mosque of the
OIlVe Tree (Jama-ez-Zituna) at Tunis,
one OF the three great centres of Ma
hometan learning in North Africa, the
others being FL Azhar, in Cairo, and
the Great Mosque at Fee in Morocco.
Ihls Zituna still remains a great cen
ter of teaching. It is an immense build
ing, with ISL porphyry columns, lit only
by many open doors. Outside the main
pulIdlng is a vast square, surrounded
an immense minaret. Within the main
building, where the porphyry columns
are, is the sacred shrine, and in this
main building the professors teach and
the students learn.
The institution has a valuable libra
~ of Arab books and manuscripts, some
of Which are said to have come from
the famous library of Alexandria de-
stroyed by the first Mahometan invad-
er of Egypt. Sir Harry Johnston, how
ever asked student at the mosque
whether this was the case, but the
student asserted that every document
in the library was in Arabic, and either
in Cutie or modern Arabic characters.
But a search in the library by a COM
petent scholar would probably result in
discoveries of interest. There is such
a large proportion of old works in
scrfbed in Cutie characters that there
are one or more professors of Cutie,
who teach students to master this style
OF writing and enable them to read the
old works.
Over 400 students are usually taught
at this university, While there are about
100 professors. The lectures begin at
sunrise and continue until sunset, 10
different lectures usually going on at
the same time. Each professor sits
cross-legged, with his back against one
of the many columns of the mosque,
his students grouped about him. The
latter vary in age from 16 to 80, but
occasionally are men of advanced mid
die age. They can choose their own
professors, but are constrained to some
extent as to the course of teaching it
is considered best for them to follow.
They live near the mosque in medres-
sahs, or lodgings, of which there are %
each presided over by sheik or elder.
The instruction is chiefly in theology,
rhetoric, logic, grammar, law and med
icine, and much obsolete and useless
teaching is given under these heads.
Until recently there was but little
method in the instruction; each pro-
fessor rambled on in his discourse, rang
ing over any topic on which he cared to
impart information, and the students
listened or not as they chose. To en-
courage a more practical education, the
state offered the students exemption
from military service and from certain
taxes if they passed an elementary out
side examination, but only four of 66
recently succeeded in doing this. In
future it is intended to impress on the
management of the mosque that each
professor should keep to one subject;
that the students should be obliged to
take notes and pass periodical eXami-
nations.
Outside lectures on scientific subjects
and on matters of present-day inter-
est have also been established, and
about 100 students from the mosque at
tend these, so that now "Tunisians tell
each other in Arabic, and without any
interference from either French official
or Arab theologian, the news of the
world, and the nature of the great dis
coveries which are being made in Eur
ope and America"