Editing Ulama (section)

===Ulama in the secular national states of the 20th century===
In most countries, the classical institution of the madrasa as a place of teaching remained largely intact until the beginning of the 20th century. In the Western parts of the Islamic world, national states arose from the disintegration and partition of the Ottoman Empire after the First World War. The government of [[Kemalism|Kemalist]] Turkey sought to distance the nation from the religious traditions and institutions of the Ottoman past.<ref>{{cite book| last=White | first=Jenny B. | chapter=Islam and politics in contemporary Turkey | editor-first=Reşat | editor-last=Kasaba | title=The Cambridge History of Turkey | volume=4: Turkey in the modern world| publisher=Cambridge University Press| location=Cambridge, UK| year=2008| isbn=978-0-521-62096-3| page=359}}</ref>

In Egypt, the establishment of a state-controlled educational system had already begun in the 1820s.<ref name="Dallal_NCHoI"/> From 1961 onwards, [[Gamal Abdel Nasser]] tried to increase the state control over ancient Islamic institutions like al-Azhar university. The head of al-Azhar was—and still is—appointed directly by the president, and new faculties were created in this ancient Islamic institution.<ref>{{cite book| last=Zaman | first=Muhammad Qasim | chapter=The ʿulamā'. Scholarly tradition and new public commentary | editor-first=R. | editor-last=Hefner | title=The New Cambridge History of Islam | volume=6: Muslims and modernity |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge, U.K. |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-521-84443-7 |page=349 | ref=none}}</ref>

Initially giving rise to modernist reforms, up to a certain degree the state-sponsored faculties were able to retain their independence from government control. However, as Pierret has pointed out in detail for Syria,<ref name="Pierret_2015_22">{{cite book| last=Pierret | first=Thomas | title=Religion and state in Syria. The Sunni ulama from coup to revolution| publisher=Cambridge University Press| location=Cambridge, UK| year=2013| isbn=978-1-107-60990-7| page=22}}</ref> in some countries the orthodox madrasa system remained largely intact, its decentralised organisation protecting it from state control. In fact, the government's attempt at controlling the religious education focussed largely on the academic institutions and neglected the traditional madrasas. By their continuing ability to provide social support and access to an educational alternative which was propagated as being more orthodox according to Islamic faith, the traditional ulama not only maintained their influence on large parts of the population, but actually increased their political influence and power.<ref name="Pierret_2015_22"/>

====Republic of Turkey====
In the Kemalist Republic of [[Turkey]], traditional Ottoman religious institutions were abolished like the [[Ottoman Caliphate]], the office of the Shaykh ul-Islam, as well as the dervish [[Tariqa|brotherhoods]]. The [[Presidency of Religious Affairs]] ({{langx|tr|Diyanet İşleri Başkanlığı}}, or Diyanet) was created in 1924 by article 136 of the [[Constitution of Turkey]] by the [[Grand National Assembly of Turkey]] as a successor to the office of the Shaykh ul-Islam.<ref name=constitution>{{cite web | last=Sayfasi | first=Hata | url=http://www.anayasa.gov.tr/images/loaded/pdf_dosyalari/THE_CONSTITUTION_OF_THE_REPUBLIC_OF_TURKEY.pdf | title=The Constitution of the Republic of Turkey | publisher=Anayasa.gov.tr | access-date=2017-04-23 | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130607054813/http://www.anayasa.gov.tr/images/loaded/pdf_dosyalari/THE_CONSTITUTION_OF_THE_REPUBLIC_OF_TURKEY.pdf | archive-date=2013-06-07 }}</ref> From 1925 onwards, the traditional [[dervish]] [[khanqah|tekke]]s and Islamic schools were dissolved. Famous convents like the [[Mevlana Museum|Tekke of the Mevlevi order in Konya]] were secularized and turned into museums.<ref>Law Nr.&nbsp;677 of 30 November 1925 concerning the prohibition and the closure of the dervish convents, monasteries and mausolea, the prohibition of the office of the mausoleum wardens and the awarding and holding of certain titles. [[T.C. Resmi Gazete]] Nr 243, 13 December 1925.</ref>

====Iran====
In Iran, contrary to many other Islamic countries, the Shi'a ulama have maintained their religious authority together by [[Khums]] tax. Thus, they maintained their ability to exert political pressure.

Between 1905 and 1911, a coalition of ulama, [[bazaari]], and some radical reformers incited the [[Persian Constitutional Revolution]], which led to the establishment of the [[Majlis of Iran|parliament (majlis) of Iran]] during the [[Qajar dynasty]].<ref>{{cite encyclopedia | article = CONSTITUTIONAL REVOLUTION i. Intellectual background  | last1= Amanat | first1 = Abbas | url = http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/constitutional-revolution-i | encyclopedia  = Encyclopaedia Iranica, Vol. VI, Fasc. 2 | pages = 163–176 | year = 1992 }}</ref><ref>{{cite encyclopedia | article = Constitutional revolution | url = https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/constitutional-revolution-index | encyclopedia  = Encyclopaedia Iranica, Vol. VI, Fasc. 2 | pages = 163–216 | year = 1992 }}</ref>

The [[Iranian Revolution|Islamic Revolution]] in Iran was led by a senior [[Shia]] cleric—the [[Ayatollah]] [[Ruhollah Khomeini]]—who then established the [[Guardianship of the Islamic Jurist]].

====Syria====
In his study ''Religion and State in Syria'' (2013),<ref>{{cite book| last=Pierret | first=Thomas | title=Religion and state in Syria. The Sunni ulama from coup to revolution| publisher=Cambridge University Press| location=Cambridge, UK| year=2013| isbn=978-1-107-60990-7}}</ref> Pierret pointed out how the training of Syria's ulama gradually became more institutionalised, based upon the traditional madrasa system. In 1920, the madrasa of the [[Khusruwiyah Mosque]] complex (which was to be destroyed in 2014 during the [[Syrian Civil War]]) introduced an entrance exam and a stable curriculum for its Islamic seminary. Graduates were issued a diploma carrying the name of the institution, which bore the signatures of all teachers, signifying individual ''ijazah''. In 1947, courses also included natural sciences and foreign languages. In 1947, the state-run "Faculty of Sharia" was initiated in Damascus by [[Kamal al-Qassab]] (1853–1954), a former student of Muhammad Abduh (1849–1905) in Cairo. Until 1954, all Syrian ulama aiming at higher degrees had to join [[Al-Azhar University]] in Cairo. In 1954, however, Syria's first higher faculty of sharia was founded by members of the modernist wing of the [[Muslim Brotherhood of Syria|Muslim Brotherhood]]. Its curriculum, which included economy and the "current situation of the Muslim world", according to Pierret, "anticipated the 1961 modernist reform of al-Azhar by [[Gamal Abdel Nasser|Nasser]]". In 1972, the curriculum of the state-run "Sharia high schools" was reformed again, thus providing access for their students to all faculties of Syrian high schools.<ref>{{cite book| last=Pierret | first=Thomas | title=Religion and state in Syria. The Sunni ulama from coup to revolution| publisher=Cambridge University Press| location=Cambridge, UK| year=2013| isbn=978-1-107-60990-7| pages=35–37}}</ref>

According to Pierret (2015), the [[Ba'ath Party]] coup of 1963 brought about a weakening of the state-controlled sharia high schools by the secular government. Many teachers of the Damascus faculty of sharia were forced into exile during the 1960s. Attempts of the regime during the 1980s at changing the curricula of the faculty and create a new "Ba'athist ulama" failed. The faculty, maintaining their ability to recruit competent teachers, was able to resist the political pressure. Consequently, the Syrian government prohibited the faculty to grant doctorates until 1998, and delayed the establishment of another faculty in Aleppo until 2006.<ref>{{cite book| last=Pierret | first=Thomas | title=Religion and state in Syria. The Sunni ulama from coup to revolution| publisher=Cambridge University Press| location=Cambridge, UK| year=2013| isbn=978-1-107-60990-7| page=39}}</ref>

====Tunisia, Egypt, Iraq====
In 1961, [[Gamal Abdel Nasser]] put the Al-Azhar University under the direct control of the state. "Azharis were given military uniforms and found themselves marching in step under the orders of army officers."<ref name=kepel-53>{{cite book| last1=Kepel| first1=Gilles| title=Jihad: The Trail of Political Islam|date=2002| publisher=I.B.Tauris.| page=53| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OLvTNk75hUoC&q=kepel+Jihad%3A+The+Trail+of+Political+Islam+military+uniforms+and+found+themselves&pg=PA53| access-date=10 September 2015| isbn=9781845112578}}</ref> After the independence of [[Algeria]], President [[Ahmed Ben Bella]] also deprived the Algerian ulama of their power. [[Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party – Iraq Region#Ba.27athist Iraq: 1968.E2.80.932003|Baathist]] repression in Iraq led to a drop of enrollment in the Shia holy cities of Iraq from 12,000 students in the early 1900s to only 600 scholars and students in 1977.<ref name=Zouhair-85>{{cite book|last1=Zouhair|first1=Ghazzal|title=A Companion to the History of the Middle East|publisher=John Wiley & Sons.|page=85|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1ioTXW3316AC&q=ulama&pg=PA81|access-date=10 September 2015|chapter=The Ulama: Status and Function|isbn=9781405152044|date=2008-04-15}}</ref>

====Pakistan====
In the 1980s and 1990s, competition arose between Sunni and Shia interests in [[Pakistan]], with Saudi Arabian humanitarian organizations using the sponsorship of madrasas to spread their [[Wahhabism|Wahhabi]] doctrine,<ref>{{cite book| last=Commins | first=David | title=The Wahhabi Mission and Saudi Arabia| publisher=I. B. Tauris| year=2009| isbn=978-1-84511-080-2| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kQN6q16dIjAC| pages=191–2}}</ref> while the Islamic Republic of Iran used Shiite madrasas to similarly peddle influence.<ref>{{cite book |author=Saïd Amir Arjomand|chapter=Islamic resurgence and its aftermath | editor-first=R. | editor-last=Hefner | title=The New Cambridge History of Islam | volume=6: Muslims and modernity |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge, U.K. |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-521-84443-7 |pages=191–192}}</ref> For poorer communities in Pakistan, internationally sponsored madrasas could be the only accessible form of education.<ref>{{cite book| last=Rahman | first=Tariq | title=Denizens of Alien Worlds: A Study of Education, Inequality and Polarization in Pakistan| publisher=Oxford University Press| year=2004| isbn=978-0-19-597863-6| page=Section 5}}</ref>

This influence from institutions which were financially independent from the state led to a resurgence of the social and political influence of the traditional ulama,<ref name=Zaman>{{cite book| last1=Zaman| first1=Muhammad Qasim| title=The Ulama in Contemporary Islam: Custodians of Change| date=2007| publisher=Princeton University Press| isbn=978-0-691-13070-5| url=https://archive.org/details/ulamainconte_zama_2002_000_9059584| access-date=10 September 2015| url-access=registration}}</ref> while the insufficient state control over the educational institutions, insufficient qualification of the teachers and ideologic indoctrination of such institutions all become considerable issues.<ref>{{cite book | last=Henry | first=Clement M. |chapter=Population, urbanisation and the dialectics of globalisation | editor-first=R. | editor-last=Hefner | title=The New Cambridge History of Islam | volume=6: Muslims and modernity |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge, U.K. |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-521-84443-7 |pages=79–86}}</ref> Graduates ''(talib)'' from North Pakistani madrasas like "[[Mullah]]" [[Mullah Omar|Mohammed Omar]] subsequently played a role in the establishment of the Afghan [[Taliban]] regime.<ref>{{cite book| last=Rashid | first=Ahmed | title=Taliban: Islam, Oil and the New Great Game in Central Asia| publisher=I.B. Tauris & Co Ltd| year=2002| isbn=978-1-86064-830-4| pages=77, 83, 139}}</ref>