An institution of Islamic religious learning. Madrasas were established and spread throughout the Muslim world. Madrasas appeared sometime in the 11th century AD in modern-day Iran, with the Seljuk vizier Nizam al-Mulk founding the first one. These places of learning ranged from humble buildings that housed a body of students to grand structures of architectural splendor. Sultans often established them as a form of charity next to the mausoleum where they would be buried.
At the madrasa, students learned Quran, hadith, Islamic jurisprudence, exegesis, theology, and many other Islamic sciences. While the kuttab can be considered a kind of primary education for children, the madrasa was a form of higher education with more advanced learning. Students often boarded at madrasas and received a stipend to engage in their studies and become scholars. However, some evidence suggests that these establishments were also open to the public, at least on occasion, for more general lessons or readings of classical texts. Registries indicate that men, women, and children of all age groups attended these sessions.
A madrasa was maintained financially by a charitable endowment (waqf) that its founder would also set up and staff with tens if not hundreds of employees.
The madrasa was the primary form of education in Islamic societies until the 18th century and the advent of Western educational institutions in the Ottoman Empire.