Continuing Oral Transmission of Islamic Knowledge

Jane Casewit takes the case of contemporary students of the Nabbaghiyya in Mauritania as a starting point to compare modern and traditional means of learning and transmitting knowledge. Whereas modern secular education emphasizes writing and critical thinking, traditional religious education stresses the importance of the oral transmission from teacher to disciple and the process of memorization. In the Islamic context, students would be trained from an early age to memorize the Holy Koran. Ultimately, modern education has forgotten the highest objective of education, namely “to prepare young souls for Salvation in the Afterlife.”