Word: ulema
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Dates: during 1880-1889
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...Medresses or Mosque-Colleges, supported by the Mosques to which they are attached, are the universities where the Softas and Ulemas, and lower down the Imauns and Kyatibs, study, and, so to speak, graduate. Language and theology are of most importance in the eyes of the Ulema (or Dons) of a Medresse. Language means grammar, rhetoric, poetry, calligraphy and almost anything else, in Arabic, Persian and Turkish. Theology includes the interpretation of the Koran and traditions. The instruction in the Medresses is not likely to advance in any great degree the cause of general enlightenment in Turkey, Quite recently...