Dar al-Salam Mahdara Village School, Kifa, Mauritania. Director: Shaykh Saleck bin Sidina
Alalusi Foundation assisted in purchase of land, construction of school buildings and housing for students and staff, drilling wells and installing solar-powered pumps, and establishing an endowment for support of staff and needy students, both with direct aid and assistance with fund raising in the U.S..
The capacity of the traditional residential school has been increased from 35 to 100 students, who range in age from primary schoolers to older adults. Some of the students are already teaching assistants, and will go on to be teachers themselves.
The Dar al-Salam project was established in 2003, to support the teaching effort of Shaykh Saleck bin Siddina, near the city of Kifa, in Mauritania, West Africa.
The school (Mahdara) follows the traditional way of learning which includes time-tested methods of transmitting all the branches of the Shari'ah. Men and women of all ages are trained with the utmost care to become excellent students, and later, teachers of sacred knowledge.
The school was initially run by Shaykh Saleck out of his home until the school was able to have its own property and housing. Since Dar al-Salam opened, the number of students has increased and continues to grow steadily.
The indigenous schools in Mauritania employ a pedagogical system using traditional texts and teaching methods in a classical curriculum. Students at these traditional schools range from young children to old men and women. Normally, schooling begin at about age six, learning to read and write the Arabic Uthmaani script and memorizing Qur'an in the Warsh and Qaloon recitations. Students proceed to studying various sciences within Shari'ah, including Grammar, Sacred Law, Tafseer (exegisis), Hadith (prophetic traditions), Purification of the Heart, and Seerah (character-building by study of prophetic biography). This system of education has, over many centuries, produced some of the worlds greatest scholars.
Even today, Mauritania is known for its excellent scholars and has produced many of world renown who studied in the traditional Islamic way. The Dar al-Salam Mahdara was established to enhance the traditional Islamic teachings of Qur'an, Jurisprudence and Hadith. The school follows the traditional method of transmitting all the branches of the Shari'ah. Great care is taken to train the men and women to become excellent teachers of sacred knowledge.
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Dar al-Salam Village School Complex, Kifa, Mauritania The school forms the focus of a small village. Traditional Mauritanian schools usually have the student's families living around the Shaykh, caring for the students basic needs - cooking, laundry, etc. - during their studies. Many of the families have been nomadic; tents are common living structures. |
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Study Hall Building under construction (r.). Mosque almost complete. (c.) |
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Tent study hall Tents, and tent-roofed structures with concrete walls and pillars, provide study rooms, living space for students, as well as a cooler retreat when concrete buildings heat up during mid-day. During summer months, many spend their nights in the tented structures. |
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Individualized Study Traditional studies in the classical Mauritanian system are not bound to a classroom setting, but are highly individualized. Each student studies one subject with the Shaykh individually, with daily study assignments. The teacher writes the lesson text on the students' writing tablet. The student then will spend the day memorizing the text of that day's lesson. The student will only have one subject until they have finished that text. They will then proceed to another text at the Shaykhs' direction. Educational materials are quite simple: a pen, black ink, and the "Lauh", a wooden writing tablet, often coated with a thin layer of white clay, upon which Qur'anic verses or other texts are written. Paper making consumes a great deal of water, and is not practical in in arid lands. In a poor country, imported paper is very expensive. Pens are cut from the stalks of a local reed or shrub. Ink is made of water, soot washed off cooking pots, and vegetable gum. With use of the Lauh, no notepaper, notebooks, or blackboards are required. |
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Traditional values encourage girl's education. |
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Traditional Reverence for texts. Students in one of the new buildings copy from Qur'an. Note the traditional reverence for texts: copies of Qur'an are never placed directly on the floor or carpet; in the absence of a bookstand, a cloth, or sheet of paper or cardboard is placed under the text. Even the Lauh, the students' personal writing tablet, is not placed flat on the floor - it is kept slightly elevated. |
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Study proceeds in the common halls in the new buildings and tented structures, as well as in the students' quarters. |
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Older students at study. The advanced students serve as tutors for beginning students, and many will go on to become full teachers themselves. |
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The new village well. |
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Class outside new study hall building. |
For more information about the Dar al-Salaam School, go to their website: http://www.mahdara.com/
If you would like to support the Dar al-Salam School Project, please send a check to: Alalusi Foundation, 1975 National Avenue, Hayward, CA 94545-1709; Make the check payable to 'Alalusi Foundation'. Be sure to add a notation: 'For Dar al-Salam School' on your check.