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We have some basic information about education in Ottoman Palestine. Public education in The Ottoman Empire was late to develop and even in the early-20th century and was available to only a very small part of the population. This mean that the great bulk of the lrgely rural Arab-Muslim population. They as a result were uneducated and mostly iliterate. The situation was different for Christians and Jews who established private schoolds and as a result were better educated. Some mosques sponsored Islamic education theough what we now call madrasahs. They taught, however, only a small number of children and fee were required. Educational achievement was very low. One Arab observer expressed it with the statement, "culture in this country is dead". This was an Arab view written by the editor of a Jerusalem newspaper in 1912. [Ayalon, p. 17.] Literacy among the Arab-Muslim population may have been as low as 2 percent--although somewhat higher among young people as the public schools founded in the late-19th century had begon to teach some children. This was a general problem throughout the Ottoman Empire, although Palestine may have been among the areas with the poorest and least educated population. Secular education was more advanced in the Christian areas of the Empire. The Christain schools were private. Although Christians were a minority within the Empire, more Christians attended secular schools than Muslims. [Stone, p. 95.] Many of the Christian schools received support from foreign church and charitable organizatuins. This resulted in greater economic success for Christians in areas of mixed population such as Constsntinople and resentment among Muslims. Palestinians at the time of the Aran-Israeli Conflict (1948) seem to have had a higher educational level than many other Arab national groups. We believe a factor here is the Christian Palestinians, although our information is still very limited. Private Christian schools were founded in Palestine during the Ottoman Empire. Another factor was probanly the British expansion of the public dschools during the Mandatory era. Both may have influenced the relatively secular outlook of Palestinians at least before the rise of Hamas. The situation is different for the early Zionist settlers who founded schools. While Jews, many of the early Zionists were secular and wanted secular schools for their children. The Alliance Israélite Universelle in Paris was an early supporter of Jewish education in Palestine. The schools they founded taught in the French language. Beginning after the turn-of-the 20th century, the Hilfsverein der Deutschen Juden (Welfare Society of German Jews) provided assistance for largely secular Jewish schools in Palestine. Their schools were bilengual, teaching in Hebrew and German. They worked with both German and Ottoman officials. [Rinott, p. 294.] German officials saw this an a way of promoting German culture in the Ottoman Empire, a country which the Germans were cultivating as a potential ally. The Ottomans apparently saw improving education as helpful in modernization efforts. In only a short time before World War I, the Hilfsverein group had established a substantial network of Jewish schools in Palestine. It included kindergartens, primary schools, a normal (teacher's) school, a seminar for kindergarten teachers, a commercial high school, and a rabinical college. Most of the Hilfsverein schools were in Jerusalem. They came to serve about half the Jewish children attending secular schools. There were plans to open a technical college (Technicum) in Haifa (1914). The opening was delayed, however, because of differences between Hilfsverein and Zionist Jews over the principal language of instruction. TThe Hilfsverein wanted German used while the local Jews wanted Hebrew. his was an issue which had to rise eventually concerning Jewish education. Zionism brought Jews of many nationlities to Palestine. German Jews were a small minority, in part because Jews in Germany had considerable freedom and opportunity. And other European Jews did not want their children taught in German which few of them spoke. Hebrew was a loogical compromise, a lengua franca for the Jews of various nationalities. The problem was that there were few books and teaching material available in Hebrew. These foreign founded schools operated largely independent from Ottoman control. Only after the Young Turks revolution, did authorities begin to take an interest in foreign schools (1908).
Palestine in the mid-19th century when Jewish writers began conceiving pf returning was a province of the declining Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman Turks conquered Palestine (1516). Local governors appointed by the Ottomans collected revenues which was forwarded to Constntinople. Thee Ottomans promoted important public works. Suleiman the Magnificent rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem (1537). The Druse attenpted to establish their own state in northern Palestine during the early Ottoman era. Napoleon conducted one of his earliest campaigns in the Middle East, seizing Cairo and areas in Palestine (1798). He took Jaffa, Ramle, Lydda, Nazareth and Tiberias, but was unable to take Acre. A Royal Navy squadron under Nelson destoyed the French fleet and made Napoleon's position untenable. Mehemet Ali of Egypt seized Palestine from the Ottomans. His son Ibrahim Pasha leading Egyptian troops took Acre (1831). The local Palestinian population revolted (1834). After considerableturmoil, the Ottomans regained control of Palestine (1840). The Palestinian Arab population played a role in the political reforms seeking to modernize the Ottoman Empire (1876 and 1908). Ottoman Palestine consisted of two administrative areas. There was the autnomous Sanjak (district) of Jerusalem which was subject to the High Porte in Constantinople. The Sanjak included an area from Jaffa to the River Jordan in the East and from the Jordan south to the borders of Egypt. The other area was part of the Willayat (province) of Beirut. This part was composed of the Sanjak of Balka (Nablus) from Jaffa to Jenin, and the Sanjak of Acre, which extended from Jenin to Naqura. Palestiniaqn Arabs had many important political and military posts under Ottoman rule. The Ottoman Empire was evolving in the late 19th century abd the plitical reforms resulted in a constitution and parliment. There were Arab representatives in the Parliament. In the first Parliament, the President of the Council of the House of Representatives was a Jerusalem Deputy , Yusif Dia Pasha Al Khalidi. The administration of Arab territories was entrusted to elected Administrative Councils. Those Councils were elected and existed in the provinces, districts, and sub-districts. Those Councils were vested with extensive powers in administration, finance, education, and development. The Ottoman Empire was, however, by the 19th century politically unstable. While the Empire was controlled by Turks, they were a minority within the Empire which included large number of Balkan Christians, Armenians, and Arabs. The Young Turks that seized control of the Government were not about to relinquish control to non-Turkish groups. Palestine remained under Ottoman rule until World War I. It is difficut to know the political attitudes of Palestinians to Ottoman rule. It was from the desert tribes, supported by the British, however, that effective resistace to Ottoman rule came after the Ottomans entered the War on the side of the Central Powers.
The Ottomans conquered the Levant (16th century). They introduced the Empire-wide school system which was not just limited to the mosques, but still quite limited. Standards were not equal to the developing schools in the West. While the Caliphate had some important institutions of non-religious learning, nothing like the developing universities in the West existed in Palestine or anywhere else in the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman Government only took responibility for education late in the Empire's history, presumably a belated effort at reform and competition with the West. One source mentions 1846, but we have no idea just wht was dine at that time. [Some of our sources have chosen to use the Arabic form of Arab mumbers. We have attemted to convert them ino the European form, but caution there may be errors.] The major Ottoman pursuit of public education began with the Ottoman Public Education Law--OPEL (1869). Education in the Empire was conducted by wafq-endowed schools and private endowments as well as initiatives involving religious educationincluding missionary schools. The OPEL was a striking break with centuries of tradition. The OPEL launched an effort to create a comprehensive, secular public school system not only in Anatolia, but throughout the Empire. The OPEL made education compulsory for all children. In addition to schools, universities were also established. And the key to the new system and the reason it receibed imperial sanction was that the curriculum was to focus on secular subjects that officials seen as necessary to modernize the Empire so it could compete with European powers, especially Tsarist Russia, and defend its borders. The plan was to open schools in villages and towns, many of which had not schools at all. The OPEL officially recognized the necessity of educating girls and train female teachers for them. The OPEL was one of the Ottoman Tanzimat reforms which sought to modernize the Empire. Serendipitously the Tanzimat occured at the same time as the Meiji reforms in Japan, but with less success. The OPEL was even sypported by some Islamic clerics who had previously dominated Ottoman education because of their concerns over Christian missionary schools. The growing nationlist sentiment was a major support for the OPEL. While the law was an extemely progressive step. It was not effectively implemented. A major problem as fnding, but conservative Ottoman society was another factor restricting the laws implementation.
During the 19th century along with the OPEL, a three tier school systems developed. There was a Government operated Arab-Muslim public school system with instruction in the Turkish lnguage. The mosques operated a kind of private school system which was primarily focused on literacy through studying the Koran. There was also the Millet (non-Muslim) schools. Missionary and foreign groups ran a Christian school system. Jews had a separate school system of their own.
One source reports Arab resentment about the use of Turkish as a 'flagrant violation of their sense of dignity and attachment to their own language." [Jabareen] They also reportedly questioned the quality of the education offered by the Ottoman system. A new Ottomam law mandated free public education education and the employment of professional secular teachers to supplement clerical teachers. [Al-Hag, p. 38.] The Goverment never made the financial commiment to make this possible. Both resources and commitment were involved. Arab nationalists reportedly argued for a greater educational effort. We are unsure just what the community support for education was. As best we can tell it was far less than the level of priority given to education by the Christian and Jewish community, even though Government support for these schools was not available. The Ottoman Government implemented a new law (1913). Primary educational was made compulsory. The schools were made more secular. The Ministry of Education assumed greater control. One historian estmates the school age population in 1911 as 38،053 boys and 35،384 girls. The Government public school system, however, included only a small fraction of these children: 6،104 boys and far fewer girls, some 1,504. The private and foreign schools with Christians and Jews accounted for 6،974 boys and 6،673 girls. This is more important than might be casually assumed. Literate mothers significantly increased the liklihood of literate children. Concerning the overall numbes, a historian write, "A sorry picture that 35،000 boys and 34،400 girls were left without a ghost of a chance of learning the alphabet." [Al-Hag, p. 41.] The conflicts between the Ottoman Government and Arab community concerning religious, cultural, and national issues concerning education were still unresolved at the time of World War I (1914-18). [Mar’i, p. 13.] The low level of literacy is interesting. In Europe the Protestant stress on the Bible resulted in rising literacy levels. Despite the Islamic stress on the Koran, literacy levels into the 20th century were extrodinarily low. And this was not just in Palestine. Especially notable is the extrodinarily low levels of female literacy.
The mosque schools were no government-supported public schools. There was no state finding or supervision. These schools were run by mosques and parents paid fees. They were only for boys. Today the term is madrasa. During the Ottoman era the term was maktabs or kuttābs. They wre common throyghout the Muslim world. A sheikh taught a small group of students (all boys) who sat in front of him on the ground. The curriculum was primarily Islam and Quranic Arabic. The children memorised Koranic verses. The goal was to menorize the entire Koran. In the process they learned to read and some to write. There was also some limited math instruction. We are not sure about the history of these chools are how they were affected by the new Ottoman public schools in the 19th century. Most were conducted in mosques and in some cases public buildings. Teachers were trained in mosques or in some cases the prestigious Al-Azhar University in Cairo.
The people of the Millet or Thimma (non-Muslims), both Christians and Jews were allowed to have their own schools. They were not required to atted the Ottoman public schools or the mosque schools. Both communities financed their own schools. [Tibari, p. 21.] They received no Ottoman state funding, but there was some private European and American. These schools were mostly secular. The Cgristian schools includd a religious conponentr, but the curiculum were primarily secular. The same was true of the Jewish schools, although a few were religious in nature. For the most part because the foreign schools only educated Christins and Jews, the Ottoman authorities took litle or no interest in them. These foreign founded schools operated largely independent from Ottoman control. Only after the Young Turks revolution, did authorities begin to take an interest in foreign schools (1908).
Christian schools: Foreign missionaries played a major role in the Christian schools. They were also taught in the lanuage of the sponsoring group. There were many different missionary and church groups, including: American, Austrian, English, French, German, Italian, and Russian connections. [Tibawi, p. 37.] With the tremendous growth of the American economy in the 19th century, the United Sttes involvement had become inveeainly important by the turn of the 0th century.
Jewish schools: The situation is different for the early Zionist settlers who founded schools. While Jews, many of the early Zionists were secular and wanted secular schools for their children. The Jewish schools thus included both foreign funded schools taught in the language of the foreign group running the school as well as smaller schools opened by Jewish settlers who used Hebrew. Foreign funding was at first European, but this began to change as the massive flood of Russian Jews flowed into the United States beginning in he late-19th century. This resulted from a vicious Tsarist campaign aganst Jews ordered by Tsar Alexander III. The same campaign of course helped to create the Zionist Movement and also drive Jews to Palestine.
Jewish education was primarily promoted by foreign Jewish groups. Some of these groups were solely focused on education, but many groups expanded their efforts to colonization, public health, immigration, industrial development, and other areas. [Avilor] Jewish educatirs founded the Hebrew Board of Education (Va’ad HaHinukh--HBE). The HBE and the Hebrew-langage schools they formed would prove to be the nucleus of the Jewish education system in both the Ottoman amd Mandatory period and evntually the Israeli system of edycation. [Al-Hag, p. 53.]
The Alliance Israélite Universelle in Paris was an early supporter of Jewish education in Palestine. The schools they founded taught in the French language. Beginning after the turn-of-the 20th century, the Hilfsverein der Deutschen Juden (Welfare Society of German Jews) provided assistance for largely secular Jewish schools in Palestine. Their schools were bilengual, teaching in Hebrew and German. They worked with both German and Ottoman officials. [Rinott, p. 294.] German officials saw this an a way of promoting German culture in the Ottoman Empire, a country which the Germans were cultivating as a potential ally. The Ottomans apparently saw improving education as helpful in modernization efforts. In only a short time before World War I, the Hilfsverein group had established a substantial network of Jewish schools in Palestine. It included kindergartens, primary schools, a normal (teacher's) school, a seminar for kindergarten teachers, a commercial high school, and a rabinical college. Most of the Hilfsverein schools were in Jerusalem. They came to serve about half the Jewish children attending secular schools. There were plans to open a technical college (Technicum) in Haifa (1914). The opening was delayed, however, because of differences between Hilfsverein and Zionist Jews over the principal language of instruction. TThe Hilfsverein wanted German used while the local Jews wanted Hebrew. his was an issue which had to rise eventually concerning Jewish education. Zionism brought Jews of many nationlities to Palestine. German Jews were a small minority, in part because Jews in Germany had considerable freedom and opportunity. And other European Jews did not want their children taught in German which few of them spoke. Hebrew was a loogical compromise, a lengua franca for the Jews of various nationalities. The problem was that there were few books and teaching material available in Hebrew.
In fairmess to the Ottomans, educating girls was not something that was very pronounced in the West. Many considered this as a waste of time nd money. But even in the 18th century, especially in Protestant Europe and in America you begin to see girls in the developing public primary schools. The impetus for this was the Proitestant belief that people should study the Bible which of course required literacy. And before public education this meant thst mothers had to be literte to teach the children. It also meant that Protestrantsupported public education and at least primary education for the girls. This dynamic was totally absent in the Muslim world, even in the only powerful Muslim state--the Ottoman Empire. So including girls in the OPEL was quite a shock to many conservative Ottomans. Educating girls is still controversial in many Muslim countries, even inspiring Islanic findamentalists attacking school girls like Malala Yousafzai in Pakistan (2012). As far as we know relatively few girl's schools were actually establishd. we di not yet have details. But some girls' schools were opened, including a few in Palestine. Large bumbers of Palestinian girls were not educated, however, until after World War I during the British mandate. [Greenberg]
Literacy among the Arab-Muslim population may have been as low as 2 percent--although somewhat higher among young people as the public schools founded in the late-19th century had begon to teach some children. This was a general problem throughout the Ottoman Empire, although Palestine may have been among the areas with the poorest and least educated population. Secular education was more advanced in the Christian areas of the Empire. The Christain schools were private. Although Christians were a minority within the Empire, more Christians attended secular schools than Muslims. [Stone, p. 95.] Many of the Christian schools received support from foreign church and charitable organizatuins. This resulted in greater economic success for Christians in areas of mixed population such as Constsntinople and resentment among Muslims. Palestinians at the time of the Aran-Israeli Conflict (1948) seem to have had a higher educational level than many other Arab national groups. We believe a factor here is the Christian Palestinians, although our information is still very limited. Private Christian schools were founded in Palestine during the Ottoman Empire. Another factor was probanly the British expansion of the public dschools during the Mandatory era. Both may have influenced the relatively secular outlook of Palestinians at least before the rise of Hamas.
Avidor, Moshe. Education in Israel (Jerusalem: 1958).
Ayalon, Ami. "Modern texts and their readers in late Ottoman Palestine, " Middle Eastern Studies Vol. 38, No. 4 (October 2002), pp. 17-40.
Greenberg, Ela. "Educating Muslim girls in Mandatory Jersualem," Int. J. Middle East Studies Vol. 36 (2004), pp. 1-19.
(Al-) Hag, Majid. Education, Empowerment, and Control: The Case of the Arabs in Israel (State University of New York Press: 1995).
Jabareen, Alu. "The Palestinian Education system in Mandatory Palestine".
Mar’i, Sami Khalil. Arab Education in Israel (Syracuse University Press: 1978).
Rinott, Moshe. "Capitulations: The case of the German-Jewish Hilfsverein Schools in Palestine, 1901-1914," in David Kushner, ed. Palestine in the Late Ottoman Period: Political, Social, and Economic Transformation pp. 294-301.
Stone, Norman, "Turkey in the Russian mirror," in Mark and Ljubica Erickson, eds. (London 2004), pp. 86-100.
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