The Islamic world developed classical institutions of teaching, learning and research from the Abbasid period onwards. These institutions supported scholarly activities that gained a new vigour and dynamism during the Ottoman period: thousands of students were educated in the hundreds of medreses (schools or academies), both old and new, throughout the Ottoman empire. By 1600, over 300 new medreses had been built. There were also royal institutions, with a chief physician and chief astronomer as well as a Grand Mufti or religious authority.
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