With the introduction of new educational systems in the Muslim world during
the late-eighteenth through the early-twentieth century, many Muslims and
non-Muslims became critical of traditional pedagogical methods. In particular,
the image of Qur’an schools in West Africa are often criticized for their
“backward” forms of education and commonly perceived as places where
children simply parrot Qur’anic verses without much understanding. These
institutions have largely been abandoned and replaced by modern and secular
schooling systems. In his The Walking Qur’an, Rudolph Ware argues that
Qur’an schools have survived in places like West Africa. By studying them,
he seeks to historicize this once-paradigmatic approach to knowledge.
American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences