MAKTABS FOR FEMALE CHILDREN

We will begin this text with a quote which belongs to a later time and which pertains to the traditional elementary education inherited from the Ottoman period. In his paper “Sarajevski grad Vratnikˮ (Sarajevo Town of Vratnik) published in 1937, Seid Mustafa Traljić wrote that from olden days most Sarajevo neighborhoods had maktabs next to the mosques, which were attended by youth of both sexes and, as far as he knew, there were about 70 maktabs of the kind in Sarajevo itself. This testimony did not say whether they were mixed-gender schools, for boys and girls. In the literature about education in the Ottoman Empire, some researchers suggest that girls and boys attended co-educational schools until the age of ten, but that it was not a rule. Others believe that in Istanbul maktabs boys and girls attended separate schools, but still note that vakufnamas (deeds of endowment), which are the first source about building a school, do not specify it. Finally, they all believe that maktabs in the Balkans were probably mixed-gender, particularly in smaller towns.

In his writings known under the title Old Ottoman Customs, Ceremonies and behaviors, where he recorded daily life in Istanbul of his time, Abdulaziz-bey (1850–1918) wrote that maktabs were typically attended by boys and girls together, for the purpose of elementary education, and that in some places there were schools only for girls. “Pupils of all-girl schools typically acquired the initial knowledge in coeducational schools and, at the age of ten, continued their education in all-girl schools.”

Most vakufnamas from the Ottoman period, including those pertaining to Bosnia and Herzegovina, refer to schools which offered elementary education under the single name mektebi-sıbyân without referring to the gender of pupils. Still, one can find vakufnamas which define that charitable resources from the waqf being founded are allocated, entirely or partly, to the “maktab attended by female children”.

Vakufnama of the well-known Sarajevo muderris from the 18th century Mehmed-effendi Velihodžić is one of those which wholly pertain to a school for female youth. According to the vakufnama, which was legalized in 1784, the benefactor donated a house with a garden and vegetable garden in the neighborhood of Hodža Kemaludin (Ćemaluša), and the purpose of the endowment was that after his and his wife's death the house was to become a school for girls. According to the vakufnama, the benefactor obliges the imam and the muezzin from the neighborhood to choose, together with other citizens, a capable female teacher who will use the big room in the house as a classroom and teach female children in the Qur'an, pillars of Islamic faith and practical Islamic obligations. The whole house was made available to the teacher to live in it, to use the garden and the vegetable garden for her needs and finally to be the owner of the house and the land. In the case that a house becomes neglected for some reason, the benefactor orders that the house should be sold by a proper procedure and that the money should be lent with a defined interest rate, to use the revenue for the salary to a female teacher who teaches female children. We can conclude that Mehmed-effendi Velihodžić intended his waqf exclusively for education of female children. On the list of Sarajevo maktabs which was made by Hajrudin Ćurić according to „statistical data recorded for the year of 1856“ we read that the female maktab in the Hodža Kemaludin neighborhood was renewed by means of charitable donations, and that it has 60 female pupils who are taught by Nefisa-kaduna, and that the teacher's work is praised. According to the list of a later time (as believed, from 1878) which was published by Hajrudin Ćurić, who in turn took it from the majmua (collection) of Sejfulah-effendi Hadžihusejinović, the female maktab in the Hodža Kemaludin neighborhood was still active. 

Female maktabs existed in other towns in Bosnia and Herzegovina as well. On this occasion it suffices to refer to a vakufnama from 1889 which belongs to hadži Mustafa Hilmi-effendi (Kulen-Vakuf, 1816 – Sarajevo, 1895), the first Raisu-l-ulama in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The vakufnama provides that the benefactor intended one part of the revenues earned by his waqf for the salary of the teacher in elementary school next to the Imperial Mosque in Kulen-Vakuf and the other part for a teacher in all-girl school (nisvân mektebinde) in the same town.

The already described vakufnama by muderris Mehmed-effendi Velihodžić instructs that the benefactor sets the condition that a capable female teacher should be chosen for the future all-girl school. The teachers were supposed to be women who were sufficiently educated and trained for the job. They were supposed to have sound knowledge of the Qur'an and the given religious literature, and many of them were hafizes. Wives of imams in local mosques could also be teachers. These women opened the doors of their houses for their pupils and turned their private space into schools for young women.

Schools in private houses were certainly “privately-owned” and did not undergo the procedure of endowing. It is one of the reasons why there are no sources which would allow a thorough insight into elementary education in the Ottoman period, particularly that of young women. Another reason why it is difficult to comprehensively discuss education of girls is that girls in wealthy families acquired education in their parents' home or by private instructors.

In this respect, attention should be paid to the vakufnama by Fatima-hanuma, the wife of haseki (a member of special janissary detachment) hadži Osman-aga, from Sarajevo neighborhood of Kebkebir (Mišćina), drafted in 1783. the benefactor bequeathed some jewelry under the condition that revenues from the waqf should be used first to ensure water supply to a place where it is needed and the maintenance of the system, while her second condition is that 15 groschen should be given annually to “her hadži-bula” Fatima-hatun, Muhamed's daughter, as long as she lives. The naming of a female person as a beneficiary of a part of waqf resources as hâce bulam (my hadži bula suggests that the benefactor describes a female individual who was her teacher. Titles of the benefactor's father Džino hadži Mehmed-aga lead to the conclusion that she belonged to a wealthy family.

The benefactor's care for “her hâce bulam” reminds of the words by Abdulaziz-bey that girls who were educated privately in their parents' home or in private all-girl schools later on, “when they became wives of notables” showed care and respect for their teachers, visited them, and sent gifts to them personally or to schools where they still taught, particularly on religious holidays.

It cannot be known with certainty whether the benefactor Fatima-hanuma studied with bula Fatima-hatun alone or whether she attended a private school led by the teacher together with other pupils; however, one should keep in mind that there were privately-owned schools, which is confirmed by Traljić, who wrote that besides the 70 public maktabs he knew of “there were also a couple of privately-owned ones”.

We will end this topic with another quote from the vakufnama of Fatima-hanuma. The benefactor decided that after hadži bula Fatima-hatun's death the money should be donated to Herdžagizade Mula Ibrahim, Muhamed's son, who was a muallim (teacher) and that, after his death, the amount of 15 groschen should be donated to his male or female descendant who becomes a muallimi-sıbyan – male or female teacher. If there are no muallims among them, 15 groschen should be given to a muallim who teaches poor children. It is clear that the benefactor intended this part of resources from her waqf for education. The fact that she equally mentions male and female descendants as teachers proves participation of women in educational life.

References:

• Abdülaziz Bey, Osmanlı Âdet Merasim ve Tabirleri (Ed. K. Arısan & A. Arısan Günya). Tarih Vakfı Yurt Yayınları, Istanbul, 2002.

• Traljić, Seid Mustafa (1937), Sarajevski grad Vratnik, Sarajevo: Bosanska pošta.

• Ćurić, Hajrudin (1983), Muslimansko školstvo u Bosni i Hercegovini do 1918, Sarajevo: Veselin Masleša.

• Erünsal, İsmail E.: Vakfiyeleri Işığında Balkanlar'daki Sıbyan Mekteplerinin Karakteristik Özellikleri. Balkanlar'da İslâm Medeniyeti. Beşinci Uluslararası Kongresi Tebliğleri, Mayıs 2015, Saraybosna. Istanbul: IRCICA & International University of Sarajevo, 2018, 189-204.

• Hızlı, Mefail: Mahkeme Sicillerine Göre Osmanlı Klasik Döneminde İlköğretim ve Bursa Sıbyan Mektepleri, Uludağ Üniversitesi, Bursa, 1999.

• Hızlı, Mefail: Osmanlı Sıbyan Mektepleri. Osmanlı V. (Ed. Güler Eren), Yeni Türkiye Yayınları, Ankara 1999, 207-217.