Educational Activities at the Madrasas of Southeastern Turkey: The Case of Mardin

Madrasas have undertaken a very important role of carrying Islamic culture and education throughout history and have contributed a lot to society. Madrasas, which have been officially banned, still continue their training activities as unofficial educational institutions, despite slight differences in their contents. Today most of them operate in the southeastern region of Turkey. In this research, the so-called southeastern madrasas are analyzed in terms of their curricular and other educational activities with special reference to the city of Mardin taken as a case study. Data to be analyzed in this article were obtained from the instructors and students of these institutions through semi-structured and unstructured interviews. Due to the fact that the southeastern madrasas could be seen as a modified continuation of the old madrasa tradition, we have presented at the beginning a brief review about the Ottoman madrasas. Reader will also see a list of differences between the southeastern and the Ottoman madrasas at the end.