Page:Calcutta Review Vol. II (Oct. - Dec. 1844).pdf/349

344 work, while all the other scholars read Persian. The same scholars, who are now studying Arabic, formerly read or may still be reading Persian in the same school and under the same teacher; and the scholars in an Arabic school, who are reading Persian only, will probably, in the same school and under the same teacher, advance to the study of Arabic. The only distinction that can be drawn is, that while there is no Arabic teacher who does not or may not teach Persian, there are many Persian teachers who do not and cannot teach Arabic. But the class for which both Persian and Arabic schools exist is the same, and that is the upper class of native society, whether Hindus or Musalmans are the scholars, and whether Persian or Arabic is the language taught. Both languages are foreign, and both classes of schools are inaccessible to the body of the people.”

In these schools, the average duration of study is about eleven or twelve years, generally extending to the twenty-fourth or twenty-fifth year of age—affording ample time for the introduction of, or the improvement and extension of old courses of study. The subjects taught are somewhat varied. The works on grammar occupy a prominent place. These are numerous, systematized, and often profound. Complete courses of reading on rhetoric, logic, and law, are embraced. The external observances and fundamental doctrines of Islam are minutely studied. The works of Euclid on geometry, and Ptolemy on astronomy in translation, are not unknown; other branches of natural philosophy are also taught; and the whole course is crowned by the perusal of treatises on metaphysics, deemed the highest attainment of the instructed scholar. Perhaps, adds Mr. Adams, “we shall not err widely if we suppose that the state of learning amongst the Musalmans of India resembles that which existed among the nations of Europe before the invention of printing.”

This is the most favourable picture which, in a generalized way, can be given of these Arabic institutions; for in none of them singly can it be found fully realized. And if the subjects taught be not, by any means, of a liberalizing and edifying character, the deficiency is certainly not supplied by any redeeming qualities in the mode of teaching, or the system of discipline. No mere words can possibly convey any adequate conception of the indolence and listlessness, the drowsiness and sleepiness, the disorderand anarchy, which reign paramount in a Persico-Arabic institution. The following is a brief sketch of one of the best endowed and best circumstanced in the district of Rajshahi. And from our own experience of the system of discipline, or rather no discipline, generally pursued, we have no hesitation in saying that the picture falls far short of the reality, as it is ordinarily exhibited:—

“There is no fixed age for admission or dismission for beginning or completing the course of study. Students are admitted at the arbitrary pleasure of Musafir-ul-Islam, and they leave sooner or later according to their own