About Zaytuna College

Our Mission

Zaytuna College aims to educate and prepare morally committed professional, intellectual, and spiritual leaders who are grounded in the Islamic scholarly tradition and conversant with the cultural currents and critical ideas shaping modern society.

In 2009, Zaytuna College was established in Berkeley, California, on the foundation of a thriving community committed to studying the Muslim classics. Combining this vigor of learning with the best practices in academia, the College opened its doors with a mission to produce God-conscious learners who are conversant in both past and present, through a traditional liberal arts education.

Liberal arts, in its original sense, meant a rigorous study of learning skills (trivium) and specific subjects (quadrivium). The same structure characterizes the traditional Muslim education, liberal arts education came to Christendom from Islam, as the late George Makdisi demonstrated in his seminal work, The Rise of Colleges. By understanding grammar, rhetoric, and logic, a student is equipped with the tools to approach any discipline. 
 
Zaytuna College seeks to recapture this tradition through both the BA and MA programs, with a curriculum that draws both on the Muslim classics and on the Euro-American classical tradition that grew from and alongside it. Its aim is to cultivate young men and women committed to truth, goodness, and beauty, in obedience to our Creator and service to His creation. 

In summer 2015, Zaytuna completed its move to the neighborhood of Holy Hill, a multi-faith academic community in Berkeley, California, where the College owns three buildings, collectively known as the lower campus.

Zaytuna’s lower campus is adjacent to one of the premier research universities in the world, the University of California, Berkeley. Holy Hill is also home to the Graduate Theological Union (GTU), the largest consortium of seminaries and academic centers for the study of religion in the nation.

This community gives Zaytuna students and faculty an unparalleled opportunity to engage inside and outside the classroom with educational communities from different faith traditions.

In 2017, Zaytuna acquired its upper campus, a stunning nine-acre property in the Berkeley Hills whose serene natural environment is conducive to serious study and contemplation. Upper campus consists of eight buildings including a women’s dormitory, classrooms, a permaculture garden, administrative offices, and a musalla, the heart of our intellectual and spiritual community.