• About
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    In 2009, Zaytuna College was founded in Berkeley, California, with a mission that called for grounding students in the Islamic scholarly tradition as well as in the cultural currents and critical ideas shaping modern society.

  • Academics
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    As a Muslim liberal arts college in the West, Zaytuna offers a curriculum that provides its students with a foundation in the intellectual heritage of two major world civilizations: the Islamic and the Western.

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  • Admissions & Aid
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    Our mission is to educate students to become morally, intellectually, and spiritually accomplished individuals ready to contribute to our contemporary world in ways that are proportionate to their gifts and to the needs of human society.

     

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  • Campus Life
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    Zaytuna’s campus is on Holy Hill and students enter the College as part of a cohort, a community of learners that travel together through the curriculum.

Elementary, My Dear Students... Elementary!

Dr. Youssef Ismail

Elementary, My Dear Students... Elementary!

The Greek mathematician Euclid’s Elements set the ancient mathematical and scientific world on an incredible trajectory that brought us to a world heavily steeped in technology that is so familiar to us today. In this short lecture, I will give an overview of what the thirteen books of the Elements contain and explore the method by which Euclid establishes mathematical truths from foundational principles and logical reasoning. In particular, we will examine three of the forty-eight propositions detailed in Book 1 to elucidate the elegance of the method of proof utilized throughout all thirteen books.