• About

    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

    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.

  • Admissions & Aid

    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.

  • Campus Life

    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.

MA Course Descriptions

Master Degree Curriculum

Core Courses

Arabic Grammar

A strong foundation in Arabic grammar (al-naĥw) is fundamental to correctly and precisely understanding all Islamic sciences, as well as the primary sources of the Qur’an and Hadith. Iżhār al-asrār fī al-naĥw, by Zayn al-Dīn Muĥammad b. Bīr al-Birgivī, is a classical intermediate-level text on Arabic grammar. The text’s highly organized structure distinguishes it from other grammar texts and provides students with a framework for the grammatical concepts of the Arabic language. The Iżhār comprises three sections: the syntactic agent (al-¢āmil), the affected word in a sentence (al-ma¢mūl), and the syntactic effect (al-¢amal). Upon completion of the text, students have a working knowledge of all the major issues (masā’il) of Arabic grammar. They are able to navigate classical Arabic texts and have the skills to derive the meanings of the core texts (mutūn) and commentaries (shurūĥ) studied in the MA program. Additionally, the Iżhār serves as a useful reference, providing students clear and precise definitions and examples. Exams confirm that students can correctly infer meaning (istinbāţ) from the text, while preparation, in-class participation, and group review ensure a thorough understanding and retention of key definitions and grammatical concepts.

Arabic Rhetoric Semantics, Eloquence, and Rhetorical Figures
Arabic Formal Logic
Dialectics and Disputation
Semantics
Research Methods

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Areas of Concentration

Current MA Courses

MA Student Experience

MA FAQ