• 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

This intermediate-level course in Arabic Rhetoric is the last requirement of the skills component of the MA program. It plays a necessary role in understanding and analyzing the Qur’an and its commentaries, as well as jurisprudential, theological, and literary texts. The main textbook used in this course is Talkhīś al-miftāĥ, by al-Khaţīb al-Qazwīnī, a book that became the standard for those looking to deepen and sharpen analytical rhetorical skills. It is supplemented by Jawāhir al-balāghah, by Aĥmad al-Hāshimī, and Al-Minhāj al-wāđiĥ, by Ĥāmid ¢Awnī. The course provides students with a framework for the rhetorical concepts of the Arabic language.

Numerous primary rhetorical concepts and sub-concepts are investigated: concepts related to word order (¢ilm al-ma¢ānī), which is concerned with semantic syntax;  figurative speech (¢ilm al-bayān), which discusses allegorical and non-allegorical significations, linguistic allusion, and linguistic signaling; and rhetorical figures (¢ilm al-badī¢), which focus on how to bestow decorative lexical and semantic features upon speech. Through journal compositions, presentations, and exams, students are assessed on their ability to memorize, recall, and apply key concepts when analyzing prose, poetry, and Qur’anic verses.

Arabic Formal Logic

Scholarly texts in both the rational and transmitted sciences (¢aqliyyah and naqliyyah, respectively) are written adhering to the rules of formal logic, making knowledge of logic a key tool for accessing those books. This course introduces students to the Arabic logic tradition (manţiq) through a close reading of Al-Mirqāt of Fađl, by Fađl-i Imām al-Khayrābādī. Khayrābādī was a leading scholar of the rational sciences (al-¢ulūm al-¢aqliyyah) and his Mirqāt represents the culmination of logic primers in the Avicennian tradition. Students learn the main problems of the Arabic tradition of formal logic, divided broadly into the acts of the mind, conceptions (taśawwurāt), propositions, and reasoning (taśdīqāt). To this end, they study signification (dalālāt), terms (alfāż), definitions (ĥudūd), propositions (qađāyā), syllogisms (qiyās), modals (muwajjahāt), formal and material fallacies (mughālaţāt), and the five arts of logic (al-śinā¢āt al-khams). The course draws on supplementary material from the greater Arabic logic tradition as well as material from the Western tradition to further discussion. Through three exams, students are assessed on their ability to accurately recall and correctly deploy the nomenclature of Arabic logic, as well as apply the rules for definitions and syllogistic reasoning.

Dialectics and Disputation

This third skills course of the program consists of two parts. The first part is dedicated to dialectics and disputation (ādāb al-baĥth wa al-munāżarah), while the second part is dedicated to the science of lexical semantics and word-coinage. The first part introduces students to the method of reasoning and argumentation employed by Muslim theologians and jurists to reveal the truth. Although originating from debates in kalam theology and legal methodology (uśūl al-fiqh), dialectics and disputation later developed into an independent science. Its usage now permeates textual discourses across the major scholastic disciplines of Islam, making learning it a critical undertaking for students and researchers alike. In this course, Muĥammad b. Abī Bakr Sājaqlīzādah’s Al-Risālah al-waladiyyah fī ādāb al-baĥth wa al-munāżarah is studied in depth. This text is one of the most thorough presentations of the science of munāżarah and gives students the requisite knowledge of terminology and patterns of debate (taqrīrāt) needed to analyze the Islamic texts read in the MA program. Students learn the technical terms of disputation, the various ways of analyzing arguments and of objecting to premises and conclusions, and the ethics of disputation. A cumulative translation project gives students a strong working knowledge of and familiarity with the science of munāżarah, while preparation, in-class participation, and group review ensure a thorough understanding and retention of course material.

Semantics

This second part of the third course is on semantics (¢ilm al-wađ¢), an Islamic science that details theories about the conventional relation of words to their meanings. Along with grammar, logic, and rhetoric, it is one of the ancillary subjects that give students the tools needed to master the core Islamic sciences. According to theories of wađ¢, language has three indispensable components: vocables (alfāż; vocal combinations), meanings (ma¢ānī), and a positor (wāđi¢). The springboard theory upon which the science of is built is that meanings are ideas in the mind, human beings produce vocables, and a positor decides which vocable corresponds to every meaning. Thus, all of language consists of a fixed mental relationship between two sets of independent entities: vocables and meanings. The texts studied in this course are Matn fī al-wađ¢, by al-Akīnī, and Riśālat al-wađ¢ al-¢ađudiyyah, by ¢Ađud al-Dīn al-Ījī. The former is noted for its comprehensive presentation of ¢ilm al-wađ¢, while the latter was the first formalized text on the subject. Additionally, Ījī is credited with introducing a robust theory that explains the distinction between how categorematic and syncategorematic words relate to their meanings.

A cumulative translation project gives students a strong working knowledge and familiarity with the science of wađ¢, while preparation, in-class participation, and group review ensure a thorough understanding and retention of course material.

Research Methods

This course is a comprehensive guide designed to equip MA students with the necessary skills and knowledge to conduct rigorous academic research. The main objective is to help students craft a robust research proposal for their thesis. The course guides students through developing a theoretical framework, conducting a literature review, the process of formulating research questions, and writing a research proposal. Additionally, the course emphasizes the importance of ethical considerations in research and provides students with an understanding of the specificities of researching primary and secondary sources in Islamic Texts. Students will engage in peer review processes, enhance their academic writing skills, and gain practical experience in articulating, interpreting, and discussing research findings. 

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