For students embarking on the rigorous journey of mastering the traditional Islamic sciences, the question of where to begin—and how to progress—has always been a critical hurdle. To address this enduring challenge, contemporary scholars are looking back centuries to unearth timeless frameworks that bring order to an expansive curriculum.
This challenge forms the basis of a new series of articles exploring how a student ought to arrange their studies, drawn directly from a comprehensive seminar delivered by Shaykh Talal al-Azem. Titled How to Arrange Your Studies of Islamic Sciences, the seminar serves as a foundational exploration into pedagogical method, historical scholarship, and the architecture of traditional learning. At the heart of this discussion lies the profound work of an Ottoman-era polymath who dedicated his life to classifying and ordering human knowledge.
A Scholar Raised Inside a Family of Knowledge
The historical roots of this pedagogical inquiry trace back to Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr al-Maraʿashi al-Hanafi, a towering scholarly figure famously known as Imam Sajaqlizada. Born into a household deeply immersed in the scholarly tradition, Sajaqlizada was surrounded by learning from his earliest days. His father served with distinction as both an imam and a teacher in Maraş, located in southern Turkey.
Following the initial guidance of his father, the young Sajaqlizada pursued his early education in the historical towns of Malatya and Sivas. Driven by an insatiable thirst for deeper understanding, he subsequently undertook repeated journeys to Damascus, which stood at the time as one of the great vibrant capitals of Islamic learning and intellectual discourse in the region.
In Damascus, he immersed himself in the foundational disciplines of Quranic exegesis, known as tafsir, and the study of prophetic traditions, or hadith. Beyond the textual and legal sciences, he also sought out the intricate science of the purification of the heart, or tasawwuf, studying under the renowned Imam Abdul Ghani al-Nabulsi. Recognizing his dedication, spiritual depth, and scholarly attainment, Imam Nabulsi ultimately granted Sajaqlizada official authorization, or ijazah, to guide others along the spiritual path within two major spiritual orders: the Qadiri and the Naqshbandi schools.
A Life Spent Teaching and Writing
Despite his comprehensive formation and connection to prominent spiritual masters, Imam Sajaqlizada never sought or held an official administrative post within the formal Ottoman religious-education hierarchy. Historical records also show no evidence that he ever traveled to the imperial capital of Istanbul. Instead, he chose a path remarkably similar to that of his father.
Sajaqlizada dedicated his life to serving his local community as an imam, teaching both the traditional textual sciences and the rational sciences, and providing vital spiritual mentorship to those under his care. Above all else, however, he was remarkably prolific. Over the course of his lifetime, he authored at least 30 substantial works spanning a vast array of disciplines. His literary output covered exegesis, speculative theology, logic, legal disputation, jurisprudence, the purification of the heart, and public and private ethics.
Crucially, he also directed his intellectual energies toward the systematic classification and ordering of the sciences themselves, analyzing how different fields of human inquiry relate to and support one another.
Historical accounts regarding the exact year of his passing vary, with scholars placing his death somewhere between 1145 and 1155 in the Islamic Hijri calendar, corresponding roughly to the years 1732 to 1742 in the Common Era. Despite maintaining a relatively localized presence during his lifetime, later generations remembered him with immense reverence, bestowing upon him the honorary title Taj al-Murshidin, which translates to the "Crown of the Spiritual Guides."
A Significant Book on the Ordering of Sciences
The core of Shaykh Talal al-Azem’s seminar, and the focal point of this analytical series, centers on Imam Sajaqlizada’s seminal book, Tartib al-ʿUlum, meaning The Ordering of the Sciences. Completed in the year 1128 AH, which corresponds to 1715 or 1716 CE, the text offers a methodical approach to organizing the vast landscape of Islamic and rational knowledge.
The treatise achieved notable historical reach, remaining relevant long after its author’s passing. It was read widely enough that it was eventually translated into Turkish more than 150 years later, during the Young Turk era. During that later period of sweeping administrative and social transition, the work was utilized as a substantive intellectual argument for reforming the broader Ottoman educational system.
The title Tartib al-ʿUlum carries a dual significance, and both elements are vital to understanding the book’s overarching purpose. First, the title points to a clear hierarchy among fields of study: certain foundational sciences supply the primary principles and axioms upon which other, more specialized sciences are subsequently built. This hierarchical relationship is one that both the Avicennan philosophical tradition and the medieval Latin scholastic tradition alike refer to as subalternation.
Second, the title addresses a practical pedagogical question: given this inherent intellectual hierarchy, in what exact sequence should a student actually proceed through their studies? To answer this, Sajaqlizada structured his book carefully, guiding the reader through a preface, an introduction, two main structural parts, a conclusion, and a concise epilogue.
A Direct Word to the Student
Imam Sajaqlizada wastes no time in ambiguity, opening his work by explicitly naming the specific audience he is addressing—those individuals who are already actively walking upon the demanding path of seeking knowledge. He reminds these students that in every single historical era, there has always been a dedicated group set apart for the rigorous pursuit of knowledge, thereby fulfilling the injunction found in the Quran that a group should remain behind in every community to gain deep understanding and insight into religion, as referenced in Quran 9:122.
However, with the sharp eye of a concerned scholar, Sajaqlizada laments that this dedicated vanguard of deep learning had nearly vanished in his own contemporary time. In their place, he observes a generation of learners whom he critically compares to rabbits among lions—individuals who are physically present and actively moving about, but who fall vastly short of the intellectual weight, rigor, and scholarly stature of those towering figures who came before them.
For this reason, Imam Sajaqlizada issues a stern and enduring reminder to every student of knowledge, both in his own era and for those studying today: an abstract desire for knowledge means very little if it is not matched by a rigorous, disciplined method for pursuing it. Having established this foundational reminder regarding methodology, Imam Sajaqlizada turns his attention next to the vital, inseparable bond that must exist between the acquisition of knowledge and personal morality—a critical theme that forms the subject of the next article in this ongoing series.