Abstract
In the Islamic world, both learning and teaching of the Qur’ān has been considered an important duty since the early days. The first step of teaching the Qur’ān is undoubtedly the teaching of Arabic Alphabet. The teaching activity through elifbās (the Qur’ānic Alphabet) is important for proper reading of the Qur’ān.
In this study, the historical process of the elifbā courses taught at primary schools from the proclamation of the Imperial Edict of Tanzimat to the acceptance of the Latin Alphabet (1839-1928), is discussed. The basic problem of the research was identified as discussing the questions of “How was the Qur’ān taught with the elifbās, which were used in primary schools in the period from the proclamation of the Imperial Edict of Tanzimat until the acceptance of the Latin alphabet (1839-1928)?”.
The aim of the study was to identify the problems experienced in elifbā courses with its methods, and to evaluate the development in elifbās in the context of teaching the Qur’ān. Although great importance has been paid to the learning and teaching of the Qur’ān from the early days of Islam to our present day, it is seen that studies conducted on the elifbās with which the Qur’ān is taught are insufficient. For this reason, this study is important in terms of revealing the historical accumulation related to elifbā teaching.
In this study, the document analysis, one of the method of qualitative researches, was used. The data on the historical process of elifbā teaching was obtained from the literature review and Ottoman Archives of the Presidency. The catalogs of many libraries, which especially the National Library, were scanned to reach the elifbās published between 1856 and 1928. Also, second-hand booksellers and collectors were applied to obtain elifbās. In this way, more than 200 elifbās were identified that were prepared between 1856 and 1928. These elifbās were classified as sections in Ottoman Turkish teaching, teaching of the Qur’ān, and teaching of both Ottoman Turkish and Qur’ān. In the study, elifbās both for Ottoman Turkish and Qur’ān teaching was examined. In this direction, some of the 62 elifbās identified were supplied as digital and printed. During the examination of the elifbās, descriptive analysis was done and the resulting data were interpreted to reach results.
As a result of the study, it was seen that the elifbā classes in primary schools were at the forefront of teaching the Qur’an until the mid-19th, while the teaching of Ottoman Turkish remained secondary. It was found that the problems experienced in the teaching of the Qur’ān and Ottoman Turkish were closely related to issues such as the registration and attendance to primary schools were being not obligatory, the lessons being done individually, and that both the Qur’ān and Ottoman Turkish were taught by using one single elifbā. Since the past as of mid-19th, it was found that learning of Ottoman Turkish became more important than in the past, which has led to the teaching of Qur’an to secondary after the opening of Secondary Schools as an alternative to Primary Schools. Especially from 1890s onwards, some factors such as the teaching of Turkish sounds of letters in the elifbās that were prepared with sound method to teach Ottoman Turkish, the grasping of similar vowel letters in Turkish as if they were the same letters, and the fact that not adequate time was allocated for the subjects, such as cazm, shadda, and mad which are necessary to read the Qur’ān, negatively affected the teaching of the Qur’ān. As a result of the decisions at the Thessalian Teachers Congress gathered to solve the problem in question, the preparation of separate elifbās for the teaching of Qur’an and Ottoman Turkish has been an important development in terms of teaching the Qur’ān since 1911.
Based on the studied elifbās, it was understood that the preparation of elifbās to use in the teaching of the Qur’ān based on sounds that will facilitate learning in our present day, and will be useful for the correct pronunciation of Arabic sounds of letters. Furthermore, it has been determined that in the teaching of Qur’ān elifbā without combining similar letters, such as ص س ث in s, which are similar in Turkish, by emphasizing that they have different sounds, and without establishing a sound link between Arabic letters and Turkish letters, as in the examples of a tie’s ﻂ, and a germ’s ﻕ, will make it easier to read the Qur’ān with the correct pronunciation.