Abstract
It is claimed that in the studies on the history of religious education, there has not been much research on the period of the Ottoman Empire before 1700 and that almost no research has been carried out on the dârülkurras, which are advanced Qur'an education institutions. Evliya Çelebi traveled all over the Ottoman geography for nearly fifty years and wrote the longest and most detailed travel book in the world. In this work known as Seyahatname, he conveyed very satisfactory information about religious education institutions such as madrasah, school, darülhadis and darülkurra in the Ottoman geography, and included very serious observations and evaluations. What makes the information given by Evliya Çelebi more meaningful about the Ottoman darülkurra, which is the main subject of the study, is that he is an internal stakeholder who has received advanced Qur'anic education in these institutions. The article focuses on the physical structure of the 17th century Ottoman darülkurras, the nature of education, the educational programs, the books taught, the teacher, the student, the financing, and the graduation exams and ceremonies. Prior to all this, the historical and institutional development of Qur'an teaching in the history of Islamic religious education, from dârüllerkam to Ottoman darülkurra, was emphasized. As it can be understood from the information in the Seyahatname, Ottoman darülkurras are advanced Qur'an education centers where tecvid reading, hafiz, tecvid and qiraat sciences are taught because of the Qur'an. When we look at the content of the educational activities carried out in the aforementioned institutions, it is seen that the sciences of reading, hafiz, tecvid and qiraat form the basis of the program. Since Evliya Çelebi describes every place where the Qur'an is read as dârülkurra, he also mentioned the mosques, masjids and madrasas where the Qur'an is taught in the category of dârülkurra, apart from the detached darülkurra. It is difficult to say that the same program was applied in each of the darülkurras. Scientific, commercial, social, cultural, pedagogical etc. Different Qur'an learning programs have been applied for various reasons. In some settlements, people's lack of interest in hafiz or recitation science or the academic indifference and inadequacies of students affected the nature and programs of education in darülkurras. As a course book, the main books, which were written in verse, were read, with the thought that they would facilitate memorization, especially in the teaching of tajvid and qiraat sciences. However, it is understood that any activity regarding the meaning of the Qur'an is not included in the education process. The study was carried out with the document analysis technique, which is a type of qualitative method. In this context, the Travelogue was read from the beginning to the end as the primary source, the relevant information was recorded, and the subject was tried to be presented as a whole with other secondary sources. Based on the findings of the research, some conclusions were reached and some issues were discussed.