This study explores significant aspects of the history of Islamic higher education in the central Ottoman lands (Bilad al-Rum) and Greater Syria (Bilad al-Sham) during the approximate period 1530-1650. Two general themes constitute the greatest part of our focus. The first is an examination of the divergent approaches to pedagogy in each geography, an aspect we have seen fit to refer to as pedagogical philosophy(s). The second is an attempt to establish the curricular canons of each region during the period in question, with the purpose of revealing discrepancies -- and similarities -- in the material studied by aspiring scholars in the lands of the Ottoman center and that empire's Syrian periphery. The comparative nature of our study enables us to examine the extent of integration between "Bilad al-Rum" and "Bilad al-Sham" in terms of their cultures of higher education during the early period of Ottoman rule in the Arabic-speaking lands. Our findings contribute to our knowledge of the intellectual history of the Ottoman world by offering deeper insight into the complex web of connections that both bound together "and" made distinct the intellectual elites of both geographies, with conclusions that more broadly argue for divergence rather than similarity. Following an exposition of some of the secondary literature most pertinent to our aims and concerns in the first chapter, chapters two and three investigate the hitherto largely neglected world of Islamic pedagogical philosophy, especially insofar as substantial discrepancies of method and practice exist within that world. Chapter two provides significant evidence for the dominance of a single figure, the medieval Transoxanian scholar Burhan al-Din al-Zarnuji, for the nature of pedagogical philosophy in the Ottoman center, including its development by Turkish-speaking scholars who elaborated many of the same principles in later centuries. The pedagogical philosophy of the Ottoman center is, thus, referred to as "Zarnujism." Chapter two also establishes the preeminence of a Damascene scholar of early Ottoman Syria, Badr al-Din al-Ghazzi, in his approach to pedagogical principles in his region, especially in his own hometown. Chapter three enters into an elaborate discussion of some of the fundamental differences in the two geographies' approaches to educating scholars in the Islamic religious sciences and related fields. These differences include, among other elements, clearly divergent hierarchies of the scholarly disciplines: Prophetic Tradition is given pride of place in the Arabic-speaking milieu(s) of Greater Syria, whereas jurisprudence figures most prominently in the Turkish-speaking lands of the Ottoman center. More generally, the strong central Ottoman inclination toward the rational(ist) disciplines is contrasted to an attitude of relative suspicion toward these same fields among Arabic-speaking scholars in Greater Syria. There is also a starkly different attitude toward the role of disputation in scholarly formation between scholars of the two geographies, with central Ottoman scholars viewing the practice as a useful -- even necessary -- component of an aspiring scholar's intellectual development, and scholars of Greater Syria refusing to hide their suspicion toward such methods. The fourth chapter studies book collections in Ottoman endowment documents (waqfiyyas) insofar as these are connected to the pedagogical process at educational institutions in "Bilad al-Rum" and "Bilad al-Sham." The limitations of these "waqfiyyas" in enabling us to reconstruct actual curricula for individual institutions of education are discussed, but their importance as documents which shed further light on the broad contours of an Ottoman scholarly canon is equally emphasized. The risks associated with using "waqfiyyas" in an uncritical manner inspire an examination of a much different source in the next chapter, namely biographical dictionaries. Quasi-statistical data obtained from biographical dictionaries composed in Aleppo, Damascus, and Istanbul during our period then allow us to construct curricular canons belonging to Aleppo, Damascus, and the central Ottoman lands in a methodologically novel approach. The comparison of curricular canons across different geographies -- and within different schools of jurisprudence -- of the Ottoman realms is another original contribution of the chapter. Perhaps most significantly, the fifth chapter affirms many of the conclusions at which we had previously arrived in chapters two and three, concerning significant divergences in the pedagogical cultures of Greater Syria and the central Ottoman lands. The concluding chapter of this work offers a nuanced look into the Ottomans' dual policies of (usually) mild imposition and equally prevalent accommodationism in the periphery of "Bilad al-Sham." Among other pieces of evidence, we present compelling cases from prominent individual scholars' careers in higher education -- and other cases pertaining to broader aspects of scholarly life -- to substantiate our claims. Some remarks which seek to restate and reemphasize our conclusions on the matter of intellectual integration in the Ottoman realms are offered in closing. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. 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