'Ulamā' e istituzioni a Damasco all'epoca della fondazione delle madāris ahliyya (xix-xx secolo)

Despite a certain western look tending to consider overall the group of 'ulamā' as "misoneist" (that is to say "hostile to any innovation"), the relationship of the 'ālim with the institutional sphere in late-Ottoman Damascus gives evidence of a more complex role from a social as well as cultural perspective which takes into account the changes introduced by modernity. The considerable impoverishment of culture - with particular regard to those institutions mainly appointed to education in an Arab-Islamic context - following the general process of reform in the Arab provinces of the Ottoman Empire - drives many 'ulamā' to re-consider their position, through a recovery of the past, on the one hand, and a search of a more specific identity, on the other. Consequently, some particular cases shall be taken into account, as the foundation of modern non-governmental schools (madāris ahliyya).