Abstract
Madrasas were the sole higher educational institutions for the training of imams and khatibs like other members of the learned establishment, until the last quarter of the 19th century. However, after the tanzimat period, certain reasons such as the establishment of specialized educational institutions, the failure to train imam candidates as competent as before, the increase in the number of unqualified imam-khatib schools, and the increase in complaints about the incompetence of imams and khatibs paved the way for the inauguration of independent schools that only train imams and khatibs. The first initiative in that direction came from Hüseyin Tevfik Efendi in 1882, an inspector of religious endowments, who suggested opening a new institution. This school named Mansha al-Aimma wa al-Khutaba lasted only five to six years at the time it was closed on 23 February 1888 by the decision of the Council of Ministers. Nonetheless, previous researches that have delved into the opening and development of imam-khatib schools have never mentioned about this first school, Mansha al-Aimma wa al-Khutaba, but rather they claim that the first one was the Madrasa al-Aimma wa al-Khutaba (the Madrasa for Imams and Khatibs) opened in 1913. This paper demonstrates with archival evidence that the roots of the first imam-hatib school go back to 1882 not 1913.