Darul uloom (Arabic: دار العلوم, romanized: dār al-ʿulūm), also spelled dar-ul-ulum, is an Arabic term that literally means "house of knowledge". The term generally means an Islamic seminary or educational institution – similar to or often the same as a madrassa or Islamic school – although a darul uloom often indicates a more advanced level of study. In a darul uloom, Islamic subjects are studied by students, who are known as talaba or ṭālib.
Description
The conventional darul ulooms of today have their roots in the Indian subcontinent, where the first darul ulooms were founded by the Indian Islamic scholars (ulema) of the past. Darul ulooms followed in the past, and today continue to follow, the age-old Islamic curriculum known as the Dars-e-Nizami syllabus, which has its origins in the Farangi Mahal Islamic seminary of the Mughal Empire, developed by prominent Islamic thinker Nizamuddin Sihalivi thus the name Dars-e-Nizami, later on was merged with the dawra-e-hadith curriculum of Shah Waliullah Dehlawi (1703 – 1762). The Dars-e-Nizami syllabus comprises studies in tafsir (Qur'anic exegesis), hifz (Qur'anic memorisation), sarf and nahw (Arabic syntax and grammar), Persian, Urdu, tarikh (Islamic history), fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) and sharia (Islamic law).
