The OIC General Secretariat, in cooperation with the Gulf Research Center in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, held a virtual Symposium entitled “Education: From the Mahadhir and the Hijar to Current Reality”, on 20 October 2026. Addressing the Symposium on behalf of the General Secretariat, Dr. Hussein al-Rhazoui, Director of the Department of Cultural Affairs at the OIC General Secretariat, said that education is not a secondary matter in Islamic civilization, but rather the lifeblood of its renaissance and the secret to its prosperity; he added that recalling the legacy of the Mahadhir in Mauritania and the Hijar in Yemen is an entry point for understanding and critically examining the present (oic-oci.org/en/news/8946). The Symposium was also attended by Dr. Ahmed Said Ould Bah, Director General of the Cabinet of H.E. the Secretary General, and leading specialists in educational policy and cultural affairs from different countries and organizations.
IRCICA was represented, on behalf of Director General Prof. Dr. Mahmud Erol Kılıç, by Dr. Attallah Alrawashdeh, Assistant Head of Research and Publications, IRCICA. The participants discussed the current state of education in the OIC Member States; they evoked the Islamic educational heritage that stemmed from the mosque schools and study circles at the Grand Mosque in Mecca and the traditional Quranic schools in North Africa and Yemen. The participants also formulated policy suggestions to overcome the present challenges and develop high-quality education systems.
