Having created the guilds, autonomous and independent of all
outside forces, the Traditionalist jurisconsults professionalized the
teaching of the law with the aim of producing the professional juris-
consult. No longer was it possible to claim knowledge of the law
simply through having memorized the Sacred Scriptures. The
aspirant to the position of jurisconsult had to undergo a rigorous
professional training, consisting of four years of undergraduate educa-
tion, followed by a lengthy period of graduate studies lasting some ten
to twenty years. Not only did he have to master the source materials
of the law, but also the art of disputation, in order to defend his legal
opinions against all objections.

Prior to the colleges of law, two kinds of mosques had developed in
medieval Islam: the Jāmi', and the masjid. The jāmι'-Mosque (hen-
ceforth referred to with a capital letter) is the great Mosque where the
Friday Service is performed, and the Friday Sermon (khutba)
preached. The masjid mosque (referred to with a minuscule) is the
small mosque of the various quarters of the Islamic city. It was this
small mosque which evolved into the first type of Law College in the
legal guilds of Islam. This type of mosque had existed from the early
days of Islam, and had served as the school for the religious sciences
and the ancillary literary arts.

Since the mosque served as the school of the religious sciences, how
could it be identified as being specifically a law college? One charac-
teristic of the mosque as specifically a college of law tells the tale: small
mosques with adjoining inns began to proliferate in the tenth century.
Badr b. Hasanawaih (d. 405/1015), ⁵⁹ governor of several provinces for
a period of thirty-two years, under the Buwaihids, established

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