• Certain traditions of education were now implanted from the Islamic World.
• At the base was the maktab, where a schoolmaster taught children to read and write.
• At a higher level, important texts in various subjects were read by individual pupils with particular scholars who gave instruction (dars) in them.
• A more institutionalized form of higher education, the madrasa, became widely established in Central Asia and Iran in the eleventh century, and from there it spread to other Islamic countries.
• Usually the madrasa had a building, where instruction was given by individual teachers. Often there was a provision of some cells for resident students, a library and a mosque.
• Firoz Tugluq built a large madrasa at Delhi whose splendid building still stands.
• From Barani’s description it would seem that teaching here was mainly confined to “Quran-commentary, the Prophet’s sayings and the Muslim Law (fiqh).”
• It is said that Sikander Lodi (1489– 1517) appointed teachers in maktabs and madrasas in various cities throughout his dominions, presumably making provision for them through land or cash grants.

Source: NCERT