Meri, Josef W. e Bacharach, Jere L., 1938-, Medieval Islamic civilization : an encyclopedia, Routledge, 2006, ISBN 0-415-96691-4, OCLC 59360024. URL consultato il 27 agosto 2020.
«A madrasa is a college of Islamic law. The madrasa was an educational institution in which Islamic law (fiqh) was taught according to one or more Sunni rites: Maliki, Shafi'i, Hanafi, or Hanbali. It was supported by an endowment or charitable trust (waqf) that provided for at least one chair for one professor of law, income for other faculty or staff, scholarships for students, and funds for the maintenance of the building. Madrasas contained lodgings for the professor and some of his students. Subjects other than law were frequently taught in madrasas, and even Sufi seances were held in them, but there could be no madrasa without law as technically the major subject.»
