The earliest form of Islamic education ion the Malay Peninsula was Quranic instruction, conducted in mosque, prayer houses and the homes of learned Muslims since the arrival of Islam in the region.
As Quranic schools gained popularity and the number of students increased, permanent, although often underfunded, schools known as pondok or madrasah were established in villages through the region to provide additional training in the study of Islam for those who had already mastered the reading of the Quran.
While the schools were scattered throughout the Malay Peninsula, the majority were located in the northern states of Kelantan and Kedah.
In 1914 Habib Hassan al-Attas founded Madrasah al-Attas in Johor Bahru and 194 he founded Madrasah al-Attas Ketapang in Pekan, Pahang. The latter was the first Arabic religious school in Pahang.
The setting up of reformed madrasahs in urban centers of the Straits Settlements such as Madrasah al-Hadi in Malacca in 1917, Madrasah Al-Iqbal-Islamiyyah in Singapore in 1908 and Madrasah Al-Masyhor Al-Islamiyyah in Penang in 1919 offered new religious outlook towards education for the Muslims.
These madrasahs were also the first Malay-Muslim institutions to pioneer the methods of the modern printing press, publishing not only religious texts but also journals and magazines that helped to create the fledging imagined community of a literate public in the Malay Peninsula.
Madrasah Al-Masyhor Al-Islamiyyah in Penang initially a school teaching of Quran and other basic Islamic knowledge. It was set-up through the efforts of several Arabs, among them Sayyid Mahzar Aidid, Sayyid Ali Bawazir, Sayyid Umar al-Sagoff, Sayyid Umar Mahzar and Sayyid Hassan al-Baghdadi.
It was named Madrasah al-Mashhor in honor of a respected Sayyid on the island, Sayyid Ahmad al-Mashhor.
Madrasah in Malaysia
