Academics

SUMMER 2026 •  FALL / SPRING 2026 / 2027 • ANTICIPATED NEW COURSES 

Summer 2026

Our summer courses are four weeks long for both high school students and adults. Times listed below are for high school students. Once enough adults sign up for a course, we will determine the time. If there are enough students in other regions of the globe that would like to have a course at a different time, that is also possible. More information in the registration link.

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First Session

How to Read a Book

This course is based on Mortimer Adler and Charles Van Doren's famous How to Read a Book. Students will learn how to read a variety of genres of written material, including newspapers, poetry, history, philosophy, math, and science by reading short excerpts and analyzing them in class. They will also be introduced to the different levels of reading that Adler and Van Doren discuss: elementary, inspectional, analytical, and syntopical.

Dates: 6/1/2026 - 6/26/2026 (4 weeks); Mondays & Wednesdays; 1:30 -2:30 pm EST · $300

First Session

Introduction to Classical Writing & Speaking

In this introductory course, students will learn how to apply the five canons of rhetoric: invention, arrangement, style, memory, and delivery, into their essays and speeches. This is a hands-on course where students will practice analysis and application through writing and speaking. They will also learn the classical oration essay format, which can be used throughout high school, college, and later life.

 

Dates: 6/1/2026 - 6/26/2026 (4 weeks); Tuesdays & Thursdays; 1:30 -2:30 pm EST · $300

Second Session

How to Read Great Books

In this course, students will read and discuss a selection of Great Books from the Islamic and Western traditions with an instructor leading the conversation. This course is a Socratic seminar similar to our year long seminar courses. The texts chosen range from philosophy and literature to history and science. It is the perfect opportunity to try discussion based courses. Click on the registration link above to view the reading list.

Dates: 6/29/2026 - 7/24/2026 (4 weeks); Mondays & Wednesdays; 1:30 -3:00 pm EST · $350

Second Session

The Geopolitics of Empire

This course introduces students to the principles of geopolitics —the study of how geography, economy, demography, and ideology shape politics, statecraft, and empire. We examine the rise and fall of ancient, medieval, and modern empires, including Persia, Rome, the Ottoman Empire, and the British Empire, and compare them to contemporary powers such as the United States and China with a special emphasis on the Middle East. Students will leave the course possessing a framework for analyzing world affairs and the factors that shape political power and historical development.

 

Dates: 6/29/2026 - 7/24/2026 (4 weeks); Tuesdays & Thursdays; 1:30 -2:30 pm EST · $300 

The Rights of Parents (Adab Series)

Our "Adab Series" presents courses in fundamental Islamic texts for the sole purpose of spreading sacred knowledge. In this course, we will study the great Mauritanian scholar Muḥammad Mawlūd's didactic poem on birr al-walidayn, or righteousness towards parents. It covers the proper etiquette and Islamic legal rights that are due to parents by their children. This is a life changing text for many who have studied it. All registration fees for this course go to student scholarships.

 

Dates: Begins June 1st (5-6 weeks); Mondays & Thursdays; 10:00 - 11:00 am EST · $50 

Fall/Spring 2026-2027

Yearlong courses for high schoolers and advanced eighth graders. There is more information in the application.

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Formal Logic (First Semester)

Preceding and underlying our ability to speak is our ability to think. Whereas the science
of grammar deals with the spoken word, the science of logic deals with the language of the
mind: the meanings behind those words. As humans, we use our intellect daily. We can either
do so efficiently and correctly, or inefficiently and with error. The primary aim of this course
is for students to acquire the three parts of traditional formal logic that correspond to the three
acts of the mind: conceptualization, judgment, and argumentation. Acquisition of the formal
rules and structures of these three parts of formal logic will aid the student in thinking, reading,
and writing clearly, efficiently, and free from error.

 

Tuesdays & Wednesdays · 2:00–3:00 PM EST · Tuition: $1300

Dialectic & Material Logic (Second Semester)

After completing formal logic, students begin dialectic (munāẓara), a science developed by
Islamic scholars that investigates the forms of proper argumentation. The aim of dialectic is
to seek out the truth, not egotistically to defeat an opponent, which is all too prevalent today
on television and YouTube. In essence, it is the application of formal logic in an actual
argument. It gives students a method by which to practice and perfect the logic they learned
in the first semester. This science is necessary for studying Islamic texts which adopted the
terminology and style of dialectic especially in the later tradition.

Students will then examine important issues in material logic. Material logic is the study of
the matter or content of logical reasoning, not just the form or structure of that reasoning,
which is covered in formal logic. It is a blend of epistemology, philosophy, ontology, and
metaphysics. We investigate topics such as the logical fallacies and the ten categories as
well as other philosophical issues that underly the relationship between thought, language,
and the external world.


Tuesdays & Wednesdays · 2:00–3:00 PM EST · Tuition: $500

Socratic Seminars

Our three-year seminar program covers seminal texts in literature, history, ethics, politics, philosophy, and other genres in the Western and Islamic traditions. The seminar is a discussion-based class led by an experienced instructor who helps to guide the students in conversation. Students have the opportunity to practice the skills learned in our other courses, to refine their ability to read difficult texts, and to receive an introduction to some of the most influential books ever written. Though we cannot include every seminal text written in both the Western and Islamic traditions, we believe that those selected are a good start for young learners who desire to begin a life of learning.

Seminar 1: Living the Good Life

The first year of the seminar is entitled “Living the Good Life” and explores themes revolving around culture, custom, happiness, ethics, virtue and vice, the quest for human perfection, and the fact of human folly. The year is split into a first semester that focuses on custom and culture to explore how these shape our understanding of and interaction with the world, while the second semester focuses on the science of ethics (ʿilm al-akhlāq) to discover the virtues and vices of the soul to acquire the former and to rid one’s self of the latter in order to attain happiness in this life and the next. By recognizing how customs and culture shape us and how we can orient our souls to live ethically, students gain a moral compass to orient their lives.

Mondays & Thursdays · 2:00–3:30 PM EST · Tuition: $1700 (Semester I) · $1500 (Semester II)
Semester 1

Herodotus, Histories
Al-Bīrūnī, Indica
Ibn Baṭṭūṭa, Travels
Al-Masʿūdī, Meadows of Gold and Mines of Gems
Montaigne, Of Custom; Of Cannibals
Plutarch, On the Malice of Herodotus; Whether Animals Use Reason
Sophocles, Oedipus Rex
Shakespeare, Macbeth; Hamlet
Brethren of Purity, The Case of the Animals Versus Man Before the King of the Jinn
Molière, Le Misanthrope
Alexander Pope, An Essay on Man
Semester 2
Plato, Meno; Protagoras; Republic

Ibn Ṭufayl, Ḥayy ibn Yaqẓān
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
Rāghib al-Iṣfahānī, The Art of Cultivating Character
Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics
Goethe, Faust
Al-Ghazālī, The Marvels of the Heart
Al-Qushayrī, Epistle on the Science of Sufism
Jamāl al-Dīn al-Jawbarī, The Book of Charlatans
Al-Sulamī, The Way of Sufi Chivalry

Seminar 2: Society & Civilization

The second year, “Society & Civilization,” delves into the philosophy of history, sociology, politics, law, leadership, statecraft, warfare, empire, justice, and tyranny. The first semester focuses on history, historiography, and sociology. We read texts covering key portions of Western and Islamic history including the Peloponnesian War, the fall of the Roman Republic, the retaking of Jerusalem by Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn, the capture of Constantinople, Babur’s conquest of India, and Napoleon’s invasion of Egypt. The second semester focuses on political theory, governance, and law. We explore themes on Islamic statecraft, constitutional theory, and relations between nations. We ask questions such as “is there a ‘science of history’ that can predict future events?” “How should a government be structured?” “What should the aim of politics be?” “Is empire a good or evil thing?” “What is the relationship between political expediency and morality?” At this stage students learn to interpret how the past affects the present and how political life shapes the way we live.

Mondays & Thursdays · 2:00–3:30 PM EST · Tuition: $1700 (Semester I) · $1500 (Semester II)
Semester 1
Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War
Xenophon, Hellenika
Ferdowsi, Shahnameh
Old Testament, Samuel I, II; Kings I, II
New Testament, Gospel of Matthew
Ibn Khaldūn, al-Muqaddima
al-Ījī, The Gift
Bahāʾ al-Dīn ibn Shaddād, The Rare and Excellent History of Saladin
Appian, Histories
Tacitus, Annals
Kritovoulos, History of Mehmed the Conqueror
Babur, Baburnama
Al-Jabartī, Napoleon in Egypt
Semester 2
Aristotle, Politics
Polybius, Histories (Book XI)
Plato, Apology; Crito
Al-Fārābī, Political Regime
Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī, Politics of the Nasirean Ethics
Ibn Bājja, Governance of the Solitary
Al-Māwardī, Ordinances of Governance
Muḥammad al-Shaybānī, Islamic Law of Nations
Machiavelli, The Prince
Hobbes, Leviathan
Locke, Second Treatise of Government
Rousseau, The Social Contract
American Founding Fathers, Articles of Confederation; Declaration of Independence; Constitution of 1789; Federalist and Anti-Federalist Papers
Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France
Tocqueville, Democracy in America
Karl Marx, The German Ideology (Part I); The Communist Manifesto
Khayr al-Dīn al-Tūnisī, The Surest Path
Ottoman Constitution of 1876
Introduction to the Ottoman Majalla (1877)
Constitution of Persia (1906)

Seminar 3: the Real, the Abstract, and the Sublime

Our final year, “the Abstract, the Real, and the Sublime,” features journeys into philosophy, epistemology, ontology, metaphysics, theology, love, and beauty. Anticipated 2027-2028.

Funding

We do offer payment plans, discounts, and scholarships for deserving students. Last academic year, we awarded over $12,000 in scholarships. Please see the application form for more information. If you are interested in donating to support our students, send us an email at [email protected].

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Anticipated New Courses 

Soon we will be launching several pre-recorded courses including our popular Formal Logic course.

If you are interested in taking our courses, contact us to receive more details.

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