Central Asian scholars also developed an Islamic system of higher education modeled on the Central Asian system of the Buddhist vihâra, or monastic college. The vihâra was supported by a tax-exempt pious foundation that paid the expenses of the students and also of the teacher or teachers, who lived in the vihâra with the students. The primary method of teaching was oral lecture and debate, and the main subject of study was the Dharma, or Buddhist law and theology. These fundamental elements were taken over wholesale by the Arabs, who adopted even the distinctively Central Asian form of the vihâra architectural plan—a square structure with a large courtyard, each side of which contained chambers for the students and teachers plus four îwâns, large half-open halls in the form of gateways. The vihâra seems to have been Islamicized as the madrasa in Central Asia in the eighth and ninth centuries, though it is only noted in historical sources somewhat later.

Beckwith, Christopher I.. Empires of the Silk Road: A History of Central Eurasia from the Bronze Age to the Present (p. 154). Princeton University Press. Kindle Edition.

Medieval Western European culture grew intellectually as a direct result of contact with Muslim Spain and Palestine. The translation into Latin of Arabic books introduced new, exciting, and often controversial ideas. The work of al-Khwârizmî54 (Algorithmus) translated as the Book of Algorithmus introduced Arabic numerals, including the zero and “algorithmic” calculation along with them, while the Algebra introduced advanced algebraic mathematics. They were revolutionary to the scientifically oriented minds of Western Europe. The translation of previously unknown philosophical and logical works of Aristotle, along with the works of the great Islamic Aristotelian philosophers, also caused fundamental restructuring of Western European thought. The ideas accompanied at least one important institution. The first European college,55 the Collège des Dix-huit or ‘College of the Eighteen Scholars’, was established in Paris in 1180 by Jocius of London (Jocius de Londiniis) after his return from the Holy Land.56 It was the oldest of the colleges that formed the original University of Paris. The college retained most of the essential characteristics of its direct ancestors, the madrasa and vihâra, including the pious foundation that supported the student residents and a professor,57 and perhaps the architectural form as well.58 The transmission of Islamic knowledge, techniques, and institutions to the West thus fueled the intellectual revolution of the High Middle Ages.

Beckwith, Christopher I.. Empires of the Silk Road: A History of Central Eurasia from the Bronze Age to the Present (pp. 179-180). Princeton University Press. Kindle Edition.