Muslim Seminary of Medgidia

The Muslim Seminary of Medgidia was a school who prepared muslim clerics for the territory of Romania..

The Muslim Seminary was created in the town of Babadag, în 1610, by the testamentary donation of the area's military commander, general Gazi Ali Pașa who also financed the construction of the Babadag mosque, where he is buried. The seminary was active sporadically until the Romanian War of Independence, when Dobrogea was annexed by Romania

În 1880, Mihail Kogălniceanu proposed that education in Romania should also be carried out in the languages of the main minorities. Based on this principle, the Romanian authorities appointed teachers, named "hodzhi", who had the to teach children the Turkish language, even in Romanian schools which were attended by Muslim students. The curriculum of the school which had been established in 1883 in Constanţa, for preparing teachers for elementary education, included as mandatory the study of Turkish and Bulgarian.

Taking into account the former existence of the Babadag Seminary, The Law for the organization of Dobrogea voted on March 9, 1889 provided in art. 21 "A Muslim Seminary will be established in the town of Babadag, having the mission of preparing the leaders of mosques and of teaching the principles of muslim religion. This school will be financed by the government". În 1901, Spiru Haret moved the seminary to Medgidia, where there was a bigger muslim community. The school was held in a building which had been provided, free of cost, by the muslim community. The courses provided by the Seminary also included Arabic, interpretation of the Quran and other subjects required for the education and the maintenance of the traditions of the Turkish and Tartar minorities. Graduation from the seminar entitles the graduates to be appointed muslim clerics.

After the communists took over the government of Romania, the government did not support the minorities any more. In 1967 the Medgidia Seminary, the only institution in Romania which was concerned about teaching the Turkish language and the reading of the Quran in arabic, in order to prepare students to become imams was closed, under the pretext that there were no more students interested in such teaching.

After 1990, the president of Romania Ion Iliescu and the president of Turkey, Süleyman Demirel signed a protocol for the reestablishment of the Muslim Seminary of Medgigia and for the reconstruction of the buildings of the former seminar. The Turkish government agreed to cover the expenses.

In 1995, another protocol signed by the Romanian and Turkish governments provided the conversion of the Muslim Seminary of Medgidia into the Pedagogic and theologic lyceum Mustafa Kemal Artaturk Liceul pedagogic și teologic Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, financed by the government in Ankara.