Zaytuna College
Zaytuna College is a private liberal arts college in Berkeley, California. It is the first accredited Muslim undergraduate college in the United States. It was built on the foundation of an educational institute, founded in 1996 by Hamza Yusuf and Hesham Alalusi. After graduating its pilot batch of full-time students, Zaytuna Institute formally changed its name to Zaytuna College in 2009. Zaytuna College seeks to integrate the institutions of the American liberal arts college and traditional Islamic education, drawing on their shared roots in the classical liberal arts. In the academic year 2014–2015, Zaytuna College had an undergraduate student body of about fifty students, most of whom lived on campus. Zaytuna College offers a BA in Liberal Arts & Islamic Studies and an MA in Islamic Texts. Courses range from Arabic grammar and Islamic jurisprudence, to American history and ancient literature. History In 1996, Zaytuna Institute was founded by Hamza Yusuf and Hesham Alalusi and incorporated in California as a non-profit educational institute. They named it after the olive tree (Ar: زيتونة zaytūnah), a plant that is mentioned in the Qur'an for its benefit. Based in Hayward, the institute's mandate was to teach courses on Arabic and Islamic Studies as