The spread of Madrasas in 17th-century Kurdistan

In Kurdish madrasas, it was customary for boys to begin their education at age seven. Evliya explains the 17th-century Badlis schools and provides information on their prevalence in a community such as Badlis. The description contains an interesting detail. Studies in the occult sciences are mentioned by Evliya. Descriptions from the 20th century color the idea of what was once learned in the premodern era, although there are great differences. 

Evliya Celebi (17th-century): 

The theological schools (medrese). They total houses of learning. First of all, Sultan Sheref medrese; Gök Meydan medrese, Versengi medrese, which is a shrine; Haci Beg medrese; Khatibiyye medrese. These are all pious works of former sultans, with imposing buildings and entrenched vakfs. But aside from these, each cami and mescid listed above has a medrese attached to it, with one or two sessions of free public instruction, so that every place of worship is full of students and all the religious sciences are cultivated. 

Their method is to memorize all the sciences, and for this reason the Kurdish Sorani ulema of Ardalan and those of Bitlis are famous, since the people are exceedingly intelligent. Aside from so many medreses, there are also several thousand individual cells (lit., "huts of sorrows") in which thousands of students pursue the various occult sciences. Primary schools. There are seventy schools for young boys learning their ABCs. The most elaborate of these is Sheref Khan school; then Khusrev Pasha school; Khatuniyye school; the Market school; Besharet Agha school.

Zinar's piece serves as a contrast. There are also historical precedents for the misleading impression. Presenting a "standard curriculum" is essentially what it comes down to. It is possible to draw the incorrect conclusion that certain books or genres were the only ones based on for example Zinar's piece on what the more modern madrasa taught. It was different during earlier times. 

https://www.scribd.com/document/229575514/Zinar-Medrese-Education