Mawadda
· Mawadda Space · Live Online · PreK – Grade 6 ·

Make space for faith.

Make space for reading.

Make space for your child.

Mawadda Space is a very small online school that offers live Islamic ELA courses, taught by one teacher,
Besim Bruncaj, in classes of 6.

This term, our main course is Grammar-stan for 4th–6th graders.
One course at a time. That's the whole school.
Focused on your child’s learning.
That's the point.

View the Courses → begins {{ startDate }} —
— where our children grow according to their fitra
Swords and butterflies in a field of grass, in ink
· I ·

A note from the teacher.

I've spent years writing and designing Islamic readers — Swords & Butterflies, the McGuffey-style ones you may have seen — and wondering what it would be like to sit with children and read them together. To hear which parts stick. To notice when a shy child tries a word out loud.

Mawadda Space is that. Not a platform with a faculty — a small school where one person writes the books, teaches the lessons, and remembers the children. Six at a time. No more. That's the whole idea.

Besim— author, teacher, homeschooling father
· II ·

Our Upcoming Online Courses

No. 01 · Grades 2–8 · GRAMMAR Begins {{ startDate }}
Grammar-stan← Hear ye!  Hear ye!
Sultan Grammar is entering the Divan!
NEW COURSE!
Taught by: Besim Bruncaj
Grammar-stan cover — Ottoman grammar scene

An engaging — and dare we say fun! — narrative English grammar course set in Ottoman times where the parts of speech are characters and the lessons stretch beyond grammar to etymology, akhlaq, deen, scholarship, history, geography, Ottoman culture, science, calligraphy, and more. Witnessed and written by a 15th-century mekteb student with a stream of engaging comments and insights by Ustadh Besim from the future!

Say goodbye to those soulless corporate
textbooks and say Merhaba to soulful Islamic
English Language Arts … Swords & Butterflies style!

Live Sessions:
• Saturdays · 7pm Istanbul / Mecca — everyone

• Tuesdays · 11am Mecca  OR  Wednesdays · 6:30pm Istanbul — class of six

← I think that student was really Besim the entire time

THE CLASS OF SIX
6 seats, and not one more

Besim and six children, twice a week — every child reads aloud, asks questions, answers questions, and learns the material inside out, insha'Allah.

This book was written by your child’s teacher, who wrote it for his own children!

BONUSES:
Bonus 1: A free copy of Grammar-stan once it is printed.

Bonus 2
: $30 of credit at Swords & Butterflies for students who complete the course.

Bonus 3: Post-class and office time available for one-on-one tutoring.

Bonus 4: Free access to a specially designed flashcard & quiz app for this course. Designed for both parents and children to ensure lifelong retention, long after class is finished, with print options for analog use (beta version available in October).
The Term
15 weeks, from {{ startDate }}

The reader is undergoing editing, and you will be among the first (after Besim's own children) to experience this.

Tuition
Register by Sept 15 and keep the lower rate ↓
Register by Sept 15
Founding rate
$129 a month — founding rate

Yours if you register by Sept 15. Founding families keep this rate for the next-level courses too.

Or pay once
$495 once, for the whole term

Pay the term up front and save a further $21.

Pay $495 for the term →
after that
Joining after Sept 15
$175 a month — launch price

Tuition rises to $175 a month for families joining after Sept 15, and to $250 for the terms that follow.

FOUNDING RATE
until Sept 15
$46 per month savings
x 4 months
===============
$184 total saved
Two kinds of rooms · pick yours
same teacher, same book ↓
JUST $19 A MONTH
THE LARGE GATHERING
Saturdays
7pm Istanbul / Mecca
12pm New York · 9am Los Angeles
no seat limit — no waiting list

A global gathering: Muslim children from everywhere on the same page at the same hour, once a week. Come and see what the room feels like — $19 a month for the whole family, and you can stop whenever you like.

Join the Gathering
cancel any time — no contract
6 seats each
The small room · by session
Tuesdays or Wednesdays

Two separate small groups — six children maximum in each. Every child reads aloud, asks and answers, and Besim plans the next lesson around what this one room found hard. Far more interactive than Saturday, and capped for that reason.

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Tuesdays
11am Mecca 6pm Sydney 9am London 4am NYC
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Wednesdays
6pm Mecca 1am Sydney 4pm London 11am NYC
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Register now →
you'll pick Tuesday or Wednesday next
Open to 2nd – 8th grade

What to expect, by grade.

It is a story before it is a grammar book, so it reaches each age differently.

Grades 2–3
Listening in

They take the morals and the religious teaching from the story, and pick up bits of the grammar, history and geography here and there.

Grades 4–6
The heart of it

This is the main target group — the children the course was written for, who benefit the most in every regard.

Grades 7–8
A second chance at it

The quirky stories keep them engaged while the lessons engage their learning. This genuinely new approach to integrative learning may unlock a love for grammar, deen, language, history and geography that isn’t there yet.

Register Now →
· III ·

Coming soon, insha'Allah

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№ 02PreK – Grade 2 · One of a kind FALL 2026
Islamic Nursery Rhymes

Rhythm, rhyme, and remembrance. A weekly circle open to all families at $45 a month starting Sept 15 — plus an optional class of 6 that meets two additional times each week.

№ 03Kindergarten · ELA SPRING 2027
Phonics: Decoding

The groundwork beneath the readers. Phonemic awareness, decoding, fluency — one sound at a time, with short sacred stories woven in.

№ 04Grades 1 – 2 · ELA spring 2027
Shamāʾil & Rabbani

Reading and writing where every text is drawn from the shamāʾil — the beautiful character of the Prophet ﷺ. Children learn to read something worth reading.

Do you want to register your own co-op or have some other unique concern?
DM me on Telegram (link below), and let's see how we can help.

fold it back up ↑
· IV ·

Why Grammar-stan?

A child spends years inside whatever book you hand him. A dull one teaches him more than grammar: it teaches him that learning is something to endure, that language is a set of traps, and that the sacred lives in some other room, away from his schoolwork.

A living book teaches the opposite. He learns the same parts of speech, but he learns them laughing, inside a world where Islamic learning and Ottoman culture hold court and, most importantly, a boy four centuries ago gradually falls in love with grammar alongside your child. He finishes with his grammar sound and his fitra intact, and with the quiet sense that his deen and his lessons were never two different things.

Grammar-stan is still in editing. There may be a rough edge here and there, and that is the point: what these six children find challenging, I will edit, with plenty of individual time to work with your child. Notes from parents like you will shape the edition that goes to print.

Your child gets the personalized attention while you get to help positively shape what the ummah's children learn English grammar from.

A child spends years inside whatever book you hand him. A dull one teaches him more than grammar: it teaches him that learning is something to endure, that language is a set of traps, and that the sacred lives in some other room, away from his schoolwork.

the book is the curriculum ↓

A living book teaches the opposite. He learns the same parts of speech, but he learns them laughing, inside a world where Islamic learning and Ottoman culture hold court and, most importantly, a boy four centuries ago gradually falls in love with grammar alongside your child. He finishes with his grammar sound and his fitra intact, and with the quiet sense that his deen and his lessons were never two different things.

Grammar-stan is still in editing. There may be a rough edge here and there, and that is the point: what these six children find challenging, I will edit, with plenty of individual time to work with your child. Notes from parents like you will shape the edition that goes to print.

Your child gets the personalized attention while you get to help positively shape what the ummah's children learn English grammar from.

— six families, one edition

A child spends years inside whatever book you hand him. A dull one teaches him more than grammar: it teaches him that learning is something to endure, that language is a set of traps, and that the sacred lives in some other room, away from his schoolwork.

A living book teaches the opposite. He learns the same parts of speech, but he learns them laughing, inside a world where Islamic learning and Ottoman culture hold court and, most importantly, a boy four centuries ago gradually falls in love with grammar alongside your child. He finishes with his grammar sound and his fitra intact, and with the quiet sense that his deen and his lessons were never two different things.

Grammar-stan is still in editing. There may be a rough edge here and there, and that is the point: what these six children find challenging, I will edit, with plenty of individual time to work with your child. Notes from parents like you will shape the edition that goes to print.

Your child gets the personalized attention while you get to help positively shape what the ummah's children learn English grammar from.

· V ·

A look inside the book.

Spreads from Grammar-stan, as they stand in editing.

Grammar-stan — opening spread
Spread Introducing the Divan of Grammar-stan
Grammar-stan — lesson spread
Spread History aside: Ottoman timar land system
Grammar-stan — practice page or sidenote
Spread Introducing the 9 parts of speech
Grammar-stan — chapter quiz spread
Spread The chapter quiz
Grammar-stan — PBL appendix spread — making lokum at home
Appendix · PBL PBL: How to make lokum at home
Grammar-stan — page 1
Incorrect grammar? What a Sultan would never say
Grammar-stan — page 2
History: The Ottoman timar system
Grammar-stan — page 3
a tangent worth taking
Grammar-stan — page 4
Introducing the 9 parts of speech
Grammar-stan — page 5
and a challenge to close
Grammar-stan — page 6
PBL: Recipe for Lokum (Turkish delights)
swipe for the next page →
still in editing —
these pages may change
Grammar-stan, chapter one — draft cover PDF
Read it before you decide
The first lesson, free.

Chapter one as a printable PDF — the mekteb, the Divan, and Sultan Grammar's first entrance. Print it, read it with your child, and see whether the book suits him. Leave your details and it comes straight to your inbox.

Send me the PDF →
✂ tear here
One free chapter · no card
The first lesson, free.

Chapter one as a printable PDF — the mekteb, the Divan, and Sultan Grammar's first entrance. Read it with your child before you decide.

Send me the PDF →
just a name and an email
Grammar-stan, chapter one — draft cover
Sealed and ready to send
The first lesson, free.

Chapter one as a printable PDF. Tell me where to post it and it lands in your inbox today.

Send me the PDF →
Grammar-stan, chapter one — draft cover
Read it before you decide
The first lesson, free.

Chapter one as a printable PDF — the mekteb, the Divan, and Sultan Grammar's first entrance. Print it, read it with your children, and see whether the book suits them.

Send me the PDF →
· VI ·

What educators have said.

What teachers, principals, and scholars have said about Besim’s series of books.

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· VII ·

The word we chose.

ma·wad·da مَوَدَّة n., Arabic

1. A deep, nurturing love — rooted in mercy, sincerity, and the kind of care that we endeavor to plant into the hearts of children.

2. The committed kind of affectionate care; the kind that remembers a child's every question and shows that he cares. (This word appears twice in the Qur'an).

see also: the name of this space.

· VIII ·

The defter: 6 seats. 3 taken. 3 left.

A teacher can actively engage with a few. Not thirty, not a hundred. When the lines are full, the class is full.

CLASS: GRAMMAR-STAN
1.S.S. (Confirmed)
2.A.B. (Confirmed)
3.A.J. (Confirmed)
4.your child, perhaps —
MAWADDA 6 SEATS
· IX ·

How to enroll your child.

I.DM me any questions you have
II.Start free on Saturday, or claim one of the six seats
III.Receive the course login details on Sept 16, 2026
IV.Gather, live, from {{ startDate }}

Need time to think, discuss, and pray istikhara? Masha'Allah, that's the way of baraka.
Tell me you're thinking it over, and ask anything along the way.
Want to see excerpts? No problem. Just DM us. 

Mawadda heart
· MAWADDA SPACE ·
Site was set in Garamond, cut in Paris while Süleyman ruled in Istanbul, and Amiri, which was drawn from the famed type
developed by Bulaq Press in Cairo over 100 years ago.
Designed by BlueDomes.org
© 2026 · MAWADDA / SWORDS & BUTTERFLIES
The class of six

Which session would you
like to register for?

Both are capped at six children.
Same book, same teacher — only the hour differs.

Tuesdays {{ tueTimes }} {{ tueRegion }} · {{ tueSeatsPhrase }}
Wednesdays {{ wedTimes }} {{ wedRegion }} · {{ wedSeatsPhrase }}

All four options are the founding rate — yours if you register by Sept 15, and kept for the next-level courses.

The class of six

Which session would you
like to register for?

Both are capped at six children.
Same book, same teacher — only the hour differs.

Both options are the founding rate — yours if you register by Sept 15, and kept for the next-level courses.

Saturdays · the open session

The Gathering is $19 a month.

No seat limit, and one subscription covers the whole family. Leave three details and you can pay on the next step.

Phone number, with country code

$19 a month, cancel whenever you like. I’ll send the Saturday login once you are in.

Chapter one · free PDF

Where shall I send the lesson?

The printable first chapter, yours to keep — no cost and no obligation.

On its way

Jazakum Allahu khayran, {{ regName }}.

I'll send chapter one as a printable PDF to {{ regEmail }}. Read it with your child before you decide anything.

Telegram me a question →
Saved · Saturdays

Jazakum Allahu khayran, {{ regName }}.

I have your details and I'll send the Saturday login to {{ regEmail }} before we begin.