Al-Qarawiyyin: the African university that has taught for 1,100 years
Founded as a mosque in Fez in 857–859, it is cited by UNESCO and Guinness as the world's oldest continually operating seat of higher learning.
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Fez — In the old city of Fez, Morocco, stands an institution that has been teaching for more than eleven centuries. UNESCO and Guinness World Records cite the University of al-Qarawiyyin as the oldest university, or oldest continually operating institution of higher learning, in the world.
A mosque founded by a woman
According to the medieval chronicle Rawd al-Qirtas, al-Qarawiyyin was founded as a mosque in 857 or 859 by Fatima al-Fihri, the daughter of a wealthy merchant whose family came from Kairouan, in today's Tunisia. Its name means "of the people from Kairouan". Some historians question whether the story of Fatima can be proven.
The mosque grew into one of the great spiritual and educational centres of the Islamic Golden Age. Its buildings, extended over the centuries, are themselves a showcase of Moroccan and Islamic architecture from many periods.
Madrasa and university
Scholars note that for most of its history it worked as a madrasa, a religious college. In 1963 it joined Morocco's modern state university system, and two years later it was officially renamed the University of al-Qarawiyyin.
Teaching focuses on Islamic religious and legal sciences, with particular strength in classical Arabic grammar and Maliki law, though other subjects are taught too, often in traditional ways. Students come from across Morocco and Muslim West Africa, and some from further afield. Women were first admitted in the 1940s, after pressure from the women's movement.
Background: Wikipedia.
