University of Al Quaraouiyine
The University of Al Quaraouiyine, located in Fez, Morocco, is recognized as the world's oldest continuously functioning degree-granting institution, with origins dating back to the ninth century. Initially established as a mosque by Fatima al-Fihri, the university evolved into a prominent center for Islamic studies that attracted scholars from across the Arab world. Over the centuries, it expanded its curriculum to cover a diverse range of subjects, including logic, grammar, music, medicine, astronomy, and mathematics, alongside its foundational Islamic sciences. The university's library is noted for housing one of the richest collections of Islamic texts and manuscripts, reflecting significant donations from various Islamic leaders throughout history.
While the institution experienced a decline in enrollment during the 20th century, it has retained its exclusivity and prestigious reputation. The traditional learning model persists, with students engaging in interactive discussions in semicircular formations. Today, the university welcomes both male and female students, who range from about thirteen to thirty years old and hail primarily from Morocco, West Africa, and the Middle East. Modernization efforts have integrated the university into Morocco’s state education system, and it continues to be a vital cultural and educational landmark, although access to its mosque remains restricted for non-Muslim visitors.
University of Al Quaraouiyine
The University of Al Quaraouiyine, also written as Al Karaouine and Al Qarawiyyin, is an Islamic higher education institution located in Fez, Morocco. Founded in the ninth century, the university is cited by the Guinness Book of World Records and the United Nations Education, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) as the world’s oldest continuously functioning degree-granting institution. Initially built as a mosque, the university soon emerged as a leading center of traditional Islamic scientific study. It has undergone numerous expansions over the centuries, with its academic program growing to include a wide range of topics in the arts, humanities, and physical and social sciences. Historically, the University of Al Quaraouiyine has also functioned as an influential site of cultural exchange between the Muslim and European worlds. It is widely considered one of the most historically significant and prestigious educational institutions in the world.
Brief History
Traditional accounts credit Fatima al-Fihri (c. 800–c. 880) as the University of Al Quaraouiyine’s founder. Al-Fihri was a princess from the historical region of Qayrawan, located in present-day Tunisia, who relocated to Morocco as a refugee. Along with members of her family, al-Fihri settled in the city of Fez and became part of the city’s growing community of Qayrawaniyyin migrants. A devout Muslim, al-Fihri went on to inherit a sizable fortune from her father. She pledged the entire amount to the construction of a mosque for the city’s Qayrawaniyyin community.
The original mosque, which was completed in 859 CE, was modestly sized, measuring approximately 100 feet (30 meters) in length. It was a simple structure, consisting of a prayer hall with four aisles, a minaret in the rear, and an exterior courtyard. In addition to hosting prayer services, the mosque soon became an important regional center for the study of Islam’s three traditional sciences: hadith (the teachings, sayings, and traditions of the Prophet Muhammad), tafsir (scriptural interpretation), and fiqh (jurisprudence).
In 956 CE, the mosque underwent the first of several physical expansions. Financed by Abdul-Rahman III, ruler of the Caliphate of Cordoba in the southern half of present-day Spain, these improvements enlarged the prayer hall, shifted the courtyard, and moved the minaret to a position at the mosque’s northern wall. According to local lore, these changes marked the beginning of a tradition in which the institution’s mu’azzin would ascend to the apex of the minaret to announce daily prayer calls. No other mosque in the city would issue its own calls until Al Quaraouiyine had issued its summons. This custom is still observed in modern-day Fez.
Two other major expansions followed. One was undertaken in the twelfth century and the other in the sixteenth century. These renovations brought the mosque to its present length of about 272 feet (83 meters), with twenty-one aisles serving the prayer hall, five cupolas adorning its roof, and a western courtyard with three ornamental marble fountains and a white-and-blue tiled floor. The mosque forms the heart of the current University of Al Quaraouiyine complex, which also includes additional academic buildings and libraries that are integrated into the narrow neighborhood streets and surrounding laneways. The mosque can accommodate approximately 22,000 worshippers, making it the largest on the African continent.
Overview
After emerging as a regional center of traditional Islamic study, the University of Al Quaraouiyine began attracting scholars and students from throughout the Arab world. To accommodate its fast-growing profile, the university gradually expanded its academic offerings to add instruction in logic, grammar and rhetoric, music, medicine, astronomy, mathematics, history, geography, and Sufism (Islamic mysticism). Its rising prestige also elicited lavish donations from Islamic sultans and political leaders, including monetary gifts and subsidies, books, and other important cultural and intellectual artifacts. Beginning in 1349, these assets were housed in a library, which flanked the mosque’s exterior courtyard to the east. The library was relocated to an adjacent position in 1591. It contains one of the Islamic world’s most complete, important, and valuable collections of books, religious texts, and manuscripts.
As the number of students applying to study at the University of Al Quaraouiyine soared, its administrators implemented demanding admissions criteria. For admissions consideration, applicants were required to have the entirety of Islam’s holy book, the Quran, committed to memory. They also needed advanced proficiencies in the general sciences and the Arabic language. The Arabic language and Quran memorization requirements remain mandatory.
Beginning around the turn of the twentieth century, the University of Al Quaraouiyine experienced a sharp drop in enrollment as a growing number of students elected to attend other institutions in Morocco’s modernizing and fast-growing education network. Nevertheless, the university retained its exclusivity and prestigious reputation. Students in the twenty-first century still adhere to the university’s traditional learning model in which learners sit in semicircular formations known as halqa to read and discuss texts. Members of the institution’s modern student body include both males and females. Students range in age from about thirteen to thirty, as the institution confers high school diplomas as well as undergraduate and advanced university degrees. Most of its students come from Morocco, West African countries with large Muslim populations, and various Middle Eastern nations.
By the end of the 1950s, the University of Al Quaraouiyine’s traditional selection of academic subjects had expanded to include chemistry, physics, languages, and other arts and humanities. Morocco integrated the institution into its modern state education system in 1963. It was known simply as Al Quaraouiyine until 1965, when it officially adopted the University of Al Quaraouiyine as its name. In the late 2010s, the university added two new degree subjects, Islamic calligraphy and Al Alamiya Al U'lya. While the campus ranks as one of Morocco’s top tourist attractions, non-Muslim visitors must limit themselves to its periphery as they are forbidden from entering its historic mosque.
In 2017, the university library was renovated by Moroccan architect Aziza Chaouni to add critical features to protect the library's ancient book collection. This included adding solar panels, air conditioning, humidity control, a gutter system, and an additional room to serve as a laboratory for treating, preserving, and digitizing texts and manuscripts.
Bibliography
“Al-Qarawiyyin: World’s Oldest University.” IslamiCity, 5 Jan. 2017, www.islamicity.org/10007/al-qarawiyyin-worlds-oldest-university. Accessed 25 Nov. 2024.
Bensouiah, Azzeddine. "The World’s Oldest University Gives up Some of Its Secrets." University World News, 22 Oct. 2020, www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20201021152736696. Accessed 25 Nov. 2024.
Lo, Mbaye, and Muhammed Haron. Muslim Institutions of Higher Education in Postcolonial Africa. Springer, 2016.
Lulat, Y.G.M. A History of African Higher Education from Antiquity to the Present: A Critical Synthesis. Greenwood Publishing Group, 2005, pp. 107–207.
“Medina of Fez.” UNESCO, whc.unesco.org/en/list/170. Accessed 25 Nov. 2024.
Nader, Emir. “The World’s Oldest University Was Founded by a Woman of Color.” Vice, 28 Mar. 2016, www.vice.com/en‗us/article/ezjjyz/the-worlds-oldest-university-was-founded-by-a-woman-of-color. Accessed 25 Nov. 2024.
"Overview." Alqarawiyyeen University, alqarawiyyeenuniversity.org/overview. Accessed 25 Nov. 2024.
Surhone, Lambert M., et al. University of Al-Karaouine. VDM Publishing, 2010.
“University of Al-Karaouine.” Atlas Obscura, www.atlasobscura.com/places/university-of-alkaraouine. Accessed 25 Nov. 2024.
“The World’s Oldest Centre of Learning.” BBC Travel, 18 Mar. 2018, www.bbc.com/travel/gallery/20180318-the-worlds-oldest-centre-of-learning. Accessed 25 Nov. 2024.