9th century · c. 800–c. 880
Fatima al-Fihri
فاطمة الفهرية · Morocco
Founder of the al-Qarawiyyin Mosque (and university)
Born in Kairouan in today's Tunisia, she moved to Fez with her family. With the family fortune she bought a plot in the heart of the city at a high price, and in 857 or 859, on the first day of Ramadan in the Islamic year 245, laid the foundations of the al-Qarawiyyin Mosque. The mosque later became a centre of teaching, and in 1963 the modern University of al-Qarawiyyin.
Where the story happened
Los lugares que dejó
Historia · Fez medina and Chouara Tannery
A thousand-year-old university founded by a woman
Fatima al-Fihri was born around 800 in Kairouan in present-day Tunisia and moved to Fez with her family early in the Idrisid dynasty. With her family's wealth she bought a plot of land in the city centre at a high price, and on the first day of Ramadan in the year 245 of the Islamic calendar (859) she laid the foundations of the al-Qarawiyyin Mosque. The mosque later grew into a teaching institution and in 1963 became the modern University of al-Qarawiyyin, regarded as the oldest continuously operating institution of higher learning in the world.
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