Al-Qarawiyyin Mosque
Also known as: Al-Qarawiyyin Mosque
Mosque in Fez, Morocco
Key facts
- Built
- 857
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Overview
This text was compiled from sourced information with AI assistance and has not yet been reviewed by an editor. Please report any errors.
The Al-Qarawiyyin Mosque stands in the medina of Fès el-Bali in Fez, Morocco. It is also known in Arabic sources as "Jami' al-Jami'a", the university mosque. The building dates to the mid-9th century and forms part of a World Heritage Site. The German Wikipedia article describes it as the most historically and politically significant mosque in Morocco. It lies within the old urban fabric around Derb Lamdrassa.
History
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Sources credit the founding of the mosque to Fatima al-Fihri. According to the account handed down, she financed the construction from her own wealth and devoted everything she had inherited to the project. She is also said to have fasted until the work was finished and then prayed in the mosque in thanks. Construction began under the Idrisid ruler Yahya I.
In later periods the townspeople and their rulers took responsibility for enlarging, restoring and running the mosque. The Zenata emirs, with help from the Umayyads of al-Andalus, added about 3,000 square metres. The Almoravids later carried out a further enlargement.
From Wikipedia
The University of al-Qarawiyyin (Arabic: جامعة القرويين, romanized: Jāmiʻat al-Qarawīyīn), also written Al-Karaouine or Al Quaraouiyine, is a university located in Fez, Morocco. It was founded as a mosque by Fatima al-Fihri in 857–859 and subsequently became one of the leading spiritual and educational centers of the Islamic Golden Age. It was incorporated into Morocco's modern state university system in 1963 and officially renamed "University of Al Quaraouiyine" two years later. The mosque building itself is also a significant complex of historical Moroccan and Islamic architecture that features elements from many different periods of Moroccan history.
UNESCO and Guinness World Records have cited al-Qarawiyyin as the oldest university or oldest continually operating higher learning institution in the world. Scholars consider al-Qarawiyyin to have been effectively run as a madrasa until after World War II. Many scholars distinguish this status from the status of "university", which they view as a distinctly European invention. They date al-Qarawiyyin's transformation from a madrasa into a university to its modern reorganization in 1963.
Education at the University of al-Qarawiyyin concentrates on the Islamic religious and legal sciences with a heavy emphasis on, and particular strengths in, Classical Arabic grammar/linguistics and Maliki Sharia, though lessons on non-Islamic subjects are also offered to students. Teaching is still delivered in the traditional methods. The university is attended by students from all over Morocco and Muslim West Africa, with some also coming from further abroad. Women were first admitted to the institution in the 1940s after the women's movement pressured the French colonial government at the time.
Source: Wikipedia, article “University of al-Qarawiyyin”; quoted unchanged under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence. Read more on Wikipedia ↗ · CC BY-SA 4.0
Sources
Wikipedia (ar): https://ar.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D8%AC%D8%A7%D9%85%D8%B9_%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%82%D8%B1%D9%88%D9%8A%D9%8A%D9%86
Wikipedia (de): https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qaraw%C4%ABy%C4%ABn-Moschee
Wikipedia (en): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Qarawiyyin_Mosque_(Morocco)
Wikipedia (id): https://id.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masjid_Raya_Qarawiyin
Wikipedia (ur): https://ur.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D8%AC%D8%A7%D9%85%D8%B9_%D9%82%D8%B1%D9%88%DB%8C%DB%8C%D9%86