Al-Qarawiyyin – The center of higher learning in Fez

The oldest existing, continually operating higher educational institution in the world according to UNESCO and is occasionally referred to as the oldest university by scholars. It was founded by Fatima al-Fihri in 859, which subsequently became one of the leading spiritual and educational centers of the historic Muslim world.

Incorporated into Morocco’s modern state university system in 1963. The mosque building itself is also a significant complex of historical Moroccan and Islamic architecture encompassing elements from many different periods of Moroccan history. Education at al-Qarawiyyin University concentrates on the Islamic religious and legal sciences