Fatima al-Fihri founds al-Qarawiyyin
The world's oldest working school was founded by a woman
In 859 Fatima al-Fihri, daughter of a wealthy merchant from Kairouan, spent her inheritance on a mosque in Fez. A school grew around it and became one of the great centres of learning in the Islamic world, teaching law, grammar, astronomy and medicine. UNESCO and Guinness World Records call al-Qarawiyyin the oldest continuously operating educational institution on Earth.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 9th century
Did you know
Al-Qarawiyyin in Fez, the world's oldest operating place of learning, was founded by a woman, Fatima al-Fihri, 237 years before teaching began at Oxford.
Meanwhile around the world (±25 years)
Europe
- 843 Treaty of Verdun — 16 years earlier
Eastern Europe & Russia
- c. 862 Calling of the Varangians — 3 years later
- 882 Oleg takes Kiev — 23 years later
Asia
- 868 The Diamond Sutra is printed — 9 years later
Alive at the time
- Charles the Bald (aged 36)
- Rurik (aged 29)
- Oleg the Wise (aged 14)
- Alfred the Great (aged 10)