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.
The events
- Fatima al-Fihri founds al-Qarawiyyin859 · Fez, Morocco. 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.
- Teaching begins at Oxfordc. 1096 · Oxford. There is evidence of teaching at Oxford by 1096, and it grew rapidly after 1167, when Henry II barred English students from Paris. It is the oldest university in the English-speaking world.
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